Hearthstone's Next Expansion Revealed: The Grand Tournament

[Steven Bogos]

Hearthstone's Next Expansion Revealed: The Grand Tournament

The Grand Tournament is an expansion on the same scale as Goblins vs. Gnomes, featuring 132 new cards.

Goblins vs. Gnomes [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/tag/view/hearthstone], The Grand Tournament features a whopping 132 new cards to collect, a new game board, and a completely new game mechanic: "Inspire". The new expansion will launch sometime in August.

Inspire is an effect that takes place after using your hero power. Utilizing your hero power while a minion with Inspire is on the board will result in one of any number of effects. There's also a bunch of new cards that direct affect your hero power, allowing you to cast it for free, or multiple times, which should lead to some cool new inspire combos.

Check out some of the new cards below:

[gallery=4443]

Additionally, beginning with the launch of The Grand Tournament, the Arena will no longer award players only Goblins vs Gnomes card packs. Instead, players will receive a card pack from one of the game's three sets (Classic, Goblins Vs. Gnomes, The Grand Tournament) at random.

Blizzard will slowly be revealing all the cards from the set at it's new Grand Tournament page [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/expansions-adventures/the-grand-tournament/cards], so be sure to keep an eye on it.

Source: Blizzard [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/blog/19819218/the-grand-tournament%E2%84%A2-opens-this-august-7-22-2015]

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[Dr. Crawver]

Huh, inspire looks interesting. Also, yay, another giant to throw into my handlock deck.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I'm already imagining the nightmare scenario of Hunter having both the Coldarra Drake and the Maiden of the Lake on the board at the same time at the beginning of their turn. Obviously that would be very rare, but yikes. I'm definitely happy that they're introducing another new mechanic. All of this stuff looks very exciting for control matches. Hopefully they give us some better tools for dealing with aggro.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

I'm already imagining the nightmare scenario of Hunter having both the Coldarra Drake and the Maiden of the Lake on the board at the same time at the beginning of their turn. Obviously that would be very rare, but yikes. I'm definitely happy that they're introducing another new mechanic. All of this stuff looks very exciting for control matches. Hopefully they give us some better tools for dealing with aggro.

My Biggest fear is that this update will just buff up face Hunter and other aggro decks some more. We haven't had a good counter to aggro decks since Naxxramas with sludge Belcher

 

[Gizen]

I'm already imagining the nightmare scenario of Hunter having both the Coldarra Drake and the Maiden of the Lake on the board at the same time at the beginning of their turn.

Considering the Coldarra Drake is a mage specific card, you don't need to ever fear this unless the hunter is pulling some seriously hardcore shenanigans, and if he does, then he's probably earned it.

 

[Battenberg]

Saraad looks hilariously OP, especially with the other hero power boosting cards out there, very likely to be a one card win condition in a fair few matches. Plus it is of course completely reliant on RNG because so many people have been saying there isn't enough of that in Hearthstone -_-

 

[Ukomba]

There needs to a card that in some way freezes hero powers now, or causes self inflicted damage when it's used.

 

[Loop Stricken]

No Death Knight class though. Seems silly to me.

 

[RedDeadFred]

I'm already imagining the nightmare scenario of Hunter having both the Coldarra Drake and the Maiden of the Lake on the board at the same time at the beginning of their turn.

Considering the Coldarra Drake is a mage specific card, you don't need to ever fear this unless the hunter is pulling some seriously hardcore shenanigans, and if he does, then he's probably earned it.

Oh, haha. So it is. I wonder if every class is going to get a specific dragon now that both Paladin and Mage have them.

 

[Duskflamer]

There needs to a card that in some way freezes hero powers now, or causes self inflicted damage when it's used.

Taking damage for using the hero power sounds like it could be interesting, would probably fit best thematically on a Warlock minion I think.

Some other cards that were shown on stream:

Totem Golem - Shaman Minion - 2 cost 3/4, Overload(1), Totem.
Tuskarr Totemic - Shaman Minion - 3 cost 3/2, Battlecry: summon ANY random Totem.
Draenei Totemcarver - Shaman Minion - 4 cost 4/4, Battlecry: gain +1/+1 for each friendly Totem.
Thunder Bluff Valiant- Shaman Minion - 5 cost 3/6, Inspire: Give your Totems +2 attack.

Fallen Hero - Mage Minion - 2 mana 3/2, Your hero power deals 1 extra damage. [[shown on stream to stack with itself]]
Effigy - Mage spell - 3 mana, Secret: When a friendly minion dies, summon a random minion with the same cost.

Ball of Spiders - Hunter spell - 6 mana, Summon 3 1/1 Webspinners. [[Was seen but not played]]

Kodorider - Neutral Minion - 6 mana 3/5, Inspire: Summon a 3/5 War Kodo.

I think that's all the new cards that were on the stream but not on the site, feel free to add if you noticed one I missed.

Edit: All of these cards have now been added to the official site [http://us.battle.net/hearthstone/en/expansions-adventures/the-grand-tournament/cards]

 

[Naqel]

They got me with the pirates riding parrots.

Shame I cannot afford to play Hearthstone, it's worse than drugs.

 

[laggyteabag]

I get that the theme of this expansion is for hero powers to have a larger role, but the last thing that I needed was for mages to be able to spurt out 10 fireblasts a turn doing 3 damage each. We will have to see how the state of the game progresses after this expansion, but I really hope to see a minion or a spell that somehow negatively impacts hero powers, too. Otherwise, I fear that they will go slightly off the rails.

