Beloved theorycrafting streams are here to grace us with their presence once again, this time even earlier than usual. Dozens of fortunate content creators get to play with new expansion cards (you can see all of them here) from the upcoming Murder at Castle Nathria set. Even if watching their shenanigans is not your thing, it's still going to be worth it to hop onto Twitch and let any Hearthstone stream run their course, for there are pack drops and bundle giveaways in store for the willing! 

Update: Want another free pack as well? Don't miss the Murder at Castle Nathria script reading event! 

Twitch Drops, and Theorycrafting events begin at 9 AM Pacific (12 PM Eastern, 6 PM CEST).

How to Earn Free Castle Nathria Packs

  • Login to Twitch with your Twitch Account.
  • Make sure your Twitch Account is connected to your Battle.net Account.
  • Watch any Hearthstone stream to earn your packs.
  • You can view your current progress towards a pack (shown in %) at any time.
    • You will have to manually claim the 1st pack earned before being able to accumulate watch progress towards the 2nd.

Quote From Blizzard

From July 21 at 9am (PT) to July 22 at 7 am (PT), watch a total of 2 hours of any stream across the Hearthstone category to earn 1 Murder at Castle Nathria card pack! Watch for another 2 hours and earn a second Murder at Castle Nathria card pack! Card packs will be locked until the expansion launches on August 2. You must link your Twitch and Battle.net accounts in order for your time watch to award drops. Here’s how:

  • Login or create an account on Twitch.tv.
  • Navigate to the Settings menu by clicking on your account name in the top-right corner of the home screen.
  • Navigate to the Connections tab of the Settings menu.
  • Find the Battle.net section, then follow the instructions after selecting a region and clicking Connect.
  • When connecting accounts, make sure that you’re currently logged into the Battle.net account on which you’d like to receive your rewards.
 

But that's not all! If you closely keep watching the streamers taking part in the theorycrafting events, you might be lucky enough to get your hands on a Pre-Purchase Mega Bundle code (usually requires typing a chosen keyword in the Twitch chat once a streamer announces it's go time). Of course that's akin to winning a small limited lottery, don't count on it happening most of the time. 

Quote From Blizzard
In addition to category-wide Twitch Drops, players participating in the theorycrafting event have been given Pre-Purchase Mega Bundle codes that they will be giving out to their respective audiences during the theorycrafting event. So make extra sure that you tune in to your favorite streamer during the period listed for their region!
 

Theorycrafting Streams & Participants

Both Standard and Wild content creators rise up to the occasion once again, being able to test a myriad of new cards and decks. As you can see, Europe/Americas get to pick one of the two appropriate time slots (9 am-3 pm (PT) or 3 pm-9 pm (PT). Other than that, the usual rules apply: 

Quote From Blizzard

Join us, starting on July 21, for the first investigations of the gameplay for Hearthstone’s upcoming expansion, Murder at Castle Nathria! In these theorycraft livestreams, your favorite Standard and Wild content creators are coming together to search for clues as to what the new expansion has to offer.

Rules

  • Standard format: There must be at least 10 Murder at Castle Nathria cards included in each deck (can be 10 unique cards or 2x copies of 5 unique cards).
  • Wild format: There must be at least 1 Legendary and 5 additional Murder at Castle Nathria cards included in each deck (for a total of 6+ new cards per deck).

How to Watch

Invited players will be streaming their participation on their own personal streams, so make sure that you’re following your favorite Hearthstone content creators and tune in when they go live during the following time periods:

Europe/Americas: July 21, 9am- 3pm (PT), or 3pm-9 pm (PT)*

Asia-Pacific: July 22, 2 a.m.-7a.m. (PT)

* Players in these regions will pick one of the two time slots. All Wild participants will be playing during the Europe/Americas time slots, regardless of their region.

Unfortunately, we do not have any convenient list of all invited streamers (not even for NA like last time). Hearthstone's Community Manager explained the reasoning - or limitations - behind that: 

Quote From Alkali Layke
Hi! Where could I find a list of all the streamers participating in the theorycrafting event?

There's too many across all our regions. 120+ We didn't make a central list this year and publish it because we often have too many last minute changes to the roster as people have life events come up. 

So far, every creator has posted if they are participating.

 

It's probably safe to say most of the Constructed streamers we are familiar with might get their shot here. They've also all announced their participation (or lack thereof) on their social media ahead of time. You pretty much can't miss them by opening the Hearthstone Twitch category and looking at the stream titles.

Theorycasting 

Prefer to watch your streams with a dose of (more or less) professional commentary? Once more, prominent British Hearthstone casters band together to dish out judgment and either praise or make fun of players' deckbuilding skills and play! You can find Raven, Sottle, and Lorinda talking over one another on Raven's Twitch, and they also have some gifts to offer: 

Quote From Raven
Join us as we judge the content creators deckbuilding skills and play with the new expansion cards!

Also, thanks to Blizzard we have 3 x Mega Bundle and 4 x Standard Bundles to giveaway to lucky viewers!

 

This is a good choice of entertainment if you enjoy variety (or an 'aggregated stream' of sorts) and get bored watching the same person for too long.

Will you be tuning in to various theorycrafting streams to see new card interactions, cheer, and chill alongside content creators, or only collecting your free packs on the side?