Blizzard just announced the upcoming mini-set. To be fair, it’s not like it was a secret to begin with, because it was already showcased back in November during Warcraft Direct, but we finally have some more details and the first card reveals.
The Great Dark Beyond mini-set is called “Heroes of Starcraft” and it launches next week, on January 21, 2025. The set contains more cards – 49 in total (instead of usual 38). The rarity breakdown looks like this: 4x Legendary, 1x Epic, 20x Rare, and 24x Common. Just like always, the cards will become available in expansion packs (in this case The Great Dark Beyond packs), but you will also be able to purchase the entire mini-set either for $20 or 2500 Gold or craft the cards individually. A full-Golden version (including a bonus Diamond Legendary) is also available for $80, or 12,000 Gold. As you can see, the mini-set has more cards than usual, but it’s also slightly more expensive. It costs $5 or 500 Gold more, and in return, you get 3 more Rare and 8 more Common cards (2 copies of each).
For the first time ever, you can also purchase parts of the mini-set. Instead of buying the whole thing, you can get one of three factions (Zerg, Protoss, Terran). Zerg faction includes Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Warlock. Protoss faction includes Druid, Mage, Priest, and Rogue. Terran faction includes Paladin, Shaman, and Warrior. So purchasing any of those factions gives you all of the class cards for those classes + “Neutral” cards that belong to that faction. Buying individual faction costs $10 or 1200 Gold. In other words, if you want all of the cards, it’s not worth it (you pay 1/2 of the price for 1/3 of the content). But if you’re only interested in a few classes and they happen to be bundled together in the same faction, it might be a good way to save some Gold or money.
What’s interesting about the mini-set is that it only has a single true Neutral Legendary card that you can use in every single class – Grunty. Other than that, all of the “Neutral” cards are just multi-class cards. For example, a Neutral card from a Zerg faction can only be played in Zerg classes (DK, DH, Hunter, Warlock).
Blizzard also announced special promo events for the mini-set called “StarCast” and “HeartCraft”. StarCast (January 23) will be a showmatch between Trump and Day9 (both of which were notable StarCraft players before Hearthstone), with commentary from other StarCraft icons – Artosis and Tasteless. Meanwhile, HearthCraft (January 24) will be a small invitational tournament with 9 content creators assigned to one of three teams and fighting for the domination of their faction. Sottle and guest casters from the teams who aren’t playing at the time will provide commentary. Twitch Drops will be active during both events, you can earn 1 GDB and 1 Golden GDB card packs for watching each of those events.
Card reveals are starting today and will continue throughout the week. You can find all of them in a separate post.
Learn more about the mini-set from the official blog post below:
We’ve explored new technologies, charted new worlds, and faced new threats across the universe. But now it’s nearly time for Hearthstone to boldly go further than it’s ever gone before with The Great Dark Beyond Mini-Set: Heroes of StarCraft!
Heroes of StarCraft, launching on January 21, is our biggest Mini-Set ever, consisting of 49 new cards (instead of the usual 38): 4 Legendary cards, 1 Epic card, 20 Rare cards, and 24 Commons cards. Those are broken down into 3 class cards per class, 5 multi-class cards per StarCraft faction, and one non-faction neutral card, Grunty.
Those cards can either be opened in The Great Dark Beyond packs or unlocked as a complete 94-card set.* The normal version of the Mini-Set is available for $19.99 USD or 2500 Gold. The all-Golden version of the Mini-Set is available for $79.99 USD or 12,000 Gold and comes with a bonus Diamond Legendary card: Grunty! For this special Mini-Set, you can also get normal versions of each of the individual factions for $9.99 or 1200 Gold if you just want one.**
* Includes one copy of each Legendary card and two copies of each other card in the Mini-Set.
** Includes one copy of each Legendary card and two copies of each other card in that particular faction of the Mini-Set, meaning the 5 multi-class cards for that faction, plus the 3 class cards for each of the classes that make up that faction. Single-faction size, class, and rarity breakdown depends on the particular faction.
Command Your Faction
The Heroes of StarCraft Mini-Set is split into the three iconic StarCraft factions: the Zerg, the Protoss, and the Terrans. Each faction has 5 cards that can be played across all the classes within that faction, including a Legendary Hero card as their leader, plus three class-specific cards per class within the faction.
Zerg
Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Warlock have joined the Zerg! Led by the vicious Sarah Kerrigan, the Zerg are known for swarming aggression. They are good at generating lots of minion tokens to take their opponents down with attacks and direct damage.
Protoss
Druid, Mage, Priest, and Rogue fight for the Protoss. Led by the noble High Templar Artanis, they specialize in powerful, higher-cost cards that are made cheaper throughout the game. They are good at ramping up to explosive bursts of power.
Terran
And finally, Paladin, Shaman, and Warrior make up the Terran forces. Led by the legendary Jim Raynor, the Terran have special Starship synergies that help them launch multiple Starships each game.
The Terran classes also now have a special Starship: the Battlecruiser! The Battlecruiser has new art and the Mech minion type.* If you have a Signature Starship piece in your Starship, you will get the Signature-art version of the Battlecruiser.
* If you are a Paladin, Shaman, or Warrior when you launch your Starship, it will be the Battlecruiser—just like how the Starship classes had unique art treatments in the main set, but expanded to also add a minion type.
Special Heroes of StarCraft Events
StarCast
Join legendary StarCraft and Hearthstone players for a showmatch years in the making! On January 23, starting at 10 a.m. (PT), TrumpSC and Day9 will face off in a showmatch highlighting the Heroes of StarCraft. Casting their match will be another pair of icons: Tasteless and Artosis! Watch the Twitch stream and earn 1 The Great Dark Beyond Pack and 1 Golden The Dark Beyond Pack (make sure you link your Twitch and Battle.net accounts so that your viewing time counts towards the drops).
HearthCraft
Then join community creators for Hearthstone matches and mini-games as they compete for faction dominance! Faction members will also take turns guest-casting matches with host and Caster extraordinaire, Sottle.
- Team Terran: Feelink, Jambre, Babybear
- Team Protoss: Zeddy, Tars, Theo
- Team Zerg: Curly, Lilithy, D0nkey
The show starts on January 24, at 9 a.m. (PT). Watch on PlayHearthstone or SolaryHS (French language, hosted by Odemian) Twitch channels and earn 1 The Great Dark Beyond Pack and 1 Golden The Great Dark Beyond Pack!
The Countdown’s On
Mini-Set cards are being revealed all week! Keep an eye out for all these incoming transmissions:
- January 14 (2am PT): Hearthtoon reveal video
- January 14 (10am PT): Jim Raynor reveal
- January 15 (10am PT): Artanis reveal
- January 16 (10am PT): Sarah Kerrigan reveal
- January 17 (9am PT): 31.4 Patch Notes
- January 17 (12 pm PT): Grunty reveal
- January 21: 31.4 Patch Live and Mini-Set launch
- January 23: StarCast event
- January 24: HearthCraft event
The fun’s just getting started. Check out the official Card Library for the full reveal schedule and all the cards that have been revealed so far!
