From Azeroth With Love -- Part 2: Setting the Stage

Hello everyone!

Welcome to part 2 of my From Azeroth With Love fan expansion for Hearthstone. In this part we'll talk about the quirky cast of characters, go over the introductory dialogue that sets the adventure up, and introduce two FREE cards that are awarded for purchasing any of the adventure's wings.

Obligatory part 1 link

Welcome to SI:7, Little Fish!

SI:7, aka Stormwind Intelligence is the premier spy agency in Azeroth, responsible for keeping the world safe for king and country. As a person of interest to the SI:7, you've been recruited to uncover a plot that threatens all of Azeroth with its maleficence. Along the way you'll be guided by a number of friends in low places as you perform all kinds of acts of daring do! Below are some brief bios and character notes about the major characters in the mission you've been assigned to:

Master Mathias Shaw, Leader of the SI:7

"Word of your deeds has spread far and wide, adventurer. So far, in fact, that Stormwind Intelligence has asked for you by name."

Master Mathias Shaw is the leader of SI:7 and our M character for this adventure. He is a well-established character in World of Warcraft lore, and is one of the few well-known Rogues in Azeroth. 

So who is Mathias Shaw? After combing through all of his quests and interactions it's tough to get much of a read on him. Here's what I was able to assemble:

• Mathias is all business. He doesn't mince words and likes to tell you the stakes (like how many people died getting this intelligence to him or the consequences of failure of your mission).
• Mathias will cut you loose if you're caught, disavowing any knowledge of you.
• Mathias is very protective of Anduin, and presumably everyone of importance in Stormwind. He actively tries to shield them from the dirty deeds performed by SI:7.
• Mathias is a bit of a Bro. He brags and jokes at one point about how easily he bested some assassins sent after him.

This works well for the purpose of the narrative. As our handler is straight and to the point, making it easy to fit dense material into the minimal space I'll have in those dialogue popups used in adventures. This also allows for the other characters to use him as a foil, telling him to lighten up. He'll be the straight-man of the adventure.

One more thing about Shaw: It would be absolutely criminal if Mathias Shaw were a Neutral Legendary minion. Anyone who cares about the lore knows he is basically the Rogue, and may well be in line to be the Rogue alt portrait. I want Shaw to be a Rogue Legendary, so he will be. Of course, if Rogue gets a Legendary, so should everyone else (to be fair and everything). That's why, in From Azeroth With Love, EACH class will get one class Legendary minion (except Hunter... screw Hunter).

Quinsey Gadgetspring, SI:7 Quartermaster

"I'll be your quartermistress for this mission. I've got all kinds of inventions for you to test! In the field, I mean. Of _course_ I tested them myself first!"

Hey look -- I reused the art from Goblins Versus Gnomes! Quinsey, the colourful Gnome will take on a Q-like role for the adventure (the use of a Q in her first name was hardly an accident). Often, at the start of a boss fight, she'll provide contextual cards for your deck that move the story forward and also provide some lighthearted chaos. Here's an example:

** This is an Adventure card, and not part of the collectable set.

So who is Quinsey Gadgetspring? She's a new creation for this adventure (though I did lift the family name from a pre-existing content in WoW).

• Quinsey is a light-hearted foil for Shaw. She's in it to be creative and let loose with the wealth of inventions she's got pent up in her brain.
• Quinsey is enthusiastic, about everything! She's eager to get you out there using her stuff. Unlike the real Q, she never complains about you breaking something. Almost everything Quinsey says ends in an exclamation point!
• Quinsey is eager to hear about your adventures. She cares about a lot more than just how her inventions perform. 
• Quinsey likes pink. It drives Shaw nuts, but her hair and her inventions are always the same shade of scalding, sun-bright, neon pink. When she can't use pink, it's another bright colour.

Quinsey adores antagonizing Mathias Shaw, in the ribbing kind of ways that he aren't fire-able offences. Everything always works just well enough, regardless of the colour choices and eccentric side-effects of her wares. She is a Gnome, after all; unpredictable Gnomish inventions are better than explosive Goblin inventions every day of the week, right?

Agent Amber Kearnen, SI:7 Sniper

"There's no way your getting in there by yourself. Lucky for you, Claire and I are here."

Agent Amber Kearnen is SI:7's most accomplished and highest ranking sniper. She is a questgiver for a number of Alliance quests in World of Warcraft. For one quest you can control Agent Kearnen as she snipes down a bunch of enemies in a variant of an escort quest.

Agent Kearnen is all too happy to lend a hand along with her best friend, Claire the friendly sniper rifle. In certain boss encounters she'll either grant cards to represent her sniping, or, when things get really bad, she'll take over your hero power:


** This is an Adventure card, and not part of the collectable set.

So let's talk about Agent Kearnen's personality. What is she like to interact with on this adventure?

