The 20.4 patch, which will release on June 3, includes the Wailing Caverns Mini-Set, updates across several modes, returning Card Backs and Hero Skins, and improvements throughout the game.

Wailing Caverns Mini-Set

The Wailing Caverns Mini-Set, launching worldwide on June 3, consists of 35 distinct cards—which can all be obtained from Forged in the Barrens card packs! The entire 66-card set (4 Legendary cards, 1 Epic card (x2), 14 Rare cards (x2), and 16 Common cards (x2)) is also available for purchase from the in-game or web shop, for either $14.99 or 2000 Gold!

Learn more about the Wailing Caverns Mini-Set here!

Standard Updates

• Old: Add 3 random 1-Cost minions to your hand. → New: Add 2 random 1-Cost minions to your hand.

• Old: Give a minion +2/+2. Draw a card. → New: Give a minion +2/+1. Draw a card.

The cards listed above will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 20.4 patch goes live.

Dev Comment: As we ...

Gather your party and your wits, for you’ll need both if you plan to survive the most infamous dungeon in the Barrens: the Wailing Caverns! Join forces with a team of Adventurers to fight through deadly beasts and awaken Archdruid Naralex from his slumber. But beware, this is no simple wake-up call!

The Wailing Caverns Mini-Set, launching worldwide on June 3, consists of 35 distinct cards that can all be obtained from Forged in the Barrens card packs! The entire 66-card set (4 Legendary cards, 1 Epic card (x2), 14 Rare cards (x2), and 16 Common cards (x2)) is also available for purchase from the in-game or web shops, for either $14.99 or 2000 Gold!

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Spelunking Support

What’s a dungeon without Adventurers? Adventurers are 2-mana 2/2 minions, each with a special bonus effect. There are eight in total, and they can be found throughout the Wailing Caverns.

Advanced Synergies

Every class has leveled up from their time in the Barrens! Some classes gain...

Gather ‘round and listen in, it’s time for Tavern Talks, a new series that highlights some of the many amazing members of our fine tavern!

You may know Edelweiss from her appearances in the Hearthstone Championship Tour, premier third-party events, or the long-running podcast, Coin Concede, of which she is now a co-host. But that’s not all there is to her story! Here, Edelweiss talks about leveling up her skills as a competitor, building a Hearthstone community as a podcaster and Innkeeper, and her experience as a transgender woman in gaming. So, pull up a chair, it’s time for Tavern Talks!

The following interview has been edited for readability.

Q: How did you get into Hearthstone?

A: Gaming started for me when I was very young. My sister played soccer in this indoor arena during the winter, and my brother and I would play in an arcade they had there. Later on, my brother got me into Blizzard games, like Warc...

Below are the Arena leaderboards for March 1, 2021 - May 1, 2021. Arena rankings reflect players’ best 30 consecutive runs throughout a season. The players featured below have exhibited top-notch deckbuilding skills, in-the-moment decision making, and unyielding dedication to achieve a most noteworthy feat!

For an Arena run to be included in this season, its end time must have been between March 1, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. and May 1, 2021 at 9:59:59 a.m.

Dynamic ladder rankings are now also available for the Standard and Wild ladders.

Americas

The 20.2.2 patch, which will release later today, includes balance updates focusing on Standard and Battlegrounds, as well as several bug fixes.

Standard Balance Updates

• Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 5]

Dev Comment: Spell Mage currently exhibits many explosive turns, with Refreshing Spring Water playing a significant role. By nerfing Refreshing Spring Water to 5 mana, we're aiming to lower the frequency of extreme turns where Refreshing Spring Water draws cards and gains you mana in the process. By lowering the frequency of those gameplay sequences, we believe the deck's range of possibilities will be more in line with other current options.

• Old: [Costs 0] Add 2 random 1-Cost minions to your hand → New: [Costs 1] Add 3 random 1-Cost minions to your hand. 

Dev Comment: As we look at Paladin's continued strong performance across multiple archetypes, we're nerfing First Day of School in order to hit Paladin's early-game streng...

Quillboar have descended upon the Hearthstone Battlegrounds and it is quill or be quilled! On May 12, from 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. PT, the Battlegrounds Brawl returns! 16 Hearthstone creators will be split into 4 teams—the Bristlebacks, the Razormanes, the Razorfens, and the Briarbacks—to compete for their share of a $100,000 USD prize pool! Tune in to find out who is bottom boar and who is top tusk.

How it Works

Scoring: Two games will be played simultaneously each round, with two members from each team in each game and seven total rounds of play. Points will be awarded at the end of each round, based on each individual competitor’s placement, and added to their team’s total point score.

