BlizzCon 2026 showed off some upcoming Blizzard games, but also celebrated lots of of the studio’s long-running titles. I’m not just talking about legacy games like Starcraft and Warcraft, though I suppose it’s worth noting that a new Warcraft 3 expansion, Forsaken Kingdom, was announced and released during the event. No, I’m talking about games like Overwatch and Hearthstone; games that are over a decade old but still find themselves receiving new content updates and ways to play.
I had the pleasure of participating in a group Q&A with Hearthstone Executive Producer Nathan Lyons-Smith and Lead Game Designer Brendan Sewell, where we chatted about the iconic card game‘s big new feature: 2v2 battles.
Co-op battles were added to Hearthstone years ago, with modes like Battleground Duos offering unique ways to play in groups, but 2v2 battles will offer a completely new and hardcore mode for skilled players… Well, eventually. For now, the plan is to test it out in Tavern Brawl: a more casual, experimental mode where players (and the devs) can test out some new ideas before implementing them into the game properly.
I asked about rebalancing the game for any new mode, and Lyons-Smith wryly conceded, “I will absolutely acknowledge there is a balance challenge associated with that.” Strategies that are balanced for 1v1 games might become completely broken in a 2v2 setting. There’s no real way to know for sure beyond testing over and over again, which is ostensibly what the Tavern Brawls mode is for. “Part of the reason for the Tavern Brawl rollout is that a whole lot of energy and time would be put in to make this the perfect experience,” explained Lyons-Smith. “And Tavern Brawl is not that. Tavern Brawl is, ‘hey, go have fun. Go find the most busted deck, play that a bunch, have fun for the week, and then roll over.'”
At launch, don’t expect 2v2 to be a perfectly balanced game mode, or as perfectly balanced as any deck-builder can reasonably expect to be. But do expect the team to react and fix balance problems as they present themselves. “Unlike a normal Tavern Brawl, we will be keeping an eye specifically on, ‘oh, did somebody find something super broken? Okay, go ban that right now.’ Let’s make sure the mode is fun.”
While some people might want to wait until the game is fully balanced before playing, that’s not really possible with a title that’s as sprawling and player-dependent as Hearthstone. But, like with fighting game patches and balancing changes to abilities in games like Borderlands and Diablo, there’s a certain magic that comes with being there as the game is tweaked. “The team puts a lot of energy into balancing for the traditional standard format. We don’t want player expectations to be that this is going to be like that at the start. Go have fun at Tavern Brawl, find fun combos, tell us what isn’t working, and we’ll react quickly to make changes.”
As for specific cards being altered to accommodate the new mode, there will be changes, but Lyons-Smith is keeping the details to himself for now. “There are some adjustments that we are making that are specific to 2v2. It’s part of the rollout.”
