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Duelist Guide: Tips for Duels Season 1

Here, we’ll go over the potential that each class is capable of. Since there are so many more possibilities with newly added Hero Powers, Treasures, and available expansions**, this guide will discuss everything you should consider when making your starting deck. Which treasures you should draft will depend on what route you decide to take your deck. While all Treasures and Hero Powers have their uses, some are more useful than others. Not because they’re better, but because some are good in general and others are more specific in their uses. We’ll go into more detail below!

** = Available Sets are: Basic, Demon Hunter Initiate, Classic, Naxxramas, One Night in Karazhan, Whispers of the Old Gods, Scholomance Academy, and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire.

Demon Hunter

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Hero Powers: Both of Demon Hunter’s Hero Powers are useful for the same reason, giving your hero Attack. However, they have their distinctions where they’re better with different cards. Infernal Strike is great at building up burst damage as you trade with minions little by little. Outlander excels in decks that play and draw lots of cards to passively gain damage without spending mana.

Starting Treasures: Even though the Hero Powers are amazing in many situations, the Treasures are more specific in their uses. Summoning Ritual only really works if you have Demons with at least decent stats in your deck. Gift of the Legion wants your deck to have plenty of cards that summon minions, preferably with Rush. Mo'arg Outcast is probably the best Treasure if you don’t wish to build a deck around the other two, but works more when your deck has cheap cards you can cycle through.

Strategies: Aldrachi Warblades and Blade Dance both function extremely well alongside either Hero Power. When taking Summoning Ritual, Hulking Overfiend is one of the best cards to start with since it can act immediately when it awakens. Mo’arg Outcast doesn’t have any direct synergy, but works especially well with the Infernal Strike Hero Power since it can double the damage of all your Second Slices. Expendable Performers gives Gift of the Legion maximum potential if all Illidari die, giving you 14 total damage!

Druid

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Hero Powers: Omu’s Hero Powers are able to give some of your cards some extra tempo. Nature's Gifts goes well with any spells that deal damage, especially AOE. When you don’t have one on hand, you can still use it for damage by gaining Attack. Invigorating Bloom incentivizes you to have multiple expensive cards in your hand so you can play them much earlier than usual. Discounting more than 2 cards is pure value when spending 2 Mana on your Hero Power.

Starting Treasures: Warden's Insight is still a good general option when you have no specific deck in mind. Moonbeast is capable of big spell-based plays when you bring eclipses and draft more. Any Beast with good value will love getting copied with Herding Horn. Just remember, attacking with your Hero will waste its durability.

Strategies: Swipe and Starfall remain the best spells to combo with Nature’s Gifts. Invigorating Bloom wants higher cost cards in general, but make sure your deck isn’t too reliant on expensive stuff because sometimes you’ll need to do something other than trigger Hero Power early game. Herding Horn can work in Guardian Animals decks for when you draw your Beasts before you summon them from your deck. Ultimately, the bigger the Beast the better. Warden’s insight is best played late game. Which effect you choose depends on whether you have a (7) followed by a (10) Mana play, or cards that largely supports token strategies. Moonbeast only works for exactly 3 cards, but it does an extremely good job at it. Combining two eclipses can do something like deal 6 damage and discount your next spell by (4) for free! 

Hunter

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Hero Powers: If you decide to go for Deathrattles, then Death Games is your best friend. Being able to trigger any of your Deathrattles for 2 Mana can bring out some crazy tempo if your opponent can’t deal with them all. Any deck that isn’t Deathrattle centric would prefer Survival Training. It does what Hunter is best at, damage face. If you plan on using this Hero Power in a turn, remember to use it before attacking with your minions to get that extra damage in.

Starting Treasures: Since almost every Hunter deck will have at least a few Beasts, Slate's Syringe is a pretty useful tool to get a cheap 6/6 stat swing Bonecrusher is a clear choice for Deathrattle deck. The same applies to Stalking Pride with plenty of Secrets.

Strategies: Death Games and Bonecrusher are a fantastic pair that benefit off the same kind of deck. While big Deathrattles are great for them, even cheap ones like Nerubian Egg and Bloated Python can be powerful. If they survive multiple turns, they can easily become 4/4 minion factories. Even with such strong potential, Survival Training is still a good Hero Power. You will always have a way to damage your opponent, this being even better since most Duels decks don’t have the consistent healing or armor effects that control decks in normal Hearthstone usually do. Slate’s Syringe can basically go into any deck that runs some good Beasts, as the effect is simultaneously controlling and aggressive. Stalking Pride is rather difficult to use unless you play a deck with plenty of Secrets. It is however a potential board refill for one 7-cost card. The results vary wildly since ANY Beast can be summoned, but that allows it to be capable of some things the other treasures aren’t.

