'Hearthstone' Year of the Raven 2018 Update: Three More Sets Enter the Wild

By Kevin Reyes, Christian Post Contributor Wednesday, February 28, 2018

The Year of the Mammoth is coming to an end, and the Year of the Raven will soon fly high as "Hearthstone" enters a new year of content. This means players have the benefit of looking forward to new expansions, new cards, and seeing older ones leave rotation and enter the Wild.

As Blizzard announced on the game's official website, it is just about time for a new "Hearthstone" Year, this time symbolized by the raven. With the coming of the raven is the departure of the mammoth and this means some new rotations with the Standard and Wild formats.

When the new year begins, cards from Whispers of the Old Gods, One Night in Karazhan, and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan all become exclusive to the Wild game type. On the other hand, Journey to Un'Goro, Knights of the Frozen Throne, Kobolds & Catacombs, as well as Basic and Classic sets will stay in the Standard format.

The Year of the Raven will have three new expansion packs coming in the future. However, Blizzard has yet to disclose any information on what themes these packs may contain or when they will actually come out. The only thing that fans have right now is the design that the three expansions have on the menu.

As is tradition, some cards will be moving to the Hall of Fame this coming year as well, which means they will only be available in Wild. This year, those cards are Ice Block, Coldlight Oracle, and Molten Giant.

The Year of the Raven also brings in a new Druid hero that can be unlocked by winning 10 Standard games when the new year begins. With the year also comes a new system for players to host their own custom in-game tournaments. Finally, some balancing changes are made with regard to quest such that they should now be quicker to complete and any quest that used to reward 40 gold will now give out 50.

For more details on all the changes, game director Ben Brode talks about several of the new features and looks back on the past Year of the Mammoth in their newest episode of Hearthside Chat.