In this past week's Coin Concede Podcast, Hearthstone Game Director, Ben Lee, who announced that he was leaving the position, had a bit to say regarding the upcoming Core set for the new Hearthstone Year.
His interview gave us the following information:
- Core sets have been very interesting for the team. They saw huge successes with their introduction.
- There are some familiar faces coming back in the next core set - that includes old cards that were previously rotated and some new cards that use old characters.
- The new Year of the "blank" may have something to do with some of the characters coming back.
Familiar faces? A year of the <something> that might have something to do with the characters making a return? What could this mean?
Familiar Faces Returning to Hearthstone
Whispers of the Old Gods was the first time that Blizzard experimented with familiar faces in Hearthstone. In the expansion, there were several Corrupted Cards that brought old faces fresh kicks (and tentacles) and showed us that Blizzard wasn't afraid to bring back some favourite characters.
Bananas and Fish? Sign me up!
This wasn't the only time we've seen this happen though, Blizzard has been doing plenty with old faces in more recent years.
- Saviors of Uldum brought us the League of Explorers cast back for fun and adventure.
- The 2021 Core Set reintroduced the Dragon Aspects with fresh looks. (Ysera -> Ysera the Dreamer).
- Year of the Gryphon saw the Mercenary characters in each of its expansions.
So, Blizzard is clearly deciding to bring back some more characters, who could they be? Well, if it is true that the new name of the year is going to give us a clue here, maybe it won't be very difficult to make some guesses. So far, we've had the following named Hearthstone years:
- 2016 - Year of the Kraken
- 2017 - Year of the Mammoth
- 2018 - Year of the Raven
- 2019 - Year of the Dragon
- 2020 - Year of the Phoenix
- 2021 - Year of the Gryphon
The big one that instantly jumps out is Year of the Dragon. With Blizzard not likely to reuse a zodiac name, it would not be likely that we see Dragons become a central theme in the new Core set. Plus, we already have had Dragons as a main theme in the Core set with the aforementioned Dragon Aspects being reintroduced last year. Would Blizzard just add even more Dragon characters to it? Not likely in my opinion and perhaps they're all going to get the boot. Though we did just get that rehashed Onyxia and Kazakus in the mini-set...
So, what does that leave us with? Well, a tribe could certainly fit the bill much like Dragon once did. Beasts, Demons, Mechs, Pirates, and Totems don't really sound right. That leaves us with Elemental, Murloc, and Quilboar.
Year of the Elemental
I could genuinely see this as being the next zodiac year for Hearthstone. It has been some time since we've had a large addition of Elementals in Hearthstone, with the peak being back in Journey to Un'Goro which started the Year of the Mammoth. Elementals have been a bit of a fan favourite and anecdotally, I always see fellow players asking where the Elementals are more than other tribes.
Collectible Elementals Added in Each Expansion
I believe it is time for Elementals to rise up once more. Bring back (or introduce) the Elemental Lords, replacing or Dragon friends in the Core set and then let us explore the different Elemental planes across content this year.
- The Firelands - Ragnaros the Firelord
- The Skywall - Al'Akir
- Deepholm - Therazane (Not even in Hearthstone... yet)
- The Abyssal Maw - Neptulon
These are all awesome locations in the Warcraft universe and although I will admit there may be some fatigue towards the end of the year with the theme, don't we normally have year end fatigue anyway with archetypes being pushed? Those new card types we're going to see this year, which we don't yet know what they will be, could be a powerful players in bringing the Elements into power - imagine a board-wide effect card that gave power to Fire Elementals and Spells.
I'd personally love to see Djinni of Zephyrs, Mana Cyclone, and Mana Geode make a return via the Core set, which would provide some interesting potential buff play across the board with Djinni, further spell Mage support with the juicy goodness that is random, and some interesting value Priest which could be annoying.
If you want some further reading on Elementals in Warcraft, our own GoliathTheDwarf has some excellent lore guides for Fire Elementals, Water Elementals, and Air Elementals which I encourage to you read.
Year of the Murloc
Mrglgrgl! If we were to get an entire year dedicated to these aggressive fish, I could sorta see it. The zodiac theme for a year doesn't mean that every single expansion needs to go full out into that type of card, after all, Year of the Dragon lead many to ask the question "Where are all the damn Dragons?" until they finally arrived in Descent of Dragons.
Collectible Dragons Added in Each Expansion
Collectible Murlocs Added in Each Expansion
Murlocs have always gotten a few new creature comforts, but there's never been an expansion that was dedicated to them as a primary theme. It could be refreshing to see some alternative, less aggressive Murlocs being mixed into the game and Year of the Murloc could be a perfect time to do this.
Who could make a return? Sir Finley Mrrgglton, Finja, the Flying Star, and Old Murk-Eye are all characters that are worthy of successors.
Oh yeah, let's bring these Murlocs back as new or old cards - though Old Murk-Eye needs a fresh look.
It would be great to see Finley outside of a League of Explorers-themed expansion, though it has been a bit of time since we've had one of those and the characters are always welcome back, so maybe that's in the cards for this year. Reno's potential shenanigans aside, we've got a couple of classic, not the set, Murloc cards that will still be in Standard post-rotation which really need some friends.
Flurgl is the odd one out here, being rooted in Hearthstone's story and not old-school Warcraft, but don't you think Cookie and Mutanus deserve some more friends?
