Hearthstone: Grand Tournament Card Reviews, Part 4

Well, fifty-freaking-two cards have been revealed with a recent Twitch stream thing, which is basically every single card left to reveal in the expansion. So yeah, we’re set for the full release of the Grand Tournament around a week after this, so save up your gold for those booster packs – try to get all your daily missions done and maybe invest some gold in the Arena if you’re confident enough. While the 150 gold entry fee might seem a bit steep, the Arena’s actually the best place to farm gold if you’re confident enough in your skills to at least get a winning streak of above seven. And even if you don’t, generally you still break even since you’re guaranteed a card pack (100 gold) and a reward in either gold or dust. I’m probably not going to talk about all fifty-four cards today, so we’ll just go through the neutral cards at the moment.

First up are a couple of common cards that actually serve as an unequivocally updated version of older cards from the Basic set, with the only difference really being that they’re available in booster packs and therefore not everyone has access to them. We’ve already had a couple of these kinds of ‘updated’ versions of basic cards in Goblins vs Gnomes, and it’s always nice to see some relatively basic cards.

·       Tournament Attendee: 1-mana drop with 2/1 and Taunt. Basically a Goldshire Footman with the stats swapped around. It’s basically a Footman that can trade with 3/2’s, but let’s be honest here. A 2/1 is not really going to live past the turn that it is summoned. It’s one of the more junk cards of this expansion.

·       Ice Rager: 3-mana drop with 5/2. It’s basically identical with the notoriously crap Magma Rager from the basic set, but with one additional health. This actually sort of makes Ice Rager somewhat playable, because it won’t die to just any Whirlwind or Fireblast or Arcane Explosion or Knife Juggler or Elven Archer or anything that deals a single point of damage. Granted the Ice Rager won’t be able to survive more than one trade, but at least it can definitely trade up and destroy a five-drop or six-drop if you guard it with a taunt or something. Still relatively bad, but at least somewhat playable. Really I like this card more because of the fun little reference to one of the easily worst cards in the game, so.

·       Frigid Snobold: 4-mana drop with 2/6 and Spell Damage +1. As its name implies, it’s a Northrend version of the Kobold Geomancer, buffed up with 2 extra cost and four extra health. I guess it’s somewhat similar to the Oasis Snapjaw, exchanging one health for Spell Damage, so it might be sort of playable as a tanky thing that provides Spell Damage? It is going to stick in the board for a very long time because it’s definitely not a threat, but on the other hand it’s a slot in your deck better filled by another minion. And even if you’re building a Spell Damage deck to complement Master of Ceremonies, it’s really not going to work.

·       Evil Heckler: 4-mana drop with 5/4 and Taunt. Basically identical to Booty Bay Bodyguard, but with one less cost. The BBB is notorious for being a crappy minion for its cost, and I guess the Evil Heckler rectifies it somewhat by making it cheaper. It’s not quite as good as Sen’jin or the Ironfur Grizzly for a taunter because of the stats, but I guess it’s at least way more playable than BBB ever was. It’s… decent, I guess. Nothing too spectacular.

·       Pit Fighter: 5-mana drop with 5/6, and is otherwise a vanilla card. A pretty good stat distribution, and basically tears through a lot of common five-health monsters like Sludge Belcher or Loatheb. I’m not quite sure if it’s going to ever be as great as the Chillwind Yeti or Boulderfist Ogre, but it’s definitely better than the other five-mana vanilla card, Salty Dog (7/4), which is way too fragile for its mana cost.

·       Captured Jormungar: 7-mana drop with 5/9 and no other effects, basically a reverse-Core Hound. It’s also even a beast! But swapping the stats around definitely makes it a ton more viable than the likewise notoriously-horrible Core Hound (which, despite being a 7-mana drop, can easily be checked by 4-drops and 5-drops without having a chance to attack). Five attack is pretty respectable since the nine health ensures that it’ll be able to make a couple of trades and survive. I also think that the tilt towards health makes it fairly better than the 7/7 War Golem that shares its drop slot – the Jormungar’s ability to trade a couple of times and assist-kill similarly-costed minions is pretty awesome. Probably not quite that exciting for more experienced players with completed Ranked Mode winning decks, but it’s still a pretty nice card nonetheless and one of the better drops that can come out of a Webspinner or Ram Wrangler.

