New Hearthstone Questline Mechanic Tosses Wrench In Game's Power Dynamic

The digital card game Hearthstone has a new set coming on August 3 by the name of United in Stormwind. This new set has a whopping 135 new cards, effectively changing the way the game will work if you're the sort of person who plays every single day of the week. It all begins with three new features: Tradeable, Questline, and Mount! Right this minute, we're going to take a peek at how Questline works.

A Questline is similar to what we had with Journey to Un'goro and Descent of Dragons with Quests and Sidequests. You put one Questline in your deck and it appears in your starting hand, automatically. You'll play said quest (likely on your first turn) and attempt to achieve the requirements.

Each time you achieve the requirements of your Questline, you get a reward. Once you achieve three sets of requirements, you get the ultimate reward – which in this case is an exceedingly powerful Legendary minion.

So the Questline Sorcerer's Gambit starts with a 1-mana cost to play, and requires that you cast a Fire, Frost, and Arcane spell. You get to draw a spell as a reward, and move on to the next bit of the Questline: Stall for Time.

With Stall for Time, you need to cast another Fire, Frost, and Arcane spell. Your reward for this part of the Questline is that you'll get to "discover one". In other words, "one" of the three sorts of spells. The final bit of the Questline is "Reach the Portal Room", and it, too, requires that you cast a Fire, Frost, and Arcane spell, and your reward is the Legendary minion Arcanist Dawngrasp.

If you've played as a Mage any time recently, you know that the speed at which you can toss out spells of many sorts is... pretty extreme. You've got to have a bit of luck on your side, but really – this is more than doable.

If this Questline is any indication, this new set will radically change the power dynamics of the game, as any great new card set should. We'll see the full extent of the changes made when the set is released on August 1, 2021.