Big changes are coming to Blizzard’s online card game Hearthstone . They plan to increase the number of deck slots and introduce a new mode. The next expansion is also on its way.
Hearthstone recently introduced three major innovations. They plan to increase the number of decks that players can save from 9 to 18. Additionally, a new expansion is set to be released in spring 2016. A new deck format is also coming.
Moreover, they are introducing a new “Standard” mode to the game. This will reduce the number of valid cards for this game style. In the “Standard” mode, only basic and classic cards may be played, along with those active in the expansions of the current year and the previous year.
Standard will be Blizzard’s new tournament mode, Naxxramas and Goblins vs Gnomes are being removed
This means that if in 2016, after the first annual expansion has been released, a Standard match were to take place, only cards from these sets could be played:
• Basic
• Classic
• Blackrock Mountain
• The Grand Tournament
• The League of Explorers
• Expansion in spring 2016
The new “Hearthstone” year always begins with the release of the first expansion of the year. For 2016, they have declared it the “Year of the Kraken.”
The two card sets Naxxramas and Goblins vs Gnomes were released back in 2014 and will thus not be included. This will be the new “Standard” mode. However, there will still be the “Wild” mode. This will be the current “regular” mode in which all released cards are allowed.
The Goblins vs Gnomes card pack and the Naxxramas adventure will no longer be purchasable starting spring 2016. Cards from both activities can still be crafted using Arcane Dust. Anyone who has purchased a wing of Naxxramas by then will also be able to unlock the rest of it.
The “Standard” mode will be the new tournament format for Blizzard and will change from year to year and expansion to expansion. (In 2017, the expansions from 2015 would be rotated out.) The mode will only be available for friend challenges and in ranked and unranked games. When it comes to rank progression, players will have two separate rankings if they play both formats. The higher rank determines their reward.
Arena, “Practice” and adventures will continue to be played in the “Wild” mode – just like before.
Some changes are expected in Hearthstone in spring 2016 – and a new expansion
Blizzard also announces that they will be making fundamental changes to some of the “basic and standard cards” that they have been considering for a long time.
The increase from 9 decks to 18 decks will occur once all nine heroes have been unlocked. It looks like this will be free.
Both the new mode and the new expansion are expected to arrive in spring 2016. Blizzard is not revealing what the new expansion will be.
