Hearthstone's Goblins vs Gnomes cards are live in Arena

Blizzard surprised us all today with an early patch for Hearthstone's first full expansion, Goblins vs Gnomes. The patch implements previously announced nerfs, a bevvy of bug fixes and new features, and immediately makes all Goblins vs Gnomes cards available in the Arena mode. What’s more, Blizzard has given everyone who starts an Arena run between now and Monday a free ticket to the Arena. I immediately jumped in and drafted as many new cards as I could, and you can watch the video above to see the spectacular results of all the mech synergy.

The Goblins vs Gnomes cards are now all available to view in the crafting section of your card collection, but won’t actually be craftable until the official release date. The new cards will also be available through their own packs which will cost the same amount in both in-game gold and real money as the current packs. Once Goblins vs Gnomes is live, Arena will only be giving the new packs as rewards, so now is your only chance to try out the new cards while still improving your current collection.

Another notable feature added is the addition of Spectator mode, which allows you to watch your friends’ games firsthand. Spectator mode will be a huge step forward in the tournament scene, as it will include a way to view both parties playing. The Goblins vs Gnomes game board is also playable, though whether or not you get it is random. In the same vein, cards that give you another random card, like Webspinner, appear to have the GvG cards available to them in any mode.

And finally, the patch came with a detailed and ridiculous set of patch notes that would have definitely made our list of the best. Check out the full list here, and some of my personal favorites below:

• Blood Imps will no longer target Imp Masters with no life left. It’s dead, Jim.
• Baron Rivendare in the Naxxramas Adventure has fixed his heater and will no longer cast Frostbolt on himself.
• Faceless Manipulators will now copy the Echoing Ooze as well as its effect.
• Faceless Manipulators will now copy the Echoing Ooze as well as its effect.
• Gnomes have been hard at work fixing Goblin “upgrades”, forcing our engineers to step in and fix the fixes that the gnomes “fixed”. Ultimately, a number of display issues and other bugs have been resolved.