Preparing for Standard & Beyond - What to do Before the Expansion Hits

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Preparing for Standard & Beyond - What to do Before the Expansion Hits

We're just under a week away from the announcement of what comes next, and assuming the expansion doesn't hit the week after like it did with the League of Explorers, we've got some time to kill and prepare for the awesomeness that is sure to come.

So, what can we do in preparation for that expansion? We're here to address that!

Please note that we are not taking "pity timer legendaries" into any of the following math.
For those not aware, the pity timer ensures that you get a legendary every 40 packs, or 400 dust.

#1 - Purchase GvG Packs for Wild Format

Whether you like it or not, Goblins vs Gnomes (and Dr. Boom!!) is going away - at least for Standard format. Once the next expansion launches, Goblins vs Gnomes card packs will no longer be available from the in-game shop, although all cards will remain craftable through the crafting system.

So, why should you buy those GvG packs now? To save money.

Let's say you want to craft a single common card from GvG to play in Wild format, that's going to set you back 40 Arcane Dust... or one card pack's worst case disenchant value. Refer to the table below to see how many packs it will take to craft other GvG cards.

We are assuming the cheapest possible pack cost of $1.167 USD per pack - this is packs purchased under the 60 Packs option in the store on PC and Mac.

Craft Target Normal Golden
Dust Cost Max Packs Req. USD Value Dust Cost Max Packs Req. USD Value
Common 40 1 $1.167 400 10 $11.67
Rare 100 3 $3.501 800 20 $23.34
Epic 400 10 $11.67 1600 40 $46.68
Legendary 1600 40 $46.68 3200 80 $93.36

 

Yes, a Golden Dr. Boom for Wild would take at most $93.36 USD to craft!

#2 - Purchase the First Wing of the Naxxramas Adventure

Hearthstone's first adventure, The Curse of Naxxramas is being removed when the new expansion hits, kind of. It will work differently depending on your ownership of the expansion.

  • If you have purchased one or more wings of Naxxramas, you can continue to play them and buy missing wings.
  • If you have not purchased any wings, Naxxramas the adventure will not exist for you at all.
  • Naxxramas will still drop cards from defeating bosses, but they will also be available through the crafting system.

Buy Naxxramas today and save over a lifetime!

Want Naxxramas cards for wild? Buy at least one wing of the expansion now, whether that costs real money or gold.

Using our crafting table above for values..

  • Want to craft Loatheb? That will set you back 4000 gold for the packs, more than double the 1400 to gain access to Wing 2 where he resides.
  • Wait, how many? Craft Naxxramas for 13440 Arcane Dust - Which is at most purchasing 336 Hearthstone packs.. or $392.11 USD.
  • Also a good source of dust! You can disenchant all of Naxxramas for 3140 dust.

Verdict: Naxxramas is a fantastic investment for both Wild and Standard players. Buy it or just a single wing now.

#3 - Craft Murlocs, but not Pirates

Mrglglgl! The cards in the reward set are no longer going to be rewards from quests when the expansion launches. They are going to be changed to craftable cards which for Old Murk-Eye means he's going to cost a lot more dust to obtain.

 

Only the normal version of Old Murk-Eye is worth obtaining through the quest system.

But, what about a golden Old Murk-Eye? Not at all worth it for most players. It is only worth it if you can craft 3200 dust or less of Murlocs. Keep in mind you are also going to need the following cards golden, which come from leveling up certain classes.

Captain's Parrot? More like Abandoned Parrot. It can be worth it depending on what you already have in your collection, but honestly, Pirates?

Verdict: Depending on your collection, the only thing worth getting is a normal Old Murk-Eye.

#4 - Farm and Save Gold!

Everyone wants to play with the new cards when they come out, so the more gold you farm now means the more packs you can open on launch day without spending your hard earned cash. There's several ways you can obtain gold.

  • Dailies - Login every day and complete the quest you obtain. If it's worth only 40 gold, roll it for another one. If that one is too, you can opt to save it until tomorrow to roll it again.
  • Winning - By simply #winning games, you too can be like Charlie Sheen. Well, only the part about making bank. 3 wins gives you 10 gold up to a maximum of 100 gold per day.
  • Tavern Brawl - If you can win brawls faster than you can win normal matches, rack up those wins through this instead!
  • Arena - There is quite a bit of gold that can be won via the arena feature if you play your cards right. As a bonus you can also get classic packs and golden cards which can help you get dust to craft stuff you want in the next expansion.

In addition to spending gold on the new packs that come out, you may want to also blow it all on Goblins vs Gnomes packs if you're missing quite a bit from that set and want those cards for the Wild format.

#5 Don't Disenchant Anything

As the title says, don't touch that disenchant button yet. You never know how the future will play out and there's cards you may regret getting rid of now. There could also be a nerf to a card in the classic collection which could fetch a higher value once that change is made rather than now. 

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