Another new card has been revealed.

At worst, it's Mogu'shan Warden with an extra health and a bad effect. At best it would be a very anti- aggro card that priests can tech in whenever face hunters become prominent on ladder. I tend to go with the former. This card will be competing with the other many 4 drops that priests such as Archanai Soulpriest, Sacred Warrior and the auto include that is Piloted Shredder.

@acura_max: Wow that cards so bad. The best thing I can say about it is it will most likely stay on the board for a turn if you play it on turn 4, and if it doesn't than you've at least made your opponent commit 8 damage to a crappy card. I don't see it trading well with anything though only having 1 damage. And you won't get to use the restore 2 health til turn 5, and that gives up a potential 5 or 4 mana cost card on that turn just to heal two health. Ugh. I'd rather just have an antique healbot instead. And like you said, it's a 4 drop so it would have to be better than or comparable to piloted shredder. And it's sure as hell not.

Most of these card reveals are not doing much to give me confidence in this expansion. Slowly becoming more and more disappointed.

@mentaldisruption: Yeah, as far as "cheesy cards with no offense that gradually gain you life if you keep them alive for multiple turns", it's no Illuminator or Vitality Totem.

Super Mogushan, Bolvar status.

I really like where the Grand Tournament is going. Looks like Blizzard has finally figured out that to slow the meta down won't take gimmicky expensive seemingly powerful cards. Nobody has expected messing with hero powers, but once it's been revealed everyone went 'oh yeah, I can totally see how this would work'.

They've learned a lot from the last two sets which had an apparent theme (randomness/mechs in GvG, mana manipulation/dragons in Blackrock) that was really almost exclusively aesthetic and the sets themselves, rather than being concise and coherent, felt like ramshackle collections of cards, some good and most bad.

They've only shown a few cards, some of whose worth remains to be determined by the next releases, but many already look very, very strong and would definitely be played right now (the Shaman cards, Sacred Warrior, Justicar Truehart). Hero Powers are one of the things that differentiate Hearthstone among other card games and it's great to see them capitalize on them.

I've been saving up gold since before Blackrock and my body is ready!

@imsh_pl: I'm still waiting for them to show the neutral cards that are actually going to do something to slow the meta down. Basically, I want to see TGT's version of Sludge Belcher and Healbot. Then I'll feel a lot better about this expansion. Because right now, if just those Inspire cards were placed into the game, I think they would be kind of worthless on the ladder against all the midrange/aggro/tempo-based decks.

Sludge Belcher and Healbot are great because they're strong against aggro but also serve a purpose against the more controlling decks. We need more cards like that. The new cards look awesome and seem to have a ton of potential value but they come with such a huge loss in tempo.

One of my favorite pro players, Brian Kibler, wrote an article that I pretty much totally agree with. He made up 5 cards he'd like to see and offers possible solutions to some of Hearthstone's design and meta problems. He wrote it after trying to make a Dragon Paladin work about 2 months ago but the problems he touches on still apply.

@hansolol: Agreed. The new hero power interaction cards look like they would be awesome to play, but the decks they would spawn still need some powerful early game to stabilize and abuse the hero power/inspire synergy. I am already imagining my new token Paladin, but it could really use some extra anti aggro tools ; just 2 or 3 cards would really make the difference.

The thing is that Blizzard loves to make gimmicky cards, but to stop aggro you cannot have an 8 drop with a powerful ability, you NEED solid, cheap early game cards. The way you beat aggro is not in a catch up game of late game value, holding off early aggression is crucial. It doesn’t matter that you stabilize by turn 8 if you’re already down to 12 life and they only need to play a few direct damage spells to kill you.

The cards in the article are really great ideas. I’ve actually for a long time imagined a 3 mana heal 6 draw a card myself as exactly the tool I’d want as a Paladin. The hero power stopper would also be great and I would actually be surprised if Blizzard didn’t make a card like that in this expansion.

Some different cards I would add to the game:

3 mana 2/4 with taunt;

3 mana 2/4 with windfury;

3 mana 2/4 with charge;

3 mana 2/3 with taunt and divine shield;

A 5 drop which casts frost nova on battlecry;

These are some really basic ideas of cards that are just solid. They don’t have gimmicky abilities, and their abilities and stats are absolutely on par with their costs.

Of course the first 2 cards would make already existing cards (Silverback Patriarch, Thrallmar Farseer, Flying Machine) obsolete. But these cards have been designed incorrectly to begin with. The values of their abilities are absolutely not worth the cost and there’s really no reason for them to be as bad as they are. Cards with offensive abilities like Knife Juggler, Imp Gang Boss or Whirling Zapomatic get them essentially as a bonus to a stat baseline of their mana cost , but the cards with huge defensive potential for some reason have to pay in stats which makes their abilities useless.

