The Grand Tournament , is set to introduce 132 new cards to the game when it goes live in August, and they’re going to change things up significantly, with the new Inspire mechanic front and centre. We’ve already seen quite a few – and you can check out a slideshow of all the cards revealed to date at the bottom of the page - but today we have a couple of exclusive reveals for you, and they both speak to Team 5’s efforts to give players more options across the board.

Reveal #1: Savage Combatant (Rare, Druid Class Card)

Reveal #2: Clockwork Knight (Common, Neutral Card)

The Other Grand Tournament Cards Revealed to Date

Hearthstone-The-Grand-Tournament-Cards 23 IMAGES

Yes, the Beast Druid dream lives! It’s an idea that Blizzard has been building towards for a while, but the general consensus amongst players was that the tools weren’t there yet. Until this expansion, Druid players had four class specific cards that dealt with the Beast minion type. Druid of the Fang transforms into a 7/7 Beast if you already have a Beast on board when it's played, while Druid of the Flame and Druid of the Claw both give players two choices of Beast minions to spawn, while Malorne is a Beast to begin with. The Beasts are there, and they have some versatility in how they’re played, but aside from Druid of the Fang, you’re not really rewarded for building your deck around Beasts. Certainly not in the same way Hunter is, with cards like Houndmaster and Kill Command. The fact is that there’s significantly less synergy between Druids and Beasts than between Hunters and Beasts, but the options have steadily been growing, and here’s another piece for that puzzle… that will hopefully be paired with some other tools in this expansion.Beastliness aside, Savage Combatant is a solid card on its own. A 5/4 for four mana is reasonable (although going off base stats alone you’d want it to be a 4/5 – that extra point of health is critical for survivability), but what makes Savage Combatant so interesting is its versatility, as it gives you extra options later in the game. In fact – like many of the Inspire cards – you’re probably looking to play this on turn six as opposed to four, because once you play it then hero power you have three damage from your hero to work with. Not quite up there with Fire Elemental then, but that’s one of the best class-specific minions in Hearthstone. Obviously we’ve only seen a fraction of the Grand Tournament cards so far, so we can only speculate about what Druid decks might look like in the future, but how would this card fit into a current Druid build ? What would you take out to make room for it? Keeper of the Grove generally sits in the class-specific four spot, but it’s hard to argue with its versatility – you get the two extra damage immediately, or you can silence. The other four drop minion that gets run a lot is Piloted Shredder, but again, that’s one of the best four drops in the game, and its deathrattle ensures it’s a pain to remove completely.If we accept that Savage Combatant is really a turn six play, then it’s up against cards like Emperor Thaurissan, which can bring the Druid one or two turns closer to their Force of Nature + Savage Roar combo. In all likelihood, it would be slotted in in place of a five drop like Druid of the Claw (if it’s not a Beast-focused deck) or Azure Drake.How about in a Beast Druid build like this one ? There are plenty of spots it could fill, but honestly, there’s a lot that has to change for Beast Druid to become truly viable. The good news is that this is a solid card that will likely find a spot in any Inspire-focused Druid builds irrespective of being a Beast. Worst case scenario it’s an average four drop, but best case scenario it can help push a little more damage later in the game, and potentially synergise with other Inspire effects.Clockwork Knight is a demonstration that Team 5 will continue to add to the card pool for existing archetypes. Mech decks have been a regular fixture for Hearthstone since Goblins vs. Gnomes – and quite strong for a handful of classes - but, as with any card game, more options are always valuable. This card’s stats may not blow you away, but the reality is that we don’t want OP cards being added to Hearthstone, we want cards that are comparable in strength to what’s already in the game, but provide additional texture – more strategic options for players – and Clockwork Knight is a great example of that.As you can see, it’s a 5/5 Mech for 5 with the Battlecry ‘Give a friendly Mech +1/+1’. Now, 5/5 for 5 isn’t great in terms of base stats, but if you can utilise its Battlecry, it’s effectively a 6/6 for 5, which is much stronger. So how likely is it that you’ll get that Battlecry value? I mean, pretty much all Mech decks run a bunch of low cost Mechs. You could play Mechwarper then this at a discount on turn six, which would be a pretty powerful play. On turn seven you could play an Annoy-o-Tron then this, making the Annoy-o-Tron slightly more annoying than normal. But honestly, with the pace of Hearthstone these days, you really want to get those low drops out on curve. You don’t really want to save Mechwarper for turn six, for instance, so you’d be relying on drawing into both Clockwork Knight and a low cost minion just in time to play them both.How would this work on turn five in an existing Mech deck, then? Well, a lot of Mech decks (like this Mech Shaman ) are looking to play Piloted Shredder or Mechanical Yeti on turn four.The first iteration of Shredder almost definitely won’t be around the following turn, and your chances of a Mech pilot popping out aren’t that high. (Significantly higher than a Doomsayer, sure, but not something you’re going to rely on.) Mechanical Yeti stands a better chance of still being on the board, but again, no guarantees, and if you’re not getting your Battlecry value you’re most definitely going to be wishing it’s a Loatheb in your hand, instead of a Clockwork Knight.Further to that, if we take a look at a typical Mech Mage list , the ideal turn four play is Goblin Blastmage, which isn’t a Mech itself, so it’s not an ideal fit there either. Again though, deck archetypes are likely to change a fair bit with The Grand Tournament, and there’s little doubt there will be other combinations we don’t know about yet, so I’m excited to see how this card fits into the new meta!Any obviously synergies I’ve missed? Thoughts on the new cards revealed so far? Hit up the comments!

Cam Shea is Senior Editor in IGN's Australian office, and a Hearthstone geek.