Blizzard just posted what is almost surely a teaser for the upcoming mini-set, which should get announced tomorrow. It would line-up with the datamining of the in-game bundles which suggest September 2 release date (mini-sets are usually announced about a week before release).
On the 2025 roadmap we got last year, Un’Goro’s mini-set was labeled as “Festival of the Devilsaur”. Keep in mind that this is a working title – the final one might be different. For example, Emerald Dream’s mini-set was called “Druids of the Flame” on the infographic (but it turned out to be “Embers of the World Tree”).
Still, the theme itself should remain the same, so we’ll probably see a festival and maybe even some devilsaurs! Given that their comment next to the teaser was “Crack open your calendars… tomorrow’s looking eggscellent.”, it’s safe to assume that we’ll also see some eggs (Devilsaur Egg is one of the more iconic cards from the original Un’Goro expansion, so they might release a new version of it).
Mini-set’s announcement is usually followed by a short reveal season. If the September 2 (next Tuesday) release date is correct (and at this point it’s all but confirmed), we should know all 38 cards by Monday at the latest.
I think for each new set they could add one card from the past as a reprint that has strong thematic connection to the new set’s theme and also some nostalgia value.
for badlands this would have been: dead man’s hand (because it refers to a wild west guy playing poker)
for the great dark beyond maybe: meteor (because well, you know, it comes from space)
for this set it could be: devilsaur egg
that being said, they should make sure that if players already own that card, it should count as the same card with full duplicate protection, not the ripoff they pulled with caverns of time.
otherwise the reprint idea would just upset players again
Standard saved?
If Embers of the World Tree was any indication? It’s probably not “saved”. I’ll admit that from my impressions, EWT did better than I personally initially assumed. Petal Picker provided just enough support to make Imbue decks more consistent, Mage/Priest/Druid in particular, in that order – at least that’s what it felt like to me. Amirdrassil – and Quest Druid, for that matter, had to die for the sins of Owlonius. Everburning Phoenix was inevitably leveraged for Wild Rogue degeneracy.
Every other Fire spell was there just so Fyrakk had something to do. I still have misgivings about Fyrakk as the centrepiece of a deck. Disregarding Rogue’s ability to bounce Fyrakk several times, Fyrakk felt to me too hit-and-miss as a card. Remember Rune of the Archmage, and how it felt when you low-rolled 20 mana’s worth of Mage cards? Fyrakk is technically better due to the body, but I’ve seen too many times – both my side and my opponent’s – when Fyrakk overdrew with Burndown and Conflagration before nuking himself with Eat the Imp. Fyrakk is there mostly as a Shaladrassil corruptor or Elise the Navigator enabler than anything else.
What would it take to “save Standard”? On some level, I can kinda agree that the standard format is sort of varied – you’ve got aggro decks for several classes like Protoss Priest, Beast Token Hunter, I’ve even seen Busy-bot Mage a couple times. There’s the combo/lategame decks like Owlonius Druid and Testing Dummy Warrior. Imbue Paladin and Leech Starship Death Knight still exist. The problem is that running Quests would probably scupper the classes more than helps them. You’d need neutral tools like Questing Explorer and Sky Gen’ral Kragg to boost Quest viability in general, but how likely is a single draw or 4/2 Rush minion able to help Quests breach Tier 2 viability like Imbue Druid? That’s not even getting into the problem of any neutral Quest support would also have to benefit Quest Paladin, and I’m not sure we’d want a repeat of that. Even if Quest Paladin hasn’t been doing all that hot recently, a Quest Paladin buff would just make Golakka Depths the better quest to play all over again.
We’d need individual class tools to try and force the Quests to be viable, some more than others, and this is on top of the fact that the devs aren’t interested in tweaking the Quests/Rewards anymore. I’d also caveat that the following suggestions are likely to also benefit non-Quest decks, probably more than the Quest decks, and if EWT is anything to go by, Team 5 is probably going to go a completely different direction with their archetypes, like making every class Fire-themed for some reason. Thus folks are welcome to criticize me for my analyses (probably biased based on what decks I have access to).
– Death Knight: A minion that’s a combination of Lifesteal, Corpse spending/generating, or both. The feeling I get for Quest DK is that it falls too far behind before it gains corpses or spends them. Paleomancy’s a joke. Keeping 3 Undead means nothing if DK can’t contest the board immediately.
– Demon Hunter: I don’t think there’s anything to be done here that doesn’t just make the Quest more… “win more”. We have thrown every possible source of “deal exactly 2 damage” at the deck at this point. Throw even more, and that’ll just make it easier to not run the Quest in the deck anyway.
– Druid: Weirdly enough, we have enough board fillers; the problem is most of them are either delayed, require your opponent to trade into those token spammers, or just take too long to get online. Would a class-specific version of Maze Guide be too much? Or a token generator like Imp Master (without the self-damage), basically functioning as a soft taunt? It’s probably going to still be too slow. You are only finishing the Druid Quest on Turn 6, at best, if you’re very lucky. Druid is a fun deck to play that simply never gets to do so because trading and removal is everywhere. It’s Quest Paladin but a third as consistent on a good day.
– Hunter: There’s already just enough decent Quest-fulfilment Beasts to run on a good day, and Hunter already has the Discover package to synergize with Shokk – maybe the solution is to add another Beast with an even number Attack stat and a decent effect? The package is there, there’s just no payoff. If you’re losing to Quest Hunter it’s from Pterrorwing Ravager more than Shokk, I think.
– Mage: Look, we’re at a point where Mage can finish Discovering 7 things by Turn 4, and it still wouldn’t make the deck any less of a dice roll. This is where I feel Lost City might have been better off as the first set of this year because there’d be less filler spells to sit through. Best case scenario, No Minion Quest Mage gets a card that summons a random minion whose Cost equals the number of times you’ve Discovered that game just so they have board presence besides Spot the Difference.
– Paladin: Also what I’d like to call “Quest Druid but playable”. We have enough Murloc minions and generators. I don’t think there’s a need to look further besides maybe unnerfing Hot Spring Glider, but that might be a step too far. Holy Spell synergy, maybe? Nerfing Imbued Paladin’s Hero Power? Another trio of mini-set cards like the last one that might as well not exist?
– Priest: Reach Equilibrium might actually be one of the more fun Wild decks I play now because there’s an actual quantity of Holy/Shadow spells, plus the ability to clone or resurrect Sol’etos multiple times. Either a spell generator or another means of copying Sol’etos could be enough, because Cloud Serpent ain’t it.
– Rogue: They could make a card that says “Battlecry: Make all cards that didn’t start in your deck Cast when Drawn” and that still wouldn’t save it.
– Shaman: Quest Shaman works, but folks seem to gravitate more towards Shudderblocking Murloc Growfin instead as a finisher. Team 5 might wish to make another Elemental to support Bralma Searstone instead because the tools for Quest Shaman are all there – minion types, draw power, etc. Another totem perhaps?
– Warlock: Most of the oxygen in the room seems to be taken by Agamaggan and Wheel Warlock, last I remember. Does Quest Warlock need the help? Maybe more options to generate Temporary stuff would help but I’m not sure that’s necessary if the deck’s already over 50% win rate.
– Warrior: I don’t know what’s worse, a Warrior that can’t see their quest finish or a Warrior that just won’t die. We’d need tools to help Warrior survive long enough to last 10 turns and at that point they’d might as well play Testing Dummy Warrior. Warrior will likely always have tools to survive either way.
The game is gone, basically unplayable.