Background and Lore[ | ]

A dragon who sought to add Captain Washburn's cursed treasure to her hoard, she has instead been forced to join the ghostly crew. After several centuries, Pearlmaw has wrested control from Washburn, but being pulled into Wanderstar may have forever foiled her plans to lift the curse.

Mechanics[ | ]

Passive[ | ]

At the end of each turn, if you have any unused mana, create a Doubloon.

Doubloons have very unique properties when it comes to playing them. Essentially, they are just "spent" from hand rather than being played in any manner, disappearing completely, without triggering any effects or abilities. Somewhat similarly to Fast, you also don't automatically pass when you spend them. They however don't have Fast.

Level Up Rewards[ | ]

Level 2[ | ]

EXP Requirement: 4

Create Spectral Dragonfire.

Spectral Dragonfire's Doubloon spending count starts being tracked by Pearlmaw only once there is a copy of Spectral Dragonfire in your graveyard. For example, if you spend a Doubloon, then play Spectral Dragonfire, and finally spend two Doubloons, the Spectral Dragonfire isn't yet returned since the hero's "internal tracker" is only at 2 at this point - unless you had another copy of Spectral Dragonfire already in your graveyard when you spent that first Doubloon, in which case both of those Spectral Dragonfires (the one already there and the one you just played after the first Doubloon) are returned to your hand from your graveyard. If you didn't already have a copy of Spectral Dragonfire in your graveyard in this scenario, the Spectral Dragonfire you played would now be returned to your hand by your fourth Doubloon spending.

In any case, the trigger to return all Spectral Dragonfires from your graveyard to hand can only trigger once per turn. So when you spend three Doubloons to return the Spectral Dragonfire from your graveyard the first time, then play it (again), you can't then spend another three Doubloons (so six in total) after that to return it again to hand on that same turn.

Level 3[ | ]

EXP Requirement: 11

Create Geistwing Raiders.

Level 4[ | ]

EXP Requirement: 19

Create Washburn's Cannoneers.

Level 5[ | ]

EXP Requirement: 28

Create Captain Washburn.

Playstyle and Strategy[ | ]

Pearlmaw's ability to consistently generate Doubloons allows for all sorts of powerful plays. First of all, you can simply pass your first turn, then use the Doubloon generated to gain 1 extra mana and 1 EXP next turn while playing on curve normally, and repeating each turn, technically doubling your passive EXP generation.

Another way to capitalize on these Doubloons is to save as many of them as possible, then playing them all at the same time to get enormous, valuable units like Berserk Tyrannodon or Jammy the Elemancer in play early.

Changelog[ | ]

Spectral Dragonfire used to be able to target players.
Prior to Patch v1.1.0, Geistwing Raiders used to be a 4-cost 1-tick 3/4 Undead spirit unit with "When this deals damage, create a Doubloon" and "Active: Pay 4 mana. This gets +2/+2, then Ready this."
Captain Washburn used to be a 9-cost 2-tick 8/8 with Immortal, "When this enters play, create 2 Doubloons" and "You win when you have 13 Doubloons in your hand."
Introduced in Patch V0.12, Pearlmaw used to have an additional passive effect that stated "Off-Affinity cards in Pearlmaw's deck cost 2 more mana, instead of 1".
There was a time when the passive's Doubloon generation didn't trigger if all of that unused mana at the end of turn was generated by Doubloons.
The Doubloon used to state that the mana and EXP was gained "immediately", it had Fast, and it didn't used to state that it didn't "cause triggers". At another point in time, the mana ability was written as "Gain 1 mana and +1 EXP."

Trivia[ | ]

Interestingly, the reward ghostly pirates (Geistwing Raiders, Wasburn's Cannoneers, and Captain Washburn) are Spirit and the Doubloons are Neutral, where as usual most hero rewards share the affinity with the hero. However, Spectral Dragonfire is still of strength affinity. This explicit difference in affinity for the Ghostly Pirates is assumed to be due to lore reasons.
It's also worth of note that while the game does have a "Pirate" tribe, Pearlmaw was introduced before the existence of that tribe, so ghostly pirate rewards don't have that but are rather only Undead. Given they are ghostly, one would also assume that they would be Spectres but this also isn't true.
Additionally, most hero rewards have had their tribal types completely removed, which isn't true for the ghostly pirate rewards.
The current Doubloon's ability text "Doesn't cause triggers" might currently be the only type of rules text on a card that is in italics.
Unlike most Heroes, where their art as well as their level up rewards are illustrated by the same artist, Pearlmaw and the ghostly pirates have a different illustrator than Spectral Dragonfire and Doubloon.

Pearlmaw

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