Patch 3.3 is on the PTR, and the WoW.com staff is hard at work exploring all it has to offer to regurgitate it in a most loving way to all of you, our dear readers. ...Sounds a little disgusting when I say it that way, doesn't it? You get what I'm saying, though!

To celebrate the patch hitting the PTR, we'd like to give away some of this random junk we have sitting around the virtual office. And by 'random junk' I mean 'sweet loot.' Tonight we're giving away three Slashdance loot codes, as well as one Papa Hummel's Pet Biscuits, all courtesy of Upper Deck. Leave a comment on this post by 8:00 AM EDT for a chance to get your hands on one of them. Remember, only comment once. If you comment multiple times, you will be disqualified.

While you're at it, why don't you check out one of our other ongoing contests?

With news of all these pets leaking out onto the interweb and the patch 3.2.2 PTR build being updated, I figured it was high time to nip to Booty Bay to visit Landro Longshot. He's usually a great source for finding out what we can expect in the Trading Card Game. Sure enough, he was updated with info on Scourgewar, which will be released on November 21st. Landro tells me that there's some great loot coming, in the form of mini mounts (the Little White Stallion and the Little Ivory Raptor), the Tuskarr Kite and the ever so adorable Spectral Tiger Cub.

We're not quite sure how the mini mounts are going to work or whether they will be faction-orientated. But it's the Little White Stallion is likely to raise a smile for all of Ghostcrawler's fans. Yes, we (and by that we mean the people who get the loot cards) will finally getting that long-promised pony! The mounts are likely to cost a couple of hundred gold each and they're not yet purchasable on the PTR. The normal codes (1111, 2222 and 3333) aren't active yet but as soon as they are, we'll be sure to bring you pictures.

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2n - 1 go left, 2n go right. I don't see enough DoTs! More DoTs now!

Are you ready for the return of Onyxia? With the Brood Mother being revitalized as a 10 and 25 person raid, you'll need to be sure you know everything that's coming at you. WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2.2 will make sure your set for the next patch!

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Good evening, WoW.com! Tonight we have a surprise giveaway. Right in front of me are three Slashdance loot codes, courtesy of Upper Deck. Each code grants you 100 Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.s which you can use to get your raid burning up the dance floor! Or the auction house, or the Horde/Alliance tunnels before Alterac Valley starts, or... you know, wherever it would be most obnoxious. Do you want one of them? All you need to do is leave a comment to this post before 11:59 PM EDT this evening, which is a little less than five hours from now.

When the clock strikes midnight tonight, I'll be turning off comments on this post and randomly selecting three winners. You may only enter tonight's giveaway once. We have ways of finding out if you've commented multiple times, so don't hose yourself out of a loot code. Comment with a valid email address, because we'll be using that to send you your loot code.

If you don't win one tonight, don't worry! Upper Deck was kind enough to give us a whole load of loot, so we'll be giving them away pretty often until we've bled ourselves dry.

Update: Congratulations to our winners InsiderFan, Jon B., and Friend. They're our winners this evening! I'll be contacting all three of you via email shortly. Again, if you didn't win tonight, don't worry. We'll be giving away many, many more of these in the near future. Just keep an eye on the site.

I spent my Saturday out at Gen Con in Indianapolis, and while I did hunt down some of the World of Warcraft action there, there was just too much going on to pay attention to the 2009 North American Continental Championships for the WoW minis and TCGs, which took place right there in the TCG hall. Fortunately, the official site covered it all, so if you're a fan of the trading card game and want to know who the best current players in North America are, there you go.

On the TCG side, Corey Burkhart took the top spot by playing a Troll Shaman deck for the win. In the minis competition, Michael Allen picked up the big prize. The official site has lots more information, including rundowns of each match, standings for each round, and even a Facebook album full of photos.

The winners picked up thousands of dollars in prizes (including a 17" MacBook Pro and a 30" Apple monitor for Corey), and all of these guys will all compete in the World Championships, to be held in Austin, Texas this October (that prize goes up to a whopping $100,000 overall, so the stakes can get big). Congratulations to all the winners -- sounds like it was a rousing event there in Indy, and Upper Deck is probably on their way as we speak off to meet with us later this week at BlizzCon.

Once again, our friend Boubouille over at MMO Champion has been a busy boy. With the surprise announcement that the PTRs were up for the testing of the WoW Anniversary Patch (aka patch 3.2.2), he's been digging deep into the patch files and guess what he found?

Well the big news is aptly summed up in the image above. Yes, it's the Onyxia mount (though not actually the Broodmother herself). A picture really does say a thousand words, doesn't it? However that's not all he's found by datamining. There are yet more mounts, including a Spectral Tiger cub! I suspect this little cub may well be from a future TCG expansion. After all, where did this little guy's parent come from? Ditto the rather awesome Tuskarr kite.

