Reveal season for Hearthstone's latest expansion The Boomsday Project has officially begun. Streamer Brian Kibler and developer Peter Whalen appeared on the PlayHearthstone Twitch stream to share 10 new cards from the set. These cards range from obscure and adorable to outright ridiculous and seemingly overpowered. The Boomsday Project will allude back to the game's first expansion, Goblins vs. Gnomes . This set is about "science as a whole, while Goblins vs. Gnomes was just about science that explode," Whalen said. Though there will be references to the set Dr. Boom came from, the latest set will focus on all types of experiments and craziness. Cards like Mechanized Pinata call back to earlier cards, such as Piloted Shredder. Other tidbits from the stream: This set will include more Spell Damage cards. Demonic Project is going to be used like Dirty Rat to try to end combo decks. is going to be used like to try to end combo decks. Dr. Boom the Mad Genius is the only Hero card this set, won't appear in Arena and his Hero Power is completely randomized. is the only Hero card this set, won't appear in Arena and his Hero Power is completely randomized. Weaponized Pinata is a reference to Fortnite. is a reference to Fortnite. Crystal Smith Kalgor is the Paladin scientist Legendary minion, which we won't see today. Here are the cards revealed today and on stream: https://twitter.com/HSTopDecks/status/1021428521711779840<doc-sep>Start transforming your game’s economy and increase your bottom line. Get the free guide now. Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021. Activision Blizzard released its financial results for the second quarter of 2018, and in its report the company revealed that preorders for the next Hearthstone expansion — The Boomsday Project — are tracking further ahead at this point prior to its launch than any other Hearthstone expansion. The Boomsday Project releases for PC and mobile on August 7. Hearthstone is free-to-play, but new expansions offer cards in preorder bundles. A pack of digital cards usually costs around $1.50, but these special offers give out packs at a value of $1 for one pack. Past preorder bundles have offered 50 packs for $50. The previous set, the Witchwood, gave 70 packs for $50. The Boomsday Project has a 50 for $50 bundle as well as 80 for $80. The $80 bundle also gives players a new hero portrait for the Warlock class, Mecha-Jaraxxus. So while you get the same card-for-money deal, the extra hero portrait is a nice bonus for fans. Also, some players will just want as big a bundle of cards as possible. The new expansion is also adding more mechs to Hearthstone, a tribe players enjoyed from the Goblins vs. Gnomes expansion at the end of 2014 and has been out of favor since the Standard rotation (the main way most people play this card game) of April 2016, when most mechs went to the Wild format. The digital card game market will be worth $1.5 billion this year, according to gaming intelligence group SuperData. Hearthstone remains the most popular game in the genre, and new sets keep its players engaged and encourage them to spend more money. Strong preorder numbers for The Boomsday Project show that Hearthstone’s popularity is staying strong.<doc-sep>Those of you who have PTSD flashbacks at the sight of spawning boombots and maniacal, mechanical laughter might want to look away now. Blizzard has just announced that Hearthstone's next expansion will be The Boomsday Project, and it's due to launch on August 7. Headlined by none other than Dr. Boom—aka Dr. 7, and isn't that fitting given the release date—The Boomsday Project will add 135 new cards, including nine Legendary spells, a host of new Mech minions, and the new keywords Omega and Magnetic. What do those Legendary spells look like? Well, have a gander at Rogue's unique spell, Myra's Unstable Element: You read that right: draw your whole deck. For five mana. It's hard to evaluate Myra's Unstable Element without seeing the rest of the set, but I'm not sure milling most of your deck and entering Fatigue on turn five is a good idea, even for hyper-aggressive decks. Maybe you could hold onto it until you have no cards in hand and only 10 cards or so left in your deck? It could also be a potent way to refuel in an aggro deck. In any case, it sure is bonkers. Speaking of bonkers Legendaries, if Shaman's Legendary spell is as crazy as Rogue's, then its new Legendary minion is also going to be nutty: VIDEO: Footage of The Boomsday Project in action Blizzard says the Legendary minions in Boomsday are all scientists and inventors, so I'm pretty sure we're going to get a revamped Dr. Boom Legendary. Now, about those keywords. Omega is the simplest one: simply put, if you play an Omega card when you have 10 Mana, it gets a bonus. In the case of Omega Defender, that bonus is a whopping 10 extra attack. Magnetic is a little more complicated. It's a Mech-exclusive keyword "that allows players to merge Mech minions, combining their attack, health, and abilities," Blizzard says. It sounds like Blizzard took Deathstalker Rexxar's Death Knight hero power, swapped Beasts for Mechs, and turned it into a keyword, which is actually pretty cool. My biggest question is whether Magnetic is automatic. Can