Moments ago Blizzard started their afternoon live event which was being held for some major announcement regarding their TCG title Hearthstone. While there have been plenty of guesses as to what this announcement was going to be, and plenty of teasing from Blizzard, we now know exactly what the announcement is. As it turns out, there is a new expansion coming to the game.
So what is the expansion? It is officially called The Grand Tournament. It’s actually based just after the Lich King was defeated after the Argent Tournament, hence the theme music being played during the scroll box opening a couple of weeks ago. Invites were sent out to all the mighty heroes in the lands to show up to battle it out in a continuous tournament on the Argent Tournament grounds. However, this is where is goes off into left field away from the actual World of Warcraft history, with new faces showing up, and some humor is involved.
new Grand Tournament Play Board
Here is a list of what is coming with the Grand Tournament:
– New Argent-themed Grand Tournament board (eat from food area, people in stands cheer or be sad based on your performance, secrets in archery area)
– New Mechanics: Heroes are now a big focus, new cards to effect player’s heroes (a lot of them)
– New Inspire Mechanic: Triggers different effects of all kinds
– All of these new features open up a LOT of new possibilities and combinations
– Over 130 new cards with new booster packs as well as in other boosters
New cards officially revealed so far
So Blizzard will be opening up a pre-purchase period of time next week. This will allow players interested in grabbing a bunch of Grand Tournament card packs to do so ahead of time and will be able to at a discount. They will also get an exclusive new card back for pre-purchasing the expansion packs. Players won’t be able to open or use the new packs until the Grand Tournament opens up.
When will that be? Blizzard gave a general time from for the Grand Tournament to begin sometime next month. We will be posting updates as more details and cards are shown off. Today saw a few cards revealed and some of the audience reactions to these cards was priceless like when Blizzard showed a new Hunter Spell card. One thing is for sure, Hearthstone will have a lot more ways to play it now with hero buff decks and so on being built soon.
Blizzard has also put up a micro-site for the Grand Tournament expansion which will be updated between now and next month’s release with additional info.
Official Website: Hearthstone Grand Tournament
