Hearthstone

Happy anniversary! Today, March 11, marks 10 years since the launch of Hearthstone. We’re celebrating with a Community Day and Patch 29.0, including the groundwork for Whizbang’s Workshop, the Core Set rotation, in-game rewards, and more!

Schedule and Quick Reference

There’s a lot happening with this patch, so we’ve organized it into a quick breakdown. You can click on the links to jump to that portion of the Patch Notes.

With the launch of Whizbang’s Workshop comes a new Rewards Track, filled with XP boosts, cards, Gold, and more. On top of that, Showdown in the Badlands Rewards Track achievements will continue granting XP even after the Rewards Track rolls over! Check out the Rewards Track Refresh blog for details.

Community Day Starts Today!

Celebrate 10 years of Hearthstone with 10 rewards in 24 hours! From March 11, 10:00 a.m. (PDT) to March 12, 10:00 a.m. (PDT) you can earn the following drops to enjoy across Hearthstone modes, just for watching any Hearthstone stream:

• 1st Drop: 1 Festival of Legends Card Pack and Crystal Justice Epic Battlegrounds Strike
• 2nd Drop: 1 TITANS Card Pack and 1 Showdown in the Badlands Card Pack
• 3rd Drop: 2 Tavern Tickets
• 4th Drop: 2 Whizbang’s Workshop Card Packs
• 5th Drop: 1 Golden Whizbang’s Workshop Card Pack and Harth Stonebrew Battlegrounds Bartender

Tune in to your favorite streamers and join them in this celebration of Hearthstone’s community! Make sure you link your Twitch and Battle.net accounts so that your viewing time counts towards the drops.

Whizbang Workshop Theorycrafting Streams

Join your favorite content creators as they step into Whizbang’s Workshop before its doors open to the public. Invited players will be streaming their participation on their own personal streams, so make sure that you’re following your favorite Hearthstone creators and tune in when they go live!

• NA/LATAM/EMEA players will play on March 13, 9:00 a.m. - 9:00 p.m. (PDT)
• APAC players will play on March 14, 2:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m. (PDT)

All participants need to include at least 10 Whizbang’s Workshop cards in their decks (that can be 10 individual cards, 5 duplicates, or anything in between) or have Splendiferous Whizbang as their deck.

Your favorite casters will also be returning to call the shots with the official Theorycasting event, on the official Hearthstone Twitch channel. Join them as they jump between games of all participating players and provide their expert commentary.

• Sottle, Raven, Lorinda, and Edelweiss will be casting on March 13, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 pm. (PDT).

Twitch Drops will be enabled category-wide from March 13, 9:00 a.m. to March 14, 9:00 a.m. (PDT), so you can watch any Hearthstone stream you’d like and earn up to 2 Whizbang’s Workshop packs! In addition to category-wide Twitch Drops, all participating streamers will have Pre-Purchase Mega Bundle codes to give away to their respective audiences during the event!

Hearthstone Card Updates

New Cards

Warcraft Rumble can’t wait to join us for the birthday festivities! Four new Warcraft Rumble themed cards will be added directly into the free Core Set today, with Patch 29.0!

Card Adjustments

Several balance changes throughout the years were made because cards were too powerful for Standard, even if not necessarily too powerful in Wild. On March 11, with Patch 29.0, the following cards will be adjusted. Most of these changes are to cards currently in Standard, in anticipation of their rotation into Wild on March 19.

The following cards will be reverted to their original form:

• Blightfang
• Glacial Advance
• Construct Quarter
• Relic of Dimensions
• Felscale Evoker
• Wild Growth
• Miracle Growth
• Spirit Poacher
• Stag Charge
• Wild Spirits
• Ara’lon
• Hope of Quel’thalas
• Faithful Companions
• Arcane Wyrm
• Nightcloak Sanctum
• Spitelash Siren
• Feast and Famine
• The Purator
• Lightray
• Boon of the Ascended
• High Cultist Basaleph
• Scribbling Stenographer
• Vile Library
• From the Depths
• Thori'belore
• Nellie, the Great Thresher
• Pufferfist
• School Teacher
• Smothering Starfish
• Prince Renathal

The following cards will be updated or reverted as follows:

Death Blossom Whomper

• [5 Mana] 6/5.

Halduron Brightwing

• [3 Mana] 3/4. Battlecry: Give all Arcane spells in your hand and deck Spell Damage +1.

Switcheroo

• [5 Mana] Draw 2 minions. Swap their Health.
• No longer banned in Wild.

Tome Tampering

• [6 Mana]
• No longer banned in Wild.

Mechwarper (Mech)

• [4 Mana] 4/4. Your Mechs cost (1) less.
• No longer banned in Wild.

Balance changes to Core Set cards will also take place on March 11. See the Core Set blog for details.

The Year of the Pegasus Takes Off

When Whizbang’s Workshop goes live on March 19, so will the start of the next Hearthstone year: the Year of the Pegasus. At that time, cards from the Year of the Hydra (Voyage to the Sunken City, Murder at Castle Nathria, March of the Lich King, and Path of Arthas) rotate out of Standard. The Core Set rotation—cards leaving and entering Core—will also happen on March 19.

Battlegrounds Updates

• Greta Gold-Gun is returning to the minion pool.
• Stay tuned for news about our next major Battlegrounds update in the coming weeks... some might say it’s double the fun!

Arena Updates

On March 11, all ongoing Arena runs will end and a new Arena season will begin. Celebrate 10 years of Hearthstone with this special Arena Season that includes cards across all Hearthstone expansions! Instead of a group of sets that apply to all classes, each class has its own curated list of cards that can include cards from any expansion. The first pick of each Arena draft will be a Legendary card, which will be the only Legendary card offered in your draft. Duels Treasures have been removed from Arena drafts.

Signature Frame Update

We’ve made a new frame for Signature cards in Whizbang’s Workshop! The rarity gems on these Signature cards are also differently shaped for different rarities, making them more accessible and easier to read.

This new frame pulls from general Hearthstone aesthetics, but is flexible enough to work with a variety of Signature card themes. All current Signature cards will remain unchanged, but all future Signature cards will use this new frame. The art style within each frame will update to match the feel and themes of each expansion.

Whizbang’s Workshop Catch-Up Packs

Catch-Up Packs are back for Whizbang’s Workshop! Just like Showdown in the Badlands Catch-Up Packs, Whizbang’s Workshop Catch-Up Packs include 5-50 cards from previous Standard sets, depending on your collection completion levels for those sets. However, because of the Standard rotation, there are only three eligible sets for Whizbang’s Workshop Catch-Up Packs: Festival of Legends, TITANS, and Showdown in the Badlands. Since these packs pull from three sets instead of five, the details have shifted to meet the overall goal of still giving 5-50 total cards per pack. You can read all the specifics on the updated Disclosure Page.

This new breakdown only applies to 3-set Catch-Up Packs (currently only Whizbang’s Workshop). 5-set Catch-Up Packs (currently only Showdown in the Badlands) will still work as they did before. Each type of Catch-Up Pack is distinct and pulls from an established pool of cards, meaning that Badlands Catch-Up Packs are not updating to Whizbang’s Workshop Catch-Up Packs or changing in any way with rotation.

10-Year Anniversary Card Back

Celebrate 10 years in style! Log in today and complete a special Legendary Quest to earn the 10-Year Anniversary Card Back.

In-Game Event: Whizbang’s Workshop

Take a tour of Whizbang’s Workshop! From March 26 to April 16, complete Event Quests to earn Event XP on the special event rewards track. Complete the rewards track to earn 5 Standard Packs, 2 Whizbang’s Workshop Packs, and the Bobble Mal’Ganis Warlock Hero Skin.

New Legendary Hero Skin: Leeroy the Legend

Get the most legendary of Legendary Hero Skins: Leeroy the Legend! From pauldrons to poultry, this Paladin has it all. Available starting March 19.

WoW Joins the Celebration

World of Warcraft joins the Hearthstone celebration! Starting on March 11, at 10:00 a.m. (PDT), Warcraft players can login to Hearthstone to get a new Fiery Hearthsteed World of Warcraft mount for free!* Also, enjoy a week of special “Hearthstone” matches, Hearthstone-themed encounters, and Hearthstone-themed rewards!

* No additional purchase necessary for the Fiery Hearthsteed mount. Limited-time offer only available to those who login to Hearthstone between March 11 and May 14. Mount not available in World of Warcraft® Classic games.

Hearthstone: Music of the Tavern

Celebrate ten years with the sounds of the tavern. Hearthstone: Music from the Tavern (Anniversary Picks) features 31 of Hearthstone’s iconic in-game tracks, available now on Spotify, Apple Music, iTunes, YouTube, and Deezer!

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Hearthstone] Rules change! Temporary mana (such as from the Coin or Innervate) can now make you go above max mana. This applies to the base max mana of 10 and to any modified max mana, like if you’ve played Wildheart Guff or Audio Amplifier.
• [Hearthstone] Another rules change! You can now have multiple of the same Sigil, Objective, or Aura in play at the same time. Secrets, Quests, Questlines, Sidequests, and Battlegrounds effects that use the Secret Zone are still restricted to one instance in play at a time.
• [Hearthstone] Wrath of Air Totem is back, in place of Strength Totem, in the Shaman Hero Power pool.
• [Hearthstone] Paladin has expanded its recruiting efforts! Now, whenever you summon a Silver Hand Recruit, it will be one of 7 different art pieces (6 new recruits and the original).
• [Hearthstone] Like card backs and hero skins, you are now able to favorite more than one Coin. Decks can now use a random favorite Coin, a random owned Coin, or one specific Coin.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Harth Stonebrew’s Iconic Demon Hunter hand wasn’t iconic enough: the cards in that specific hand will now be their launch versions. We’ve also adjusted the hand order to make it flow better with Outcast effects.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug causing a disconnect when an effect summoned a Colossal minion into play when Reno, Lone Ranger’s standoff was in effect.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Velarok, the Deceiver didn’t count as a Dragon after transforming.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Frost Plague’s debuff would be re-applied if it applied to a minion that was then stolen.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Summoning Ward attempts to trigger even if your board is full.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Harvester of Envy wouldn’t steal an original card copied with Shattered Reflections.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Keywarden Ivory could only discover from Madness at the Darkmoon Faire and Scholomance Academy.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where players couldn’t scroll all the way to the bottom of Twist decks on mobile.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a visual bug where Frozen Signature cards lacked the Frozen U.I.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where “Come One, Come All” (Silas Darkmoon’s Hero Power) wouldn’t progress if the minion holding the Darkmoon Ticket was your last minion for a Golden minion.
• [Arena] Fixed a bug where Horn of the Ancients wouldn’t grant Colossal minions if it was generated when they weren’t in the card set pool.
• [Progression] Fixed a bug where the “It’s 12 O’Clock” Achievement wouldn’t progress.
• [Progression] Fixed a bug where the “All Werked Up” Achievement didn’t count minions destroyed in hand.
• [General] Improved tooltip effects, including fixing some bugs where certain tooltips were cut off.
• Misc. other bug fixes and game improvements.

Patch 28.6.2, launching today, includes the following changes to Standard and Battlegrounds.

