(OUT NOW!) Scholomance Academy Releases Today – Here’s What You Need to Know About the New Expansion!

Update: Scholomance Academy is now out! We hope you will all enjoy it!

Scholomance Academy is the second expansion of Year of the Phoenix (2020). It will be set in the alternative version of Scholomance Academy – a dark school of necromancy founded by Kel’Thuzad in the original lore. In Hearthstone it’s giving more friendly, “high school” vibes, with a lot of magic involved (not only dark magic). However, some secret is hidden under the school and we’ll have to find out what is that (most likely during solo content, but we don’t have any info about that yet). Expansion will add 135 new cards, as well as a variety of mechanics we have never seen before.

Check out our Scholomance Academy expansion guide, which contains tons of information including a full list of cards.

Release Time

Let’s start with the most important – when does the new expansion launch? For years now, Hearthstone sets have a simultaneous launch across the globe, so it should be out on every server at the same time. However, the time it launches for you depends on your time zone.

• 10 AM Pacific Time on Thursday
• 1 PM Eastern Time on Thursday
• 7 PM Central European Time on Thursday
• 2 AM Korean Standard Time on Friday
• 3 AM Australian Eastern Time on Friday

So depending on where you live, the set might launch Thursday morning or in the middle of the Thursday / Friday night.

New Mechanics

New expansion also means new mechanics. This time we’ve got two main things that stand out – a new keyword (Spellburst) and dual class cards (40 of them in total).

When Spellburst minion/weapon is played, you can trigger its effect by casting any spell. However, it’s only a one-time effect, which means that after the first spell, you will no longer be able to trigger it again. It does NOT work like Wild Pyromancer, for example.

Dual class cards will combine the mechanics and synergies from two classes they are available to. Which means that if you play a card in a given class, you might have access to some unique mechanics that were previously only available to the second class. And so, you might be able to put a Combo card into Mage, or gain extra Mana Crystals as Shaman. This should open a lot of new ways to play for every class. Here’s the class wheel that should help you visualize the potential combinations better:

Many of the new cards come with unique and interesting effects, things that we haven’t seen before. Here are some examples:

• We’re getting a new series of Studies cards (e.g. Nature Studies, Draconic Studies, Athletic Studies) which let you Discover a card of certain type and then discount the next card of that type you play (not necessarily the one you Discovered). They add a lot of flexibility to the decks and let you play some of your key cards a turn earlier.
• Demon Hunter & Warlock are getting a Soul Fragment mechanic. Some cards let you shuffle them into your deck (e.g. Spirit Jailer), while others consume them for some extra effect (e.g. Soulshard Lapidary).
• Sphere of Sapience is very similar to Magic: The Gathering’s “Scry” mechanic and it’s the first time we have draw control like that.
• Similarly, Lorekeeper Polkelt is the first time we can re-order our deck in Hearthstone.

And those are just some of many cool mechanics in Scholomance Academy!

Freebies

All players who log in after the launch will immediately receive one random class Legendary from Scholomance Academy for free. Since there are 20 of them in total, the chances of finding exactly the one you want aren’t very high – but there’s a lot of great Legendaries this time around, so hitting anything should be good!

On top of that, players will get a chain of Legendary Quests which reward Scholomance Card Packs:

• August 6, 10:00 AM PT: Play 25 Cards in Play mode to earn 2 Scholomance Academy card packs.
• August 7, 10:00 AM PT: Play 20 Spells in any mode to earn 2 Scholomance Academy card packs
• August 8, 10:00 AM PT: Win 3 games any mode to earn 2 Scholomance Academy card packs.

Remember that the Quest will replace one of the Quests in your log if it’s full – so if possible, leave an open slot.

New Decks

Don’t know what decks to try out when the expansion launches? Feel free to try one of our Scholomance Academy theorycrafts:

• Quest Druid, Quest Hunter, Quest Priest, Quest Rogue, Quest Warlock & Quest Warlock Theorycrafts by Old Guardian
• Spellburst Tempo Mage, Highlander Shaman & Malygos Druid Theorycrafts by Tharid
• Aggro Demon Hunter, Soul Fragment Demon Hunter, Aggro Weapon Rogue, Burgle Galakrond Rogue, Aggro Quest Rogue & Aggro Stealth Rogue Theorycrafts by J_Alexander
• Highlander Warrior, Thief Priest, Control Warlock & Control Demon Hunter Theorycrafts by Old Guardian
• Tempo Paladin, Control Paladin, Divine Shield Paladin, Pure Paladin & Murloc Paladin Theorycrafts by Yellorambo

If you don’t find anything that interets you in there, don’t worry – we’ll be covering all of the new decks from streamers & pros and adding them to our site (including this post).

Arena

There’s no Arena rotation this time around – we’ll still be playing in Standard format. The only difference is that Scholomance Academy cards will be added to the list of cards you can draft from.