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Forged in the Barrens Launch Day - Everything You Need To Know!

Hearthstone's newest expansion Forged in the Barrens launches today, March 30th. We brought all the information and useful links together in this news post for you.

• The Forged in the Barrens Expansion is LIVE!
• Yet another 135 new cards have been added to the game.
• Another 35 cards will follow in a Mini-Set midway through the expansion. There's no official details revealed yet, but we datamined something very interesting about Wailing Caverns.
• You can view all the new cards in our Forged in the Barrens Card List.
• PvE content for the Forged in the Barrens expansion will be a continuation of the Book of Heroes story line as well as the brand new Book of Mercenaries.

Included for free in the Expansion

• All players logging in will get the Forged in the Barrens Legendary card Shadow Hunter Vol'jin for free!
• All players opening up the first Reward in the new Free Reward Track will get a Legendary Card for free, Mankrik!
• All players will have access to the free Core set, a replacement for the Classic and Basic set, read all about it here.
• There has been no mention so far of a chain of Event Quests to celebrate the release, like there usually is.

Dust Refund

Quote from Blizzard

With Forged in the Barrens Pre-Release weekend coming up we wanted to share a quick update on an issue we’ve discovered which affects how two new Legendary cards, Mankrik and Blademaster Samuro, are acquired.

As a reminder, Mankrik will be available to everyone for free at level 1 on the Forged in the Barrens Rewards Track, and Diamond Blademaster Samuro will be available at level 1 on the Forged in the Barrens Tavern Pass. However, Forged in the Barrens card packs opened before visiting the Reward Track, and during Pre-Release weekend, can contain Blademaster Samuro or Golden Mankrik (in place of another Legendary card).

To address this, full Dust refunds will be available for the week following Pre-Release, this applies to golden Mankrik, non-golden Blademaster Samuro, and golden Blademaster Samuro.

New Mechanics

• New Keyword: Frenzy - Minions with Frenzy trigger a powerful effect after surviving damage the first time.
• Ranked Spells - Spells that grow in power when you reach 5 and 10 mana.
• Spell Schools - A permanent feature moving forward. Spells are now classed into 7 different schools adding extra synergies. The schools are Arcane, Fel, Fire, Frost, Holy, Nature, and Shadow.

Other Mechanics

Some mechanics that were seen in previous card sets were brought back on new cards, as well as some truly new mechanics were added:

• Self Milling Cards.
• Sigils, Demon Hunter cards that activate a turn later.
• After a friendly Beast attacks, summon a Beast from your deck.
• Hero Power Interaction cards for Mage
• Setting both players Mana back to zero and make each card cost (1).
• Secret Interaction cards for Paladin.
• Poisons and Poison Interaction cards for Rogue
• Caravan Cards, small minion cards that have Start-of-Turn effects.
• You can view all the new cards in our Forged in the Barrens Cards List.

Kazakus, Golem Shaper

A fresh take on our old friend Kazakus, we have the new Forged in the Barrens card Kazakus, Golem Shaper. Decks built with no other 4-mana cards get to contruct their own golem.

Step One: Choose your golem's size.

Step Two: Discover an herb.

Step Three: Discover a second herb. With the exception of Gromsblood, the effects of the 2nd herb increase for each golem size.

Mercenaries

10 Legendary minions each representing a different class. Their stories will unfold throughout the Year of the Gryphon, in the Book of Mercenaries, similar to Book of Heroes, as well as later in the new Game mode, Mercenaries.

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Arena Changes

The Arena rotation is being shaken up. This time it is the following card sets that are active:

• Core
• Forged in the Barrens
• Darkmoon Races Mini-Set
• Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
• Scholomance Academy
• Ashes of Outland
• Rise of Shadows
• Mean Streets of Gadgetzan

Theorycrafted Decks

We created a special Decks post yesterday, with a lot of new archetypes and a lot of new deck ideas. You can find the links to that Decks post below.

Alternatively, create your own deck with the Deckbuilder, add a good guide on how to pilot the deck and help create the post-launch meta!

• Big Deck Preview for Forged in the Barrens

That should get you started! Thanks for being with us throughout this exciting Forged in the Barrens reveal period. Shoutout to everyone who helped in one way or another during this time, the other moderators and staff and the devs and all the users who gave us useful suggestions and feedback, and to everyone who enjoyed and supported our coverage. You rock!

If you are looking for some company while opening packs or playing, come chat with us on our Discord.

Forged in the Barrens Card List & Expansion Guide

Learn more and see all the cards in our dedicated Card List.