Hearthstone Adding New Classic Set Cards And Competitive Ranks, But No Tournaments (For Now)

The Hearthstone team at Blizzard weighed in on its current state and what players can look forward to in the near future in a blog post yesterday. The variety of the meta is pretty good, they said, with a number of decks performing at the top- and second-tier levels. One card in particular, Giggling Inventor, has raised players' ire, though, and the Wild mode may not be "wild" enough. Blizzard has asked players for feedback on both topics.

For the first time, new cards will be added to the Classic set, rotating in to make up for class cards that had been previously removed. Three of them are basic, one-cost "add a card to your hand" spells, and the fourth is an epic mage spell. For brand-new players to Hearthstone, the ranking system will be expanded to 50 ranks, letting them ease their way up the ladder without having to face players who might have a huge card collection but don't play much ranked and therefore hang around in the 20s most of the time (like me).

Additionally, Fireside Gatherings are getting a boost, the 2018 HCT Fall Championship will take place in mid-October, and the Classic Welcome Bundle will now give players a random legendary dragon. The Hallow's End event comes Oct. 17, and will include a new paladin hero for players to purchase, and -- in case you've forgotten -- the Days of the Frozen Throne start today.

Finally, one much-requested feature isn't coming to the game yet. The dev team has been working on tournaments for a while, but they won't be coming to the game any time soon. The feature "felt 'tacked on,' and wasn’t integrating well into the larger Hearthstone experience." As such, there's no timetable set for their implementation.