• 1st place finish = 5 points awarded
• 2nd place finish = 4 points awarded
• 3rd place finish = 2 points awarded
• 4th place finish = 1 point awarded

Final placement and prizing will be determined by each team’s total point score after seven rounds. Each team’s total number of 1st place finishes...

Masters Tour Orgrimmar reached its thrilling conclusion as Gabriel “Gaby” Jeanne defeated Torben “Viper” Wahl 3-2 to walk away with $25,000 (USD) in prizing! With this stunning victory, Gaby became the youngest Masters Tour champion, outplaying 402 players from over 45 countries to walk away with 22 Masters Tour Points towards promotion to Grandmasters Season 2.

After going 7-2 in Swiss Rounds, Gaby secured his spot in the Top 8 after defeating European Grandmaster David “Frenetic” Neila Quiñones, 3-2. Day 3 started strong, with a 3-1 Quarterfinal victory over Liu “RNGLys” Shuda before a strong 3-1 win against European Grandmaster and former two-time Masters Tour winner Zakarya “xBlyzes” Hail. The final went the full five rounds, as Viper and Gaby traded off wins until they were forced into a Rogue mirror to decide it all. Gaby proved this weekend’s stronger player in an emotional victory.

The first season of Grandmasters continues next weekend where players battle it out for t...

The 20.2 patch, which will release on May 4, includes a major update for Battlegrounds, purchasable decks, and more!

Battlegrounds Updates

Quilboar have been added as a new Battlegrounds minion type! There will still be five minion types per Battlegrounds game once Quilboar are added, meaning that three minion types will be excluded from each game. Just like when Dragons, Pirates, and Elementals were added, Quilboar will show up in every Battlegrounds match until our next major content patch.

The Quilboar update includes 17 new minions, 3 new heroes, and a new mechanic: Blood Gems! Blood Gems are spells that give a friendly minion +1/+1. Some Quilboar give you Blood Gems, while others have special interactions when Blood Gems are played.

We’ve also added Battlegrounds support for your favorite Coin! As a reminder, you can set a Coin as your favorite by clicking on the Coin icon in the top right of your Collection.

Finally, prepare for a fresh playing field as all players...

We’ve got two major pieces of news to share with you today! The first is a preview of the next major Battlegrounds update: Quilboar! The Quilboar update will include the new Quilboar minion type, 17 new minions, 3 new heroes, and a new mechanic: Blood Gems! 

Blood Gems are spells that give a friendly minion +1/+1. Some Quilboar give you Blood Gems, while others have special interactions when Blood Gems are played.

There will still be five minion types per Battlegrounds game once Quilboar are added, meaning that three minion types will be excluded from each game. Just like when Dragons, Pirates, and Elementals were added, Quilboar will show up in every Battlegrounds match until our next major content patch.

The full details of the Quilboar update will be shared in the 20.2 patch notes, tomorrow.

Introducing Battle-Ready Decks

Battle-Ready Decks allow for anyone to jumpstart their Collection and hit the ground running in constructed modes!

Our second piece of news is ...

The Masters Tour returns this weekend for Masters Tour Orgrimmar! More than 400 invited players from over 45 countries will test their skills within Forged in the Barrens, competing for a chance to take home a share of the $250,000 (USD) prize pool. Players with at least seven wins will also earn points towards the Road to Grandmasters and their shot to earn an invite to Grandmasters 2021 Season 2. Join us this weekend and earn Drops as you watch all of the competitive action, only on YouTube!

Details

• Venue: Online – Youtube.com/Hearthstone and YouTube.com/HearthstoneEsports
• Dates: Friday, April 30, 2021 – Sunday, May 2, 2021
• Broadcast Start Time: 6:00 a.m. PT Thursday – Sunday
• Casters: TJ “Azumoqt” Sanders, Darroch “Darroch” Brown, Dan “Frodan” Chou, Jia “Jia” Dee, and Neil “Lorinda” Bond
• Prize Pool: $250,000 (USD)
• Format: 4-deck, best-of-5 Conquest with a ban
• Language Streams on YouTube:
  • English (Hearthstone)
  • English (HearthstoneEsports)
  • Japanese
  • Korea...

Prepare yourself hero, the Crossroads Inn-vitational is just around the corner! On April 21, starting at 10:00 a.m. PDT, 20 Hearthstone creators will be split into two teams, the Northwatch Hold and Camp Taurajo, before battling it out for their share of a $100,000 prize pool!

