The streets of Gadgetzan are full of thieves, smugglers, and other unscrupulous characters looking to make a bundle of gold. At BlizzCon 2016, I took a dive into the upcoming Hearthstone expansion Mean Streets of Gadgetzan to find out more about the crime families, tri-class cards, and guns that shoot piranhas.
The tri-class cards are definitely the biggest feature for this set, allowing for loads of new strategies. Instead of being limited to a single class (which makes a set somewhat tied down in terms of deck construction), cards in each of the families can be played by three Hearthstone classes. Rather than giving each class a set of tools and archetypes, this allows for a lot more creativity when it comes to deckbuilding. The tri-classes are thrown into crime family buckets known as the Grimy Goons, The Kabal, and the Jade Lotus (Basically brawn, sneakiness, and spellcasting).
Each family has at least one card that lets players discover other cards from outside their class, meaning not only can you dabble in tri-class cards, but also pick class exclusive cards to use from your associated classes. Are you burning through life too fast to draw cards in your Warlock deck? How about using the Kabal's strengths to dip into some Priest class cards to boost your health? These kinds of possibilities make Mean Streets one of the most interesting sets yet, and it's honestly a big - and really cool - change for Hearthstone.
There's great, ridiculous stuff outside of the tri-class mechanic as well. The crime leader of the Kabal, Kazakus, breaks all the rules, allowing players to actually create a custom spell when played. Creating a potion from ingredients, players can craft over 100 different combinations of cards to get the exact tool needed for any situation. While playing around with it, I was facing down a board of goblins and ogres, so I quickly cobbled together a spell that would do 4 damage to the entire board and freeze anything left standing. Kazakus will almost certainly find his way into many Priest, Warlock, and Mage decks, and the crazy plays and game turnarounds should make for some amazing, watchable Hearthstone. I can't wait to see what the other crime family bosses bring to the table.
Due to the tri-class mechanic, this is easily the most excited I have been for a Hearthstone expansion. While it may not have the gigantic Old Gods slithering around, the competitive and creative prospects for this set look awesome.