Hearthstone’s expansion, Goblins vs Gnomes, won’t launch until Monday, but the diminutive engineers aren’t known for their patience. All of the new cards from the expansion are now available in the Arena, giving you lovely lot an early look at possible new additions to your finely-tuned deck.
While you normally have to spend a bit of gold to get into Arena, Blizzard’s giving everyone one free go. And if you’re busy doing other things at the moment, don’t fret, because you can still watch others play, even if you can’t. Spectator mode is now live, so put your eyeballs to good use.
The full patch notes for the expansion have also been posted, so take a gander below.
Goblins vs Gnomes
- Don’t let Goblins and Gnomes have all the fun building things: All Goblins vs Gnomes cards have been added to the Arena and can be chosen even if you do not have them in your Hearthstone collection.
- All Goblins vs Gnomes cards can be found easily in My Collection using the search function, and all Goblins vs Gnomes cards have a “gear” watermark in the card text box.
- Expert card packs have been renamed to “Classic” card packs. Classic card packs are still available to acquire in the in-game Shop as well as through Crafting Mode.
- New minion type “Mech” has been added. Use Mechs along with other Mechs for surprising (often devastating) results!
- An all-new interactive Goblins vs Gnomes-themed game board has been added. Turn the gears, wind the springs, and try not to blow anything up in the process. We warned you.
General
- Spectator Mode has been added. Watch your friends play through their games of Hearthstone and observe their epic victories all with the click of a button! Spectator Mode is accessed through the Friends list by clicking on the “Spectate Match” button next to your friend’s name.
Card Changes
- Flare now costs 2 mana, up from 1.
- Flare allowed the Hunter an advantage versus decks that revolve around Secrets, while also allowing the Hunter to draw a card for little cost. We want to encourage a variety of decks in Hearthstone. With this change, Flare will continue to be useful against Secrets decks, but will be weaker against other decks.
- Gadgetzan Auctioneer now costs 6 mana, up from 5.
- Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s ability allows for a player to potentially draw many cards for little cost. Card draw and card advantage are important to the game – overall, games are less interesting when a player draws their entire deck. This change brings Gadgetzan Auctioneer’s cost more in line with its power level.
- Soulfire now costs 1 mana, up from 0.
- Soulfire, along with fast and powerful minions, allowed Warlock rush decks to get ahead on the board and stay ahead. We’ve upped Soulfire’s mana cost by 1 to slow down the Warlock rush deck just a bit and allow more players time to react and interact against the Warlock.
Bug Fixes
- The left-most enemy minion can once again be targeted on a full board if Counterspell counters a Secret.
- Nozdormu, self proclaimed “Master of Time”, once again gives players 15 seconds a round instead of 30.
- Blood Imps will no longer target Imp Masters with no life left. It’s dead, Jim.
- Baron Rivendare in the Naxxramas Adventure has fixed his heater and will no longer cast Frostbolt on himself.
- Faceless Manipulators will now copy the Echoing Ooze as well as its effect.
- Faceless Manipulators will now copy the Echoing Ooze as well as its effect.
- Faceless Manipulator now functions properly when targeting minions with Enrage that refuse to follow the rules.
- Druid of the Claw is embracing his wild side and now becomes a Beast minion type upon switching Cat Form or Bear Form.
- Multiple mechanical minions have been upgraded to Mechs, unlocking additional synergy with other Goblins vs Gnome cards: Harvest Golem, Damaged Golem, Alarm-o-Bot, Demolisher, Mechanical Dragonling, and all of Gelbin Mekkatorque’s AWESOME inventions.
- Kel’thuzad’s mastery of undeath has been tempered and it will no longer resurrect itself after perishing at the hands of Ragnaros the Firelord.
- Gnomes have been hard at work fixing Goblin “upgrades”, forcing our engineers to step in and fix the fixes that the gnomes “fixed”. Ultimately, a number of display issues and other bugs have been resolved.
Take a look at Nick’s big list of the new cards if you want to swot up.