The game as it is being played right now will now be known as the Wild format, where all cards in the game are legal to be used. Standard mode is a welcome change and makes the game more accessible to newcomers who now won’t need to go through every set of cards from a long time ago. This means that later in 2016 when this is released, cards from the Curse of Naxxramas adventure and the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion will no longer be allowed for use in Standard play.
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After the break watch Ben Brode tell us why this is a good idea, and if you havne’t played Hearthstone yet, pick it up now for iOS Universal or Android.
Nope, there is something even more insane in store for Hearthstone, formats.
Players can construct decks using any and all cards in their collection, including what’s part of that year’s Standard, guaranteeing that the game won’t be without its unpredictable plays and card combinations that players have grown accustomed to. Players will only be matched with other players who are participating in this new Standard format. A separate ranking ladder will be made available for both formats.
Finally, though the announcement doesn’t share more details, it does note the Standard format will include a “Spring 2016 Expansion”, confirming suspicions that another one is on the way soon. That results in a situation in which the strongest cards from each expansion persist in the meta forever unless something even stronger replaces it. You saw this to some extent in the Grand Tournament expansion in which there were many cards with cool effects using the new Inspire and Joust mechanics that just weren’t strong enough to be real, competitive alternatives to old cards.
Blizzard also explained that the other new mode, Wild, is essentially the same as the existing game, adding: “It’ll be the format where anything can happen”. There’s a new format and multiple tweaks and changes across the board.
The biggest change is the addition of a “Standard” gameplay mode, which restricts usable cards to only those released in the past two calendar years.
Standard promises a fresher Hearthstone experience! “Event organizers looking to award prize pools over $10,000 must continue to work with Blizzard on an acceptable format”.
UPDATE:Blizzard reached out to us to clarify it’s “re-evaluating a number of Basic and Classic cards” to make adjustments “to account for the removal of Naxx” and Goblins vs. Gnomes cards.
Blizzard is about to introduce some pretty major changes to its collectible card battler, Hearthstone.
However, the studio wants to hear what you think about the planned changes, and so do we.
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Fans are disappointing with this move, if the comments on the official blog post are anything to go by, and honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Blizzard flip-flop on the idea before Kraken arrives.
