Blizzard has revealed its plans for Hearthstone in its upcoming Year of the Mammoth.
Unlike previous years, 2017 will not feature any Adventures, instead Hearthstone will get three 130-card expansions throughout the year.
“At their core, Adventures paint colorful and thematic stories about the Hearthstone universe. Imagine being able to learn about the history and lore behind each of our sets inside the game in a similar way,” Blizzard explains. “Defining who the Jade Lotus are through a series of battles between the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan families would have been a great way to supplement the overall Gadgetzan story arc.
“That concept is something we would like to do more of in future sets: Take the storytelling and cool missions of Adventures, and combine them with the card pools of expansions.”
To accompany the new competitive year, Blizzard plans to move several cards from the classic set to a new Hall of Fame set, meaning that they will only be available in the Wild format.
“When cards show up too frequently in decks and are considered auto-includes, deck-building becomes more limited,” the developer added. “Deck variety stagnates, potentially interesting build-around cards fall by the wayside, and the gameplay experience begins to feel less dynamic. Most cards should feel like situational additions to a deck, depending on the deck archetype the player is trying to build.
“To help meet our goals, certain cards from the Classic set will become exclusive to the Wild format. These cards will be added to the new Hall of Fame set, which will also include cards that are currently in the Reward set.”
The following classic cards will be moved to the Wild format:
Neutral Cards
- Azure Drake
- Sylvanas Windrunner
- Ragnaros the Firelord
Class Cards
- Power Overwhelming
- Ice Lance
- Conceal
Once the changes go live, players will get the full dust value back of any cards that have been placed in the Hall of Fame set.
Blizzard also announced that it will be offering a number of daily login rewards leading up to the start of the Year of the Mammoth that will include dust, gold, and expansion packs.
Finally, a new Rogue hero, Maiev Shadowsong, will be joining the game. Simply win 10 games in ranked or casual mode after the next expansion launches to unlock her.
Source: Blizzard
