Reno Jackson returns as part of Hearthstone's annual core set shakeup

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All four OG Explorers are back for The Year of the Hydra, which starts on April 12.

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Blizzard announced today that Hearthstone's Year of the Hydra will kick off on April 12 with the launch of Voyage to the Sunken Sea, the underwater expansion announced in March. The new year will bring "a renewed focus on sustainability and optimization," Blizzard said, along with all-new content and updates for Hearthstone's established game modes.

"You can expect quality-of-life and other improvements, such as being able to equip a random hero skin, in-game reporting, and an overall emphasis on client-performance improvements," Blizzard promised, clearly cognizant of complaints about how buggy the platform has become in recent years. "That’s on top of our usual three card sets and a mountain of planned new content for Battlegrounds, Mercenaries, and more."

The start of a new year in Hearthstone will also see the rotation of card sets: Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy, and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire will go to Wild, leaving the Standard card pool to include Forged in the Barrens, United in Stormwind, Fractured in Alterac Valley, Voyage to the Sunken City, and the Core set. 

Speaking of the Core set, today's announcement also detailed which cards are being cut, and which ones are returning. Top billing goes to the original League of Explorers, all of whom are back in the Core set: Reno Jackson, Brann Bronzebeard, Elise Starseeker, and Sir Finley Mrrgglton.

Some people are happy about this development:

Others, not so much:

Reno has always been a highly polarizing card because he grants a full heal to your hero (so potentially +29HP) when played—provided your deck has no duplicate cards in it at the time. Against aggressive decks this proved a back-breaking effect, but also meant games would often come down to, "If my opponent draws Reno I lose, otherwise I'm good."

Other notable returning cards in the Core set include Lyra the Sunshard, Radiant Elemental, Fandral Staghelm, Ragnaros Lightlord, Azure Drake, Wild Pyromancer, Doomsayer, Animal Companion (I should just say Huffer, honestly), Drakonid Operative, Northshire Cleric, Acolyte of Pain, and Kalecgos. This time around, Blizzard hasn't printed any brand new cards, which makes sense given that there should be less obvious gaps to fill these days. The general consensus so far is that this is a very strong Core set, with a bunch of cards likely to see play in competitive decks. The presence of Reno alone will ensure that "Highlander"-style decks are experimented with across various classes. 

For the full rundown on what's coming in Hearthstone's Year of the Hydra, which will also see changes in the Hearthstone Mercenaries update schedule and a shift of Battlegrounds into a new seasonal model, hit up playhearthstone.com.

Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.