Into the Emerald Dream: Review - Explore the New Cards and Mechanics

Choose One

Besides the new mechanics above, this set will also "expand" an old mechanic. Choose One is a classic Druid keyword that, for a long time, was only available in this class. From now on, it will be available in all classes.

Each class will get at least one new card with this mechanic. Here are a few of them:

This will make the game more flexible, and your decisions will matter even more from now on.

Let's see the most relevant cards from this set, and how they can affect the next meta and each class.

Death Knight will get solid backup with Leeches, which steal life from the enemy hero. Some new cards that interact with this mechanic are: Sanguine Infestation, Monstrous Mosquito, Hideous Husk, and Infested Breath. As a result, we might see aggro and "zoo" Death Knight lists in the meta again.

Warlock lists will still demand a bit more patience, and rely on expensive minions. Deathrattle and Dark Gifts will be very popular in Gul'dan lists, particularly considering the new cards we got for this class: Hungering Ancient, Archdruid of Thorns, Wallow, the Wretched Avant-Gardening, and Wallow, the Wretched.

Another new legendary minion for this class that doesn't really feature the keywords mentioned above, but that will probably be popular is Agamaggan. This minion lets you use your opponent's life as your own mana!

Rogue is also a pretty clear case. Nearly all new Rogue cards interact with summoning a minion and returning it to your hand so you can play it again later on. We could already do this with Shadowstep, but we'll have even more ways to do this now. Check out these new cards:

Hunter won't change much. This class will still stand out by building strong boards with Beasts with Rush.

Broll Bearmantle, a legendary Hunter minion, will be great in the iconic Hunter lists that use many Secrets or spells.

Shaman will still have a lot of fun turning its minions into other random minions that cost more. We can see that because the new cards for this class mostly Imbue its Hero Power - so, it will be changed into "Transform a friendly minion into a random one that costs (1) more".

Furthermore, two other new minions interact with this new Hero Power by either turning into an even more expensive minion, or discounting their costs.

Warrior lists can go down a very interesting and somewhat curious path. I can't remember many Dragons seeing play in these lists, but, with Succumb to Madness, Clutch of Corruption, Ysondre, Afflicted Devastator, and Darkrider, this might become more common from now on.

Finally, the other classes will remain the same as they were. Druid will still focus on Nature spells and big minions with Taunt, and Mages will still focus on Discovering spells. The most relevant change for them is their Imbued Hero Power.

Demon Hunter and Paladin will still focus on building a solid board - Paladin with Divine Shield, and Demon Hunter with Deathrattle.

Into the Emerald Dream will bring us new ways to play most classes, all while still respecting their origins. This set will bring us great support and can definitely impact the meta quite a bit. I believe it will be a remarkable step into 2025!

Giving us two keywords instead of one shows us that one of Blizzard's priorities is adding more content to the game. I'm excited to see it, and I truly hope the community welcomes this set with open arms.

I hope you enjoyed reading this article. What do you think of the new set? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

See you next time!