 

[Dalek Caan]

Fallen Hero - Mage Minion - 2 mana 3/2, Your hero power deals 1 extra damage. [[shown on stream to stack with itself]]

Effigy - Mage spell - 3 mana, Secret: When a friendly minion dies, summon a random minion with the same cost.

Oho, can't wait to try those out. Could make a good Anti-Facehunter deck from what I have seen so far.

 

[shintakie10]

I get that the theme of this expansion is for hero powers to have a larger role, but the last thing that I needed was for mages to be able to spurt out 10 fireblasts a turn doing 3 damage each. We will have to see how the state of the game progresses after this expansion, but I really hope to see a minion or a spell that somehow negatively impacts hero powers, too. Otherwise, I fear that they will go slightly off the rails.

You'd need 2 2 mana 3/2 minions on the board, a 6 mana 6/6 on the board, and a 4 mana 2/6 on the board to do that. All so that the next turn you could get shoot off 10 hero powers to kill your opponent from 30 to dead. If you can get all that on the board without losing the 6/6 or 2/6 at all, you deserve that win.

 

[Kahani]

If you can get all that on the board without losing the 6/6 or 2/6 at all, you deserve that win.

Pretty much what I was thinking for everything I've seen so far. Lots of decent cards with obvious combo potential, but nothing that seems particularly under- or over-powered. A combo that requires three or four cards and is only possible turn 6 or later isn't at all unbalanced compared to things that are already possible.

 

[Diablo1099_v1legacy]

Oh man! Hope they have some neat self-harm card combos for Warlock in this expansion, Floating Watcher is fucking amazing with a Flame Imp and a Life Tap

 

[shintakie10]

Oh man! Hope they have some neat self-harm card combos for Warlock in this expansion, Floating Watcher is fucking amazing with a Flame Imp and a Life Tap

Funny thing, Blizzard announced a new card that changes hero powers. Justicar Trueheart a 6 mana 6/3. Her Battlecry permanently changes your hero power for the rest of the match. For Warlocks it removes the self damage from Life Tap.

Really interesting stuff for that card actually. The only one that looks like it might need a tweak is the Shaman one since the only change for them is that they can summon a specific totem instead of a random one. Put up against stuff like Priests 4 health heal, druids 2 attack and 2 armor, or even paladins summoning 2 1/1 minions, its kinda weak.

 

[Duskflamer]

Oh man! Hope they have some neat self-harm card combos for Warlock in this expansion, Floating Watcher is fucking amazing with a Flame Imp and a Life Tap

Funny thing, Blizzard announced a new card that changes hero powers. Justicar Trueheart a 6 mana 6/3. Her Battlecry permanently changes your hero power for the rest of the match. For Warlocks it removes the self damage from Life Tap.

Really interesting stuff for that card actually. The only one that looks like it might need a tweak is the Shaman one since the only change for them is that they can summon a specific totem instead of a random one. Put up against stuff like Priests 4 health heal, druids 2 attack and 2 armor, or even paladins summoning 2 1/1 minions, its kinda weak.

I think you're underestimating it, there's plenty of situations where a shaman just really needs the +spellpower totem or the taunt totem, and in cases like that, the upgraded hero power makes it guaranteed that they get the one they want instead of a 1/4 (or 1/3 or 1/2 if there's already a totem or two out) chance. So its not doubling the effect, but its cutting out the substantial RNG factor when its really important to get a specific totem.

 

[shintakie10]

Oh man! Hope they have some neat self-harm card combos for Warlock in this expansion, Floating Watcher is fucking amazing with a Flame Imp and a Life Tap

Funny thing, Blizzard announced a new card that changes hero powers. Justicar Trueheart a 6 mana 6/3. Her Battlecry permanently changes your hero power for the rest of the match. For Warlocks it removes the self damage from Life Tap.

Really interesting stuff for that card actually. The only one that looks like it might need a tweak is the Shaman one since the only change for them is that they can summon a specific totem instead of a random one. Put up against stuff like Priests 4 health heal, druids 2 attack and 2 armor, or even paladins summoning 2 1/1 minions, its kinda weak.

I think you're underestimating it, there's plenty of situations where a shaman just really needs the +spellpower totem or the taunt totem, and in cases like that, the upgraded hero power makes it guaranteed that they get the one they want instead of a 1/4 (or 1/3 or 1/2 if there's already a totem or two out) chance. So its not doubling the effect, but its cutting out the substantial RNG factor when its really important to get a specific totem.

I don't think it's a bad change, I just feel its not up to par with the others. Guaranteeing a spellpower totem is helpful, but does it really match being able to ping for 2 damage a turn, or 3 damage to your opponents face a turn, or a 2 mana card draw every turn?

Personally, I dunno. I'm not near good enough at Hearthstone to be able to figure out all the crazy stuff people come up with. Just on paper it doesn't seem super great.

 

[RedDeadFred]

Saraad looks hilariously OP, especially with the other hero power boosting cards out there, very likely to be a one card win condition in a fair few matches. Plus it is of course completely reliant on RNG because so many people have been saying there isn't enough of that in Hearthstone -_-

It's way too slow in the current meta. If the expansion slows the game down enough, then maybe this card will be really good, but this is a pretty bad card to play with the game in its current state.