[2] The license was acquired by Cryptozoic Entertainment later in the month, with the company announcing that planned card sets would be released.
[3] On August 23, 2013, Blizzard Entertainment announced that the TCG would be discontinued, and that they would not be renewing the game's license.
[4] In March 2014, Blizzard released Hearthstone, an online collectible card game featuring many of the same characters, abilities and artwork.
As in games such as Magic: The Gathering, the goal is to reduce the remaining health of the opposing hero to zero.
[6] The color of the collector number printed on a card indicates its rarity, using a system similar to that of the online game: white for common, green for uncommon, blue for rare, purple for epic, and orange for legendary.
Starter decks were released for Heroes of Azeroth, Through the Dark Portal, March of the Legion, and Drums of War.
They combine elements from the World of Warcraft (the team-based questing), and Dungeons & Dragons (the Raid Master).
Artists include Chris Rahn, Wayne Reynolds, Steve Prescott, Doug Alexander, Thomas M. Baxa, Julie Bell, Mauro Cascioli, Matt Dixon, Alex Horley, Todd McFarlane, Jeremy Mohler, Ariel Olivetti, Dan Scott, Ron Spencer, Greg Staples, Mike Sutfin, Glenn Rane, Samwise, Boris Vallejo, and Paul Kidby.
In the May 26, 2006 update of the Penny Arcade site, Krahulik revealed his artwork for a card that was based on the exploits of Leeroy Jenkins.
Along with weekly battleground tournaments at local hobby stores, Cryptozoic Entertainment hosted Darkmoon Faires (DMF), events that ran Friday through Sunday in cities all across the world.
Previously, the most notable competition featured was the Dream Machine Championship, which the winner received a custom built computer.
In 2009, Corey-Scott Burkhart won the NACC at Gen Con Indy with a Shaman deck.
In 2011, Mark Mckiernan was crowned the european champion at the EUCC championship in Rimini (Italy) with the Shaman "Spider Deck".
The winners were the American team The Warriors, composed of Ben Isgur, Matt Markoff, and James Kandziolka.
Their prizes were the Darkmoon Faire tournament scheduled in Baltimore, Maryland along with $15,000 in Amazon vouchers.
The sixth and final World Championships took place in Atlanta, Georgia in early November 2012.