With new decks and sets of cards come new strategies and meta. While I’ve been enjoying my Mage deck with powerful dragon cards (thanks to the Descent of Dragons expansion), the new expansion offers different styles of powerful cards and combos that you just don’t want to miss.
The Scholomance Academy introduces Dual-Class cards (a card that can be used in two different hero classes), new Spellburst mechanic, and 135 new cards to unlock and synergise!
Thanks to Blizzard, I was given a chance to unlock 55 card packs to open and start with – which is part of the Scholomance Bundle you can purchase and contains a new Warrior’s Legendary minion, Rattlegore:
Each hero class in Hearthstone has different mechanics and sets of cards’ strengths. The Rogue, for example, has Combos that give you a bonus ability when used after playing another card. And before the Scholomance Academy, this card mechanic was only reserved to the Rogue class. But with the new Dual-Class cards (40 of them in total), you can experience other heroes’ strengths and mechanics and synergise them into your deck.
The 10 class combinations on these Dual-Cards are:
- Druid/Hunter
- Hunter/Demon Hunter
- Demon Hunter/Warlock
- Warlock/Priest
- Priest/Paladin
- Paladin/Warrior
- Warrior/Rogue
- Rogue/Mage
- Mage/Shaman
- Shaman/Druid
If you wish there is a hybrid Hero class in Hearthstone, well, you can at least experience a taste now.
The new Spellburst mechanic will activate a one-time only effect when you cast a spell. This doesn’t have to be triggered on the turn you play the minion, but can be at a later stage. This allows delayed strategies and a “concealed” ability where you can trigger it at the right situation.
For example, imagine playing Dilligent Notetaker and Power of Creation (which is one of my most favourite Mage cards) and watch how you can turn the table in two turns. You can also bait your opponent to use their card removal sooner by playing a Spellburst minion and just leave him there on the board.
Apart from all these new mechanics, there are lots of powerful new cards in this expansion. For example, playing Keymaster Alabaster will give you direct profit on the turn it is played (giving you an opponent’s card during his/her next turn with 1 mana cost). Playing the Warrior’s Troublemaker will put an insane amount of pressure if not removed quickly, as he will constantly summon two 3/3 Ruffians every turn. Just like these games I played earlier:
While Rattlegore and Troublemaker are high cost cards, the new cards and a preset deck will help you to survive long enough and summon these big minions on the battle board.
Paladin’s buffing minions deck has also got some more love this time with the insane, +8/+8 Blessing of Authority for just 5 mana and the Legendary High Abbess Alura.
If you like playing the Mage class, there are a lot of new cards that will make use of the new Spellburst mechanic around the Spell Damage. Cards like the Mozaki, Master Duelist and Ras Frostwhisper will make sure that your spells are getting more and more dangerous when left unchecked.
Scholomance Academy is definitely another awesome, free expansion to Hearthstone offering new gameplay mechanics and more importantly, new combos, meta, and cards to experiment and synergise with your decks!
I don’t like aggro decks but looks like a Control Warrior is now possible with all these new cards – which I’m going to try out now. My primary deck has always been a Control Mage (even more so with the Descent of Dragons expansion), but I’m about to give Warrior a try now without Galakrond.
If you haven’t played Hearthstone for a while, a new expansion is always a good reason to come back and play the game again. Expect balance changes to arrive but I’ve been having a blast so far!
