Year of the Hydra

Year of the Hydra was the Standard format year from April 12, 2022 to April 11, 2023.

Card sets

These card sets are released as a part of Year of the Hydra.

Expansion
April 12, 2022

Expansion
August 2, 2022

Path of Arthas

Card set
December 6, 2022

Expansion
December 6, 2022

• March of the Lich King
• Path of Arthas
• Murder at Castle Nathria
• Voyage to the Sunken City

Core set

List of Year of the Hydra's Core set cards can be found here.

Roadmap

Patches

These patches were released during Year of the Hydra.

Version	Build	Release date	Highlights
25.6.2	170126	2023-03-24	Battlegrounds' Card changes
25.6.0	168788	2023-03-14	Festival of Legends pre-order, Event Track: Headliner's Tour, New Battle Bash, The return of Buddies, Battlegrounds card changes
25.4.3	168129	2023-03-03	Card changes, Battlegrounds card changes, Duels card changes
25.4.0	165029	2023-02-14	Return to Naxxramas mini-set, Mercenaries Mythic Boss Rush, Mercenaries Factions and updated types, Arena rotation and new leaderboard
25.2.2	163976	2023-01-26	Card changes, Battlegrounds card changes, Duels card changes
25.2.0	162867	2023-01-18	Battlegrounds updates, New Battlegrounds Track and Season, New Event Track, Heroic Brawliseum
25.0.4	162171	2023-01-05
25.0.4	160910	2022-12-19	Card changes, Battlegrounds card changes, Arena updates
25.0.3	160183	2022-12-09	Card changes
25.0.0	159202	2022-11-30
25.0.0	158725	2022-11-29	Death Knight release, March of the Lich King and Path of Arthas release, New Death Knight Core cards, Card changes, Battlegrounds new content, Duels new season and content, Mercenaries new content, Arena rotation, Duels rotation, New Event Track: The Lich King's Call, New Event Track: The Siege of Iceforge, New feature: Improved Duplicate Card Handling
24.6.2	155409	2022-11-10	Battlegrounds card changes, Arena updates
24.6.0	154818	2022-11-02
24.6.0	154203	2022-11-01	March of the Lich King pre-order, Legendary hero skins, New Event system, Hallow's End, Knights of the Frozen Throne returns to Standard, Battlegrounds updates, Battle Bash introduction, Mercenaries updates, Dual-class Arena and rotation, New returning player deck system
24.4.3	152904	2022-10-13	Card changes, Battlegrounds card changes
24.4.0	150659	2022-09-27	Maw and Disorder release, Battlegrounds Legendary Boards, Mercenaries huge updates, Arena rotation, Early Progression and Milestone Offer Updates
24.2.2	149417	2022-09-09	Card changes, Battlegrounds card changes, Duels card changes, Mercenaries card changes
24.2.0	148526	2022-09-02	Battlegrounds card changes
24.2.0	148211	2022-08-30	Runestone introduction, In-game reporting, Battlegrounds Season 2, Battlegrounds Quests, Battlegrounds Track, Battlegrounds card changes, Mercenaries card changes
24.0.3	147348	2022-08-16	Card changes, Battlegrounds card changes, Duels card changes
24.0.0	145077	2022-07-26	Murder at Castle Nathria release, Battlegrounds new emotes, Duels new season and content, Mercenaries updates and balance changes, Arena rotation, New feature: Multiple Favorite/Random Hero Skins, Updated Returning Player Experience
23.6.2	144772	2022-07-15
23.6.2	144666	2022-07-15
23.6.2	143410	2022-07-11	Performance improvement, Battlegrounds' Battlegrounds/Card changes, Taverns of Time card changes
23.6.0	142295	2022-06-27	Murder at Castle Nathria pre-order, Battlegrounds updates, Mercenaries event, Arena rotation, Taverns of Time, Fire Festival event
23.4.3	141643	2022-06-16	Card changes, Battlegrounds' Battlegrounds/Card changes, Mercenaries' Card changes
23.4.0	139963	2022-06-01	Throne of the Tides release, Huge Mercenaries updates, Battlegrounds updates, Arena rotation, Book of Heroes: Faelin
23.2.2	139719	2022-05-20
23.2.2	139522	2022-05-19	Card changes, Battlegrounds' Battlegrounds/Card changes, Duels' card changes
23.2.0	138759	2022-05-11	Arena micro-adjustments, Arena card bans
23.2.0	137922	2022-05-10	Battlegrounds update: Naga, Mercenaries update: N'Zoth event, New feature: Upgrading regular to golden, New feature: Copying deckcode in chat, New feature: Multiple favorite card backs
23.0.3	137436	2022-04-26	Card changes, Battlegrounds' Battlegrounds/Card changes
23.0.0	135540	2022-04-05	Voyage to the Sunken City release, Mercenaries updates, Battlegrounds updates, Mercenaries' Card changes, New year: Year of the Hydra, Duels updates, Arena rotation, Duels rotation

