Hearthstone's next solo adventure, Galakrond's Awakening, is coming on January 21, Blizzard have announced today.
Like the recent Descent of Dragons expansion, it's all about resurrecting Galakrond the progenitor dragon. The first of four chapters in Galakrond's Awakening, with two playable campaigns - one for the League of Evil and one for the League of Explorers - will launch on Thursday.
A new chapter will be released every Thursday through February 11. Each one will be available for $6.99 or 700 in-game gold, with the entire adventure going for $19.99. Buying the whole adventure will also get you a golden Classic pack for a limited time. However, all players will get free access to the first League of Evil campaign on January 21. You'll still need to pay $6.99 or 700 gold for the League of Explorers half of the first chapter, though.
Interestingly, Galakrond's Awakening returns to the original solo adventure format: player-made decks and both normal and heroic bosses. Think Icecrown, but with Galakrond trappings. Instead of drafting custom decks from broken adventure cards, you'll have to build decks using cards from your own collection and tailor them to beat each boss.
Clearing each portion of Galakrond's Awakening will reward you with a handful of new cards. The whole adventure will add 35 cards to the game, with each chapter containing four League of Evil cards and four League of Explorers cards. The exception is the first League of Explorers chapter, which has seven cards (this is presumably why it's $7 all on its own).
Today, Blizzard revealed the four cards coming in the first chapter of Galakrond's Adventure, and at least one of them is going to be bonkers good.
Shotbot is an unassuming two-drop, but so was Shielded Minibot, and that card was also bananas. This little Mech will be a huge boost to aggro Mech Paladin, which is already quite strong. Dark Prophecy has high-roll potential, but I'm not sure how it fits into existing Priest archetypes. Chaos Gazer is also cool, but it kind of feels like a worse Dirty Rat crossed with Corruption. That said, it would be truly satisfying to corrupt someone's Zephrys the Great. Then there's The Amazing Reno, the strangest in a long line of Renos. I have no idea if this will be good, but I look forward to playing double Reno Mage.
Coupled with the latest wave of nerfs - which, coincidentally, are also targeting the Galakrond packages for many classes - these cards ought to freshen up the Descent of Dragons meta as Hearthstone's Year of the Dragon comes to a close. It'll be interesting to see which decks evolve and emerge as Galakrond's Awakening chapters roll out.
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