Hearthpwn

Blizzard just published patch notes for a patch that includes the mini-set cards, battlegrounds updates, & more!

Patch is LIVE!

Quote from Blizzard

Patch 27.4 brings the Fall of Ulduar Mini-Set; Yogg-Saron has escaped and is spreading his Anomalies across Hearthstone!

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Ulduar Has Fallen

The titans left their charges to watch over the imprisoned Yogg-Saron, but no prison lasts forever. The Old God has escaped to once again wreak havoc on Azeroth! Will you fight back, or will you succumb to the madness within?!

There’s a new Titan in town. Cast spells to fuel the Old God’s power, bring madness to the Tavern with Chaotic Tendrils, and unleash Yogg-Saron on your opponents with this Mini-Set of 38 all-new cards. Get them in TITANS packs, or as a complete 72-card* Mini-Set. Get the normal version in-game for $14.99 or 2000 Gold, or get the all-Golden version for $69.99 or 10,000 Gold. The all-Golden version also comes with a bonus Diamond copy of the Yogg-Saron, Unleashed Legendary minion! You can see all the cards from the Fall of Ulduar Mini-Set in the official Card Library.

* 4 Legendary cards, 1 Epic card (2x), 17 Rare cards (x2), and 16 Common cards (x2).

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Yogg-Saron's Anomalies Consume Hearthstone!

It’s all so clear now: Yogg-Saron's whispers have been corrupting Battlegrounds this entire Season. Now, Yogg-Saron has escaped, and Anomalies are appearing in Standard, Wild, Twist, Casual, Arena, and Practice Modes, too! The following Anomalies have been unleashed upon the Tavern:

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Twist Reality	After a player plays a card this game, shuffle a copy into their deck.
Approaching Nightmare	Both players start with Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End in their hand.
Opportunity Knocks	The first card drawn on a player’s turn is one they can afford to play.
Shifting Fate	Both players start with Gear Shift in their hand.
Light in the Dark	Both players’ Hero Powers cost (1) less.
Gift of Gluttony	Both players start with two more drawn cards.
Shifting Futures	Both players start with 2 copies of Shifter Zerus in their hand.
Control the Makers	Both heroes have +1 Attack on their turns.
Severed Souls	Both heroes start with +5 Health.
Surging Inspiration	Both heroes start with upgraded Hero Powers.
Driven to Greed	Whenever a player ends their turn with unspent Mana, they get a Coin.
Driven to Excess	Whenever a player ends their turn with unspent Mana, they draw a card.
Uncontrollable Growth	Both players start with an extra Mana Crystal.
Seeing Double	Both players start with 2 cards copied from the other players’ hand.
Unimaginable Horrors	Both players Discover a new basic Hero Power on their first turn.
Fortifications	At the end of each player’s turns, give a random one of their minions +1 Health.
Fast Track	Reduce the Cost of all cards in both players’ starting hands by (1).
Your Eyes Betray You	Both players’ cards are Golden.
Army of the Corrupted	The first minion played on each player’s turns costs (1) less.
Spread of Corruption	The first spell played on each player’s turns costs (1) less.

 

For one week following the launch of Patch 27.4, Anomalies will appear in 100% of Standard, Wild, Twist, Casual, Arena, and Practice Mode games. After that one-week period, they will appear in 25% of games until Patch 28.0. Cho’gall, Twilight Chieftain’s effect offers an additional chance for an Anomaly, meaning that you could have up to two Anomalies active in a game during this event period if you and/or your opponent have Cho’gall in your deck(s). In games where Anomalies are present, all Anomalies have an equal chance of appearing.

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In-Game Event: The Great Yogg Escape

So how did Yogg-Saron escape anyway? Starting September 26, join a rag-tag group of Old Gods as they spring their buddy, Yogg-Saron, from the slammer! From September 26 to October 10, complete Event Quests to earn Event XP on the special event reward track. Complete the rewards track to earn a total of 5 packs (2 Standard, 2 TITANS, and 1 Golden Standard) and the new Kabal N’Zoth Warlock Hero Skin.

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New Legendary Skin: C’Thun

C’Thun’s massive eye watches your every move with this new Legendary Druid Hero Skin. Celebrate Yogg-Saron's escape and terrorize your opponents with the visage of an Old God!

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Battlegrounds Updates

Damage Cap Update

The damage cap now persists for all players until the Top 4. The primary goal of the damage cap in Battlegrounds is to protect players from taking too much damage too early. We’ve heard a lot of feedback from the community that the system was not fully achieving that goal, so now we’re expanding it even further. We’ll closely monitor this change and make additional changes to the damage system as needed.

 

New Anomalies

The following Anomalies will be added to Battlegrounds throughout Patch 27.4:

The Yogg-iseum	At the start of each turn, spin the Wheel of Yogg-Saron. Dev Comment: Each turn, the Wheel is spun and one result is chosen for all players.
Blessed or Blighted?	Start of Combat: Give your left-most minion Divine Shield and your right-most minion Reborn.
Golganneth’s Tempest	Minions cost 2 Gold. You cannot Refresh the Tavern. It Refreshes itself after you buy a minion.
Match Fixing	Guess which player will win your next combat. If you're correct, get 3 Gold Coins.
Up-Prizing	After you upgrade the Tavern, Discover a Tier 1 Darkmoon Prize. (Improves in 3 turns!)
Gladiator’s Spoils	After you win a combat, Discover a minion of your Tier. Otherwise, get a random one of a Tier lower.
Shackles of the Primus	After each combat, remove your warband. At the start of your turn, triple your Gold.
Summoning of Champions	At the start of the game, all players Discover a Tier 6 minion from the same choices.
Curse of Aggramar	Start at 5 Health and 5 Gold. Your hero can only take 1 damage at a time.
Reckless Enhancement	Minions in the Tavern each randomly gain Taunt, Windfury, Divine Shield, or Reborn.
Tavern Special	All minion types are in the Tavern. It always has 7 minions.
Eonar’s Overgrown Arena	At the start of your turn, give minions in the Tavern +1/+1 for the rest of the game.