On top of that there are some regular mounts in the form of a Little White Stallion and yet another dino-centric mount, this time a Little Ivory Raptor. Boubouille also found the Onyxia Whelping, which is the pet everyone who logs in during November will recieve (think the Blizzard Bear). Ain't it a cutie?

However the oddest thing he uncovered was a collection of Mohawk themed spells. These relate to the now memorable TV advert in which Mr. T creates his own class, the infamous Night Elf Mohawk. From the spell descriptions, I can't help thinking this is not some hint towards a new class in the next expansion but, rather, will be some kind of NPC or quest-related summonable pet. Either way, it sounds awesome.

I would hazard a guess that the DC Unlimited series of action figures from the WoW universe is probably the least-heralded licensed product -- whenever Upper Deck releases a new set of the TCG, we get multiple press releases and it gets posted on their main site, but whenever a new set of figures comes out, we always have to find it hidden in among all the other comic news and then make sure it hasn't been released before. But these are new, or at least new to us: DC is planning to release two new Premium Series 2 action figures, including everyone's favorite tortured Horde leader, Thrall, and a Gnome Warlock with a Voidwalker pal.

Technically, news of these guys leaked out to distributors in May, but apparently we didn't miss the boat by too much anyway, as they're not set to be on store shelves until next January (or February, even, depending on where you look). Does it really take that long to get these things ready and out? At any rate, there they are, and we wouldn't be surprised to see both figures on display at BlizzCon later this year. We've had a few of you in the comments mention that you'd like to see a Thrall figure before, and so here you go. Personally, I have a completely different Orc I'd like to see immortalized in action figure form.



Thanks, KND and Eric W.!

We can't believe it either – Turpster has been let loose on WoW.com to bring you videos from in and around the World of Warcraft! You've heard him on the WoW Insider Show, and now see him on TurpsterVision right here on WoW.com.

Here at WoW.com we give away TCG loot all the time and TurpsterVision should be no different. If you've always wanted to smash an ogre till his sweet delectable guts scatter all over the floor then today might just be your lucky day! Today you get the chance to win one of the new Fields of Honor loot codes by just leaving a comment to this week's TurpsterVision (Being a limey Brit this is open to EU only as the codes apparently only work over here...sorry)!

Read on below the break for more information on how to win your very own Fields of Honor loot and for an image which is NSFW. That's right ladies, I've whacked it out due to popular demand and snapped off a few shots of my massive beast. (If that doesn't intrigue you into clicking then I don't know what will!)

Ahh the smell of fresh loot in the air, it must be summer. Well, fans of loot cards and the official Trading Card Game, I bet you have your calendar marked. Tomorrow sees the release of the latest - and possibly greatest - TCG expansion Fields of Honor. Yes, you too could have your very own El Pollo Grande, the greatest mount in the entire history of Azeroth. We've mentioned this thing was rarer than a spectral tiger's tooth, right? Indeed our very own Turpster has been raving about his (insert slightly rude giant chicken joke here) all week.

The best part that is the cards were activated in an earlier patch so you can use them as soon as you find one. No more waiting for 3.1.x or even 3.2. Just to recap, the Fields of Honor loot consists of El Pollo Grande, the Ogre Pinata and the groovy Path of Cenarius. You can also take a peek at Upper Deck's loot card preview page for some really cool screenshots.

But here's the best part. After the success of our last EU giveaway, Upper Deck International here in the UK have very kindly given us a set of shiny European loot cards. Isn't that nice of them? We certainly think so! We're going to give them away during this week's maintenance so check back then.

Upper Deck has announced that the Death Knight class is coming to the WoW trading card game. Just like in the MMO, the class plays differently than any other -- their website has a series of previews posted that show just how different their DKs are. The class is designed to do crazy damage with two-hand weapons, and there are options to do extra damage by sacrificing allies or equip gear that provides you with solid armor even as you're churning out DPS. There are Death Knight Horde and Alliance allies as well, and each of them has a Death Knight-specific ability -- lots of Shadow damage, exchanging protection for more damage, and even some Frost-tree cold debuffs. And there are quests to go along with the Death Knight class as well, where DKs get extra bonuses for completing and playing certain quests.

Starting on June 16th, you'll be able to pick up 36-card deluxe starter decks for Death Knights at a store near you, and those decks will get inserted into the game just like any other class -- they come with a Hero to play, associated spells and quests, and three "Ghoul token cards" to play as allies. While this is the first time Death Knights will be playable as Heroes, the very first Death Knight cards were actually included in the Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition -- a pair of Ally cards named Lord Anton Nightbane (Alliance) and Conqueror Kagon Blackskull (Horde). If you like the TCG but have been looking for a new twist (or a way to bring your Death Knight character into the game), this definitely seems worth a look.