How it Works

Competitors will assemble a 30-card Standard deck list using at least 10 cards from Forged in the Barrens, before playing through two best-of-three rounds against different opponents on the opposing team. One team point will be awarded for each individual game victory within a round, regardless of who wins. Three team points will be awarded for a clean 2-0 sweep.

Then, each team will play a 3rd round, the BARRENS BLITZ round, which is a best-of-five where all players are required to have [[Nozdormu the Eternal]] in their decks. One team point will be awarded for each individual game victory within the BARRENS BLITZ round, and five team points will be awarded for a 3-0 sweep!

Finally, when a pla...

Ten players are making their mark on the first season of Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021! Over the next six weeks, these ten players, the top earners across all six Masters Tours of 2020, will face off in weekly tournaments to advance to the Season 1 playoffs for their shot at earning an invite to the 2021 World Championship!

AMERICAS

Davi “Fled” Garcia - Brazil

Fled got his start playing Hearthstone in 2015 but began gaining momentum in the competitive scene in the HCT system in 2018. Since the transition to the Hearthstone Masters in 2019, the Brazilian has qualified for nearly every Masters Tour since, placing in the Top 50 during Bucharest and Jönköping. He's already stayed busy in 2021 with a fourth-place finish in the TGS Signature Series, and we're looking forward to his Grandmasters Americas Season 1 debut.

Joshua “Impact” Graham - Mexico

Whether you know him for his innovative deckbuilding or his storied history in competitive Hearthstone, there's one thing for su...

The 20.0.2 patch, which will release on April 13, includes balance updates across several modes and numerous bug fixes!

Standard Balance Updates

• Old: [Costs 2] → New: [Costs 4]

Dev Comment: Deck of Lunacy moves up to 4 mana, removing its ability to provide a game-warping effect on turn 1 or 2. When we create cards like Deck of Lunacy, we're aiming for an experience that lets you do wacky, over-the-top things at the cost of power. There's a large audience for that (Spell Mage's play-rate shows!), but Deck of Lunacy very clearly crosses the power threshold we set for these types of cards.

• Old: 1 Attack, 3 Durability → New: 1 Attack, 2 Durability

Dev Comment: Sword of the Fallen is not only powerful, but also creates early-game situations with too many Secrets in play. We're moving Sword of the Fallen down to 2 durability to reduce the overall value of the card and make those turns against 3-4 Secrets le...

Hearthstone Grandmasters returns for the first season of 2021! Season 1 will run every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday beginning April 9 through April 25, with a break for Masters Tour Orgrimmar before picking back up for the final stretch from May 7 – June 6. Ten competitors have been promoted to Season 1, where they will join the rest of the Grandmasters in seven weekly tournaments to earn points toward a shot at an invite to the World Championship while avoiding Relegation. Here’s everything you need to know to keep up with this season’s Grandmasters action!

Details

• Venue: YouTube Gaming
• Dates: Friday, Saturday, Sunday: April 9 – April 25 and May 7 – June 6, 2021
• Broadcast Start Time:
  • ASIA-PACIFIC: 2 a.m. PDT / 11 a.m. CEST / 6 p.m. KST
  • EUROPE: 7:00 a.m. PDT / 4:00 p.m. CEST / 11:00 p.m. KST
  • AMERICAS: 12 p.m. PDT / 9 p.m. CEST / 4 a.m. KST
• Casters: TJ “Azumoqt” Sanders, Darroch “Darroch” Brown, Dan “Frodan” Chou, Jia “Jia” Dee, Neil “Lorinda” Bond, Alex “Rave...

Table of Contents

• Cariel Roame
• Scabbs Cutterbutter
• Tavish Stormpike
• Kurtrus Ashfallen
• Xyrella
• Rokara
• Tamsin Roame
• Varden Dawngrasp
• Guff Runetotem
• Bru’kan

Cariel Roame

A soldier torn between family and faith…

Cariel grew up in Stormwind, the younger of two sisters living under a strict father – guard captain Cornelius Roame. In her youth, Cariel’s friends included pickpockets and sellswords. She earned coin in an Old Town brawling ring.

Her older sister Tamsin studied abroad in Scholomance and was presumed killed during the Scourging of Lordaeron. This tragedy threw the family into chaos. Cariel realized that with her sister gone, she would have to straighten up her life and make her father proud. She joined the Silver Hand, at last finding a sense of belonging and guidance through her faith.

As a new paladin, Cariel has been stationed at Northwatch Hold in the Barrens – a chance to prove herself and put her Holy skills to the test....

