Well internet, you were right once again. In a stream that has just concluded, Blizzard announced the next Hearthstone (Free) Adventure, and it is, indeed, related to Karazhan and Medivh, as we had guessed when the event invitations went out. One Night in Karazhan, as is the official title, will take players all the way to Karazhan, Medivh’s tower, for some “enchanted" single-player content. As the guest of Medivh, you’ll be lavishly entertained, enjoying wonderful feasts and Opera performances among other spectacles. As you can already tell, One Night in Karazhan will have a very different feel than League of Explorers and Blackrock Mountain; this one is all about partying under the disco balls.
Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard, points out that the team is trying to reimagine one of Azeroth’s most popular location as a Hearthstone adventure, and Ben Brode said in the stream that they wanted to show how these legendary locations looked when people were living in them. So, while the location is going to look familiar to those who’ve played World of Warcraft, it will have a much lighter feel to it, and I’m glad for that.
The Adventure starts with your arrival at Medivh’s party, but the host has gone missing and his immense collection of arcane objects is running amok. So, you and Moroes, Medivh’s butler, will have to keep the party from spinning completely out of control while also trying to find the missing host. Of course, you’ll still be having fun and enjoying the splendor of Karazhan, which includes an enchanted chess board and a lineup of iconic characters. The structure of the Adventure won’t deviate from earlier releases. There will be four wings to explore, one every week, and also one challenge per class. When a wing opens, its cards will be added to the Arena. Once you defeat all the bosses in a wing, you can take on the Heroic mode, a more challenging version of the wing.
If you play through the Adventure, you’ll get your hands on 45 new cards, and the ones we’ve seen so far look quite fun. For instance, there’s a 2-cost 1/1 Hunter card called Kindly Grandmother with a Deathrattle “Summon a 3/2 Big Bad Wolf," a 7-cost Mage card called Firelands Portal that deals 5 damage and summons a random 5-cost minion, and the Legendary Curator that’s a 7-cost 4/6 with Taunt and the Battlecry “Draw a Best, Dragon, and Murloc from your deck." Hard to say how good these cards will be until we see the whole set, but I do like the theme so far.
In an interesting move, Blizzard will offer a free prologue mission to all players, a nice way of giving everyone a taste of the new Adventure. Completing the free mission will earn you two new cards, a gesture similar to when Blizzard gave every player free Whispers of the Old Gods cards. If you do want to partake in the festivities at Medivh’s “humble" abode, you can get the whole Adventure for $19.99, and you can also buy specific wings for 700 gold or $6.99 each. If you do buy the whole Adventure within the first week after release, you’ll get a Karazhan-themed card back as well.
So, what do you think of One Night in Karazhan? I know pretty much everyone had figured out what the theme would be, but do you like the way Blizzard realized it? I continue to enjoy Hearthstone‘s light-hearted moments, so I think that after the relative gloominess of Whispers, One Night in Karazhan will be a welcome change, a palate cleanser if you wish. And I’m curious to know whether it’s a coincidence that Karazhan was such an important location in the recent Warcraft movie (I doubt it).
Whether the cards will have an impact on the meta remains to be seen, but it’s worth keeping in mind that One Night in Karazhan is the first Adventure post-Standard, so my guess is that the cards should be strong enough to matter. Well, get ready for a whole month of disco fun and start saving gold (or dollars) because August 11th and Karazhan are almost upon us.
