Blizzard has revealed the next set for the 2021 year for Hearthstone, United in Stormwind. Following the events of the first expansion of the year, Forged in the Barrens, United in Stormwind is bringing two new mechanics: Tradeable and Questlines.
Related: What is a Hearthstone Questline from United in Stormwind?
Questlines are comparable to the Quests from Journey to Un’goro. They both start in your opening hand, take a mulligan slot away, and are Legendary, allowing only one copy. Unlike the original Quests, though, Questlines require multiple steps to complete them, and you’ll need to complete the process three times. Each class will be receiving a Questline in United in Stormwinds.
With the exception of Druid’s Guff, each of the Mercenary minions that are rewarded at the end of the Questline are 7/7 minions with powerful Battlecries, usually with permanent effects that alter your game in a drastic way.
Mage: Sorcerer’s Gambit
Varden’s Questline focuses on the three primary spell schools for the class from World of Warcraft and requires you to cast an Arcane, Fire, and Frost spell each step of the way. The first time you complete the quest, you draw a spell, with the second time allowing you to discover a spell, and the final reward granting you the Arcanist Dawngrasp mercenary minion.
Arcanist Dawngrasp’s powerful Battlecry grants you a permanent +3 Spell Damage bonus. This potent effect allows you to have strong combo turns that burn out the opponent and lets your spells that clear minions perform their job much easier against stronger enemy boards.
Warlock: The Demon Seed
Tamsin Roame’s Questline has you perform damage to your own hero on your turn to achieve your goal. Unlike the Mage’s Questline, which has the same quest requirement to complete each step, you need to deal more damage at each chain (starting with six, then seven, and finally 8).
As another difference from Mage, the first two rewards do not change and drains your opponent’s health for three each time. Upon completing the final step, you are rewarded with the Blightborn Tamsin mercenary minion.
Blightborn Tamsin’s Battlecry makes it so any damage you receive on your turn is delivered to your opponent instead. This allows you to play a lot more cards with powerful health drawbacks as it will burn your opponent out over time like Unstable Shadow Blast, Backfire, and Hellfire. In addition to all of this, your Life Tap hero power will now deal damage in addition to drawing you a card, allowing you to amass a health lead on top of gaining card advantage.
Priest: Seek Guidance
Xyrella’s Questline focuses on breaking down Hearthstone’s fundamentals at its core, playing cards on curve. As you play cards that cost two, three, and four mana, this opens up the next step which allows you to play five and six mana, with the final one being seven and eight mana.
When each portion of the Questline is completed, you will earn the reward of Discovering a card to draw from your deck. This allows for a chance to find a card with the mana cost of a card you’re missing from the chain, or find an answer to a problem the opponent is throwing at you. Upon completing the two-through-eight chain, you are given Xyrella, the Sanctified, and her Battlecry shuffles a Purified Shard card into your deck.
The Purified Shard itself is a win condition, since playing it will destroy the enemy hero instantly.
Paladin: Rise to the Occasion
Cariel Roame’s Questline requires you to play three different one-mana cards for each of the three stages. While it is currently unknown if you can play a one-drop of the same name in the second or third step of the Quest if it was played in the first step, the rewards will be potent. The first reward is a simple 1/4 weapon that can help contest the board. Achieving the second reward will upgrade your hero power, meaning you summon two Silver Hand Recruits with a single spend spend.
Upon final completion, you are rewarded with Lightborn Cariel, who has a Battlecry that gives your Silver Hand Recruits +2/+2 for the rest of the game. The ability to summon two 3/3s for only two mana each turn means you present inevitability towards your opponent. This can be amplified if you already played Lothraxion the Redeemed from Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, since the Recruits will not only be enhanced with bonus stats but with Divine Shields too.
Druid: Lost in the Park
Guff’s Questline focuses on gaining attack power with your hero over the course of the chain. The first step needs you to gain four attack to be given five armor and reach the second stage. Upon reaching the second stage, you need to gain five attack to be granted with the reward of five more armor and to draw an extra card. The final part of the quest requires you to gain six power with your hero to be awarded Guff the Tough, who breaks a pattern from the other Mercenary minions and is an 8/8. His Battlecry gives your hero eight attack for the turn and eight armor.
Compared to all of the other quests, Guff the Tough’s reward is not a permanent bonus that augments your gameplay, since his reward is just eight armor and power to your hero for the turn. Despite the lack of flashiness compared to other Questlines, Guff does have an extra +1/+1 stat and Taunt, making his 16 effective life swing on his ability an efficient midrange tool.
