When Hearthstone's next annual Standard rotation takes place, ending the Year of the Phoenix and replacing it with the Year of the Gryphon, there will be a bigger change than in previous years. This year, the Basic and Classic Sets will be replaced by a 235-card bundle (160 class cards and 75 neutral cards) called the Core Set.

Among the cards to be reconstructed will be Isela, which gave one powerful "dream" card each turn. Isela will become "Isela the Dreamer" and will instead give players one "Dream" card each turn when played. Considering that all of these cards are ludicrous, this is a very powerful effect. She is not the only dragon that changes. Mulligos and Deathwing will also see their cards redesigned.

PC Gamer asked Blizzard if players who have the golden versions of the original cards will automatically get the golden versions of the new cards. Game Director Ben Lee replied, "No, they don't, but there is a fairly easy way to unlock them that players can participate in."

"All Core cards are earned," added Production Director Nathan Lyons-Smith.

"In both the Standard and Golden editions, you play the game, you win, and you earn the cards. I think it's exciting to be able to get meaningful and cool aspects of dragons for free just for playing the game, and as a player seven years ago, I would never have thought that was possible.

Elsewhere in the new core set, some of Shaman's very expensive overload cards have been rebalanced. For example, "Spirit of the Wild" now only gives 1 "overload," making it easier to play the card on the next turn.

The core set also reintroduces some "popular cards" from previous expansions that are now only playable in Wild mode. As you can already see from the opening photo, it marks the comeback of Annoy-O-Tron, who retired four years ago and will once again fill our brains with HELLO HELLO HELLO.

Spell cards will also change, with the permanent addition of spell schools. Every spell will be assigned one of seven schools (Arcane, Fire, Frost, Holy, Nature, Shadow, Fel).

However, not everything will be changed, for example, classic cards such as "Fireball" and "Tyrion Fordring" will remain the same. In addition, 29 of the cards in the core set are entirely new. When the "Year of the Gryphon" begins, players will be able to unlock the core set by bringing each class to level 10. Players who have already reached the required level will have their collections automatically updated.

Here are some of the core sets.

As Blizzard previously explained in the FAQ, during next year's card rotation, core sets will be replaced with new ones and obtained the same way.

As for how much the core set will change each year, Lee told PC Gamer: "We want the core set to function as actual playable cards. We will learn a lot in these first [few] months. And all the past expansions will influence our decisions next year as well.

"I think a big part of the core set each year is that there should probably be an exciting legend. This year we are adding Vanessa Van Cleef. I love her designs, they are really interesting and really fun. Thematically it makes sense: Edwin is gone and Vanessa shows up again. That kind of thing is really cool. There's a little story there that the players can buy into and understand.

Another change brought about by the Year of the Gryphon is the Hearthstone Classic format, which, along with Standard and Wild, will allow players to play Hearthstone in 2014, pre "Curse of Naxxramas". Cards playable in this format will have their own section in the Collection Manager, where Classic Card Packs (available in Classic or Wild) will be available for purchase. In other words, it is "Hearthstone" while being "World of Warcraft Classic".

BlizzCon is now underway BlizzCon is now underway, and we're excited to announce that Hearthstone will be the first Hearthstone event to be held in the U.S. in the next few months. So far, there has been plenty of Hearthstone news. For example, Hearthstone Mercenaries, a roguelike mode with hero teaming and simultaneous combat, and Forged in the Barrens, an expansion for the Horde.

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