Everything You Need to Know About Hearthstone's Year of the Hydra & New 250 Card Core Set (72 Returning Cards)

Published 4 years, 5 months ago by Fluxflashor

Blizzard has unveiled Hearthstone's new Core Set arriving for 2022 and we've also got details on the Year of the Hydra.

Year of the Hydra Recap

There will be no new game modes this year.
The focus is on improving existing systems which will include in-game reporting of players and random hero skins.
Client performance is also a priority this year.
There's a new feature in this patch that shows you your recently completed achievements.
Multiple favourite card backs is coming soon.

Core Set 2022 Recap

The new Core Set will have 250 cards, which is 15 more cards than in Year of the Gryphon.
57 Cards are rotating out of the Core Set.
72 Cards are rotating in to the Core Set.
The original League of Explorers cards are making a return in the Core Set.
None of the cards in the new Core Set are brand new - everything is old.

Year of the Hydra Announce Video

Cards Being Removed From Hearthstone's Core Set

Quote From Blizzard

Demon Hunter: Ashtongue Battlelord, Warglaives of Azzinoth

Druid: Enchanted Raven, Landscaping, Menagerie Warden, Nordrassil Druid, Ancient of War

Hunter: Scavenging Hyena, Webspinner, Bearshark, Headhunter’s Hatchet, Lock and Load

Mage: Water Elemental, Mirror Entity, Fallen Hero, Coldarra Drake

Paladin: Holy Light, Pursuit of Justice, Guardian of Kings

Priest: Crimson Clergy, Shadowform, Lightspawn, Temple Enforcer, Natalie Seline

Rogue: Bladed Cultist, Patient Assassin

Shaman: Windfury, Unbound Elemental, Draenei Totemcarver, Earth Elemental

Warlock: Dread Infernal, Possessed Villager, Enslaved Fel Lord, Ritual of Doom

Warrior: Warsong Commander, War Cache, Warsong Outrider

Neutral: Arcane Anomaly, Argent Squire, Cogmaster, Young Priestess, Mini-Mage, River Crocolisk, Toxicologist, Brightwing, Earthen Ring Farseer, Flesheating Ghoul, Ice Rager, Injured Blademaster, King Mukla, Spider Tank, Stoneskin Basilisk, Baron Rivendare, Gurubashi Berserker, High Inquisitor Whitemane, Barrens Stablehand, Clockwork Giant

Any of the above cards that currently only exist as Core cards will enter the Legacy set when they rotate out of Core and will be craftable and playable in Wild.

Year of the Hydra Core Set Cards

Here are all 72 cards that have been added to the Core Set for Year of the Hydra, organized by class, in addition to the cards that are staying.

Demon Hunter

Druid

Hunter

Mage

Paladin

Priest

Rogue

Shaman

Warlock

Warrior

Neutral

More From Year of the Hydra

Blizzard has plenty of new information to share about Year of the Hydra including the remaining cards for Voyage to the Sunken City.

Similar_Content

Voyage to the Sunken City Year of the Hydra

About_Author

Robert "Fluxflashor" Veitch is the founder of Out of Games. With over a decade of experience in gaming content, and being done with the exhaustion of corporate nonsense, he wanted to do something different with a focus on the community in this online world that tries so hard to just make everyone just another number. Robert is currently playing whatever interesting game shows up next. He can be contacted via direct messages.

Out of Games is an independent gaming site. Read about how we cover games.

Hey, your ad blocker is on!
Ads keep this small gaming site running. Mind whitelisting us? Go Premium

Remove Ads - Go Premium

StormKnightMelody LV.17

Creator
4 years, 5 months ago

No chugga chugga? Unacceptable!
...really there's no Mech cards for the Mage, like Goblin Blastmage or the aforementioned Snowchugger. Kind of bummed. At least there's Gorillabot A-3, so...yay? Maybe they determined the new Standard Mech Mage doesn't need much help *shrugs*
Edit: I find it hilarious that Cogmaster is on his way *out* as the Mechs are coming back lol

Friendly

dapperdog LV.20

4 years, 5 months ago

Yeah, Im a bit baffled too by the lack of mechs in core. I mean, are we really going to build mech mage without Snowchugger and its cute entrance cry?
Fortunately sunken city has a few good mechs too, but a bit disappointed all the same.

Friendly

Halvard LV.5

4 years, 5 months ago

Control is back boys!! Tar Creeper, Mistress of Mixtures and THE Reno Jackson!!!

Maurice LV.7

4 years, 5 months ago

Control wasn`t gone.
(Control Warrior even saw a lot of tournament play.)

petorsky LV.1

4 years, 5 months ago

I am still pretty new to HS so don’t know how some of the rotation works for dust refunds. Sorry if this is posted somewhere else but I couldn’t find anything.

