Hearthstone has announced the second expansion for the Year of the Phoenix, Scholomance Academy! Here's everything you need to know about the expansion so far.
- The expansion releases on August 6th, 2020.
- Kel'Thuzad is the pre-order Mage hero! He comes with a card back.
- Dual-class Cards! Some cards can be played by more than one class. They have special borders.
- Spellburst is a new keyword. 1-time effect after you cast a spell.
- Transfer Student is available today, for free, for logging in.
- There are 25 different effects (view all the effects)
- Weapon frame updates are coming on July 30!
Scholomance Academy Card Reveals
Here are the cards that have been revealed so far.
Here are all the new dual-class cards that have been revealed.
The Mega Bundle
The Mega Bundle includes 85 Scholomance Academy card packs and, for the first time ever, 5 of those will be Golden Scholomance Academy packs—each filled with Golden cards! The Mega Bundle also includes one random Scholomance Academy Golden Legendary card, the Kel’Thuzad Mage Hero, the Kel'Thuzad card back, and a Tavern Pass, which includes 4 Arena tickets.
The Bundle
The Scholomance Academy Bundle includes 55 Scholomance Academy card packs, the Kel’thuzad card back, and a random Scholomance Academy Golden Legendary card.
Learn More About Scholomance Academy
The second Hearthstone expansion of 2020 is Scholomance Academy! You can learn more about the expansion, including seeing all the revealed cards, in our dedicated Scholomance Academy Expansion Guide!
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Blog Announcement
Quote From Blizzard Greetings, aspiring adept! We’re thrilled to welcome you to Scholomance Academy! Within the lofty halls of this fabled magic college, the (mostly) good Headmaster Kel’Thuzad and the rest of our faculty are here to guide the next generation of greats, from Warlocks to Warriors and everything between. We encourage the pursuit of double majors and offer a plethora of cross-over studies. Whatever flavor of major you favor, Scholomance has the training grounds to suit your needs!
Just . . . don’t go exploring those dusty crypts beneath the schoolgrounds. There’s no reason at all to be concerned about what Kel’Thuzad and the Cult of the Damned are stirring up down there . . .
Scholomance Academy will launch worldwide in early August! You can find the full schedule for card reveals here. Be sure to visit the card library to see which cards were announced today and check back frequently—it’ll be updated with new cards as they’re revealed over the coming weeks!
Introducing Dual Class Cards
Scholomance Academy is renowned for providing its pupils with a richly varied magical education across multiple mystical disciplines. Dual-Class cards embody this cross-pollination of learnings by mashing up unique mechanics inspired by both classes’ strengths, unlocking a whole new spectrum of gameplay possibilities. These Dual-Class cards make up 40 of the 135 cards to be released with Scholomance Academy. Each Dual-Class combination also includes a shared Legendary minion—that course's professor!
The 10 class combinations are:
- Druid/Hunter
- Hunter/Demon Hunter
- Demon Hunter/Warlock
- Warlock/Priest
- Priest/Paladin
- Paladin/Warrior
- Warrior/Rogue
- Rogue/Mage
- Mage/Shaman
- Shaman/Druid
New Keyword: Spellburst
Scholomance Academy introduces a new keyword: Spellburst, a one-time only effect when you cast a spell! With a Spellburst minion or weapon in play, casting a Spell will activate its Spellburst effect. Spellburst minions add a new way to combo, play, and spell-blast your way to Legend!
Studies
Studies are new spells that allow you to Discover a card immediately and also reduce the mana cost of the next card you play of that type. At Scholomance Academy, dedicated study is rewarded with power!
Year of the Phoenix Phase 2
Scholomance Academy marks the beginning of the second phase of the Year of the Phoenix. Between now and the next expansion, you can expect several major updates from us, including balance patches, new Battlegrounds Heroes and minions, a seasonal event, and what was previously spell-locked—a new solo experience and Battlegrounds feature! Let’s not forget—a new game mode is on its way as well! We’ll have more details to share on these exciting developments in the months to come.
Pre-Purchase Scholomance Academy
Pre-purchase one or both Scholomance Academy bundles, available in-game and on the Battle.net web shop!
The Mega Bundle includes 85 Scholomance Academy card packs and, for the first time ever, 5 of those will be Golden Scholomance Academy packs—each filled with Golden cards! The Mega Bundle also includes one random Scholomance Academy Golden Legendary card, the Kel’Thuzad Mage Hero, the Kel'Thuzad card back, and a Tavern Pass, which includes 4 Arena tickets.
