Wow! It's crazy to think that it has been three and a half months since Hearthstone debuted the 2020 Showcase and the Year of the Phoenix, teasing us about all the fun stuff we'd get to see this year. Global pandemic aside, things have been quite interesting so far with the arrival of Demon Hunter, Hearthstone's tenth class, an expansion focused on Outland which is quite a delivery on the dreams of Warcraft fans, and a free adventure introducing Elise's sister, Aranna Starseeker. What's next though?

In the showcase, we were given a teaser of things to expect for this year via a roadmap that contained three phases. Hearthstone always releases three expansions per year (April, August, December) which shows that's going to be the start to each new phase especially when you consider the first thing displayed in Phase 2 & 3 is "Card Expansion".

Here's the roadmap for a quick recap. Afterwards, let's talk about what we're expecting and reflect back on what we've seen so far during Phase 1.

2020 Phase 2 - Card Expansion & Mechanics

It almost seems alien to confirm that we'll be seeing a batch of card mechanics since we're also getting an expansion, but hey, it's good to see we'll have a new keyword that will rotate out in a couple of years. New expansions are always the pinnacle of excitement in Hearthstone, though one could argue these fast balance reactions from Blizzard might tip the scale just a little bit, so it's interesting that we still have no clue what's going on with that!

Last year I was busy having Canada Day celebrations when Blizzard decided to announce Saviors of Uldum, so I was little let down when they didn't pull me in with a surprise this year. What a sucker, spent my day on the computer. The timing is certainly right though and we're getting very close to the next expansion's announcement.

Blizzard always teases us with the themes at the start of the year. Seeing as how they aren't planning on doing a big year-long story this year, I'm not a fan of the theory that we're going to Netherstorm since we're actively in Outland right now, so going to a particular region there seems a bit off. The Twisting Nether could be interesting considering it is the great divide between Light and Void... though we can see that from Outland and I really feel like Blizzard isn't going to push us adjacent to where we just were if we aren't getting a big story this year.

The key is always in the details. Purple itself is interesting. Clearly we have some sort of magic taking place, but is it arcane or is it simply some Blizzard deception? The mage in me wants this to be a Kirin Tor or Dalaran themed expansion, but we already dealt with that last year when we went through The Dalaran Heist adventure that came with the Rise of Shadows expansion. No, that can't be it. We need to go deeper.

World of Warcraft is a wonderful game and I've only poured over a thousand real-life days into it over the past decade and a half, so I feel like finding a connection wouldn't be too hard. That's where Wowhead came to the rescue with this awesome guide to tabards. Tabards are a cosmetic feature in the game which lets you showcase a favourite faction, your guild, or your PVP prowess. The colors present on them represent those factions and I figured it was worth the time to go through the collection.

The Alliance already have some promising purple through the Night Elf city of Darnassus, the Draenei's Exodar, and those silly footballs Gnomes with their Gnomeregan. Even the Silverwing PVP faction makes the initial cut!

A Draenei themed expansion would be interesting, but that ties into Outland too well. I don't really get a gnomish vibe from the art so they also don't make it through to the final phase. Night Elves... hey what did the Void Elf tabard look like anyway. Typical Horde player here isn't sure if they've got any swe-

Whoa. That's some serious gold bling and we've got those deep purples. I'm not incredibly familiar with these void beings, so I went on a little hunt. They really, really like their purple and gold. Here's a picture of the unlockable Void Elf Heritage armor, courtesy of Wowhead user Milastra14.

A bit too much cosmic void going on here which isn't really present on the original spoilers, though maybe the Hearthstone team just made it a lighter purple in the center to not immediately give it away. More on immediate giveaways in a moment...

They don't really have much of a sprawling main city, however, Telogrus Rift is where this faction calls home and it's the unfortunate remains of a world that was infested by the Void. Damn, I've gone exactly where I didn't want to, why are we digging into this shattered world nonsense again, we just went through it with Outland! Here's a couple of screenshots from Eilyria and RantsiProduction which showcase the Void Elf homeworld.

Architecture, there must be architecture SOMEWHERE. How else could this be considered a home base for these Elves? Looks like Wowhead once again had me covered (<3) in this video of the Void Elf Hub. Surprisingly, it was difficult to find screenshots online, so I've taken one from the below video.

Bingo. If you look at the tents, they have a strikingly similar banner compared to the one seen on the expansion teaser albeit tattered. Not much going on for fancy wood accents, though compared to some other teasers, maybe I'm just crazy for considering the wooden top border fancy. Could the next expansion heavily feature Void Elves? Perhaps them and some other Allied Races from World of Warcraft will make an appearance in Hearthstone soon.

Really, this just goes to show that when you have one really awesome expansion, Ashes of Outland,  it's hard to find something that isn't directly connected to a character present there. Something, something six degrees of Kevin Bacon. Maybe it is Dalaran...

What do you think Expansion 2 is going to be?

But wait, expansion 3! I know this is beat to death at this point but there is an immediate giveaway on the theme for the third expansion. The teaser showcases the Darkmoon Faire card back that we got last year in October. I'm pumped! I also think we're going to get some kind of tie-in with the Darkmoon Faire this cycle...

2020 Phase 2 - Tavern Brawls

I've gotta say, I've been unimpressed so far with the new Tavern Brawls we've seen during this first phase. At first, I assumed we were going to be getting 

Here's all the new Tavern Brawls we saw this phase (so far).

And, here are the duplicates.

