The first expansion of Year of the Dragon is Rise of Shadows! Hearthstone's 11th expansion released on April 9th 2019 - Patch Notes

Expansion Overview

• New Priest Hero - Madame Lazul was available through purchasing the Mega pre-order bundle.
• New Mechanic - Twinspell adds another copy of the card (without Twinspell) to your hand.
• New Mechanic - Lackeys are valuable tokens that are generated through new cards. Controlling them may also enable effects of other new cards.
• New Mechanic - Schemes grow in power each turn they are in your hand!
• New Single Player Content - Dalaran Heist was released 5 weeks after the expansion On May 16th 2019 and compliments the expansion's theme.
• New Standard Rotation - The Year of the Dragon has arrived upon launch of this expansion which moved three sets to wild and a few cards to the Hall of Fame.

Freebies

• The first chapter of the Dalaran Heist adventure. (Unlock additional chapters for 700 gold each, or purchase the entire experience for $19.99 USD.)
• A legendary card before pre-release begins, playable before the expansion launches.
• A quest chain rewarding multiple free packs for Rise of Shadows and Year of the Raven expansions.

Pre-Order Bonuses

There were two bundles available for pre-orders. The Mega Bundle contained a Priest Hero!

Rise of Shadows Bundle

• Costs $49.99 USD.
• 50 Rise of Shadows card packs.
• The Jewel of Lazul card back.
• A random Legendary from Rise of Shadows.

Rise of Shadows Mega Bundle

• Costs $79.99 USD.
• 80 Rise of Shadows card packs.
• The Jewel of Lazul card back.
• A random Golden Legendary from Rise of Shadows.
• Madame Lazul, Priest Hero.

Madame Lazul

This alternate Priest hero was available only through the Mega Bundle pre-order for this set. She has all-new voice lines:

• Greetings - "Welcome! Care to hear ya fortune?"
• Well Played - "Yes, yes. Well played!"
• Thanks - "Thank you."
• Wow - "By de Old Gods!"
• Oops - "Oops, dat will be a story to tell."
• Threaten - "Your fate is sealed!"

Shadow Bundle

During the first week of the expansion’s release, the Shadow Bundle was available containing 9 Rise of Shadows card packs and an Arena ticket for $9.99 (players could purchase the bundle only once per account).

New Keyword - Twinspell

This new keyword is for spells only, and allows you to play them twice with one card.

The Lackeys

There are 5 uncollectible Lackey cards in this set. More will be added throughout the Year of the Dragon, and all will be available from cards that generate them.

The Schemes

The 5 villain classes of the set each received a 'scheme' spell. These cards begin small but each turn they are in your hand they grow in power.

The Dalaran Heist

A new solo adventure, The Dalaran Heist, was released 5 weeks after the card set on May 16th 2019 that takes us through 5 chapters of lore and challenges.

• This adventure uses the framework of Dungeon Run with many new features.
• The first chapter is free! Unlock additional chapters for 700 gold or $6.99 USD each.
• Purchase the entire experience for $19.99 USD.
• The Adventure was initially released with the first two chapters
• Remaining Chapters were released over the next few weeks.
• Each chapter comes with new heroes to play.
• Every hero has unique hero powers and starting decks to unlock.
• All heroes are usable against 75 new bosses including Heroic and Anomaly modes.
• Defeating the first 5 bosses of each chapter awards three RoS card packs.
• Completing all five chapters awards a special card back and a golden Classic pack.
• Purchasing the entire adventure unlocks a golden Zayle, Shadow Cloak card.

Check out our Dalaran Heist Visual Guide for much more info!

Year of the Dragon

This new Standard year took with it three sets to the Wild format as well as several cards to the Hall of Fame; as is tradition. This Standard year began in April 9th 2019 and was announced February 28th 2019.

Sets that left Standard format:

• Journey to Un'Goro
• Knights of the Frozen Throne
• Kobolds & Catacombs

This year, nine cards in total became part of the Hall of Fame:

Baku the Mooneater & Genn Greymane
Developer's Notes: Baku and Genn are powerful cards that have promoted new strategies since their introduction in the metagame. Those strategies have been more prevalent than we’d intended in Standard, and we felt that they might end up overshadowing what we’re going to introduce in the Year of the Dragon. In order for set rotation to breathe new life into Standard and maintain overall health of the ladder, we are rotating Baku and Genn into the Hall of Fame a year earlier than normal.

Odd & Even Cards
Developer's Notes: As they were complementary to the Even-Odd mechanic that Baku and Genn introduced, Gloom Stag, Black Cat, Glitter Moth, and Murkspark Eel will also join the Hall of Fame.

Year of the Dragon Announcement Blog

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