Hearthstone About To Change Everything With New Core Set

The next major Hearthstone update will switch out the old Basic and Classic sets for the first time EVER. This is a relatively daring move for a game and an app that's kept the same skeleton pack of cards since inception. With this next rotation, Hearthstone will introduce a brand new "Core Set."

Before we flip our collective lids, it's important to note that The Core Set will be "free for all players." This Core Set will completely replace both Basic and Classic sets in Standard play. If all you ever play is WILD, you'll just get a whole bunch of new cards to play with for free – neat!

If you play Standard, you'll be working with this new "curated selection of 235 cards." This new card set will include some cards "returning from previous sets," while others are "reimagined favorites." The majority of the cards in the set are either reimagined favorites or returning from previous sets. Of the full 235 cards in this new Core Set, 29 cards are "completely new."

The rest of the Standard card sets will be those from the following sets:

• Ashes of Outland

• Scholomance Academy

• Madness at the Darkmoon Faire

• Darkmoon Races Mini-Set

• The next set (as yet unnamed)

There'll be a new format called "Classic Format." Very similar to the format of the same name in standardized Magic: The Gathering card game tournament play, Classic includes old sets. In Magic, "Classic" meant you could use any cards you wanted (to a certain extent). In Hearthstone, "Classic" means you'll work with "Hearthstone's original 240 cards as they were in 2014."

With this launch, Hearthstone will also increase the number of deck slots from 18 to 27. So many decks, you'll never remember what is what!

Given launch dates in the past several years, we can safely assume that we'll get an expansion in early April, 2021. This has been the release point for each new expansion (at this point in the year) for sets in Hearthstone for the past half-decade.