Hall of Fame - Duplicate Protection - Returning Player and Priest Changes Today
Today, Thursday March 26th, is the day for many of the announced changes from our coverage from mid-March. A short summary of what is coming at some point today:
- Several cards will go to the Hall of Fame, including 6 Priest cards.
- All the Priest changes will go live, including the introduction of the new Basic and Classic cards.
- Duplicate Protection goes live some time today, meaning even old packs will no longer give duplicate cards until you have all cards of that rarity. Be sure to wait until it is officially live before opening packs!
- New and Returning players will get new (re-)introduction missions to the game.
- New and Returning players will get a FREE DECK starting today, as well as some card packs. To see which decks you can choose from see our post from Tuesday!
- Illidan Stormrage will enter the Battlegrounds as a new Hero!
Nerf Revisions
Last week Blizzard reverted some nerfed Wild cards back to their former glory. Today's patch will have a second round of revisions included. The following are the effected cards returning to their original form.
- Dr. Boom, Mad Genius - New: Cost 7 mana.
- Giggling Inventor - New: Cost 6 mana.
- Raiding Party - New: Cost 3 mana.
- Reckless Experimenter - New: Deathrattle minions you play cost (3) less, but die at end of turn.
Hall of Fame
Every year Blizzard sends some cards to the Hall of Fame, due to those cards limiting design space, breaking Class Design goals or just generally being used so much that it's time to make room so other cards can fill that design niche to change things up in the meta.
These are those Hall of Fame cards from the Neutral cards:
Priest changes
And these are the Hall of Fame cards from the Priest cards, again, mostly moved to the Hall of Fame because of conflicts of Class Design or not leaving enough design space for new cards:
Priest gets 6 NEW cards to replace the Hall of Fame line up and 7 more cards get mana or mechanics changes to better suit the Priest class to it's intended Class Design.
The 2 Basic set cards will automatically be added to your collection, but the other 4 are Classic set cards and will need to be opened from Classic packs or crafted. With the new Duplicate Protection system getting those cards from packs won't be too hard however.
These are the 6 replacement cards:
For a full breakdown of all the Hall of Fame and Priest class changes we will direct you to our post from mid-March with all the details. You can also find them by clicking the banner below!
Duplicate Protection
Starting at some point today, Thursday the 26th of March, you will get the introduction of increased coverage of the Duplicate Protection system that we already have for Legendaries. It will now cover ALL cards -- legendary, epic, rare and common. You can not get any duplicates anymore until you have every card of that rarity in the full set.
Not only will this new measure cover all card rarities, it also covers all expansions, new and old. Including card packs you already own.
There's a caveat here: once you receive a card, you'll have it marked for "collected" purposes. So if you disenchant a card you've received, it's still considered "owned." So you can't exploit the refund system that way. There's a great benefit to this though: If you don't like a particular card or class, you can disenchant them and not have to worry about getting them in future packs. This "collected" tag lasts forever once you have collected it.
New and Returning Players
If you return to play Hearthstone again starting at some point today, Thursday March 26th, you will be greeted by a brand new re-introduction campaign. This will not only bring you back up to speed with the game, but also reward you with your own competitive deck of the class of your choice, as well as some card packs.
When you log in after returning, you will first play through 3 quick catch up missions as Illidan...back in the time when he was a Mage! After this you will receive your rewards and can go out and play the game freely.
The new catch up missions also perfectly line up with the new Demon Hunter prologue that goes live April 2nd, where you continue the story of Illidan, this time as a Demon Hunter!
There are some limitations to this new provision though. The free deck is only available to players who have not logged into Hearthstone in the past 4 months beginning on March 17, 2020. Limit one per account.
If you want to know which decks you will be able to choose from, look no further than our post from Tuesday where we have all 9 decks listed.
For more indepth information about the Year of the Phoenix and upcoming changes we will direct you to our post from mid-March with all the details. You can also find them by clicking the banner below!
Illidan enters the Battlegrounds!
- Hero Power: Wingmen
- [Passive] Start of Combat: Your left and right-most minions attack immediately.
I got a gold Lorewalker Cho months ago and de’d it to get a good legendary of my choice. Today I got a regular version in a pack. Not sure if that applies or not...
Not sure - probably worth tweeting IksarHS about it, he replies to questions like that. I opened Millhouse in a pack and always kept him because I didnt want to get him again. It's nice to know that I can DE him and never get him again, and get the dust.
From multiple real life examples, including my own (got a Preparation I 100% DEd after nerf), "owned" does NOT apply to anything you DEd before this patch.
Why would even have a system to track that in the first place?
that would be nice to know if this will be same after the patch. I'd like to diss some golden ones but still might need the regular version 2 times.
Hadn't logged in since October, and I got the "intro" with the 3 tutorial matches (and the 3 packs as a reward), but I haven't seen the free deck option yet. Do I have to complete the "Play 30 cards" quest, or is it hidden somewhere else?
The patch is bugged, u will get your free deck when they fix it assuming u logged in after 17th of this month.
can someone explain me why they removed illidan card art for a one called xavius ? same stats and same effect
Probably because he's a hero now. Weird that they didn't mention it to the players.
Hmm I got the returning player quests but not the free deck. Havent had HS installed since shortly after Rise of Shadows release.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/hearthstone/t/a-few-notes-on-the-returning-player-experience/27240
So I am not considered a returning player because I have exclusively played battlegrounds the past 4 months, even though I am really behind in competitive decks.
PLUS, I don't even have the option to remain an exclusive battelgrounds player, because I have to pay 2500 gold for a tavern pass?
WHAT?
I wonder how the No duplicate Rule is for GoldenCards; ie.
I diss a golden card, can I still get the regular card then later? Or does it count towards blocked?
it is time to return to ladder
Returning player here. I got the free deck no returning player missions though a bug maybe?
Mountain Giant going to wild i think control warlock gonna suffer with this change
you don't get dust refund for cards rotating out, only ones going to hall of fame. If you do this, you'll lose 1,600 dust.
Edit: Well, they editted their comment and completely changed it so now what I said makes no sense. i'll just leave it anyway
Anyone have an idea of what time this will take effect?
Usually around 1pm EST, so I would expect it any minute now
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People reading is a real things. All of this has been explained if people would bother to take the time to read.