Hearthstone’s Year of the Hydra begins April 12

Starting on April 12 with the launch of Hearthstone’s upcoming Voyage to the Sunken City expansion, players will step into the Year of the Hydra.

You couldn’t ask for a better time to get into Hearthstone than the launch of Voyage to the Sunken City. Thanks to the introduction of the Year of the Hydra, Standard Hearthstone will experience a yearly rotation. That means Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy, and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire will no longer be usable in Standard Hearthstone.

In addition to the rotation, Voyage to the Sunken City will introduce 135 new cards to Standard and there will be updates to the Core Set. The Standard Core Set will lose 57 cards and gain 72 fresh cards, making for 250 cards total. These include popular options like Reno, Elise, Finley, and Brann. The introduction of Reno to the Core Set is great news for players who enjoy the Highlander archetype, so it’s time to start theorycrafting those decks with no duplicates.

The Core Set update will go live alongside the Voyage to the Sunken City expansion, as well as the yearly rotation on April 12. You can check out the above video for expectations about the Year of the Hydra directly from the Hearthstone dev team. In addition to the aforementioned content, the Year of the Hydra will include various quality-of-life improvements, as well as content for other modes like Battlegrounds and Mercenaries.

You can step into the Year of the Hydra when Voyage to the Sunken City goes live on April 12.