Hearthstone Updates

Dev Comment: We have two goals this patch. First, we want to weaken some of the meta outliers. Second, we want to experiment with smaller buffs across several cards that are rotating out of Standard soon—especially in classes that are currently weaker—to see if we can give them one last hurrah. Our hope is that players will try out and enjoy some of these strategies during these last few weeks before they go. This is an experiment, so we’ll be tracking player sentiment and play data to see if this works out.

The following cards were adjusted to be less powerful:

Sludge on Wheels

• Old: 2/5
• New: 2/4

Waste Remover

• Old: 7/7
• New: 5/7

Chaos Creation

• Old: Deal 6 damage. Summon a random 6-Cost minion. Destroy the bottom 6 cards of your deck.
• New: Deal 5 damage. Summon a random 5-Cost minion. Destroy the bottom 5 cards of your deck.

Dev comment: When talking about our first goal, to curb power outliers, Warlock is the primary clear outlier across almost all ranks. The deck is strong at all phases of the game, so we’re toning down its mid-game and its late-game burst to bring it into line.

Shattered Reflections

• Old: Choose a minion. Add a copy of it to your deck and battlefield.
• New: Choose a non-Titan minion. Add a copy of it to your deck and battlefield.

Dev comment: Ramp-style Druid is not a power outlier at most levels of play, but it is becoming a prevalent power and sentiment outlier at high Legend ranks. Titans were designed to be unique, cards with powerful effects that you can activate maybe a few times per game, not 10 times. We still want the Titans to be those cool, stand-out powerful cards, so we’re removing them from the pool of cards Shattered Reflections can target.

Blindeye Sharpshooter

• Old: [3 Mana] 1/3
• New: [4 Mana] 3/3

Dev Comment: Demon Hunter has had its ups and downs. Now it’s in an interesting spot where it isn’t seeing much play or success at most levels of play, but is a consistent sentiment outlier for high-Legend players. Specifically, we’ve gotten a lot of feedback that players don’t like that this one card can generate that much damage, that early in the game. We’re slowing the card down by a turn to make that burst damage slower and clunkier, and buffing other Demon Hunter archetypes in this patch for fans of the class throughout the ladder.

The cards above will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 28.6.2.

The following cards were adjusted to be more powerful:

Blightblood Berserker

• Old: [8 Mana]
• New: [7 Mana]

From De Other Side

• Old: [10 Mana]
• New: [9 Mana]

Harkener of Dread

• Old: Taunt. Deathrattle: Summon a 6/6 Undead with Taunt.
• New: Taunt, Reborn. Deathrattle: Summon a 4/4 Undead with Taunt.

Scourge Tamer

• Old: [2 Mana] 2/2
• New: [1 Mana] 1/2

Coilskar Commander

• Old: 2/6
• New: 3/7

Deal with a Devil

• Old: Summon two 3/3 Felfiends with Lifesteal. If your deck has no minions, summon another.
• New: Summon two 3/3 Felfiends with Lifesteal. If your deck has no minions, summon two more.

Topple the Idol

• Old: [5 Mana]
• New: [4 Mana]

Mark of Scorn

• Old: Draw a card. If it’s not a minion, deal 3 damage to the lowest Health enemy.
• New: Draw a card. If it’s not a minion, deal 4 damage to the lowest Health enemy.

Trench Surveyor

• Old: [2 Mana] 3/2
• New: [1 Mana] 2/1

Energy Shaper

• Old: Battlecry: Transform all spells in your hand into ones that cost (2) more. (They keep their original Cost.)
• New: Battlecry: Transform all spells in your hand into ones that cost (3) more. (They keep their original Cost.)

Sunken Sweeper (generated by Azsharan Sweeper)

• Old: Battlecry: Add 3 random Mechs to your hand.
• New: Battlecry: Add 3 random Mechs to your hand. They cost (1) less.

Mysterious Visitor

• Old: Reduce the Cost of cards copied from your opponent by (2).
• New: Reduce the Cost of cards copied from your opponent by (3).

Incriminating Psychic

• Old: Taunt. Deathrattle: Copy a random card from your opponent’s hand.
• New: Taunt. Deathrattle: Copy two random cards from your opponent’s hand.

Pirate Admiral Hooktusk

• Old: [8 Mana] 8/8. Battlecry: If you’ve summoned 8 other Pirates this game, plunder the enemy!
• New: [7 Mana] 7/7. Battlecry: If you’ve summoned 7 other Pirates this game, plunder the enemy!

Demolition Renovator

• Old: [4 Mana] 4/4
• New: [3 Mana] 3/3

Battlegrounds Updates

Quest Reward Pool Changes

• Sturdy Shard has been removed from the Quest Reward Pool.
• Double-Headed Reward has been banned from Jandice Barov.
• Stable Amalgamation has been made more difficult to complete in Beast games.
• Beyond the Mirage and Temporal Tampering have been made more difficult to complete in Elemental or Pirate games.

Quest Reward Changes

Divine Armor

• Old: At the end of your turn, give the left-most minion in your hand +6/+6 and Divine Shield.
• New: At the end of your turn, give the left-most minion in your hand +8/+8 and Divine Shield.

Ritual Dagger

• Old: After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, give it +4/+4 permanently.
• New: After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, give it +5/+5 permanently.

Mirror Shield

• Old: After each Refresh, give a minion in the Tavern +4/+4 and Divine Shield.
• New: After each Refresh, give a minion in the Tavern +6/+6 and Divine Shield.

Minion Pool Updates

• Heedless Hoarder and Worgen Vigilante have been removed from the Minion Pool.
• Felfin Navigator and Zapp Slywick have been returned to the Minion Pool.

Minion Updates

Land Lubber

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 4]

Moon-Bacon Jazzer

• Old: [Tier 2] 2/3
• New: [Tier 3] 2/5

Crackling Cyclone

• Old: [Tier 3] 4/1
• New: [Tier 2] 3/1

Wildfire Elemental

• Old: [Tier 4] 7/4
• New: [Tier 3] 6/3

Felboar

• Old: 1/4. After you cast 3 spells, consume a minion in the Tavern to gain its stats.
• New: 3/8. After you cast 2 spells, consume a minion in the Tavern to gain its stats.

Zapp Slywick

• Old: 8/16
• New: 11/22

Tavern Spell Updates

Suspicious Stimulant

• Old: [2 Gold] Freeze a minion in the Tavern. If it’s Frozen at the end of this turn, double its stats.
• New: [3 Gold] Choose a minion in the Tavern. Lock it in your hand for one turn and double its stats.

Fluidity

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 5]

Cloning Conch

• Old: [5 Gold] Get a copy of a Murloc in your hand.
• New: [4 Gold] Get a copy of a non-Golden Murloc in your hand.

Spitescale Special

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 4]
• Dev Comment: While moving a card up a Tavern Tier usually weakens it, in this case we see this change more as a buff. This is because Tier 4 Tavern Spells have more copies in the pool than other Tiers, and because the Spellcraft pool becomes a lot stronger at Tier 4 with the inclusion of Deep Blues.

Plunder Seeker

• Old: [6 Gold]
• New: [7 Gold]

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where the Malfurion the Pestilent in Harth’s Iconic Druid hand didn’t grant Armor when played.
• [Battlegrounds] Returned Queen Azshara, Infinite Toki, and Aranna Starseeker to the Hero Pool.
• [Battlegrounds] Removed Fungalmancer Flurgl’s Hero Power from Master Nguyen’s Hero Power Pool.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Sire Denathrius’s Hero Power version of Untamed Sorcery could cast Unmasked Identity.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Open Auditions didn’t work.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Malchezaar, Prince of Dance’s effect did not reset when using Fluidity or Swap, Lock, and Shop It.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where minions buffed by Suspicious Stimulant couldn’t be further buffed after playing.

Patch 28.6, launching today, introduces Hearthstone’s next expansion, Whizbang’s Workshop, brings Quests back to Battlegrounds, and kicks off 10-year anniversary celebrations throughout the Tavern!

Pre-Purchase Whizbang’s Workshop, Get Early Access Epics

Find your new favorite toy in Hearthstone’s next expansion, Whizbang’s Workshop, coming March 19! Whizbang is opening up the doors to his world-famous workshop—the place where all of Azeroth’s greatest toys are made. He’s got Wind-Up Toys, Miniatures, and nonstop nostalgia. Find a new favorite toy or build your own—you can make all your wishes come true in Whizbang’s Workship!

Whizbang’s Workshop has 145 all-new collectible cards. You can learn more about what’s in store in the Whizbang’s Workshop Announcement Blog. Two pre-purchase options are available now so you can be first in line once the expansion launches.

But wait, what’s that? Whizbang has a special surprise: each pre-purchase bundle comes with two copies of the Early Access Epic card, Corridor Sleeper.* You won’t want to sleep on this deal!

* 2 copies of Corridor Sleeper are included in each pre-purchase bundle and are playable immediately upon purchase. Early access period lasts from time of purchase until the launch of Whizbang’s Workshop on March 19. Once Whizbang’s Workshop launches, Corridor Sleeper can be disenchanted, crafted, and obtained through all other normal means.

Pre-purchase

Log in and Get Thirteen Cards for Free!

Log in to Hearthstone now to start the 10-year anniversary celebration with thirteen free cards! First, each of the 11 classes has brought a “Gift” card that lets you Discover an iconic spell from their class.

That’s not all! After 10 years of cheering you on, Harth himself is joining the fray! Play him and he replaces your hand with one of thirteen random 8-card iconic Hearthstone hands (one hand for each class, with the exception of Death Knight, which has one for each Rune).

And last, but not least, start your tour of Whizbang’s Workshop with the free Colifero the Artist Legendary minion! This talented artist paints over your whole board as copies of the minion he draws.

All 13 of these rewards are available upon login starting in Patch 28.6. After Patch 29.6, all the above login rewards will be granted upon opening your first Whizbang’s Workshop pack instead of upon logging in. Limit one copy of each login reward per account.

In-Game Event: 10 Year Anniversary

From February 27 to March 19, kick the party up a notch with an in-game event! Complete event quests to earn event XP and progress along a special event rewards track. Complete the Event Rewards Track to earn Golden versions of all the “Gift” cards, plus a special Birthday Coin.

Twist Seasonal Update: Fast Forward

This March, take a walk through Hearthstone history in Twist! On the first day of the season, only Legacy will be in the card pool. On the next day, Hearthstone’s first infusion of cards, Curse of Naxxramas, will be added to the card pool. The next day: Goblins vs Gnomes. Each day, the next infusion of cards will be added until we've fast forwarded through the entire history of Hearthstone (through Showdown in the Badlands)!

Demon Hunter and Death Knight will be unlocked in the Mode with the set that corresponds to their first appearance in Hearthstone. Starting in Patch 28.6, Whizbang the Wonderful will temporarily function in the same way he did at launch (decklists from The Boomsday Project). He’ll be reverted in a major patch after the Fast Forward Twist season ends. After the March season, the Twist Mode will be paused again for the April season.

Battlegrounds Updates

Quests are back in Battlegrounds again! From Patch 28.6 until the next Battlegrounds Season, Battlegrounds Quests will be in every game. As a reminder, Battlegrounds Quests are special tasks that guide your gameplay throughout your game. On turn 4, you’ll be offered a choice from three Quest-Reward pairs that will tell you what you need to do in order to progress your Quest and your Reward for completing it. How will Tavern Spells guide you on your Quest?