But Flux, that's pretty solid, 5 new brawls and 8 old ones so far. What's your beef? Well, it's pretty simple, really. Three of those brawls are just a previous brawl's concept rehashed. Brawl Block, Outlandish Recipe, and Outlandish Burndown are all themes that have been done in the past just with a facelift. Fury of Kael'thas wasn't particularly inspiring since it was just a card mechanic pushed as a passive to everyone. It was fun though so I won't knock it too much and it would be interesting to see other Legendary effects put into play with a Brawl. (Imagine a build-a-deck brawl where each class had a different Legendary in play as a passive).

I do wonder if Joe Magdalena leaving the team earlier this year hurt Tavern Brawl at all, or maybe the ongoing pandemic has caused issues with getting new brawls together. Whatever it may be, only 2 true Tavern Brawls this expansion cycle doesn't have me too thrilled about seeing Tavern Brawls called out as a roadmap feature. Also, Blizzard dropped the ball with the timing of An Outlandish Recipe. That Brawl should have been available week 1 or 2 of the expansion to get players checking out all the deck recipes the expansion has to offer. Maybe player data and shop sales say otherwise and they're able to make more money by making players pay to play.

How do you feel about the brawls we've seen over the past few months?

2020 Phase 2 - Battlegrounds

Blizzard hit a homerun on the auto-battler game mode that was released right after BlizzCon last year. Since then we've seen numerous patches that have added new heroes, new minions, balanced things, and made sweeping changes with content rotations; We're very lucky that Blizzard picked up this mode and didn't leave it out to rot as Valve did with Underlords!

Aranna Starseeker Card Image Demon Hunter Training Card Image
Aranna before the whole Demon Hunting thing took off.

With Battlegrounds being a focus on the roadmap for Phase 2, I'd expect to see more of the same stuff we've already seen this year. With the recent addition of shifting minion pools, seeing a new tribe/race added to Battlegrounds during this expansion is a definite possibility and could give us even more longevity with the mode since that would be two tribes not present in each game. So many combinations! 

2020 Phase 2 - Seasonal Event

Phase 1 gave us the in-progress Felfire Festival and although it wasn't as generous as past midsummer events such as the 2018 one which gave us double gold for completing dailies, we were treated to a few legendary quests that gave us a total of 9 packs. The free adventure was a nice addition too.

With Hearthstone's Halloween track record, I'm going to take a huge risk in assuming we're going to see Hallow's End appear as our big event for this second phase. It will hit right in the middle of this upcoming expansion and December's set, which gives Blizzard an opportunity to drop that new game mode (more on that later) and really pump it full of players through new limited-time quests encouraging participation. It would also be a great time to run dual-class Arena again.

Doom in the Tomb was awesome last year, though maybe don't give us 2 months with old minions in Standard.

2020 Phase 2 - Balance Updates

Unless you've been hiding under a mushroom in Zangarmarsh these past couple of months, you know how much Blizzard has actively been addressing balance with Ashes of Outland. Although most of this was focused on Demon Hunter, I've got to give credit where credit is due and state I really appreciate that they've committed to game balance.

It's been maybe a year and a half now that we've had plenty of balance adjustments from the team in Standard (and even Wild!) and as a veteran of this community, since Hearthstone was announced, it still feels weird every time they make the announcement that we're getting changes. Props to seeing this trend continue from the team.

Expect Blizzard to keep improving in this area. Always remember to leave constructive criticism when talking about balance - every bit helps!

2020 Phase 2 - New Game Mode

We have absolutely no clue what Blizzard has planned for the new game mode, and we're not even sure if they're going to tell us about it when we learn about the next expansion.

Personally, I feel that Blizzard will tease us saying they'll make an announcement later on about the mode since we won't be getting it with the release of the expansion. As disappointing as that may be to some, I believe it would be the right course of action to take with such a potentially large feature. Having the new feature cast a shadow on the new set in Standard just feels wrong.

There's been some talk within the team recently on what everyone thinks we're going to see. Blizzard has publicly stated that this new mode will use your existing collection. That's huge. Without a doubt, we'll be getting more opportunities to play with cards that are considered "Wild" and it is my belief that we'll be getting a new constructed format that will regularly rotate the sets which belong to it.

Imagine playing a limited-time rotation that included cards from Classic, Basic, Naxxramas, and Goblins vs Gnomes. Blizzard could make this happen! Seeing old metas form all over again would be a great treat for veterans and newbies alike, though the question of cost of play does enter the mind. I don't think Blizzard is going to try and target every player with the new mode though. They certainly don't target everyone with Arena or even Wild, so why should the new format have to be friendly to newbies? I'd love to see Goblins vs Gnomes and The Boomsday Project merged together in a format; The mechanical nightmare would be beautiful.

In a world where we had an additional constructed format with rotating sets that didn't need to be in Standard, I'd also love to see the addition of a ban list. Instead of needing to rely on card changes to keep things in check, imagine if certain cards were just banned from the format altogether for a particular rotation. Magic certainly doesn't have a problem doing it. They do need to out of necessity because it is difficult to change a card that has already been physically printed, but Hearthstone is in a similar boat if they don't want to hurt Standard (or even Wild).

Or maybe we'll get some sort of Commander format like Magic the Gathering. How in the world could that work in Hearthstone?

What do you want to see out a new game mode that uses your collection?

2020 Phase 2 - Spell Locked

We, unfortunately, have not a clue what this will be, but it's quite interesting that they were willing to tease a new game mode instead of whatever this is. Will it be more interesting than a game mode? Only time will tell!

Adventure maybe?

Thanks for joining us for a review of Phase 2 of the Hearthstone 2020 Roadmap.

What do you want to see out of this upcoming third of the Year of the Phoenix? Let us know in the comments below!