Notable announcements

• On March 17, 2022, the first expansion of Year of the Hydra, Voyage to the Sunken City was announced. This also marks the first time the first expansion of a year is announced before the year’s theme is.
• On April 5, 2022, the Year of the Hydra was announced. In this year, Team 5 focuses on adding to and improving current systems, instead of creating entirely new game modes. This will include specific quality of life improvements, like the random hero skin feature and in-game reporting, as well as overall client performance improvements. Alongside the year announcement:
  • Changes to the Core set were revealed, with 57 cards rotating out and 72 cards coming in.
  • Team 5 also announced plans for the future of Mercenaries, with the first task system rework immediately active in-game, which allows players to complete a mercenary's task chain of 18 tasks in a row.
  • Battlegrounds will begin organizing Seasons similar to Ranked seasons, starting with Patch 23.2 coming in the future.

Timeline

Main article: Hearthstone timeline

2022

March 7

• It is announced that a "Future of Warcraft" announcement will be held in the Spring, with a new Hearthstone expansion being announced on March 15 (later changed to March 17).

March 17

• Voyage to the Sunken City, Hearthstone's 20th expansion is announced.
• Book of Mercenaries: Dawngrasp is released, the tenth and final part of the collection of missions.

April 1

• For April Fools, joke "patch notes" are released on the website.

April 5

• Changes to the Core set for the next Hearthstone year are announced, as well as a new roadmap.
• Major content updates for Mercenaries are said to be moved to the X.4 patches during each expansion cycle.
• Battlegrounds is announced to begin organizing its major moments into “Seasons,” similar to Hearthstone’s expansion cycles.

April 12

• Voyage to the Sunken City is released.
• The sixth Standard year (the Year of the Gryphon) ends, and the seventh Standard year (the Year of the Hydra) begins.
• Duels receives its second set of new heroes, with 4 additional Explorer heroes being released.

May 5

• New features are announced to be coming to Hearthstone:
  • Golden cards will now have the option of Upgrading their normal cards into Golden versions, in addition to the original option of crafting Golden versions from scratch.
  • Now you can easily share deck codes through the in-game chat.
  • You will be able to Favorite multiple card backs, instead of just one.

May 10

• Naga are added to Battlegrounds, the fifth new minion type addition.
• The features announced on May 5 are released into the game.
• Mini-sets can now be purhcased permanently until they leave Standard. Additionally, fully golden versions of mini-sets can be purchased.

May 27

• Throne of the Tides, Hearthstone's fifth mini-set is announced.

June 1

• Throne of the Tides is released.
• Book of Heroes: Faelin is released, the 11th part of the collection of missions.
• A new feature is released, Overcapped Decks. When building a deck, you’ll be able to add up to 50 cards as you tinker, and then trim it down to 30 when you’re done narrowing down your options.

June 27

• Murder at Castle Nathria, Hearthstone's 21st expansion is announced.
• The Taverns of Time event returns again after 5 years.
• New social features are announced:
  • Now, there will be a dedicated section at the top of your friends list that includes last opponent, former friends, new friends, your current opponent, and more.
  • Player-reporting will soon be added to the in-game friends list menu. You’ll be able to report players from the recent players list (including your current opponent) or from your friends list. Grounds for reporting will include inappropriate names, inappropriate chats, and inappropriate gameplay.

July 5

• A new 4-part lore story of Murder at Castle Nathria, written by Christie Golden and Brandon Easton is released.

