New Hearthstone ‘Tavern Brawl’ game mode launches

Update: Just as promised, the new Tavern Brawl game-mode is now live for Hearthstone, shaking up the standard format with revolving rules and challenges.

Each week a new Tavern Brawl challenge will be issued, which could range from pre-designed duals, to deck building rules or minion buffs and nerfs. Unlike the Arena mode, victories count towards your daily wins and challenges, meaning that you can collect extra gold just for playing. To unlock Tavern Brawl, you will need at least one Hero at level 20.

For its launch week, Tavern Brawl puts the players in the roles of Nefarian or Ragnaros, each with a custom pre-built deck featuring cards outside of the usual play set. There are some insanely overpowered looking cards and hero powers to play with, plus ratcheting up your first Tavern Brawl win will also award you a free pack of cards. Hurray!

Alongside the new game mode, Blizzard has launched some new cosmetic hero skins. The Warrior Hero Magni Bronzebeard, Hunter Hero Alleria Windrunner and the Mage Hero Medivh can all be purchased for real cash, but they don’t offer any in game advantages over the default hero’s.

Finally, the update allows players to assign custom card backs to specific decks, rather than having to use the same one globally and there’s a new collection manager to help you keep track of everything. Oh, and the Blackrock Mountain expansion board has now made its way into regular circulation. There are also a host of bug fixes and tweaks, which you can read all about in the change log.

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Original Jun 11: If you have mastered The Arena and conquered Black Rock Mountain, then you may be looking for a new challenge in Blizzard’s popular Heathstone card game. Fortunately, the company has just announced that a new game mode, named Tavern Brawl, will be heading to the game later this month.

Tavern Brawl introduces a spin on the regular head to head game mode, but with a special rule set that changes on a weekly basis. One week players may be faced with besting their opponent using a pre-built deck, while other weeks may introduce special rules or deck building guidelines to enter with. Perhaps best of all, admission will be free, unlike The Arena or Solo Adventures.

Players will need to reach level 20 with a hero before they can use them in the Tavern Brawl, so new players will need to clock up quite a few games before being allowed to get to grips with the more random rules of the Tavern. Blizzard had originally teased an additional spot on the game’s home screen earlier in the week and this is where the new mode can be found, once it goes live.

In addition to the new game mode, Blizzard is also preparing to release a tweak to the Collection Manager, which will allow players to assign specific card backs to different decks. New Hero portraits are also on the way for some of the classes, which will come with new board artwork, emotes, and a unique match start animation. Heroes will be available for purchase using real money, but don’t offer any game play benefits over the standard heros.

Hearthstone appeared for Android tablets late last year and arrived on Android smartphones back in April. Tavern Brawl and the new changes will be available on all platforms when the update is released in mid-June.