Hearthstone’s latest expansion, Murder at Castle Nathria comes with 135 new collectible cards, a new keyword, and a new card type. And of course, these new cards include many new, legendary hero cards that will surely shake the current meta and keep you on your toes!
I’ve been playing the game for the past week with the new expansion cards and loved the many deck possibilities – with the Priest and Mage being my favourites for this expansion.
New collectible cards
Thanks to Blizzard, I was gifted the Hearthstone: Murder at Castle Nathria Mega Bundle (that you can purchase separately) to check the cards out. The Murder at Castle Nathria Mega Bundle includes 80 Murder at Castle Nathria card packs, 5 Golden Murder at Castle Nathria card packs, two random Murder at Castle Nathria Legendary cards, the Sire Denathrius Warrior hero skin, the Denathrius card back, the Sandy Shores Battlegrounds Board, and 10 Mercenaries Packs.
After opening the packs, here are some Legendary cards that I’ve got:
- The Harvester of Envy (part of the bundle packs) – A cool minion, assuming you can keep it alive to utilise it to the fullest.
- Necrolord Draka (Rogue)
- Remornia: Living Blade (Warrior)
- Lady Darkvein (Warlock)
- Topior the Shrubbagazzor (Druid)
- Huntsman Altimor (Hunter)
- Stewart the Steward (Paladin) – A great hero if you are playing Silver Hand Recruits
- The Stonewright (Shaman)
- The Countess (Paladin)
Apart from these new, legendary minions, there are definitely many new popular minions from the latest expansion pack too. For example, I see quite a few of Stoneborn General being played, which is a late minion but can guarantee a board clear of a powerful minion, or two. Vengeful Visage is a cool card that copies a hopefully-powerful enemy’s minion that attacks the enemy hero instantly and also gives you a great counter card. Unfortunately, I find out that if the minion has been buffed, you won’t get the same exact duplicate. What you get is the original, default minion stats (which can be lame like a 0/2 totem before the buffs).
Priest
If you are playing a Priest Deathrattle deck (I used to play this and the annoyance it gives to your enemies is satisfying enough), Masked Reveler is an awesome choice for a board control + a quick summon of your more powerful Deathrattle minions. You can also play Creepy Painting and then sacrifice a Deathrattle minion to become a copy of it.
I actually enjoy my new Priest deck that steal cards from the enemy players’ decks. The new expansion totally suggests and encourages this deck, and it creates a hectic, random, dynamics on every game (since it depends on what kind of deck is your enemy playing). If you are planning to play this “stealing cards” deck, you can add Invitation Courier, Identity Theft (which is a must-have card for this deck), The Harvester of Envy, and Mysterious Visitor.
This was my deck for a while because every game is a challenge that you must overcome, and every game also creates a new, weird combo that you wouldn’t know exist (since it combines the cards that the enemy is playing with your own cards). However, it also creates randomness which can make you lose the game as there won’t be any synergies with your deck.
Criminal Lineup is a late card with 8 mana but if you can summon 3 copies of a very powerful minion, you are guaranteed to win.
Mage
After playing the Mech-deck for some time (with the Mage and Paladin classes), I’m happy to make the “Skeleton Mage” deck to be my primary deck. It is so fun and I have a win rate about 80-90% so far with this deck. Thanks to new Volatile Skeleton and all the cards that utilise this new minion like Cold Case, Deathborne, Nightcloak Sanctum, and the ultimate card – Kel’Thuzad, the Inevitable, you’ll get massive random 2 damage per Volatile Skeleton that can clear the whole board or win you games.
I combine my deck with Sire Denathrius (that you can get without having to craft it) and Mordresh Fire Eye, just in case I don’t get enough Volatile Skeleton summons to seal the deal. Thanks to Magister Dawngrasp, I can make the Hero power more and more powerful as the game progresses. As long as I keep stalling while gathering one of these three “sure-win” combo, it’ll always be a win even during a very late, late game.
Just check out this screenshot on a recent game I played, where I could hold my ground barely with the deck and still win at the end!
Other classes
I haven’t explored the other classes’ decks because I’m having so much fun (and lots of wins) using my Frost Mage deck. But there are few cards worthy of a mention here. For example, Shaman’s Criminal Lineup is a late card with 8 mana but if you can summon 3 copies of a very powerful minion, you are guaranteed to win. The Warrior’s Riot is a great board clear while keeping your minions alive, assuming you have enough minions on the board to begin with. The Paladin class also has many cool ones like Buffet Biggun and Steward the Steward if you are playing Silver Hand decks. I’ve also seen many Warlock class players creating a new Imps deck, which is quite devastating with all the buffs when you have Imps in play.
New Keyword: Infuse
Infuse gets triggered each time a friendly minion die and if you have Infuse cards in your hand, the cards can transform into a more powerful version. The requirements are varied as some cards can only get powerful after you sacrifice enough number of minions, but other cards will gain something each time a friendly minion dies, like Sire Denathrius.
New Card Type: Locations
Locations are new cards that can be played on the battlefield with just the initial cost. It has abilities that you can activate (for free) with -1 durability cost and has a 1-turn cooldown. These cards can only be removed with a card like the Demolition Renovator.
Murder at Castle Nathria is probably one of the best Hearthstone expansions so far. It adds many, new collectible cards with many great, new, fun, synergies and none of them feel too strong or ridiculous to counter. I’m honestly having great fun with the latest expansion and find that I’ve been playing Hearthstone more often than before with the latest expansion.
It’s definitely a great time to come back to Hearthstone and utilise these new expansion cards and make a whole new, fun deck of your own!