New and Returning Quests*

• Fill the Cauldron
  • Cast 9 spells.
• Unlikely Duo
  • Play 5 <minion type> or <minion type>.
• Invite the Guests
  • Buy 6 minions.
• Dust for Prints
  • Add 20 cards to your hand.
• Cry for Help
  • Play 4 Battlecry minions.
• Exhume the Bones
  • Trigger 7 friendly Deathrattles.
• Assemble a Lineup
  • Summon 17 minions.
• Find the Murder Weapon
  • Increase a friendly minion’s stats 14 times.
• Reenact the Murder
  • Have 19 friendly minions die.
• Sort it All Out
  • Order your minions from lowest to highest Attack for 4 combats.
• Follow the Money
  • Spend 33 Gold.
• Hire an Investigator
  • End your turn with unspent Gold 3 times.
• Crack the Case
  • Have friendly minions attack 12 times.
• Pressure the Authorities
  • Get your warband to 35 total Attack.
• Round Up the Suspects
  • Destroy 18 enemy minions.

* Fill the Cauldron is new, the rest are returning. Track the Footprints and Burn the Evidence have not been returned to the Quest pool from last time Quests were in the game. The requirements listed here are the Quest baseline values. Quest baseline requirements are modified by several factors (including, primarily, the Reward they are paired with), so actual Quest requirements vary from game to game.

New and Returning Rewards*

• Beyond the Mirage
  • Tavern spells cost (1) less.
• Temporal Tampering
  • Your Tavern spells cast twice.
• Splitting Scroll
  • ​Whenever you buy a Tavern spell that costs (3) or more, get an extra copy of it.
• Cycle of Energy
  • ​Avenge (4): Get a random Tavern spell.
• Tumbling Disaster
  • Whenever you summon a minion in combat, give it +1/+1. Avenge (4): Upgrade this permanently.
• Double-Headed Reward
  • The first time you buy a card each turn, get an extra copy of it.
• Gift of the Golden Kobold
  • After you Refresh 5 times, make the highest Tier minion in the Tavern Golden.
• Secret Culprit
  • Get <a particular Tier 7 minion>.
• Open Auditions
  • At the start of your turn, Discover a Buddy.
• Stash of the Scribe
  • At the start of each turn, get 3 random Tavern spells.
• Stable Amalgamation
  • Avenge (7): When you have space, summon a 50/50 Amalgam.
• Snicker Snacks
  • At the end of your turn, 2 friendly minions trigger their Battlecries.
• Stolen Gold
  • Start of Combat: Make your left and right-most minions Golden.
• Evil Twin
  • Start of Combat: Summon a copy of your highest-Health minion.
• Ritual Dagger
  • After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, give it +4/+4 permanently.
• Anima Bribe
  • After you sell a minion, give its stats to a minion in the Tavern.
• Devils in the Details
  • At the end of your turn, your left and right-most minions consume a minion in the Tavern to gain its stats.
• The Smoking Gun
  • Your minions have +4 Attack.
• Cooked Book
  • After you buy a minion, give it +1/+1 and upgrade this.
• Mirror Shield
  • After each Refresh, give a minion in the Tavern +4/+4 and Divine Shield.
• Secret Sinstone
  • After you Discover a card, get an extra copy of it.
• Ghastly Mask
  • Add <a particular “end of turn” minion> to your hand. Your end of turn effects trigger an extra time.
• Theotar’s Parasol
  • At the end of your turn, give your right-most minion Stealth until next turn and +8 Health.
• Red Hand
  • At the start of your turn, give a minion in your hand +12/+12.
• Victim’s Specter
  • After each combat, get a copy of the last friendly minion that died.
• Another Hidden Body
  • Discover a minion of your Tier. (Can be earned endlessly!)
• Alter Ego
  • Even Tier minions in the Tavern have +7/+7. (Swaps to Odd next turn!)
• The Friends Along the Way
  • At the start of your turn, get two random <particular minion type>.
• Menagerie Mayhem
  • At the end of your turn, give your minions +1/+1 for each different friendly minion type.
• Pilfered Lamps
  • You only need 2 copies of a minion to make it Golden.
• Yogg-tastic Tasties
  • At the start of your turn, spin the Wheel of Yogg-Saron.
• Wondrous Wisdomball
  • Occasionally gives helpful Refreshes.
• Essence of Zerus
  • At the end of your turn, get a ‘Shifter Zerus’ which transforms into random minions.
• Hidden Treasure Vault
  • At the start of your turn, gain 1 Gold. (Upgrades each turn!)
• Ethereal Evidence
  • At the start of every turn, choose from 2 new Rewards.
• The Golden Hammer
  • Spellcraft: Make a friendly minion Golden until next turn.
• Sinfall Medallion
  • After you play a minion, give 2 other friendly minions of its Tier +2/+2.
• Kidnap Sack
  • Spellcraft: Choose a non-Golden card. Move it to your hand.
• Enhance-a-matic
  • At the start of your turn, get an Enhanced Part that gives +5/+5 and a random bonus. <Taunt, Windfury, Divine Shield, or Reborn>
• Partner in Crime
  • Get your Golden Buddy.
• Ice Sickle
  • Avenge (1): Give a minion in your hand +4 Attack.
• Soul Pact
  • After you play a minion, give other minions of the same type +1/+1.
• Sturdy Shard
  • At the end of your turn, give your minions without Taunt +1/+2 for each Taunt minion you control.
• Doppelganger’s Locket
  • After each combat, Discover a non-Golden minion from your last opponent’s warband. It keeps enchantments.
• Timeline Acceleration
  • At the start of your turn, get two Accelerators that transform a minion into one from a Tier higher.
• Invigorating Conch
  • When you buy a minion, give its stats to a random friendly minion.
• Boom Squad
  • Avenge (3): Deal 10 damage to the highest Health enemy minion.
• Divine Armor
  • At the end of your turn, give the left-most minion in your hand +6/+6 and Divine Shield.
• Map of the Unknown
  • After you play a minion of a type you don’t control, give a friendly minion of each type +2/+2.
• Bloodsoaked Tome
  • Minions in the Tavern cost 2 Gold.
• Scepter of Guidance
  • The Tavern always offers 2 <a particular minion type> when Refreshed.
• Endless Blood Moon
  • Your Blood Gems give an extra +1/+1. At the start of your turn, add two to your hand.
• Turbulent Tombs
  • Add <a particular Deathrattle minion> to your hand. Your Deathrattles trigger an extra time.
• Gilnean War Horn
  • Add <a particular Battlecry minion> to your hand. Your Battlecries trigger an extra time.

* Volatile Venom and Tiny Henchmen have not been returned to the Rewards pool. All new Rewards (those at the top of this list) will appear twice as frequently for a limited time after launch.

New Minions

Eagill [Tier 3, Murloc/Beast]

• 7/1. Battlecry: Give another random friendly minion and a minion in your hand +2/+3.

Vengeful Slitherer [Tier 3, Naga/Undead]

• 5/1. Spellcraft: Give your minions +1 Health until next turn. Any that die next combat gain it permanently!

Saloon Dancer [Tier 4]

• 4/5. Taunt. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, give another friendly minion +3/+3.

Augmented Laborer [Tier 5, Mech/Demon]

• 1/6. Avenge (4): Get a random Mecha-Demon.

Felboar [Tier 6, Quilboar/Demon]

• 1/4. After you cast 3 spells, consume a minion in the Tavern to gain its stats.

Deadstomper [Tier 6, Undead/Beast]

• 2/6. After you summon a minion in combat, give your minions +3 Attack.
• Dev Comment: This is a minion-type update to Felstomper (and a corresponding art update, too).

Whirling Lass-o-Matic [Tier 6, Mech]

• 9/2. Divine Shield. Windfury. Whenever this attacks, get a random Tavern spell.

Minion Updates

Yrel [Tier 2]

• 1/4. After this attacks, give a friendly minion of each type +1/+2.

Rendle the Mistermind [Tier 4]

• 4/5. At the end of your turn, steal the highest Tier card from the Tavern.

Utility Drone [Tier 4, Mech]

• 3/4. At the end of your turn, give your minions +1/+1 for each Magnetization they have.

Scrap Scraper [Tier 5, Mech]

• 6/5. Deathrattle: Get a random Magnetic Mech.

Blazing Skyfin [Tier 2, Dragon/Murloc]

• 1/3. After you trigger a Battlecry, gain +1/+1.

Peckish Feldrake [Tier 4, Demon/Dragon]

• Regular: 0/1. Battlecry: Consume 3 minions in the Tavern to gain their stats.
• Golden: 0/2. Battlecry: Consume 3 minions in the Tavern to gain double their stats.
• Dev comment: This is just an update to the Golden version.

New Tavern Spells

Fluidity [Tier 3, 1 Gold]

• Swap a friendly non-Golden minion with a random one in the Tavern.

Toxic Tumbleweed [Tier 4, 2 Gold]

• Start of Combat: Summon a 1/1 Tumbling Assassin with Venomous. It attacks immediately.

Channel the Devourer [Tier 6, 4 Gold]

• Remove a minion. Give its stats to a random friendly minion.

Scavenge for Parts [Tier 4, 4 Gold]

• At the end of your turn, get a random Magnetic minion. Lasts 3 turns.
• Only offered in Mech games.

Cloning Conch [Tier 5, 5 Gold]

• Get a copy of a Murloc in your hand.
• Only offered in Murloc games.

Guzzle the Goop [Tier 4, 4 Gold]

• At the end of your turn, give your Dragons +4 Attack. Lasts 3 turns.
• Only offered in Dragon games.

Boon of Beetles [Tier 4, 2 Gold]

• Start of Combat: Give your minions “Deathrattle: Summon a 2/2 Beetle.”
• Only offered in Beast games.

Butchering [Tier 4, 2 Gold]

• Destroy a friendly Undead. Your Undead have extra Attack equal to its Tier this game.
• Only offered in Undead games.

Suspicious Stimulant [Tier 3, 2 Gold]

• Freeze a minion in the Tavern. If it’s Frozen at the end of this turn, double its stats.
• Only offered in Elemental games.

Spitescale Special [Tier 3, 2 Gold]

• Get 3 random Spellcraft spells.
• Only offered in Naga games.

Corrupted Cupcakes [Tier 5, 3 Gold]

• Choose a friendly Demon. It consumes all minions in the Tavern to gain their stats.
• Only offered in Demon games.

Plunder Seeker [Tier 4, 6 Gold]

• Steal a random card from the Tavern. Repeat for each friendly Pirate.
• Only offered in Pirate games.

Gem Confiscation [Tier 4, 1 Gold]

• Play 2 Blood Gems on a friendly minion. It steals all Blood Gems from its neighbors.
• Only offered in Quilboar games.

