14 DAY TRIAL // 
The Boomsday Project is Hearthstone's ninth expansion and the first after the departure of Game Director Ben Brode. It's meant to bring back in another form one of the most beloved Hearthstone characters of all time – Dr. Boom. As the name suggests, the Boomsday Project is a science-based expansion that revives a certain type of creatures that were added in the game since the beginning: mechs.
If you've been playing Hearthstone for at least one year, then you know that with each new expansion new mechanics and kewords are added besides the 130+ cards. The keyword for The Boomsday Project is Magnetic, and allows players to merge mech cards assuming at least one of them has the keyword.
The expansion also introduces the Omega cards, which provide players consistent bonuses if they play these cards when they have 10 mana (the cards itself don't cost 10 mana). More importantly, The Boomsday Project sees the return of a much dread character – C'Thun.
Since it couldn't bring back the original card, Hearthstone devs have decided to add the theme's flavor and include a mechanical C'thun in the expansion. The result is Mecha-thun, a legendary card that created a new archetype of decks based on a single strategy: drawing your deck as fast and possible and getting rid of all the cards before playing Mecha'thun.
Just like many of the previous expansion, The Boomsday Project adds 135 new cards, as well as a new warlock alternate hero Mecha-Jaraxxus. Although the expansion was launched on August 7, the single player part, the Puzzle Lab was only added two weeks later, but the amount of content it delivers makes the wait worthwhile.
Although it brings a lot of fun to play cards and new gameplay mechanics, The Boomsday Project did not really changed the meta too much. Of course, the expansion did create some new archetype decks like Mecha-thun and Topsy Turvy OTK (one turn kill) priest deck, they really don't have the oomph of the already well-established decks.
However, a lot of the cards in The Boomsday Project found their place in these powerful archetype decks and made them even better. Another positive impact of the new expansion is that some of the older cards that weren't really played in the current meta have been revived as powerful answers to the new Boomsday Project cards.
There are a lot of fun decks based on mechs that anyone can easily play these days and have some mildly success on the ladder, but even if you're not following the meta, Blizzard have you covered.
The Boomsday Project introduces a new concept card that allows you to play with cards that you don't have in your collection. Whizbang the Wonderful makes it easier to get into Hearthstone even if you don't own a massive collection of cards. Whizbang the Wonderful is the only required card in a deck if you decide to play it. However, once the game starts, you'll be randomly given one of the 18 predefined deck recipes to play with.
It's true that you can't choose which deck to play from the start, but it's a good way to advanced on the ladder a bit if you don't have too many cards in your collection. Also, it's a great opportunity to learn how to play some of the new cards added with The Boomsday Project expansion.
Whizbang the Wonderful should be the first legendary card that you should craft if you don't have enough cards to build a deck that you like to play. A couple of other cards make some classes even more powerful like Dr. Boom, Mad Genius (warrior), Stargazer Luna (mage), Flobbidinous Floop (druid), Myra's Unstable Element (rogue), The Storm Bringer (shaman) and The Solarium (warlock).
Naturally, each of the legendary cards mentioned above must be played in certain decks, but if you find any one when you open packs, you can definitely build something around them even if it's not something 100% competitive.
I've played a little bit of the single player content, the Puzzle Lab, and while I did find it find at first, I reckon that I got bored after a while. The Puzzle Lab presents players with various puzzle that they need to solve. There's no time limit so you can take as much time as you need, but once you notice that you can't focus on the solving a puzzle a suggest coming back for it at another time to avoid frustration.
There are four types of puzzles: Lethal, Mirror, Board Clear, and Survival. You can play them in whichever order you want, which is nice since you can switch between them if you feel like you want to solve a different type of puzzle.
Obviously, they are very well thought and can become quite hard if you're not a hardcore player. The Puzzle Lab isn't for everyone, but you can always find the solutions on the internet, although I strongly recommend against it.
The Good
- New cards empower older archetype decks
- Interesting Magnetic gameplay mechanic
- Encourages experimentation
- It has Mecha-thun and Dr. Boom, Mad Genius
The Bad
- Single player content can become frustrating or boring after a while
- It doesn't change the status quo of Arena classes rankings
Conclusion
I also feel that Blizzard is focusing more on players rather than the competitive side of the game. The fun part is more present than ever and the deck building options are extremely varied and cover all aspects of the game.
Of course, Hearthstone's ninth expansion is far from being perfect, especially when it comes to arena where some classes remain at the bottom of leaderboards. But it's definitely a step in the right direction, especially if Blizzards wants to expand the Hearthstone fanbase.
