Blizzard announced the Hearthstone Scholomance Academy expansion, and it's bringing 135 new cards to the game in early August, including the first-ever dual-class cards.
Academia is the running theme for Scholomance Academy, so it makes sense that Hearthstone's 10 classes would wind up in the same class once or twice. There are 40 dual-class cards in the expansion, and there are 10 unique class pairings. Blizzard revealed a few today - Mage/Rogue, Hunter/Druid, Mage/Shaman, and Druid/Shaman - and will share more in the weeks ahead, along with 10 Legendary Professor minions representing each pairing.
The Hearthstone Scholomance Academy expansion will also introduce a new keyword: Spellburst. Basically, Spellburst triggers the first time you play a spell while that minion is alive. So if you play the Shaman minion Diligent Notetaker and then immediately play a spell, you'll get that spell right back.
Spellburst minions ought to work well with the new Study card type. Studies are based on the old Mage spell Primordial Glyph, and they basically do the same thing: Discover a spell and discount it by the cost of the Study. But as the Druid card Nature Studies shows, Study mana costs can vary, whereas Primordial Glyph was two mana. It sounds like every class will have a Study, so prepare for a lot of Discover shenanigans this season.
As always, Blizzard is offering a medley of pre-order options for the new expansion. The $80 bundle gets you 85 Scholomance Academy card packs (including five all-Golden packs) as well as a random Golden Legendary, the new Kel'Thuzad Mage hero and card back, plus Arena tickets and Battlegrounds perks. There's also a $50 55-pack bundle that comes with a random Golden Legendary and the Kel'Thuzad card back. Oh, and the next time you log in, you'll receive two copies of the new neutral Epic card Transfer Student, which looks like prime meme material.
