Blizzard is in the midst of a massive expansion promotion, with the coveted WoW Feldrake mount soon to be a Twitch rewards drop. For the casual or lapsed fan this just appears to be a neat addition to the World of Warcraft mount collection, but let us fill you in on a dark secret: This mount is controversial in hardcore circles due to its existence as once only obtainable via a now-defunct, physical card game!
Once considered a holy grail achievement and one that the elite would pay out the nose for–both in real-world and in-game currency–is now an item Little Timmy can get by watching a few hours of his favorite streamer.
So, what’s the deal? Let’s talk about the controversy in mount-collecting circles while also giving all of you the inside scoop on how to obtain this mount via !Drops.
A trading card game far, far away
The World of Warcraft Trading Card Game ran from 2005 to 2010 in a joint effort between cardboard giants Upper Deck and board game creator Cryptozoic. While also known as being the progenitor of the smash hit digital card game Hearthstone, the WoW TCG was notorious for another reason: Loot cards.
Essentially cosmetic DLC in physical form, each set of the card game possessed a large number of one-use loot cards. Possessing a code players could input on the WoW website from the card rewarded the player with any number of rare in-game items. These items range from pets and mounts to silly cosmetic items or even useful toys like a second Hearthstone.
Some of the WoW TCG loot cards have sold for up to $20,000 USD
And if you’re thinking “Gee, that sounds like a fantastic way to create artificial scarcity in what was one of the biggest video games in the world!” then you are absolutely correct. While the card game itself waned in popularity, it was almost impossible to find booster packs in stores due to the loot card scavenger hunt. Not only were the items ultra-rare and a terrific way to gloat while hanging out in Stormwind, but two monetary costs were also at work. To this day, booster boxes of the out-of-print game still sell for massive amounts of money, all for a shot at a loot card.
Scamming the scammers
A player on the World of Warcraft Facebook group bemoans the WoW TCG loot cards.
The advent of eBay and general greed led to a majority of the WoW TCG loot cards becoming white whales. Prices from third-party resellers veer up into the thousands and tens of thousands for the most rare of loot cards, such as the coveted Spectral Tiger card, which gives one of, if not the rarest mount in World of Warcraft.
As you can imagine, it came with a bit of controversy in mount collector circles when Blizzard announced that one of these rare mounts, the Feldrake would be a Twitch drop during the Dragonflight promotion period. Players that had bought a Feldrake for up to three thousand dollars are mad that their speculation purchase now amounts to nothing, while reseller sites stand to have their cardboard gold turn to dust once the promotion is live.
There’s a conversation to be had about how all of this is a pretty good allegory for NFTs and crypto and how that affects and reflects the gaming industry… But we’re sure you just want your cool, free mount.
So, let’s give you the simple steps on what to do to get a $3000 dollar mount for free.
WoW Feldrake Twitch drop activation
While Blizzard provided directions on how to connect your Battle Net and Twitch accounts, let’s make sure everything is connected, as the window for acquiring the Feldrake mount is only open from November 28 to December 1. Head over to the Battle Net Connections page to log into your Twitch account and make the appropriate connections. After that, you’ll just need to tune in to a World of Warcraft channel for four hours. After the appropriate amount of time passes, make sure to click on the Drops Inventory menu on Twitch and claim it within seven days.
Alas, the drops are only available in North America, Latin America, Europe, The Middle East, Africa, South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand. But do us all a favor: Don’t buy a loot card off EBay–There are far better ways to spend three thousand dollars…
Like buying some Hearthstone cards instead!
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