Update: The expansion is now live! Enjoy!
Showdown in the Badlands is the third expansion of Year of the Wolf (2023). The Bloodrock Mining Company found powerful Azerite in the Badlands. They’re digging deep and bleeding the land dry, disrupting the Badlands and awakening slumbering elementals! Now mysterious outlaws are riding into town to set things right. Tumbleweeds roll by and high noon looms. Grab your horse and your hat, it’s nearly time for a Showdown in the Badlands!
The expansion will add 145 new cards (with a mini-set adding 38 more at a later date), as well as a variety of new mechanics and synergies. Learn everything you should know about it below!
Release Time
Let’s start with the most important – when does the new expansion launch? Hearthstone sets have a simultaneous launch across the globe, so Badlands should be out on every server at the same time. However, the time it launches for you depends on where you live – some countries from the Eastern Hemisphere will have it out on November 15 instead of the “official” November 14 release date because of time zone differences. Here are some example launch times for different time zones:
- 10 AM Pacific Time on Tuesday (August 1)
- 1 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday (August 1)
- 7 PM Central European Time on Tuesday (August 1)
- 2 AM Korean Standard Time on Wednesday (August 2)
- 3 AM Australian Eastern Time on Wednesday (August 2)
Since the expansion was already pre-loaded a week ago, you won’t need to download a big patch when it launches (if you still haven’t done it, just launch the Battle.net client and update the game). It also means that mobile release should happen exactly at the same time as PC. Just make sure to open the game early and download any patches if you haven’t been playing lately.
Freebies
When new expansion launches, players are usually greeted with some free stuff, like packs, free Legendaries etc. Here’s what we know so far about Badlands:
- Players could already earn some freebies, including Badlands packs, through Twitch drops before the expansion’s launch. But if you didn’t get them, don’t worry, you aren’t that far behind.
- Every player will get two Catch-Up Packs after logging in on launch day. They’re a new type of pack meant to help new/returning players with small collections. You can learn more about them here.
- Thunderbringer was given out as a free Badlands Legendary in Patch 27.6. If you haven’t picked it up yet, just log in and it’ll be waiting for you in-game.
- Sheriff Barrelbrim is unlocked on Level 1 of the new Rewards Track, which means that you will get it as soon as the expansion releases.
- A new in-game event (Wanted: Dead or Alive) will launch six days after the expansion. Players can get 2 Badlands Packs, 5 Catch-Up Packs, and a new Warlock skin for completing it.
- Not exactly “free”, but if you plan to buy a Tavern Pass, you can get a Diamond version of Velarok Windblade on Level 2. While Tavern Pass is mostly about XP boosts and Cosmetics, the extra Legendary you get at the start is also a nice bonus. If you already own a regular version of the card (you opened him in the packs), getting a Diamond copy will let you reroll the normal version into another Legendary card you don’t own.
- The first few levels of rewards track require almost no XP, so they are meant to be unlocked nearly instantly as you start playing. You will unlock three extra Badlands packs over the first 9 levels, which you should easily be able to achieve on Day 1 (only 1550 XP is required to get there). You can get even further into the rewards track if you keep your Weekly and Daily Quests to get a jump start on the new rewards track.
- If you’re a new or returning player (haven’t logged in for over 90 days), you will be offered one of the updated free decks. To be more specific – you get to borrow all 6 decks for a week and play them as much as you want, but after a week is over you have to pick one of them and only that will be added to your collection.
New Keyword/Mechanic – Quickdraw
Let’s start with the easier one. The first new mechanic is called “Quickdraw” and it activates an extra effect the turn the card is added to your hand. After the initial turn, the bonus effect is gone – of course, the card will still have a “base” effect, but it’s going to be much weaker.
Note that I said “added to your hand”, not “drawn”. It means that Quickdraw is also active for cards that you generate. It will definitely impact some Discover decisions.
Dehydrate is an example of a Quickdraw card. It’s a 3 mana Shaman spell that deals 4 damage to a minion with Lifesteal. At its core, it works exactly the same as a pre-buff Tidal Surge. However, it also has a “Quickdraw: Costs (1)” effect – it means that the turn you draw or generate it, you can play it at a 2 mana discount.
Some Quickdraw cards, such as Sunspot Dragon, come with a Tradeable keyword. This can be very helpful – if you draw them too early, you can just push them back into your deck and hopefully activate the Quickdraw at a better time later.
New Keyword/Mechanic – Excavate
The second mechanic, Excavate, is much more complicated, but I hope that I will be able to explain it quite clearly. The simplest card using this mechanic is Kobold Miner. It reads “Battlecry: Excavate a treasure.”. Let’s start with what happens in every class whenever you Excavate a treasure.
- The first time you Excavate in a given match, you get a random 1 mana treasure (Common). There are 5 options in total.
- The second time you Excavate, you get a random 2 mana treasure (Rare). There are 5 options.
- The third time you Excavate, you get a random 3 mana treasure (Epic). There are 5 options.
You can find a full list of Treasures below, but for now, all you need to know is that they have a high power level for their mana cost (e.g. a 1 mana spell that adds 2 Coins to your hand, or a 3 mana spell dealing 3 damage to all enemies).
