Deceptively simple in design but epically engaging, Hearthstone will be instantly accessible to players regardless of their familiarity with Warcraft or collectible card games. Whether players prefer to wield magic or arms in battle, strike from the shadows or head on—or have never given any of that much thought—they’ll be able to jump right in, create a deck, and get in on the card-slinging action.

In addition to honing their skills in practice matches against the computer and taking on their buddies via their Battle.net friends list, players can challenge each other in two competitive game modes. “Play Mode” features traditional head-to-head battles, with players facing off for a chance to increase their medal ranking and earn card packs along the way. And for a different type of challenge, players can enter “The Forge,” where they start each match by building a deck from a new set of cards, and then use that deck to duel other Forge participants. Aside from winning new cards, players will be able to round out their collections by purchasing new card packs or disenchanting some of their existing cards to craft the ones they’re missing.

With hundreds of cards to choose from, featuring a wide range of colorful Warcraft spells, weapons, and characters, players will have limitless possibilities for developing and fine-tuning their deck-building strategies.

Read on to learn more about the the full flight of new features, content, and other updates coming to Hearthstone in the Year of the Raven! But first...

WHAT’S A HEARTHSTONE YEAR?

• Each Hearthstone Year ushers in a fresh Standard format: we’ll introduce an updated card set rotation that will drastically change the meta, leading to more exploration and variety in deck types.
• As the first expansion of 2018 launches, we will transition into the Year of the Raven, and the following card sets will become exclusive to Wild: Whispers of the Old Gods, One Night in Karazhan, and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan.
• Once we’ve entered the Year of the Raven, all sets that are exclusive to Wild can still be bought from the online shop, including Adventures.

HEARTHSTONE’S NEW DRUID HERO – LUNARA

• The feisty dryad Lunara, first daughter of Cenarius, has protected the forests of Azeroth for millennia. Soon, she will embark on her next journey as a new druid Hero in Hearthstone! Players who win 10 games in the updated Standard format will earn Lunara!
• In Hearthstone,players can choose to represent themselves with one of many Heroes from the Warcraft universe. Each Hero and has their own attitude and flavor, and voiced emotes.

SETTLE THE SCORE WITH IN-GAME TOURNAMENTS

• This feature will help players run a Hearthstone tournament from their own home or Fireside Gathering.
• Players will be able to create a custom tournament and invite friends--all from within the Hearthstone game client.
• Will begin with handling matchmaking and checking decks, but we’ll continue to add new features and functionality over time.
• We’re planning to launch in-game tournaments as a beta around the middle of this year, but that will just be the beginning as we expand on this early version of the feature.

EXPERIENCE THREE NEW EXPANSIONS

• The Year of the Raven will include three exhilarating expansions, each with over 130 cards and single-player content!

2018 HEARTHSTONE CHAMPIONSHIP TOUR

• The premier Hearthstone tournament now boasts its largest prize pool yet, and we’re traveling to more countries than ever before with HCT Tour Stops. Season One is already coming to a close with two final Tour Stops: March 9–11 at EGLX 2018 in Toronto, and March 16–18 at HCT Bangkok. Read more about HCT 2018 on our blog.

HALL OF FAME INDUCTEES

• The Hall of Fame is a distinction we give to certain Basic and Classic cards that move out of the Standard format and into Wild, encouraging new strategies to play with and against in Standard.
• This year, we’ll add the following cards to the Hall of Fame:
  • Ice Block: This Mage secret is a powerful card, and was the centerpiece of Standard decks for many years. Now it’s time to make more room for new Mage decks in Standard.
  • Coldlight Oracle: Coldlight Oracle is becoming exclusive to Wild for several reasons: It offers unusually strong neutral card draw which can be detrimental to class identity, its “downside” can destroy opponent's cards and prevent opponents from playing the deck they built—which in turn limits some designs related to Battlecry and effects that return a minion to hand. Taken individually, any one of these reasons might not be enough to prompt a promotion to the Hall of Fame, but when viewed as a whole, we feel that it’s time for Coldlight Oracle to leave Standard play.
  • Molten Giant: Moving Molten Giant to the Hall of Fame and reverting it to its original mana cost will allow players to experiment with decks featuring Molten Giants in the Wild format.
• Players can keep their Hall of Fame cards and we’ll give them the full dust value for each one (up to the maximum number you could put in a deck) as if they were disenchanted.

DEVELOPER Q&A

• On March 2 at 11:00 am PST, tune into the official Hearthstone Twitch channel to join Ben Brode and Yong Woo as they answer questions from the community and reminisce about Year of the Mammoth.