The Boomsday Project , is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in the game’s history. It’s out on August 7, and every day new cards are being revealed showing off interesting, powerful and new concepts, and today is no exception. I present to you, IGN’s Boomsday card reveal, Mecha’thun!

Part Eldritch abomination, part machine.

The OG.

A natural partner.

OP COMBO INCOMING!

Benedictus is out, faster ways to cycle and play cards are in. Maybe.

Loading

Let’s all take a moment to bask in the awesomeness of this design. This is a thoroughly singular win condition, and only the second “destroy the enemy hero” card in Hearthstone (the other being Uther of the Ebon Blade … well, his hero power at least).I love the flavour here, and I love the fact that C’Thun has been brought back in mech form, but with no less creeping dread.Is Mecha’thun actually likely to be viable, however? Well, big cards that don’t do anything on the turn they’re played tend not to make an impact in Hearthstone, but putting that aside, the reality is that this is about as stringent a set of conditions to activate the ability as you can get. Sure, your opponent can have things on the board, but your board must be clear, and your hand and deck empty. And you’ve still got to kill the minion.Even so, in the right deck or meta, this definitely has a shot. And hell, who wouldn’t want to make that card text work?Think about a cycle-heavy Miracle -style Rogue. You could run Mecha’thun alongside the new legendary spell Myra’s Unstable Element. You dig through your deck until you have both in hand, then you play Myra to empty your deck and try to get everything other than Mecha’thun out of your hand as quickly as possible. Sound easy? No. Sound fun? Most definitely. You could even still play Fal’dorei Striders for additional tempo because you’re going to ditch your entire deck anyway.Warlock could also potentially think about using this card. The class has card draw on tap thanks to its hero power, so you can certainly draw through your deck in the right match-ups, and it can consistently take things long thanks to the wealth of board clears and heal at your disposal. Of the dominant archetypes (Zoo, Even and Cube), however, it would really only make sense in Even Warlock , as an alternative win condition for fatigue games. (Perhaps even paired with Cataclysm – if you’re in fatigue with this on the board, playing Cataclysm would win you the game.) That said, Bloodreaver Gul’dan already gives that deck a sense of inevitability that’s a lot less conditional, and Even Warlock doesn’t currently play Rin, the First Disciple – a similar control vs control win condition – and that card can at least be played in the mid-game to put up a wall.Another class that could be a good fit with the right build is Druid. If you can engineer the game to empty your deck and board, with just Mecha’thun, Naturalize and Innervate remaining in hand, then you have a ten (well, 11) mana play that wins the game instantly. Again, though, getting to fatigue is easier said than done, and unless you have your combo pieces in hand you’re not going to want to deliberately burn cards using Nourish or Ultimate Infestation . And most importantly, Druid already has a tier one deck in the Witchwood meta that has far less punishing win conditions, and that’s Malygos Druid . No matter how fun a card is, if there’s a stronger alternative in a class, people typically play the stronger alternative.Last speculation – could Quest Priest make use of Mecha’thun? It feels like Quest Priest is getting a fair bit of support from The Boomsday Project, and if it’s in the meta that means Quest Priest mirrors – which end in a draw on turn 60 if played correctly – are also in the meta. Perhaps this card is your final insurance in drawn out games against the mirror or control decks? Instead of using something like Archbishop Benedictus to ensure you NEVER run out of cards, you aggressively TRY to run out of cards. The deck already runs cheap deathrattle minions and cycle cards, but in the Boomsday meta you’ll also be able to use new tools like Dead Ringer to get through your deck faster, and Reckless Experimenter , which you could play down then empty your hand for next to no mana cost if it’s full of deathrattle cards.It’s also going to be interesting to see what Wild players think of this card. After all, that format has ALL the tools, so maybe there will be some other creative ways to get to that win condition.One way or another, this is a hugely exciting card, and I have my fingers crossed that if cards like Archbishop Benedictus and Rin can see competitive play, then this can too. Bring on the Mecha’thun meta!

Cam Shea is Editor in Chief for IGN's Australian content team and loves CCGs. He recently wrote about why Shadowverse is better for demanding high player engagement . He's on Twitter