Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament Review (PC)

excellent
key review info
  • Game: Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament
  • Platform: PC
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  • Gamepad support: No
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Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament logo

It's only been several days since the fourth major expansion for Blizzard's Hearthstone, The Grand Tournament, made it live, and players continue to experiment with the new cards infused into the game.

Just like the previous Goblins vs Gnomes expansion, The Grand Tournament brings lots of new cards, a new mechanic, new Hearthstone boards, as well as other nice surprises.

The Grand Tournament is not a single-player campaign, but it adds no less than 132 new cards, most of them focusing on the new Inspire mechanic.

Along with the patch 3.0 that was released in mid-August, Blizzard introduced new rewards for Hearthstone players, which are meant to encourage those who play on the Ranked Play ladder.

At the end of each season, players will receive a chest that will contain rewards as a way of congratulating them for their achievement. Besides the usual season's Ranked Play card back, players will also receive one or more golden cards, along with some extra Arcane Dust.

It's also worth mentioning that the chest's contents will be determined by the player's highest rank over the course of the season, not the current rank at the end of it.

But these are not the only new features introduced by Blizzard in Hearthstone this month. Most Hearthstone players know that playing in Arena will provide them with at least one card pack and other rewards that might include gold, Arcane Dust or single cards.

Until earlier this month, Arena players would receive at least one Goblins vs. Gnomes card pack. But after the release of The Grand Tournament, the rules changed a bit and Arena players can now receive any of the current Hearthstone card packs, including Classic Hearthstone set, Goblins vs. Gnomes, and The Grand Tournament.

However, Blizzard states that, whenever a card pack is awarded to Arena players, there's a greater chance to receive The Grand Tournament card packs, which makes sense since this is the latest Hearthstone expansion.

Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament
Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament

Backstory

Even though The Grand Tournament is not a single-player campaign, just like Goblins vs Gnomes, it comes with a background story that should be of great interest to those who are looking to spice up their Hearthstone gameplay experience.

As the name suggests, The Grand Tournament's backstory revolves around a magnificent tournament where knights of all races gather from all Azeroth to prove their worth and claim the honor of flying the Argent Crusade's colors in the name of victory.

Although the Lich King's evil has been eradicated, the tournament initiated by the Argent Crusade continues, just that the atmosphere is now more relaxed than it used to be.

In order to win the tournament, the players will be able to employ the help of cavaliers-ogres, dragons, knight murlocs, pirates, and, of course, noble knights. There's no telling who will win, but one thing is certain: Blizzard made sure that players would have a fun time using the new cards belonging to The Grand Tournament expansion.

Among the 132 new cards included in the latest expansion, there are a quite a few that can give players the much-needed boost during a balanced game.

Each class benefits from the addition of new legendary cards, but there are also quite a few that can be used by all classes. Some of them will become a must in future decks, while others will replace current legendary cards that are on everyone's list.

Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament
Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament

Gameplay

Hearthstone, a game played by more than 30 million players, is a multiplayer card game where two players face each other using 30-card decks. Each deck may contain 2 copies of each card, with the exception of Legendaries, which are limited to just one copy.

The main goal is to reduce the other player's life total of 30 to 0. In order to do that, players will be able to employ the help of spells, creatures and other mechanics that they think will bring them the upper hand in a duel.

As mentioned earlier, The Grand Tournament comes with no less than 132 new cards - that's more than any of the previous three Hearthstone expansions released by Blizzard in the past.

The keyword of this expansion is “Inspire” and focuses on the use of the Hero power. Each card with the Inspire keyword will benefit from a bonus each time the player uses the Hero power.

Some of these cards benefit from this bonus even if they are not in your hand on the board, and they are permanent, not just until the end of one's turn.

In order to encourage the use of Hero power, Blizzard added some cards that will allow players to use it twice each turn, or even an unlimited number of times assuming you have enough mana left.

Even though it's only been a week since the release of The Grand Tournament, people are still experimenting with the new cards, but I believe the metagame will shift towards the new mechanics very soon.

Some decks, like the Control Warrior, might survive the new metagame shift since there aren't too many cards in the new expansion that would make a nice addition to such a deck.

However, there are other cards that will most certainly make it on everyone's deck list. The Grand Tournament brings some new cards that could easily fill in the ranks of theme-decks, like murloc or pirates decks.

I've been experimenting with a rogue pirate deck, which is very fun to play but requires a few more cards to become really competitive.

Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament
Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament

Aside from the new Inspire keyword, The Grand Tournament also brings a new mechanic called Joust. Each time a minion with Joust is played, each player automatically reveals a minion from their deck, and the one with the higher mana cost is the winner.

If the player who initiated the jousting by playing a minion with Joust mechanic wins, then that minion will receive some bonuses, like +1/1, shield, taunt, or any combination of them (or all).

Also, winning a jousting might also allow you to draw the minion that won you the contest from the deck. Keep in mind though that, if it's a tie when the minions are drawn from the deck, you will lose the joust.

The Jousting mechanic relies heavily on luck, but the more cards with a higher cost mana you have, the higher the chances are that you will win every Jousting contest.

The new Inspire and Jousting mechanics are very nice and fun to play, but what I like most is the fact that new Hearthstone players will do just fine without them until they reach a certain rank on the ladder.

Obviously, there are some new cards included in The Grand Tournament that can help you win many duels (Eadric the Pure, The Mistcaller, Confessor Paletress).

What's certain is that The Grand Tournament brings lots of new cards that surely offer tons of fun and frustration at the same time. I'm pretty excited about what the metagame will bring in light of the new cards, and I hope Blizzard will continue to come up with such great ideas for the next Hearthstone expansions.

Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament
Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament

The Good

  • Offers tons of fun and encourages strategic thinking
  • Well balanced
  • New cards bring new, fun strategies
  • Almost unlimited replayability

The Bad

  • Random effects can be frustrating
  • Expansion is too expensive
  • Grinding for new cards might be boring

Conclusion

The Grand Tournament is a great new expansion that will offer Hearthstone veterans thousands of hours of pure fun.

New players will need a little bit more time to learn about the new mechanics and how to use them best in duels, but even without the new cards, they should be able to compete in Ranked Play with some success.

I have learned that the infusion of new cards brings tons of fun but also some frustration when playing jousting cards that mostly rely on RNG factor.

Even though some of the new cards might seem overpowered at first glance, there are ways of removing them, thus keeping the game balanced.

Many of the classes that weren't used that much on the higher Ranked Play ladder have received fresh blood in the form of new cards, which will make them competitive enough for the end game.

Overall, The Grand Tournament brings exactly what Hearthstone needs - new mechanics and tons of fun - while keeping the game balanced. The addition of new rewards for Ranked Play is another positive aspect, even though it's not related to The Grand Tournament expansion.

story 0
gameplay 9
concept 10
graphics 9
audio 9
multiplayer 9
final rating 9
Editor's review
excellent
 
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Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament screenshots (40 Images)

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