Scholomance Mega Bundle
Scholomance Bundle
The Scholomance Bundle Includes 55 Scholomance Academy card packs, the Kel’thuzad card back, and a random Scholomance Academy Golden Legendary card.
Log in and Get Transfer Student for Free
With today’s 17.6 patch all players can log in to receive two copies of the Epic Neutral minion, Transfer Student, for free!* Transfer Student has different effects based on which game board it’s played on, with 25 different effects in total, and can be slotted into your decks immediately!
*Limit two per account. Must log in by October 20 to claim.
We released the 17.6 patch today with balance changes, Battlegrounds updates, and more!
Check out the 17.6 patch notes here.
HAIL TO THEE, OH SCHOLOMANCE
THE MAGIC SCHOOL OF YORE
YOUR LEGACY OF GLORY SHINES
MAY THEE STAND FOREVER MORE!
Comments
This is all for naught if there are no gun weapons.
Super pumped about dual class cards.
Although I have to chuckle that T5 made such an uproar about class identity just to release dual class cards not that far off from that announcement.
Not sure they know what they want for this game lol
We'll see how well they handled it, but it is possible to make dual class cards that do what both classes do already just with shared mechanics. E.g. Wand Thief adding a mage/non-rogue card is in line with what both classes do, while Lightning Bloom looks like a druid card plus overload, but actually perfectly embodies what the overload mechanic is: get something out early by paying for it next turn.
So long as they make cards that would be fine as mono class cards (ignoring things like combo, choose one and overload) it need not break class identity. Now I've said that, I bet there's a rogue/warrior card that gives you a ton of armour...
Guess we know now why Twin Slice was nerfed. Spellburst is an interesting concept, but more supportive of small spells than big, for obvious reasons.
Some notable cards in my opinion;
Shan'do Wildclaw - Unfortunately for druids, this will likely be more broken in hunter more often than not. Beast hunter can go some miles if buffed with +1+1, but more likely we see this in highlander hunter for that double King Krush on 10.
Frazzled Freshman - Powercreeping at 1/4? and its a priest card. Yes please.
Diligent Notetaker - Deceptively powerful card that will be in every shaman deck, I'm sure of it. The question would be whether this also gives you back discounted copies of spells?
Nature Studies - Powerful card, reminds me of malygos druid back when raven idol was still a thing. If there's a 1 mana deal damage to face card for druid, this is straight up insane.
First Day of School - No this is not what paladin needs. Draw cards is what they need, not 2 random 1 drops. It does help with getting resources though, and since its a 0 mana spell, its likely to be broken somewhere.
fluffy...drakonid - 4/9 for 6. And its a dragon.
Lightning Bloom - Broken card for both sides. Its just a turn 1 0 mana play a 5 drop, skip the next turn. And since shaman and druid typically have poor turn 2s, there's little reason not to just play 2 of this and chance a highroll in midrange decks. And let's not forget that this effectively supports Malygos shenanigans on either side. The effect should have been refresh instead of gain mana crystals, but I guess shaman's on one of its bipolar moods again.
Very nice set of cards. And let's have a fanfare for what will likely be the most tilting card until it eventually gets changed - Transfer Student. Oh yes. If there's one thing I like more than rng effects is those that immediately punch me in the face when I see that game board as the announcer shouts out my hero's name.
I kinda like the new expansion, but wouldn't have minded a more dark, gloomy, scary artwork with zombies. But I guess they have to stick to the "HS-mainframe".
The dual class cards are a nice thing tho. It will make for some interesting combinations. I hope the new game mode is about them too.
Yeah, I was really hoping for something dark and gloomy, but this works.
Honestly the theme of the expansion means very little to me this time. The most vital thing is going to be the new cards and what it will do for the health of the game, along with whatever the new game mode we are supposed to get this expansion. AoO has left a very salty feeling in a lot of the community, this expansion is very important for blizzard to get right to win back some players who have jumped ship.
Watching that Cinematic Trailer, yesterday's predictions of a light-hearted "Harrypottersque flair" seem dead on. Good job to everyone who saw that coming.
Looking at the Announcement Trailer, it kinda looks like all the class legendaries might be dual class cards.
We've already seen Shan'do Wildclaw, which is a Druid-Hunter card. In the picture below, there is a Speaker Gidra and in her description it says "Professor of Nature and the Elements", which strongly suggests Druid and Shaman. And what do you know? Shaman is the second class Druid is going to be paired with.
So going off this, i think all the class legendaries will be dual class. This would also artificially lower the number of cards in the set while retaining the usual 10 class cards per class, since 1 card would fit in two classes, meaning that is where they probably made the cut to fit in the additional Demon Hunter cards DH is supposed to get in each set this HS year.
