00:05I'm Dean Ayala, a game designer on the Hearthstone team.
00:08Today, I'm excited to talk to you about a new type of deck we're adding with the Witchwood expansion, odd
00:13and even decks.
00:14One of the major goals we have with every expansion is to introduce a variety of fun and interesting new
00:19strategies
00:20so that when launch day arrives, Hearthstone feels like there's a whole new world of decks to play, learn, and
00:25tinker with.
00:26That said, when creating a new card, we often ask ourselves this question.
00:30Is adding this card going to create something exciting that you haven't seen before?
00:34Enter Baku the Mooneater and Gen Greymane.
00:38Baku is a card that asks you to build a deck with only odd cost cards and rewards you by
00:42upgrading your Hero Power.
00:44Gen asks you to build a deck with only even cost cards, then rewards you by reducing the cost of
00:49your Hero Power to 1 mana.
00:52Both of these upgrades have great synergy with how the odd and even decks play.
00:56If your deck is full of odd cost cards, you're probably not going to have a great turn to play.
01:00However, if you don't have a card to play, what better way to use your mana than to use your
01:05upgraded Hero Power?
01:07Reporting for duty.
01:08For even cost decks, you usually end your odd numbered turns with one extra mana to use.
01:13Luckily for you, now that your Hero Power has been reduced in cost, that extra mana is easily utilized.
01:21Because both of these cards are neutral, you can use either of them in each of our nine classes.
01:26That means both of these cards together represent a total of 18 new styles of decks.
01:31So, when we make an individual card that requires you to make great deck building sacrifices,
01:36the power level of that card has to be relatively high in order to compensate.
01:41It can be frustrating to build an entire deck around one specific card and not be able to count on
01:45drawing that card every game.
01:47So, we love the idea that Baku and Gen trigger your Hero Power from the very start of the game.
01:53These decks can also be pretty interesting to play against.
01:56Now that you have a bunch of new information about what cards are not included in your opponent's deck,
02:01you know that if you're playing against an odd cost Mage, you know they can't play even cost cards like
02:05Meteor or Blizzard.
02:06Or, if you're playing against an even cost Paladin, you know they won't have cards like Alvar Peacekeeper.
02:12Now that you know some of the reasons why we're excited about the odd and even mechanic,
02:15let's talk about some specific examples of decks that we had fun playtesting.
02:18First, Odd Warrior, which gives you access to one of the most famous Hero Powers in Hearthstone history, Tank Up.
02:26Tank Up is the upgraded Hero Power that grants you 4 armor every time you use it.
02:31The trick when building the odd cost Warrior is finding a deck that takes advantage of extending to the late
02:36game
02:36without being handicapped too much by not being able to include even cost cards.
02:40We thought it was time for the return of a popular Un'Goro deck, but with a new twist, Taunt
02:45Warrior.
02:46Many of the popular Taunt Creatures, such as Stonehill Defender, Tar Creeper, Direhorn Hatchling, they all fall on odd cost.
02:52So we found there is little sacrifice if you want to be able to complete the Un'Goro quest, which
02:57of course is also odd cost.
03:01Now, I know what you might be thinking.
03:04Tank Up is great and all, but the late game, it's just not what you're all about.
03:07Now, you, like many other Hearthstone fans out there, aren't really interested in going to turn 20 to turn 30.
03:13You want to go somewhere different, somewhere special.
03:17You want to go face.
03:19Here, we had fun with another odd cost deck and the return of an old fan favorite, Face Hunter.
03:25Playing Face Hunter with Baku in the odd cost deck upgrades your Hero Power to deal 3 damage to the
03:30enemy Hero every time you use it.
03:32Face Hunter loves having a variety of 1-drops, which fortunately isn't a problem for odd cost decks.
03:38You know who else doesn't care about having even cost cards?
03:41Wolf Rider.
03:43Face my steel!
03:44Kill Command.
03:48Eagle Horn Bow.
03:50Turn off the low.
03:51And most importantly,
03:53To my side.
03:54Huffer.
03:56Huffer!
03:57We had some fun playing and building this Hearthstone Classic, and I have a feeling there are some of you
04:02who might enjoy it, too.
04:04Those are just two of the decks we're looking forward to playing ourselves, but we're most excited to see what
04:08decks the community comes up with when Witchwood goes live.
04:11So, let's talk about some new cards that support these odd and even cost decks.
04:16Here is the first.
04:18Black Cat is a 3-mana 3-3 minion with spell damage plus 1.
04:22As an additional bonus, if your deck has only odd cost cards, you get to draw a card.
04:28Wheeeee!
04:31This does a great job of allowing you to refill your hand while also playing a large enough minion to
04:36contest the board.
04:37The next card I want to talk about is the Druid card, Gloomstagg.
04:43Gloomstagg is a 5-mana 2-6 with taunt that reads, if your deck has only odd cost cards, you
04:48gain 2-2.
04:49If you satisfy that condition, that's a 5-mana 4-8 taunt.
04:53The upgraded Druid hero power allows you to gain 2 armor and 2 attack every turn, which is fantastic for
04:58extending the late game and outvaluing your opponent.
05:02Gloomstagg is a great option for decks that want to make sure that they can get to those late game
05:05stages where your hero power starts to overwhelm your opponent and swing the game back in your favor.
05:15Next, we have an even deck supporter in the Shaman card, Merc Spark Eel.
05:20Merc Spark Eel is a 2-mana 2-3 minion, and as a bonus for building an even cost deck,
05:25it also allows you to deal 2 damage.
05:27This is great for shooting down minions to protect all those totems you'll be summoning if you also have the
05:321-cost hero power granted by Gengreme.
05:35The last card I have to share with you guys today is one of my favorites. It's the priest card,
05:40Glittermoth.
05:42Glittermoth is a 5-mana 4-4 minion that will double the health of all other minions in play, so
05:47long as your deck only contains odd cost cards.
05:50This goes great alongside a deck full of high health minions because you'll be able to heal those minions up
05:54with the upgraded hero power that comes with making the odd cost deck.
05:59Well, that's all the time I have today. Make sure and stay tuned as it will be revealing more cards
06:04as we get closer to the release of the Witchwood.
06:06Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.
06:28We'll see you next time.
06:29We'll see you next time.
06:30Grazie a tutti.
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