To create an anti aggro meta there need to be cards that allow you to stop aggression and have a catch-up-on-the-board mechanism EARLY. There are currently no good defensive 3 drops in the game (Harvest Golem is pretty much the only potential one). This is why Shielded Minibot is the best defensive 2 drop in the game and cards like Frostwolf Grunt or Silverback Patriarch are absolute garbage.

Also I see no reason why Tournamet Medic isn't a 2/6 which heals for 4.

New card revealed!

Now THIS is something I can get behind!

Early drop that doesn't die? Check.

Stops aggro? Check.

Is bad in aggro? Check.

The way I see it, you can use it early game when you don't want to use your hero power anyway because you want to maximize your mana curve to deal with aggression. Mid to late game against aggro you can bounce it back after attack to heal it and play whenever convenient.

Pretty bad against control since you both want to use your hero power a lot and you won't have 5 mana each turn to bounce it and play it all the time and the stats mean it probably won't kill much.

It might turn out just a little to slow, but so far it looks like possibly the best defensive 3 drop. It has Druid of the Flame stats and, granted, people don't really play those, but they are Druid only. I could see myself putting this in my control Paladin instead of a second Muster.

I'm back in!

Seems like their never ending quest to have a minion with every imaginable different statline at any given mana point continues unabated by logic. Still holding out for that 6 mana 12/1 though. More than twice the attack of a magma rager! Dayum.

Wilfred Fizzlebang is a super cool card but again probably relegated to "cool in arena" status like 95% of the legendaries.

Edit: Actually thinking about it it could be considered like an 8 mana 4/4 + X/X which isn't too bad no matter what you wind up playing.

It sounds like the Arena pack reward will be randomized between the three expansions; so that's kind of hilarious. In general 1 out of 15 packs is good so now if you play arena 1 out of 45 packs will be good. Still better than a GvG pack granted.

And let's face if you're playing Arena more than once in a blue moon all you want is gold, slowly closing in on 10k on my end.

And a new card has been revealed during MardukTV's Hearthstone podcast.

More like "battlecry: never get played". I can't imagine 1 random damage will have a huge effect. Most people prefer 3/2 minions. And the only reason why shielded minibot and giblin stalker are played is because of their effects.

There's also some minor corrections to some cards since the official english versions have been released.

Holy Champion was previously Sacred Hero. Nothing more to say on that.

King's Defender's official effect is even worse than what we thought it was. Now regardless of whether you have a full board of taunts or not, King's Defender will be will be 3/3 max.

Flame Juggler seems like a crappy Mad Bomber (which is an okay card). I think King's Defender is fine in arena, not horrifically awful or anything; if you get a shitty draft with warrior it could be the card that wins you a lot of games. Sacred Champion Holy Hero is ridiculous in certain situations and pretty good in all others.

Still no sign of the two legendary cards we were promised. However, here are two cards thanks to an interview at IGN.

Oh my gosh. Do my eyes deceive me? There's a druid class card that I might consider putting in my deck. Now the only question is whether this card is better than piloted shredder. Is one more health that much better than a deathrattle that summons a 2 drop minion? I would hope so since there aren't many spells at 4 mana that can remove a 4 health creature. The minion ability will come in handy when enemy piloted shredders. But the beast has to be played before the shredder is put down around 4 mana. Otherwise the shredder trades for practically free. There's also the question of what to remove for it since druid has keeper of the grove and piloted shredder at 4 mana.

In addition, the beast synergy is good, but druid of the fang will probably still not be played. The only beast druid uses these days is druid of the claw. So they would need more beasts from this expansion.

Clockwork Knight is a pretty fair card for a neutral. Unfortunately, it will probably not see play. Cards like Shatter Sun Cleric don't appear in the meta. Neither does Upgraded Repair Bot (5 cost 5/5 mech with ability to give 4 health to a minion).

I'm glad Blizzard remembered that one of the main mechanics of Druid is giving the hero attack power (and armour). It's nice to finally see that mechanic get used again, after whatever the fuck Blizzard has been adding to Druid in Naxxramas/GvG/Blackrock.

The legendaries have been revealed!

Interesting. The stats are pretty damn good, objectively better Spider Tanks. The effects are very, very strong and potentially mean they have quasi-taunt. The downside is of course that you actually have to run card buffs, and aside from Velen's Chosen and maybe Blessing of Kings there aren't really that many playable ones. The buffs that are being run are actually battlecrys like Sunfury Protectors, Defender of Argus, Abusive Sergeant, etc.

I can see this being played in aggro Paladin. Turn 3 Eydis into turn 4 Kings for 7 damage to face and killing off their stuff? Seems pretty strong. Aside from that new revealed cards might have more interesting interactions.

