Darkmoon Races is Hearthstone's first 'mini-set', with 35 new cards

Blizzard has today firmed up details around the release of Hearthstone's first ever mini-set. Billed as an addition to the Madness at The Darkmoon Faire expansion, the mini-set contains 35 new cards, and will launch on January 21. We've got a gallery of the new cards for you to look at, too.

There are two ways to acquire the cards. You'll be able to buy the entire set outright, which will net you two copies of each common, rare, and epic card as well as one of each legendary, for the cost of $15 or 2,000 gold until May 11. (There are four legendaries in the set, which seems like a relative bargain for 2,000 gold.)

The other way to get them is randomly, through Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs. Due to the way that duplication protection works, if you do decide to go down the pack route, the more of the old Darkmoon cards you own the quicker you'll see the new ones.

These cards bring back mechanics from previous expansions, like Scholomance Academy's Spellburst and dual-class cards, and the Dormant keyword from Ashes of the Outland.

And here they are:

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A card from the Darkmoon Races mini-set — (Image credit: Blizzard)

The release of the mini set was always going to be an interesting inflection point given the recent controversy over the cost of Hearthstone that was triggered by the new season pass. But the package here looks to be good value, whether you're paying with cash or pretend money. It'll also be interesting to see whether sentiment around the season pass has changed as we head towards the next full expansion.

Once you hit level 50 on the pass, it does feel like you earn gold at a very decent clip thereafter, and given the choice most players would rather have the additional cosmetics in the game than not. We shall see.

January 21 also sees an update to Battlegrounds, with new heroes Tickatus and Greybough and new minions Soul Devourer and Ring Matron being added to the mode. Meanwhile, Duels mode will be updated with new hero powers and treasures, and the amount of hero powers you get to choose from will go up to three while the number of treasures to choose from goes up to six.

Finally, February 2 brings the next free singleplayer Book of Heroes adventure. It focuses on Anduin as a young prince, long before he becomes King of Stormhold. Players who complete the solo experience will earn a priest pack.

Get on top of the current meta with these, the best Hearthstone decks in 2021.

With over two decades covering videogames, Tim has been there from the beginning. In his case, that meant playing Elite in 'co-op' on a BBC Micro (one player uses the movement keys, the other shoots) until his parents finally caved and bought an Amstrad CPC 6128. These days, when not steering the good ship PC Gamer, Tim spends his time complaining that all Priest mains in Hearthstone are degenerates and raiding in Destiny 2. He's almost certainly doing one of these right now.