Hearthstone heads East for the United in Stormwind expansion

We spent the first set of the year in the Barrens, toughing it out with fresh young Hordies as they fought their way up the ranks. Now we're off to a gentler realm where song and dance and revelry are the order of the day.

Just keep an eye on the custodian of the boy king, wouldn't you?

There's a Monty Python's Camelot vibe going on here, suggesting a lighter tone to proceedings this time around. And plenty of new mechanics to keep us busy coming up with new strategies to deploy.

Tradeable: Taking up the cue that Stormwind is full of stores that love a good deal, Tradeable cards can be sold back into your deck for one mana and a new card drawn in its place. An interesting mechanic to let you decide you'd rather look for something more useful now and save that card to draw again later.

Profession tools: think weapons with no attack value but some very handy 'skills' that buff minions or reduce the cost of your hand when equiped.

Mailbox Dancer: Way to reference the way players have gotten carried away over the years, especially humans busting their saucy moves. The Mailbox Dancer gives you a coin as a Battlecry but gives your opponent a coin when they die.

Questlines: Like Quests of yore, Questlines have a multistep questing process to receive their benefits. Each class has a Questline based around the characters that were introduced in Forged in the Barrens, and completing the Questline gives a levelled up version of the character plus a benefit for the rest of the game.

Mounts: Each class gets a mount that gives a minion a buff, and when the minion dies the mount is then on the loose in its own right, with the same stats as the buff. From a 4/7 Elekk to a 2/2 Ram with immunity while attacking.

Flightmaster Dungar (available today!): The Flightmaster is a new Dormant minion that offers a range of 'destinations', with bigger effects based on the longer it takes (the number of turns he will be Dormant). From dealing damage to enemies to big self heals.

And if you log in now you'll get Flightmaster Dungar for free – usable right away!

There will be 135 new cards in the set, landing on August 4.