• Amber is cocky as hell. She's the best sniper in the world, and no one can tell her any differently.
• Amber loves her gun more than you, or anyone else for that matter. The only other character she's fond of is her spy companion Sully McLeary, who may or may not feature as a guest star in this adventure.
• Amber likes to improvise. Despite Shaw's best attempts she has a lot of trouble 'sticking to the Plan.' She'll most certainly at some point say "Shaw's plan was nice, but I've got a better one." She can get away with this because of her rank in SI:7, and because it always seems to work out in the end.
• Amber is a fan of gunboat diplomacy. She has the biggest stick, and she's not afraid of using it to make a statement.

Agent Kearnen will feature prominently in the second wing, as well as be interspersed here and there after the second wing. From a functional perspective she'll let our bosses be more powerful because of the help that she offers. Her dialogue will help guide the story, and possibly get you deeper into trouble than you might have otherwise gotten.

Eres Bloodfel, Twilight Lord

"I thought SI:7 might attempt to interfere, so I've rigged the columns of this temple with Goblin explosives. Goodbye, little hero."

I tried to find a good picture, I really did, but this is going to take some creativity on your part: Remove the bird, and replace it with a baby Murloc. Remove the obvious Spectre logo in the signet ring and replace it with a stylized purple hammer (the Golden version will pulse with Fel energy!). Now we have something that resembled Eres Bloodfel, the villain of our story.

Though Eres Bloodfel may remind you of a classic James Bond villain, make no mistake: he is a man of peculiar talents and sadistic plans for mass destruction. As a member of the Twilight Council, Eres has the considerable weight of the Twilight's Hammer behind him. While the Twilight's Hammer may not hold the status it once had during the great Cataclysm, its cults live on, and its Council leads it anew towards its goal of bringing about literal Armageddon to Azeroth.

So who is this mysterious menace that threatens Alliance and Horde alike?

• Bloodfel is a meticulous planner. He has gotten to where he is today by being one step ahead of the Heroes of Warcraft.  
• Bloodfel is objectively diabolical. He will squeeze the life out of every resource he has in order to bring about its goal.
• Bloodfel doesn't dirty his hands with the rabble. He worked long and hard to build a cult of fanatics about him, and is happy to send henchmen to do his dirty work.
• Eres Bloodfel likes to play with his food. He revels in the torture of virtuous souls, and is wont to use unnecessarily complex tools to murder his victims, all the while taunting them with his lashing wit.

As the principle antagonist of this story, Eres Bloodfel ticks all of the boxes for what makes spy films great. He has an exaggerated sense of self and overblown plans to utterly destroy the world. Throughout the adventure, starting sometime in the second or third wing he will appear, and instantly make a bad situation worse.

A quick note: while the Twilight's Hammer may be guided by the Old Gods (according to the lore), I did that last adventure, so I'll be leaving that connection out of From Azeroth With Love.

Set me up for Adventure, already!

So how does From Azeroth With Love start off? Master Mathias Shaw has approached you, as a person of interest. 

Adventure Screen:

Mathias Shaw:

• "Word of your deeds has spread far and wide, adventurer. So far, in fact, that Stormwind Intelligence has asked for you by name."

Introduction:

Mathias Shaw:

• "You're a part of SI:7, now, little fish. I'm Mathias Shaw, and I'll be your handler for your missions." 
• "If you stick to the plan and get the job done we'll work well together." 

Quinsey Gadgetspring:

• "My name's Quinsey, and I'll be your quartermistress!" 
• "I can't wait for you to test some of my new inventions! In the field, I mean. Of *course* I tested them myself first!"

Mathias Shaw:

• "I already have your first assignment, recruit. Are you ready to prove yourself?"

Upon clicking on the first boss:

Mathias Shaw:

• "We've lost contact with one of our spies in the Redridge Mountains." 
• "He was last seen at the Lakeshire Inne. Get me a report on our agent's status."

And that's it, really. Mathias Shaw brings you in, then sends you out to go find a spy. The remainder of the storytelling will happen in situ. Enough about story, though...

Let's look at some cards!

As part of the From Azeroth With Love: A Hearthstone Adventure, if you purchase any of its wings, you'll automatically receive two FREE cards, as a thank you from Blizzard. The first of those cards is:

The SI:7 Cleaner is a 5 mana, 2/6 Priest Rare minion. 

We can most obviously compare this card to Entomb, which is a 6 mana Priest spell. SI:7 Cleaner costs less than Entomb, so it's totally broken, right? Honestly, the answer is not quite. Even though it costs less, it's much slower. You need to play it, it has to survive, then it can attack and the minion has to have 2 or less Health already. That's a whole bunch of conditions. 

A couple of notes, for clarification:

• You can't use the effect defensively; it's only when the minion attacks
• Unlike Entomb, the Deathrattle effect will trigger, since the minion must be killed in order to meet the condition of the effect
• This even works if SI:7 Cleaner trades with another minion, just like Acolyte of Pain, the effect still happens when he takes enough damage to be killed.

