14 DAY TRIAL // 
When Blizzard revealed the tenth Hearthstone expansion late last year, I was mildly excited since I'm more of an Alliance guy rather than Horde. The Rastakhan's Rumble set is centered around trolls, one of the funniest, but brutal races in the World of Warcraft universe. Trolls in Rastakhan's Rumble retain the same Jamaican flavor, although they are now taking the form of cards to crush their opponents.
Just like many of the previous Hearthstone expansions, Rastakhan's Rumble adds 135 new collectible cards and an alternative hero for the shaman class – King Rastakhan. A single-player mode dubbed Rumble Run was added a few weeks after the release of the expansion, but unlike the single-player modes launched in the previous expansions, this one doesn't offer any rewards to those who successfully finish it.
On the bright side, Blizzard is giving away 6 Rastakhan's Rumble packs to everyone who plays the game. Even so, I still believe that there should be an incentive to make people keep playing the single-player mode after they finish it once with a class. Since giving away packs is out of the question now, perhaps daily quests related to the Rumble Run would be more appropriate.
Anyway, the Rumble Run allows Hearthstone players to enjoy a single-player adventure that involves building a deck as they overcome various bosses with different abilities. But it's not just the abilities that are different; the Rumble Run introduces the concept of Shrines, special totems that give powerful abilities to those who own them. While the special totems can be killed by other minions or spells, they will resurrect after a fixed number of turns.
Personally, I found the challenge of finding the cards that would better synergize with my Shrines quite entertaining. However, once I finished the single-player mode, I didn't feel particularly eager to try out other combinations.
Moving on to the PvP mode, Hearthstone's main component, Rastakhan's Rumble marks the fall of major archetype decks that were played for almost a year. More importantly though is how the new set of cards radically changed the current meta.
With one exception – the Hunter, all classes have been nerfed. The amount of hunter decks that you'll meet on the ladder is absolutely astonishing. On the bright side, most classes now have access to OTK (one-turn-kill) decks, which are very fun to play if you know how to pilot them.
The new Overkill keyword allows creatures that deal more damage than necessary to destroy a minion to do something extra, like draw cards or specific type of creatures from your deck. Even if a creature with Overkill dies while destroying another creature, if the requirements for triggering the overkill command are met, you'll be rewarded with its benefits.
Of course, there aren't so many cards out of the 135 that are often played in the current meta, but some of them are powerful enough to allow players to build solid decks around them. I'm a bit disappointed that the Spirits cards that are part of the expansion's main theme aren't that useful in standard. There are nine 0/3 Spirit cards in the set, which have stealth for one turn, allowing players to make use of their unique abilities. For example, the Spirit card for priest class will shuffle a 1-cost copy of a friendly minion that dies into your deck, while the hunter Spirit card will give a beast that you summon +1/+1.
Now, besides the nine Spirits, there are also nine Loa, powerful, sometimes animal-like gods and spirits that are worshiped in troll culture. All Loa cards are Legendary and, with a few exceptions, worthy to be included in a competitive deck. Surprisingly, Blizzard managed to include quite a lot of playable Legendary cards, which aren't meant just for flavor. Even so, I'm not sure that there is enough variation for those who can't afford to build a competitive deck, which usually require pretty expansive cards.
Finally, there are nine troll champions, which Legendary minions, with the exception of the hunter champion (Zul'jin), who is a very powerful hero card. Some of these troll champions are mandatory for some of the competitive decks that are being played these days.
The Good
- Many useful Legendary cards
- Replaces annoyingly old archetype decks
- Great artwork
- Decent PvE content
The Bad
- Little to no innovation
- Ridiculously empowers a single class
- No incentives for single-player content
Conclusion
Once again, Blizzard hasn't found a way to shake things up or bring some innovation to the game. Rastakhan's Rumble isn't something to be excited for, but the real problem is that it's a step backwards when it comes to changing the metagame.
I also believe that completely removing the PvE rewards was a bad move. Even if all players were rewarded with six packs after the launch of the expansion, I still think the PvE content looks promising enough to warrant some incentives.
