2017 Is Hearthstone's Year of the Mammoth: 3 New Expansions, 6 Cards Removed From Standard

By Jason Winter, News Editor Posted: February 16, 2017

Blizzard's unveiled its plans for Hearthstone in 2017 -- and there's a lot to take in. Dubbed the Year of the Mammoth, this year will see three expansion sets released, more support for the Wild format, a new rogue hero, and Classic Set cards removed from the Standard card mix.

There won't be any adventures released for Hearthstone this year. Instead, there will be three expansion sets, each consisting of about 130 cards. To take the place of story-rich adventures, Blizzard plans on including "optional single-player missions that will help develop the expansions’ thematic narratives and offer fun challenges." One example that would have been appropriate for the last expansion might have seen players explore the infighting between Gadgetzan's three factions.

As expected when the first set of the new year launches, all sets that were released in 2015 will be relegated to the Wild format. However, so will half a dozen cards from the Classic set, which were so ubiquitous in decks that they made deck-building more limited than the dev team would have liked. Those cards are:

Azure Drake

Sylvanas Windrunner

Ragnaros the Firelord

Power Overwhelming

Ice Lance

Conceal

Here's the good news: Instead of simply allowing players to convert these cards into Arcane Dust for their full values -- as has been done in the past with cards that were similarly restricted or altered -- Blizzard will award players the Dust value of those cards and let you keep them in your collection, so you can use them in your Wild decks. This is limited to a number of cards equal to how many you could put in a deck -- so one for the legendaries and two for the other cards. It also means that if you don't have some of these cards, but do have the Dust to craft them, you should do so before the first expansion of the year releases. You'll get your dust refunded and you'll get to keep the (essentially free) card.

What else is there to know? Heroic Tavern Brawl will return, and there will be more third-party tournaments using the Wild format. Prior to the expansion, Blizzard will introduce daily login rewards "as well as a few other surprises." Finally, after the expansion goes live, you can earn a new rogue hero, Maiev Shadowsong, by winning 10 games in Standard Casual or Ranked play.

It's a lot to absorb, so make sure to read through the entire post on the Hearthstone site.

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In this article: Blizzard, Hearthstone.

About the Author

Jason Winter, News Editor

Jason Winter is a veteran gaming journalist, he brings a wide range of experience to MMOBomb, including two years with Beckett Media where he served as the editor of the leading gaming magazine Massive Online Gamer. He has also written professionally for several gaming websites.