Remember when Hearthstone mechs were a thing? Before they got buried in the meta under Echo cards and Zoo decks? Well, you might want to dust off your old Gorillabot because Dr. Boom is coming to town and giving your mech cards new life.

Announced earlier this week (and if you haven’t watched the intro videos yet, do yourself a favor and follow that link), The Boomsday Project is the ninth expansion of Blizzard’s “free-to-play” deckbuilding game.

New Legendaries

The_Boomsday_Project_Legendary — Draw your entire deck? That doesn’t seem like a disaster in the making at all… (Image: Blizzard)

Featuring the much-maligned Dr. Boom (otherwise known as The Legendary That Ruled Hearthstone for Six Months), this expansion will appropriately introduce a brand new kind of legendary card—Legendary Spells! The first one revealed, Myra’s Unstable Element, has you draw your entire deck at once, which seems like it could be potentially devastating? But I’m sure there’s another card in the expansion that makes up for it. Maybe one of the new Legendary scientist cards, perhaps?

New Mechanics

The_Boomsday_Project_Mechanics — I can’t wait to attach Spider Bombs to EVERYTHING (Image: Blizzard)

In addition to the new Legendaries, The Boomsday Project has plenty of new mechanics for you to sink your teeth into. There are Projects, which give both you and your opponent an advantage. There’s also Omega cards—perfectly OK cards when played at their initial mana cost, but when played at 10 mana, gain new stats and abilities.

The most interesting new mechanic, however, and the one that will have you dusting off your old mech decks, is the Magnetic keyword. When you play a Magnetic card and have a mech on the board, the card will attach and add its stats to the mech and give it new characteristics (like exploding, everyone likes explosions!).

New Solo Levels

The_Boomsday_Project_Puzzle_Lab — These will have you exploding with frustration (Image: Blizzard)

Of course, it wouldn’t be an expansion without new solo levels and The Boomsday Project is going to have every meta-gamer drooling. Instead of the standard “fight the boss, win the level” mechanic, you’ll have to overcome nine challenges like winning in a single turn and creating a perfect mirror of your opponent’s board.

New Pre-Order Bundles

The_Boomsday_Project_Pre_Order_Bundle — 80 packs, a legendary, a new card back, and a hero? Sign me up! (Image: Blizzard)

Is there stuff to pre-order? Of course there is! There are two one-time-purchase bundles available for $49.99 and $79.99. The $49.99 pack gets you 50 booster packs, a golden Legendary, and the new Mecha-Jaraxxus card back. For $79.99 you get 80 packs (I knew that the 100 pack deal from Witchwood was too good to last), a golden Legendary, the card back, and a Mecha-Jaraxxus hero! If you play Hearthstone on an Amazon Fire device (or have one handy you can load the game onto), you can save a bit of cash and use Amazon Coins. $100 worth of coins is only $79.99, so you’ll be spending the same amount, and also get enough coins to buy some extra booster packs.

Are you dedicated to keeping the “free” in “free-to-play?” Don’t worry, there’s something for everyone! Once The Boomsday Project goes live. Everyone will get a random Legendary scientist and three booster packs just for logging in. And, of course, there will be a new Puzzle Lab card back to celebrate the event.

When Does it Go Live?

The Boomsday Project is just around the corner. Launch day is Tuesday, August 7 (that means your current Witchwood meta decks will be obsolete come August 8). So shine up those mechs and start dreaming up new strategies. This promises to be the most volatile Hearthstone expansion yet. You can check out more at TheBoomsdayProject.com.

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