The Festival of Legends show is far from getting to an end, moreover, Hearthstone could be announcing its Mini-Set this upcoming week!

Players still fine-tuning their decks after the 26.2.2 Hearthstone balance patch should hurry up since the Festival of Legends Mini-Set could jump to the main stage any minute now. It does not take to have an absolute pitch to hear this new update coming. Let's go over when this second Festival of Legends act should start.

What is a Hearthstone Mini-Set?

As an intro, let me explain what Hearthstone Mini-Sets are. These content updates are mid-expansion card releases you can buy all together in a bundle. Before the introduction of the Death Knight class, they consisted of 35 cards, now the count has gone up by 3 including some class cards for the new folk in town.

From experience, Mini-Sets costs 2000 Gold or $14.99 and include the following pool of cards:

  • 4 Legendary cards
  • 1 Epic card
  • 17 Rare cards
  • 16 Common cards
Return to Naxxramas - Hearthstone Mini-set for March of the Lich King expansion
Return to Naxxramas - Hearthstone Mini-set for March of the Lich King expansion

Festival of Legends Mini-Set announcement and launch

While guessing is never an exact science, one has been around for some time to get some things right. Actually, this is not just guessing, there is evidence that points towards Hearthstone announcement coming next week, with the Mini-Set launching only days after.

Hearthstone Mini-Set timings

Past trends usually help predict what's gonna happen next or at least help you draw some conclusions. Hearthstone Mini-Sets were first introduced in the Darkmoon Faire expansion with the Darkmoon Races set. Since then, Mini-Set releases have been fairly consistent, and have followed a schedule that Dean Ayala, the former Hearthstone Game Director explained.

Doing some research we can corroborate that X.4 Hearthstone patches that bring the Mini-Set content, usually land around eight weeks after the expansion.

Expansion Name
Release Date
Mini-Set
Release Date
March of the Lich King
12/6/2022
Return to Naxxramas
2/14/2023
Murder at Castle Nathria
8/2/2022
Maw and Disorder
9/27/2022
Sunken City
4/12/2022
Throne of the Tides
6/1/2022
Divided in Alterac Valley
12/7/2021
Onyxia's Lair
2/15/2022
United in Stormwind
8/3/2021
Deadmines
11/2/2021
Forged in the Barrens
3/30/2021
Wailing Caverns
6/3/2021
Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
11/17/2020
Darkmoon Races
1/21/2021
Expansions and Mini-Set cycles

While the system isn't a Clockwork Gnome job, the 2-month rule is fairly consistent. Some sets might have a slight delay, either due to holidays or other game announcements, such as the Mercenaries release. But, all in all, it makes sense.

So, by this rule, the next Hearthstone Mini-Set should arrive on June 6th, right? But wait, as we said, this isn't an exact science, and the next clue will explain why it might be a week before that.

Hearthstone Heroic Tavern Brawl

This might sound strange, but Blizzard loves making money. So for them, it's way better to sell Mini-Sets for cash (or Runestones) than for Gold. If players find their Gold chests empty at the time Blizzard announces the Mini-Set, then Hearthstone goes cha-ching.

The way Hearthstone found to do this is by launching Heroic Tavern Brawls right before the Mini-Set arrival. This happened during the Murder at Castle Nathria and March of the Lich King expansions.

This time, however, Hearthstone had to postpone the Heroic Brawliseum for a week due to a balance update. If everything had gone according to what was originally planned, Hearthstone's Heroic Tavern Brawl would have ended on May 24, with the Mini-Set being announced just one or two days after.

The only question to answer now is if this Heroic Brawliseum delay will also push back the Mini-Set announcement. That's something we will find out next Thursday.

As always, stay tuned to find out and check out more Hearthstone content. Be sure to visit esports.gg for all the latest esports news.