In the game of Hearthstone, one of the most exciting times in the game is when a new expansion comes out. This often means new cards but it can bring a lot more than that. That's exactly what we have for the upcoming Hearthstone expansion, March of the Lich King.
This expansion brings along with it a bunch of new cards, new mechanics and one of the most requested additions to the game probably ever, the Death Knight class! There's also a new kind of cosmetic treatment for cards, and we'll cover all of that here.
While you're here, if you're interested in more card game content, then be sure to check out our MTG Arena codes guide for a bunch of freebies in game for your account. If you're looking for more Warcraft content, then check out our WoW Dragonflight Prepatch and release date guides for all the latest information about the upcoming expansion.
March of the Lich King - When does March of the Lich King launch?
According to Blizzard, Hearthstone's March of the Lich King expansion launches worldwide on December 6, 2022. There is often no downtime ahead of expansion launches, but there will definitely be a large update to the client.
Pre-order for the expansion is live now in game with two of the standard issue bundles. The regular bundle comes with 60 normal packs, two random March of the Lich King legendary cards, and the Lor'themar card back.
The March of the Lich King Mega Bundle includes 80 packs, five signature golden March of the Lich King packs, two random signature legendary cards, The Path of Arthas Set and the Lor'themar Hunter hero skin and card back. The Path of Arthas set is a mini set of Death Knight class cards, when combined with the Death Knight core cards, create three starter decks, around the three Death Knight specs in WoW.
March of the Lich King - Death Knight class
As we mentioned earlier, there's a brand new class coming to Hearthstone, the Death Knight. The Death Knight class brings 68 new cards, including 32 free core cards. Their hero power is called Ghoul Charge, which summons a 1/1 Ghoul with Charge and it dies at the end of the turn. Their main resource outside of mana is Corpses, which is tracked separately. Whenever a friendly minion dies, it counts as a corpse.
Runes
The other new mechanic that's coming for the Death Knight class is Runes. There are three Rune types, Blood, Frost and Unholy, and these runes will dictate what kinds of cards can be in your deck. Each card can have up to three Runes on it, the higher number of Runes on that card of a type, the more invested in that Rune's strategy your deck has to be.
Blood is the "tankiest" deck type. It's a control deck that dictates the flow of the game through health manipulation. Frost is the spellcaster deck type, which deals direct damage through icy, Frost spells. Unholy is the aggro style and focuses on swarming the board with minions. Let's take a look at one of the cards and how you're going to build your deck.
As we can see here with Patchwork, he has one Blood Rune. This means that your deck needs to have at least one Blood Rune in its composition. For a bit of clarity on this, when you're constructing your deck, you will select three total runes in any combination for your deck's composition. For example, let's say I want to pick two Blood Runes and one Frost Rune. With this selection, I will only be able to put cards in my deck that have one or two Blood Runes in their cost, or one Frost rune. I can't put a card that has two Frost Runes or any Unholy Runes in it's cost.
March of the Lich King - minion types and mechanics
As for the new minion types and mechanics in this set there's a few new. As for minions, the Undead minion type is now official, and many cards are being changed to have this typing. Additionally, there are going to be cards that include dual typing, such as Undead Dragon.
For mechanics, we have a returning mechanic and a new one. The returning one is Reborn. When a minion with Reborn dies, it's resummoned with one health. The new mechanic is called Manathirst. Manathirst is a an ability on cards in each class and neutral cards, and it has a number associated with it. If you have that amount of mana or more when you cast the spell, you get the Manathirst effect.
You don't spend any additional mana, but Manathirst is more like a threshold to gain the extra benefit. These effects can replace what the card does normally, or add onto it's effects. This incentivizes you to hold onto cards for a little longer to gain some sizeable buffs.
March of the Lich King - signature cards
We mentioned earlier that there's a new cosmetic treatment for cards coming with March of the Lich King. If you picked up on it from the bundle contents, the new cosmetic treatment is called Signature cards. Signature cards are stylized, full art cards with a unique border. The border for Signature cards going forwards will match the theme of the set that the card comes from.
But how can you obtain these cards? Well, they can't be crafted or disenchanted. They can only be obtained through opening them in a pack, or through other special means such as quests or the Tavern Pass.
While these cards serve no gameplay function, they're great for the collectors among you to really bling out your decks to the absolute fullest.
And that's all that we have for you! We'll leave you with the preview gallery for the cards that have been spoiled thus far, and believe me, you'll want to take a look through these insanely cool cards.
While you're here, if you're looking for more mobile game content, then definitely check out some of our Torchlight Infinite guides, such as our Torchlight Infinite beginner's guide, our build tier list, and our Flame Elementium farming guide.