And now for some all brand-new cards…

·       Boneguard Lieutenant: Two-mana drop, with 3/2 and Inspire: gain +1 Health. It’s basically a Bloodfen Raptor with an additional effect, which is something we’ve seen all the way from the very first Classic booster pack set (Fairy Dragon, Knife Juggler, Mad Bomber). Gaining one health isn’t honestly that exciting, but the Boneguard Lieutenant can nicely fill the two-drop niche for any Inspire deck.

·       Dragonhawk Rider: Three-mana drop, with 3/3 and Inspire: gain Windfury this turn. Comparable to Raging Worgen, and honestly I think it’s kind of worse because it depends on you doing a hero power and the Windfury effect only lasts for a turn. The Raging Worgen’s effect may be harder to trigger for non-Mage classes, but the Windfury is permanent and you get an attack bonus too. The Dragonhawk Rider is honestly pretty bad and even if you want a three-mana card for your Inspire deck there are a lot of better ones out there.

·       Refreshment Vendor: Four-mana drop with 3/5 and a Battlecry of restoring 4 health to each hero. The artwork for this is pretty hilarious – Tuskarrs in general are hilarious-looking – and the effect is pretty welcome. 3/5 and an effect is decent value for four mana, only losing a single attack point compared to the Yeti, and the effect restores health to both heroes. Definitely a card for the Control-type decks, because Control decks aren’t for rushing the enemy down – it’s to dominate the board with minions and deal face damage at your leisuere.

·       Kvaldir Raider: Five-mana drop with 4/4, and Inspire: gain +2/+2. A… decent card I guess? Nothing really too exciting. 4/4 is obviously bad for a five-drop, but with every inspire it gains two attack and two health, and it can potentially grow pretty large. I don’t think it’s a bad card, but it’s also not a particularly good card in my opinion. Comparable to Floating Watcher – basically the same thing, but it’s Warlock-exclusive and requires you to hurt yourself – and Floating Watcher is honestly kind of a middling card.

·       Fencing Coach: Three-mana drop with 2/2, and the next time you use your hero power, it costs 2 less. Basically the next time you use your hero power, it’s free! Absolutely great, and synergies well with practically every other Inspire minion out there, and especially with cards that allow you to multiply your hero power usage (Coldarra Drake, Garrison Commander), and actually makes Wilfred Fizzlebang playable because playing a Fencing Coach the turn before you play Wilfred allows you to hit the Warlock hero power for free, getting a free-cost card. It also allows some of the better Inspire effects to be activated for free, which is awesome.

·       Saboteur: Three-mana drop with 4/3, and a Battlecry of making your opponent’s hero power 5 the next turn. Basically the Fencing Coach’s nemesis, this is the Loatheb of hero powers. The effect is obviously nowhere as good as the Fencing Coach’s, because disabling your opponent’s hero power for a single turn isn’t honestly going to change much and maybe only delay their Inspire plans for a single turn… which is why the Saboteur has decent stats with 4/3. Honestly not a good card, because as much as the Grand Tournament is pushing Inspire, it’s not going to be as critical a mechanic as it’s made out to be.

·       Mogor’s Champion: Six-mana drop with 8/5 and the general Ogre effect of having a 50% chance to attack the wrong enemy. Not much better than the Boulderfist Ogre, honestly, and five health is a wee bit too fragile for a six-mana drop. It’s a downgraded Core Hound with one less attack and one less attack. Arguably better than a Core Hound because you’re spending one less mana, but being better than a Core Hound is hardly a praise worthy of a good card. Add that to the fact that you might actually miss the big enemy minion you’re trying to destroy, and you’re better off playing other better six-drops like Mogor himself (7/6 is a better stat distribution), y’know, the good old Boulderfist Ogre. It’s a fun-looking card, if nothing else, with the Ogre sitting on a Kodo Beast.