Warrior: Raid the Docks
Rokara’s quest has you play three pirates initially to complete the first step, with the first reward drawing you a weapon. Afterwards the rest of her chain requires two pirates played with the second reward dealing two damage to a random enemy twice, and the final reward being Cap’n Rokara herself.
Once she is played, she summons The Juggernaut, which takes up a unit slot on your board permanently, cannot be interacted with by either player, and has a powerful start of turn ability. At the start of each of your rounds, a pirate is summoned to your board, a random Warrior weapon is equipped, and two damage is dealt to two random enemies. This late-game inevitability can provide an endless supply of value and damage that your opponent won’t be able to out heal in standard.
Rogue: Find the Imposter
Scabbs’ quest taps into the SI:7 and makes a reference to one of Warcraft’s questlines in Vanilla which reveals Katrana as Onyxia. To complete this questline you are required to play two cards with SI:7 in its name for every step along the way. The initial two rewards provide one of five unique Spy Gizmo cards, with Spymaster Scabbs himself having a Battlecry that gives you one copy of each.
The Gizmos are all one-mana cards and as follows:
- Fizzflash Distractor, Spell: Return an enemy minion to its owner’s hand. They can’t play it next turn.
- Spy-o-Matic, 3/2 Mech Minion: Look at three cards in your opponent’s deck. Pick one to put on top.
- Noggen-Fog Generator, Spell: Give a minion two additional attack and Stealth.
- Hidden Hyroblade, 3/2 Weapon: Deathrattle: Throw this at a random enemy minion.
- Undercover Mole, 2/3 Beast Minion: Stealth. After this attacks, add a random card to your hand (from your opponent’s class).
Since Spymaster Scabbs provides a lot of utility and tempo with his Battlecry, using bounce effects like Shadowstep allows you to gain even more Gizmos for future use. Between all of the Gizmos, Fizzflash Distractor and and Noggen-Fog Generator are all devastating for the opponent to deal with. Fizzflash Distractor is similar to Sap and can effectively remove a large imposing threat from the opponent, and Noggen-Fog Generator can turn Spymaster Scabbs into a 9/7 with Stealth, which is almost guaranteed to hit the opponent directly.
Demon Hunter: Final Showdown
Kurtrus’ Questline focuses on drawing multiple cards in quick succession to complete his goal. The first portion of the quest needs you to draw four cards in a single turn, with both the second and final part requiring five in a singular turn. The rewards for the first two stages will discount the cost of cards drawn by one, with the final portion providing you Demonslayer Kurtrus.
The mercenary himself has a Battlecry that gives you the potent ability of reducing the cost of every card you draw this game a two-mana reduction. While this effect is powerful, it will be difficult to draw cards in a chain, even when devoting your entire deck to it. While cards like Glide and the new Tradeable keyword help with this, by the time you complete this quest, there may not be much of a deck left to discount.
Hunter: Defend the Dwarven District
Tavish’s Questline requires you to deal damage with two spells at each step of the way. The first reward improves your hero power and allows it to target minions. Completing the second stage improves your hero power further and sets its cost to zero for the rest of the game. Once you play two spells that deal damage and receive Tavish, Master Marksman, his Battlecry augments your hero power further and refreshes its cast each time you play any spell.
Reminiscent of Raza Anduin Priest, Hunter’s quest has a lot of potential as you can reliably get it online in more games as Defend the Dwarven District begins in your opening hand. Once your augmented hero power that resets with every spellcast is online, you can often end games with a chain of spells you’ve saved in your hand.
Shaman: Command the Elements
Brukan’s Questline requires you to play three cards with Overload in both the first and second step, and only two in the final stage. The reward for the initial part of the quest is unlocking all of your Overloaded mana crystals, the second portion summons a 3/3 Elemental with Taunt, and the last step gives you Stormcaller Bru’kan.
Bru’kan himself has a mighty Battlecry that has your spells cast twice for the rest of the game. Similar to double-casting abilities in Hearthstone’s past, the targets are kept the same. This means your burn spells are doubly effective, and can provide ridiculous amounts of burst if you can save your combo cards after you complete the quest.
While Bru’kan’s reward is a ridiculous amount of value, playing eight Overload cards to get there can take a while. The first step of the Questline is the most important to consider when completing since it can effectively remove all of your Overload costs, which will allow you to complete the second step much more quickly.
Players can sign into Hearthstone and get Flightmaster Dungar for free. Players can also pre-purchase the expansion via the Standard Bundle, which has 60 packs for $49.99, or gain access to Lady Katrana Prestor and Ve’nari Alternate Battlegrounds Bartender through the Mega Bundle, which features 80 packs for $79.99.
