Blizzard Entertainment announces the next expansion for Hearthstone will be TITANS, which will center on bringing the power of the gods from the Warcraft universe into the card game.
- Blizzard announces Hearthstone TITANS, featuring Warcraft universe gods.
- The expansion includes new card types, mechanics, and keywords.
- Titan cards, representing celestial beings, are a new addition.
- The expansion reintroduces the Magnetic keyword for Mech minions.
- Hearthstone TITANS is set to release on August 1, 2023.
Hearthstone suffered some backlash from the player base due to the 600% price increase in certain regions. After the March of the Lich King and Festival of Legends expansions earlier this year, digital card game based on the Warcraft universe suffered a decline in popularity. Part of it is due to the reduced esports program and the increasing popularity of Magic: The Gathering Arena, particularly with streamers that previously preferred Hearthstone.
The Hearthstone TITANS expansion was announced on Blizzard’s official website, which was then shared on social media channels such as Twitter and YouTube.
Join our Game Designers, Alex Smith and Edward Goodwin, as they explain what’s new to Hearthstone in the latest expansion, TITANS! ⚡ pic.twitter.com/QU63bcovLE
— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) June 27, 2023
According to the promotional copy for the Hearthstone TITANS expansion:
Forge a new destiny with the myths and makers of Azeroth in Hearthstone’s next, larger-than-life expansion! Before the age of mortals, the Titans came to the world. These massive beings used arcane magic and ancient technology to imprison the Old Gods and bring order to the nascent planet. They imbued their keepers with celestial powers to watch over the planet and help forge the many beings that would inhabit it.
Beyond drawing inspiration from the lore and myths in the Warcraft universe, the 145-card Titans expansion will also add new card types, mechanics, and keywords. Notably, there will be cards that represent the mythical Titans themselves, as well as the mighty Keepers that serve as their representatives on the mortal plane.
All of the player character classes will get a Titan. These are celestial beings with a world soul like Azeroth. A Titan gains 3 activated abilities, which the player can choose to activate once during their turn (including the turn they come into play on the battlefield). Once all three abilities have been used, a Titan will still be able to attack normally like any other Hearthstone minion.
Other than the new Titan card type being introduced in the TITANS expansion, there will also be a new style to their Signature versions. Signature cards for Titans will have new, full bleed art, instead of previous Signature cards having their game text overlayed on the card front. As with other Signature cards, these can be disenchanted for Arcane Dust with the same value as Golden cards, but they cannot be crafted themselves.
Meanwhile, the Keepers are beings imbued with a portion of their patron Titans’ power. And just like Titans, each of the classes get one Keeper in the set. All Keepers are Legendary minions with standard Hearthstone effects such as Battlecry, Taunt, Rush, Death Rattle, and more.
The TITANS expansion will also be adding a new keyword to the Hearthstone game: Forge. Cards with the Forge keyword can be dragged to the player’s deck (similar to cards with the Tradeable keyword). By paying 2 Mana, the card can be upgraded with a more powerful effect.
Aside from the new game mechanics, the Hearthstone TITANS expansion sees the return of the Magnetic keyword. Introduced in The Boomsday Project expansion set, Magnetic allowed Mech minions to fuse with another Mech minion already in play. This will often result in the Attack and Health total being combined. Plus, some Mechs have effects that only trigger when the Magnetic keyword is used.
While the expansion will not be released for over a month, players logging in to the game will get a free Legendary location card: the Prison of Yogg-Saron. World of Warcraft players will recognize this as a reference to the Old God Ulduar raid dungeon boss. This is a neutral card which can be used by any class. Prison of Yogg-Saron costs 7 Mana and has 3 uses. Each use of this location lets the player choose a character (whether it’s a player or a minion) and cast 4 random spells. These spells will target the chosen character if the random spell cast requires it.
Hearthstone players can pre-purchase the TITANS expansion via a Mega Bundle on the Blizzard store. The TITANS Mega Bundle comes with 80 TITANS card packs, 5 Golden TITANS card packs, 1 random TITANS Signature Legendary card, 1 random TITANS Golden Legendary card, 1 Diamond Zilliax Legendary card, the Inge Death Knight Hero Skin and cosmetic card back.
There is also a standard TITANS bundle which includes 60 card packs of the expansion, 2 TITANS Legendary cards, and the Death Knight Inge card back. Both pre-purchase bundles will only be available prior to the launch of the expansion.
What do you think about the new TITANS Hearthstone expansion? Will the new mechanics help bring back some of the players who bolted to Magic: The Gathering Arena?
The TITANS expansion for the Hearthstone digital card game will be fully released on August 1, 2023.
