The new Hearthstone expansion takes you to Scholomance Academy

Those that have played World of Warcraft will recognize Scholomance as one of the iconic dungeons that have been available in Blizzard's MMORPG since it was launched. Like many other places in Azeroth, it has suffered some changes when Cataclysm expansion was released but it still challenges players with a combination of dark magic and undead monsters. Scholomance is also going to be in the spotlight in the new Hearthstone expansion, and the magic academy will prove to be the perfect place to introduce new and exciting gameplay mechanics and card types to the game. Blizzard has just released the announcement video and it gives us a completely new view of Scholomance Academy.

Scholomance Academy won't add something as important as a new class to Hearthstone. After all, the Demon Hunter has been added in the latest expansion and some of the cards that came with it may still need some tuning. But Scholomance Academy will bring a good share of novelties to Hearthstone. The main one is the Dual-Class cards, which will combine mechanics that have been class-exclusive since Blizzard's free-to-play collectible card game was released: It will add a new level of depth to deck building and offer plenty of new possibilities to the players.

The second big change that Scholomance Academy brings to the game is a new keyword, Spellburst. It works in a very special way that will undoubtedly have a huge impact on Heartstone. Every time a player casts a spell, the Spellburst effect of their cards in play will activate. As you can see in the examples below there are some very nice effects so it's quite likely that this new mechanic is going to be a pivotal element of many decks. Scholomance Academy will also add another new type of card, Studies, which allow you to Discover a card and reduce the mana cost of the next card you play of that type.

As you can see, Scholomance Academy has all the potential to be one of the most fun Hearthstone expansion, and we will be discovering more of the new cards it will add to the game in the weeks ahead of its release, which shouldn't take too long to happen.