14 DAY TRIAL // 
It's true that Magic the Gathering popularized the card game genre, but we have to thank Blizzard's Hearthstone for the huge number of good card games that we now have in the wild. Knights of the Frozen Throne is the sixth expansion to Hearthstone, and one of the most intriguing.
The expansion made its debut on August 10 in the Americas, and a day later in the Europe and Asia regions. This time, players will visit the frozen wastes of Northrend and the frigid halls of Icecrown Citadel, one of the most popular locations in the World of Warcraft MMORPG.
Knight of the Frozen Throne adds 135 new cards, as well as the new Arthas Menethil hero of the Paladin class, which can be obtained by killing the Lich King in the final single-player mission with all nine classes.
The expansion is free to play and includes so-called Missions that reward Knights of the Frozen Throne card packs and a random Legendary Death Knight hero card. There are a total of eight Missions that take players through Icecrown Citadel, each with its own challenges.
Just like the previous expansions, Knights of the Frozen Throne brings a new gameplay mechanic called Lifesteal and something completely new and revolutionary: hero cards. These new hero cards replace player's hero and Hero Power with more powerful ones that can turn the tides of a game in your favor.
When played, these legendary hero cards will turn your hero into Death Knights with different powers. There's one legendary hero card for each class, so there's nine Death Knights that you can obtained, one being rewarded for free when you finish the Prologue of the expansion.
And for the first time since the launch of Hearthstone, The Lich King becomes a playable legendary card that can be played in any deck since it's a neutral card.
But these are just the tip of the iceberg, as Knights of the Frozen Throne adds a couple of more creatures with specific game mechanics like ice trolls, nerubians, abominations, geists, darkfallen, skeletons and ghouls.
Because it's been less than a week since the expansion was released, the meta is not yet stable, so anyone can play just about any deck with some decent synergies and be successfully on the ladder.
As expected, this is probably one of the funniest periods after the release of a new Hearthstone expansion. However, Knights of the Frozen Throne does seem to be more innovative on that matter.
The introduction of legendary hero cards, along with the new game mechanics have turned Hearthstone into a very funny game. New cards with deathrattle, freeze and recurring effects are now combined to amazing results.
From what I've been able to learn in the short time since the expansion's release, just about every constructed deck that was successful in the previous meta has been improved with a few Knights of the Frozen Throne cards.
Priest class has become more powerful, while Hunter and Rogue seem to be the weaker. Obviously, this could change in the next few weeks after the meta stabilizes, but for now Mage and Druid are among the most powerful decks to play.
The Good
- Immersive Icecrown Citadel story theme
- New cards allow for fun synergies
- Death Knights add a new layer of strategy
- State-of-the-art artwork and sound
The Bad
- Few classes haven't been improved at all
- Death Knights are not balanced (some are much better than others)
Conclusion
With each new Hearthstone expansion, Blizzard has outdone itself, and Knights of the Frozen Throne is no exception to the rule. I can't wait to see what's next for Hearthstone and its very strong community.
