Hearthstone's brand new Core set is finally fully announced! Here are all the buffed and changed cards in Hearthstone's evergreen set which will be launching at the start of the Year of the Gryphon.
- Blizzard has not yet announced the exact release date.
- If you want to see all 29 new cards, check out this article.
- If you want to see all the cards in one place, you can visit our Core 2021 Expansion Guide.
- You can build decks with the new cards by visiting our deckbuilder, choosing your class, and selecting the format "Year of the Gryphon".
- The list of cards below does not include spell school changes to cut down on "spam".
Demon Hunter
- Warglaives of Azzinoth - Cost decreased from 6 to 5 mana (basically an unnerf); durability decreased from 4 to 3.
Druid
- Mark of the Wild - Buff increased from +2/+2 to +2/+3.
- Druid of the Claw - Attack increased from 4 to 5; transforms into a 5/4 with Rush (instead of a 4/4 with Charge) or a 5/6 with Taunt (instead of a 4/6 with Taunt).
- Menagerie Warden - Cost decreased from 6 to 5 mana; stats decreased from 5/5 to 4/4.
- Cenarius - Cost decreased from 9 to 8 mana.
Hunter
- Tracking - Effect changed into "Discover a card from your deck".
- Lock and Load - Cost decreased from 2 to 1 mana.
Mage
- Flamestrike - Damage dealt increased from 4 to 5.
- Cone of Cold - Cost decreased from 4 to 3 mana.
- Ethereal Conjurer - Health increased from 3 to 4.
- Snap Freeze - Cost decreased from 2 to 1 mana.
- Coldarra Drake - Health increased from 6 to 7.
Paladin
- Guardian of Kings - Health increased from 6 to 7; gains Taunt.
- Holy Light - Effect changed into "Restore 8 Health to your hero".
- Argent Protector - Attack increased from 2 to 3.
- Warhorse Trainer - Attack increased from 2 to 3.
- Equality - Cost decreased from 4 to 3 mana.
Priest
- Lightspawn - Cost decreased from 4 to 3 mana; Health decreased from 5 to 4.
- Shadowform - Cost reduced from 3 to 2 mana; effect changed into "Your Hero Power becomes 'Deal 2 damage.'"
Rogue
- Assassin's Blade - Cost decreased from 5 to 4 mana; stats changed from 3/4 to 2/5.
- Assassinate - Cost decreased from 5 to 4 mana.
- Sprint - Cost decreased from 7 to 6 mana.
- Swashburglar - The card generated comes from a random class and not from your opponent's class.
- Patient Assassin - Health increased from 1 to 2.
Shaman
- Fire Elemental - Damage dealt increased from 3 to 4.
- Tidal Surge - The new effect includes the Lifesteal keyword.
- Draenei Totemcarver - Health increased from 4 to 5.
- Feral Spirit - Overloaded Crystals decreased from (2) to (1).
- Lightning Storm - Deals 3 damage (up from 2-3) to all enemy minions.
- Earth Elemental - Overloaded Crystals decreased from (3) to (2).
- Al'Akir the Windlord - Health increased from 5 to 6.
Warlock
- Drain Soul - Damage dealt will be increased from 2 to 3.
- Lakkari Felhound - Effect changed into "Battlecry: Discard your two lowest-cost cards" instead of two random ones.
- Siphon Soul - Cost decreased from 6 to 5 mana.
- Void Terror - Health increased from 3 to 4 mana.
- Lord Jaraxxus - Changed into a Hero card with "Battlecry: equip a 3/8 weapon".
Warrior
- Warsong Commander - Effect changed into "After you summon another minion, give it Rush".
Neutrals
- Bluegill Warrior - Attack increased from 2 to 3; Charge leaves its place to Rush.
- Gurubashi Berserker - Health increased from 7 to 8.
- Raid Leader - Health increased from 2 to 3.
- Stonetusk Boar - Attack increased from 1 to 2; Charge leaves its place to Rush.
- Stormwind Champion - Stats increased from 6/6 to 7/7.
- Flesheating Ghoul - Attack increased from 2 to 3.
