Today, Blizzard has announced major changes coming to Hearthstone coming to the next expansion. When card sets from Year of the Dragon (Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum, Descent of Dragons, Demon Hunter Initiate) rotate to Wild, the Basic and Classic sets will be moved to Wild as well to make way for the new Core set which replaces Basic and Classic cards in the Standard format and contains 235 cards. Blizzard is also introducing Classic Format to the game which will also come during set rotation and the next expansion.
The new Core set will be free for all players as a curated selection of 235 cards that is intended to provide a modern collection of starting cards to players of all types and make Hearthstone even more approachable to newcomers. There are 29 new cards and some that are returning from previous sets and others that are reimagined favorites. Breaking it down, there are 88 cards returning from Classic: 54 class cards, 34 neutral cards. 54 cards returning from Basic: 41 class cards, 13 neutral cards. 55 cards from Wild: 36 class cards, 19 neutral cards. 4 Demon Hunter Class cards will return from Ashes of Outland. 4 cards will return from Demon Hunter Initiate. Shadowform returns from the Hall of Fame. With the 29 new cards, 20 will be class cards and 9 will be neutral. Just like the Basic set, players will earn Core set cards by leveling up each class. All Core set cards will be rewarded between levels 1-10 for each class. Neutral Core set cards unlock based on the sum of all of a player’s class levels combined, up to level 60. Completing achievements awards players with Golden versions of Core Set cards. When players log in after rotation, they will automatically be granted the new Core set cards equal to their current level for each class. The Core Set will be refreshed each year. At the end of every Hearthstone year, a new Core set will take the place of the previous, comprised of new and existing cards. The Core set cards will be swapped and added to players’ Collections automatically.
When the Core set is introduced to the game, the Hall of Fame set will no longer be a part of the game. The Basic and Classic sets will move to Wild under a new name, the Legacy set. Most of the cards from Hall of Fame will be a part of this set with some exceptions. Genn Greymane, Baku the Mooneater, and other Hall of Fame cards from the Witchwood will return to the Witchwood set. Shadowform will return to Standard as part of the Core set. All Classic cards and their Golden versions will now be craftable and disenchantable with the set becoming part of the Legacy set in Wild. Basic cards and their Golden versions and the normal versions of Demon Hunter will be granted to all players that have Wild unlocked for free at rotation.
The new Classic Format lets players craft and compete using the original 240 cards as they were in 2014 when the game launched. When logging in after the patch for the next expansion (before expansion content unlocks) your entire collection of Basic, Classic, and relevant Hall of Fame cards will be mirrored and available for deck building in the Classic format as they were in the 1.0.0.5832 patch in June 2014, with any and all balance changes since then reverted. Unlocking the Wild format also grants access to the Classic format. The reward system, rank system, and seasons for the Classic Format will be the same as Standard and Wild. Classic Format cards will appear in its own section within the Collection. They will sport a unique border to differentiate them from your Standard and Wild decks. Alongside the release of Classic, the total number of deck slots will be increased from 18 to 27. Classic packs add to your Collection for the Classic format as well as the Legacy set in Wild. Cards that were added to the Classic set later in Hearthstone’s history will not be usable in the Classic Format or drop from Classic packs but can be craftable as part of the Legacy set in Wild. This includes Icicle, Tome of Intellect, Call of the Void, Pilfer, Siegebreaker, Gift of the Wild, Righteousness, Brightwing, High Inquisitor Whitemane, Barrens Stablehand, S1:7 Infiltrator, Arcane Devourer, Kul Tiran Chaplain, Scarlet Subjugator, Shadow Word: Ruin, and Natalie Seline.