@imsh_pl: Looking at those cards it made me realize that the game is actually desperately missing temporary buff spells. Outside of Rockbiter and Power Overwhelming I'm having a hard time thinking of any other spells like that. We all know that permanent buffs are problematic due to hard removal/silence, but if more of them were temporary (and costed appropriately) it would really open up for some new deck designs (and make cards like those legendaries more useful).

I guess the big problem with going that way though is that it would most likely make the meta even more aggressive.

Those 2 new legends will be good in priest. Power word shield,light of the Naaru, and Velen's chosen are all good.

Hearthstone's been easily my most played game of the last year and a half so I feel pretty good supporting them and buying their pre-purchase thing for 50 card packs. I'll enjoy trying out some of these new cards too (though honestly, I'm still not used to all the GvG cards). Although, just a couple days ago I finally got Archmage Antonidas from a Tavern Brawl so I can finally make that freeze-mage-like deck I've struggled to make work for the past year (along with a gold Malygos I also got from a free pack a year ago that I like to put in decks because he looks so damn cool).

Another new minion appears on the stream of pro hearthstone player, Trump.

Edit: I just re-read the name of the card. Damn you Blizzard and your puns! It's Dark Wispers all over again.

Savagery druid. Watch your (card) backs.

@memonk: The two new legendaries also work pretty well in a deck that generates Spare Parts.

Ooo I do like those legendaries and that druid card. Should be fun even if they aren't 100% best pick.

Another new card has appeared on Blizzard's blog

@acura_max: That could be cool. Maybe build an ancient watcher styled deck around it. Seems like its following the trend of not being very useful for aggro but potentially good for control.

I don't think Silent Knight is good enough. I mean, yeah, it's basically guaranteed to kill something you want, but after it attacks it will just get picked off by spiders or imps or some shit. Effectively it's a 3 mana Shielded Minibot which doesn't cut it.

Argent Watchman forces you to turn 3 hero power, which is such a terrible tempo play. Unless you have some sick inspire 1 drop to play on turn 3. Which I doubt we'll see.

They just all fall into the design trap of Lil' Exorcist. They're too passive and too slow to be good. It doesn't matter that your 3 drop will kill their 2 drop and have some health remaining, their 2 drop already did damage and they can pick off your damaged 3 drop with annoying garbage.

Kripparian made an excellent video on this in which he makes the case that we need real counters to aggro decks, cards that are to aggro decks what Big Game Hunter is to control decks, cards that immediately punish aggressive play that would have to be played around.

Oh, and I retract my excitement on Coliseum Manager, he sucks :p Even though the bounce ability is something I'd love to see and experiment with, he's just too slow.

@imsh_pl: The latter part of the video where he sarcastically compliments cards that are obviously designed by amateurs and are way too strong and broken kinda felt like he was shooting fish in a barrel, but yeah, the game needs more low-cost cards for control decks to play that actually slow down aggro and tempo decks.

New card has been revealed and it has been confirmed to be real by one of hearthstone's producers

Spellslinger: The perfect compliment card to unstable portal. I love it! It's got a good stats, will probably trade well into a few lower cost minions, but realistically how many people are going to play a minion that has a 1 in X chance of giving they're opponent a nasty spell? I will... I'll have some dumb random fun with it at least.

I like that mages get a 3 drop that doesn't force tempo mage. Really cool.

Now I want to see a Paladin 3 drop which is as playable as minibot and I'm sold.

That Spirit Healer card Kripp came up with is kind of genius. I had been thinking of something similar except my idea was to put a huge armor gain, instead of a heal, on both heroes on a smaller minion that could also be used for board control. That way it would discourage aggro players from playing it early in the game before any life had been lost.

Argent Watchman is cool but I wish it said "Inspire: Can attack as normal." Because then, you're basically incurring an overload cost. You're paying 4 mana for a vanilla 3 cost card on turn 2. Paying 2 mana for one minion to attack each turn is way too much. I at least like the idea of this and Coliseum Manager. You can see what they're attempting with these new high health low mana cards.

Also, hey Blizzard, you wanna slow down on the Mage cards there buddy? There are 9 classes, you know? And Amaz is revealing yet another Mage card tomorrow? C'mon! Where are the Warrior, Rogue, Warlock, Priest and Druid cards?? They only have 1 each!

@hansolol: "Also, hey Blizzard, you wanna slow down on the Mage cards there buddy? There are 9 classes, you know? And Amaz is revealing yet another Mage card tomorrow? C'mon! Where are the Warrior, Rogue, Warlock, Priest and Druid cards?? They only have 1 each!"

Tell that to Paladins...

Speaking of bad cards.. here's the new Warlock card.

