StarCraft characters finally join Hearthstone, but only in a mini-set

Blizzard’s Warcraft Direct stream celebrated 30 years of the franchise, bringing out various teams to make announcements about their upcoming projects. None were as baffling, yet exciting, as the announcement that StarCraft was coming to Hearthstone. The catch is that it’s “only” a mini-set.

The current expansion of Hearthstone is titled “The Great Dark Beyond.” It focuses on the Draenei’s adventures through space. It’s made for some great art, but ultimately, it’s a fairly “okay” set at best. The starships aren’t terribly fun to play with, the balance is awful, and the general design feels very haphazard. (How is there a set that takes place in the icy, cold depths of space, and Death Knights don’t have a single Frost rune card?)

As with every expansion since Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, there will be a mini-set to follow in January. For the first time, it will focus on one of Blizzard’s other IPs: StarCraft.

The StarCraft-themed mini-set will contain 49 new cards, more than the typical 38. The three races of the spacefaring series will be divvied up among the various classes of Hearthstone, each with gameplay styles to reflect their StarCraft counterparts. At the front of each faction is a familiar StarCraft hero.

• Zerg: Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Warlock are led by Kerrigan.
• Protoss: Druid, Mage, Priest, and Rogue are led by Artanis.
• Terran: Paladin, Shaman, and Warrior are led by Jim Raynor.

The mini-set itself will also feature new music. Here’s hoping there’s actually a board this time. This isn’t Hearthstone’s first foray into other Blizzard IPs. The defunct Mercenaries mode featured the Lord of Terror himself, Diablo, as a playable hero, who also made an appearance in Battlegrounds and Duels.

A preview of further things to come

We now also have the next three Hearthstone expansions announced, as well as an impending revamp of the Arena mode. The Year of the Raptor will start next year around March with the release of “Into the Emerald Dream.” The new expansion will feature exactly what you think because there are no more fun surprises in Hearthstone. It’s Druids fighting Old Gods in the popular Emerald Dream location from WarCraft. The mini-set will feature the only other villain they could think of, the Druids of the Flame.

The next expansion will be “The Shrouded City,” and it will be a direct follow-up to 2017’s Journey to Un’Goro. Itwill be about the League of Explorers looking for a lost Tortollan city in the jungles of Un’Goro. The mini-set here will focus on Tortollans celebrating the “Festival of The Devilsaur.”

Finally, “The Heroes of Time” will be next year’s final expansion. You’ll travel with Chromie to alternate realities to recruit WarCraft heroes “like you’ve never seen them before,” or so Blizzard says. Considering how many Bronze Dragonflight shenanigans we just went through in the last World of Warcraft expansion, I doubt we’ll see too much new here.

Arena Mode is getting a significant revamp for the first time in the game’s history. It will be split into two modes: Normal And Undergroun.. Normal Arena will be shorter, allowing you to complete runs quicker. This is the more casual variant. More competitive players will want to go to the high-stakes “Underground Arena,” where your runs will be longer, and you’ll have a new “Re-Draft on Loss” feature. After you lose, you have the option to re-draft your cards, edit your deck, and jump back in. Details about the new reward structure (and the length of the runs under the new system) are sparse. The revamped Arena mode is expected to launch sometime after the start of The Year of the Raptor.