14 DAY TRIAL // The most recent Hearthstone expansion, Festival of Legends, has put the creativity of the team behind one of the biggest card games in the world to the test. If the previous expansion added a new class, Death Knight, and a bunch of cards to go with it, Festival of Legends tries to shake up the meta and breath new life into the game at the same time.
It’s not hard to guess the theme of the expansion, but it’s hard to make an idea of what Festival of Legends really brings to the game until you’ve played one of its new cards. Heartbreaker Hedanis, Love Everlasting, Kangor, Dancing King, and DJ Manastorm are just some of the legendaries that are not only supposed to change the meta, but also come with something new visually.
Festival of Legends is one of the most colorful Hearthstone expansions to date. Although it adds very few archetype cards that you can build around, it does infuse the game with a lot of fun. The animations and sounds of the new cards are absolutely gorgeous and perfectly fit the music theme. Same goes for some of the names that the team has come up with (more points for the Banjosaur).
Unlike many of the previous Hearthstone expansions, Festival of Legends doesn’t have too many useful cards for the current meta. It’s true that it’s still too early to make any assumptions about how many of the new cards will be playable in competitive decks and which ones will never see play, but playing on ladder can give you an idea of what Festival of Legends cards should not miss from certain decks.
Even though the large majority of the legendary cards in Festival of Legends seem very fun to play in theory, they don’t have such a huge impact on gameplay as the ones from previous expansions. That’s both good and bad since you’re not forced to craft any of the new legendary cards to remain competitive on the ladder. You can do just fine playing your old decks with a couple of changes.
I tried several archetype decks built around Festival of Legends cards and while they were a lot of fun, I often got stomped by decks from the previous meta. However, the few times I managed to beat the opponent using the intended combo totally made up for all the losses.
Technically, Festival of Legends adds 145 new cards to the game, a new Finale keyword, an Overheal keyword for the Priest class, legendary musicians and songs, instrument weapons, harmonic spells, and soloist minions.
The cards with the Finale keyword have a special effect if playing them spends all your remaining mana, while minions with Overheal keyword will trigger a special effect when they are healed above their maximum health.
The legendary spells for some of the classes like Priest and Mage are extremely fun to play with. One has your first spell each turn cost 2 less and lasts until you don’t play a spell on your turn, and the other lets you discover a spell and returns to your hand if you meet the Finale requirements. They both make your plays a bit more awkward, but they provide interesting benefits in many scenarios.
Apart from the very fun to play legendary cards, Festival of Legends also brings a ton of new weapons into the mix. Jungle Jammer, Disco Maul, and Cosmic Keyboard are just some of the weapons that fit very well in most of Hunter, Paladin and Mage decks.
As far as the new harmonic spells go, these have an effect that swaps each turn. For example, they can do 3 damage to all creatures and summon a 6/6 minion one turn or do 6 damage to all creatures and summon a 3/3 minion. The visuals of these cards change each turn and so do the sounds that accompany the animation after you play them. It goes to show that the Hearthstone team went the extra mile to make it easier for players to identify the effect of the card each turn.
It’s not hard to guess what the newly added soloist minions do. Some of the minions in Festival of Legends have powerful Battlecry effects, but they will only be enabled if you don’t have any other minions under your control. If you play a deck that’s light on minions, these are the cards that you want to include.
Not really related to the expansion, but the signature cards have been completely redesigned. Although I totally wasn’t against the washed sepia tone and lack of contrast from these special cards, I do love the change. The “Signature” cards have a new look in Festival of Legends. Instead of the rather dull sepia tone, the new Signature cards are very colorful and, unsurprisingly, they look much better.
Conclusion
Win or lose, the fun factor is through the roof. Unless you’re trying to climb on the ladder, then I’d suggest checking out the most powerful decks and leaving the potential fun you can have at the door. On the bright side, if you’re short on dust or gold (or money), you won’t have to craft too many legendary cards this expansion to remain competitive. That’s a perk for newcomers to the game as well.
The colorful artwork, animations and sounds of the new cards are above everything I’ve seen in Hearthstone until now. What Festival of Legends lacks in power, it certainly makes up for in fun. If you’ve taken a long pause from the game or wanted to check out the game but didn’t for whatever reason, I dare you to try Festival of Legends, it’s one of the most colorful and funniest Hearthstone expansions to date.
Mega Bundle and Tavern Pass provided by the developer.
