Another expansion, another interesting new mechanic.
Hearthstone‘s Descent of Dragons expansion brings with it a whole host of new cards (to be revealed later) and as always, a new mechanic. The keyword this time is Invoke, and it’s a mechanic reminiscent of two old ones: the Spellstones and C’thun.
How Does Galakrond and The Invoke Keyword Work?
Much like C’thun, playing cards that Invoke another card will affect it whether it’s in your hand or deck and like the Spellstones will upgrade the effects immensely for each time they are Invoked. Not only that, but each minion that Invokes Galakrond also triggers your class’ Galakrond Hero Power (mentioned below), having not only powerful effects later, but varying immediate impact.
Additionally, certain cards will be upgraded or changed based on how many times you’ve upgraded Galakrond, such as a Priest card, which reduced the cost of all cards in your hand based on how many times you’ve Invoked.
The Invoked card given is Galakrond, the progenitor of dragons in Warcraft lore. Galakrond makes his appearance as a new Hero card, which can be invoked multiple times to upgrade its powers. Each League of Evil class (Rogue, Warlock, Priest, Shaman, and Warrior) will receive their own version of Galakrond.
The Rogue version, for example, draws cards which are reduced to 0 mana, and it upgrades to draw more cards at once (while providing a Hero Power that adds Lackeys to your hand), while the Warlock version summons random demons as its Battlecry and summons two 1/1 Imps with its Hero Power.
These Galakronds should be interesting to see in action, as of the ones revealed so far they seem to have wildly different power levels. The Rogue seems to be trying to enable a Combo (the return of Malygos Rogue?) or Big Rogue, while Warlock’s seems to slot right into Zoo, and Priest’s is a hardcore Control card.
All five variants of Galakrond will be given for free to every player who logs in.
