[Updated on October 27]
Remember the new big expansion reveal rumors from the start of this week? There still isn't much else to report on the subject, and the expected Blizzard blog post has yet to materialize. But all of a sudden, Hearthstone's official Twitter account has decided to throw a different kind of teaser our way. At a rather unusual time of the day, too.
Here is the 'secret' message in question:
Quote From Hearthstone Something big is coming but we won't spell it out for you
(Source)
Now, whatever could it mean? Your guess is as good as ours, with the most common answers falling along the lines of:
- Cosplay Contest or Cosplay Content
- Company Content
- Cooplay Content
- Coppery Contest
Let's just rule out some of these creative, wishful takes. One thing for sure, we could certainly use more Context here. Hearthstone Community Manager Alkali Layke has certainly enjoyed playing around:
Quote From Alkali Layke Whatever could it be??!!Psst…been planning this one for awhile!
Quote From Alkali Layke I mean, I'm not SAYING it's a cosplay contest. There's just too many missing letters for me to possibly guess :)BUT…IF it were…you do have a Hearthstone Cosplay
This isn't actually the first time that "big secret work" was referred to. So dressing up might very well be in order. And you most likely know what goes along with that, right?
Hallow's End 2022 Cosplay?
Hallow's End is naturally the most obvious clue when it comes to any in-game Hearthstone cosplaying, as we are still awaiting any details on this year's festivities (although a familiar Tavern Brawl has just appeared). The annual Dual-Class Arena tends to combine two separate classes into one for the purposes of drafting and gameplay - also visually, with special costumes:
The very same event from the previous year (announced well ahead of time, but coincidentally only starting in earnest on Nov 2) additionally gave us a special Legendary Quest chain, themed cosmetic bundles, and temporarily brought Diablo for Duels and Battlegrounds. A couple years back we saw something even more fitting - a proper Masquerade Ball. The denizens of Castle Nathria certainly wouldn't be any worse at throwing a big flavored party than the cast of Scholomance Academy; not with Sire Denathrius at the helm.
And if we were to look even further into the past, there was a special event called Doom in the Tomb, bringing over some Wild cards into Standard for a limited time. But its overall reception ultimately wasn't very positive, to put it mildly. Even with that in mind, the dev team went on record several times to talk about potential future options of such variety. Here is one relevant quote from former Game Director Dean "Iksar Ayala's Q&A series, made 7 months ago:
Quote From Dean Ayala I like it. Lately we’ve been brainstorming having events that bring back some old favorites for a limited time in standard. Like if naxx invaded the whole game for a month, what does that mean? But yeah, core set hopefully will hit on some of that.
Whatever is being planned for this year, it should have enough unique elements to warrant this kind of hype. November 2 date would also be a fine choice for the expected Patch 24.6, with the team stating before they had "something fun" planned for the occasion. While it's going to be a Wednesday instead of Hearthstone's ever-favorite 'Patch Tuesday', it's not like we haven't already witnessed such precedents.
What of the New Expansion Reveal?
One thing does not necessarily rule out the other. This might still happen along with any Hallow's End specials, or perhaps Team 5 have figured out a better way to keep their big announcements separate. Unless we are headed for a full cosplay expansion, in which case feel free to shop your most wacky ideas around. You know, in case we are all totally off base and it's just an actual real-life cosplay competition to celebrate the lost spirit of Blizzcon.
Update #1: The latest tweet on the subject more than hints at this very idea:
Quote From Alkali Layke IF it were a cosplay contest…(that puzzle is just so difficult to solve!)… it would be worldwide and the list of eligible countries would be printed in the rules.
Connected to the limited-time event speculation from above, certain members of the Hearthstone community also firmly believe that Hero cards from Knights of the Frozen Throne could make a guest return. All based on cryptic replies and a set of as of yet unconfirmed leaks.
Quote From Celestalon Is it too late to squeeze Uther of the Ebon Blade into next year's core set? I think he and the jailer would get along wellNo, but…
There was also that time when the other former Game Director Ben Lee randomly quoted some very memorable lines, as if hinting at something about the Undead tribe and Arthas (who, as you might know, went on to become the Lich King).
