‘Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament’ Expansion Adds New Ability, Pirate Riding A Parrot
Blizzard announced the latest expansion to Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft on Wednesday. The competitive card game for the PC and mobile devices is adding The Grand Tournament with 132 unique cards to match the Goblins vs. Gnomes deck released at the end of last year along with a new card ability that makes use of the game’s heroes and a card featuring an orc pirate riding a giant parrot. Seriously.
The new card ability being introduced with The Grand Tournament is called Inspire. This brings a new mechanic to the game where the ability will activate whenever a player uses the hero ability. The effect depends on the card, but the cards released so far reveal summoning a minion, buffing a minion, adding a spell to a player’s hand, and reducing the mana cost to play a minion.
In addition, other cards can work with the heroes in different ways other than the Inspire ability. “Maiden of the Lake” will reduce the cost of using a hero power by one while “Fallen Hero” will give your hero power an extra point of damage.
#Hearthstone‘s second expansion, The Grand Tournament, begins in August! http://t.co/ca8sF3juFa pic.twitter.com/dzL3qAPnEI
— Hearthstone (@PlayHearthstone) July 22, 2015
Story-wise, The Grand Tournament is tied to the Argent Tournament world event from World of Warcraft’s Wrath of the Lich King expansion. This tournament sought the mightiest champions from the Horde and Alliance to take on the Lich King. That means the introduction of knights, as explained in the background story for the Hearthstone expansion.
“Knights of all shapes and sizes from far and wide come together at the Grand Tournament to complete for fame and glory! Years ago, the Argent Crusade started the tournament as a way to find champions fit to take on Azeroth’s greatest villains. Now that the Frozen North is less perilous (and a tad bit warmer), the Grand Tournament has a playful side to it. Ogres, Pirates, Dragons, and even Murlocs have sent their finest Knights, ready to strut their stuff and show what they’re made of—all in the name of fun!”
The Grand Tournament expansion will be free and card packs can be purchased with gold earned in-game or purchased with real world money at the usual prices. However, Blizzard is offering Hearthstone players the opportunity to purchase a bundle pack containing 50-card packs solely for the expansion at a price of $49.99 and comes with an exclusive card back.
Those that do purchase The Grand Tournament bundle pack won’t be able to open the packs they’ve received until the game’s launch. So, you can just ogle them in your collection while waiting to go on a pack-opening spree.
A welcome change is also being made to the Arena rewards for Hearthstone with the release of the next expansion. Card packs awarded in the competitive mode will be randomized between a Classic pack, Goblins vs Gnomes pack, and Grand Tournament pack. No more getting just the GvG pack.
You can check out the collection of cards revealed for Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament in the gallery below. Of course, there’s also the catchy musical number from the trailer at the top too.
[Images via Hearthstone]
