The Grand Tournament: Hearthstone's Second Expansion

"Parp!" is often used as onomatopoeia for a trumpet blast, but to me it'll always be a blow-off. Imagine this post begins with whichever textual approximation of trumpeting you prefer, a grand festive blast. Point is: Blizzard have announced the second expansion for Hearthstone [official site], and it is a cause for trumpeting.

The Grand Tournament will arrive in August with 132 new cards as man and orc, murloc knight and parrot-riding pirate, all come together to show off in front of the Argent Crusade. It'll be free, of course, in the usual Hearthstone ways.

Some of The Grand Tourney's new cards - Blizzard have already revealed a few - have a new minion ability, Inspire. This activates after you use your Hero Power, triggering effects like giving the minion +1 attack or adding a random spell to your hand.

It'll have a new board too.

How do you get these new cards? Packs will be on sale for either virtuacash or real money, as ever. They'll also be available as Arena rewards. The Arena currently awards only packs from the first expansion, Goblins vs Gnomes, but with the launch of The Grand Tourney it'll start randomly offering a Tourney, GvG, or Classic pack.

Blizzard are also waving around a pre-order offer, selling 50 packs for £34.99/€44,99/$49.99. Pre-ordering is a mug's game, but mugs probably already know they'll be plonking down £35 on Hearthstone packs no matter what.