Mean Streets of Gadgetzan: Release Date is December 1st

Blizzard has just announced that the next expansion is called Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. Expect to see this sometime next month in December after they are done teasing out the cards.

Expansion Information

• Mean Streets of Gadgetzan is the title of Hearthstone's forth expansion.
• There will be 132 cards
• There are three crime families that run everything in Gadgetzan.
  • The Grimy Goons are the brutes and enforcers of Gadgetzan.
  • The Jade Lotus
  • The Kabal are spellcasters.
• There are Multi-Class Cards!
  • Priests, Mages, and Warlocks are a part of The Kabal.
  • Jade Lotus: Druid, Rogue, Shaman
  • Grimy Goons: Hunter, Paladin, Warrior

There's some wild stuff on here, it's interesting that the Kabal Talonpriest and Drakonoid Operative aren't taking a statline hit for their abilities.

Some neat cards. Looks like a fun, weird expansion.

Still seems odd to me that they're sprinkling in Dragon cards to help out Dragon decks once Blackrock cycles out, but the Mech subtype does absolutely nothing in Standard right now other than enable Gorillabot, and nothing revealed so far seems to change Mech's lack of relevance.

I might have missed it, but any word on a release date?

@noelle808: Looks like Blizzard realized that priest needed some unfair cards because priest has been outclassed in almost every game mode except wild recently.

@colonel_pockets: They have said early December.

The way they're describing Jade Lotus makes me think that MAYBE we're getting some secrets for those classes?

"The secret arts of the Jade Lotus come to life through Rogues, Shamans, and Druids. [...] Rumor has it they have an even greater secret just waiting to be unearthed . . ."

Am I crazy?

Wow, Priest might actually be a class with this expansion. Dragonfire Potion looks nuts—though, hilarious that Azure Drake remains Priest's lifelong nemesis and evades this.

I kind of hate Pint-Sized Potion. Even more so than before I'm dreading playing a control deck against Priest now with this thing. 2x Pint-Sized+ 2x Cabal will be a nightmare. One of my most hated cards ever was Shrinkmeister and this is wayyyyy stronger than that.

Show Warrior cards, Blizz!!!

Man, I'm trying to figure out how good Pilfered Power might be.

Lunar Visions seems like it will occupy the same slot as Call Pet, in terms of "I see what you're going for, but that's too inconsistent to be worth it." Maybe I'm wrong and it'll somehow see play in a creature-heavy Beast Druid, but Nourish just seems like a much safer bet.

Am I missing something with Counterfeit Coin? It's like a bad Innervate/Preparation? I know The Coin is valuable to Rogues for Combo, which is why Tomb Pillager is nice, but actually using a whole deck slot just for a Coin seems undesirable.

Brann Bronzebeard into Big-Time Racketeer is gross.

I Know a Guy is hilarious for my Protect the King/Bolster deck, but otherwise I can't see it getting a lot of love. There are a lot of bad Taunt minions, and it's not really as sexy of an effect as "Discover a Deathrattle minion."

Any further details on how Kazakus works?

Dragonfire Potion is NUTS.

Enchanted Raven for control decks. I like it.

@planetfunksquad said:

It would be pretty reasonable. The classes that have had secrets since launch have always felt really arbitrary (Hunter is the only one that was really obvious given the flavour of their secrets all being "traps"), unless there is some WoW-class nuance I'm missing that precludes certain classes from having secrets. I assume there is design space for all classes to have some manner of reactive card. As for the three classes in Jade Lotus, Rogues could have 1-mana secrets to enable Combo cards, Druids could have 3-mana secrets because they got that mana ramp, and I guess Shaman could have 2-mana secrets.

I really hope The Grimy Goons get a 'create a custom weapon' mechanic for their legendary. I want to see the options for 10 mana weapon effects lol.

With you on the arbitrary seeming secret classes. Like, surely Rogue would be the most likely class to have secrets, because its a fucking rogue and that just makes sense. You should never know what to expect out of a rogue, which is why the burgle mechanic is so thematically appropriate. But I never played much WoW either so I'm sure we're both missing something.

@acura_max said:

Enchanted Raven for control decks. I like it.

That's like the best anti aggro card since Zombie Chow.

@imsh_pl: The part where it's nearly a Zombie Chow that heals you is pretty nuts.

