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[appicon url="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id625257520?mt=8"]"Goblins vs. Gnomes," the new 120-card expansion for Hearthstone (Free), will be available on December 8th. Where Hearthstone‘s previous expansion focused on oozing horrors, fell creatures, and Deathrattle mechanics, the cards introduced next week are full of novelty gadgets, kludged-together gizmos, and a new “Mech" tribal. In keeping with the theme of unpredictable contraptions, many of the cards focus on randomness. All of the new “Ogre" cards, for example, have a chance to attack the wrong enemy, which provides a nice counter-balance to their low mana cost.

Blizzard announced the expansion at BlizzCon last month and has been periodically revealing new cards ever since. For example, we were excited to debut the Whirling Zap-O-Matic late last month: it’s a Shaman-exclusive Mech with 3 attack, 2 health, and the Windfury ability (which lets it attack twice each turn). With a 2-mana cost, it’s likely that the Zap-O-Matic will find its way into any Shaman Mech build, especially with something to protect its paltry health. In anticipation for next week’s release, you can see all of the new “Goblins vs. Gnomes" cards on the game’s Facebook page.

As previously discussed, “Goblins" cards will be released in special new packs. These will be available in the Hearthstone as usual and can be bought with real money or in-game gold. Notably, “Goblins"-specific packs will become the default prize for the Arena mode, which is a slight bummer for anyone (including yours truly) who hasn’t completed the base collection yet.

In addition to new cards and new gameboard, the “Goblins" expansion will also introduce a Spectator Mode, which allows you to watch live games from anyone on your friends list and vice-versa. In other news, an upcoming patch will also be tweaking “Flare," “Soulfire," and “Gadgetzan Auctioneer." Blizzard hasn’t said when this patch is going live, but it’s possible that it will be implemented alongside “Goblins vs. Gnomes" next week.