·       Twilight Guardian: We be hitting the epics! Twilight Guardian is a four-drop with 2/6 and a Battlecry of if you’re holding a dragon, it gains 1 Attack and Taunt. Definitely one for the Dragon decks, which is sorely lacking a decent four-drop. This expansion has added a lot of better dragon cards, which is awesome – the other four-drop dragons are Twilight Drake (easily countered by Silence), Hungry Dragon (decent but may backfire if it summons one-cost Taunts) and Dragonkin Sorcerer (too slow and rather difficult to get the bonus working) – so the Twilight Guardian is definitely welcome. We also don’t have any dragons with taunt, so this is pretty great. Dropping it when you have a dragon in hand (you better have dragons in hand if you’re running a dragon deck) makes it a superior version of Taz’dingo, so definitely a great card for dragon decks.

·       Recruiter: A five-drop with 5/4 and if you Inspire, you get a one-cost 2/2 Squire (the dude from Silver Hand Knight) into your hand. Honestly not very exciting, since it doesn’t summon the Squire to the field. While 2/2 for one mana is decent cost, around turn six or seven you’re better off playing something else. Again, it’s decent – great if you don’t have any better cards, but the Recruiter itself has relatively weak stats for its cost. It may be decent in Inspire decks, again, where you can potentially get an additional card and buff up a couple of other minions if you have a decent board, but I for one am not too excited about this dude.

·       Sideshow Spelleater: (Good lord, that troll looks insane as fuck) A six-drop with 6/5 and Battlecry: Copy your opponent’s hero power. The stat-line is on the poor side, sacrificing two health for the equally-insane card effect… and honestly while I love crazy cards like this, I don’t think it’s going to see play. Most hero powers are more or less equal, and while you may baffle your opponent by having a Mage that can summon Totems, it’s really not going to change the course of the battle too much. Unless you happen to be facing off against someone who’s transformed into Ragnaros or Jaraxxus, in which case, well, Sideshow Spelleater may potentially win you the game by stealing Ragnaros’ hero power and shooting the enemy Ragnaros hero in the face. And unless the game forbids you form using the Spelleater, it’s going to make running through Heroic Adventure Modes pretty easy.

·       Bolf Ramshield: Legendaries, now! Only two more Neutral Legendaries were revealed for this set, and the first is Bolf, a six-mana 3/9 creature… which has pretty m’eh stats, too far on the health side... but with the effect of taking damage whenever it’s dealt to the hero. So a Pyroblast to the face? Kill Command? Steady Shot? Bolf to the rescue! It’s definitely a nice little quasi-Taunt counter to Face-Hunters, and while I do like the relatively unique effect, I don’t think Bolf is that great to deserve a six-mana slot. Maybe in decks that can buff up Bolf – Priest springs to mind, since they can reliably double Bolf’s health and maybe make him an 18/18 juggernaut, but on the other hand your opponent can basically take Bolf out without damaging their minions. So while a decent minion, I don’t think this dude is going to see much play outside of Priest decks. Also a side-note, Bolf is a member of the ever-growing Hearthstone-original characters, as confirmed by the game creators when people are puzzled that there aren’t any corresponding Warcraft character to Bolf.

·       Chillmaw: A motherfucking Frost Wyrm! Chillmaw is no Sindragosa (which I think they’re still saving for a potential Death Knight class somewhere in the future) but he’s still based on a Frost Wyrm boss in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. He’s a seven-mana 6/6 with Taunt… which is bad stats, but the Deathrattle deals 3 damage to all minions if you’re holding a dragon. It’s a dragon, and definitely will only work in a dragon deck – Grand Tournament certainly is making dragons a lot more playable than before – but it’s a pretty fun buffed-up Abomination that serves as a pretty awesome counter against Grim Patron decks in particular. It also only damages minions, saving you from killing yourself by accidentally triggering Chillmaw. Shame that Silence counters it really hard, but still, I really hope it can be great – if anything, it'll waste one of the enemy's silences for other late-game dragons (Ysera, Onyxia) to drop in. Plus, y’know, holy shit that artwork!