And speaking of the TCG, they are now on Facebook, so if you're a fan, go say hi over there as well. The MMO and TCG crowd still seem to run in different circles (though you'll definitely see the game at BlizzCon), but there are quite a few intersecting points between them.

I've received a load of e-mails, tweets, whispers, and whatever else since Eliah posted this past weekend's WRUP. Yes, my garage burned down. No, nobody was hurt. No, the house didn't burn down, the siding just melted a little. No, that wasn't my car, it was my neighbor's car. Yes, my office has smelled like someone barbequeing since it happened and I can't get the smell to go away. I appreciate the concern, guys. You are all awesome. I guess I should pick a relevant Song of the Day, huh? How about Billy Joel's We Didn't Start the Fire?

Jack Spicer asked...

"With each expansion Blizzard seems to be bringing underused talent specs around and making them highly desirable. In TBC, it seemed to be Feral Druids, Prot Pallies, Shadow Priests and BM Hunters. In Wrath, they really brought up Survival Hunters and Retribution Pallies.

But I'm curious. From a PvE perspective, which talent trees are still universally lacking and laughable?"

The World of Warcraft Trading Card game has released its latest expansion, but it's a little bit different than what's come before. It's called Arena Grand Melee, and it actually changes the gameplay of the TCG just a little bit, including some very different mechanics than those players have seen before. For instance, there's a card called "For the Fallen" that will grant additional cards to players when they act out their melee strikes in real-life. Another card called "Steamwheedle Casino" has players playing a quick game of Blackjack with their WoW TCG cards to win an extra card. Arena Grand Melee sounds it puts a very strange twist on the current TCG game.

The WoW TCG site has been highlighting some of the new cards in the game -- there's a new ability called Preparation, which allows you to use a card twice in quick succession, and there are cards that boost your hand size and beef up your allies, as well as cards that offer up some other new heroes and abilities. It sounds like an interesting addition to the game, but on the other hand, this doesn't seem like a pack for newbies -- experienced players will get the best thrill from these twists. Pick up the eighty card sets in either of the Horde or Alliance versions at your local gaming store.

It's that time of the week again, everyone Yes, that's right. It's time for WoW Insider to 'celebrate' maintenance Tuesday with free stuff. We're back to TCG loot codes this week, once again courtesy of the great folks over at WoWTCGLoot.com.

So what are we offering this week? We have two Sandbox Tiger codes and three Party G.R.E.N.A.D.E.S. If you want a chance to win , simply leave a comment on this post. At midnight tonight, comments will be turned off and our winners will be picked at random and given a random code. You may only enter this giveaway once or you will be disqualified. Remember, post your comment using a valid e-mail address that you check on a regular basis. That's how we'll be contacting you with your loot. Note: You will not be receiving the card, only the loot code.

If you don't win, don't get too beat up. WoW Insider will be doing these contest and giveaways as often as we're able, and today's benefactor does things like this over on their own site rather often, too.

As we mentioned just the other day, the latest batch of TCG loot from Fields of Honor is on the PTR for testing. I couldn't resist going to give those things a whirl myself. After all, how else will I decide if I should blow money on these things? Plus, the PTR has premade level 80s this cycle. Premades plus free TCG loot to play around with? Yes, please!

For those of you that don't have the time or inclination to hop on the PTR yourselves, we've grabbed some video of the various items in action. Up above you'll see El Pollo Grande, and below the cut you'll find the Path of Cenarius and the Ogre Pinata. I recommend clicking through to their YouTube page and watching them in High Quality.

Reader Kongzai sent us a tip this morning that the recently revealed loot cards for the next TCG expansion Fields of Honor are available for testing on the PTR. He hotfotted it down to Booty Bay and reports that it is indeed possible to sample the latest loot using the same codes as in previous PTR tests. All you need to do is enter the following when prompted by Landro:

1111 for the Path of Cenarius
2222 for the Ogre Pinata
3333 for the Magic Rooster Egg (aka El Pollo Grande)

Kongzai was also able to shed a little more information on the loot itself. He reports that Path of Cenarius is the common item, coming in stacks of 100 and lasts for five minutes. The Ogre Pinata is, as I predicted, BoP and thirty minute cooldown. He comes with 5000 HP and, when destroyed, leaves a stack of gumballs in his wake which grant a buff that makes you blow bubbles. Awesome. He also told us that El Pollo Grande costs 100g which is not a bad amount for such a cool mount.

This news comes mere hours after Upper Deck posted a loot card preview on their official site featuring screens and the first video of the must-have chicken mount El Pollo Grande.