A First Look at Drakkinshard, LON Set 16

by Dave Smith, TCG Lead Designer

I am really excited to be taking over the position of Lead Designer of Legends of Norrath. As a designer, I really see my job as empowering player choices, not just tactically inside of a match, a place where LON excels, but also at the level of deck creation. This is my goal, not just for this set, but for the future as well.

With this in mind, a lot of the new inclusions are aimed at strengthening aspects of the Standard Environment that, based on our tournament data as well as conversations with experienced players, are currently somewhat underrepresented. Both fans of fast UVA decks and Questers should find a host of new tools at their disposal, as well as some old stand-bys that we are reprinting for use in Standard. A number of other cards, and in particular a new series of Quests which we will be previewing today, have robust combo potential.

Don’t worry AVA and direct damage fans – there are also a number of new cards intended to amplify these strategies as well!

Storyline
Since I know how much many of you like playing single player, I am also happy to announce that we will be offering a full eight scenarios for Drakkinshard!

Set in the world of EverQuest, the tale of the Drakkinshard recounts the adventures that ensue when a piece of the dead god Cazic-Thule lands in the Serpent’s Spine mountains, and is discovered by an ambitious Drakkin mage by the name of E’drasha Vasl. Corrupted by its dark whispers, she sends invitations far and wide to those greedy for power. Only her sibling, E’drasha Rho, stands able to thwart her dark design. Invitation in hand, will you aid her in her quest to defeat her sister? Will you be able to resist the corrupting lure of the Drakkinshard? Find your answers as you work your way through eight new scenarios!

New Mechanic – Crossfire
Drakkinshard introduces the keyword: Crossfire.

Crossfire reads:

Whenever this card is exerted for damage bonus, deal 1 damage to your combat opponent’s avatar.

It is distributed on all different types of cards:

The intention behind Crossfire istwofold:

• It provides additional direct life pressure both in AVA and UVA decks when you are successfully attacking (or defending against) your opponent’s Avatar.
• It also provides indirect life pressure even when you are engaged with their units.

My favorite part about most of Crossfire card designs is that they often have strong exhaust effects. This presents you with an interesting tactical choice: do you use the exhaust action, or do deal one over the top to your opponent?

New (and Old) Tools for Unit Rush Decks – enter the Swinetor!
One of the new races featured in Drakkinshard is the Swinetor (the other is Alaran, which I will let you discover on your own). A couple of the Swinetor have solid potential in very aggressive unit decks:

They also form something of a natural combo if you are lucky enough to draw them together.
We are also reprinting a number of potent 1 and 2 cost units from earlier sets in order to bring them into Standard, including:



These returning cards should provide more choices for fast UVA deck building.

12 reprints in all
Some more of your favorites that are returning, ones that should that help foster (or defuse!) different strategies, include:



Strong new Quests
Drakkinshard has a couple of very strong series of quests that focus on the relationship, both positive and negative, between Avatar type and card type.

All in all, there are over 100 new cards in boosters, plus nearly 20 more in promos, as well as a bunch of new Loot cards for both EverQuest and EverQuest II. Legends of Norrath: Drakkinshard launches on August 13th, 2013.

All of the images are broken.

yea looks like the url should be https://assets.daybreakgames.com vs the https://assets-qa.soe.com but can't be sure

Drakkinshard, isn't that what happens when a Drakkin farts too hard?

Duuuuuh. Sorry guys. Apparently Friday was more than my brain could handle. Fixing the image links now.

Thanks, the Elven Shaman reprint is still not showing, though. And the Crossfire keyword looks interesting, especially in scenarios where you can only win by beating the enemy avatar.

Where's the list of the loot from this expansion of LoN?

Yup, only reason I even fire up LoN.

http://www.legendsofnorrath.com/rewards.vm?category=eq&section=drakkinshard
loots posted

still not up, or buyable in marketplace

Aye server is back up, but the boosters (Drakkinshard), if trying to buy them form Station Store at least, the transaction is failing.

I....need....my...Akhevan.....to properly...worship...my goddess Luclin.

yeah i put that in supprot section too but no luck so far

You can't use your free packs to claim this set. This intended?

Pretty sure they did that for the last set too for the first month or so, then allowed them to be used.

when can you use the free 5 packs for drakkinshard..i only want the chetari merc contract

We are in the 2nd month now where we cannot choose Drakkinshard as our 5 free monthly packs. Lamesauce. =/

This was changed like a year ago where they will no longer be allowing you to select the current LoN expansion for free packs, you can only pick the last expansion and before, so until Set 17 comes out you will probably never be able to pick Drakkinshard.

I thought they opened that up a month or two after the LoN expansion came out.

Hmm looking back at the announcement thread the only note about it is Piestro's:

Doesn't look like they ever said how long until the current set actually opens to be chosen.