Mage

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Hero Powers: Wyrm Bolt remains an amazing Hero Power being able to deal damage and generate a fairly decent minion. Secret Studies is far more specific, but it can draw out specifically a Secret to get the value out of your Secret synergies.

Starting Treasures: Wand of Dueling is only good with Wyrm Bolt, but makes it easier to get the Mana Wyrms. Elemental Learning generates tons of resources even without the bonus effect. When the Elementals are discounted though, the spell pays for itself and more. Infinite Arcane is a far less predictable card. Its true value shines when you’ve reached the fatigue stage, blocking fatigue for your start of turn draws.

Strategies: Secret Studies specifically requires a Secret deck to work, but it can make sure that cards like Occult Conjurer and Medivh's Valet trigger. Elemental Learning’s extra effect can be easily activated by generally useful Elementals like Steward of Scrolls and Confection Cyclone. Grand Finale is a great follow up turn with the Elementals. Infinite Arcane works best after you’ve drawn out your whole deck. If you plan on cycling through cards really fast, then this is the treasure to take. Unfortunately, Wyrm Bolt and Wand of Dueling have no direct support with the cards currently available. They’re strong enough on their own though.

Paladin

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Hero Powers: Bring on Recruits adds a minion to both your hand and board. From Golden Light only summons a minion, but it can potential summon something better than a regular 1/1.

Starting Treasures: Royal Greatsword is a powerful weapon that can deal 18 damage total and pull 3 legendary minions out of your deck all for 6 Mana. It’s a strong choice provided you have legendary cards for it. Men at Arms will support anything that summons Silver Hand Recruits. Drocomurchanicas encourages a Menagerie Style deck with Dragons, Murlocs, and Mechs as the three minion types.

Strategies: ‘Bring on Recruits’ and ‘Men at Arms’ are at their best when you have a lot of Silver Hand Recruit specific cards like Lothraxion the Redeemed and Day at the Faire. Royal Greatsword pulls out any Legendary minion, so be sure to include ones that have a big impact on the board when they’re summoned. Tirion Fordring and Turalyon, the Tenured are solid picks, especially as resurrect targets for ‘From Golden Light’. If you include a couple Beasts along with Murlocs, Dragons and Mechs, Drocomurchanicas can also support the existing Menagerie cards. Zoobot, Menagerie Magician and The Curator would all work together since as two of them are Mechs. 

Priest

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Hero Powers: Illucia now has 2 different ways to play regarding Hero Powers. Shadow Mend is still an excellent source of healing and card draw. Now with Mind Tether, you can also play aggressively with spells. This give Priest direct face damage they otherwise have very little of.

Starting Treasures: Fractured Spirits is flexible enough to be used for generating 2 big minions, an emergency Silence for a big threat, or both. Droplet of Insanity is simply a way to get 2 very good cards as long as you have a spell to combo it with. Scion of the Deep functions similar to Kael'thas Sunstrider], where you’ll want to play 2 cheap spells followed by one big one to cheat put a big play.

Strategies: Shadow Mend is mostly just for its standalone value and not to combine with anything, but Raise Dead is a nifty way to make it a little extra useful. A spell-based deck is now easily possible thanks to Mind Tether and Scion of the Deep. Any card that generates more spells is encouraged in a starting deck for this. However, a lot of the direct synergies will have to be drafted. Fractured Spirits is usually going to be a counter option for Deathrattles and such since you won’t usually want to Silence your own minions. This and Droplet of Insanity are good treasures for decks that don’t focus on playing tons of spells.

Rogue

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Hero Powers: Being able to consistently get a 2/2 weapon with Roguish Maneuvers is fairly useful for both trading and dealing efficient face damage. Connections is also a considerable control option. The ‘Informants’ generated are basically random minion target Elven Archers. It’s less cost efficient damage than Roguish Maneuvers, but it’s also free resources and easy combo card activators.

Starting Treasures: Deadly Weapons 101 can greatly bolster the power of any weapon. If you have cards that generate even more cards, then Nerubian Peddler is a powerful discount tool. Acquired Allies is somewhat more fringe, but it can be used as a bounce back effect for ANY minion. This is good for both your own Battlecries and big enemy threats.