Considering you see zero Demonfire's in ladder I wouldn't expect this to be put in any decks.

@lumley: Oh look, Blizzard has gone back to the days of making warlock cards with such horrible downsides that no one will ever want to use it. The only thing I could ever see this doing is being used as a buff to give yourself lethal. Maybe some kind of combo. But still, dark bomb is also an extra 3 damage to play with, so whats the point really.

@lumley: At least the card has a troll smile.

Might be the worst card in the game? Nefarian and Saraad nerf.

What is going on? This was the vote card on their site? What the hell are they doing?

Not even usable in arena...

I really don't understand why they make cards that are so obviously terrible. I understand the need for a varying level of "quality" in cards, but why would you ever make a card that isn't even good for someone just starting out. Much less waste a class exclusive slot on it. A new player is shooting themselves in the foot by using a buff spell on a demon that gives your opponent a crystal. As someone who enjoys playing warlock, this one feels like a complete slap in the face.

@lumley: Oh man, Spellslinger was only released today and they're already nerfing it?

*in Blizzard's fantasy land*

First turn Voidwalker/Flame Imp, second turn Demonfuse, GG

*resume actual reality*

@bisonhero: Coin Succubus, discard Sacrificial Pact, Demon Fuse, GG.

Also some quotes the mystic masters of cards, Ben Brode:

• We aren't done seeing good cards - lots of fun and crazy stuff is coming.

• Ben believes The Grand Tournament is the best thing they have done so far.

• "You won't be disappointed in the Druid cards"

I sure hope Brode is right about the druid cards. I remember he said we wouldn't be disappointed with Bolvar. So take that with a grain of salt. And we kind of were. It's also worth noting that the stream of crappy cards has forced some people if ask if the rest of the expansion will relfect what we have seen recently.

.

@acura_max: That's a Harvest Golem with charge.

That's pretty good.

It's better than the 3 mana 2/4 I thought would be a good addition to the game.

I'm going to play it. A lot.

@imsh_pl said:

I mean, it's a Harvest Golem where the original Golem is 2/1 (instead of 2/3), and the sub-Golem is also 2/1. But yeah, it seems usable in Arena.

True, but most of the time harvest golem is played against a 3/2 2 drop, and in that case this is strictly better. Pretty bad against 2/3s, but it's a bane of Knife Jugglers, Mad Scientists, Huffers etc.

This is a tech card, but it's a counter against decks that rely on 2 health minions. And it's a pretty hard one in those cases. This card shuts down Hunter's early game a lot.

Also, aggro paladin is looking more and more tempting with each card revealed... imagine putting Might or Kings on this.

An argument could be made that this is not as good late game, similar to how Minibot is excellent on turn 2 but doesn't put pressure later on. I would, however, try putting both of these in a deck alongside with Blood Knights, so I can leave the shields up against aggro and consume them for a big threat against control.

I also like the flavor and the idea of a jousting countering crusader.

New card seen on Amaz's stream

In this constructed this card will be terrible. You can polymorph for 4 mana while this will cost 5 mana and will not be able to bypass divine shields. It's inferior to fireball in a way because you can't do direct damage. On the brightside, you will be able to handle a turn 4 mountain giant.

In arena, this card will be great. You can take down a venture co,, rag, or force tank max with ease.

Mage just needed more removal after all.

It's been a sentiment on Reddit that mages should not be getting more removal... their vanilla removal is among the best in the game and really does all you want it to do so it's pretty much a given that all new mage removal cards will be awful.

This is just awful. A 5 mana polymorph that triggers deathrattles and doesn't eat through divine shield. No reason why you would ever play this.

I hope they're just getting the bleh cards out of the way so they can hit us with more exciting cards before release.

Edit: I don't want to make a new thread just for this, but as long as I have the giantbomb hearthstone players in one spot, what's going on with grim patron decks? I just got back into playing to try to grind up some gold, and I lost my 24 health in one turn against a board consisting only of an acolyte of pain and a death's bite when I ended my turn. He played all the right cards to get the combo out (grim patron, warsong commander, frothing beserker, broke the deaths bite, and then whirlwind all cost reduced of course). I remember blizzard nerfing cards in vanilla just because they didn't like strategies that you can't respond to or have very little interaction with (miracle rogue leeroy jenkins and unleash the hounds for example). Either the warrior has the cards and he wins or he doesn't and he keeps drawing. My only real option in this case was to have a taunt with enough health to survive or to have an ooze in hand to break the weapon before he can pull off the combo. There was nothing really for me to do on my end because I had not drawn an ooze or a taunt. That's hardly a reliable counterplay to count on having. I know I'll just need to experiment and go a few more rounds against the deck to get a feel for playing against it, but my current thought is...what the hell devs?