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.

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.

Upper Deck has released the first expansion to the WoW minis game, called Spoils of War. The new set of figures introduces legendary lore figures like Jaina and Kael'thas into the mix, and they can now jump onto the gameboard with player characters and duke it out in the streamlined Arena-style turn-based battles. The new set also contains Action Bar cards, which can modify your characters and party's abilities before a battle (like casting a Wrath of Air totem to modify all of your team's die rolls). And finally, the new expansion also brings items into the mix, so there's one more medium in which you can wield Sulfuras, the Hand of Ragnaros. (And no, unfortunately, real life isn't one... yet.)

The new set is available in booster packs at a hobby and collectible store near you -- the MSRP is about $14.99, but they'll probably be around for cheaper than that eventually, if they're not already. If you're a regular player of the minis game, it sounds like it'll be a must-have addition, and if you've never picked it up before, maybe the prospect of playing some of the more famous lore figures will get you interested.

Boubouille over at MMO Champion has once again been ferreting around in the patch files and he's discovered the next set of loot from Upper Deck's next TCG expansion Fields of Honor which is due out on 30th June.

There is a legend of El Pollo Grande, the scariest chicken in all of Azeroth, the black chicken of death. For years he has been the stuff of myth, summonable only by Niby the Almighty during a Felwood quest chain. Now, however, he has once again returned, this time as a mount. Yes, you heard me right, a giant chicken mount. This El Pollo Grande is not as dark or mean as his namesake, instead looking like a regular -- albeit giant -- chicken and will be an epic land mount. So if you've not yet reached level 60, then consider this your motivation.

Also in the cards (see what I did there?) are an ogre pinata (which I'm surmising will be a BoP item with no charges, like the Goblin Weather Machine). Finally, for those of you who walked the Path of Illidan, there's the Path of Cenarius which leaves flowers in your wake. Nice.

Well goodness gracious me! We had nearly eighteen hundred comments for this morning's EU loot card giveaway! Not bad eh? Well we /rolled and came up with three lucky winners who will be receiving an email from me shortly!

So, without further a do, /drumroll. The lucky winners are:

Rugus, who gets the adorable Sandbox Tiger,
Finezze (who from his post was dying to be the centre of attention) gets the Epic Purple Shirt and, finally,
Elenac, who will be able to challenge her friends to duels with the Foam Sword Rack.

Congratulations to all and thanks to everyone who entered.

Hey, European players, psst! I know it's the crack of dawn and to make things even worse it's patch day! Pretty miserable, huh? Well, I have something that might cheer you up! Upper Deck International here in the UK have given WoW Insider a set of shiny, brand spanking new loot cards from the Blood of Gladiators expansion set, which is available right now, just in case you didn't know.

And we're giving them away to you, loyal EU readers. All you need to do is leave a comment in this post before 5PM GMT (6PM CET) today, April 15, 2009. We will then randomly choose which of our three lucky readers will win one card each. Be sure to comment with an e-mail address you check often and have easy access to, because that's how we will be contacting our chosen winners with the codes.

We have three codes to give away, one for each of the cards in the set. That's the Epic Purple Shirt, the Sandbox Tiger (awwww, bless) and the Foam Sword Rack.

The only caveat is you MUST have a European WoW account or the cards won't work (sorry to our American brethren) so please make sure before you enter, okay? Also, you can only enter once. Good luck to all who participate!

Thanks to Tom at Upper Deck International's UK office for the codes.

UPDATE: The competition is now closed! We'll be announcing the winners at 7pm CET/1pm EST!

Steelseries, who you may remember from such releases as the Zboard and the official World of Warcraft mouse, has teamed up with Upper Deck, Bradygames and J!NX to give away four Ultimate World of Warcraft Prize Packs during April, that's one each week. The best part is it's really simple to enter: all you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to add them as a fan on Facebook.

The list of loot is actually quite impressive and includes:

• World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse
• SteelSeries Zboard Limited Edition Wrath of the Lich King Keyset
• Zboard Gaming Keyboard
• SteelSeries 5C Limited Edition Mouse Pad (featuring everyone's favourite Frost Wyrm Sindragosa)
• SteelSeries Qck Limited Edition Mouse Pad (featuring the Lich King)
• Wrath of the Lich King Strategy Guide
• World of Warcraft Atlas Set
• $100 World of Warcraft Apparel Gift Certificate
• World of Warcraft Trading Card Game - Drums of War 2 Player Starter Set
• World of Warcraft Miniatures Core Set Booster

One again, it's open to everyone, and all you have to do is click here and add them as a fan.

As contests go, it's an easy one to enter and you stand the chance to win a lot of cool swag. I particularly like the rather old school atlases (which have recently been updated) and are perfect for RPers who would rather consult an oversized tome of knowledge while the Drums of War starter deck holds the somewhat small chance of winning precious in-game loot.

But before you rush off, starry eyed at the prospect of some loot, don't forget we're also running a Fan Art competition with Steelseries! Don't forget to enter as the closing date of April 20th is creeping ever closer.

