This post is quite old, and some of it has changed in the game. Still the idea of building your collection the smart way and using resources wisely will never change. Use this page as a guideline for long term card collection building. Selling your collection, wasting dust, crafting before and after an expansion, and saving resources still apply, even if you have been playing for some time.
I have been playing for some time now. I thought it would be a good idea to share some of the mistakes I have made and why they are mistakes to help others avoid them. I will also include mistakes I avoided, but countless others have made as evident by numerous posts I have read on the
This is a long read, but please read the whole thing, it will save you a lot of headaches.
Building your card collection to win now instead of long term value.
It takes time for a new player to build a good card collection. New players often look at winning now and not the long term. Since the amount of dust and gold you will have will be limited, so will your options be limited on what to craft and buy.
If your a new player you will likely be playing standard and not wild for a long time. Standard was created so new players would not have to have cards going back to the beginning of Hearthstone to be competitive. All new players start off playing standard mode for this reason. You should probably craft and buy cards/packs that have the longest time left to play them in Standard format. Sets from the current year are your best buy as you will have over a year to play them.
Crafting a legendary or epic from sets that will soon rotate out or buying lots of packs from those sets is probably a bad idea. As a general rule, in your first year, be very careful about crafting high dust cost cards that will rotate out in 6 months or less or spending lots of gold or money on packs from sets that will rotate. Then at the 3 month point, dont craft or buy anything from sets that will rotate out. Build for long term value and in the end you will have more cards to play. Otherwise you will see a large portion of what you crafted and bought rotate to wild and you will not be able to use them. Some will point out that if your playing standard you can dust cards that rotate to wild. While you can do that its a very bad return rate, you only get back 1/4th of the dust cost for the card.
Dusting your collection to make one deck.
This is a mistake I made and countless others have made. It seems like such a good idea at the time. Why not have one good deck and dust the cards your not using? As anyone who does this will soon learn its a disaster move. As a new player you really have no idea how useful some of those cards may be. You also have no idea if those cards will turn into must have cards after the next expansion. You also limit your ability to do quests and some tavern brawls. You will soon tire of that one deck and want to play another one. But you have dusted all the other cards you have to make one deck. The only real way out of this fine mess is to start over with another account, spend tons of money on packs, or suffer. Disguised Toast has a good site that lists beginner decks, these are likely what you should start with.
Dusting Legendary Cards
Legendary cards cost a ton of dust to make. New players may have an eye on a specific legendary card they want. So they look at their collection and see legendary cards they are not using and dust 4 of them to create 1 new one. This can be a good idea if done right, but it has way more chance to backfire on a new player. First of all they have no idea what cards are really good and most of the time are thinking that one card they are making will solve all the problems they are having winning. In the right deck a legendary can improve your chances to win. In a so so deck made by a new player its likely to be lipstick on a pig. Add to this the fact that the next expansion may make one of those dusted cards very powerful or desirable. If a new player is thinking about dusting legendaries they should seek advice by posting on the forum before doing it
Crafting the hot new card.
Here is another mistake I made. Right after an expansion you will read all about the best card to craft. Its a super card and you think it will help you win lots of games. The problem is that its right after an expansion and no one really has had a chance to play it and the meta hasn't settled. The only players you can see play it are pro's on YouTube showing single games. Probably staring pro's who could win with utter rubbish. The new player rushes into craft that card and ends up crafting cards like Lakkari Sacrifice. A week later the cards problems start showing and the community then says its a bad card. But its to late, you have spent the dust and will only get back 1/4 of its value when you dust it. It is almost always a good idea to wait 2 weeks to a month after an expansion to craft cards from that expansion, especially Legendaries. Most new players wont have that much dust and making the right crafting decisions are critical.
Dust does not burn a hole in the jar.
This is another mistake I made in my first year.
As a new player its fun to craft cards, heck its fun for established players as well. But as a new player you have to budget the dust you get, especially in the first year. In the first year you should be focused on building a card collection with an eye to the future, not looking at the powerful cards that will be rotating out in the next 6 months or so. Some people must think the dust will burn a hole in the jar and rush to craft cards to fill in holes they think exist just because older cards may be very powerful. As discussed in the paragraph on long term value, those older cards may help you win a little more now, but they will put you in a hole when the rotation happens at the beginning of the new Hearthstone year in April.
