Blizzard has just announced that 2026 will be called the Year of the Scarab for Hearthstone!
A few initial announcements came with the name, including an updated core set card pool, balance changes, the removal of previous staple cards, and some new cards! Read on for more details.
New Cards Coming in Year of the Scarab
Blizzard has announced 6 of the new cards that will be appearing in the Year of the Scarab core set.
Card Pool Changes in Year of the Scarab
Blizzard has put out a graphic showcasing all the changes for each class. Additionally, 6 cards are receiving adjustments and The Curator is becoming less verbose.
- Wrathspike Brute - Now has 3 Attack (Up from 2)
- Halazzi, the Lynx - Now costs 4 Mana (Down from 5) and has 4 Attack (Up from 3) and gained Rush
- Deep Freeze - Now costs 7 Mana (Down from 8)
- Shaku, the Collector - Now adds a card to hand from a random class that is not your own. Previously it was your opponent's class.
- Witch's Apprentice - Now costs 0 Mana (Down from 1)
- Brightwing - Now costs 2 Mana (Down from 3)
- The Curator - No functional change but the words "from your deck" were removed
Why Blizzard is Removing Staple Cards
Quote From Blizzard We are removing a variety of high‑impact cards to open up new design space and give classes the chance to explore fresh strategies without being tied to older, dominant effects. Swipe, Brawl, and Corpse Explosion are just a few examples. One of the biggest changes is the removal of Shadowstep, a card that has shaped Rogue since the very beginning of Hearthstone, and we are excited to see how the class grows once this iconic staple disappears into the shadows.
That's it for today's announcements. We'll be seeing more Hearthstone announcements on February 9 when Blizzard streams the Hearthstone Spotlight.
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Comments
Halazzi makes the new Quest really easy for Hunter now. Although, losing the Deathrattle trigger hurts that.
Core set always set some expectations but thats a mountain to climb in my opinion. The immediate noticeable thing is that nearly all the AoEs have been removed from core, save by twisting nether which nowadays wouldnt get a look in even in a low power level format.
So either team5 commits itself to printing more AoEs in standard and thereby allowing them to essentially pick who gets to be a control deck this expansion, or more likely warrior remains the only viable control deck for the next two years.
Just a short commentary on shadowstep being dropped - honestly, its nothing really. Most rogue cards tend to be designed around shadowstep, creating this weird loop of what ifs that have bogged the class design for a while. So its lack of inclusion may create some design space, but with what team5 have done in recent times its hard to be optimistic.
I really didn't think we'd ever see a Standard rotation without Shadowstep, but here we are. Some may think this will lead to a less "bouncy" gameplan for Rogue. I think what's more likely to happen is that they want to clear some space to print more bounce cards so they have a chance to see play instead of Shadowstep.
I somehow very much doubt that Death's Advance needed to be Double-Frost. Surely it could've been Single-Frost or 1 mana. Demon Hunter has its own version of Mal'Ganis now, and surely it's going to be just as useful as that card was.
This core set is really fucking weird. Halazzi? Mayor freaking Noggenfogger?! Really absurd.