Master of Ceremonies and other new The Grand Tournament cards

As we enter August, we’re drawing closer to the release date of Hearthstone‘s The Grand Tournament. The past week saw the reveal of additional cards to the upcoming set. We have a spoiler list of some of the revealed cards and will continue to gradually add more as they become available, but let’s briefly discuss the latest additions.

• Master of Ceremonies You’re not going to find this card in many major decks. She’s only powerful when paired with cards in play that have Spell Damage. Possible include in a Priest deck or a Mage deck. That buff only kicks in once — doesn’t look like it multiplies per Spell Power minion.
• Argent Watchman The Watchman won’t be able to attack at all but he’s fairly cheap to play. There is potential here to trade effectively against aggressive decks with an early start but that will only serve to slow you down, because mana crystals spent activating Inspire are mana not spent developing your board.
• Argent Horserider Basically a minion with two uses that can trade against other early game minions. That 3 mana cost might be a little too slow, though. Head to head against a Harvest Golem isn’t going to do much.
• Demonfuse Because Warlocks need even more finishing cards. Their cheap spells for minion buffing usually come with drawbacks, but sometimes all you need is one really strong minion to close out the game.
• Eydis Darkbane Absolutely fantastic card for Priest players. Great synergy with some of the class cards like Power Word: Shield and Velen’s Chosen.
• Fjola Lightbane Not quite as strong as Eydis, but Fjola can help remove other minions off the board by trading into them with low risk Divine Shields constantly active.
• Clockwork Knight Potential inclusion in budget Mech Mage or Mech Shaman decks.
• Coliseum Manager See this previous post on the Coliseum Manager.
• Savage Combatant Great Druid card! Low cost with high offensive upside. Oh sure, it loses to a Piloted Shredder, but if the Combatant sticks around for even one turn, that’s 8 damage going right to the opponent, as long as you Inspire next turn. Lots of options if you don’t happen to have a turn 5 play like a Druid of the Claw or Sludge Belcher.
• Shado-Pan Cavalry This is one of the first Rogue cards that have been revealed. While you do want to combo out this card for the additional 3 attack, it’s not terrible if it hits play without it. 7 health is nothing to sneeze at and it’ll be able to hold out decently against opposing minions. The Cavalry manages to be just out of reach of Big Game Hunter.
• Spellslinger I love gambling cards. You never know what you’re going to get next.
• Wilfred Fizzlebang You’ll need 8 mana on the turn you play him. At that point, you have a chance of accelerating into a Lord Jaraxxus or Mal’ganis (or any of your other giant cards) earlier than normal. I might even play him on curve on turn 6 to try to bait out the removal.
• Wrathguard Ouch. Another contender for a Zoo slot? I’m not sure, but that drawback might shorten a Warlock’s lifespan even further, especially if they’re using their Hero Power to draw cards.
• Darnassus Aspirant I can’t think of a drawback to this card, even if it dies. It functions like a second Wild Growth if it stays in play. It could be silenced in a friendly manner, but I wouldn’t do that since that’s a greedy move, and you leave yourself open to worse threats later on in the game. Still, having mana open and a body? Great card against aggro decks.
• Flame Lance Ragnaros ain’t got nothing on you, right? Great removal spell, but that damage is only going to go towards minions. I can see it working well with Flamewaker decks, but outside of that, there might not be a ton of room for it in other Mage decks.
• Holy Champion Priests get an upgrade in the 4 mana position. The more you continue healing, the stronger the Champion becomes. The 5 health gives it a solid toughness, high enough that your Hero Power can keep it alive without it getting bursted.