Upper Deck has officially released the latest expansion in the WoW Trading Card Game -- the Blood of Gladiators is the game's eighth expansion set (can you believe this game has been around for three years already?), and features new PvP action, including a new Duel Faction Ally card and a new Arena setting in the Gurubashi Arena. There are three new characters in the game as well, coming straight from the pages of the World of Warcraft comic, with art by none other than Jim Lee. And of course it's got the loot cards we talked about earlier, including the Foam Swords rack and the Sandbox Tiger. Can't wait to see those in the game.

Booster packs from the set run about $4 in most places, though demand for the game can actually drive the prices up at retail if store owners feel they're running out too fast. Seems like, at this point, the WoW TCG has its fans, and the online game does as well, and sometimes the two are not the same people. Anyone been waiting for this release, or, eight times in, is yet another expansion set actually business as usual in the collectible card game?

Toys inside a game. Just how good can things get? I'm a huge fan of toys, you see, so when there's an opportunity to exercise this little obsession, I indulge in it. So when I heard about the toy shop in Dalaran, I was absolutely thrilled. I got myself the Train Set (well, actually, my wife gave me the money to buy it), and proceeded to disrupt every raid I could. Of course, when the train destroyer comes to town, I'm picking one up, too, just to be able to make my own train wreck.

What other toys would you like to see in-game? I mean, Upper Deck's next expansion, the Blood of Gladiators, has a bunch of new stuff for us to play with. Foam swords and a sandbox spectral tiger (just in case you never lucked out or could afford the real one). I particularly like the ball I use to play fetch with my pets. There's just a lot of room to be silly and playful, I can't imagine Blizzard or the clever guys at Upper Deck running out of ideas. What do you think should be next? Gnome boxing balloons? Throwing pies? I dunno. You guys can probably get more creative.

Our good friend Drayner over at Twinkinfo.com has gotten his hands on video of the brand new TCG items uncovered the other day for Upper Deck's upcoming Blood of Gladiators expansion. Of the three, the Foam Sword rack seems the coolest -- it looks like a pick up and go heirloom weapon that you'll be able to challenge others with. And while the Epic Purple Shirt is definitely purple (and Epic), the "Sandbox Tiger" is probably the sillest. But if you've always really wanted to ride a Spectral Tiger, there you go (and it does look like that Orc is having a lot of fun, doesn't it?).

We'll be able to get our hands on some of these cards starting next month in stores. Are any of these convincing you to pick up a few card game packs, or are these not quite as exciting as the actual Spectral Tiger mount or the Ethereal Vendor?

Our friends over at WoWTCGLoot have posted what they believe are the next three loot cards coming out in the "Blood of Gladiators" expansion of the card game.

• A Sandbox Tiger, we're told, will be a cooldown-based location toy like the D.I.S.C.O. ball, and will allow you to ride a spectral tiger in place, like a rocking horse.
• An Epic Purple Shirt will not only look epic, but should allow you to do a special emote (probably /flex) that will make you "the center of attention."
• And perhaps more exciting, a Foam Swords Rack will let players around you grab foam swords and swordfight to the finish, complete with a declared winner.

Very cool. The first time we'll see these in stores will likely be the upcoming preview of the new expansion, taking place on the weekend of March 7th. Since these likely came from information found in the PTR, they are, of course, subject to change. Upper Deck will likely share a few screenshots and some more information on these soon, and when they do, we'll let you know.

Haven't gotten a chance to play last year's Game Product of the Year yet? You're in luck -- Upper Deck is hosting another "Spectral Safari" event about a month from now, on March 14th, and you could pick up a Spectral Tiger, one of the hottest TCG items in history. Entry for the big tournament costs $20, but not only do you get to take home a WoW minis booster, but you have a chance to win prizes, and everyone who plays in the tournament will get entered in a contest to have an official mini made of their very own ingame character. That's pretty wild.

They've just sent us the list of where the events are taking place, so if there's a tournament going on near you (there are locations all over the world), now's the time to make your plans. The game is a lot of fun -- it's kind of a cross between a turn-based strategy game (in that both players take turns with their characters to move and attack) and Arena battles (in that you move around on a field using the various abilities and weapons available to your character's class). An event like this is a great way to check it out and possibly even win some prizes for playing well.

Diamond Comics, a big distributor of comics and collectables, has given out its Diamond Awards for 2008, and Upper Deck's WoW minis game is a winner. The game won Game Product of the Year -- Upper Deck says that "not only did it capture the hearts of World of Warcraft fans across the globe, it also redefined the entire miniatures category."

We'll have to take their word for it (as we haven't played that many minis games before), but the game was a lot of fun when we played a round of it at BlizzCon last year -- it's kind of a mix between turn-based strategy (in that you take turns moving your characters and attacking or defending) and Arena play (in that lots of the character abilities are borrowed straight from the ingame classes). We can speak to the quality of the game as well -- the little miniatures look great, and the game boards and cards were very colorful and well-done.

So grats to Upper Deck for picking up the Diamond Award for their new minis game (the company also nabbed a few other awards for their Marvel Masterpieces cards and their sports card lines). If you'd like to check the game out, you can pick up starter packs at most hobby and game stores, and Upper Deck periodically offers events around the country. Some of which we often post about here on WoW Insider, so stay tuned.