I choose to combine two Magnetic Mechs, or if I play another one alongside, say, Spider Bomb, will they automatically fuse? On top of Legendary spells, The Boomsday Project will also add a new spell type: Projects. "Projects are spells that provide a bonus to both players when played," Blizzard says. "Those who build around the bonus most effectively will be able to edge out the competition." Have a look at Druid's Biology Project, which looks to benefit decks with heavy mana curves: In addition to 135 cards, The Boomsday Project also comes with a singleplayer mode called The Puzzle Lab. It will go live on August 21, two weeks after the expansion itself, bringing "over 100 different mind-boggling puzzles." Nearest I can tell, each wing of the Puzzle Lab has its own theme. Some focus on Survival puzzles where your goal is to survive a set number of turns, while others feature Lethal puzzles where your goal is to find a way to kill your opponent from a specific board state. There are also Board Clear puzzles, which are presumably about killing everything on your opponent's board, and less obvious Mirror puzzles, which are anyone's guess (perhaps winning the game when you and your opponent have the exact same cards?) If you manage to clear the Puzzle Lab, you'll get "a one-on-one with Dr. Boom himself, at his personal workshop," Blizzard says, perhaps earning a new card back or portrait in the process. As always, Blizzard is also offering one-time pre-order bundles. For $50, you can get a 50-pack Boomsday bundle which comes with a free golden Legendary and the new Mecha-Jaraxxus card back. For $80, you can upgrade to the 80-pack bundle which comes with the free golden Legendary, the Mecha-Jaraxxus card back, and the Mecha-Jaraxxus Warlock hero skin which, I have to admit, is glorious. Behold, the Eredar Lord of the scientific community:<doc-sep>
The Boomsday Project is Hearthstone’s thirteenth expansion if you include all of the Adventures released for the game, and it’s a card set that turns once more to the kind of Mech-fuelled mayhem that powered 2014’s Goblins vs Gnomes expansion. You can expect the usual mix of new cards, new keywords and single-player content with Boomdsay, and in this guide we’ve rounded up every last scrap of information you need to know about what’s coming next for Hearthstone. Our friends at sister-site Metabomb will be providing comprehensive guides coverage for all the new and updated decks that emerge in the new meta too, and we’ll be dropping in links to those articles once the expansion is under way. Hearthstone Boomsday Decks Now the expansion is fully underway, here’s the best Boomsday Project Meta and Experimental decks: Druid Meta Decks Experimental Decks Hunter Meta Decks Experimental Decks 1. Bomb Hunter – Bomb Hunter deck list guide (Boomsday) Mage Meta Decks Experimental Decks Paladin Meta Decks Experimental Decks 1. Secret Paladin – Secret Paladin deck list guide (Boomsday) Priest Meta Decks Experimental Decks Rogue Meta Decks Experimental Decks Shaman Meta Decks Experimental Decks Warlock Meta Decks Experimental Decks Warrior Meta Decks Experimental Decks Hearthstone Boomsday New Keyword: Magnetic To add a little extra spice to the many Mech minions that are being added to Hearthstone, there’ll also be a new keyword called Magnetic. Certain Mechs will include this keyword, and when played you’ll have the option to fuse it with another friendly Mech. All health and attack stats are combined as part of this process, and any other effects and abilities are likewise melded together. If you want to play the Magnetic minion as a separate character, pop it to the right of any active Mechs you have on the board. If you want to merge them together, pop it to the left. Nice and simple. Omega Cards A new category of card is being added with Boomsday called Omega cards. These cards have a middling Mana cost and boast solid enough stats in their own right. If you play them in the late-game when you have ten Mana Crystals in the tank though, they gain an additional, very powerful effect. Note that not all of Hearthstone’s heroes will gain an Omega card. Druid’s are a notable exception here, as they possess too many ways to reach maximum Mana much more quickly than other heroes can, and so could potentially become imbalanced. Legendary Spells If you ignore the Quest spells that were introduced with last year’s Journey to Un’Goro expansion, Legendary Spells have never appeared in Hearthstone before. That’s changing with the Boomsday Project, and each hero in the game will be getting its own supercharged spell. The Rogue, for example, gets Myra’s Unstable Element. This 5-Mana spell draws the rest of your deck into your hand when played – potentially a huge play when both players are in the late-game with little fuel in the tank. New Single-Player Content: Puzzle Lab After the releases of Dungeon Run and Monster Hunt, Blizzard has decided to shake things up a little bit for the single-player side of The Boomsday Project. This time around, you’ll have to solve a number of board-state puzzles in an area of Hearthstone called The Puzzle Lab. Expect 120 puzzles in total when the mode goes live. There are four different categories of puzzles to solve: