The second expansion of Hearthstone’s Year of the Raven has been announced, and it’s an… electrifying one. After a relatively short teaser period, which consisted of basically one image, today the announcement went live. Per accident, that is, as shortly after the announcement the video was taken down again.

So what’s the new expansion about? The evil goblin Dr. Boom, previously tormenting players is caught in between dimensions and has created a laboratory with all kinds of crazy experiments from within The Netherstorm. The first new mechanic introduced is called ‘Magnetic’, and interacts with all Mech minions. Upon playing a Magnetic minion, players can choose to fuse it with a friendly Mech on board, merging all stats and effects to create one big mechanical abomination.

A second new group of cards do not feature a new keyword, but are called ‘Omega’ cards. From what’s been said and seen those cards are reasonable when played before you reach 10 Mana. However, if you play the Omega cards at 10 Mana, they receive a massive upgrade. It seems like Blizzard missed the good old Big Druid days.

Two new groups of spells were in the reveal video too, the most exciting of which are Legendary spells. Now, you might think “Hey, but we’ve had Quests, those are Legendary spells right?”. And yes, to some degree that’s correct. However, whereas Quests were always offered in your mulligan, and served as a mini-objective in the game, the new Legendary spells work just like any other spell, and are shuffled into your deck alongside all other cards. The second group of spells are titled ‘Projects’, similar to how Whispers of the Old Gods had a couple of ‘Forbidden’ cards, and trigger the same effect for both players. Fair and square, right?

Other than new mechanics, two other cards were revealed. Well, one and a half to be more precise. First up there’s a new Shaman Legendary minion, Electra Stormsurge. A 3/3 at first glance might not seem too exciting, until you remember that Shaman has some outrageously powerful spells. A 6 Mana double Lightning Storm is stronger than Mage’s power tool Flamestrike, and then we’re not even touching a turn 8 combination of Electra Stormsurge with Volcano, for a 30-damage board clear…

To top it all off, the evil doctor himself was teased as a Warrior Hero Card. One can only imagine the horrible things that could be written on that card…

Additional information about the next expansion could be found in the YouTube description of the video. First and foremost,the expansion is set to release on August 7, almost the exact same date last year’s second expansion, Knights of the Frozen Throne, came out. Secondly, there are not one but two pre-purchase options the first one follows the classic path: 50 packs and a card back, but throws in a random Golden Legendary as well. Trumping this is the 80 card pack pre-purchase, which also rewards you with a new Warlock Hero skin: mecha Jaraxxus MECHA JARAXXUS!

While there’s almost a month of card-reveals left to be had, the final reveal stream is set to happen on July 23, at 10 am PST.

It seems like initially Blizzard pulled the emergency brake and removed the announcement video, but then realized no-one was going to unsee it anyway. So, if you’re not hyped yet, watch the announcement video below!

(Mirror if video doesn't work try https://streamable.com/bhhhf )