Hearthstone: Year of the Hydra

It is finally that time of the year again when Hearthstone is going through its biggest changes. Not only are we getting a brand new expansion, but we are also getting an update on the core set, and something that we specifically love is that a lot of overpowered cards are rotating from Standard to Wild. There is also news for other favorite game modes; worry not!

The new expansion

You have probably read about this in a few places already, but in case you didn’t, we got you covered. The first expansion that is going to be released in the Year of the Hydra is going to be an underwater-themed expansion, Voyage to the Sunken City, which is coming out on April 12th.

With this expansion, we are going to be getting a lot of powerful cards that will make esports betting quite interesting, in fact, so many that a whole article might be necessary to cover just a few high-lighted cards alone. Speaking of highlights, the new expansion is coming out with two new keywords and a minion tribe (type).

The first keyword is Dredge, which, when activated, allows you to discover a card from the bottom three cards of your deck and place it on the top of the deck (you will draw it next time you draw a card). When it comes to the second keyword, it is a bit more exciting, as it is themed around giant colossal monsters, and the keyword is quite fitting for the case, as it is called Colossal, and it summons parts for the main card you play.

When it comes to the new tribe since it is an underwater expansion, we are finally getting the Naga tribe with a lot of new cards, and the older ones that are Naga will also receive the keyword. Prepare to see a lot of Naga-themed decks, which are usually based around casting spells from what we speculated so far.

The core set update

Plenty of core set cards from the Year of the Gryphon are getting moved into the legacy part of Hearthstone (Wild), and a bunch of new cards, as well as some returning ones from the good ol’ days, are making their return.

Overall, 57 cards are going out, and 72 are coming in, which means, that is right, that the new Core set is going to be made of 15 extra cards compared to last year, which is 250 cards. The most exciting cards that are making their return are definitely Reno Jackson and Brann Bronzebeard, and some older cards that are getting buffed like Azure Drake and Equality.

Which sets are rotating out?

The sets that are going from Standard into Wild are Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy, and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, but what exactly are we losing? The answer to this question is quite complicated, as certain cards from these sets will be a part of the new core set, but there are some archetypes like Libram Paladin that will no longer exist in Standard. If you might be looking for a new deck to play with this rotation, we will have you covered with our Hearthstone top decks list, like always.

Other game modes

For those of you who play Mercenaries, there will be a major update, but you will have to wait a few months because the team really wants to make this game mode worth your while, and not as grindy as it originally was.

On the other hand, Battlegrounds is a much more popular game mode and thus will be getting “Seasons,” which will work like Hearthstone’s expansion cycles. These seasons will usually introduce something big, such as special keywords, events, or system changes like the recent buddy system.