With Whispers of the Old Gods coming out in just a few days, Hearthstone developers have been going crazy (perhaps due to some darker outside influence?) with updates to get us hyped up. Today the official Hearthstone Twitter posted this picture and sub caption.

Even Stormwind won’t be safe from the Old Gods! Behold, the new game board coming with Patch 5.0!

-@PlayHearthstone

The new board draws inspiration from the classic Stormwind board that players have been using since the game's original release over two years ago. With the coming of the nefarious Old Gods however, there are some changes due to their fiendish influence. Tentacles wrap tightly over the buildings, a sickly ooze puddles out of chapel doors from a building seemingly come to life, and I think that gryphon in the bottom right is looking awfully purple.

Each patch has seen some new board type revealed, and it looks like Blizzard has put in their usual extra effort to make this expansion feel all the more thematic.

The expansion ushers in a new era for the card game, promising a change to how you play. It also introduces a new game mode called Standard, which limits deck building to only the most recent two expansions and basic cards. 

Developer Ben Brode and community streamer Froden recently live streamed a ton of other new cards coming out for the expansion. All of the new cards have now been announced, and can be found here.

Hearthstone: Whispers of the Old Gods will be released on April 26th.

Today, we see the release of the fourth and final wing of Hearthstone's third solo adventure The League of Explorers. Here, you'll be facing Skelesaurus Hex, The Steel Sentinel, Arch-Thief Rafaam, and Rafaam Unleashed. This also marks the release of the rogue and mage class challenges.

For the brave of heart, the heroic mode is where the real difficulty lies, offering hardcore players daunting fights and bragging rights.

And, most importantly, a new wing means new cards. Fortunately, if you're scrambling for gold -- or, like me, haven't even unlocked the third wing yet -- don't fret: the cards in this wing aren't incredibly powerful. This is merciful on Blizzard's part, considering the fact that this wing requires you to have spent 2,100 gold already, and asks 700 more to unlock it. 

If you want some genuinely fun cards to play with, though, you best start grinding gold. The fourth and final wing brings us two new legendary minions that might not be powerful, but can definitely be entertaining to play with.

Both cards create huge, splashy effects that will undoubtedly allow for some memorable plays. Elise Starseeker is tragically slow, but amazingly fun.

Just by playing her, she sets you off on a treasure hunt. "Map to the Golden Monkey" is just the first piece of the puzzle, and playing it will start the treasure hunt all over again. However, if you can somehow survive while waiting to draw this card, you won't be disappointed:

Of course, waiting around to draw this card isn't the soundest of strategies, but building a deck and trying to pull it off is definitely going to be a blast. 

As for Rafaam, he'll give you a pick of three powerful cards:

Sadly, at ten mana, Rafaam's gifts aren't going to be breaking the meta anytime soon, but like Elise Starseeker, he's an entertaining card that does entertaining things, and Hearthstone can always use more of that.

It's especially refreshing to see that we're getting more casual cards since legendary powerhouses like Brann Bronzebeard and Reno Jackson are already shaking the meta up in crazy ways.

Now that League of Explorers is done, it's likely we'll see a lull in content, and the meta will stabilize. What do you think the best decks will be now that the entire expansion has been released?

In observance of Thanksgiving, the third wing of Hearthstone's adventure expansion, League of Explorers, will not be launching this Thursday, but will be made available next week. In the meantime, Blizzard has already released eighteen new cards throughout the first two weeks of the expansion, and Hearthstone's dedicated community of deck builders have already slammed some new brews for players to try out.

Trogg Shaman

Shaman has been something of a dormant class in Hearthstone's otherwise dynamic meta. In spite of Blizzard's attempts to offer cards for viable Shaman decks (the recent collection of Totem cards from The Grand Tournament stands out especially), the class's Overload feature continues to hold it back from reaching Legend status.

With the latest slew of cards, however, came the Tunnel Trogg. This minion's low cost and positive reaction to Overload seems to have been the last missing piece to a powerful, well-balanced Shaman deck. Hearthpwn.com user DarkClaw20 makes use of this new one-drop minion, as well as the new Jeweled Scarab, in this incredible Overload deck.

Raptor Rogue

Unlike Shaman, the Rogue class is notorious for featuring multiple overpowered archetypes since Hearthstone's release. This has lead to numerous nerfs in the past, leaving Rogue virtually unplayable more than once.

Fortunately, the League of Explorers has brought us the Unearthed Raptor. This prehistoric critter copies the Deathrattle effect of any friendly boarded minion of your choosing. Not a day out from the raptor's release, RDIFB crafted an exceptional deck around this minion. Featuring cards like Loot Hoarder, Piloted Shredder, and Dr. Boom, there's plenty in this brew for the Unearthed Raptor to work with.

Aggro Druid

Despite this deck not featuring any cards from League of Explorers, it's making a killing in the current meta. The mana curve is a bit heavy for an aggro deck, but it makes up for this with cards like Innervate and Druid of the Saber (the latter coming from The Grand Tournament). This allows for creatures like Piloted Shredder and Fel Reaver to get an early drop. And of course, like any contemporary Druid deck, Savage Roar and Force of Nature both make an appearance for a deadly combo.

What decks have you been playing since League of Explorers launched? Have any new brews of your own you'd like to share? Sound off in the comments below!

Scrolls has seen some interesting growth since it got started.  The game has gained new cards for each of its various forces as well as introducing its fourth force, Decay.  The coming month, however, should show an explosive increase in the amount of new content to rival even the release of the entire Decay force.

New Scrolls

The less exciting update coming in October is the addition of new scrolls to the game.  We have seen a slow trickle of new scrolls since the game's release, usually two or three at a time.

October will see over 40 new scrolls put into the game.

That means it is entirely possible we will be able to craft entire new decks using nothing but the new scrolls, drastically raising the chances of these new releases including things any given player will want to add to their existing decks.

New Game Modes

This is the really exciting stuff.  October will be bringing both Judgment Mode and Spectator Mode to players.  Spectator Mode is nothing especially groundbreaking, often considered an expected feature by the modern gaming community.

The timing for it is excellent given the currently ongoing tournament for Scrolls.  While it will be too late to cover the current tournament, it will make the next one significantly more exciting with the ability for players to potentially watch the games effectively live.  With all the attention e-sports are getting, Scrolls might actually be able to make a name for itself as the first digital card game to reach such heights.

Judgment Mode is the first fully new game mode Scrolls will be getting, and as an old fan of Magic: The Gathering booster draft tournaments, it is one that has me excited.  

Players choose single scrolls from a selection of four until they have 45 of them, then create a deck using at least 30 of those scrolls to play a series of five games.

The potential of combining both of these modes, along with the 40 new cards promised, could actually not only create a real competitive scene in the game but a very rapidly evolving meta.  Hopefully the excitement will spread far enough to realize the possibilities!