Drops are back! To celebrate the launch of Grandmasters 2021 Season 1, we’ll be activating YouTube Drops during this weekend’s live broadcasts. All you need to do is create a Blizzard account and link it with your YouTube account, then sit back and collect Year of the Phoenix packs as you watch 48 of the top Hearthstone players from around the world compete over eight weeks.

In addition to opening weekend Drops, you’ll have a chance to receive two Year of the Phoenix packs over the course of Week 2 through Week 7, and then two Forged in the Barrens packs during Playoff weekend, for a total of six drops during the first season of Grandmasters. This isn’t just for Season 1: we’re giving packs away all year, with Drops during Season 2, the next five Masters Tours, and the World Championship!

Earning Grandmasters Season 1 Drops

On one of the eligible YouTube Gaming channels, watch two total hours to receive one pack and two more hours for your second. Time watched is cumulative with...

It’s time to brave the Barrens! Forged in the Barrens is now live worldwide with 135 new collectible cards, the new Frenzy keyword, Ranked Spells, Legendary Mercenary Minions, and so much more!

What’s Included: Frenzy

Minions with the new Frenzy keyword will trigger a powerful effect the first time they survive damage!

What’s Included: Ranked Spells

All 10 classes will have access to an all-new Ranked Spell that will grow in power as your reach 5 and 10 Mana Crystals, regardless of whether it’s in your hand or deck!

What’s Included: Legendary Mercenaries

Forged in the Barrens introduces 10 Legendary Mercenary minions, each representing a different class, whose stories will play out throughout the Year of the Gryphon!

Forged in the Barrens Twitch Drops

Watch any Hearthstone channel on Twitch between April 2 at 9:00 a.m. PT and April 4 at 8:00 p.m. PT for 2 hours to earn 1 Forged in the Barrens card pack! Watch for 2 more hours and you’ll receive anot...

The upcoming 20.0 patch is a big one! A whole host of new content will unlock when the patch hits on March 25, and things will get even more exciting when Forged in the Barrens launches on March 30! Below you can find an extensive list of what changes you can expect and when. Unless otherwise stated, the changes below will go into effect with the patch on March 25! We introduced a ton of changes and new Treasures for Duels today as well! You can read about the Duels Content Update here.

Balance Update

• Old: [Costs 1] → New: [Costs 2]

Dev Comment: We're moving Nitroboost Poison to 2 mana to reduce the amount of cheap burst damage available in Rogue and create a real cost for Corruption. When evaluating Rogue's future weapon-centric archetypes, we want to position the play patterns around building up a weapon over multiple turns and fighting for board rather than the hyper-aggressive strategies seen in decks like Stealth Rogue.

Nitroboost Pois...

The 20.0 patch includes a big update for Duels! When the patch hits on March 25, Duels ratings for Casual and Heroic will reset, and the pool of eligible cards you can use to build your 15-card starter deck will be updated as follows:

• (NEW) Forged in the Barrens
• (NEW) Core
• The Darkmoon Races Mini-Set
• Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
• Scholomance Academy
• (NEW) Journey to Un’Goro
• One Night in Kharazan
• Whispers of the Old Gods
• Curse of Naxxramas
• Legacy (Basic/Classic)

What’s more, Forged in the Barrens cards can be found in card buckets offered between matches in Duels before the expansion unlocks on March 30!

New Passive Treasures

The following Passive Treasures can now be found between matches in a Duels run:

Duels Balance Updates

Watermarks on cards pictured below are not final. 

• Old: [Costs 2] Deal 1 damage. Add a 1/1 Ice Shard that Freezes to your hand. → New: [Costs 1] Deal 1 damage. Add a 2/1 Ice Shard that Freezes to your hand.

We’ve made several adjustments to the Rewards Track over the last few months, based on player feedback: increasing rewards, upping the frequency of rewards, and removing limitations that might make rewards more difficult to obtain. We’re always iterating on our systems and features, and the Rewards Track is no exception.

When the Rewards Track refreshes for the first time when Forged in the Barrens launches, all players will automatically be granted any unclaimed rewards on both the free track and the Tavern Pass track (if purchased), and a completely new Rewards Track featuring a bevy of new unlockable loot will take its place.*

You can find the full table of rewards and XP needed for every level of both the Forged in the Barrens free track and Tavern Pass below, as well as a difference table to give a better idea of what’s changed since last expansion.

*Level 50 Hero skin choice must be made before the Forged in the Barrens Rewards Track refresh. Additionally, all players who ...