At last, the eleventh expansion of Hearthstone’s franchise was revealed moments ago. Titled “Rise of Shadows,” the central theme revolves around a group of villains from the game’s past all working together to take down the floating city of Dalaran, for reasons that will likely be revealed throughout the single-player campaign.

The first card set in the Year of the Dragon will introduce a new keyword: Twinspell. Similar to Echo-- a previously added keyword-- when you cast a spell another copy of the card will be added to your hand to be played again at a later time. The copied card does not have the Twinspell keyword available.

New keyword

One of the revealed cards showcasing Twinspell is "The Forest’s Aid", a new Druid spell:

Itty-bitty helpers

Additionally, a new type of “minion” has been added to the game as well called “Lackeys.” As all mastermind villains need henchmen, these creatures, which act as tokens, are generated via other cards in the set and cannot be placed in your deck or collection. All of the Lackey cards that have been revealed thus far are one-mana creatures with impactful Battlecry effects:

Plotting with Schemes

The final new mechanic being added to the game is called “Schemes.” According to one of the Scheme cards, Hagatha’s Scheme, they are spells that start out fairly weak and grow more powerful each turn they are in your hand.

The rest of the cards revealed in the initial announcement can be found below:

Pre-purchase rewards

Alongside the information above, Blizzard also revealed details as to how players can pre-purchase content prior to the expansion’s launch next month. Currently, there are two pre-order bundles that will be available in the in-game client shortly. The first: for $49.99 you get 50 Rise of Shadows Card Packs and the Jewel of Lazul Card Back. The second: for $79.99 players receive 80 Rise of Shadows Card Packs, Jewel of Lazul Card Back plus Madam Lazul (the Fortune Teller) as a Priest Hero portrait.