We are currently making our way towards the announcement of the final expansion in the year of the Mammoth at BlizzCon. As is tradition for BlizzCon, it will be revealed during the Hearthstone – What’s Next panel on November 3rd, 2017 at 1:45pm PDT. There’s been a few clues that have come out recently that point towards a pirate/treasure-y styled expansion, so let’s take a look at all of the clues and hints that have led us there!
Thanks to this Reddit post for some of the information included in this post.
Year of the Mammoth Teaser
In a graphic shown during the reveal of Year of the Mammoth, Blizzard teased all of the upcoming expansions. The first one was obviously jungle themed and ended up being Journey to Un’Goro, we saw the frosty and rune based hint that ended up being Knights of the Frozen Throne, and the final image is of mountains, treasure, and gold which gave us our first hint towards the upcoming expansion.
BlizzCon 2017 Announcement of the Announcement
Blizzard is famous for their announcement of announcements, but this particular announcement had a couple of keywords that seemed to be deliberately placed (emphasis mine):
Greetings, travelers! Gather at the inn as the Hearthstone team gives you a look at what they’re serving up next and delve deep into how the Year of the Mammoth will come to a close! – Source
Now this is pretty minor, but as we look at some of the following clues it becomes pretty clear that there’s an element of caves, mining, digging, treasure, and other things of this nature.
Kobold Card Leak
One of the voice actors for Hearthstone tweeted out a small leak and reference to the art of an upcoming card. The card roughly translated is “Tunnel Rat/Rodent” and he apparently likes explosions. The art itself appears to be of a Kobold that looks to be mining underground (looks kind of like Dirty Rat). The video is still up on Reddit if you are curious.
Hearthstone Inn-vitational Announcement
The Hearthstone Inn-vitational is an event taking place at BlizzCon this year. There will be teams of popular streamers competing against each other in various events. Each team got a specific name, which for all intents and purposes seem to correspond with previous expansions. However, there’s the team of “Big-Time Buccaneers” that doesn’t represent any current expansion that we know of yet, so it is most likely referencing the one to be revealed.
The team name is probably the biggest clue in the post, but some other small details like these small icons of a treasure chest and a candle (referencing the Kobold), as well as the Inn-vitational graphic showing a treasure map have also all led to speculation.
BlizzCon Mystery Golden Legendary – Marin the Fox
Now to tie things together with something official so I don’t look like a conspiracy theorist is the reveal of the Mystery Golden Legendary. When the BlizzCon in-game bonus items for attendees and virtual ticket holders was announced all we knew is that it would be a Mystery Golden Legendary. It has now been revealed that it is Marin the Fox who appears to be an adventuring and treasure hunting pirate! This is an original character that does not currently exist in World of Warcraft that we know about. He kind of reminds me of Reno Jackson. Unfortunately we don’t know anything about the card other than the name and the art, but hopefully something more will be revealed soon!
Adventure! Danger! Derring-do! TREASURE! Meet Marin the Fox! Get a golden Marin with a BlizzCon 2017 Virtual Ticket – Source
That’s everything as far as I know, if you think I’ve missed something then let me know in the comments. I will update this post if any new news comes out!
If you haven’t enough of Pirates, think some of us that playing since beta what we think about murlocs. 😛
I remember old days all laughing and making fun of pirates theme when they started release… 1 year with “cancer” warrior made them re-think a bit hehe
I prefer pirate theme than fking paladin and murlocs.
This just in: The new Hearthstone expansion introduces dual-race cards!
Presenting the neutral Murloc-Pirate; the Pirloc!!
Murlocs and Pirates for all!!
Bladed Pirloc: 1 mana, 1/2, equip a 1/2 weapon!
Pirloc Naysayer: 2 mana, 1/2, Your Pirlocs are Immune to Destroy effects while you have a weapon equipped
Pirloc Toughskin: 3 mana, 3/3, Your Pirlocs are Immune to Spell Damage while you have a weapon equipped
Sounds legit…
How about
The Socialist – 5 mana, 5/5, Hero Powers can’t be used for the rest of the game
I’d like that.
Now, it’s not like I know a lot about Warcraft, but if you look at the shape of the background (the one behind the piles of gold) it might resemble the southern Dreanor map (it might also be completely random).
On the other hand the gold theme can be a reference to Deadmines or Pandaria… (or well that’s what I’ve read around on the forums).
Anyway we’ll know for sure in 5 days.
With the kobold, I’m thinking Deadmines. Pirates (and Captain Cookie himself) are part of that adventure, as are kobolds. There aren’t any kobolds in Booty Bay.
its going to be like an Ixalan set like magic the gathering maybe
Not that Ixalan is like a mix of MSoG and Un’Goro … 😉
LOL true… Karma… Hearthstone rips off MtG rips off Hearthstone!
That icon isn’t a treasure chest; it’s a mimic
they are making ragnarok cards now
As cool as this sounds, i cant belive that they would make a pirate themed expansion after what had happend last year. Pirates are awesome in a right amount, but we pretty muched OD on “im in charge now”.
I totally agree with you, just fed up with pirates.