Hearthstone Rise of Shadows Guide – Release Date, Pre-Order, Card Backs

Our Hearthstone Rise of Shadows Guide walks you through everything you need to know about the new expansion! We've got information on the release date, pre-order, new keywords, trailers, game board, and what card backs will be available!

The expansion has finally been revealed, and it's the Rise of Shadows! We're getting 135 new cards, and certain cards from the set will be able to summon a new token type called Lackeys! These are a specific five card pool of 1-mana 1/1s that will help do your bidding. There's a new keyword called "Twinspell" which gives you a second copy of the spell you just cast! There's also schemes, cards that will grow strong each turn they remain in your hand.

Rise of Shadows Overview

Here's a quick overview of what's to come in the new expansion.

• Release Date: April 9th, 2019
  • Pre-Release Date: April 5th, 2019
  • Single-Player Content: May 2019
• New Cards: 135 New Cards!
  • Check out all the new cards right here!
• Lackey Tokens: "What is a villain without an army of disposable henchcreatures? As a promising villain in training you will have access to lackeys, 1/1 minions with devious battlecries."
• Scheme Cards: "Scheme cards grow stronger the longer they remain in your hand. It’s the three P’s of villainy: planning, patience, and pterror!"
• New Keyword, Twinspell: "Spells so nice, you cast them twice! When you cast a twinspell, a copy of that spell is added to your hand (without the twinspell keyword)."
• Theme: The theme revolves around former expansion leaders putting together a super-villain team! Arch-Thief Rafaam, Dr. Boom, King Togwaggle, Hagatha the Witch, and the Fortune Teller are heading towards Dalaran to reign down some terror upon it. The future expansion of Year of the Dragon will play upon this theme, so don't be surprised to see a team of heroes merge to fight this menace!
• Single-Player Mode: This is going to be and new and not necessarily completely tied to the expansion. The mode is getting a big overhaul with a bunch of new features, but you'll need to purchase it separately ($19.99 USD or 700 Gold per Chapter) and it no longer comes free with the expansion. It will be released a month after the release of Rise of Shadows.

Rise of Shadows Pre-Order

There are two bundles for purchase, there's a standard bundle and a mega bundle!

Standard Bundle

• 50 Packs and the Jewel of Lazul card back
• A random Legendary card from Rise of Shadows
• 49.99 USD

Mega Bundle

• 80 Packs and the Jewel of Lazul card back
• A random Golden Legendary from Rise of Shadows
• Madame Lazul Priest hero - available now
• 79.99 USD

Rise of Shadows Game Board

While an official high quality image of the new game board isn't available, we do have this screenshot from the gameplay video!

Rise of Shadows Card Backs

The Madame Laxul Card Back can be obtained by pre-purchasing one of the bundles from the expansion!

Rise of Shadows Full Card Art

Rise of Shadows Cinematic Stills

Rise of Shadows Early Gameplay

Rise of Shadows Announcement Trailer

Rise of Shadows Trailer Cinematic

Rise of Shadows Teasers

The lead up to the Rise of Shadows expansion involved the Fortune Teller talking to previous expansion leaders and eventually revealing that Arch-Thief Rafaam has a plot for them all to get some kind of revenge!

The Fortune Teller

The King

The Witch

The Scientist

Rise of Shadows Leaks

IGN Video Leak

It appears IGN jumped the gun a bit with a video post, while it wasn't viewable it did feature the Rise of Shadows name and artwork.

Here's a larger look at the thumbnail from the video:

PhonAndroid Leak

An early leak that showed off a bit of pre-order information and the name of the expansion. It looks like the mega pack pre-purchase will be available again, rather than the smaller version in  the previous expansion.

Rafaam Dalaran Card

A minor leak ahead of the expansion hit with Arch-Thief Rafaam being shown holding up a card with the city of Dalaran in it from World of Warcraft. While this didn't reveal a lot, it does kind of reveal where the events of this expansion will be happening.