Hearthstone: Wailing Caverns leaked, possibly new mini-set?

We are just a week away from the release of Hearthstone's latest expansion set, Forged in the Barrens.

This will be the first set in the Year of the Gryphon, and also the first new set that will be released alongside the Core Set, which means that the meta will see some of the biggest changes in the history of the game.

And while this is all quite exciting and players can't wait to try new cards and see how well the Core Set will perform, it is always interesting to speculate about the future sets as well.

Popular Hearthstone site Hearthpwn has datamined some interesting details which might suggest what will be the theme and the name of the future expansion, and quite possibly the next mini-set. 

In the game's code, they have discovered a previously unknown card set, titled "Wailing Caverns".

(Picture: Blizzard/Hearthpwn)

The name of this set was found alongside other new card sets, the ones we already know about, which are either released or about to be released.

This almost certainly means that this is indeed related to a new set, but maybe the name is not final yet.

The reason why it might be a new mini-set rather than a full expansion is simple: The Wailing Caverns is located within the Barrens area in Warcraft, and in World of Warcraft,  it is one of the very first dungeon instances.

Furthermore, even the official Forged in the Barrens art has an image depicting this location, but what's particularly intriguing is that Forged in the Barrens has practically nothing related to the Wailing Caverns, which only adds to the theory that this location is left aside to be fully explored as a mini-set.

Even the official expansion art is showing the location, but the Wailing Caverns are nowhere to be found in cards from the set (Picture: Blizzard)

Hearthstone's first mini set, Darkmoon Races, has been thematically connected with the Darkmoon Faire expansion, and Blizzard confirmed that all mini-sets will be integrated into expansion packs from the previous sets.

• Read more: 3D Diamond Cards are coming to Hearthstone with Forged in the Barrens

This is, of course, all just speculation currently, but it is clear that Blizzard has at least some plans with this location, but what exactly are those plans, we will have to wait and see.

Forged in the Barrens is slated for release on 30th March 2021, for all platforms.