Phil Xavier

Hearthstone's next expansion, Escape From Violet Hold launches July 7, and we're getting a pre-release Tavern Brawl where, as usual, we can open the new expansion packs in advance!

Ah, the cactus. Truly the most tsundere of plants. Dangerous on the outside, but secretly surviving on minimal amounts of affection. Touch it wrong? It retaliates. Neglect it completely, leaving it abandoned in some forlorn corner of a convention hall? Somehow, it thrives.

This is The Queue, your daily Q&A column where I’m not Cory, and I’m writing two Queues in a row. It happens sometimes. Just like love for a spiky plant, adeptly captured in a liminal picture.

If you were imprisoned in Dalaran’s maximum security prison for beings from all across the cosmos, Violet Hold, what would you do? Would you attempt a daring escape, or would you just accept your fate and wait for the heroes to inevitably come in, beat you up just for being there, and probably loot your pants on the way out? Look, I don’t know what you did but I ain’t no snitch.

This is The Queue, our daily column where we’re here to answer Qs and bribe some guards, and we’re all out of guards.

I don’t usually endorse advertising jingles for department stores, but Nanako is cute and must be protected at all costs. You go, Nanako. You sing about how great every day is at your local Junes!

This is The Queue, our daily Q&A column where the only reason I don’t say I’m looking forward to February 2027 is because I can’t remember off the top of my head when exactly each of the several other games I’m currently excited about will be released.

Another one of Hearthstone's oldest Tavern Brawls return this week after a very long absence.

Feels like good games are just dropping from the sky. There are so many games that have been announced recently that I’m tremendously excited about, like Final Fantasy 7 Revelation, the long-awaited finale to the FF7 Remake project, seven years after it started. But there are many more, and we’ll talk about them — but also about WoW, and other random things, like hot dogs, and gravity!

This is The Queue. It’s a column. It’s daily. It has Qs. Let’s gather together, look at the sky, and wait for those As to drop down, and let’s try to catch them. It’ll be fun!

Another old Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is back: An Evil Exchange last showed up in 2017 after a few rounds of balance changes during its reruns.

I wanna try it. I love ramen (ordered some last night, which is what prompted this thought). Pandaren are canonically extremely good at cooking; they even get a racial about it. Their ramen must be divine.

This is The Queue, our daily column full of Qs and As where we wish we could live in Pandaria. Seriously. Grummles and Yaks and Luckydos; great food and elemental spirits. Just ignore the Sha and the Mantid and the Virmen, and it’s a great place.

We don’t always get to witness characters getting story advancement and resolution, or happy endings — or something kinda close to “happy,” at least — so what happened to Vanessa VanCleef is really nice to see. I can’t say I disliked her as head of the Defias Brotherhood, trying to avenge her father and make bloody justice (however distorted), but I’m more than happy that she decided to trade the poisoned daggers for baskets full of bread, and dedicate her life to feeding the downtrodden people of Westfall instead of doing murders. It makes me all warm and fuzzy.

This is The Queue, a column where we answer your questions every day, whether they’re about WoW, TV shows, or some more WoW. And we also get to ramble about characters we like.

For the third week in a row, we have a super old Hearthstone Tavern Brawl returning after a very long absence.