Rushing to spend dust at times can hurt you. This is especially true before an expansion. Sometimes Blizzard will have events that fill up the dust jar fast before expansions. Keep in mind the dust isnt going anywhere, it will never expire. It may be a better idea to wait for the next expansion is released if its about a month away. The dust will still be there after release and you will have a chance to craft cards that have a longer time to play. Crafting before release may get you cards, but they may not be viable in the meta after release.
As a general rule, craft decks not cards. If you are crafting powerful cards to go in a deck of 30%-50% replacement cards your picking out to fill in holes the win rate will not increase that much if at all. Cards support each other in most decks with synergy. Without that you are not going to improve your win rate.
Try a budget version of a deck before spending huge amounts of dust.
So you have some dust and you want to make this fantastic new deck, one you have never played before. You read about it and watched some streamers play single games on Youtube and it looks like a winner! You have just enough dust to craft it and then you will be set and climb the ladder at lightning speed!
I would suggest you slow down just a bit. Take a look and see if you can find a budget version of the deck, maybe make some substitutions and play it. You can then see if the deck fits your play style. You can see if you can actually win with it.
Because you may find that you hate the deck. It doesnt fit how you play. Its boring. The streamers showed a few winners but other than that it was all losses. Remember this is your first year and the crafting decisions you make are critical.
Arena vs saving gold for the next expansion.
A post by HyperNova prompted this section, it made a lot of sense to me. There is an age old question of which is better, playing Arena and getting packs, or saving your gold for the next expansion. If your playing Arena and always hit the break even point of winning 7 games or have boatloads of real world cash to spend on games this is a moot question, but if your not in those small groups its important to consider the best use of the resources you have.
One opinion (that seems to be all over the forums) says dont save your gold. Spend 150 gold on the Arena. You will get a pack, and if you win enough you will get more rewards like gold, cards, and dust. Some might even save gold for a month or so, but not much more. The other says save your gold from quests to by packs from the next expansion. The packs are only 100 gold so you get more packs. Each point sounds reasonable at first glance and if taken in the vacuum before an expansion is released its hard to see the advantage of one way over the other. The difference is after the release.
The person who saved up gold can spend the gold at release and get a huge number of packs. If you average 10k gold saved, which is not impossible, you can buy 100 packs. At that point you have all the cards you will buy from that expansion. You will get a lot of the cards and a lot of dust from duplicates to craft things you didnt get. You wont get everything but neither method guarantees that. You can start playing meta decks in the first few weeks and enjoying the new meta.
If on the other hand you didnt save gold or very little, you dont have the new cards, or a small amount of them. You will need to craft cards you need to play meta decks from dust. Then you will play Arena to get packs. If you play two arena runs a day it will take 50 days and 5k more gold to get the same 100 packs the person who saved bought. If you only have 10k gold you will only get 66 packs, 34 less than the person who saved. You will likely open cards you crafted in those packs. You will likely dust those cards because you have multiples getting back 1/4th of the crafting cost.
The difference is you will have wasted resources and time. There may be other factors on why you want to use the Arena method, but for a beginner who cant afford to waste resources, saving is the way to go imho.
Spending more than you have to
Unless you have lots of money to toss into a hole or down the toilet, you need to have a strategy to control the cost of Hearthstone. Blizzard created this game to make money. You can play for free, and its a laudable goal, but it does limit you in some ways in the beginning.
Blizzard did give players a way to play for free or on a budget, a smart player will take advantage of ways to save money. Even if you spend real world money, having in game resources to get more packs is never a bad idea.
Here are some things you can do to play on a budget. Some maybe slightly more advanced than beginner, but there are things every player can do.
1. Do your daily quests on the rewards track! The gold adds up over time and you can easily save 7k-8k of gold between expansions, thats 70 to 80 packs . You can gain up to 2k more with a little effort.
1a. Do not be afraid to reroll quests, especially if it will take you a longer time to do it because of lack of cards. Clicking the little reroll icon in the upper right corner of the quest to re-roll quests for a higher amount of experience, 900 experience is the lowest you can get.
1b. You can have 3 quests before losing one. Keeping 2 quests is not a bad idea as you can re-roll quests more often and do multiple quests at the same time. An example is win so many games with a class and another quests to play class specific cards.
1c. Trade your 1500 experience challenge a friend quests with others who have one so you get 3000 experience.
2. Do tavern brawls each week. You get a free pack just for winning one game that will help build your card collection and after awhile add to your dust when you disenchant extra cards.
