Hearthstone Brings Back The Old Gods In "Madness At The Darkmoon Faire"

Hearthstone's next expansion will bring back a fan-favorite foursome of larger-than-life cards, alongside a new keyword and a new game mode. The Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expansion is themed around a creepy carnival, and to match the occasion, the set will mark the return of the Old Gods--albeit with different effects than we saw in the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion.

As before, the Old Gods are powerful 10-Mana Legendary minions with game-changing effects that encourage you to build a deck around their central mechanics. C'Thun, N'Zoth, Yogg-Saron, and Y'Shaarj are all neutral minions, so you'll be able to fit them into any type of deck. New Old God Artifact cards will also bring back the flavor of the original Old Gods.

A new Corrupt mechanic is coming into play in the Darkmoon Faire as well. Cards with the new keyword get a powerful upgrade if you play a higher-cost card while they're in your hand.

The new expansion is coming alongside a new game mode, called Duels. The new mode uses the unique hero powers and powerful treasures of the popular Dungeon Run single-player mode and mixes in some standard deck-building and Arena-like rewards. Preordering the new expansion will get you early access to the Duels mode, starting today. If you don't preorder, you can play when it opens for everyone upon the launch of Darkmoon Faire. Finally, both Darkmoon Faire and Duels are coming alongside a revamped rewards system that uses a battle pass-like structure.

Darkmoon Faire will release on November 17. You can preorder a standard bundle that includes 45 Darkmoon Faire packs, one random Legendary card, a N'Zoth cardback, and Duels early access, for $40. A Mega Bundle is also available for $80, offering 80 packs, 5 golden packs, one random golden Legendary, and N'Zoth as a new Warlock hero portrait.

For more, check out our in-depth look at all the Hearthstone updates coming in the next few weeks, and view our gallery of all the Darkmoon Faire cards we've seen so far.