Card Pool Updates

14 minions have been removed from the minion pool:

• Fairy Tale Caroler
• Transmuted Bramblewitch
• Observer of Myths
• Scourfin
• Withered Spearhide
• Relentless Mur’ghoul
• Mecha-Jaraxxus
• Imposing Percussionist
• Octosari, Wrap God
• Niuzao
• Bejeweled Duelist
• Trembling Trolley
• Adaptable Barricade
• Necrolyte

6 minions have been returned to the minion pool:

• Thorncaller
• Crackling Cyclone
• Yrel
• Rendle the Mistermind
• Tortollan Blue Shell
• Mantid Queen

2 Tavern Spells have been removed from the spell pool:

• Jaws of Fate
• Buddy Up

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [General] We have now completed the final phase of our modular download project for mobile devices. Players will now be able to selectively download Battlegrounds or remove it from their device through the download manager.
• [Hearthstone] Updated Eroded Sediment’s textbox to indicate that it can Discover from any class.
• [Hearthstone] School Teacher has gotten its teaching credential and can now teach Nagalings how to play Heat Wave and Misfire.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where The Primus’s Runes of Frost Ability’s effect is still active if first the card it applied to is Countered.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where a stolen Mirage would continue to turn into minions from the original owner’s deck, instead of the new controller’s deck, until played.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Mirage wouldn’t return to your hand if the minion played from it was a Dormant minion.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Thirsty Drifter’s cost would go back up if a 1-cost minion was returned to hand.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Shadow of Demise didn’t activate Quickdraw effects.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Crabatoa’s buff wouldn’t apply to a Claw after the Claw had its stats set to a particular number.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where attacks by Ogre-Gang Outlaw that are redirected to the Hero wouldn’t trigger “when your hero is attacked” Secrets—that would be illegal.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Deputization Aura didn’t apply to minions that were dying (relevant for cards like Spurfang that have Deathrattles based on their Attack at death).
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Spurfang didn’t summon anything if its Attack was over 10.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Shadowtouched Kvaldir’s effect would apply to all end of turn healing effects on the turn played, instead of just the first one to trigger.
• [Hearthstone] Raid Boss Onyxia has finally accepted Starlight Whelp as a Whelp.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Mutanus, the Devourer’s stat buff wouldn’t account for the eaten minion’s stat adjustments while in hand.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Cenarion Hold’s effect could be used up by a Choose One Hero Power.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a visual bug where cards would lose their art under certain conditions, like when returned to hand.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the Crafty Clash Legendary Strike could cause game freezes.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where using Chef’s Choice on an “All” minion could give a minion with no minion type.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Mama Bear’s effect was triggered if a Beast was rolled from Infinite Toki’s Hero Power.
• [Modes] Fixed a bug where Gift of the Old Gods didn’t Corrupt certain specific Corrupt cards.
• [Achievements] Fixed a bug where the Consecutive Calamity Achievement didn’t count “All” type minions.
• [Shop] Fixed a bug where Battlegrounds Hero Powers weren’t showing in portrait purchase screens.
• [Cosmetics] Fixed various bugs with skins’ emote texts.
• [Progression] Various bug fixes and improvements within the New Player Progression.
• Misc. other bug fixes and game improvements.

Patch 28.4.1, launching today, brings bug fixes and balance changes to Hearthstone and Battlegrounds!

Hearthstone Updates

Dev Comment: This is our first balance patch after the launch of the Delve into Deepholm mini-set. The overall goal of the patch is to help the mini-set launch in two ways: 1) reducing the power and popularity of some of the dominant decks from before the mini-set that are continuing to see lots of play; and 2) toning down some mini-set cards that didn’t land how we wanted.

It’s too early in the new meta for buffs, but we’ll keep an eye out for those opportunities in our upcoming balance patches. Looking a little further ahead, some of the cards we’re adjusting are cards that will be rotating out of Standard with the next expansion—we'll take another look at them when the time comes to see if they should be reverted once they’re out of Standard.

Velarok the Deceiver (created by Velarok Windblade)

• Old: 3/6
• New: 3/3

Shattershambler

• Old: Battlecry: Your next Deathrattle minion costs (1) less, but immediately dies when played.
• New: Battlecry: The next Deathrattle minion you play immediately dies.

Dev Comment: Excavate Rogue is an example of a pre-mini-set deck that we wanted to tone down a little to make room for new strategies. We’re happy that our recent buff to Velarok has facilitated this deck that people clearly love playing, and we don't want to undo that, but it’s just a bit too powerful and popular. These changes to Velarok and Shattershambler reduce the early-game blowout potential of Excavate Rogue to keep what’s fun about playing the deck, but give opponents more of an opportunity to respond.

Cactus Construct

• Old: Discover a 2-Cost minion. Summon a 1/2 copy of it.
• New: Discover a 2-Cost minion. Summon a 1/1 copy of it.

Herald of Nature

• Old: Battlecry: If you’ve cast a Nature spell while holding this, give your other minions +1/+2.
• New: Battlecry: If you’ve cast a Nature spell while holding this, give your other minions +1/+1.

Pendant of Earth

• Old: Discover a minion from your deck. Gain Armor equal to its Cost.
• New: Discover a minion from your deck. Restore Health to your hero equal to its Cost.

Shattered Reflections

• Old: Choose a minion. Add a copy to your hand, deck, and battlefield.
• New: Choose a minion. Add a copy of it to your deck and battlefield.

Dew Process

• Old: [2 Mana]
• New: [4 Mana]

Dev Comment: There were a few powerful Druid archetypes that we wanted to address in this patch. Cactus Construct is a powerful card across Druid decks that had room to be a bit weaker. The Herald of Nature change makes early Treant Druid boards a little easier to react to. Pendant of Earth was adjusted so that it can still be a strong defensive tool later in the game, but isn’t as strong as an early, proactive stall tool. Shattered Reflections was causing too many reflections, leading to repetitive gameplay—so we took one reflection away. Finally, we weakened Dew Process because the game is less fun when decks like Mill Druid are extremely competitive and meta-warping—we still want cards like that to exist for players who like that type of gameplay, but we don't want them to be the prevailing ladder strategy.

Boogie Down

• Old: [3 Mana] Summon two 1-Cost minions from your deck. Finale: Give them Taunt.
• New: [4 Mana] Summon two 1-Cost minions from your deck. Finale: Summon another.

The Garden’s Grace

• Old: Give a minion +5/+5 and Divine Shield. Costs (1) less for each Mana you’ve spent on Holy spells this game.
• New: Give a minion +4/+4 and Divine Shield. Costs (1) less for each Mana you’ve spent on Holy spells this game.

Dev Comment: Paladin is looking strong after the mini-set. Boogie Down is a card that we’ve seen in almost all Paladins since it was released, so we’re making it a little bit slower and adjusting the Finale to partially compensate for the later play. We’re also hitting Garden’s Grace to reduce some of the deck’s from-hand burst potential. To that end, we’ve got our eye on cards like Shroomscavate, but we like that players are trying out the new cards, so we’re making just these changes for now and we’ll make further changes later if needed.

Thaddius, Monstrosity

• Old: Taunt. Your odd-Cost cards cost (4) less. (Swaps polarity each turn!)
• New: Taunt. Your odd-Cost cards cost (2) less. (Swaps polarity each turn!)

Dev Comment: We don’t think combo play patterns are inherently bad, and Thaddius isn’t a power outlier right now, but he has been in Standard for a long time and has facilitated several decks with early one-turn kills and low feelings of agency. We think it’s time to make another adjustment to Thaddius and see what Standard looks like when he’s significantly weaker. Now that we’ve been able to make this change to Thaddius, we're unbanning Pyrotechnician.

The craftable versions of the cards listed above will be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 28.4.1. Additionally, there was an error with the dust refund periods for patches 28.2.1 and 28.2.3, so the cards eligible for dust refunds in those patches will also be eligible for full dust refunds for two weeks following Patch 28.4.1. For clarity and simplicity, we’ll be returning to the consistent two-week full refund period from this patch going forward.

Pyrotechnician is no longer banned in Standard.

Battlegrounds Updates

Dev Comment: We’ve made changes to Land Lubber and some economy-related spells to address an unintended play pattern where players could stay on low Tiers and buy dozens of spells in a turn. We’ve also adjusted Hawkstrider Herald and removed Titus’ Tribute to lower the frequency and power spikes of late-game Beast strategies.

Card Changes

Archlich Kel’Thuzad

• Old: At the end of your turn, destroy the Undead to the left of this a resummon it.
• New: At the end of your turn, destroy the Undead to the left of this and resummon an exact copy.
• Dev Comment: This is a text-only change for clarity, not a functional change.

Moroes, Steward of Death

• Old: 6/1. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +2/+6.
• New: 5/1. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +1/+5.

Hawkstrider Herald

• Old: [Tier 5] 5/2
• New: [Tier 6] 6/2

Mystic Sporebat

• Old: 5/1
• New: 3/1

Land Lubber

• Old: [Tier 2] 3/4
• New: [Tier 3] 4/5
• Dev Comment: Land Lubber has been returned to the minion pool.

Moon Bacon Jazzer

• Old: 1/3
• New: 2/3

Geomagus Roogug

• Old: 3/6. Whenever a Blood Gem is played on this, play a Blood Gem on a different friendly minion.
• New: 4/6. Divine Shield. Whenever a Blood Gem is played on this, play a Blood Gem on a different friendly minion.

Prickly Piper

• Old: 3/1
• New: 5/1

Paint Smudger

• Old: 3/2
• New: 5/3

Fleeting Vigor

• Old: [Tier 4] Give a minion +6/+6 until next turn.
• New: [Tier 3] Give a minion +7/+7 until next turn.

Shiny Ring

• Old: [Tier 3]
• New: [Tier 2]

Staff of Enrichment

• Old: [3 Gold]
• New: [2 Gold]

Primal Staff

• Old: [Tier 4]
• New: [Tier 5]

Dreamer’s Embrace

• Old: [Tier 5]
• New: [Tier 4]

Planar Telescope

• Old: [Tier 4]
• New: [Tier 3]

Overconfidence

• Old: [Tier 2]
• New: [Tier 3]

Natural Blessing

• Old: Choose a minion. Give all minions that share a type with it +3/+2.
• New: Choose a minion. Give all minions that share a type with it +2/+2.

Spell Pool Changes

• Reckless Investment, Leaf Through the Pages, and Titus’ Tribute have been removed from the Spell Pool.

Arena Updates (New)

Arena offering rates have been adjusted.

• Forge of Wills and Transfer Student have been removed from the draft pool.
• Butch, Amalgamate, Mage Armor, and Crusty, the Crustacean have been removed from the treasure pool.
• The appearance rate of all Mini-Set cards has been increased.
• The appearance rate of Sludge on Wheels has been decreased.
• The appearance rate of Kobold Miner and Burrow Buster has been decreased in Rogue and Warlock.

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Shadestone Skulker could cause infinite loops. Now, when the weapon is “given back,” the Skulker will no longer have it—meaning it will only return a weapon the first time the deathrattle is activated on a particular Skulker.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Lightshow showed the wrong text and functioned incorrectly when cast from somewhere other than from hand (like through Void Scripture).
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the enchantment banner for Golden Sprightly Scarab showed the wrong buff amount.

Patch 28.4, launching tomorrow, digs up the new Mini-Set, Delve into Deepholm, plus updates to Arena and Twist, and a new seasonal event!

Delve into Deepholm

The Bloodrock Mining Co. dug deeper and deeper until they found something amazing: a whole new world beneath the surface! Teeming with elemental energy, this new land brings dual-class cards, new Excavated Treasures, new singleton payoffs, and more!

