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Hearthstone's 2023 Standard season begins with Festival of Legends expansion

Hearthstone is rocking out for the beginning of its newest Standard season with a new set focused on the eclectic musical flavors of Azeroth.

Ozzie Mejia

March 14, 2023 11:05 AM

Blizzard Entertainment

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The Warcraft universe is known for a lot of things, but one thing that doesn't come up often enough is its music. After all, this is the series that introduced Elite Tauren Chieftain into the world (of Warcraft). With Hearthstone about to enter a new Standard season, Blizzard is doing something a little different than anything that's come before and basing a new expansion entirely on Azeroth's music scene, unveiling the Festival of Legends.

For the Festival of Legends expansion, which was revealed on the Hearthstone website earlier today, each of Hearthstone's 11 classes will represent a different musical genre. Those classes will receive a star musician, a breakout song that comes in the form of a Legendary spell, and a musical instrument that appears as a new class weapon. Likewise, new expansion cards will carry a more musical motif. That includes new cards with the Finale keyword, which adds an extra effect if the card spends all of the player's remaining mana for that turn.

This would usually be enough for an expansion, but Blizzard isn't stopping here. To go along with this expansion release and the new Standard season turnover, the Priest class is getting a slight adjustment. Priests are getting the new Overheal keyword, which adds an extra effect for certain cards after the Priest is healed over their maximum amount.

The Festival of Legends expansion won't be out until April, but those who want something right now can log in and get the E.T.C., Band Manager card for free. This Neutral Legendary has players pick out a band of cards during the deckbuilding process. Once E.T.C. is played, players will Discover one of those cards, which can include minions, spells, and weapons with some exceptions. More details can be found in the 25.6 patch notes.

We'll have more on the Festival of Legends expansion and the change to the new Hearthstone Standard season in the weeks ahead. Keep it on Shacknews for the latest updates.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?