 

Anomaly Updates

• The “A Faire Reward” Anomaly now upgrades every 5 turns, instead of every 4 turns, and appears less frequently.
• Piloted Whirl-o-Tron (Sneed's Buddy) has been removed from the “Bring in the Buddies” Anomaly.

 

New Battlegrounds Cosmetics

Battlegrounds is getting in the Twist spirit with new Wonders-themed cosmetic options! The Wonders Battlegrounds Mega Bundle celebrates Hearthstone’s past with 4 Epic Hero Skins, 1 Rare Hero Skin, 1 Rare Board, and 8 Epic Emotes, all inspired by Twist’s Wonders format. Or, experience an alternate timeline with the new Epic Bartender: Bartender Roberta!

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Twist Seasonal Update

The Wonders format is back for another season in October, but with an extra Twist! For the October season, Wonders is going XL—players can play with a deck of anywhere between 30-40 cards, and a life total equal to the number of cards they put in their deck! As a reminder, the sets that are legal in the Wonders format are:

• Caverns of Time
• Legacy (not Core)
• Curse of Naxxramas
• Goblins vs Gnomes
• Blackrock Mountain
• The Grand Tournament
• The League of Explorers
• Whispers of the Old Gods
• One Night in Karazhan
• Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

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Duels Updates

New Duels Season

On September 19, with Patch 27.4, the current Duels season will end, ratings will be reset, and current runs will be concluded.

 

Card Set Updates

On September 19, the following sets will be added to initial deckbuilding and all card pools:

• Fall of Ulduar Mini-Set
• Rise of Shadows
• Mean Streets of Gadgetzan*
• The Grand Tournament*
• New: Blackrock Mountain

* Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and The Grand Tournament were already added to card pools in a prior update, but have now been added to initial deckbuilding as well.

 

Other Card Pool Updates

• Updated: Blackwald Pixie, Caldarra Drake, Fallen Hero, Garrison Commander, Maiden of the Lake, Justicar Trueheart, Raza the Chained, Auctionmaster Beardo, Zayle, Shadow Cloak and Cho’gall, Twilight Chieftain are banned from initial deckbuilding and all card pools. 
• Yogg-Saron, Unleashed is banned from all card pools, but is legal for initial deckbuilding.
• New: Astral Communion, Aviana, Patches the Pirate, and Wilfred Fizzlebang, have been banned from draft buckets.

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New Arena Season

On September 19, when the the Fall of Ulduar begins, all current Arena runs will end and a new Arena season will begin. The eligible sets will rotate so that the following sets will make up the Arena card pool:

• Core
• Path of Arthas
• Rise of Shadows
• Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
• Forged in the Barrens
• Festival of Legends
• TITANS

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Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Hearthstone] Souleater's Scythe will now generate a Signature version of the card if the card it consumed was Signature to begin with.
• [Hearthstone] The One-Amalgam Band, Drone Deconstructor, From the Scrapheap, Elemental Inspiration, Power Slider, Party Animal, Rock Master Voone, and Roaring Applause have all had text-only updates for clarity, no functional changes.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where weapons that adjusted their stats while in play were not updating.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Prison of Yogg-Saron failed to contain Yogg’s chaotic energies, resulting in spells that targeted sometimes targeting something other than what was selected.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where SP-3Y3-D3R would still lose Stealth after one turn if it was granted permanent Stealth by an outside source (like a Sparkbot).
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where a Forged Bellowing Flame’s effect happened all at once, instead of in two steps, resulting it in not hitting minions spawned from the initial target’s Deathrattle or Reborn effect.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Love Everlasting’s discount was not used up if the first spell played was Countered.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Lady Naz'jar’s transformation in your hand was visible by your opponent.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Al'Akir, the Winds of Time did not always get the optimal combination of cards to maximize draws.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Thunder Bluff Valiant’s new Battlecry effect was not treated as a Battlecry.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where, on the turn Jotun, the Eternal was played, its effect would trigger on the next spell drawn, even if it was not the first spell drawn that turn.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Jotun, the Eternal caused a crash when its effect played Glide.
• [Battlegrounds] Zesty Shaker has had a text-only update; no functional change.
• [Battlegrounds] Blood Gems can now target minions in the Tavern, not just friendly minions.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where pirates generated by a Golden Fleet Admiral Tethys did not automatically triple, but instead tripled once an action was taken.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Octosari, Wrap God would spawn an extra tentacle when goldenized by The Golden Hammer.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where some strikes did not appear correctly from the opponent’s perspective.
• [Duels] Updated the Treasure offerings to better align with hero power and classes (like not offering some weapon-based treasures to non-weapon classes).
• [Arena] Fixed a bug where False Disciple only offered Legendary cards from a few sets.
• [Collection] Fixed a bug that prevented players from crafting Golden versions of certain Demon Hunter cards.
• [Cosmetics] Fixed a visual bug with Diamond Murozond, Thief of Time’s animation.
• [Cosmetics] Fixed a bug where some of Felblaze Illidan’s emotes showed the wrong text.
• [Cosmetics] Fixed a bug where the TITANS board constellation effect would occasionally obstruct your hand on mobile.
• [General] Raised the minimum spec requirements for Android devices to Android 9.
• Misc. other bug fixes and game improvements.