If a person has wild cards that now are changing to the core do you get a dust refund? And if not does it make sense to disenchant some of those since they will be in the core set anyways?
Also, is there other dust tricks (what to craft or disenchant) before a rotation that would be good to know in order to maximize dust? Thanks :)

Inconspicuosaurus LV.7

4 years, 5 months ago

There is no refund for cards that are joining the Core set. You get the cards for free for the year, but next year they will be gone again, so in the end you do not lose or gain anything.
Xristophilus LV.6

4 years, 5 months ago
Here's a few dust tips (keep in mind that this advice is coming from a player who's been F2P/budget since Whispers of the Old Gods... so if you're willing to average more than $5ish spent on each expansion, probably not all of this will apply):
- In general, if you play wild (and even if you play mostly standard), it's a good idea to totally avoid crafting and disenchanting before the end of a rotation. There are a couple reasons for this:
  - New metas for a whole month - Prior to the expansion, you don't know exactly how the new expansion will affect the meta, and it usually takes a couple weeks for a meta to fully take shape--cards that are awful before the expansion may become playable, and cards that are playable now may become horrible. Since it usually takes about two weeks for the initial meta to shape up, and since the dev team usually announces a round of balance changes after the initial meta takes shape (creating another new meta that takes another couple weeks to shape up), you probably won't have a clear picture of what cards are good/bad and what cards you want to keep until at least a month after the expansion launches.
  - Capitalizing on dust refunds - The point at which the dev team announces nerfs two-ish weeks into the expansion is the point at which you should definitely disenchant any and all nerfed commons/rares to get the full dust refund, since duplicate protection means you're pretty much guaranteed to get them back at some point over the next month or so. You should also disenchant any nerfed epics and legendaries that you'd like to trade in for a different epic/legendary.
A couple other general tips for maximizing dust (not necessarily restricted to expansion launch):
- NEVER craft commons or rares (except perhaps when trying to get specific wild cards). Duplicate protection's got your back for the rares and commons from the standard expansions, as long as you can wait the few weeks it'll take to collect them all.
- If you want to try a new netdeck, don't craft any legendaries or epics right away. Instead, substitute cards and tweak the decklist in light of your collection and playstyle (it not only saves you dust but also hones your deck-building and meta-reading skills). Check out stats on websites like HSReplay to see what role the expensive cards are supposed to perform and how well they actually do their job. After a couple dozen games with your version of the deck, you'll have a pretty good idea of whether it's actually necessary to craft those epics/legendaries or whether they're simply a luxury (or simply in the decklist just because they fit the original deck creator's personal playstyle).
- The best rule of thumb is "when in doubt, wait it out." If you're not certain whether you should craft something or disenchant something, don't do it--this prevents you from making dust-inefficient choices you may regret later. Only disenchant something when you're sure that you really want the card you want to craft more than the card(s) you'll need to disenchant.
- Buy the mini-sets (great dust-to-gold value!), but don't buy anything else between the launch of a mini-set and the launch of the next expansion. This lets you stockpile gold, which you can then sink into packs on launch day. Those packs then get turned into potential dust as you quickly begin to gather extra commons/rares right away on launch day (or within a couple weeks of it)!

petorsky LV.1

4 years, 5 months ago

Awesome, thanks for the advice! That is super helpful!

Synnr7 LV.8

4 years, 5 months ago

The cards in the core set are kind of like rentals. We get them for the year and then they rotate. So the current cards in there go back to wild next year (if they move at all). So disenchanting your wild cards isn't recommended if you want those cards to stick around imo. So the cards you have in wild, will also appear as a core version, so you kinda have 2 sets of them. One for standard (the rental core ones) and the ones in wild (classic kinda does this too since those are unerfed versions). That may not be exactly how it works but hopefully you understand what I'm saying.
The refunds we used to get were for Hall of Famed cards. Cards that went to wild before they were supposed to if at all. That was before all this core rotation stuff came to be so I don't expect any refunds this time. Unless they nerf something then you can get full disenchant value.
As for disenchant tricks, I'm the wrong person to answer that. I keep everything! I'm crazy I know. I am sure someone else can answer that better. From my perspective, do you play wild at all? Just kinda keep what you think you'll want to use in the future. Otherwise if you are standard only wild cards my have a higher value as dust for you.

petorsky LV.1

4 years, 5 months ago

Ah that makes sense and answers my questions! I play mostly wild and only recently some standard. So I won’t disenchant anything unless something gets nerfed. Thanks

Thonson LV.14

4 years, 5 months ago

If I’m not forgetting anything, the Core exclusives that would need to be crafted to keep them are Nordrassil Druid, Pursuit of Justice, Crimson Clergy, Enslaved Fel Lord, Ritual of Doom, War Cache, and Warsong Outrider.
Out of these 7 cards, Ritual might be the only one I’ve ever played without generating it.

GreatTichu LV.7

4 years, 5 months ago

Also Natalie Seline and those cards added to the ex classic set 2 years ago
Damn i will miss Brightwing, I've not it and having it in core has let me play it also in wild

Thonson LV.14

4 years, 5 months ago

Are those not in packs either? Are Legacy packs just the original Classic set cards?

GreatTichu LV.7

4 years, 5 months ago

No, probably they are in that cards packs, and classic set version is unlocked when you have the same card in your legacy collection (since there is not a classic packs in shop)
Anyway finding a legendary from packs is still an high pity timer...

Inconspicuosaurus LV.7

4 years, 5 months ago

Very happy to see some classic fun cards back in action, such as the Explorers and Zola. Did not expect to see the likes of Kragwa in a Core set, but not complaining!

Year of the Hydra Recap

Core Set 2022 Recap

Year of the Hydra Announce Video

Cards Being Removed From Hearthstone's Core Set

Year of the Hydra Core Set Cards

Demon Hunter

Druid

Hunter

Mage

Paladin

Priest

Rogue

Shaman

Warlock

Warrior

Neutral

More From Year of the Hydra

Similar_Content

About_Author

Related_Articles

Hearthstone Patch 36.6.3 Rolls Out - Windpeak Wyrm and Infest the Scullery Nerfed, Aberrations Nerfed in Battlegrounds

Blizzard Deploys Hearthstone 36.6.2 Hotfixes: Riffs, Battlecries, & Battlegrounds Balance, More

Reign of the Black Empire Card Reveals - Final Day [Finished]

Leave a Comment

Comments