Everything you need to know about the upcoming Hearthstone keyword mechanic.
Our Hearthstone Recruit guide contains details of every card, with the best Recruit decks to be added at launch.
A new card keyword will be introduced with the Kobolds and Catacombs expansion, and it goes by the rather simple-sounding name of Recruit. The keyword was revealed during the opening ceremony of BlizzCon 2017, and we managed to get a little extra info on the new mechanic from the Hearthstone-specific panel that took place shortly afterwards.
With the expansion now on our doorstep, we wanted to put together a robust Recruit guide which contains everything you could possibly want to know about the mechanic at this stage. Although all Recruit cards have now been revealed, we’ll be adding in relevant deck lists as and when they’re completed.
UPDATE – 5th December 2017
All Recruit cards for the Kobolds and Catacombs expansion have now been revealed and we’ve updated our snapshot to reflect this.
We are currently in the process of adding links to all of the decks that take advantage of the new mechanic, and you’ll find them right beneath the card list.
Recruit Cards
In this section of our guide we’ll be adding in a list of all the Recruit cards that have been revealed by Blizzard so far. This list was last updated on Tuesday 5th December 2017.
| Minions | Spells | Weapons |
|---|---|---|
| Guild Recruiter | Oaken Summons | Woecleaver |
| Silver Vanguard | Gather Your Party | |
| Possessed Lackey | Call to Arms | |
| Grizzled Guardian | ||
| Dragonhatcher | ||
| Kathrena Winterwisp | ||
| Master Oakheart |
Recruit Decks
We’re in the process of putting together deck lists and guides for all the archetypes that take advantage of the Recruit mechanic. If you’ve got some of these cards and fancy dipping into the Recruit meta, try some of these on for size!
- 1. Aggro Paladin – Aggro Paladin deck list guide
- 2. Big Hunter – Big Hunter deck list guide
- 3. Big Recruit Warrior – Big Recruit Warrior deck list guide
- 4. Cubelock – Cubelock deck list guide
- 5. Demon Warlock – Demon Warlock deck list guide
- 6. Hand Buff Paladin – Hand Buff Paladin deck list guide
- 7. Murloc Paladin – Murloc Paladin deck list guide
- 8. Overload Control Shaman – Overload Cotnrol Shaman deck list guide
- 9. Recruit Druid – Recruit Druid deck list guide
Background info
Here’s what the official description for Recruit says, right on the official Kobolds and Catacombs site:
“Cards with the Recruit keyword immediately summon minions from your deck and put them into play. Some cards recruit minions that match certain conditions; others recruit randomly chosen minions.”
From the description above, we can deduce that certain Recruit cards will target a specific pool of cards: Dragons, for example, or Beasts (although these specific examples are purely speculative on our part). Other Recruit cards will simply drag any random minion from your deck and into your hand.
Guild Recruiter was the first card to be revealed during the BlizzCon 2017 Hearthstone panel. This is a 5 Mana 2 / 4 with a Battlecry that recruits a minion that costs 4 Mana or less. The team is looking forward to seeing how players choose to build decks around this particular card, given both the limitations and opportunities it provies
Developer Peter Whalen shared some additional, post-BlizzCon insight into the Recruit keyword over on Reddit recently. Here’s a summary of the post:
- Keywords allow the Hearthstone team to boil complex opportunities down into easily understandable concepts.
- Recruit is a skill-testing mechanic that creates new deck-building opportunities.
- The randomness of Recruit is there, but much more controlled and with less variance. The difference between a good and a relatively bad Recruit play is much more dependant on a player’s agency in terms of building their deck.
- Y’Shaarj, Rage Unbound, Finja the Flying Star and Patches the Pirate will not have the Recruit keyword added, even though they perform the same function. Players already know them, and a change of wording won’t aid player understanding.
That’s all we have for now, but the reveal season is still very much in progress. We don’t know how many more Recruit cards will be revealed between now and the launch of Kobolds and Catacombs, but we’ll keep adding in the announcements. Once the expansion is live, we’ll include links to our individual guides on decks that make use of the mechanic!
