Hearthstone update 10.2 is out, plus Tavern Brawls are about to get Wild

Strap on your sturdiest pair of Hearthstone boots, because things are about to get Wild. That 'Wild' refers to Hearthstone's format that includes all the cards that have since been struck from the standard set, not to any form of crazy debauchery. I mean come on, there's an upper bound on how wild a digital card game can get.

To celebrate their annual shuffling of cards out of Standard play and into the anything-goes Wild format, Blizzard are putting on a few events. As part of "Wildfest", from February 19 to March 11 the Arena draft will feature cards exclusive to Wild, and two Wild Tavern Brawls are on their way too.

If you prefer your CCG's to be a little more tame (i.e. balanced), then I've also got some details on the changes that landed with yesterday's 10.2 update.

One of those Tavern Brawls aims to cater for more casual players, while the other is a more competitive affair. "Venture Into the Wild" will feature a pre-constructed Wild deck for each class, and invites you to just pick one and go for it. "The Wild Brawliseum" will require a little more investment, and has an entry fee (either in-game Gold or real money) and a format just like the Arena, where you keep running with a deck of your own devising until you either hit 12 wins or 3 losses. Everyone will get one run in that for free.

Neither one of them actually sounds as wild to me as some of the more experimental Tavern Brawls I remember from when I used to play. Wild cards might be fun, but not as fun as combining cards from different classes or playing solely with Raven Idols.

Yesterday's update made some changes to Ranked play, including adjustments to how your rank gets reset each month and how many games it takes to progress from rank to rank.

There are also some balance changes, though it's been so long since I played that I can't properly talk about them. That said, I remember enough for my mouth to drop open at the legendary priest minion that used to eliminate your hero power's mana cost, but now only drops it to 1. A 5 mana card that gets a body on the board and gives you 2 free healing (or 2-3 ping damage when combined with Shadowform) every turn? Yeah, I can see why that needed tweaking. 4 cards have been changed in total, and Blizzard talk through their balancing logic here.