Hearthstone: The Grand Tournament’s 5 most promising cards

Update 5:30 p.m. Pacific: We originally incorrectly classified Knight of the Wild as a Hunter card. This is no fixed.

It’s time to plan some new strategies.

Blizzard’s digital card game, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, has its The Grand Tournament expansion going live Monday. It’s adding 132 cards, but as is always the case in card games, some are better than others.

Now, we won’t really know which ones are the best until we get to spend a lot of time playing them. Plus, Hearthstone’s old enough now and has so many cards that combos are usually more important than individual cards. Still, just by looking at them, five cards stand out as the most promising.

Confessor Paletress

Class: Priest
Rarity: Legendary
Mana cost: 7

Of all the Inspire abilities, this seems the most interesting. Paletress will summon a random Legendary minion whenever you use a Hero Power. That could get insane pretty quickly. Imagine getting a Ragnaros or a Deathwing for just 2 mana.

Of course, Paletress’s attack and health aren’t much, so it’ll take some effort to keep her alive in the late game if you want to use that Inspire more than once. Thankfully, Priest has plenty of spells that can help do that, such as Divine Spirit (which doubles a minion’s health). Still, even without them, playing her on turn 9 and then using a Hero Power and getting a bonus Legendary will be awesome.

Knight of the Wild

Class: Druid
Rarity: Rare
Mana cost: 7

This card really promotes the idea of making a Beast-themed Druid deck. Beasts are usually more of a Hunter thing right now, but Knight of the Wild gives you the chance to play a strong 6/6 card early in a game.

This will work well in decks with a lot of Druid cards that turn into beasts, like Druid of the Claw and Druid of the Flame.

The Mistcaller

Class: Shaman
Rarity: Legendary
Mana cost: 6

The Mistcaller gives every minion in your hand deck +1 attack and +1 health. That’s insane. Imagine using the Coin to play this guy on turn 5. You’ll have an extra advantage for the rest of the game. This could especially help keep your minions out of range of area-of-effect spells like Consecration.

Things can get really crazy if you use cards like the Youthful Brewmaster to return him to your hand, letting you play that Battlecry a second time. Sadly, the best “return a minion to your hand” card is Shadowstep, a Rogue spell.

Polymorph: Boar

Class: Mage
Rarity: Common
Mana cost: 3

This new Mage spell turns any minion into a 4/2 Boar with Charge. I love the versatility of this card. Not only can you use it on an enemy minion to give them low health, but you can use it on one of your own to give them Charge and 4 attack.

It works well on cheap, weak cards, but you can also use it on a card that already attacked that turn and get in another 4 damage. You can also use it on a friendly Zombie Chow before the other player kills it and restores 5 of their health.

Seal of Champions

Class: Paladin
Rarity: Common
Mana cost: 3

This is a nice buffing spell. Imagine giving this to a 2 mana minion like Knife Juggler on turn 3. It’ll keep them alive longer and give them a huge attack increase. You can even use it on a Silver Hand Recruit to turn him into a more respectable minion.

This will work great with Charge minions, like Arcane Golem. It’ll boost their attack and the Divine Shield means they can take out an enemy minion without immediately dying.