14 DAY TRIAL // 
Hearthstone's eight expansion, The Witchwood adds 135 new cards to the meta and at least four new deck archetypes for each of the nine classes. The expansion introduces three new keywords: Echo, Rush and Start of Game, and a single player adventure called Monster Hunt.
Each of the nine classes in Hearthstone receive two legendary cards in Witchwood, but some may be better than others. Also, there are five neutral legendary cards that can be used in any of the nine classes. Two in particular are very important since they introduce two new deck archetypes: Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane. The first upgrades your hero's power if your deck contains odd cards only, while the latter does the same thing if your deck has even cards.
Background story
If you're a fan of the World of Warcraft universe, you'll realize immediately the Witchwood expansion is entirely dedicated to the Gilneas faction, also known as the Worgen. These are people who can assume the form of a hulking, ferocious wolf-beast when threatened. Some of the cards with the keyword Rush swap their attack and health each turn they are in your hand.
Hagatha, the evil witch has corrupted the Witchwood's fauna and flora, but the people of Gilneas will not be easy prey. Hagatha the Witch is also the only hero card that's been included in this expansion, and can only be played by the shaman class.
The single player content that comes with Witchwood, Monster Hunt allows players to explore the cursed forest in order to find the roots of the evil that plagues the forest. Just like the previous Dungeon Run content, Monster Hunt's main goal is to fight through a series of eight encounters with four different heroes. If you manage to beat all mini-bosses with all these four bosses, you'll be allowed to face a very challenging boss fight – Hagatha the Witch.
Each of the new four heroes, which are also present in the multiplayer content as legendary cards, have unique powers and cards that offer players completely different gameplay experiences. Tess Greymane, Darius Crowley, Houndmaster Shaw, and Toki, Time-Tinker are the four heroes that you'll use in the final battle with Hagatha the Witch, but they're also available as legendary cards.
After each fight won, you get to choose from three sets of cards to improve your deck. Furthermore, at certain intervals players get to add special cards to their decks that either improve their deck or their power. Also, some of these special cards are meant to downgrade the opponent's powers.
If you manage to beat Hagatha the Witch, you'll be rewarded with a card back. However, from time to time, Blizzard offers players daily quests that require them to win a certain number of games in Monster Hunt mode. The good news is Monster Hunt's is a highly replayable, so you'll definitely don't want to miss or replace these quests when they become available.
Gameplay mechanics
As mentioned earlier, three new keywords are introduced in the new expansion: Start of Game, Echo, and Rush. Two cards completely change the way the game is played – Baku the Mooneater and Genn Greymane, and both have the Start of Game keyword. They force players to have decks built from odd-cost or even-cost cards only, which in return will upgrade their hero power.
Echo is also a new mechanic that allows players to play the same card multiple times on the same turn if they have enough mana to cast it. Finally, Rush is similar to Charge, with the difference that minions with Rush can only attack other minions on the turn they are played.
Although the Witchwood brings 135 new cards into the game, not all are usable in competitive decks, so if you want to climb on the ladder, you won't have to make to craft too many cards from the new expansion.
The Cubelock, even though it lost N'Zoth, remains one of the strongest decks to play, but Baku and Genn introduce some interesting mechanics that, while limits players to a certain pool of cards, can create very powerful deck archetypes.
Speaking of new archetypes, the Witchwood contains several cards that have powerful abilities that can be triggered if your deck includes only odd-cost or even-cost cards.
The Meta
One week after Witchwood went live everyone was talking about Shudderwock Shaman, Spiteful Priest and Baku Face Hunter decks, which were considered among the most powerful. One month later and it seems that none of these three archetypes managed to remain among the top tier decks used for ladder climbing.
The best deck archetypes to reach legend quite fast are now the Even Paladin, Cubelock, Quest Rogue and Spiteful Druid. However, the Taunt Druid, Odd Paladin, Murloc Paladin, Tempo Mage, as well as Rush and Recruit Warrior decks are competitive too.
Unfortunately, the Shaman class, although it's the only one that got a new hero card and some powerful cards, it seems to me that it's still among the least played classes on the ladder.
The Good
- Enticing background story
- Amazing artwork
- Interesting odd and even mechanics
- Meaningful Rush and Echo keywords
- Monster Hunt is incredibly fun to play
The Bad
- Not enough powerful cards
- Empowers only a few classes
Conclusion
However, when it comes to competitive gameplay, Witchwood is not that powerful as other expansions. It's true that it introduces two important new archetypes – odd and even decks, but there aren't too many powerful cards worth putting in those decks that are mostly played on the ladder.
As far as the single player content goes, I would say that Monster Hunt is even better than Dungeon Run. Its high replayability and the element of RNG make Monster Hunt the funniest single player experience ever created by the folks behind Hearthstone.