The Delve into Deepholm Mini-Set has 38 all-new cards. Get them in Showdown in the Badlands packs or as a complete 72-card* Mini-Set. Get the normal version for $14.99 or 2000 Gold, or get the all-Golden version for $69.99 or 10,000 Gold. The all-Golden version comes with a bonus Diamond copy of the Deepminer Brann Legendary minion! You can see all the cards from the Delve into Deepholm Mini-Set in the official Card Library.

* 4 Legendary cards, 1 Epic card (x2), 17 Rare cards (x2), and 16 Common cards (x2).

New Excavate Treasures

Eureka! Three new neutral Excavate Treasures have been added to the general Excavate Treasure pool with Delve into Deepholm, one for each rarity:

Shaman and Paladin have also each gotten a new class-exclusive Excavate Legendary Treasure, as they’ve taken up the big dig:

New Legendary Hero Skin: Justice Jaina

Justice Jaina is here to keep the peace or blow you to pieces. Grab your firestick and don your white hat, it’s time to clean up the Badlands.

Arena Updates

The Delve into Deepholm has unearthed some treasures for Arena, too! On January 18, all current Arena runs will end and a new Arena season will begin. There is a new rule for this Arena Season: the last pick of each draft will be one of a curated pool of Duels Treasures!

Your first pick of each draft will still be a Legendary card and you will still not be offered any other Legendary cards throughout the draft, leading up to your Duels Treasure final pick. What kinds of synergies will you unearth with a Legendary card in one hand and a shiny new Treasure in the other?!

Additionally, the eligible sets will rotate so that the following sets will make up the Arena card pool this season:

• Showdown in the Badlands (including Delve into Deepholm)
• TITANS
• Caverns of Time
• Core
• Path of Arthas
• Scholomance Academy
• Fractured in Alterac Valley

Twist Seasonal Update

When Twist returns in February, it will kick off a new season with a new card pool and a new rules twist: Commons only. No legendaries? No problem! Your Collection won’t be a barrier as you build a deck using only Commons from all Hearthstone sets up until the introduction of Demon Hunter, plus Caverns of Time. The eligible sets for this season will be:

• Core (not Legacy)
• Curse of Naxxramas
• Goblins vs Gnomes
• Blackrock Mountain
• The Grand Tournament
• The League of Explorers
• Whispers of the Old Gods
• One Night in Karazhan
• Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
• Journey to Un’Goro
• Knights of the Frozen Throne
• Kobolds & Catacombs
• The Witchwood
• The Boomsday Project
• Rastakhan’s Rumble
• Rise of Shadows
• Saviors of Uldum
• Descent of Dragons
• Galakrond’s Awakening
• Caverns of Time

Demon Hunter and Death Knight are not in the eligible class pool for this season. Discover and random generation effects follow the same rules and card pool.

In-Game Event: Lunar New Year

Celebrate new year festivities in Battlegrounds and Traditional Hearthstone! From January 30 to February 13, complete event quests to earn event XP on the special event rewards track. Complete the rewards track to earn 6 Signature Cards (2x Kobold Miner, 2x Walking Mountain, and 2x Howdyfin), the Lantern Stringer Galewing Battlegrounds Hero Skin, and the Dragon Dance Celeste Hearthstone Hero Skin!

See the in-game shop for more new and returning Lunar New Year cosmetics throughout the season!

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [General] Continuing to build on our modular download feature, there is now a download manager interface that allows you to remove downloaded modules from your device. There is one more major step for this modular download feature, planned for the next major patch.
• [Hearthstone] Blizzard Bots have been removed from the Standard ranked ladder. They are now limited to Apprentice (and new/lower-ranked Battlegrounds games), where they will continue to serve their role in smoothing out matchmaking for newer players.
• [Hearthstone] Several cards that grant effects “when a minion dies” have been updated to grant the minion a Deathrattle with that effect. This update applies to: Volcanomancy, Kodo Mount, Ramming Mount, Noble Mount, Elekk Mount, Dreaded Mount, Spirit Mount, Camouflage Mount, and Spikeridge Steed. This rules change will not change the primary effects of these cards on their own, but will result in some updated interactions with other cards. Edit: this is a non-functional change.
• [Hearthstone] High Noon Duelist will no longer destroy any cards if both players DRAW cards of the same cost.
• [Hearthstone] Cactus Construct can now be played on a full board.
• [Hearthstone] Raid Boss Onyxia will now recognize Starlight Whelp as a Whelp.
• [Hearthstone] Related Cards in the Collection view has been updated to have a scroll bar, allowing for more connections.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Barrel of Sludge and Furnace Fuel didn’t activate off cards like The Jailer.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Velarok Windblade didn’t keep buffs from hand after transforming.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Trusty Companion would draw “All” type minions when played on a minion with no minion type.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where, if your minions were sent through time with Anachronos, and then you played Reno, Lone Ranger, your returning minions would be limited by the standoff just like your opponent’s.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Reno, Lone Ranger discounted Lightray.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where certain Wild card with multiple versions could discover the other version of themselves.
• [Hearthstone] Misc. tooltip and keyword display improvements.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug with Paint Smudger and returned it to the minion pool.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug with Staff of Enrichment and returned it to the tavern spell pool.
• [Tavern Brawl] Fixed a bug where chalkboards would appear in English in some localizations.
• [Cosmetics] Fixed visual bugs with various hero skins’ hero power animations and emotes.
• [Cosmetics] Fixed a bug where players who have exactly two Battlegrounds Boards (the base one and one other) weren’t able to toggle a favorite.
• [Localization] Fixed various localization issues across languages.
• Misc. other bug fixes and game improvements.

As we think about the future of Hearthstone and where the team can best focus their efforts, we’ve made the difficult decision to discontinue support for the Duels Mode. We do not have plans for any further scheduled updates for Duels, and the Mode itself is scheduled to be removed from the Hearthstone client in April 2024.

This change will allow us to shift our resources to where we feel they will have the most impact, including Traditional Hearthstone, Battlegrounds, and more. To that end, Battlegrounds Duos is scheduled for an upcoming Battlegrounds patch, and we’re trying out some Duels Treasures in our next Arena season—more details soon.

We want to thank all our passionate Duels fans for every pile of loot, treasure, and hard-fought victory you’ve collected along the way. It’s been a heroic run, and we couldn’t have done it without you.

Patch 28.2.3 is a data-only patch going live today with updates to Standard and Battlegrounds. This patch is our last scheduled patch for the year, and our aim is to make the most fun patch we can for the holiday break. We hope you enjoy and we’ll see you in the Tavern—and in the new year!

Standard Updates

Dev Comment: The overall goals for this patch are to make buffs across underperforming classes, decks, and cards, especially ones from Showdown in the Badlands, and to weaken a few overperforming decks that are keeping other decks down. Our intent isn’t to kill these decks that players generally like, but to bring them down a little to make more room in the meta.

Paladin has been the biggest overperformer since the last adjustment. We’re targeting its AoE board clears because that’s a mechanic we want Paladin to have access to, but not excel in. There are other potential targets that we looked at, but they were cards that were more in line with what we want the class strengths to be.

Dragon Druid was another outlier with a strong matchup spread. We like the deck’s general patterns, and players seem to be excited by it, so we wanted to just shave a little power from it, to make it more attackable in the early game.

By some measures, Doctor Holli’Dae is the best card in Standard. It’s important for a highlander payoff card to be worth the cost of putting it into your deck, but we wanted to rein this one in a bit. We shaved one attack off the weapon to reduce the overall power while preserving the coolest part of the card: frogs.

Finally, there are two versions of Rainbow Mage, both of which are pretty strong and pretty popular. We don’t want to kill the decks, just keep them in line with the other decks we’re adjusting in this patch. This change makes them a little worse at muddying up the early board while developing their gameplan.

The following cards are being adjusted down in power:

Keeper’s Strength

• Old: [4 Mana]
• New: [5 Mana]

Prismatic Beam

• Old: [7 Mana] Deal 3 damage to all enemies. Costs (1) less for each enemy minion.
• New: [8 Mana] Deal 3 damage to all enemy minions. Costs (1) less for each enemy minion.

Splish-Splash Whelp

• Old: 2/1
• New: 1/1

Desert Nestmatron

• Old: 3/5
• New: 3/4

Staff of the Nine Frogs (generated by Doctor Holli’Dae)

• Old: 2/9
• New: 1/9

Arcane Wyrm

• Old: 1/2
• New: 1/1

The disenchantable cards listed above, plus non-Diamond Doctor Holli’Dae, will be eligible for full-dust refunds for at least three weeks following Patch 28.2.3. Additionally, for this patch, all players who have Diamond Doctor Holli’Dae will keep the card and receive a grant of 1600 Arcane Dust at login later this week. We’re taking a look at what systemic changes might look like for Diamond cards impacted by balance changes, so things may work differently in the future.

Pyrotechnician

• Temporarily banned.

Dev Comment: If we had a nickel for each time a problematic Druid deck was refined after we locked our balance patch contents, we’d have, like... 2-3 nickels. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s enough that we wanted to take quick action before we left for the year. We weren’t able to get a balance change for the newly emerging Fire Druid into this patch, so we’re temporarily banning it until we can reassess in our next balance window.

The following cards are being adjusted up in power:

Elise, Badlands Savior

• Old: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, summon 4/4 copies of 4 random minions in your deck.
• New: Battlecry: If your deck has no duplicates, summon 5/5 copies of 4 random minions in your deck.

Pip the Potent

• Old: [4 Mana] 3/5
• New: [3 Mana] 3/3

Invasive Shadeleaf

• Old: Deal 8 damage to an enemy minion. Save any excess in a 1-Cost Bottle.
• New: Deal 10 damage to an enemy minion. Save any excess in a 1-Cost Bottle.

Ra-den

• Old: Deathrattle: Summon each other minion you’ve played this game that didn’t start in your deck.
• New: Taunt. Deathrattle: Summon each other minion you’ve played this game that didn’t start in your deck.

Dev Comment: Priest hasn’t been able to find its footing in the Badlands, so we’re adjusting a few cards in it—including three Legendary minions. The challenge with Priest was that we wanted to improve the new archetypes without just buffing Control Priest, which is currently on a razor’s edge. Ra-den is not directly tied to one of the Showdown in the Badlands archetypes, but it’s a cool card that never landed so we wanted to give it a boost, too.

The Azerite Scorpion (the Rogue Excavate Treasure)

• Old: Battlecry: Get 4 random spells. If you’ve Excavated 8 times, they cost (0).
• New: Battlecry: Get 4 random spells. They cost (1) less for each time you’ve Excavated this game (but not less than 1).

Velarok Windblade

• Old: While this is in your hand, play three cards from other classes to reveal Velarok’s true form!
• New: While this is in your hand, play a card from another class to reveal Velarok’s true form!

Shell Game

• Old: [3 Mana]
• New: [2 Mana]

Dev Comment: Rogue hasn’t had success with the new Excavate and Burgle cards, and we see players excited to try this archetype. The challenge with Scorpion is that we don’t want the spells to just become fuel for Draka and Sinstone Graveyard. This change makes the card smoother to play throughout the game, but the 1-mana limit should prevent it from just becoming a Miracle pop-off generator.

Barrel of Sludge (Spell generated by several cards-mostly in Warlock)

• Old: [2 Mana] When this is played, discarded, or destroyed, deal 3 damage to the lowest Health enemy.
• New: [3 Mana] When this is played, discarded, or destroyed, deal 4 damage to the lowest Health enemy.

