Blizzard announced some huge changes to the game, including introducing 23 Wild cards back into the Standard meta, and giving those cards to everyone for FREE, more info about this change will come in a blog about a sensationally spooky event next Friday, Oct 4th. There will also be more events in the future like Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. (also announced Oct 4th) and new exclusive 1000 win portraits! Read about all this and more in the blog below.
EDIT: Blizzard responded on Reddit with a clarification about the Wild cards being brought back, and how they are sadly a temporary addition to your collection if you do not own them:
"Quick clarification! The cards that are rotating back to standard for a limited time are going to be granted as free event cards, which means they're basically new, temporary versions of the cards. Even if you already own the cards, you'll still get these event copies.
When the event ends the event copies will go away."
Quote from BlizzardWhile we’re constantly recruiting lackeys, tinkering with experimental tech, and delving into dusty tombs to bring you new Hearthstone expansions and Adventures, we’re also hard at work on some awesome, albeit less flashy, new stuff. In this blog we’ll shine a light on some of the smaller, but still exciting new features, events, and changes coming to Hearthstone in the near future.
Adding More Events
After the overwhelmingly positive response to the recent Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. event, we’re looking for more opportunities to introduce even more large-scale in-game events with rewards, themed Tavern Brawls, and changes that could temporarily (or permanently!) create fun new Hearthstone experiences for players.
We’re starting off with a new event in just a couple weeks featuring Dungeon Run-inspired Tavern Brawls, dual-class Arenas, Legendary quest rewards, and some meta-shifting changes outlined in the “Shaking up Standard Play” section below.
We’ll have more to share on this sensationally spooky event on October 4, but in the meantime . . . try not to lose your head!
Shaking up Standard Play
Now that the Saviors of Uldum Standard ladder experience has solidified, we think it’s a great time to throw a wrench or two (or twenty-three) in the gears. We’re going to be pulling some of the most popular and game-changing cards from across Hearthstone history, including Ragnaros, the Firelord and N’Zoth the Corruptor, out of Wild and dropping them back into Standard for a limited time. To ensure that everyone can participate in this meta-mixing event, we’ll be granting everyone free copies of each card (these copies cannot be disenchanted or crafted) so they can add these heavy-hitters to their decks and get them into the action.
We’ll be sharing more details (including the full list of 23 cards) in a blog update on October 4. Stay tuned!
1,000 Win Class Portraits
Looking ahead, we want to continue celebrating personal successes and milestones for all you dedicated Hearthstone players. Our next major update will introduce some really cool new portraits that you can earn by earning 1,000 wins with each class. Wins earned before this update goes live will retroactively count towards these totals. Take a look at a couple of examples below and start stacking up those wins!
Quality of Life Improvements
Alternate Search Terms
We want it to be easier to quickly find the cards you’re looking for while deckbuilding, so we’re adding alternate search terms for some hard-to-type cards. We’ll be adding common misspellings and simplified versions of leetspeak card names (found on some Mech minions). For example, searching “snip” or “snap” will now show you SN1P-SN4P. While this feature will only be enabled for a few commonly misspelled cards at first, we’ll be able to add even more alternate search terms as needed.
- This feature will also support languages other than English. For example, SN1P-SN4P in Latin American Spanish is “CL1C-CL4C”, so searching “clic” would return the expected results.
Quest Changes
While not included in our next major update, here’s a preview of some of the changes we’re making to quests a little further down the line.
- We’re cutting some of the less popular daily quests and tuning down some of their requirements to make them quicker and easier to complete. We’ll also be adding some new quests to the pool to mix things up!
- We split most daily quests into two buckets: Easy (50g) and Slightly More Difficult (60g). Rerolling a Slightly More Difficult (60g) quest (like Play 10 Beasts) always gives you an Easy (50g) quest, so players can be guaranteed to get an Easy quest every day if they want. We love Murlocs and Pirates as much as anyone, but it should be your choice if you decide to complete their quests.
We’re excited to be bringing these new features, events, and other changes to Hearthstone soon. Please let us know what you think on social media or the official Hearthstone forums. Until then, we’ll see you in the Tavern!
Yes, obviously that is what they mean -- 1,000 ranked wins, any combination of Standard or Wild.
N'Zoth is my favorite card ever. Interested to see how it plays with the current crop of deathrattles.
I have a little prediction, Khartut Defender everywhere xD
Well... I oftentimes considered crafting N'Zoth, even though he is more of a "fun" card for Control Decks, not a meta card. I'll make good use of the temporary copy, if only to make up my mind whether I eventually want to craft it.
One question regarding the "23":
It says that they want to "throw a wrench or two (or twenty-three) in the gears [of Standard]" with Rag and N'Zoth as some of them. But does that really mean that they want to bring back 23 old cards, or that they want to make 23 card changes, which includes adding some and removing/nerfing some others?
I mean, it sounds like they want to add 23 temporary cards, but wrenches in gears sounds disruptive to me, and disrupting Standard is more likely to happen if some decks take a hit. Just wondering if they want to do this instead of nerfs or if nerfs are going to be a part of that update.
Pretty cool, though I'd prefer it if rerolling an "easy" quest guaranteed a "hard" quest as well...
Sounds very cool. Too bad Jaina looks even more nerfed.
As first impression it seems sweet. As second impression, I think that old cards and some new portraits will not make me fun again. At the end, If I want to play old cards, I can simply go wild. So, which is the news?
I think that, like now, people are expecting much more from Hearthstone.
Hearthstone is becoming boring, and Ragnaros is still not sufficient to change this.
So, nothing again it is coming to Hearthstone.
Broken English much...
Grazias mi amigo SoleNero, thank you. Tu es un ami.
Die insects
Please no Jade Idol.
Should be fine as long as they don't resurrect other Jade cards.
wow thar Guldan skin looks dope af! Wanna see golden version aka animated.
This is the best hs news I’ve heard in ages!! Have both Rag and NZoth in golden and can’t wait to have them back in Standard again!
New portraits are super cool too but I’m so far away from 1,000 wins with any hero that it will make no difference in my life for at least five more years!
Bringing the strongest wild cards to standard. This is so ODD I can’t EVEN think of who else would be on that list.
What a madlad
So can i safely disenchant my copies of these cards because i will get them for free or the new cards will disaapear from my collection after the event?
The announcement says that it is for a limitied time, i'm pretty sure they will dissapear when the event (read limited time) is over.
No, we just edited the article with a response by Blizzard on Reddit, that the cards added to your collection are temporary and will go away after the event.
Thank you for the info