Year of the Quilboar
This isn't going to happen. When Blizzard introduced Quilboar to the game, they were primarily just a Tribe for Battlegrounds as there were no synergies created for the cards that ended up with the tag. Blizzard clearly announced their intention to not build synergies but they wanted to simply maintain consistency in the game for constructed when a Quilboar minion was created. Of course, Blizzard could always walk back on that, they certainly have changed their mind in the past, but now is not the time for the Quilboar.
We're just getting off the year that introduced the tribe and thematically, Hearthstone needs to explore something else instead of blending last year and this year together. Forged in the Barrens was a great, flavorful expansion, but I think we've all had enough of Barrens Chat for now.
Which familiar faces do you think will make their way into the Core set for this upcoming Hearthstone year? Let us know your thoughts, and what the next Year of <zodiac> could be in the comments be low.
Comments
It would feel rather weird not having the dragon Aspects in Standard for once, but I can get behind this idea. We also don't know anything about the new core set and how many current core set cards are staying around for another year.
Also, does anyone know what will happen to the Year of the Gryphon gameplay achievements section once the rotation happens? I assume it'll get replaced with the new Year of the... and we won't be able to complete the current achievements anymore.
All the previous year names have been animals. Plants, it is your time to shine!
TBH, I don't envision Team 5 announcing Year of the [tribe], as much as I do enjoy the elemental play style.
When I try to think about how the zodiac guides the Hearthstone year, it needs to be specific and vague at the same time. Year of the Moth? Year of the Frog? Year of the Basilisk?
What about the Year of the Wraith/Banshee/Ghoul/Zombie/Bat?
Bring back Sylvanas, the Lich King, and all those other classic undead characters.
I really hope we get to visit Northrend again. Knights of the Frozen Throne was an amazing expansion theme but I feel like they did it too early in Hearthstone's lifespan. It was a damn good idea to hit that when they did because everyone loves The Lich King and those themes, but the tech back then wasn't as good as it is now.
Undead tribe pls.
Random thought: one group of Characters who got a lot of hype, then never really had their time in the sun, were the Rastakhan's Rumble champions. Year of the Troll?
Yo, real talk, I'd love for them to bring back the Rastakhan characters. With Mercenaries making their appearances multiple times throughout this past year, it shows they know how to bring in that flavor multiple times for the same characters and it really works well. Plus, who doesn't love a good troll dungeon, mon?
Murlocs are better off as the theme of a miniset rather than a full expansion, like Pirates were in the Deadmines. There's just not a lot of mechanical complexity to them, and Murloc Knight, [Hearthstone Card (Scargill) Not Found], and Underbelly Angler are pretty significant design space limiters.
As much as it pains me to admit that. If I'm saying it, you know it's true.
Or be only part of a expansion. Like if got a south seas expac with mostly Like Naga and then some pirates and murlocs for like warrior/Shaman as a class theme.
Oh I agree completely. Murlocs would be a very tough sell to have them be a major expansion component. The entire idea of the tribe would have to be flipped upside down to let them not be only aggressors.
The limiters that exist that you mention, the only standout really is Scargil and it would definitely give us a possible wild problem, but Standard would be okay. Murloc Knight and Underbelly Angler become less consistent with more Murlocs being added which is a huge benefit.
But yeah, as fun as it is to think about having an entire Murloc village expansion and the many directions the Hearthstone team could take it, I'd rather them not.
The "theme" of the next year is certainly going to be interesting. Not only do we know that the name will hint at old faces, but also that the last Expansion of the next year is going to be bigger than usual.
I also remember that (Iksar I belive) once talked about them brainstorming a alternative timeline expansion. Maybe they expanded that Idea and build a whole year around that idea? "Year of the Toki" incoming? The last expansion could then be something like a "clash of timelines" kind of thing with cards that are a mix of multiple past expansions (E.V.I.L Reno, Headteacher Mecha-Jaraxxus, Baku the Loa etc.). The possibilites are certainly enough to make the expansion bigger than usual.
Oh, well I'm probably dreaming of too much fan service here, but I'm very excited for the announcement of the next HS year (which should be very soon TM. I expect a stream announcement during the next week for the week after that)
Year of the Toki sounds like a really cool idea! Mixing up different expansions and exploring what it would be like to have Mecha-Jaraxxus as a teacher sounds like time well spent.
It could be really cool to just have a huge battle between a ton of Hearthstone's big characters in a set. It might be a little weird with some of them coming in as Epics and Rares, maybe even Commons. One possible way around that could be them having a representative as they are too busy elsewhere "Ragnaros' Lava Spawn" "The Lich King's Servant". It would be Hearthstone's Battle Royale set, lol.
Elementals are very midrange-y by design, so if they plan to return to that style of HS then they would be a good way about it. The 4 elemental lords also seem very plausible as characters to (re-)introduce into the Core set, although I don't much like the thought of a year of Rag RNG annoying me like it did back in the day.
Murlocs? Err... please no. By all means give shaman and paladin their share of them (maybe even scatter some more into DH), but I would be pretty annoyed if most classes are suddenly being pushed to play murlocs when they are mechanically misaligned. And let's be honest here, there's no point in trying to diversify murloc decks much. At that point you might as well make cards for other tribes that make more sense.
I have to admit that as a rogue main I'm pretty apathetic towards big tribe themes. Beyond pirates (which also seem to have been forgotten in Standard) the class never makes much sense with them, and only ever gets them incidentally.
Hell Yes to Elementals
Hell No to Murlocs