Furnace Fuel

• Old: [4 Mana]
• New: [3 Mana]

Pop’gar the Putrid

• Old: Your Fel spells cost (1) less and have Lifesteal.
• New: Your Fel spells cost (2) less and have Lifesteal.

Dev Comment: Sludge Warlock is a cool deck that hasn’t landed. We didn’t think there was a good way to make the deck performant without changing the Sludges themselves, but we didn’t want to push them too far and turn this into an OTK deck. This change makes them more potent when you dispose of them without making them too strong as played (but the Pop’gar adjustment means the Sludges still cost 1 with it out).

Maw and Paw

• Old: 1/8
• New: 2/8

Climactic Necrotic Explosion

• Old: Lifesteal. Deal 5 damage. Summon 2 1/1 Souls. (Randomly improved by Corpses you’ve spent).
• New: Lifesteal. Deal 6 damage. Summon 3 2/2 Souls. (Randomly improved by Corpses you’ve spent).

Corpse Bride

• Old: Battlecry: Spend up to 10 Corpses. Summon a Risen Groom with stats equal to the amount spent.
• New: Battlecry: Spend up to 10 Corpses to summon a Risen Groom with Taunt and that much Attack and Health.

Dev Comment: Maw and Paw is a cool card that has gotten a lot of attention. Some players have suggested that one of its rune requirements be removed, but its effect implies both runes so we’d rather just make this card stronger—one attack can do a lot with a minion this sticky. Speaking of multiple runes, Climactic Necrotic Explosion has not worked as enough of a Rainbow payoff. The card already does a lot, so we wanted to just make those effects hit a little harder. Some players have asked about having CNE spend all your corpses first, but we don’t like how that would completely change the texture of the deck. Instead, we’re making Corpse Bride a more exciting and safer big Corpse spender.

Khaz’goroth

• Old: 4/4
• New: 4/5

Slagmaw the Slumbering

• Old: Dormant for 8 turns. (Excavate to awaken 2 turns sooner!)
• New: Dormant for 6 turns. (Excavate to awaken 2 turns sooner!)

Dev Comment: Khaz’goroth is one of the weaker Titans right now, and we think the type of decks that run it could use a little more power, but we didn’t want to push it so far that it would go into more aggressive Warrior decks. Slagmaw is just weak right now, so we’re setting its alarm clock a little earlier.

Horseshoe Slinger

• Old: [3 Mana] 2/2
• New: [2 Mana] 1/1

Dev Comment: This change should improve not just this card directly, but also any cards that generate Quickdraw cards.

Battlegrounds Updates

Dev Comment: We're overall very pleased with the initial reception of spells! While the meta is in a relatively healthy place, we're making a wide range of lighter adjustments to tone down some overperformers (notably, most spell-generators) and to give some extra help to Quilboars, Murlocs, and Undead. We'll continue to monitor and make more adjustments as needed in the new year.

Hero Updates

Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher

• Old: Passive. Every third Tavern spell you buy costs (0).
• New: Passive. Every third Tavern spell you buy costs (1) less.

Lich Baz’hial

• Old: [1 Gold]
• New: [2 Gold]

Fish of N’Zoth (from N’Zoth’s Hero Power)

• Old: After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies, gain its Deathrattle.
• New: After a friendly Deathrattle minion dies in combat, gain its Deathrattle.

Armor Updates

The following heroes now have less Armor:

• Murloc Holmes and Heistbaron Togwaggle have 8 Armor.
• Xyrella has 8 Armor at higher ratings and 10 Armor at lower ratings.
• Skycap’n Kragg has 12 Armor.

The following heroes now have more Armor:

• Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher has 12 Armor.
• Lich Baz’hial has 15 Armor.
• Professor Putricide has 18 Armor.

Minion and Spell Updates

Whelp Smuggler

• Old: 2/5
• New: 2/3

Bronze Sandspewer

• Old: 2/2
• New: 1/1

Nether Drake

• Old: 2/5. At the end of your turn, give your Dragons +1 Attack.
• New: 2/4. At the end of your turn, give your other Dragons +1 Attack.

Ignition Specialist

• Old: [Tier 5] 2/2
• New: [Tier 6] 8/8

Mystic Sporebat

• Old: [Tier 3] 4/1
• New: [Tier 4] 5/1

Sprightly Scarab

• Old: [Tier 4] 5/2. Choose One – Give a Beast +1/+1 and Reborn; or +4/+4 and Taunt.
• New: [Tier 3] 2/1. Choose One – Give a Beast +1/+1 and Reborn; or +3/+3 and Taunt.

Spellbound Seafarer

• Old: 4/5. After you buy 3 cards, get a random Tavern spell.
• New: 4/6. After you buy 4 cards, get a random Tavern spell.

Trembling Trolley

• Old: 0/9. Avenge (3): Get a random Tavern spell.
• New: 0/10. Avenge (4): Get a random Tavern spell.

Lighter Fighter

• Old: 5/1. Deathrattle: Deal 5 damage to the lowest Health enemy minion twice.
• New: 4/1. Deathrattle: Deal 4 damage to the lowest Health enemy minion twice.

Humming Bird

• Old: 0/5
• New: 2/4

Niuzao

• Old: 6/5
• New: 7/6

Bazaar Dealer

• Old: 3/6
• New: 2/4

Imposing Percussionist

• Old: [Tier 4] 4/4
• New: [Tier 5] 6/6

Utility Drone

• Old: 6/7. At the end of your turn, give your minions +1/+1 for each Magnetization they have.
• New: 4/5. At the end of your turn, give your minions +2/+1 for each Magnetization they have.

Swampstriker

• Old: 1/4
• New: 1/5

Heedless Hoarder

• Old: [Tier 4] 5/6
• New: [Tier 3] 4/5

King Bagurgle

• Old: 6/4. Battlecry: Give your other Murlocs +2/+3.
• New: 6/3. Battlecry: Give your other Murlocs +3/+3.

Moon-Bacon Jazzer

• Old: [Tier 3] 2/5
• New: [Tier 2] 1/3

Paint Smudger

• Old: [Tier 4] 5/3
• New: [Tier 3] 3/2

Geomagus Roogug

• Old: [Tier 5]]
• New: [Tier 4]

Snarling Conductor

• Old: 5/5. At the start of your turn, discard a spell to gain 3 Gold.
• New: 4/5. At the start of your turn, discard a spell to gain 4 Gold.

Bristlebach

• Old: 2/10. Avenge (1): Play a Blood Gem on all your Quilboar.
• New: 3/10. Avenge (2): Play 2 Blood Gems on all your Quilboar.

Reef Riffer

• Old: 1/2
• New: 1/1

Nerubian Deathswarmer

• Old: 1/3
• New: 1/4

Mummifier

• Old: 3/2
• New: 5/2

Moroes, Steward of Death

• Old: 6/2. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +6 Health.
• New: 6/1. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +2/+6.

Grave Gobbler

• Old: 3/4. At the start of your turn, destroy the Undead to the left of this to gain +4/+4.
• New: 4/3. At the start of your turn, destroy the Undead to the left of this to gain +5/+5.

Archlich Kel’Thuzad

• Old: 7/4
• New: 10/8

Motley Phalanx

• Old: 5/5. Taunt. Deathrattle: Give a friendly minion of each type +5/+5.
• New: 4/4. Taunt. Deathrattle: Give a friendly minion of each type +4/+4.

Lantern Light

• Old: [2 Gold]
• New: [1 Gold]

Staff of Enrichment

• Old: Minions in the Tavern have +2/+2 this game.
• New: Minions in the Tavern have +1/+2 this game.

Fleeting Vigor

• Old: [Tier 3] Give a minion +5/+5 until next turn.
• New: [Tier 4] Give a minion +6/+6 until next turn.

Echoing Roar

• Old: [2 Gold]
• New: [3 Gold]

Armor Stash

• Old: [2 Gold]
• New: [3 Gold]

Buddy Up

• Old: [3 Gold]
• New: [4 Gold]
• Dev Comment: Additionally, Piloted Whirl-o-Tron has been removed from this pool.

Sacred Gift

• Old: [5 Gold]
• New: [6 Gold]

Minion Pool Updates

• Felfin Navigator has been removed from the minion pool.
• Coldlight Seer, Sore Loser, and General Drakkisath have been returned to the minion pool. Coldlight Seer is returning as a Tier 2 minion, instead of a Tier 3 minion.

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Hearthstone] Boomboss Tho’grun has had a text-only update for clarity.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed bugs with Titus’ Tribute and Upper Hand causing issues. Both have been returned to Tavern Spell pool.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Silas Darkmoon’s hero power would trigger when Ritual of Growth was played.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where minions would lose their buffs when locked in hand by the Maiev Shadowsong hero power.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Strike Oil didn’t work with Ambassador Faelin.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Annoy-o-Module gave an additional buff when Magnetized.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Tavern Spell visual sigil effects didn’t work from the opponent’s perspective if they were gotten through means other than being purchased from the Tavern.

Patch 28.2.1 is a data-only patch launching today with the following updates.

Hearthstone Updates

Dev Comment: This is our balance patch for Worlds! We specifically requested this early balance window so that we could make changes that we think will make the coolest Worlds possible! Overall, we think the meta is in a good spot, with most classes having something interesting to play and most top decks having play patterns we’re comfortable with. That lets us take a high confidence, step-wise approach with this patch, instead of making risky, drastic changes.

Enrage Warrior was the biggest standout we wanted to adjust down, and we wanted to make Sif Mage a bit more attackable. We’re also taking this opportunity to buff some underperforming archetypes, especially with new cards. Excavate as a whole got a little love with buffs to a Treasure at each rarity, the Neutral Burrow Buster, and a couple low-performance class Excavate cards.

We have another balance patch window lined up for shortly after Worlds where we’ll be able to make more changes—including maybe some more adventurous buffs. We’ll keep an eye on how these changes land and we hope you’ll join us for the World Championships on December 16th and 17th!

The following cards have been adjusted to be less powerful:

Inquisitive Creation

• Old: [4 Mana]
• New: [5 Mana]

Thori’belore

• Old: 4/4
• New: 4/3

Battleworn Faceless

• Old: [2 Mana]
• New: [3 Mana]

The cards listed above, plus the cards updated in Patch 28.2 (Fate Splitter, Monstrous Parrot, Counterfeit Blade, Dwarven Archaeologist, and Madam Goya), will be eligible for full dust refunds for at least three weeks following Patch 28.2.1.

