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Hearthstone’s big Grand Tournament expansion pack is inbound folks, and Blizzard is finally done with all the foolish teasing. The company has announced the release date for the expansion pack is August 24th, which is this coming Monday.
If you aren’t aware, the Grand Tournament will not only be Hearthstone’s biggest content patch by card additions — over 130, if you didn’t know — but it’s also the most impactful thanks to new mechanics being introduced:
- Joust: A Joust is a scenario where an outcome is determined by comparing 2 random cards inside each player’s deck. The player with the highest-costing card wins the joust. For instance, if you played a card that says “Joust: If Yours Costs Higher, Gain Charge,” your card would gain charge if yours costs more, but would simply come into the battlefield with its base stats and effects if your card costs less.
- Inspire: This is the other big new mechanic being introduced. Inspire occurs whenever you use your hero power. A card with “Inspire: Gain +1 Health” would give that card 1 extra point of health if you use your hero power, no matter what you use your hero power for or how you use it.
This is Blizzard’s big move to make hero powers as important as they ought to be, and we couldn’t be more excited for it. The patch will also bring new game-changing legendaries that are sure to turn the metagame on its head. Our friends at Hearthpwn have the full list of upcoming cards if you haven’t already seen them.
With that, Blizzard also released Patch 3.0, which brought a couple of new features. The biggest addition is ranked seasonal awards, which give you a reward chest at the end of each season for whichever rank you achieved.
The rewards mostly amount to a pack, dust and a free golden card, and you’ll get more of those things if your rank is higher (players rank 5 and up get 1 guaranteed Epic and 2 guaranteed Common cards, for instance). You’ll only have to achieve a rank once in order to get that tier of chest, so if you get to rank 5 and end up falling back in a season there’s no reason to worry about not receiving a rank 5 chest.
This week also brings us a Tavern Brawl that features decks loaded with Grand Tournament cards! The decks are pre-made and you don’t get to use all the exciting new cards set to be unleashed August 24th, but it at least gives us a pretty good taste of what’s to come. Don’t forget that the pre-order offer of $50 for 50 packs and a special edition Grand Tournament card back only lasts up to the day the cards are released. Be sure to get in on it before it’s too late!
[via Blizzard]
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