It feels like it was only yesterday that the last expansion for The Elder Scrolls: Legends launched. In fact it was November 30th that Return to Clockwork City was released, but as it's fair to say that the set whiffed in terms of making a big impact on the meta, perhaps it's no surprise that Dire Wolf Digital is about to push out another.
Due on 1 February—that's next Thursday!—the new set is called the Forgotten Hero Collection, and it's one of those smaller affairs, much like the Madhouse Collection. That means you get 12 new cards to collect, three of which will be unique legendaries. Forgotten Heroes will cost $10 or 1,500 in-game gold, for which you get full playsets of all the cards, with no need to buy packs.
What I like about this sort of set, aside from the fixed price, is that it enables the developer to push particular archetypes, or inject a spike of power into classes that are lacking. Or in other words, despite the smaller size, based on the cards spoiled so far I already expect Forgotten Heroes to shake up the game more than the disappointing Return to Clockwork City.
The immediate eye-catcher is a new legendary called Morokei, the Deathless (see gallery above). This card asks you to build your deck with no duplicates, in exchange for which he triggers a healing effect that also restores a rune when he enters play. If that sounds familiar, congratulations, you're a Hearthstone player who hasn't blanked out Reno Jackson due to PTSD.
In seriousness though, it's hardly like Blizzard was the first card game developer to do singleton decks, (also known as 'Highlander', because "there can only be one"). It is a bit weird that Dire Wolf would also make the signature card with that effect be a healing one, but hey, genius steals and all that.
Morokei isn't the only new card to care about duplicates, either. Siege of Stros M'Kai (am I the only one that hears this as Mr Mackey's "M'kay"?) will summon a random creature, support and action from your deck, which unless you build very carefully should make for quite the 10-Magicka RNG fest.
Talking about powerful cards, this morning IGN also revealed an 11-Magicka action which summons one of every creature in your deck that costs 2 or less. That's quite the board refill. Oh and check out this Endurance action that will Banish a card and all copies of it remaining in your opponent's deck. Nasty.
As someone who barely touched Return to Clockwork City, partly because I just couldn't get on board with the fantasy robot theme, Forgotten Heroes excites me a lot more. I'll certainly be jamming three copies of Bleakcoast Troll into my midrange Sorcerer deck. Before that I'll be amending my card back to something a little more magical.
Bethesda also announced today that it has implemented one of the longest-running fan requests: the ability to change the appearance of your card back. This can now be done via a tab in the collection manager. Depending on which expansions you own, you should already have some new looks to try out.
Additional card backs will be available from various forms of transaction, because hey it's 2018.