Kun is a good card but only if the meta slows down; free 7/7 on turn 8 or turn 10 or whatever is solid but you have to get there first. Lunar Visions seems like a strictly worse Nourish (which does see play already), Pilfered Power doesn't make sense thematically, Mark of the Lotus is nuts, Pirahna Launchers sucks in Hunter, Manic Soulcaster is pretty good, insane with Flamewaker but not so much post Flamewaker (thankfully soon), Wickerflame is good, Small Time Recruits is promoting the ever so cancerous Ebola deck and thus a piece of shit, Meanstreet Marshal I have no idea, Getaway Kodo is good, Kazakus is good with Reno, probably not so good without Reno, Dragonfire potion is great, Drakonid Operative is great, Pint Sized potion is solid but would be better with a weaker effect + draw a card, Kabal Talonpriest is good, Potion of Madness is great but only in certain metas, Lotus Assassin is great, coin is Miracoli, I know a Guy sucks outside of Auctioneer decks, Finja probably sucks but could be gamebreaking (i.e. bad design), Patches the Pirate is the best Pirate card ever printed, and I'll continue later.

Continued: Shadowverse is way better than Hearthstone, Wind-up Burglebot sucks, Fel Orc Soulfiend is ridiculous, Big Time Racketeer is a solid arena card, Second Rate Bruiser is okay, Kooky Chemist is great, Friendly Bartender is alright, and Mistress of Mixtures is good.

Dragon Priest is looking to be really strong, finally a board clear that won't even kill your own board, and Drakonid Operative looks really solid too.

Patches the Pirate is really, really interesting but I'm worried about him. Seems like the dream is to get him out with a lord and then cold blood, or cold blood and Faceless, but if he's summoned the first time you play a pirate then are you sitting on your ass until you have the cards and mana for a full combo? In which case, does the deck shift from aggro to an inefficient OTK combo deck?

For someone not playing Hearthstone, this only managed to get me depressed about the actual in-game Gadgetzan in WoW, which kinda falls far behind the one in that trailer...

This reddit thread is amazing, HS best E-Sport ever.

One card from Noxx and 2 cards leaked out by Disguised Toast

Beardo probably sucks (but might be OP in wild in like 40 years), Shakru is a 2/3 draw a card, seems okay (sorry I meant LEGENDARY!). Grook-Fu is just a random arena card, it's a lot better than Windfury Harpy but still worse than your average minion.

@acura_max: Pretty underwhelming. People didn't play Lightbane/Darkbane, and if anything I think those effects are actually better than Auctionmaster Beardo. Maybe there is some way to scam a bunch of armour using Beardo after you've already played Justicar as Control Warrior, but it doesn't seem worth the trouble. As for Shakru, has there ever been a card with "whenever this minion attacks" that saw much play? Cutpurse, Boogeymonster, etc. aren't very encouraging examples, and while the stealth is nice, I don't see how it's that much better than Swashburglar.

@glots: amen brother. I really wish Gadge (and a whole bunch of other old world zones) could get an in game face lift like this expansion represents them as.

Blizzard is trying to push beast hunter/taunt warrior again.

My sources say Reynad accidentally revealed his card early. So this could be real or fake. Edit: It's real. http://www.hearthpwn.com/news/1896-new-warrior-card-reveal-alley-armorsmith

Trogg is meh, Outfitters is pretty OP in ebola (pushing ebola seems like a good way to make people not want to play), Stolen Goods is either trash or great (so, bad design), Alley Armorsmith seems solid.

@fredchuckdave: One more card. Seems like the add +/+ stat to a random card in the hand will be this expansion's gimick. I hope it works as well as Discover and not like inspire.

Alley Armorsmith would be good like right now if it came out without the rest of this set. It would help the Zoo, Hunter and Shaman matchups a lot. Oasis Snapjaw has always been good at trading down with small minions in Arena. Problem is, there's no way in hell I'm playing this card when the set rolls out because it goes right into your opponent's Cabal Shadow Priest turn.

Ya know, it seems like it takes Blizzard a few sets to really figure out how to make a tribe work. Hell, Dragons weren't even really a thing until after Blackrock. Beast Druid just became viable with Menagerie Warden. Maybe there are finally enough cards to make taunt Warrior good. I'd be down for that.

