During Day 1 of the Onyxia's Lair reveal season, Spawn of Deathwing was revealed as new Warlock card, and Hearthstone Game Designer Cora "Songbird" Georgiou hinted at the fact that this unit is part of a 4-card-cycle revolving around a certain theme. While there were some ideas (callback to Dragon Aspects, although it would've been redundant with what they did for Descent of Dragons), it was difficult to form a solid consensus on the matter: the only solution was waiting for more cards to be revealed and then guess the theme.
Yesterday the last reveal featuring multiple cards took place, and with that we got to see the 3 missing pieces of the aforementioned cycle: Horn of Wrathion, Tooth of Nefarian and Scale of Onyxia. Later in the day, Cora herself confirmed that these cards are meant to be callbacks to the most (in)famous Black Dragons in Hearthstone:
- Wrathion - Deathwing's grandchild and one of the few black dragons on Azeroth known to be uncorrupted by the taint of the Old Gods.
- Nefarian - The eldest son of Deathwing and his prime consort Sintharia.
- Deathwing - One of the five Dragon Aspects and leader of the black dragonflight.
- Onyxia - Daughter of Deathwing and Nefarian's sister.
Quote From Songbird Callbacks to the OG legendary black dragons in Hearthstone! More of a thematic cycle than a mechanical one this time around. Inspired in part by the Artifacts of the Old Gods. :)
On a final note, this card cycle was partially inspired by the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Old Gods' Artifacts: Mask of C'Thun, Oh My Yogg!, Jewel of N'Zoth and Idol of Y'Shaarj.
What do you think of these cards? Do you think this design is flavorful? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
I'd say swap Oh My Yogg! with Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron. Yeah, it's from a completely unrelated expansion, and Mage already has Mask of C'Thun for this cycle, but I think it fits much better.
It's pretty cool bc they essentially do the exact same thing on a smaller scale, and although I doubt some of these will be too viable for the time being, thematically, they're amazing.