What is Hearthstone’s new keyword, Twinspell?

Blizzard dropped some major Hearthstone news yesterday by revealing the upcoming Rise to Shadows expansion, which is set to be released on April 9.

Alongside the announcement, Blizzard unveiled a number of new keywords coming to Hearthstone, including Twinspell.

With all the information flooding the internet surrounding the new expansion, players probably haven’t had time to digest how game-changing Twinspell might actually be. When a player casts a spell with Twinspell, they’ll get another copy of that spell added to their hand. The new copy of the card won’t have Twinspell, so this essentially gives a player the potential to play four copies of a card in a single duel.

Related: All of the cards revealed from Hearthstone’s upcoming expansion, Rise of Shadows

Depending on how cards with Twinspell are designed, the potential is there for some serious power. One Twinspell card that we know exists is The Forest’s Aid. This Druid card costs eight mana, has Twinspell, and summons five 2/2 Treants. While this is a very powerful card, it does carry a rather hefty mana cost. It looks like a high mana cost could be Blizzard’s way of trying to balance Twinspell abilities.

If The Forest’s Aid is any indication, however, Twinspell cards are going to be massive in terms of generating tempo. Imagine playing against a Druid on turn eight and you’ve just cleared his entire board. Suddenly, your opponent drops The Forest’s Aid. Now your opponent not only has a fully populated board, but you know for a fact he can do it again, potentially three more times.

When a new expansion drops, the new abilities and minions can often seem game-breaking and overpowered. We have to remember that we’re losing a ton of what shapes the Hearthstone meta when the Year of the Dragon finally soars through. Many of our Hero cards and most powerful legendary minions will be rotating out of standard, so something has to take their place.

We’ll have to wait until April 9 to know for sure, but Twinspell looks like it could spawn a ton of exciting new strategies and deck types. If you’re a person who enjoys decks like Big Spell Mage, Taunt Druid, Big Priest, or Control decks in general, follow Twinspell carefully because you’ll probably be using it a lot.