Hearthstone adding better rewards for Ranked players and swipes at aggressive decks with Joust

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Hearthstone’s The Grand Tournament expansion is adding more than cards.

Blizzard is beefing up the rewards Ranked players get at the end of each month, via The Daily Dot. Right now, you get a new card back (as long as you’re at least Rank 20) and a slight boost to your rank for the new month. Soon, any player that hits at least Rank 20 will also get golden cards and arcane dust (which you can use to craft new cards for your collection), with the amount of each scaling up with better ranks (up to Rank 5). The rewards are based on your best rank from the season, not on your rank at the end of the season.

Blizzard is also adding a new mechanic to the game, Jousting. When someone plays a card with that ability, each player randomly pulls a card from their deck. If the mana cost on the Joust player’s card is higher, then the card with the Joust ability gets a buff. This new mechanic is surely Blizzard’s way of trying to ease the current metagame in Ranked play away from its aggressive, low-cost minion-favoring nature.

The Grand Tournament comes out later this month. It adds 132 new cards to the game.