Hearthstone Year of the Wolf update: Festival of Legends expansion, Core Set changes & more

Hearthstone fans can rejoice as the new Year of the Wolf update is set to arrive in April. Bringing in a new rotation of expansions and changes to the Core Set, there’s lots to be excited about if you play a lot of Hearthstone.

For everything you need to know about Hearthstone Year of the Wolf, keep on reading.

• Did you know that Overwatch 2 is officially dead in China?

Hearthstone Year of the Wolf: Expansion rotations

Players can expect to see some drastic changes to Hearthstone when the expansions rotate around later this year. The Forged in the Barrens, United in Stormwind, and Fractured in Alterac Valley expansions will all be removed in favour of different packs.

In their place, Standard will consist of Voyage to the Sunken City, Murder at Castle Nathria, March of the Lich King, and Festival of Legends expansions, plus the updated Core Set.

• If you're a fan of other mobile card games, Marvel Snap recently added PvP.

Hearthstone Year of the Wolf: Keyword updates

Click to enlarge

In addition, there are several keywords that are either seeing an update, return or tune-up. Here is a list of all the keywords that are changing, and how:

• Keyword update: Tradeable
• Originally introduced with the United in Stormwind set, Tradeable will be an evergreen keyword starting this year.
• Since Tradeable currently only exists in United in Stormwind and Fractured in Alterac Valley, we’ve started by adding a few Tradeable cards from those expansions into Core.
• New Tradeable cards will be introduced throughout the Year of the Wolf and for years to come.

• Returning keyword: Magnetic
• Magnetic is a keyword that appeared on certain Mechs in The Boomsday Project.
• Mechs with Magnetic could either be played as normal OR played directly to the left of another Mech on the board to fuse with it, granting its stats, effects, and enchantments to the Mech in play.
• Magnetic is a temporary addition to Core and will not necessarily stay in Core beyond this update.

• Priest Tune-up and new keyword: Overheal
• The base of the Priest class fantasy is healing, which may not feel as powerful as other classes’ base fantasies, like damage or Armor.
• The new keyword, Overheal, was created to make healing more flexible and rewarding.
• Cards with Overheal have an effect that is triggered when they are healed over their max health.
• Overheal is a new evergreen class mechanic like Combo is for the Rogue class.

Overall, it’s an exciting time to be a Hearthstone fan in 2023. For more information about what’s changing in Hearthstone Year of the Wolf, you can give the official Hearthstone blog a read.

For more Hearthstone guides, keep reading GGRecon.