Today at an event in San Francisco, Blizzard announced a new expansion pack for Hearthstone — The Grand Tournament. It’ll be out next month. You can watch the trailer above.
Like Goblins vs. Gnomes before it, The Grand Tournament will add a whole bunch of new cards to the world of Blizzard’s collectible card game, this time focused around a big ol’ goofy Argent Crusade tournament in which heroes are brought together to compete against one another to see who can buy the most card packs.
Says Blizzard:
When the Lich King and his undead Scourge threatened the world, the Argent Crusade called upon Azeroth’s mightiest heroes to prove their mettle in a magnificent tournament. Knights of all races flocked to Northrend, vying for glory in epic battles against fearsome monsters. Though the Lich King’s evil has been vanquished, the Grand Tournament continues… the competitive atmosphere’s just a bit more playful than it used to be.
So what’s in this pack? Well, there’s a new board:
But you’ll probably be more concerned about the new cards. We haven’t seen all of them yet, of course—Blizzard says there are 130!—but some of the cards announced so far feature a new ability called Inspire. Says Blizzard: “Minions with the inspire keyword possess a special ability that may only be activated by using your Hero Power.” For example, one minion will add a random spell to your hand every time you trigger your Hero Power; another will gain +1 attack.
Here’s a look at some of the cards we’ll see in The Grand Tournament, some of which will undoubtedly lead to some “OP” screams. (Look at that Coldarra Drake...)
Blizzard says this one’s coming in August. You’ll be able to buy it with either gold or IRL money, just like previous Hearthstone expansions/adventures.
You can reach the author of this post at jason@kotaku.com or on Twitter at @jasonschreier.