Hide all of your valuables and then run, because a new team of super villains has risen to power!

Rise of Shadows is the first expansion for the Year of the Dragon! Our expansion guide will feature a card spoilers list, general information, explanation of new mechanics, artworks, card backs, and more! We’ll be updating this guide immediately following the release of any new information.

Rise of Shadows represents the 11th full set Hearthstone expansion and the first expansion of 2019 (Year of the Dragon). It will be followed by a Standard rotation, with all of the 2017 (Year of the Mammoth) sets rotating to Wild. It will be interesting to see how things shape up, given that rotating expansions had a very high power level and dominated the playing field for a long time.

If you want to learn more about upcoming Standard rotation (which sets rotate out, how Hall of Fame works, what key cards will be gone), check out our Ultimate Hearthstone 2019 (Year of the Dragon) Rotation Guide!

General Information

Announcement & Cinematic Trailer

Most Recently Revealed Cards from Rise of Shadows

Druid

Druid Tokens

Hunter

Vereesa Windrunner Weapon

Mage

Paladin

Priest

Rogue

Shaman

Warlock

Warrior

Neutral

Neutral cards for new expansions aren’t always consistent in their rarities.

Legendaries

Chef Nomi Tokens

Epics

Rares

Commons

New Mechanics

New Keyword – Twinspell. When you cast a spell with Twinspell, it adds another copy of itself to your hand (but this time without Twinspell). So you can cast them twice in total. Unlike Echo, they don’t have to be played during the same turn. The Forest's Aid is an example of Twinspell card:

New Token Cards – Lackeys. Because every evil mastermind needs a lackey! Lackey are new Token cards. You can’t put them into your decks, they are only generated by other Rise of Shadows cards. There are five lackeys in total, one related to each of the villains. They are all 1 mana 1/1 minions with helpful Battlecries. They will be generated by many different cards, and EVIL Miscreant is just one of them.

New Mechanic – Schemes. Scheme cards are spells that start weak and grow stronger each turn they’re in your hand, increasing a number on them each turn. For example, Hagatha's Scheme starts as one point of AoE damage for 5 mana, but if it’s held for three more turns, it will be four AoE damage for 5 mana.

Scheme cards are spells that start weak and grow stronger each turn they’re in your hand, increasing a number on them each turn. For example, starts as one point of AoE damage for 5 mana, but if it’s held for three more turns, it will be four AoE damage for 5 mana. Callback Cards. All of our villains were around for quite some time, so some of the new cards might be familiar. Callback will be using mechanics from the past expansions, such as the Priest’s Forbidden Words, which uses “Forbidden” mechanic from Whispers of the Old Gods, that spent all of your remaining mana (e.g. Forbidden Shaping).

Solo Adventure Content

While we can’t say much about the solo content yet, one thing is sure – it will be bigger than ever! It will release in May, roughly a month after the expansion. It will feature 5 chapters, just like some of the old adventures, but there will be much, much more to do! You will start your adventure with only a single class with a single Hero Power, but you will unlock more as the time goes by. Each class (represented by a new, unique Hero) will have 3 different Hero Powers, with different play styles. You will fight against 75 different bosses in three different modes – Normal, Heroic and Anomaly. Completionists will also be happy with the fact that progress tracking will be much better than previously, letting you know how far you’ve got with each of the Class/Hero Power combinations.

First chapter will be free, while the other four will cost 700 gold per chapter (or $19.99 for all four). All five chapters will give you 15 Rise of Shadows Card Packs, a single Golden Classic Pack and a Golden version of Zayle, Shadow Cloak (which works like Whizbang the Wonderful, but gives you one of the five new decks at random).

We’ll share more information with you as soon as possible!

Pre-Purchase

There are two Pre-Purchase tiers this time around. The cheaper one costs $49.99 and gives you 50 Rise of Shadows Card Packs + Jewel of Lazul Card Back + Random Rise of Shadows Legendary.

The second, more expensive one, costs $79.99 and gives you 80 Rise of Shadows Card Packs + Jewel of Lazul Card Back + Madame Lazul Priest Hero Portrait + Random Golden Rise of Shadows Legendary.

Wallpapers

We’ve got over 70 desktop and mobile wallpapers from the Rise of Shadows expansion. We won’t show them here to not clutter this guide, but you can find them all here!

Key Art

Cinematic Stills

Post Changelog

March 20: Added card reveal schedule.

March 25: Added more information about reveal season & live stream.

March 27: Added link to our Ultimate Standard Rotation guide.

April 3: Added link to the final live stream.

April 8: Added link to Rise of Shadows Wallpapers.

April 9: Added release time and link to post with decks.