Ever since it was announced in February, Hearthstone’s latest expansion, Whispers of the Old Gods, has been in the forefront of players’ minds, mine included. Blizzard has just announced the release date for Whispers of the Old Gods. The massive expansion will come out on April 26.
Whispers of the Old Gods will be adding 134 new cards to the game, but its biggest component is the addition of a new game mode for ranked play. Currently the game has one ranked play mode. Anyone can make a deck including any cards they want. You only ever compete against someone close to or exactly your rank. But this still makes it difficult for new players to enter the game because of the number of cards the game includes. Someone who has been playing awhile will likely have unlocked a number of cards or amassed enough coins to buy or craft them. This can put you up against someone who has stacked their deck with legendary cards that typically provide big bonuses to the player who has them.
That’s why the ranked play is being split into two modes: standard and wild. Wild plays exactly like it does now. Anyone can make any deck comprising any cards. In standard there will only be specific cards that can be used. This helps to level the playing field and make the game more about strategy rather than the ability to fill up your hand with rare cards. I’m personally very interested in seeing how this switch plays out in the game.
Even though the expansion hasn’t launched yet, Blizzard has already added a new element to the game in the form of deck recipes. These give players the chance to use a template to put together a deck without having to figure out a specific deck all on their own. This can be a huge help to new players and seasoned ones alike. I’ve tried out the deck recipes a couple of times and have found them very helpful.
Players still have the opportunity to pre-purchase 50 decks of the new expansion for $49.99. That said, players can save up enough gold to buy multiple decks as well.