The following cards have been adjusted to be more powerful:

Sludge on Wheels

• Old: 1/5
• New: 2/5

Detonation Juggernaut

• Old: [5 Mana] 3/6
• New: [4 Mana] 3/4

Snake Eyes

• Old: 2/3
• New: 2/4

Going Down Swinging

• Old: [5 Mana]
• New: [4 Mana]

Flint Firearm

• Old: [3 Mana] 3/3
• New: [2 Mana] 2/3

Blast Charge

• Old: [3 Mana]
• New: [2 Mana]

Antique Flinger

• Old: [4 Mana] 5/4
• New: [3 Mana] 4/3

Burrow Buster

• Old: 6/4
• New: 6/5

Escaping Trogg (Excavate Treasure)

• Old: 2/2
• New: 2/3

Canary (Excavate Treasure)

• Old: 2/1
• New: 2/2

Steelhide Mole (Excavate Treasure)

• Old: 2/7
• New: 3/7

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Hearthstone] Discovery of Magic will now always offer three Discover options when played (if you’ve played enough spell schools that only 1 or 2 remain, it will fill in with random spell(s) from the same spell school(s)).
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Kingpin Pud couldn’t resurrect the entire Ogre-Gang.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where, if Reno, Lone Ranger was played while Hero Powers were disabled (like with a Mindbreaker in play), his Hero Power would not update.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Chaos Gazer’s effect triggered at the end of the turn it was played, instead of the end of the opponent’s turn.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where certain Tavern Spells weren’t ever offered in Discover options.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where Hero Powers that upgraded as you upgrade your Tavern were auto-upgrading.
• [Progression] Fixed a bug where some players received the Tae’thalan Bloodwatcher achievement upon login.

Patch 28.2, launching tomorrow, brings Battlegrounds Season 6, the Spellslinger’s Saloon, updates to the shop and new player progression, and more!

Saddle Up for Battlegrounds Season 6!

Belly up to the saloon in Battlegrounds Season 6, the Spellslinger’s Saloon. This here saloon’s serving up all new spells, purchased directly from the Tavern. Sit down with over 40 new Tavern spells, over 30 new minions, an update to the Undead minion type, and more!

On December 5, Battlegrounds Season 5 will end and Season 6 will begin. That means rankings will be reset, Anomalies will be removed, and the Battlegrounds Track will switch over. All rewards that were earned from the Season 5 Track, but not yet claimed, will be automatically claimed.

New Mechanic—Tavern Spells

Battlegrounds Season 6 introduces a new Battlegrounds play experience: buying spells directly from the Tavern! Tavern spells have Tavern Tiers like minions, but, unlike minions, they have variable costs—and a new frame that shows off both their Tavern Tier and their cost at the same time.

There are 42 new Tavern spells in Patch 28.2, across all six Tavern Tiers.* Each time you Refresh the Tavern, you'll be offered a Tavern spell of your Tier or lower in addition to the number of minions you get offered for that Tavern Tier.** When you buy a Tavern spell, it’s added to your hand, for you to use whenever you want.

* There are 5 copies of each Tier 1 Tavern spell, 7 copies of each Tier 2, 9 copies of each Tier 3, 11 copies of Tier 4, 7 copies of Tier 5, and 5 copies of Tier 6. Tavern spells are returned to the pool immediately when you get them (not when you play them). Like existing Battlegrounds spells (for example, Blood Gems or Coins), you can’t triple Tavern spells and they are spent once they are used.

** If you freeze a Tavern spell, it will stay in the Tavern for the next turn and you won’t get an additional one added to the Tavern next turn. Think of it like one additional dedicated Tavern spell space being added to the board (but the max board slots is still 7—if you would have more than a full board, your Tavern spell slot will replace one of the minion slots).

New Tavern Spells

Tavern Coin [Tier 1, 1 Gold]

• Gain 1 Gold.

Pointy Arrow [Tier 1, 1 Gold]

• Give a minion +4 Attack.

Fortify [Tier 1, 1 Gold]

• Give a minion +3 Health and Taunt.

Tavern Dish Banana [Tier 1, 1 Gold]

• Give a minion +2/+2.

Them Apples [Tier 1, 1 Gold]

• Give minions in the Tavern +1/+3.

Recruit a Trainee [Tier 1, 2 Gold]

• Get a random Tier 1 minion.

Enchanted Lasso [Tier 1, 2 Gold]

• Steal a random minion from Bob’s Tavern.

Careful Investment [Tier 2, 1 Gold]

• Gain 2 Gold next turn.

Overconfidence [Tier 2, 1 Gold]

• If you win your next combat, gain 3 Gold. If you tie, gain 1.

Lantern Light [Tier 2, 2 Gold]

• Give a minion stats equal to your Tier.

Chef’s Choice [Tier 2, 2 Gold]

• Choose a minion. Get a different minion of the same type.

Leaf Through the Pages [Tier 2, 2 Gold]

• Your next three Refreshes cost (0).

Strike Oil [Tier 2, 3 Gold]

• Increase your maximum Gold by 1.

Hasty Excavation [Tier 2, 3 Gold]

• Gain 1 Gold. This costs Health to buy instead of Gold.

Reckless Investment [Tier 3, 1 Gold]

• Gain 3 Gold. Next turn, lose 2 Gold.

Tricky Trousers [Tier 3, 1 Gold]

• Give a minion +1/+2 and Taunt. If it already has Taunt, remove it.

Fleeting Vigor [Tier 3, 1 Gold]

• Give a minion +5/+5 until next turn.

Shiny Ring [Tier 3, 2 Gold]

• Give your minions +1/+1.

Echoing Roar [Tier 3, 2 Gold]

• Give a friendly minion "At the end of your turn, gain +2/+2."

Natural Blessing [Tier 3, 3 Gold]

• Choose a minion. Give all minions that share a type with it +3/+2.

Staff of Enrichment [Tier 3, 3 Gold]

• Minions in the Tavern have +2/+2 this game.

Ritual of Growth [Tier 4, 2 Gold]

• Replace all cards in the Tavern with ones of a Tier higher.

Brann’s Blessing [Tier 4, 3 Gold]

• Your Battlecries trigger twice until next turn.

Titus’ Tribute [Tier 4, 3 Gold]

• Your Deathrattles trigger twice until next turn.

Primal Staff [Tier 4, 3 Gold]

• Your end of turn effects trigger twice this turn.

Misplaced Tea Set [Tier 4, 3 Gold]

• Give a friendly minion of each type +3/+3.

Hired Headhunter [Tier 4, 3 Gold]

• Discover a Battlecry minion.

Contracted Corpse [Tier 4, 3 Gold]

• Discover a Deathrattle minion.

Defender’s Rites [Tier 4, 3 Gold]

• Give a friendly minion +8/+8 and Taunt.

Planar Telescope [Tier 4, 4 Gold]

• Discover a minion of your most common type.

Armor Stash [Tier 5, 2 Gold]

• Set your Armor to 5.

Dreamer’s Embrace [Tier 5, 3 Gold]

• Trigger a friendly minion's Battlecry.

Unmasked Identity [Tier 5, 3 Gold]

• Discover a new Hero Power.

Buddy Up [Tier 5, 3 Gold]

• Discover a Buddy.

Upper Hand [Tier 5, 3 Gold]

• Start of Combat: Set a random enemy minion's Health to 1.

Jaws of Fate [Tier 5, 4 Gold]

• Spin the Wheel of Yogg-Saron.

Golden Touch [Tier 5, 5 Gold]

• Make a random minion in the Tavern Golden.

Perfect Vision [Tier 6, 2 Gold]

• Set a minion's stats to 20/20.

Saloon’s Finest [Tier 6, 2 Gold]

• Refresh the Tavern with Tavern spells.

Lost Staff of Hamuul [Tier 6, 2 Gold]

• Choose a minion. Refresh the Tavern with minions of that type.

Azerite Empowerment [Tier 6, 4 Gold]

• Give your minions +4/+4.

Sacred Gift [Tier 6, 5 Gold]

• Give a minion Divine Shield.

New Heroes

Snake Eyes

• Lucky Roll
  • [1 Gold] Roll a 6-sided die. Gain that much Gold. (Cannot be used again for that many turns!)

Tae’thelan Bloodwatcher

• Reliquary Research
  • [Passive] Every third Tavern spell you buy costs (0).

Doctor Holli’dae

• Blessing of the Nine Frogs
  • [1 Gold] Get a random Tavern spell.

All three of these new heroes will be offered in each lobby for two weeks following Patch 28.2.

New Minions

Beleaguered Battler [Tier 1]

• 4/5. At the start of your turn, lose 1 Attack.

Phaerix, Wrath of the Sun [Tier 3]

• 3/1. Divine Shield. Avenge (4): Give a random friendly minion Divine Shield.

Rodeo Performer [Tier 5]

• 3/4. Battlecry: Discover a Tavern spell.

Mad Matador [Tier 5]

• 0/8. Taunt. When this would take damage, deal it to a random enemy minion instead. (Once per combat.)

Ensorcelled Fungus [Tier 5]

• 2/4. Has +1/+2 for each Tavern spell you've cast this game (wherever this is).

Nalaa the Redeemer [Tier 6]

• 5/7. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, give a friendly minion of each type +2/+1.

Worgen Vigilante [Tier 6]

• 10/20. Windfury. This minion always attacks an enemy minion that it can kill (if possible).

Land Lubber [Tier 2, Elemental/Pirate]

• 3/4. The Tavern offers an extra Tavern spell after each Refresh.

Sandstone Drake [Tier 5, Elemental/Dragon]

• 0/9. At the end of your turn, gain +1 Attack. Repeat for each card you played this turn.

Living Azerite [Tier 4, Elemental]

• 4/4. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, Elementals in the Tavern have +1/+1 this game.

Bazaar Dealer [Tier 4, Demon]

• 3/6. 1 Tavern spell each turn costs Health instead of Gold to buy.

Silivaz the Vindictive [Tier 6, Naga]

• 5/8. Spellcraft: Discover a Tavern spell.

Mystic Sporebat [Tier 3, Beast]

• 4/1. Deathrattle: Get a random Tavern spell.

Harmless Bonehead [Tier 1, Undead]

• 0/2. Deathrattle: Summon two 1/1 Skeletons.

Grave Gobbler [Tier 2, Undead]

• 3/4. At the start of your turn, destroy the Undead to the left of this to gain +4/+4.

Mummifier [Tier 3, Undead]

• 3/2. Deathrattle: Give a different friendly Undead Reborn.

Steadfast Spirit [Tier 4, Undead]

• 3/1. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your minions +1/+1.

Disguised Graverobber [Tier 4, Undead]

• 4/3. Battlecry: Destroy a friendly Undead to gain 3 Gold.

Moroes, Steward of Death [Tier 5, Undead]

• 6/2. Reborn. Deathrattle: Give your Undead +6 Health.

Archlich Kel’Thuzad [Tier 6, Undead]

• 7/4. At the end of your turn, destroy the Undead to the left of this and resummon it.

Mangled Bandit [Tier 3, Quilboar]

• 3/3. At the start of your turn, discard a spell to get 3 Blood Gems.

Snarling Conductor [Tier 4, Quilboar]

• 5/5. At the start of your turn, discard a spell to gain 3 Gold.

Paint Smudger [Tier 4, Quilboar]

• 5/3. Whenever you cast a Tavern spell, play a Blood Gem on another friendly Quilboar.

Geomagus Roogug [Tier 5, Quilboar]

• 3/6. Whenever a Blood Gem is played on this, play a Blood Gem on a different friendly minion.

Emerald Proto-Whelp [Tier 1, Dragon]

• 0/4. At the end of your turn, gain +1 Attack.

Bronze Sandspewer [Tier 2, Dragon]

• 2/2. Divine Shield. If you have 7 minions at the end of your turn, gain +2/+1.

Outback Smolderer [Tier 4, Dragon]

• 4/3. At the end of your turn, get a 2/1 Smolderwing with "Battlecry: Give a Dragon +5 Attack."

Ignition Specialist [Tier 5, Dragon]

• 2/2. At the end of your turn, get 2 random Tavern spells.

