Hearthstone’s New Legacy Card Set Explained

Official Warcraft collectible card game Hearthstone is coming up on its seventh birthday, which is a mighty feat for any online game. Blizzard has kept pace with new sets, card changes, and other quality of life enhancements for players still playing after all this time. However, like any card game, the metagame needs a shake-up every once and a while to remain fresh. That’s what Hearthstone hopes to do with the recently announced Legacy set, a new collection of cards that gives free players and new recruits a better way to hit the ground running. Whether players are loading Hearthstone up for the first time or logging in for daily quests, here’s what the changes mean for them.

For most of Hearthstone‘s history so far, players had two formats to choose from once they got past the game’s tutorials and built up their collection. Standard is filled with the most recent sets of cards and intended to be a controlled competitive environment. Cards cycle out of the format after two years, which means a new environment continually keeps things interesting. Those who want to throw down with old favorites load up Wild instead, a place to play with all the cards in the game’s history. While this can lead to a wide variety of decks, it also means that the power level of decks in the format eternally grows.

This week’s Hearthstone update adds a third format to the mix, called Classic. In much the same way that World of Warcraft Classic turned back the clock for the MMORPG, the Classic format presents Hearthstone as it was when it originally debuted. Cards in this format revert back to their original forms, letting older players return to decks and strategies they played with years ago. Cards in the current two starter sets (Classic and Basic) that were around at launch are playable here, while their modern counterparts move to Wild. This makes way for a new Core set that updates the cards players get when they first start the game and allows Blizzard to rotate that set of cards on a regular basis.

What is Hearthstone’s Legacy Set?

Finally, the cards moving to Wild from Classic and Basic (as well as cards previously moved from Standard into the Hall of Fame set) are combining into one new set in Wild known as Legacy. This lets players who want the full Hearthstone experience play with every card ever released while also letting newer players and competitive veterans build around an even more balanced environment. When the Legacy set emerges with the next rotation, players will receive a set of the Basic cards if they’ve already unlocked the Wild format, while Classic cards become craftable and disenchantable for the first time.

Overall, the coming update and the introduction of the Core and Legacy sets to Hearthstone positions the card game more in line with its tabletop contemporaries. While Magic: The Gathering hasn’t always had its own version of the Core set in rotation, it has proven to be a great way for new players to jump onto the complicated game without becoming overwhelmed. With seven years of cards now built up, Blizzard’s game is in a similar boat, and a set that rotates in new cards gives them one more knob to turn when it comes to making the ongoing Warcraft spinoff accessible to all.

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