The 7 most interesting cards in Hearthstone’s Into the Emerald Dream expansion

It’s that time of the year again, friends: reveal season has just ended and we’re about to get a new Hearthstone expansion. Into the Emerald Dream is looking very exciting, with cards based on powerful denizens of the realm, such as Wild Gods and green dragons, as well as those who would attempt to corrupt it. And with powerful lore characters come game-breaking card effects.

So sit back and enjoy as we take you through the seven most interesting cards in the next expansion!

Agamaggan (Legendary Warlock Minion)

10 mana, 8/9 Beast

• Battlecry: The next card you play costs OPPONENT’S Health instead of Mana (up to 10).

This card is crazy! You can play some big minion or spell for free while damaging (and potentially killing) your opponent. Sure, it costs 10 mana itself, which is rough — but it’s a finisher, the kind of card you play when it’s time to close the game.

Worst case scenario, it can be used to gain some ridiculous amount of tempo over your opponent when they have you on the ropes, forcing them to start playing defensively instead. I expect good things from Agamaggan.

Nythendra (Legendary Death Knight minion)

7 mana, 7/7 Undead Dragon

• Taunt. Deathrattle: Split into 1/1 Beetles. At the start of your turn, reform with any remaining.

This one, on the other hand, doesn’t look as strong — but it makes the list because it’s very interesting. When Nythendra dies, it turns into up to seven Beetles. If any of those Beetles survive until the start of your next turn, Nythendra gets reformed. It’s like a powerful undead dragon that refuses to die, and it’s fun to imagine it splitting into several beetles, and then those beetles combining back together to reform the dragon.

In actual gameplay, though, this seems like more of a fun card than some real threat that Death Knights will count upon to win games.

Toreth the Unbreaking (Legendary Paladin Minion)

5 mana, 3/4 minion

• Divine Shield, Taunt. Your Divine Shield take three hits to break.

You read that right: your Divine Shields take three hits to break! As long as Toreth is on the board, Paladin will be annoying. The opponent will struggle to remove it: if it’s a fight on the board, it would take pinging it three times and then dealing four damage to it — which while not particularly hard to accomplish, certainly asks players to devote a lot of resources and tempo into a single minion.

So don’t expect Toreth to actually survive on the board, but know that whenever you play it, your opponent will audibly groan.

Tortolla (Legendary Warrior Minion)

10 mana, 1/30 Beast

• Taunt, Elusive. After this takes damage, gain 1 Armor and give this minion +1 Attack.

Speaking of annoying… Tortolla has 30 health, Taunt, and Elusive. This is the utmost definition of a minion that is hard to kill. And it gains Attack and gives you Armor each time it takes damage! So unless your opponent has some sort of effect that can immediately remove it from existence (without needing to target it), they’ll have to devote a lot of resources into killing this big turtle — and you’ll gain some Armor in the process.

If Tortolla ends up making it into any competitive Warrior decks, we assume other players will include tech cards in their decks with the express objective of removing it from play.

Tyrande (Legendary Priest Minion)

7 mana, 5/7 minion

• Battlecry: The next 3 spells you play cast twice.

Not bad, huh?! Upon entering play, Tyrande makes the next three spells you play cast twice. The possibilities here are endless: big heals become humongous heals, board clears are considerably more effective, and we don’t even wanna think about any resurrect effects. If Priest has any good spells — and they usually do — those spells have just become far more threatening.

Even if the effect isn’t as flashy or unusual as some of the others we’re seeing here, it’s strong enough that Tyrande is likely to become a minion that defines how Priest plays this expansion — and that’s why it makes the list.

Ursol (Legendary Paladin Minion)

8 mana, 9/7 Beast

• Battlecry: Cast the highest Cost spell from your hand as an Aura that lasts 3 turns.

And here we have not only a super interesting effect, but also a candidate for meta-shaping card. When you play Ursol, it casts the highest-cost spell in your hand as an Aura that lasts three turns. This is a never-seen-before effect that has the potential to be extremely powerful!

Take, for instance, a card like Renewing Flames — a 7 mana spell with Lifesteal that deals 5 damage to the lowest Health enemy, twice. You’ll cast it for free, and then you’ll repeat it over the next two turns, dealing lots and lots of damage and getting a very nice healing buffer to yourself, making you considerably harder to kill over the following few rounds. And it can also be used very effectively with the next card we’re gonna talk about…

Shaladrassil (Legendary Neutral Spell)

7 mana Nature spell

• Get all 5 Dream cards. If you’ve played a higher Cost card while holding this, corrupt them!

And here are the brand-new Corrupted versions of the good old Dream cards that have been in the game since launch:

• Corrupted Dream: 0 mana spell
  • Shuffle a minion into its owner’s deck.
• Corrupted Nightmare: 0 mana Shadow spell
  • Give a minion +5/+5 and Immune this turn.
• Corrupted Laughing Sister: 2 mana, 6/10 minion
  • Elusive. Your Hero is Elusive.
• Corrupted Awakening: 2 mana Shadow spell.
  • Deal 5 damage to all enemies. (ESPECIALLY Ysera!)
    • Besides the damage it deals, this spell automatically kills any Ysera minions (Ysera, Ysera the Dreamer, Ysera, Emerald Aspect, and Ysera, Unleashed). That’s mean!
• Corrupted Drake: 4 mana, 14/12 Dragon.

These Corrupted spells have a crazy amount of value. A 6/10 Elusive minion that makes your hero Elusive as well, for only two mana? A 14/12 Dragon for four mana? A board clear that also hits the enemy hero? (Let’s be honest, the Ysera-killing part is more of a meme.)

All of these options are very strong, even though the spell itself is pretty slow — it costs seven mana, and only really gets its full value if you’ve already played a card that costs at least eight. This might not see use in any faster, high-tempo decks; but if slower, more control-oriented decks are strong this expansion, expect Shaladrassil to be a part of them.

Which of these cards are you looking forward to trying? Into the Emerald Dream comes out March 25, so the wait won’t be long! We’ll see you in the Dream.