3. Disenchant gold cards you already have the max normal versions of. There is no competitive advantage to gold cards. They just look pretty. As a beginner you need more playable cards than you need extra pretty ones.
4. After learning to play the game, and you are ready for ranked play, strive to reach the diamond ranks each month. Even if you dont reach it, ever 5 levels gives you cards or packs you can disenchant extras for dust.
5. Keep in mind that there are a lot of free packs/dust/gold available. They are given for doing things like playing on a phone or tablet, or collecting all the basic cards which is done by getting every class to level 10. A list of them can be found here. If you dont have a specific device an easy way of fooling the game into thinking you do can be found here.
Forgetting the reason to play the game is to have fun.
Some new players get so wrapped up in winning and the size of their card collection that they forget the most important thing is to have fun. Because unless you are having fun you will soon tire of the game and not see it at its best when you have experience. If your not winning, take a break. If you need cards go after the free resources. Dont get so wrapped up in whats not happening or what you dont have that you have a miserable time.
Game Play
Jumping into the Arena after just starting.
Don't get me wrong,, the Arena is a great game mode, many players enjoy it and it can help you build your card collection. The problem isn't the Arena, but lack of game play experience and new players jumping in soon after they start playing. Hearthstone is a game that takes time to learn. You need to learn at least the basic cards, when to play the cards, and what you can expect your opponent to do next. Until you get to that point you are just wasting gold or money. Experienced players will eat you alive and you may get one win if your lucky. It is better to save your gold and money to buy packs while you learn the game because a card pack is 100 gold and the arena costs 150. At 0 or 1 win, you will likely get a pack. I would say at least 3 months experience is a good idea, closer to 6 would be better, but each person is different.
Jumping into Rank mode after just starting.
This point is very similar to jumping into Arena. There is no economic downside to doing it. But its like beating your head into a wall. The first thing a new player should do is unlock all the classes in solo mode. The next step is to get them all up to level 10 to get all the basic cards. You can jump into playing against other players in casual mode to level the classes as the game will try and match you against other players of the same class level. Ranked mode is a whole other animal. It is full of people with powerful decks and you are matched not by the hero class level, but by your ranking in ranked mode for that month. A new player isn't likely to have strong decks and will take forever to climb levels. Bronze ranking isnt bad because you don't lose ranks when you lose games. Stick to casual mode and learn the game before you jump into ranked mode.
What deck should I play?
If you have read this far you may be asking what decks should I play. After all there are thousands of them. That or how do I get _________ deck? The answer depends on one thing, how much real world money you are willing to spend. If the answer is about $200, then buy a ton of packs and gain the dust to make a top meta deck. For those not willing to spend a lot of real world money the answer is beginner decks. After all you have just begun playing. F2p and budget decks may also be an option.
Beginner decks are created by good players, they are balanced, and are made from cards that are easy to get. They will help you learn about game play. You should be able to think at least two turns ahead, have some idea when to play a card and when not to, and what you can expect another player to play in response to what you played. You need to know the strengths and weaknesses of the classes, and which one is best for you. A top deck without this knowledge is like putting a 14 year old who has never driven in a formula 1 race car and expecting them to win a race. Play the beginner deck, try them all, learn the game, save your gold and just about when you have enough gold saved to buy the packs to make one, you will have learned enough to play it.
Deck Hopping
Yet another mistake I did. While closely related to "What deck should I play" this is a slightly more advanced problem. The problem usually arises when a newer player is moving up the ranks and hits a plateau. They start to think the problem is the deck they are playing. Dont get me wrong sometimes it is the deck, but more often its a change in the skill level of the person your playing against. Leveling up the ranks is a grind. The matchmaking system matches you against people of the same rank, and if you win a lot of games, against others who have win streaks.
The player thinking its the deck changes decks and tries to win. If they dont they switch again. They become a jack of all decks and master of none. Knowing just enough of each to win a few games. At higher ranks skill and knowledge of the deck can be more important than the deck if you are playing a high tier deck. Play one good deck, master it, learn its best interactions. Learn when to play cards and not to play a card. Hoping from deck to deck will make it very difficult to do that. If you hit a losing streak, take a break, play casual, or something else. But keep playing the top tier deck you have and master it.
Not paying attention
As a new player there is a lot to learn. My advice is to play full screen and turn off all other programs. You might even want to turn off your phone if its constantly taking your attention from the game for trivial things. Checking out a website or typing out a message while the other guy plays can be a disaster for a new player. You will not learn much and likely lose more if you do.