July 27

• New Emotes are added to Battlegrounds, previously being restricted to the same 6 emotes.
• Duels receives its third set of new heroes, with Darius Crowley being released.
• New features are released:
  • Players can now favorite multiple heroes from the same class in the Hearthstone Collection Manager. If a deck has no specific hero assigned to it, a random hero will be used each game.
  • The quest rewards and free deck offered to Returning Players are no longer limited to once per account. Anyone who has been gone from the game for 120+ days will receive the Returning Player rewards, even if they've gotten them before.

August 2

• Murder at Castle Nathria is released.

August 23

• Battlegrounds Season 2 is announced.
• Battlegrounds will now have its own progression track that grants Battlegrounds-specific rewards each season.
  • The new Battlegrounds Season Pass will get you access to the premium rewards on the Battlegrounds Track.
• In addition to its own seasonal rewards track, Battlegrounds will be getting its own special Battlegrounds XP system. Earning Battlegrounds XP will progress you along the Battlegrounds Track towards free and premium rewards.
• Runestones are announced to be replacing real money purchases for nearly every product in the Hearthstone shop.

August 30

• Battlegrounds enters Season 2.
• Quests are added to Battlegrounds, the fourth new system additon.
• The leaderboards receive an update.
  • The leaderboards for Standard, Wild, Classic, Battlegrounds, and Mercenaries will now have live updates (currently, they refresh in intervals of 5-10 minutes).
  • All leaderboards will also now select from Season number (like Battlegrounds currently does), instead of a month and year.
  • Finally, there’s no longer a limit to how many people can be shown on those leaderboards. For Standard, Wild, and Classic, this means that all Legend-rank players will be listed.
• In-game reporting is released.

September 22

• Maw and Disorder, Hearthstone's sixth mini-set is announced.

September 27

• Maw and Disorder is released.
• Apprentice (new player ranks) and low internal-rating players (colloquially called “MMR”) may now face up against AI opponents when playing on the ranked Standard ladder.
  • This will help said players have a more fun experience while learning the game. Experienced players will not face these AI opponents, and they will have no impact on MMR, leaderboards, or legend ranks.
  • Most players advance beyond the affected MMR range upon leaving Silver or Gold ranks.

October 27

• Patch 24.6 is teased, being told to be a "big one" with a special announcement stream coming November 1.
• Battlegrounds Bashes are announced, a new reward structure to get cosmetic items.

November 1

• Death Knight, Hearthstone's second new playable class is announced.
• March of the Lich King, Hearthstone's 22nd expansion is announced.
• Signature cards, a new type of card quality is announced.
• Legendary hero skins are announced, featuring a completely 3D animated character model.
• A new event system is introduced: Event Tracks.
• As a special event, an entire Wild expansion is added to Standard for the first time. Knights of the Frozen Throne is playable in Standard until the launch of the next expansion.
• Battlegrounds Bashes are released.
• Mercenaries receives a new Renown system and task rework.
• New and returning players will now be able to borrow a selection of competitive decks for one week following their return, before choosing one to claim at the end of that Loaner Deck period.

November 29

• Duels receives its fourth set of new heroes, with two Death Knight heroes being released.
• Duplicate card handling is improved:
  • We often include specific non-disenchantable cards as part of Reward Tracks, Events, Achievements, and Shop purchases. Starting with 25.0, if you claim one of these, but already own a lower quality copy that’s disenchantable, you’ll get a popup that offers to re-roll the lower quality copy to a different card of the same rarity from that card set.

December 6

• March of the Lich King and Death Knight are released.
• The special Path of Arthas set is released, and new Core cards are added into the set for Death Knight, the first time new Core cards are added in the middle of a Hearthstone year.
• Signature cards are released.

2023

January 10

• Battlegrounds Season 3 is announced.

January 17

• Battlegrounds enters Season 3.

January 26

• Hearthstone's new Creator Program is announced, aimed to help Hearthstone Creators grow and get more opportunities to share their love of the game.

February 7

• It is announced that Mercenaries will receive its last major update in the next major patch, afterwards entering maintenance mode for the forseeable future.
  • This is colloquially seen by players as the "end of Mercenaries".

February 9

• Return to Naxxramas, Hearthstone's seventh mini-set is announced.

February 14

• Return to Naxxramas is released.
• Mercenaries receives its final major update, with the Boss Rush mode and Factions.
• A new Arena leaderboard is introduced, automatically updating throughout the season, like the other modes.