Hearthstone devs reveal the new Doctor Boom legendary card (Updated)

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Today's stream showed how the centerpiece of the new expansion will work. As expected: he's mad.

Update: Brian Kibler just wrapped up today's The Boomsday Project reveal stream, and the headline is that Blizzard brought out the big boy himself. The good doctor is back, but his new form is very different to the ubiquitous minion that found his way into pretty much every deck back in the Goblins vs Gnomes era. The new Dr Boom, subtitled 'Mad Genius', is still a 7-Mana legendary card, but he's now a 'Hero card' exclusive to the Warrior class. That means that when you play him, he'll replace your existing hero and a trigger a bunch of additional benefits. These are: gain 7 armor immediately, all your Mechs acquire the keyword 'Rush' (enabling them to attack other minions on the turn they're played), and an upgraded hero power called 'Big Red Button'.

That button is likely to be the most exciting and potentially controversial aspect of the new Doc, because it's heavily RNG-reliant. Each turn the button will cycle through the five possible options pictured above. None of them are bad, but what you need is likely to depend largely on the current state of the game you're in. 

  • Micro-Squad: Summon three 1/1 Microbots.
  • Zap Cannon: Deal 3 damage.
  • Blast Shield: Gain 7 Armor.
  • KABOOM!: Deal 1 damage to all enemies.
  • Delivery Drone: Discover a Mech.

Nonetheless, Doctor Boom, Mad Genius looks very powerful and fun. Like Hagatha from the previous set, it's a high utility card with the potential to generate substantial value. I would expect that midrange Mech Warrior (cool name) will be a thing, assuming the expansion adds enough playable new Mechs to the Standard pool.

Elsewhere in the stream, we also saw some new Priest cards with Deathrattle synergy to support the Quest card, plus a 2-Mana Warlock spell that transforms a card in each player's hand into a Demon. That sounds like the kind of thing you might not want to do, but it has high potential for disruption against opponents running combo decks like Malygos Druid or Shudderwock Shaman—The idea being you hold the spell until you have the read that your opponent has their most important minion in hand, then turn it into something useless like a Flame Imp. You can see all the cards revealed so far at the official site. The Boomsday Project will launch on Tuesday 7 August.

Original story: 

Blizzard will unveil some of the new cards coming our way in The BoomsDay Project, the upcoming Hearthstone expansion that was announced earlier this month. The event will be hosted by Hearthstone senior designer Peter Whalen and Brian Kibler, noted card pro and one-half of the Hearthstone's ultimate power couple.
 

We've laid eyes on some of the new Boomsday cards, when the expansion was announced and then again last week, when Tim shared his thoughts on three new cards including one called Mulchmuncher, which is apparently a giant robot hippo that eats Treants. I can't promise anything but if I had to guess I'd say he'll probably weigh in with some similar analysis of the cards revealed today at some point in the not-too-distant future. The man loves his cards.

The big Hearthstone: Boomsday Project livestreamed reveal begins at 10 am PT/1 pm ET today, which is July 23, on Twitch—embedded below for your convenience.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.