Nice catch, though I think it is more likely there are 3 legendaries per class (1 single class, 2 dual class), otherwise there's a huge reduction in the number of legendaries (since all the dual classes together only make 10) or a whole ton of extra neutral ones (which they have rightly reduced since Un'Goro).
Because the total of 135 cards is unchanged, I expect the total number of each rarity to be the same as usual. If I'm right, there will be some funny counting to do, making it look the same as before by counting each dual-class card as 1/2 a card in each class. With 40 dual class cards total --> 4 per pair, I then expect each class individually to have 14 cards this time around (except DH with 19?).
Certainly you don't need to cut 40 cards, or even just the 10 legendaries, to fit 5 extra in DH.
Edit: we already know Rattlegore so that pretty much settles it.
maybe the mono class legendaries will be the underground experiments
That's my guess too. It looks like the dual class lengendaries will be the teachers, leaving the bosses from the WoW dungeon(s) to be mono class cards.
Anyone else remember the tri-class cards from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan? these seem to be an evolution of that. 1 less class involved but the cards actually combine class effects which is neat.
Man, I'm digging this theme here, it gives me the vibe of a royally ornate fantasy style castle with the magics of the magus. Even better is that there's sinister activity going on underneath which has me really looking forward to story in the later months.
Also, the board for this expansion is definitely added to my array of favorite boards, really dig the two different atmosphere there.
I have enough dust and gold, I don't need the skin
I don't need it,
I don't need it,
I definetely don't need it....
I NEED IT!
"We should expect less randomly generated resources next year and even in the expansions later this year."
"When all classes start generating resources outside their deck it makes the classes that specialize in resource generation like Priest or Mage feel less special." - Iksar on balance & RNG less than 2 weeks ago
Today:
Nature Studies
First Day of School
Wand Thief
Umm... k?
So long as I don't see priest cards that discover cards from opponent's deck I'm fine with it.
Nature Studies looking very strong though, and very concerning.
You can give Wand Thief a pass, since mage and rogue both have a major focus on resource generation (I'm not sure why Iksar didn't include rogue alongside priest and mage since nobody doubts burgle rogue is a thing). In fact it is quite a beautiful blend of mage's generation of mage spells and rogue's generation of non-rogue cards.
But the studies cards (look forward to every class getting a 1 mana discover a card of type X, the next card of that type you play costs (1) less) and first day of school can definitely be singled out here.
I included Wand Thief because while both Rogue and Mage are supposed to have a major focus on resource generation, both of them are already over-the-top as it is. This just further adds to their tools, and even gives Rogue direct access to discover from a pool of cards that contains a lot of board clears, which is supposed to be one of their major weaknesses. There is no reason for this card to not be in every single Rogue deck.
Also, this card easily slides into Quest Mage in Wild. The current Quest Mage is minion based with low cost spells. This is so easy to activate the combo on it's not even funny.
Honestly, the more I think about Wand Thief, the more I see it getting nerfed in the future. 1 mana is too strong for this effect, even with the combo.
There's lots of comparable cards, either as 1 mana discover something spells with no body, or 1 mana 1/1 (or 1/2 in the cases of Pharaoh Cat and Sky Raider) minion that adds something randomly to your hand. These are often good but never over-the-top unless you are just fed up of randomly generated cards, which is fair enough.
Spell Thief is the best of both worlds, but the combo trigger also makes it awkward since it often cannot just be thrown down on turn 1. As a result the 1/2 body isn't as impactful as it has been for similar cards in the past, and neither rogue nor mage makes the most of small bodies late on. Rogue already has lots of them as Lackeys, who also never turn up on turn 1, and are also made fair because of this.
Addressing the greater availability of board clears in rogue: you are overstating how reliable these will be to get. In Standard mage only has Flamestrike, Blizzard, Arcane Blast and Flame Ward if you are feeling generous. Because mage has decent AoE in the basic and classic set it rarely gets given more, which is the complete opposite of priest historically. Between Fan of Knives, spell damage and Blade Flurry (which is relevant in burgle rogue lists running Bazaar Burglary), it is only Flamestrike that really adds anything beyond what rogue could do more reliably if it wants to.
Re quest mage in Wild: sure, it is more fuel for that deck, but I don't think that deck will care much whether it was a 1/2 minion or just a normal spell that discovers a spell. Plus that deck is already well over the tipping point and adding cards like this now is relatively minor compared to what was added in Rise of Shadows.
Looks awesome! Excited to see some more new cards!