Blizzard Entertainment Inc’s enormously successful card battler, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, has focused entirely on 1v1 competition since it launched in Spring of 2014, but now the studio is testing out a possible co-operative mode under the guise of the game’s weekly Tavern Brawl event.

Blizzard announced the event in a blog post, saying:

Combine forces to defeat Gearmaster Mechazod. You’ll each be piloting a pre-built deck assembled to give both you and your partner on the other side of the board a chance to take out the technological terror. Each turn he’ll move from your side of the board to your friend’s, and you’ll need to play your cards just right to bring him down together. Watch out! If one of you is defeated, then you both are, so don’t be stingy with the heals.

That sounds like a great recipe to get players to rage out against random strangers for making the wrong play, but since Hearthstone limits players to a handful of predetermined emotes (with the option to “squelch” or mute their opponent), there will fortunately be little in the way of trash talk. Blizzard also said that players will receive a free Hearthstone card pack whether they win or lose, which will help alleviate most players’ rage.

Since it is not clear how exactly fans will react to new major game features like a cooperative mode, the Tavern Brawl event is a great way for the studio to test the waters first.

The Tavern Brawl mode was first added in June as a way to introduce fun weekly challenges for players to help break up the tedium of ranked matches arena. Some challenges, such as the one introduced this week, give players pre-built decks designed for the event, which is great for newer players who may not have very many cards to build their own decks.

Image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment Inc