Wayward Grimscale [Tier 4, Murloc]

• 1/5. Whenever this is attacked, gain Venomous.

Lighter Fighter [Tier 4, Mech]

• 5/1. Deathrattle: Deal 5 damage to the lowest Health enemy minion twice.

Trembling Trolley [Tier 4, Mech]

• 0/9. Avenge (3): Get a random Tavern spell.

Spellbound Seafarer [Tier 5, Pirate]

• 4/5. After you buy 3 cards, get a random Tavern spell.

Hero Updates

Vol’jin

• [0 Gold] Choose 2 minions. They gain each other’s Attack until next turn.
• Dev Comment: Vol’jin has been a design space limiter for some time, especially due to its interaction with aura effects like Eternal Knight or Flourishing Frostling. This change opens up more room for us to explore future minion designs while still preserving Vol’jin’s stat-changing identity. With this change, Vol’jin is no longer banned from Naga lobbies.

Ini Stormcoil

• No text change, but now counts minions destroyed in the Recruit phase.

Maiev Shadowsong

• [1 Gold] Choose a card in the Tavern to lock in your hand. After 2 turns, unlock it.

Lord Barov

• Has been returned to the Hero Pool.
• Dev Comment: Please don’t break again.

Additionally, Edwin VanCleef, Heistbaron Togwaggle, Lich Baz’hial, Silas Darkmoon, and Sindragosa have had their hero powers updated to also work with Tavern spells.

Minion Pool Updates

The following minions have been removed from the minion pool:

• Tavern Tipper
• Selfless Hero
• Reef Explorer
• Leeroy the Reckless
• Mythrax, the Unraveler
• Tea Master Theotar
• Zapp Slywick
• Stormbringer
• Nomi, Kitchen Nightmare
• Seaborn Summoner
• Carbonic Copy
• Orgoza, the Tender
• Tidemistress Athissa
• Rot Hide Gnoll
• Scarlet Skull
• Soulsplitter
• Relentless Sentry
• Sore Loser
• Sister Deathwhisper
• Captain Flat Tusk
• Bonker
• Aggem Thorncurse
• Dozy Whelp
• Bronze Warden
• Time Saver
• Disco Shuffler
• Low-Flier
• General Drakkisath
• Kaboom Bot
• Upbeat Impressionist
• Leeching Felhound
• Iron Groundskeeper
• Uther, the Lightbringer

The following minions have been returned to the minion pool:

• Critter Wrangler
• Nether Drake
• Razorgore, the Untamed
• Master of Realities
• Snail Cavalry

Minion Updates

Daggerspine Thrasher [Tier 4, Naga]

• 4/5. Whenever you cast a spell, gain Divine Shield, Windfury, or Venomous until next turn.

Critter Wrangler [Tier 5, Naga]

• 5/7. Whenever you cast a spell on a a minion, give it +1/+2.

Slitherspear, Lord of Gains [Tier 6, Naga]

• 4/6. At the end of your turn, give your other Naga +1/+1 for each different spell you’ve cast this turn.

Electric Synthesizer [Tier 3, Dragon]

• 3/4. Battlecry: Give your other Dragons +2/+1.

Nether Drake [Tier 3, Dragon]

• 1/5. At the end of your turn, give your Dragons +1 Attack.

Razorgore, the Untamed [Tier 4, Dragon]

• 2/4. At the end of your turn, gain +1/+1 for each other friendly Dragon.

Additionally, several cards have had text-only updates for clarity, brevity, and/or to include Tavern spells as well as minions.

Updated Armor Tiers

All Armor Tiers at the launch of Patch 28.2 will be as follows:

Patch 28.0.3 is a data-only patch, launching today, with the following updates.

Hearthstone Card Updates

Dev Comment: The team is pretty happy with the launch of Showdown in the Badlands. We’re seeing players having fun, exploring, and having success with a variety of decks and strategies. This is a lighter patch based on early data, designed just to hit the biggest feels and power outliers. We’ll continue to watch how the meta develops after these changes as we evaluate data and feedback for our next balance patch, scheduled for late next week, to set up for the World Championships on December 16 and 17!

Blindeye Sharpshooter

• Old: 1/5
• New: 1/3
• Dev Comment: Naga Demon Hunter is an outlier, but it is also one of the popular new archetypes from the expansion, so this change is designed to make the deck weaker without killing it. This change still gives players the fun pop-off turn, but makes it riskier for the Demon Hunter to go in early, so there are more early-game decisions and fewer snowballing games.

Order in the Court

• Old: Reorder your deck from highest Cost to lowest Cost. Draw a card.
• New: Reorder your deck from highest Cost to lowest Cost.
• Dev Comment: Paladin is one of the strongest classes across most rank levels. Order in the Court is a linchpin across Paladin decks, bridging them to their late-game and combo pieces. This adjustment makes that transition a little less efficient.

Always a Bigger Jormungar

• Old: [1 Mana]
• New: [2 Mana]
• Dev Comment: Hunter was the other biggest class outlier that we wanted to weaken this patch. Always a Bigger Jormungar is one of the strongest cards in the class data, and also one of the most stand-out cards in terms of play experience. This change makes the deck a little slower and a little less consistent, since this card can no longer be drawn by Trinket Tracker.

Defense Attorney Nathanos

• Old: 5/4
• New: 4/4 (plus added functionality, see Dev Comment)
• Dev Comment: In this patch, we’re updating the rules to make Defense Attorney Nathanos work more favorably with cards like Spurfang, Twisted Frostwing, and Bovine Skeleton. We think this will work more intuitively for players, and it sounds fun. But, at the same time, our overall goal with this patch is to slightly weaken Hunter, so we’re giving Nathanos a small, pre-emptive stats adjustment to make up for his new synergies.

Azerite Snake

• Old: [6 Mana] Your hero steals 10 Health from the enemy hero.
• New: [4 Mana] Your hero steals 7 Health from the enemy hero.
• Dev Comment: Our last adjustment to Azerite Snake was a temporary fix to that standout play experience outlier. That adjustment, and natural meta developments, have gotten Excavate Warlock to about where we want it right now. This change makes Azerite Snake once again match the other Legendary Excavate Treasures’ costs, but keeps the overall clock and cost about the same by requiring 5 activations for lethal instead of the current 3.

The above collectible cards, plus Smokestack, Mo’arg Drillfist, and Tram Conductor Gerry, will be eligible for full dust refunds for at least three weeks following Patch 28.0.3.

Battlegrounds Updates

Anomaly Updates

• Forest Warden Omu and Kurtrus Ashfallen are now banned from games with the Money Match Anomaly.
• Forest Warden Omu is now banned from games with the Valuation Inflation Anomaly.
• The Yogg-iseum Anomaly is now returned to the Anomaly Pool.

Minion Updates

Dev Comment: Most of these changes are primarily for power reasons, to curb some of the meta’s current overperforming and underperforming minions. A few of these changes are being made for more nuanced reasons, that we elaborate on below.

Goldrinn, the Great Wolf

• Old: 3/3. Deathrattle: For the rest of this combat, your Beasts have +3/+3.
• New: 3/2. Deathrattle: For the rest of this combat, your Beasts have +3/+2.

Banana Slamma

• Old: [Tier 4] 2/5.
• New: [Tier 5] 3/6.
• Dev Comment: Banana Slamma is not an overwhelming power outlier, but it does tend to be a frustrating sentiment outlier, especially where one player gets too many of them too early in the game. We’ve moving it up a tier to decrease its appearance rate and make getting multple Slammas harder. We’re moving Mama Bear down a tier so that Beasts don’t lose too much overall power with this round of changes.

Mama Bear

• Old: [Tier 5] 4/4. Whenever you summon a Beast, give it +4/+4.
• New: [Tier 4] 3/3. Whenever you summon a Beast, give it +3/+3.

Gunpowder Courier

• Old: 2/4.
• New: 2/6.

Dancing Barnstormer

• Old: [Tier 4] 3/2. Deathrattle: Elementals in the Tavern have +3/+2 for the rest of the game.
• New: [Tier 2] 2/1. Deathrattle: Elementals in the Tavern have +1/+1 for the rest of the game.
• Dev Comment: Elementals have been struggling a bit since the removal of Gusty Trumpeter. To help them out, we’re making many small adjustments across Elementals to increase their overall power without concentrating it on a single minion.

Flourishing Frostling

• Old: [Tier 2] 0/6. Has +1 Attack for each Elemental you played this game (wherever this is).
• New: [Tier 4] 1/1. Has +1/+1 for each Elemental you played this game (wherever this is).

Tavern Tempest

• Old: [Tier 5] 4/4.
• New: [Tier 4] 2/2.

Carbonic Copy

• Old: [Tier 4] 3/3.
• New: [Tier 5] 6/7.

Rock Rock

• Old: 4/4. After you play an Elemental, give your other minions +2 Attack. (Swaps to Health next turn!)
• New: 5/5. After you play an Elemental, give your minions +2 Attack. (Swaps to Health next turn!)

Diremuck Forager

• Old: 4/3. Start of Combat: Give a Murloc in your hand +2/+2, then summon it for this combat only.
• New: 3/4. Start of Combat: Give a minion in your hand +2/+2, then summon it for this combat only.

Bassgill

• Old: [Tier 5] 8/3. Deathrattle: Summon the highest Health minion from your hand for this combat only.
• New: [Tier 4] 7/2. Deathrattle: Summon the highest Health Murloc from your hand for this combat only.
• Dev Comment: Both Bassgill and Diremuck Forager server an important role in Murloc comps by allowing them to summon handbuffed minions into play. However, Bassgill is often used to get other powerful minions into play, like Venomous minions or Leeroy. We’ve adjusted both cards to decrease the viability of those other comps, while keeping them viable for handbuff strategies.

Murky

• Old: 6/5. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +1/+1. (Improved by each Battlecry minion you played this game!)
• New: 6/4. Battlecry: Give a friendly Murloc +10/+10.

Aggem Thorncurse

• Old: 3/6. After a Blood Gem is played on this, give a friendly minion of each type +1/+1.
• New: 3/5. After a Blood Gem is played on this, give a friendly minion of each type +2/+1.

Captain Flat Tusk

• Old: 9/6. After you spend 4 Gold, get a Blood Gem.
• New: 9/5. After you spend 3 Gold, get a Blood Gem.

Motley Phalanx

• Old: 7/7. Taunt. Deathrattle: Give a friendly minion of each type +7/+7.
• New: 5/5. Taunt. Deathrattle: Give a friendly minion of each type +5/+5.

Bug Fixes and Game Improvements

• [Hearthstone] The Tram Cars summoned by Trolley Problem and Tram Conductor Gerry are no longer Mechs (they don’t have a CPU).
• [Hearthstone] Added the Fel Spell School to Fan the Hammer.
• [Hearthstone] Reno, Lone Ranger and Resistance Aura have had text-only updates, for clarity.
• [Hearthstone] Fixed a bug where Forging Eulogizer removed the cost reduction from Farm Hand.
• [Hearthstone] Corrected various localization issues.
• [Battlegrounds] Fixed a bug where the Wheel of Yogg-Saron could get stuck in the Yogg-iseum Anomaly.
• [Collection] Signature Slagmaw, the Slumbering can now be disenchanted.