With all of these drawbacks that make it less good than Entomb, I believe that it balances as either a 2/6 minion, or possibly a 2/5.

We can also somewhat compare this to Malorne, I suppose. He's a 7 cost 9/7 legendary Druid minion that shuffles himself back into your deck as a deathrattle. In the case of Malorne, it's a minion you already possess, but the effect happens all the time (unless transformed or silenced). Malorne pays very little for that ability. SI:7 Cleaner pays more for his, and suffers the limitations we've discussed already. Whatever you kill with Cleaner is likely to be less good than a 7 cost 9/7 minion.

The kinds of decks we might see this in are actually quite varied. This could go into a control Priest deck, with the expectation that the card might help add value to an extended control battle. It could also go into a deck that relies on the Inner Fire, Divine Spirit (which sooner or later has to become viable, right?). As a 5 mana minion, it actually fits in an underserved mana cost for Priest, so I think there's a good chance that it will see play.

In the world of spies and crime, cleaners are specialists that go into crime scenes and remove any evidence that a crime took place. The most popular example of this is Mr. Wolfe, from Pulp Fiction, but there are others. From a WoW lore perspective SI:7 employs a number of specialists (many of whom you will see later in this set), and would surely require cleaners as part of their clandestine portfolio. I went with Priest, though I also considered Druid for this ability. In the end, Priest has Entomb already, and this card just riffs on the same theme. Priests also seem particularly well-equipped to clean crime scenes, with their healing magic, and stuff.

Lastly, look at the art on this card! I can tell right away that it's going to be one of the most desired golden cards out there, because the copied minions will be golden, but also because of the waves of light coming off the body (yes, that's actually a body) and the drapes in the background that are whipping in the wind. That art has some great action in it!

Okay. On to the next one!


The Redridge Scout is a 3 mana, 3/2 Hunter Epic minion. He is the only class Epic card in the set (since Hunter will not be getting a Legendary minion, they get an Epic, instead).

We can most obviously compare this fellow to the Ironforge Rifleman. Before you mention the words power creep, let's take a look at some of the details of this minion:

• Ironforge is a neutral 3 mana 2/2 basic minion that does 1 damage as a battlecry. 
• Ironforge is legitimately one of the worst-costed minions in the game. Blizzard clearly didn't understand the value of damage from minions in the initial game. 
• Even compared to Elven Archer, a 1 mana 1/1 that also does 1 damage as a battlecry, he's a weak card. 
• Redridge Scout is a class card. It therefore can be better than a similarly costed neutral minion (and especially a similarly costed basic, neutral minion).
• Redridge Scout is good, but unreliable: 
• Played later in the game, the opponent may not have enough cards in hand to generate value for this card. 
• It's possible this card reveals NO spells, causing no damage to occur.
• A 1-Cost minion can often "trade up" into Redridge Scout, making it a poor choice if you can't use it to wrest board control from your opponent.
• A small point, but Redridge only targets minions, where Ironforge can target everything.

With this in mind, I believe the Redridge Scout fits well at 3/2 at the 3 mana slot. 

We can also compare Scout to another class minion that deals damage with a Battlecry: Fire Elemental. Elemental costs 6 mana, for a 6/5 body. He's considered the best-costed damage dealing battlecry minion, doing an unconditional 3 damage. So how does Scout stack up?

At half the cost, for roughly half the stats Scout seems to be doing okay, but his battlecry is a source of some variance. He can inflict between 0 and 3 damage to a minion. When you look at the condition applied to the damage it's hard to argue that 0-3 is half as good as a guaranteed 3. What Scout loses in consistency, though, it gains slightly in being able to see 3 cards in your opponent's hand (whether they are spells or not).

Again, both being class cards, the Redridge Scout seems to stack up reasonably next to Fire Elemental.

In my mind it's tough to state the kind of deck that Scout might fit into. In the case of an aggro deck it doesn't compare to Wolf Rider or Arcane Golem, however in any zoo or midrange card, Redridge Scout can be an admirable tempo play on turn 3 that gleans information about your opponents hand. It can help win the board in early turns of tempo matches, and trades up against Shredder (as the most popular 4 drop). If Hunter ever manages to get its act together and build a reasonable control archetype, this card would likely factor into it. It has an immediate effect that can gain value and also leaves a not terrible body behind.

All spy organizations need scouts, right? In terms of lore, the Redridge Scout is an SI:7 advanced agent, reporting from the contested Redridge Mountains region. As a scout he wields a rifle, and minions with rifles tend to do damage as battlecries. His golden version will animate the smoking of his gun, his beard braids moving in the wind and a light effect behind him.

Okay, that's it for Part 2. It ended up being quite a bit longer than I was expecting. In Part 3 we'll discuss our first actual boss encounter, as well as reveal more cards.