What happens next depends on your class. In 6 out of 11 classes (in lore those are “Outlaw” classes, but let’s call them non-excavate classes), you simply repeat the cycle. Fourth excavate gives you a 1 mana treasure, fifth a 2 mana treasure, and so on (1-2-3, 1-2-3). Non-excavate classes are Demon Hunter, Druid, Hunter, Paladin, Priest, and Shaman. Those can still take advantage of Excavate cards e.g. when randomly generated, but they probably shouldn’t focus on this mechanic.
As you’ve probably guessed, the other 5 classes (in lore they are “Miner” classes) specialize in Excavate and get an extra, fourth step. Excavate classes are Death Knight, Mage, Rogue, Warlock, and Warrior. Instead of repeating the cycle after the third treasure, they get a special, powerful 4 mana Legendary treasure. This one isn’t random – every class has a unique Treasure only they can get. Then, after the fourth excavation, the cycle starts over just like with non-excavate classes. So your fifth will give you a 1 mana treasure, sixth a 2 mana treasure, and so on (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4). The Legendary treasures are much more powerful and have potentially game-winning effects. They’re the reason why you might consider building your entire deck around Excavate synergies.
Below, you can find a full list of Excavate Treasures.
1 Mana Tresures (Common)
2 Mana Treasures (Rare)
3 Mana Treasures (Epic)
4 Mana Treasures (Legendary)
All of the Legendary Excavate treasures have been revealed. Here’s how they look:
New Signature Cards
Just like the last expansion, Blizzard allowed content creators to reveal Showdown in the Badlands Signature cards early. The reception of some of them is mixed, but others are nearly universally praised. Overall I would say that Signature cards are in a good spot now, especially if you compare them to how they launched. In case you haven’t seen them, we’ve gathered all of the Badlands Signature Cards in this post. And here are some top rated examples:
New Rewards Track
The rewards track, first introduced in Darkmoon Faire, is getting another refresh. When Showdown in the Badlands launches, all players will get reset to Level 1 and will work their way up through the track again. If you were playing the game last expansion, then you pretty much know everything you need to know. Both the free rewards track and the Tavern Pass look exactly the same content-wise (of course, the exact packs, cards etc. you get are different, but they come in the same amounts and rarities). And in case you’re new to the game or returning after a long break, you can learn more about the track and find a full list of rewards in this post.
Your daily & weekly Quests will NOT reset when the new expansion launches. It’s not a bad idea to save them for after the launch to give you a nice boost through the early levels of the rewards track. The only situations in which I’d recommend finishing all your Quests under the old rewards track is if you have Tavern Pass right now, but you don’t plan to buy a new one after launch (this way you’ll get 20% extra XP), or you haven’t finished the previous rewards track and you’re close to leveling for some good rewards. In the second case, if you want to min-max, try to hit a new level on your current rewards track and stop there because any “excess” XP won’t carry over. Ultimately this is not a big deal and no matter what you do, you should come up with a similar amount of rewards in the long run. But a free pack here and there can’t hurt, right?
Additionally, we have an update to the Level 100 rewards track and “Tavern Regular” achievement skins. Those are the free skins you pick based on your rewards track progress… but some players already ran out of options, while others were close. Because of that, Blizzard decided to add 6 more skins to both of those (so 12 skins in total). I think they’re an upgrade compared to the ones we had previously, so even if you still had some options, you might consider picking them instead. Check out how they look here.
New & Returning Players Experience
I’ve already mentioned it in the freebies section, but let me expand on it. If you are a new player or haven’t been playing the game in a while (90+ days to be exact), you might be happy to hear that some extra goodies are waiting for you once you log in. You get two things – an extra Quest Chain with some nice rewards and a free Standard deck of your choice. Those free decks are updated every expansion but notably DO NOT include any cards from the latest set (so, for example, Showdown in the Badlands decks include cards from up to the TITANS). However, they are a nice start and can serve you early into the new set before you can open enough packs or craft something else.
An extra feature added recently is that you no longer have to pick your free deck right away. You get access to all of them for a week, and only after that week passes you have to decide to keep one. It means that you have enough time to test all of them and see which one fits you the best.
You can find an updated list of Showdown in the Badlands free decks here.
New Showdown in the Badlands Decks
Once the expansion launches, I will be compiling decks from pro players & streamers in this post. I’ll try to add decks for all 11 classes, but it’s hard to say whether every single class will be viable around launch. This post will be updated every few hours over the early expansion period (roughly the first week). We also generally have compilations of best-performing decks in separate posts – one after ~24 hours and the second one a week after launch. So if you want something to base your early crafting decisions on, that would be your best choice (it’s still not a guarantee that those decks will remain viable, but it’s better than nothing).
Alternatively, you can check out Old Guardian’s theorycrafting impressions. He talks about each class and how it might fare in the upcoming expansion, plus he showcases some decks from the event. Those never translate into the expansion meta once it launches and everyone gets to play it, but some decks that are strong during theorycrafting also end up being good once the set launches. So you can get some ideas this way. Here’s the article! Vicious Syndicate also always prepare an article with lots of decks to try on Day 1. And they are usually really good at predicting some upcoming meta builds. Of course, most of them turn out to be bad (because it’s just theorycrafting), but when they hit something right, the build is often very close to a full-fledged, meta deck. You can check them out here.
