If there is a surefire way to win gamers back, look no further than free distribution. Last month, after the meltdown of Hearthstone's latest expansion not adding new boards, Blizzard was forced to issue a statement to the effect: "No, we're not going to end the game, we're just going to keep it open. The same post also teased that a pet is in development, which is probably the second best way to appease players.

So today we are going to talk about free items. When you log into Hearthstone, you will receive a notification from the store that you can get a free golden Harth Stonebrew card; according to Blizzard's post, this card will be available until August 28, and all month long, you can get a "Perils in Paradise" golden card 1 pack and two packs of regular cards are also available for free. As my colleague Andy Chalk often says about these kinds of offers: nothing is more unfair than free.

Harth Stonebrew is a fun card that doesn't dominate the meta or anything, but it gets some play. The text says: "Battlecry: Replace your hand with one iconic card from Hearthstone's past. (Once per game)." In other words, when you play Stonebrew, your current cards are replaced with synergistic cards from some of the best decks in Hearthstone history: you might get the core components of "Grim Patron Warrior," you might get the core components of " Cubelock" combo, or you might get what you need for a "Cubelock" combo. A list of iconic hands can be found here.

Players usually use "Stonebrew" as an alternate win condition to use in a "oh, now the card does nothing" pinch. There is also an element of nostalgia in being able to revisit classic decks that have rotated out into the wild; the regular version of Stonebrew was distributed this past February as part of the game's 10th anniversary celebration, but at the time it was a gold version of 11 other "gift" cards released by Blizzard. Considering that they were given copies, it seemed a bit cheap that they didn't get a golden Stonebrew.

Interestingly, the decision to right this wrong may have been prompted by one of Hearthstone's most "vocal" fans/critics, a content creator named Zeddy, who on July 14 posted on X that Blizzard "should have been the first do so, by "doing it the favor and rewarding players" by "giving everyone a free copy of the golden Harth Stonebrew". Today, the official Hearthstone account quoted and retweeted Zeddy with an "OK" and an eye emoji.

What is interesting to me is that Zeddy has had a rocky relationship with the development team in the past. Or maybe it's just a coincidence; for those of you who don't know about Zeddy's energetic, shall we say, feedback, please know that it led to this iconic GIF being etched into Hearthstone lore.

Players who already own a Golden Version Hearthstone Brew will automatically receive 1,000 runestones (in-game currency) instead. This is just as well, otherwise Zeddy will get mad again.