Blizzard has only released one real expansion for Hearthstone since the game’s release, which was the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion. While adventure updates do include new cards, there is only a small amount added to the game and so they do expand what is available card-wise in Hearthstone, it isn’t like a full expansion such as Goblins vs Gnomes which added 150+ cards. It appears that Blizzard may be teasing yet another expansion for Hearthstone, this time themed with pirates and ninjas.
While nothing has been officially confirmed by Blizzard as actually existing, the company did switch out their Facebook cover photo yesterday to a different one which has a similar style to the Goblins vs Gnomes promo image, but this time featuring a theme revolving around pirates and ninjas. While the pirate part is pretty obvious in the new image, the ninja part isn’t so much. However, if you look at the two-headed orge in the image, one half is dressed as a pirate while the other is dressed as a ninja.
Of course the buzz surrounding this image could just be that, buzz and nothing more, there are a few interesting coincidences that point to this being a teaser image. The new card back for the current season is a ninja-themed one, and there is the ninja custom being worn in the new image. All the Hearthstone cards in the new image are also facing away, not showing what is actually one them, just the card backs. There is also a pink-haired gnome giving a thumbs-up in the image, as if passing the torch onto a new expansion. If the whole ‘versus’ theme continues, and this is likely an expansion, than it would mean that it would be a Pirates vs Ninjas expansion.
Pirate cards are well underused. You don’t see a whole lot of pirate decks running around and when you do see a pirate card pop up in gameplay, 90% of the time it is fodder. Of course there is the other 10% which is mainly for the card effect some pirate cards have. It works well for certain deck types like Warrior decks. So a new expansion with a pirate and ninja theme would definitely bring more attention to pirate cards.
Of course this is all reading into an image change Blizzard made on Facebook. Granted Blizzard doesn’t do a whole lot that doesn’t have meaning to it. We will have to wait for official confirmation as to whether everyone is just reading too much into this, or if everyone is right and this is a new expansion.
Website Referenced: TouchArcade
