Hearthstone’s next expansion is Reign of the Black Empire, a journey back thousands of years into the distant past when the Old Gods were at war with the Titans. GameSpot has an exclusive reveal for a package of Death Knight class cards, including a big legendary that could swing the game in your favor–or even just win it outright.
The three cards are blood runes, which emphasizes control and life-leeching effects. The first is Grafted Knight, a 2-blood rune, 2-mana 3/3 minion with Lifesteal. That’s a solid early-game minion with good stats for the cost that should help you stay alive against aggressive decks in the early game.
Hearthstone “Reign of the Black Empire” – Grafted Knight card
Next up is Bloodfiend, a 3-blood rune, 4-mana 4/4 minion. It carries the battlecry “Spend up to 4 Corpses. Deal 1 damage to all other minions for each.” That means it would hit your own minions, naturally, but as long as you’ve built up a pool of corpses, it’s a good swingy card that can clear your opponent’s mid-game board and still leave you with a body for them to deal with.
Hearthstone “Reign of the Black Empire” – Bloodfiend card
Finally we have the big one, G’huun, a legendary 3-blood rune, 8-mana minion with a mere 8/1 in stats. But don’t let the statline fool you. G’huun has a battlecry that steals 6 from the lowest-health enemies by default, but then improves with every blood rune you play. So it will always drop as an 8/7, and will likely be much larger if you’ve built your deck around blood runes. The battlecry centering on the weakest enemies also means it could serve as a board clearer for smaller swarms.
Hearthstone “Reign of the Black Empire” – G’huun card
But for particularly ambitious Death Knights, G’huun could serve as a finisher, or even a one-turn kill. The battlecry steals health from the lowest-health enemies, not just minions, which means the enemy hero is fair game. That could finish off your opponent if their health is low enough, or just target them exclusively if they’re the only enemy on the board. Even if your battlecry isn’t big enough to outright defeat them, health-stealing effects are permanent, so they won’t be able to heal to recover.
Reign of the Black Empire launches October 20. You can pre-purchase a bundle that includes 60 Black Empire packs, two random legendary cards, and an Eonar card back, or the mega bundle that includes 80 Black Empire packs, 10 golden packs, one signature Drest’agath card, one golden legendary C’Thun, Eye of the Empire Card, four tavern tickets, and the Eonar Druid hero skin and card back.
Blizzard also recently announced that the Monk, Hearthstone’s first new class since 2022, will be coming in 2027. Other changes are also in store for Hearthstone in the near future, including a Battlegrounds season with a new minion type, and a revamp to the quest system that will focus more on telling a continuous story.