It’s hard to believe that we’re headed into the sixth year of Hearthstone, Blizzard’s competitive card jam, but here we are. And it looks like the team is set to make it the biggest year to date. Not only is the Year of the Phoenix set to begin with the arrival of a new class – the Demon Hunter, via iconic Warcraft character Illidan Stormrage as the new playable hero, but there’s a tonne more coming. And in terms of card-weight – that’s a lot.

A new story experience for returning players, free decks for returning players, card pack changes so there are no more duplicates across the board, new stuff coming to Battlegrounds, a revamped rank system to offer up better matchmaking and even better rewards, and a new theme and setting in the form the shattered world of Outland. As seen in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade. Now filtered through the heightened look and feel of Hearthstone. Yep, this is one stacked Phoenix.



And this is all in Phase 1 too, with the usual two additional expansions coming with even more events and super-secret updates throughout the year. Here’s a closer look as per the Year of the Phoenix roadmap.


As per above there’s also a renewed focus on returning players with Blizzard’s Team 5 implementing a returning player story experience to help them get up to speed – covering the mechanics and the current state of the meta. And with the arrival of the Demon Hunter, there’s even a new Illidan prologue – that will lead into Ashes of Outland’s Adventure Mode dropping ahead of the expansion on April 3. So yeah, after the yearlong story-focused Year of the Dragon – Hearthstone is pushing this side of the experience even further.

For players that haven’t logged in the past four months or if you’re new to the 'Stone a free competitive deck for the class of your choice is on the table too. And just when you think Team 5 is crazy to try and do all of that at once, a Priest overhaul is also coming. With basic and classic cards getting replaced and others getting a tune-up. And then there’s the new type of card or Keyword well suited to battling it out in the Outland – Prime. Which are soon-to-be powerful minion cards that shuffle back into your deck when their time on the board is done. An example highlighted by Blizzard is the Warrior’s Kargath Bladefist, "an aggressive 4 mana 4/4 with Rush in his starting form, Kargath upgrades into Kargath Prime, an 8 mana 10/10 with Rush, who grants you 10 armor whenever he kills an enemy minion". Very cool.

Ashes of Outland, the Year of the Phoenix, and the new Demon Hunter Class arrive in Hearthstone on April 8.