New class additions to Hearthstone don’t come often, but the next one has been announced during BlizzCon 2026’s Opening Ceremony: The Monk is coming to the card game, leaving just the Evoker as the lone class to be left out.
The Monk’s upcoming addition was one of several major pieces of news for Hearthstone revealed. A new expansion called Reign of the Black Empire that is set 10,000 years in the past will focus on the Black Empire and a struggle between the Old Gods and the Titans.
If that excites the lore enjoyer in you, you’ll also be happy to hear that the Journal is being transformed into The Journey. This is meant to give a more narrative-driven wrapper to the game, as it’ll seek to tie the story together between expansions, modes, and limited-time events. The Journey will grow as you play through Reign of the Black Empire, tying together quests, achievements, and more elements of the game.
As far as the Monk goes, we don’t know much in terms of how they’ll play. We only got a short teaser for the new class, which marks the first such addition since the Death Knight arrived in 2022. The game originally launched with nine characters before later adding Demon Hunter and then Death Knight. The Monk will arrive in March 2027, with more details coming next year.
Other new features coming to Hearthstone include a new keyword, Assemble, which lets you effectively merge two minions into one, which sounds similar to Magnetize; you can pick specific text from their descriptions to create new combos. A new minion type, Aberrations, was also revealed, with their deaths feeding the gods in some way. Aberrations will be specific to Battlegrounds, which is also getting a 2v2 main ranked mode.
Reign of the Black Empire releases on October 20.
