Festival of Legends: New Set and Dev Interview

Hey, there, guys, how are you? On March 14th, 2023, Blizzard announced their newest Hearthstone expansion, Festival of Legends! They also conceded an interview to some Latin-American websites, and Cards Realm was among them. So, let's talk a bit about the new set and what was said during that meeting.

Festival of Legends is Hearthstone 23rd set and marks the beginning of another cycle, in which the sets Forged in the Barrens, United in Stormwind and Fractured in Alterac Valley rotated out of the Standard format and cards from the Core Set were revised and updated for a new year.

The new set has as its theme the biggest Azeroth music festival organized by Elite Tauren Chieftain, with distinct music styles linked to each 11 Hero classes. From Heavy Metal to Jazz, through Pop, Hip Hop and Folk, new mechanics based on musical genres have been presented:

• Musicians and Legendary Songs: each class will have a legendary minion card representing the greatest star from their musical genre. Besides that, each will have a legendary spell which is the most famous song by this musician.

• Musical Instruments: all classes will receive instrumental Weapons which represent musical instruments from their style. Some will have Deathrattle effects that get better as you fulfill their requirements.

• Finale: this new ability is activated when, if you play a card with Finale you use all your mana. Planning a turn properly will guarantee extra Bonuses!

• Overheal: a new ability which is exclusive to Priest (similar to Combo for Rogue or Overload for Shaman), minions with Overheal activate effects that are triggered when they're healed beyond their health maximum.

• Soloists: minions with Battlecry that are triggered if you don't have any other minions on board.

• Harmonic Spells: these are spells with 2 modes (Harmonic and Dissonant) which change every turn in your hand.

Besides these mechanics, the card E.T.C, Band Manager is already available on the game's app as a pre-release bonus.

This card brings an innovation that is already well-known in other TCGs: the use of cards outside the game to deal with specific situations (the good old Sideboard, for all Magic players).

Tauren allows you to create a selection of 3 extra cards when it's time to build your deck. These cards don't go into your base list, nor they affect the 30 card total (or 40 with Prince Renathal) in your deck and can only be accessed through this new legendary card's Battlecry. With that, you can have access to things like Acidic Swamp Ooze to deal with some problematic weapons, Rivendare, Warrider for long grindy games against Control, Theotar, the Mad Duke against Combos and whatever else you think might crush your day.

A new event is available until March 28th: The Headliners Tour. In it, you choose one of three paths – Legends of Rock, Jam Kingdom and Masters of Soul - and complete exclusive quests to win packs and an exclusive hero skin.

Blizzard, through Leo Robles Gonzales (Associate Game Designer) and Sola Chang (UI/UX Designer), granted an interview on the 13th to discuss the new set announcement and below are some of the topics discussed:

About the Set's Theme

LRG: Music is something universal which is present in the life of mainly everyone in the world. We can all relate to that subject, even though each one of us has their style.

This unique thing that each of us has a personal relation with music and translating that into a Hearthstone set is a very fun challenge, and I'm super happy to see how each will see how their favorite genre has been represented.

SC: Something I'd like to highlight is as there are 11 different musical genres, we expect there is something special for every player.

LRG: The set's idea started just like many others - in a meeting room in which we threw lots of suggestions around and in this one in particular, a musical set gained strength. Bringing musicians from across Azeroth and explaining the concepts each style has is the set's greatest appeal. Many cards will bring these musical elements to the game!

SC: Our objective with the Headliners Tour is to bring back that Alterac Hord x Alliance vibe, in which you choose a group of bands, each with their own reward track.

We wanted players to feel the hype of each path chosen. But once the event is over, we'll offer players the opportunity to get the other rewards afterward.

About the Expansion's Structure

LRG: We create sets throughout the year in two ways: closed sets, in which the story starts and ends there, as the last 3 sets in the last year, or interconnected sets, as the 3 in the previous year, telling the story of Mercenaries.

Festival of Legends belongs to the first group, as the whole story is in this set.

About the Set's Mechanics

LRG: We have this new keyword, Finale, which grants you a bonus if you spend all your remaining mana, and it is a way of rewarding the player for using their resources effectively.

We have the Harmonic Spells, which alternate to their Dissonant form at each turn. Each of these Spells has two different numbers which swap depending on the version which is active on that turn.

We have the Soloists, they need the spotlight, they are the center of attention, so they get bonuses if they're the only minions you control. We also have the Legendary Spells, each class will have one and each represents the most popular song of that musical genre linked to each class - and unlike past Legendary Spells, these ones have a soundtrack to go with!

About the Set's Accessibility

LRG: On one side, we always want to have something that makes year-long fans delve deep into the set, on the other, we have to keep a balance so that less engaged players don't feel confused and excluded.

The Finale mechanic, for instance, brings this element of using your mana efficiently, which experienced players are used to doing, but it might be something new for new players, who might not have absorbed this concept, so the mechanic creates this indication on how to use mana.

As for experienced players, Finale can create unusual game positions, bringing them to plan their turns, so they can end them with effects that would be typically done at round start, such as, for instance, cards that draw or Discover cards.

SC: Another example I like quoting is the pre-release card, E.T.C., Band Manager. For newer players, it adds the opportunity of having more cards in your deck in case you have questions regarding deckbuilding.

As for experienced players, it becomes a strategy and planning exercise regarding what you want as extra options.

About Balancing

LRG: The rotation moment is an exciting event in Hearthstone - 3 sets come out, the Core Set is modified, and a new set comes in. In just a day, the game we discussed yesterday is an entirely different from tomorrow's game.

Considering card balancing in moments like these, we have teams to avoid the creation of situations that make the game unbearable and even when something escapes us, we have a new mindset regarding balancing which tries to be as efficient as possible to correct these distortions, which is quite different from what we used to have in the past.

Each set starts being worked with around a year before their official release, and we have so many cards being worked at once that we need to always be paying attention to how new cards interact with the old ones. It is something we think about every second, daily.

About DeathKnight

LRG: As this is a new class, we still have to explore beyond what was presented in March of the Lich King.

The Blood Runes, for instance, in the previous set, were very focused on control and keeping yourself alive with lots of health points. In Festival of Legends, we'll experiment with cards that benefit from altering your own health points during your turn.

Though we'll try to give space to every Rune, it must become common for every set that we end up promoting one archetype more than another. And a new thing for this set is the Class' Legendary Spell, our first card with the 3 Rune requirement - a concept that had already been explored by some players in what was called Rainbow DK.

About Signature Cards

SC: We've listened to a lot of community feedback about the first batch of Signature Cards, and we've put a lot of effort in making them eye-catching in this set, and I believe they turned out gorgeous!

Our focus this time was on the card's artwork, on highlighting the beautiful artwork that was made for these cards. Another thing we have done was to give the artwork space, but not compromise the game's understanding: the card text can be seen in a tooltip when you hover the mouse on the card.

Again, I would like to stress how having this contact with the people who make the cards is a fantastic experience. We here at Cards Realm are very happy and excited to be able to have access to an event of this kind.

Turn on your amps, the spotlights, and let the Festival begin! See you all later!