- Arcane Devourer - Stats change from 5/5 to 4/8.
- Defender of Argus - Attack increased from 2 to 3.
- Barrens Stablehand - Stats increased from 4/4 to 5/5.
- Big Game Hunter - Cost decreased from 5 to 4 mana.
- Mini-Mage - Cost decreased from 4 to 3 mana; Attack decreased from 4 to 3.
- Baron Geddon - Health increased from 5 to 7.
- Cairne Bloodhoof - Attack increased from 4 to 5; summons a 5/5 Baine Bloodhoof.
- High Inquisitor Whitemane - Cost decreased from 7 to 6 mana; stats decreased from 6/8 to 5/7.
Which changes are you most happy about?
Comments
No way on the spell type question - that's far too complicated for them to implement it without any card text explanation. Things that are affected by spell type will always spell it out explicitly in the card text.
I was thinking that if they did do it, it would be in the card text, but I agree that it would be pretty complicated. I guess I'm just really curious how spell types will be used. So far, we've only seen the one Shaman legendary that gives Nature spells +3. I could easily imagine a card that adds 2 random Fire spells to your hand, or a card that casts a random Holy spell. But then, I think they said they were trying to cut down on the random stuff?
There's also a neutral minion that buffs a minion's health whenever a holy spell is cast. I could easily imagine variations on Mana Wyrm, Violet Teacher and Wild Pyromancer that only trigger with certain spell schools. Overall, this addition opens up a ton a design space... You could even have cards that synergize with 2 or 3 schools only, to really emphasize a certain theme (for example, an elemental that reacts to fire and frost spells only).
Oh yeah, thanks, I forgot about Spirit Healer. There is plenty of design space there, but I wonder if the cards will be good enough. Almost all Druid spells are Nature, so a minion that reacts positively to Nature spells would be a shoo-in for Druid. But Mage spells are divided between Arcane, Fire and Frost, so you'd need to do multiple school like you suggested, or such synergy would not be good enough.
Either way, I'm very excited to see what else is coming in this area.
Overall I'm extremely happy with the whole Core Set concept and it will be nice to figure out how returning familiar faces will fare in the new era.
I love that Cenarius is now 8 mana (he was the first legendary I unpacked) but I wonder if that'll help make him playable or not?
Mine was Golden Lord Jaraxxus and thank god I still have him.
It really wont. 8mana is stil way to expensive for a token deck, and 2 2/2's arent enarly enough
Past nerfs have shown that there is a gigantic difference between 8 and 9 mana. It doesn't seems unreasonable to think that it could see play.
Sure but his summon effect is still really really weak and 8mana is way to expensive for a TOKEN deck,they dont wanna play 8mana card.
Unless have way to get both chosoe ones effects, he wont see play.
Unfortunately I can't predict the future, but I can tell you this much - whether or not Cenarius will see play, we can generally agree on the fact that being at 8 mana will make its life way easier than before.
Now that we got confirmation that all those nerfs/bufs/changes will be done to normal Wild versions I Love those changes even more.
Where is this confirmation?
What's the downside to the Tracking buff? Genuinely asking, as I can't think of one.
I'm still confused - can you give an example? Why are there cards in your deck that you don't want to draw?
An aggressive deck might run a few small minions to win the game early. If they do not win by then, drawing a small minion at turn 7 really hurts your chance of winning. Old tracking used to remove the cards you didn't pick with this effect. By removing these cards you ensure you won't draw them later on.
The old Tracking would remove the other two cards from your deck, while this one doesn't. Using the old Tracking you could remove cards from your deck that you didn't want to draw later.
I'm honesetly confused. Why do you have cards in your deck that you don't want to draw? Can you give an example?
Edit: Are we just talking about playing a late Tracking, and thinning out cheaper cards that are less impactful in the late game?
I love the change to Tracking. Yeah, the thinning of the deck could sometimes be good, but more often than not it just felt bad to discard two cards that you could have really done with later in the game. Making it Discover makes it generally feel better to play, and elevates it to the modern standard instead of being this weird relic and progenitor of Discover, whilst never quite being it.