March of the Lich King is Hearthstone’s 22nd expansion overall, and it is the last and final addition to the Year of the Hydra. The expansion releases on December 6, 2022 and features 145 new cards for us to enjoy, 10 more than almost every other expansion to date.
Image Credit: Blizzard Entertainment
March of the Lich King will bring in a completely new class – the Death Knight. This will be Hearthstone’s 11th class in total, and it is just the second time we have even gotten a new class, after Demon Hunter was introduced in Ashes of Outland in early 2020. There is much to unpack here, so let us tell you what you need to know about this latest expansion.
March of the Lich King’s Premise
It is always a big deal when the Lich King himself shows up, who is easily one of Warcraft’s most iconic villains. This time, the former Prince Arthas wants to take his Undead army and claim Silvermoon. Of course, Blood Elves won’t just let it happen, so they wait and draw power from the Sunwell in hopes of fending the attacker off.
March of the Lich King’s Mechanics
New Class – Death Knight
The Death Knight class is quite innovative, bringing much-needed uniqueness to the table. When building a Death Knight deck, you will be given access to three runes – Unholy, Frost, and Blood – and can combine them in any combination you like across three rune slots. Do be mindful of cards having rune requirements, as you might lock yourself out of using many cards, but that is also why the new class is so interesting; the deck building seems like it will be really fun.
Another novelty here is the Corpse mechanic. Every time a friendly minion dies, you will get +1 on your Corpse counter. You can then spend Corpses to empower Death Knight class cards. For instance, Blood Tap is a two-mana Shadow spell that would give all minions in your hand +1/+1, but you can spend three Corpses to add an additional +1/+1.
In total, there will be 68 cards in the Death Knight class at launch. The Core set will consist of 32 cards, 10 are from the March of the Lich King, and the remaining 26 are Path of Arthas cards, a special mini-set intended to help the Death Knight catch up to the card options of other classes.
Hero power:
- Ghoul Charge (2 Mana)
- Summon a 1/1 Ghoul with Charge. It dies at the end of turn.
New Minion Type – Undead
It finally happened. People have been asking for Undead minions for so long, and Blizzard finally obliged. March of the Lich King also introduces dual-type minions, reflecting the types the minions had before they became Undead. In order to trigger their bonus effects, a friendly Undead minion will have to die after your last turn.
New Keyword – Manathirst
In addition to new classes and minions, we have also gotten a brand new keyword to play with. Manathirst not only sounds cool, but will also have a greater impact the more mana you have. If you reach a specific amount of mana, cards with Manathirst get much stronger. Important to note, you don’t have to spend that mana, you just have to have it.
Image Credit: Blizzard Entertainment
Returning Keyword – Reborn
Reborn is being brought back from 2019’s Saviors of Uldum expansion, and will be an evergreen keyword going forward. After a minion with Reborn dies, it is resummoned onto the battlefield with 1 health.
Hearthstone’s 22nd expansion is looking like a lot of fun.. Blizzard appears to be targeting and hitting some sweet spots that fans might appreciate, including the introduction of the long-awaited Death Knight Class. March of the Lich King releases on December 6th, 2022, just over a week before the Hearthstone World Championship.