That Twitch Drops campaign we pointed out before, promising a special Hearthstone expansion reveal? It has been since removed from the open category on the platform, and there currently doesn't seem to be any trace of anything similar. That's not to say it still couldn't take place on the previously specified time and date - we'll probably find out soon enough if there are more teasers coming our way, or if it's going to be a longer wait with not much else to go on until the very next week.
Update #2: The new expansion reveal stream has now been confirmed to take place on November 1! We were right the first time around. More details here.
Give us your best cosplay ideas! Or whatever else you believe this whole thing could indicate.
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 23 - Day 13 [Finished]](the-great-dark-beyond-day-13.webp)
Comments
The article has been updated a little while ago to account for some of the new information coming to light.
Yup. Deliberately making the best meta many players had ever had into literally the worst possible -- especially for f2p -- had something of a backlash. Which is why --
Is disturbing to hear.
Team 5 is perfectly with making lots and lots of packfiller and with turning viable cards into filler via powercreep, which means the only things coming back into the game are generally a) useless and ignored (this is actually fine) or b) devastating and terrible. Curation is not their strong suit.
What's wacky is that Doom in the Tomb happened and gave them a black eye and their leadership engages with neither autopsy nor reflection. It reminds me a little of ascended fanboys in other media where customer concerns are non-issues compared to the personal engagement the producers have with the product.
I think Doom in the Tomb would have been fine if it ran for only a week. People would have appreciated the Uldum meta even more if it had returned after the event. Instead, the "limited time" event ran until the next expansion, lasting almost two months.
Aye, that might've been an overkill. Not something I'd expect to happen in this modern timeline of mini-sets, they had a few years to draw all necessary conclusions.
Well very pity that it's just cosplay contest because it could be - corpsey content))
Another thought: If the Death Knight Hero cards return, what about Demon Hunter? I say it would be a colossal injustice to leave Illidan out of the fun so WE NEED A DEMON HUNTER DEATH KNIGHT!!
Pretenders to the throne, the return of the old deathknight cards before the true one. Arthas accuses them of pretending to be him (cosplaying if you will)...
Or it's something completely different.
If this teaser is for the Hallows End event that happens on the 2nd of November, I'm gonna be slightly irate by the fact that Blizzard missed actual Halloween and they don't have Mercs to release like last year, so there's no excuse why Hallows End couldn't have been released this week instead of next.
Ofc no one has any idea of how Team 5 work and their deadlines, but still, imagine having a Winterveil event in January... oh wait...
Apparently cannot escape their own patch cycles, in a way. If they had the tech to make events go live whenever they wish, things could be different. Otherwise patching it into the game well ahead of time most likely ensures somebody datamining the whole thing.
'People Who Annoy You'
I'd like to solve the Puzzle.
Wheel of Yogg Saron
This teaser doesn't look like it's for the next expansion (even though it will surely also get announced in the same stream). Mostly because it doesn't have any kind of theming whatsoever outside of being Hearthstone related.
Though the devs mentioned before Nathria that they aren't going to release a new feature for a couple months, because they are working on a really big one. Maybe this teaser has something to do with that.
Kind of a long shot, but your choice of words in "dressing up" reminded me of the plans to add upgraded skins that were hinted at some time ago. Maybe we'll get those along with some gameplay content? Might be a good opportunity to correct the Runestones issue as well.
There was indeed some talk (or leaks) about such things. "3D" or "Legendary", however we are to understand it? Perhaps they are actually throwing a real cosplay contest on the side to go along with such features.
My first guess went towards alternate skins for certain legendaries, like how we kept joking that Rag should get an alternate card art with him all dressed up, looking fancy, with his name changing to Swagnaros. (the joke is over 7 years old at this point, just to clarify)
It would be another "harmless" way of bringing in more profit while making old cards see a spark of play here and there.
Or there's the ideal route, where they make a new quest chain that would rewards the new skin upon completion. That might end up boosting pack sales, depending on the requirements of each quest. And the effort would be minimal on their side, with a nice payoff if done properly.