Hearthstone Calls for The Grand Tournament

Hearthstone lead designer and game director Eric Dodds announced a new expansion,The Grand Tournament.

Featuring over 130 new cards, new mechanics and a discounted pre-purchase week, The Grand Tournament is set for release in August.

Hearthstone's Lead Designer Eric Dodds

Dodds, speaking at San Francisco's Folsom Street Foundry and through Twitch, joked at the best guess as to what would follow Gnomes vs. Goblins. "There were a lot of great ideas and . . . one of the ideas that was kind of cool was the idea 'maybe are we doing Pirates vs. Ninjas?'" Dodds added, "There's only a little problem for me personally . . . [there's] some difficulty because I have a personal take on which way that conflict would go." Dodds chose pirates over ninjas.

The Hearthstone director continued, saying this theme of silliness and humor finds itself in the premise of The Grand Tournament. In regards to Warcraft lore, Dodds saidThe Grand Tournament's arena was built to find and assemble the best warriors. 

However, the lead designer discussed what would happen if the arena was kept open. He said invitations were sent to warriors across the Warcraft world, emphasizing The Grand Tournament to "be more on fun and honor and glory rather than this need to defeat the Lich King.

"When they looked at the people who arrived to do battle in the tournament, it actually looked a little bit like this...

So, they are still mighty knights. They are just mighty unconventional knights . . . "

Though thematic and filled with silliness, Dodds promised many new cards to change Hearthstone's metagame. 

The Hearthstone team, with this expansion, explored variations between card power juxtaposed to hero power. 

Maiden of the Lake, a neutral card for 4 mana with a power of 2 and toughness of 6 , is one of the spoiled cards to emphasize this nuance. Maiden of the Lake reduces hero power costs by 1. 

"It's pretty good," Dodds said, "you can sneak some new effects here and there, but it gets a lot more exciting when you start to include other cards in the mix. So, let's look at a mage dragon and think about how this would effect the Maiden of the Lake." 

Dodds revealed the Coldarra Drake, a 6 mana cost 6/6, that allows mage players to use their hero power any number of times.

He said, "There's a ton of awesome combos that we have here and this is sort of scratching the surface. . . We have alotta cards that are based around the hero power and affecting the hero power."

Dodds revealing Coldarra Drake

The newest giant, another card revealed to be affected by hero powers, is Frost Giant. The card initially costs 10 mana for and 8/8, however Frost Giant costs (1) less for each time a player uses his or her hero power in a single game. 

Further delving into The Grand Tournament, Dodds reminisced, "When we talked about this expansion, we talked about, 'is this enough?'" The lead designer said the Hearthstone crew thought about adding a new keyword, something they've never really done before. "We thought maybe it was right time," Dodds said, "but it's around the idea that hero power matters. So, we are adding the keyword 'Inspire.'" 

Inspire triggers every time a player activates their hero power. 

Lowly Squire is a 1-cost minion with 1 power and 2 toughness and the first card revealed with "Inspire."

Dodds said the Inspire mechanic can be found on many neutral minions, so synergies between different heroes and the new mechanic open "a ton of different combinatorics that you are all going to get to play with."

The very next reveal was a 5-cost legendary creature with Inspired, Nexus-Champion Saraad . Whenever Inspired is activated, Saraad adds a random spell to its controller's hand. "One of the reasons we like this guy, " Dodds added, " is he's going to put cards in your hand you weren't necessarily expecting. You're going to play in a different way when you have him. And of course he's an ethereal riding an energy camel . . ." 

Following the arena themes, Hearthstone artists created a brand new board just for The Grand Tournament." Dodds described the board as a mini-arena come to life. "You can eat from the food area and have them refill and bring you different food." The board's audience will cheer and feel sad, depending on how well you're doing and there is a mini archery range with plenty of secrets. 

According to the official Grand Tournament website, "Starting next week, players will be able to pre-purchase a bundle of 50 Grand Tournament Card Packs for $49.99." Players will also get an exclusive card back through this deal. 

Again, players can look forward to Hearthstone's newest expansion, The Grand Tournament, in August.

For more information, readers can visit www.TheGrandTourney.com or watch the rebroadcast of The Grand Tourney announcement for themselves on Twitch. 

Stay tuned for Subculture!