After being teased during the recent reveal of the Year of the Raven, Blizzard has now finally announced Hearthstone's next expansion - The Witchwood. You can expect to see 135 new cards, some of which will have new and powerful effects that trigger at the very start of the game, as well as a Monster Hunt game mode as an addition/replacement for Kobolds & Catacombs' Dungeon Run.
You can get a sneak peak at some of the new cards and mechanics through the recently posted announcement video. It's fairly lengthy so I can understand if you don't feel like watching the whole thing, but I would highly suggest you at least check out the very beginning as that is where the cinematic trailer resides. Here's the video, as well as a few of the more interesting new cards:
From what has been revealed so far it would appear that there are three major mechanics coming in with The Witchwood:
Rush - the ability for minions to attack other minions the turn they're played
Echo - the ability to replay the card as many times as you can afford
Start of Game - the ability to receive an upgrade at the very start of the game if certain conditions are met
These are fairly simple mechanics in the grand scheme of things, but I have a feeling they'll be quite effective despite of this, especially in Arena where it's always nice to be proactive and effecitient with each of your cards. Whether I'm going to end up being right or wrong, we'll find soon enough as The Witchwood is highly likely to arrive alongside the Year of the Raven this April.
It is also worth mentioning that The Witchwood's launch will be accompanied with a rather nifty gift for all players - three new card packs and a random Class Lengedary card. Not the most exciting or game-changing of presents, but for the low, low price of free I'd say its still pretty darn good!
More information will be coming during the reveal livestream at 11am PDT on March 26th. If you don't have the time to tune in, worry not as all of the reveals will be posted on the official website after the fact. If more information pops up I'll make sure to cover it, but for now all we can really do is sit and wait for the landslide of announcements to arrive.