Guardian Augmerchant coming in Hearthstone’s upcoming expansion, Ashes of Outland

Ashes of Outland card reveals are dominating the internet today. The latest card revealed for Hearthstone’s upcoming expansion is a cunning little Gnome called Guardian Augmerchant.

Guardian Augmerchant is a one-cost 2/1 Battlecry minion. Guardian Augmerchant’s Battlecry allows you to deal one damage to a minion and then give it Divine Shield.

The Divine Shield concept is based on an ability of the same name from World of Warcraft. In both games, the idea of Divine Shield is to mitigate all damage. In Hearthstone, a minion with Divine Shield ignores the first wave of damage it receives after getting Divine Shield. This means if a minion enters the battlefield with Divine Shield, it will ignore the first damage it takes then become vulnerable to damage.

Minions with Divine Shield are a great way to clear your opponent’s board without losing minions. In a situation where you’d usually need to trade minions, a card like Guardian Augmerchant can give you the opportunity to clear an enemy minion while keeping your own alive.

Since Divine Shield is based on the Paladin class, that’s where you generally see the most of this keyword. Guardian Augmerchant may find itself in a Paladin deck moving forward, but since he’s neutral minion, there’s no telling where he’ll end up.

You can check out all of the new cards coming with Ashes of Outland when it goes live on April 7.