Blizzard Entertainment released news today on Hearthstone’s next immense patch, calling it “A New Way to Play”. Explained through a Youtube video, designer Ben Brode talked about how beginner players are having a difficult time immersing themselves in a constantly growing and expansive card game. In order to counter this problem, Blizzard has decided to separate the Hearthstone cards using new formats. These formats are to divide the old from the new cards and create a better atmosphere for more inexperienced players.
Hearthstone will have two formats: Standard and Wild. Blizzard’s calling the Standard format “Year of the Kraken” and only allows the last two years of expansion or other various packs – including basic and classic decks – to be used, exclusively, for its own 1 v 1 matches. Ranked, Daily Challenges, Arena, Casual Play and Adventures can still be accessed through the Standard format. These expansions included in Standard are:
- Basic
- Classic
- Black Rock Mountain
- The Grand Tournament
- The League of Explorers
- Spring Expansion 2016 (TBA)
The wild format would be another name to call Hearthstone as these matches will be for experienced players who are familiar with the series. Upcoming content and expansions would be the only ones playable in Wild format – Ranked, Arena, and Casual matches are available here, as well.
With the sudden shift of Hearthstone cards, other minor additions are being changed through buying cards from the shop. Metagame cards will not be able for purchase and can only be obtained through the arcane dust. The shop will only server as a gateway to acquiring cards through newer expansions. Also, Blizzard has read the fans form complaints and are to release more deck slots – totaling up to 18 slots.
Standard and Wild format, along with other minor fixes and bugs, are not to be released until Spring of this year. More information about the new formats can be found here.