Strategies: Roguish Maneuvers and Deadly Weapons 101 have a clear interaction, but this can apply to all the other weapon related cards as well. If you were to use this treasure on something like Assassin's Blade, it will become a 30 damage beatstick to distribute however you like. Nerubian Peddler likely won’t survive beyond the turn it’s played, so try to capitalize on it by playing as many cards that Add, Draw, or Discover as you can. Connections creates the cheap cards that you’ll want to play first to activate any of your Combo cards. Acquired Allies is flexible in terms of what it should be used for, but it can also be planned for your minions with particularly useful Battlecries like Jandice Barov to get 3 more uses out of it.

Shaman

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Hero Powers: Totemic Power Lost some of its strength now that it can only summon one totem at a time. But now it’s capable of summoning Grand Totem Eys'or. Even if you choose not to run any totems in your deck, it can make the totems your Hero Power creates much harder to deal with. Ferocious Flurry is nifty removal as well as able to double the damage efficiency of your weapons.

Starting Treasures: Fluctuating Totem can upgrade your minions, most notably low-stat ones whose value already came from their Battlecry. Tempest's Fury is a nice removal tool that can also hit face for more aggressive damage. Invoke the Void is simply a 1-card way to get 2 big minions on the board.

Strategies: Totemic Power is a fan of Overload cards and Totem synergies. Since Eys’or can now be summoned, Fluctuating Totem can passively become pretty big for a 2-cost minion. Weapons like Tempest’s Fury and Attack buffs like Rockbiter Weapon and Stormstrike gives Ferocious Flurry the ability to push out extra and faster damage. Since Shamans don’t currently have ways to cheat out multiple big minions, Invoke the Void is one way to get around that as well.

Warlock

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Hero Powers: Unlike early access, Dark Arts is now a force to be reckoned with. It more easily cycles through your deck so you can get the cards you want. Demon Blood is also quite strong. Being able to weave a cheap handbuff into your turns can let you surprise your opponent with a large Demon with a relatively lower cost.

Starting Treasures: Demons along with Impish Aid is basically free stats. Gift of the Old Gods only works with Corruption cards, but gives them their bonus effects right away. Killmox, the Banished One is an amazing Demon that can pull you back into a game where you’re almost out of Health.

Strategies: Demon Blood and Impish Aid would prefer your deck have as many Demons as possible. If you draft one, you could possibly buff up a Doomguard enough to drop your opponent down to zero right away. Dark Arts has Malchezaar's Imp, Bomeweb Egg, and Silverware Golem to start out as direct Discard support. C'Thun, the Shattered is also a popular inclusion because of how fast you can draw cards. Killmox functions well with both Hero Powers, but can also be duplicated with Felosophy for an extra massive Lifesteal/Rush behemoth. Gift of the Old Gods goes well with some of the more expensive Corruption cards like Tickatus so you don’t have to go through the trouble of setting them up after you draw them.

Warrior

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Hero Powers: Warriors still like the self-damage effects it has been able to take advantage of. No Guts, No Glory can proc any related effects by itself. Bruising is a free way to get in an extra trade. If you’re managing the board right, you can trade up frequently.

Starting Treasures: Auto-Armaments is like an Acolyte of Pain but twice as big, draw specifically minions, and buffs hem all at once. Collector's Ire strives to function as the Menagerie Warrior support Darkmoon wanted it to have. Any deck with fairly large Rush minions would like Brewster, the Brutal to pulls it out of the deck without having to pay its cost.

Strategies: ‘ No Guts, No Glory’ and Auto-Armaments both work with the same type of cards; damage-all effects like Ravaging Ghoul and damage-based ones like Grommash Hellscream. Bruising is a fantastic way to get in that extra trade you might want. Anything with Rush or Charge make more use out of this to get in double attacks on the same turn it’s played. Some even have bonuses while attacking like Doctor Krastinov or even Brewster. Collector’s Ire can bring out the minions drawn with Ringmaster Whatley, buffed with Ringmaster's Baton, and can be resurrected by N'Zoth, God of the Deep.

Popular Neutral Minions:

C'Thun, the Shattered

He has appeared in many Duels decks, primarily Warlock. The smaller deck sizes early in the run makes completing C’Thun even faster. Some ways to counter this is by depriving your opponent of at least one of the pieces with cards like Mindrender Illucia and Tickatus.

Pen Flinger/Wandmaker

Lots of decks in Duels like playing cheap spells, and these two make great additions to them. One deals some extra chip damage while the other generates an extra spell to use.

Cult Neophyte/Loatheb

To counter the aforementioned spell-themed decks, this pair can disrupt an opponent’s plan if you play it at just the right time. 

Conclusion

Those are the tips and tricks we currently have for you. If you have your own ideas that you think we left out, share it in the comments so everyone can become better Duelists!