Blizzard Shares More Insights on Death Knight's Class Design in March of the Lich King & Associated Hearthstone Sets

With the reveal season for the upcoming March of the Lich King expansion officially resuming after the Death Knight Preview Showmatch, Hearthstone Game Designer Chadd "Celestalon" Nervig has kept sharing more dedicated insights regarding the new set - including Team 5's goals with certain classes and how the new cards work or actually came to be.

This new series - dubbed "Behind the Cards" and teased as a possibility a little while ago - was partially featured on the official Hearthstone Twitter, and might even become a staple going forward. Following that particular inspiration, in this article we've collected all of Celestalon's recent insights on Death Knight, whose new cards will come from March of the Lich King, Path of Arthas and Core Set, branching out to support several Rune archetypes. We expect more of these "behind the scenes" thoughts to follow in the near future! 

• Previously on Behind the Cards - Paladin's Class Design in March of the Lich King

If you'd like to read more of such Dev Insights, we've also created a new relevant content tag, which can be accessed by clicking the banner below - whenever we'll publish other articles like this one, they will appear there as well! Including some of our coverage from the past. 

Death Knight - Design Goals and Themes

We're going to unpack a lot in this article, so better start from the basics. Most, if not all classes have a focus on different minion types: for example, Shaman is about Elementals, Murlocs and Totems, Warrior is about Pirates, Hunter is about Mechs and Beasts; and so on. What about Death Knight?

While it is clear that Hearthstone's new class would've been perfect for the new Undead, Team 5 has also decided to give us another tribe to increase Death Knight's affinities. Celestalon explained that in the end they landed on Frost Elementals, which Frost DKs are particularly proficient with.

Finally, it has to be noted that Death Knights have a little Dragon synergy too: Frostwyrm's Fury's token, Frostwyrm, is a Dragon!

Quote From Celestalon

(1/2) Each class has their own affinities for different minion types. We knew Death Knights would love Undead, but wanted to find something else they could dabble in as well, so they didn’t feel too one-note. #BehindTheCards

(2/2) The conclusion we came to was Elementals, particularly for Frost Death Knights. While we wanted to focus on Undead for March of the Lich King, we put in these two to establish that Frost Elementals are a thing that should feel natural for Death Knights.

Makes sense. Only other one that I guess would fit would be dragons but a few classes already claim that tribe so its nice to see elementals get use other than in shaman and (kinda) priest.

We do also have a bit of Dragon in DK as well, with Frost Wyrms!

Other Interesting Talking Points - Quick Recap

Celestalon shared many other interesting insights regarding the new Death Knight cards: although there isn't much to say about some, others could use some additional thoughts - here's a quick recap of the most relevant information, although we advise you to read the whole thing!

• When a friendly minion dies, you get a corpse counter before its Deathrattle triggers and not after, so that Deathrattles that depend on corpses will have a higher chance to go off successfully.
• Deathbringer Saurfang is Varok Saurfang's son, turned into a Death Knight by the Lich King.
• The Lich King's Army isn't made of Undead only: there are living creatures too, just as some Vrykul clans.
• Defrost was initially meant to be an Unholy spell with a very, very peculiar name.
• Some cards like Blightfang take their inspiration from World of Warcraft's plague mechanics.
• Possessifier is a tribute to Posesi, 2021's Hearthstone World Champion.
• Grave Strength's art comes from the WoW TCG, although it looks a little bit... on the greener side.
• Skeletal Sidekick and Arms Dealer shared the same name at some point in development.

What Comes First? The Undead or the Corpse?

If you're playing a game as a Death Knight and a friendly minion dies, when do you get a corpse? Before or after the unit's Deathrattle? This is a question that came up during the class development: either way, the timing would've necessarily led to significant gameplay implications. In the end, Team 5 decided to go for the first route, so that the generated corpse could be used by a Deathrattle requiring it.

A clear example of this gameplay rule is Ymirjar Deathbringer, which was intentionally created to establish a precedent. 

Quote From Celestalon

We knew there would be a question of when exactly you get a Corpse from a minion timing, whether it’s before or after a Deathrattle triggers. #BehindTheCards

So we decided that you’d get the Corpse first, so it could potentially be used by a Deathrattle, and intentionally created a card that would clearly establish that precedent.

For the Horde Scourge!

Deathbringer Saurfang is Dranosh Saurfang, son of Varok, fierce warrior of the Horde, who fell by the hand of the Lich King and got converted into a Death Knight.

Quote From Celestalon

This card represents Dranosh Saurfang, fierce warrior of the Horde, after being captured by the Lich King and converted into a Death Knight. While writing these, I thought to rewatch the WoW cinematic featuring Varok Saurfang, Dranosh’s father. #BehindTheCards

Now I’m sobbing, and don’t have anything else to say here beyond “Go watch Old Soldier, Lost Honor, Safe Haven, and Reckoning.”

Here is a small taste of such a cinematic recommendation. If it's to your liking, you can find the rest over there as well! 

Both in Life, and Death

The Lich King's army doesn't consist of Undead only: among his soldiers there are some living creatures as well, who swore allegiance to Arthas even when their heart was still beating. Vrykuls - in particular, the Winterskorn clan - are well known for this.