Another card brought to you by Handsomeguy plus Jupanda

@acura_max: It doesn't seem to be the set's gimmick so much as the Goons' gimmick

Just like Kabal's gimmick seems to be value and Lotus's gimmick seem to be board control(?)

We have another new warrior card. That's at least 4 warrior cards that have been revealed so far.

I'd be really, really happy if this expansion gave Rogue a card that it actually needs like, I dunno, reliable board clear that isn't dependant on factors like enemy minions being at full health...

@acura_max said:

Oh. 3 mana 2/3 Huckster. Huh.

3 more cards are out. The first two are likely just for arena.

And the next card is a hunter card. Looks like hunter could have a pretty solid curve after this expansion. I can imagine turn 2 kindly grandmother, turn 3 shaky zipgunner into a possible turn 4 5/5 infested wolf. That would be pretty nuts. It's also pretty good that it's not a beast card. Then again, you would need to draw on curve and hope that the buff lands on the right minion when zipgunner dies.

The dirty rat card is really interesting, an aggro killer that almost always sucks against control outside of like turn 2 (but can screw over combo decks easily). Deathlord 2.0 but probably not as flexible.

We got shaky zipgunner synergy!

Grimestreet pawnbroker secret best card announced so far. Giving a weapon +1/+1 is way better than minions. Priests are getting what they need to be viable without being overpowered (so far). With just the cards shown this is already way more interesting than karazhan.

Today's card is another +1/+1 to cards in your hand. This could be interesting.

Trump showcased a new card!

I think it's absolutely bonkers in the right deck to be honest. With the plethora of buffs targeting minions in your hand already showcased it's probably not that difficult to play this as 5 mana 9/9 worth of stats over three bodies, either on curve or slightly off. 'Create a board' cards have been shown to be ridiculously strong if costed properly (Muster for Battle, Call of the Wild); this is costed 'fair' by default, but scales amazingly into the late game. The combo of Dopplegangster+Evolve is also absolute nuts.

@imsh_pl: I was already nodding my head with you and then my eyes really widened when you mentioned evolve. Assuming these are exact, 5-mana copies this could be pretty hilarious: 3 6-mana minions for 6 mana.

That aside, we had a card similar to this in Naxx (something ooze or slime? The 1/2 single-copy) that barely saw play. This obviously seems stronger but we'll see. I hope it plays well, it seems fun.

The new paladin card is going to be great in arena. And it looks great in midrange. I would play this even if it didn't have taunt.

I can't tell if Blizzard is getting smarter about showing the good cards earlier in the preview month or if this set is just going to be insane.

Dopplegangster might be my new favorite name for anything ever. That's too good.

Ooze had a lot of downsides. Even though technically it was overstatted, 1/2 is among the worst stat distributions in Hearthstone because they don't kill anything and die to everything. It also required you to buff them the turn they're played. Dopplegangster has the advantage of being able to sit on your hand collecting buffs only to be played after your opponent used up a board clear.

@acura_max said:

The new paladin card is going to be great in arena. And it looks great in midrange. I would play this even if it didn't have taunt.

Protector is so good... Paladins haven't had a 7 drop since Dr Boom, and they always lost a lot of oomph on that turn which usually sucked since the enemy could then decide how to efficiently trade into your T8 Tirion. Protector now retains your minions while they pick off theirs but also is a 6 health taunt that further denies them good trades. It's also a great way to shield your T8 Ragnaros Lightlord.

Turn 3 Shaky Zippgunner -> Turn 4 Dispatch Kodo seems bonkers if the combo works. A 4/6, deal 4 damage is a ridiculous tempo play

Also, I'm 100% going to make a trash deck that goes for the Brann Bronzebeard -> Dopplegangster -> Evolve combo.

Rat Pack seems like a card that will need hands-on testing, but even with a single +1/+1 boost, it seems like a pretty good 3-drop.

Brass knuckles looks too slow. I can't imagine which weapon you'd replace with it.

@noelle808 said:

The dream is Grimestreet Pawnbroker on 3, then Brass Knuckles on 4 is an Assassin's Blade that buffs hand minions. No guarantee that's worth running in your deck, but at least it feels worth trying, compared to the days of Poisoned Blade, Charged Hammer, and Tentacles for Arms, all of which were clearly just too slow to be effective.