So if you had been playing Hearthstone the last few days, you would have realized that the new expansion ‘Goblin VS Gnomes’ (GvG) is out in the arena. Call it Blizzard’s money-making scheme if you will. The hype-train for this is crazy. The slow and steady release of the new cards in the expansion and the subsequent release of all the cards at one go thrilled players new and old. I’ll be covering large general reviews of the new meta, without making this post seem long and draggy by reviewing every single card out there since most players have already done their research and their comments. Note that these are based off my own opinions on the expected changes in the current meta.

I am sorry

Paladins are apparently the worst hit by this new expansion. The obvious evidence points to one of the less useful legendary in the game: Bolvar Fordragon. While an iconic character in the lore, this card leaves more of a disgusting taste in the mouth. A useless topdeck and a dead draw at the start. It certainly does not help the Paladins which are already slowing seeing less use. While the paladin gets some good cards like Quartermaster, its cards are generally worse off its current meta (Coghammer vs Truesilver Champion, Muster for Battle against other weapons, etc)

EDIT: Right now I’m playing a Paladin Rush deck, and it seems pretty fun! Sword of Justice + minion swarm + Divine favour to refill your hand

Mechs There’s a new type in town, and these are the mechs. Till this date, I have not seen a full mech deck, but I am certainly excited to see what a fully completed mech deck could do. There is so much potential, such as harnessing spare parts or even Mega Windfury. Blizzard certainly has added much flavor in the already colorful mix of Hearthstone. Anticipate more from this type soon!

Balance

The next question would be: Is the game now balanced? While there is some debate over the whole thing, I always have a belief that the game balances itself. For instance, when Miracle Rouge was the top winning deck, people ended up putting cards in to counter that deck. Therefore, to say that any card is imbalanced is just a little ignorant.

Randomness!

One aspect that is really likeable is the additional of more randomness into the metagame. Cards like Crackle, the Ogre cards and the Mech cards that spawn minions on death add a whole new scene of randomness into the metagame. You either embrace it, or let is cause your downfall.

Fun

Building on the previous point, randomness of a card game certainly makes the whole gameplay more fun and entertaining, instead of the usual hard strategy against hard strategy. The need to embrace randomness when making decks or when playing also serves to further differentiate good players from better players.

While the paladin review was harsh, it is hard to say that in a general sense. They have their good cards and their bad. It takes a good player and a fun personality to bring all the new cards together to form a new deck to kick butt. Overall, the new expansion makes the new meta fun and colorful. There may be some balance issues here and there, but that’s what a card game is all about.