Not planning out your turn ahead of time/making fast plays.
This is a classic mistake all new players make. While you should be watching to see what your opponent does, you should also be thinking about which card(s) in your hand you should play next turn. Clicking on the board and seeing what the different stuff does when clicked and emoting is a waste of time. Good players think about multiple turns ahead. As a new player that may be impossible, but its a good idea to at least try if you have the time. In the same vein quickly playing your cards without thinking whats going to happen and if the card you just drew may be a better card to play is a disaster. There is a reason there is a turn timer, to give you some time to think. Use that time.
Over committing/placement.
Board clears exist in Hearthstone. They exist for most of the classes, Hunter and Druid being those that dont have good board clears, But Druid has Spreading Plague and can fill the board with taunts, Rouge can make them all return to your hand with Vanish destroying any left once your hand is full. Part of learning the game is learning how your opponent can clear away your minions or block them, often in one turn. If they cant remove them all they can remove some of them. Playing all or most of your cards is a mistake many new players make. When it happens they end up with an empty or near empty hand on the path to losing the game. It is seldom a good idea to empty your hand onto the board.
A slightly more advanced topic along these same lines is learning when not to play a card just because its on curve. Some cards while having lower mana costs are more suited to the late game or specific situations. For an example on turn 4 you have a Spellbreaker and a few other small cards that dont add up to 4 mana. It may be better to save the Spellbreaker until a taunt or a spell is played on a minion like Spikeridged Steed or Blessing of Kings that buffs the minion.
Another slightly more advanced topic, where you place your minions is also important. Grouping big minions together against a mage is a bad idea because of Meteor. Placing your highest damage minions on the outside against a Hunter in the late game will soon see them die to Crushing Walls. Placing 1, 2, 3, 4 health minions against a Warlock will see them all die to Defile.
Add On Programs.
Install Innkeeper before seeking help
A common theme of this post is new players seeking help on the forums. In order to get the best advice it is a good idea to install Innkeeper. Innkeeper is software to scan your collection. It will show you the cards missing in deck lists on Hearthpwn and how much dust it will cost to make them.
After installing go into your settings on Hearthpwn and click on the collections tab. Then click Edit Collection button and toggle the slider from private to public and click Save Collection. This will allow people on the forums to view your collection making it easier for people to recommend cards you have when asking deck building questions.
The Arena draft
One of the hardest parts of the Arena is the draft. This will happen right after choosing a class to play. Unless you know about most of the cards in Hearthstone (something a new player isnt likely to know) it will be difficult to pick the best card out of the three. There are programs like Hearth Arena that can help by suggesting the best card to pick. It isnt perfect, but it does a good job. If you decide to play Arena after gaining experience, this would be a good application or one like it, to install.
The Second year
I have debated going further than the first year. This section will not be as large as above, but there are topics that I think should be addressed.
Dusting rotating cards
Standard includes the Basic and Core set as well as the previous calendar years sets. With the new expansion in April of each year a new Hearthstone year begins and the rotation happens. Cards from 2 calendar years ago are rotated to Wild and the Core set changes.
Some players may consider dusting the rotating cards in an effort to get resources for Standard because thats all they play now. But by doing so you limit your ability to compete in special events, do some tavern brawls, and some single player content will be difficult to complete.
Since you have never played wild you dont really know if you will like it. By dusting the rotating cards you will never find out. Playing with a limited collection in wild is as hard as when you started playing standard so you will have to have a good collection of old cards to really give it a try. Dont rely on what people may say on the forum. They are not you. At least give it a shot in the third year before dusting everything.
The return if also very very bad. You will only get back 1/4th the crafting costs of your cards. The returns will diminish as each time you dust a card you crafted with the dust you got from rotated cards.
7/7/2023 updated to reflect the current game.
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Yoooo! So happy someone is experimenting with it. My version includes Zentimo. Its combination with Jade Lighting clears the board and swings it in your favor. Once it saved my ass against a Kingsbane rogue - I’ve used Hex on my board,creating 3 taunts. Just to say it has a lot of potential application in a lot of matchups.
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Personal opinion of a F2P player:
Short term? Cool, you got few thousands of dust... Yaaaay, you can play some weird version of a Warrior now! Long term? Fuck no. The cards you have are decent, overall pretty good. Half of the cards you mention you want to craft are not worth the dust imo. Only DE if the expansion has rotated and only if its unplayable, thats my rule as F2P.