Hearthstone Grand Tournament Launches Today

Hearthstone expansion The Grand Tournament will go live worldwide today. The expansion introduces 132 cards to the multiplayer game along with some new mechanics that could dramatically change the game.

Each character class in Hearthstone will receive a new Legendary along with 2 Epics, 3 Rares and 3 Commons. The only exception is the Hunter class, which gets two Legendaries. There are also 50 Neutral cards in the expansion. The Neutral cards (all minions) include 10 Legendaries, 9 Epics, 9 Rares and 22 Commons.

Some of these minions have a new Inspire mechanic. These abilities are activated when you cast your Hero Power. The Tournament Medic heals you for 2 Health, for instance, while the Kvaldir Raider gets an extra 2 Health and Attack.

Other minions will change how your Hero Power works. The Coldarra Drake, for example, lets you use your Hero Power more than once in a round. One of the neutral Legendaries, Justice Trueheart, upgrades your Hero Power for the remainder of the match:

• Priest - Heal: Restore 4 health
• Rogue - Poisoned Daggers: Equip a 2/2 Weapon.
• Shaman - Totemic Slam: Summon a totem of your choice.
• Warlock - Soul Tap: Draw a card
• Warrior - Tank Up!: Gain 4 Armor.
• Paladin - The Silver Hand: Summon two 1/1 Recruits
• Mage - Fireblast: Rank 2 - Deal 2 damage
• Hunter - Ballista Shot: Deal 3 damage to the enemy Hero.
• Druid - Dire Shapeshift: Gain 2 Armor and +2 Attack this turn.

The expansion also introduces jousting. When a jousting card is played, the game selects a random minion from each player's deck. The minion with the higher mana cost will win the joust. The cards are then shuffled back into each player's deck. However, if the player who started the joust wins the encounter, they'll get some kind of bonus.

Unlike Curse of Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain, Grand Tournament doesn't let you earn these cards through challenges. Instead, you have to buy them from the in-game store. Grand Tournament Card Packs, like Classic and Goblins vs Gnomes packs, include 5 random cards. They can be purchased individually for 100 Gold each or in bulk for cash.

Blizzard gave out free card packs to celebrate Goblins Vs Gnomes' launch. Community manager "Daxxarri" said over Twitter that they won't be doing the same for Grand Tournament:

The pre-order he's referring to is a bundle of 50 Grand Tournament Card Packs for $49.99. This bulk discount won't be available once the expansion goes live today.

Blizzard hasn't announced an exact launch time for Grand Tournament. The official Twitter account says that it won't arrive until after 19:00 CEST, though, which is 1 PM Eastern.