Farewell Year of the Mammoth, hello Year of the Raven. Blizzard have just announced the first Hearthstone expansion pack for 2018, and the first for the Year of the Raven: The Witchwood. This set, with horror theme and focus on the Worgen race from World of Warcraft, features over 130 new cards to insert into existing decks or build around for whole new deck types. The cards will also be added to the Arena, Hearthstone's 'Limited' game mode.



In addition to Player vs Player modes, The Witchwood will also include a new Player vs AI mode called Monster Hunt. You'll play one of four new heroes unique to Monster Hunt, defeating ever more difficult challenges and augmenting your deck with new cards as you go. This expansion's launch will also be the start of the Year of the Raven, when all cards from 2016 will finally be rotated out of the Standard mode, greatly freshening up the constructed metagame.

The Witchwood introduces two new keyworded mechanics: Rush and Echo. Rush is similar to Charge in that units can attack the turn they are summoned, but units with Rush can only attack minions. When played, Echo cards leave an identical copy of the card in your hand which will disappear when your turn ends, giving them more late-game versatility.

Six cards, including the Worgen Faction Leader Genn Greymane, were revealed in the announcement video. More cards will be revealed over the coming weeks by Blizzard, enthusiast press and Hearthstone personalities.

You can pre-order 70 5-card packs of The Witchwood for £44.99 (20 more packs than you would normally get for this amount), and also net the "In a Dark Wood" card back. The Pre-order page states that the expansion will be released no later than April 30th 2018. For more information visit PlayHearthstone.com.