For example, take a look at Hematurge! What's interesting about this unit is its name, which is a combination of "hema" (a prefix meaning "blood") and "turge" ("spellcaster").

Quote From Celestalon

Many Vrykul swear allegiance to the Lich King, including many still living ones, such as this member of the Winterskorn clan. #BehindTheCards

Finding just the right name for a card is always difficult, but I thought the creation of if this word, combining Hema- (blood) and -turge (spellcaster, as in thaumaturge) was clever, and it stuck.

Remeber To Take the Dinner Out of the Freezer

Defrost is one of the new cards that have impressed the Hearthstone community the most: although it requires two corpses in order to be at full power, it's basically a 2 mana Arcane Intellect; moreover, the single Frost rune isn't that harsh of a deckbuilding restriction, meaning that many decks will be able to put this card to good use.

What's interesting is that Defrost was initially meant to be an Unholy spell, only for it to be moved to the Frost department later in development. This piece of information lets us know that, at a certain point, card draw was a feature at which Unholy was rather proficient; however, right now this Rune is the worst of the three when it comes to hand refill, while Frost (to which Defrost belongs) is the best.

Temporary card names are very interesting too:

• Unholy Defrost was initially called “Bring Out Your Dead” - also known as the summoning words of one Undertaker. 
• When moved to Frost, the name changed to “Thaw Out Your Dead”, only for Team 5 to settle on the simple "Defrost".

If you ask us, this is such a shame: “Thaw Out Your Dead” would've been a SICK card name.

Quote From Celestalon

This card started its life in Unholy, as a way for Unholy to spend corpses on card refill, named “Bring Out Your Dead”. #BehindTheCards

When we moved the card draw over to Frost, it got renamed to “Thaw Out Your Dead” as a temp name. It got renamed half a dozen times from there, before we finally settled on the simple “Defrost”.

Better Get That Booster

In World of Warcraft, Death Knights are very proficient when it comes to gameplay-related diseases: if you play with this class, you'll be able to infect your enemies with various plagues, which will further debuff their stats or trigger other effects that are favorable to you.

Celestalon revealed that, after Team 5 had decided to add Death Knight as Hearthstone's eleventh class, they tried to create cards whose effects would replicate the aforementioned plagues. The cards you see below represent some examples of what we're talking about.

Ultimately, it appears that Team 5 has concluded that such mechanic didn't really fit Hearthstone too well, so they only kept the ones they liked the most in the game.

Quote From Celestalon

In WoW, Death Knights have a ton of gameplay related to diseases, various plagues that they would infect enemies with, that had their own effects and activated other abilities. #BehindTheCards

So this was a big area of design exploration for us. Ultimately, we didn’t think they fit well within Hearthstone as a major mechanic, but we kept a few of our favorite uses of these cut mechanics as individual cards.

Pses- Popses- Sposses- The Guy From ‘Money Heist'!

As per tradition, each Hearthstone World Champion has always received a tribute card to celebrate their remarkable milestone: it has happened since 2014, with no exceptions so far. As you might know from another article of ours, Possessifier is the tribute card for Posesi, Japanese player who won 2021's World Championship.

However, Celestalon has revealed that Possessifier was called "Mindtwister" for a big portion of its development, only for the name to be changed down the line to tribute Posesi.

If you want to learn more about tribute cards for Hearthstone World Champions, make sure to check out our dedicated guide!

Quote From Celestalon

This card was called "Mindtwister" for much of development. Meanwhile, we had been trying to find a way to reference last year’s World Champion, Posesi, in a card name, and having a tough time with that. #BehindTheCards

Eventually someone finally came up with “Possessifier”, which was a bit silly of a name, but that fit fine for this evil looking gnome.

The Grass Is Always Greener on the Other Side

Each of the three Death Knight Runes has a distinct identity, even when it comes to visuals: in fact, such identity is reflected in the cards' look as well, allowing them to be told apart fairly easily even without looking at the gems under the mana cost. The trick? It's the color patterns used in the art pieces, and the confirmation comes directly from Celestalon.

For example, take Grave Strength, a triple Unholy spell that is meant to be a payoff for swarm strategies. Just like for many other Death Knight cards, Grave Strength's art isn't brand new, but comes from the World of Warcraft TCG; however, said art used to look very different from the one we can see chosen for Hearthstone: in fact, its primary color was red!

As you might understand, such color pattern didn't really fit into the Unholy identity, so Team 5 recolored it in order for us to better associate Grave Strength with the Unholy archetypes and avoid confusion.

Quote From Celestalon

This card uses art from a WoW TCG card, Ghoulish Epidemic, but recolored to be primarily green, fitting Unholy, instead of its original bright red, which would have looked like a Blood card. #BehindTheCards

Alter Ego

Lastly - while card effects are important and art pieces just as much, the actual names also matter a great deal! Look at the two cards shown below: Celestalon revealed that, at different points in development, both of them ended up being called "Arms Dealer" - imagine the ensuing confusion during playtesting.

However, in the end the class minion got promoted to "Skeletal Sidekick", leaving the Neutral one with the name it still has by now.

Quote From Celestalon

Both of these cards were named Arms Dealer at different points during of development. Eventually, one won out, and the other was renamed to Skeletal Sidekick. #BehindTheCards

Did you like these insights? Are you excited for the new expansion? Let us know in the comments below!