Hearthstone: What's Next Panel at BlizzCon 2026 [ENDED]

Hello! Welcome to the Hearthstone What's Next Panel coverage here on Out of Games. While we wait, check out the Reign of the Black Empire cinematic trailer.

The Quarterfinals are running late, so the panel is going to run late as well. Not a great idea to run a panel on the same stage as Esports.

The Game 2 of the Kwanuu vs OTGxhh match though is being replayed due to a technical issue with the mulligan phase.

But hey, I've got two things for you to bookmark!

1) The Black Empire Survival Guide - As we learn more information about the expansion, we will be providing updates here. This will also be our big guide to promote leading up to the October 20 release of the expansion.

2) All Cards Reveled Guide - All revealed cards are going to end up in one clean place, alongside our daily card reveal articles that we post. So if you want just one spot to go, there it is.

Also, Blizzard has leaked out some cards early. Demon is currently putting together an article for them, stay tuned to the homepage! We have event cards as well.

Additionally, once Blizzard updates their official API with the new cards, they will enter into our database and our deckbuilder will be able to pick them up so you can start to theorycraft new decks.

Uh oh, it happened again. New cards from the set were leaked ahead of when we were meant to know them.

https://outof.games/news/9954-13-new-cards-leaked-from-new-expansion-new-old-god-keyword/

We've also got 3 new cards for a new in-game event. Unfortunately, we don't really know much about the event, but the cards are always worth getting excited over.

Alright we're getting closer now to the panel. SOON

Maybe?

Cora takes the stage!

We're going to hear bout Reign of the Black Empire. UI Updates, and Battlegrounds.

John McIntyre hits the stage to talk about Black Empire.

New Event cards are arriving on Tuesday. There are three new cards that are a part of the set.

M.O.T.H.E.R. is the free pre-release legendary card arriving on Tuesday.

Old Gods each have 4 abilities and when you activate them you get to use 2 abilities.

Tripled abilities on C'Thun!

And yes, Blizzard is try to rapid-fire through this panel due to the time constraints. The videos they are playing on stage are very clearly sped-up.

Here is the assembly UI.

We know from previous info that there are over 250 cards that are a part of the Assemble keyword pool.

Now we're getting to hear about new stuff coming over the next several months. Some of this is in-progress work so it might not look finished.

We are getting a big update to the journal. The reason is that there are a lot of different elements in the game that all update at different times. They wanted one place to make sure people could see what's going on in Hearthstone when they login.

They also wanted to be able to tell deeper stories for each expansion. Expanding the world of Hearthstone.

A new system for their take on cutscenes.

Bookmarks on the right-side allow you to see what is going on in the game such as a pre-release brawl. They can talk about the format, rules, and other things going to accessory content like links to blogs.

A new event type is coming called "Black Market".

Everyone in the game can earn free rewards through Black Market. This allows you to choose which rewards you want to chase.

You play ranked games of Hearthstone to earn time-limited currency to earn items in the Black Market.

The vendor can randomly update the prices in the store as well.

At the event end, there is a grace period where you can't earn currency but you can still buy rewards. During the grace period you can try and haggle with the Black Market vendor and the offer will either be accepted or declined.

You only get one shot to haggle for that particular item though.

"Expect the unexpected, expect change."

Now we're talking about new Tavern Brawls!

2v2!

Queue with a friend or by yourself to fight another team of 2 players. You play your own game, but you're able to pass cards to each other via a portal. Using the portal puts it on cooldown.

There is emote wheels to help communicate what cards people might want.

Read your cards carefully. "Each Player" on Prize Vendor does indeed hit all 4 players.

For the initial release of 2v2 it will be running for 2 weeks instead of the usual 1 week. The first week will see pre-constructed decks. The second week is all about building your own decks and breaking stuff.

There is another Tavern Brawl they will also be debuting. Hearthstone Warchief. It is a pre-constructed format. It is a deck of 99 singleton cards and you get a new hero power which allows you to summon your Warchief card.

Hearthstone Warchief is a little farther out than 2v2.

One more new event type is being announced and it is called Boss Fight. It's a reimagining of our event system. Right now you make a bar go up by doing stuff, now it's about getting the bar down to defeat the boss.

More details on boss fight is coming at a later date.

That's a lot of stuff coming over the next "several" months.

The power of the old gods has been unable to be contained and they bring the Abberation minion type to Battlegrounds. We already have a dedicated post showcasing all the Battlegrounds announcements.

That is a huge roadmap. Black Market is arriving this upcoming week. 2v2 is dropping near the holiday season.