Masters Tour Ironforge has concluded and Huang “KZGXiaobai” Dehui is the first champion of 2021! In an incredible final match, Xiaobai dominated European competitor Michaël "Maverick" Looze in a 3-0 sweep. With his victory, Xiaobai outplayed 389 other players from across the globe to finish the weekend with the Masters Tour trophy and $25,000 in champion prizing!

After going 8-1 in Swiss Rounds, Xiaobai secured his spot in the Top 8 after defeating Hearthstone Grandmaster Wesley “lambyseries” Seek, 3-2, in their match. This momentum carried him into the final day with a 3-2 quarterfinal win over Kenta “Okasinnsuke” Sekiguchi. He then went on to best Marco “Turna” Castiglioni 3-1, in the semifinal. Xiaobai’s Zoo Warlock, Whirlkick Rogue, and Libram Paladin decks made short work of Maverick, despite the Belgian player’s seemingly smooth fight to reach the final match. In a stunning show of mastery, Xiaobai utilized his flexible lineup to quickly secure the championship, despite pred...

With over 400 other players invited to Masters Tour Ironforge, Vladyslav “J4YOU” Krasovskyi is prepared to prove himself as one of the top Hearthstone competitors in Europe and the world.

Hailing from Ukraine, J4YOU has been a devoted Hearthstone player since the game's launch. Growing up, he loved gaming but had an older PC that limited what he could play, which led him to play a variety of card games. Then, in 2014, a new online card game caught his eye and J4YOU remembers fondly “reading some news and found that Blizzard was going to release a card game in the Warcraft universe. It was pretty interesting so I had to give it a try.”

Hearthstone’s accessibility allowed J4YOU to jump into the scene. In early 2016, he became friends with Savva “Savvat” Alkov, after meeting the Russian player on Twitch. Watching Savvat’s early attempts to qualify for tournaments pushed J4YOU to take his chance at competitive Hearthstone. A year later, J4YOU’s hard work paid off as he placed 61st ou...

It’s time to celebrate this amazing community and the launch of Forged in the Barrens on March 30 with another Pre-Launch Party! In the lead up to expansion launch will be giving away over 500 Mega Bundle codes, gifting a ton of Twitch subscriptions in Hearthstone Creator channels, and having those creators play community submitted decklists during Theorycrafting Livestreams!

But first, mark your calendars to join RegisKillbin, Community Manager Chris Sierra, and Game Designer Liv Breeden on March 22 at 10:00 a.m. PT as they reveal the final Forged in the Barrens cards on stream at Twitch.tv/PlayHearthstone and Youtube.com/Hearthstone!

Decklist Submission Contest

On March 22, 16 Hearthstone Creators will take to their social channels to source desklists from YOU to play during Theorycrafting Livestreams. Each creator will select one winner, with that winner earning a free Mega Bundle code!

If you’d like to submit a deck of your own just visit our website and build a Standard de...

Masters Tour Ironforge is here! Hearthstone Esports is excited to partner with ESL in kicking off the first Masters Tour of 2021. More than 400 invited players from over 40 countries will compete remotely 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 for all of the competitive action only on YouTube!

Details

• Venue: Online - YouTube.com/HearthstoneEsports
• Dates: Friday, March 12, 2021 – Sunday, March 14, 2021
• Broadcast Start Time: 9:00 AM PT Thursday – Sunday
• Casters: TJ “Azumoqt” Sanders, Darroch “Darroch” Brown, Jia “Jia” Dee, Neil “Lorinda” Bond, and Alex “RavenCasts” Baguley
• Prize Pool: $250,000 (USD)
• Format: 4-deck, best-of-5 Conquest with a ban
• Language Streams on YouTube:
  • English
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • LatAm Spanish
  • Mandarin
  • Portuguese

How It Works

Ma...

Below are the Arena leaderboards for January 1, 2021 - March 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 January 1, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. and March 1, 2021 at 9:59:59 a.m.

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

Americas

ANNOUNCING

Forged in the Barrens

HEARTHSTONE’S NEWEST EXPANSION

Gather your gear and hold fast to your ambition, newcomer. This is the Barrens. The road before us winds through vast, sun-scorched lands, bringing danger and discovery beyond imagination’s grasp. Thorned dens of bristling quilboar, rampaging tribes of furious centaur, and treetop nests of soaring harpies separate the champions from the weak. The Barrens are the anvil upon which the Horde as we know it was founded: A literal crossroads where the tauren, trolls, and orcs came together for the first time. Heroes are made here. Perhaps you, too, shall be Forged in the Barrens.

Forged in the Barrens will launch worldwide this Spring with 135 new collectible cards! You can find the full schedule for card reveals and see which cards were announced today by visiting the card library here. Check back frequently—the list will be updated with new cards as they’re revealed!

New Keyword: Frenzy

The mo...

It’s time for the great Hearthstone clock in the sky to shift forward yet again! Thank you for joining us for the Year of the Phoenix. Today’s announcement of Forged in the Barrens marks the start of the first phase of our new Hearthstone year—the Year of the Gryphon!

We’ve got expansions, seasonal events, Battlegrounds updates, a new game mode, and so much more planned. On the roadmap below, you can see the massive amount of content we have coming this year!

Click to enlarge.

Core Set, Set Rotation, and Shaman Updates

When Forged in the Barrens launches, card sets from Year of the Dragon (Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum, Descent of Dragons, Demon Hunter Initiate) will rotate to Wild. When this occurs, Basic and Classic cards will move to Wild under the Legacy set and a free Core set of 235 curated cards will take their place! Check out our initial announcement for more details and be sure to visit the card library on February 25 after the full Core set has ...

The 19.6 patch brings pre-purchase for Hearthstone’s newest expansion, Forged in the Barrens, along with balance updates for Battlegrounds, Duels, and one card in Standard—High Abbess Alura.

Standard Balance Update

• Old: [Costs 4] → New: [Costs 5]

Dev Comment: High Abbess Alura is going to 5 mana in order to push out the swing turns she enables. When an individual card contains a large amount of a deck's winrate, as Alura does, it breaks the promises of a Hearthstone match. Instead of having a natural back-and-forth flow between players, games with a turn 4 Alura can create seemingly insurmountable board states too early in the match. At 5 mana, Alura's identity as a big spell buildaround card remains intact but the change will give more room for games to occur before the swing and for responses to be ready after her Spellburst trigger.

High Abbess Alura will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 19.6 patch goes live.

Bat...

Together, in the Year of the Phoenix, we drove back the rusted legion in Ashes of Outland, graduated with top honors from Scholomance Academy, and conquered our fears of carnival rides (and ancient horrors of unspeakable evil) when Madness at the Darkmoon Faire set in.

We kicked off the year by overhauling our Ranked system, updating card packs to include duplicate protection, and introducing Hearthstone’s first new class since launch—the Demon Hunter.

Throughout the year we hosted several in-game events, including the Felfire Festival and Masquerade Ball. We released over a dozen balance updates between our major releases, and completely revamped our progression and rewards systems.

We brought Pirates, Elementals, and the Old Gods to Battlegrounds—along with multiplayer parties and Darkmoon Prizes! We told the origin stories for Jaina, Rexxar, Garrosh, Uther, and Anduin in Hearthstone Book of Heroes. We released Hearthstone’s first Mini-Set, the Darkmoon Races, and launched Duels...

We’re excited to share details on the next two seasons of Hearthstone Grandmasters! Ahead of Season 1, we’ve made a few changes to the overall format and to the path to qualify for the 2021 World Championship. For the first seven weeks of each season, players will compete in individual Weekly Dual Tournaments (details below) to earn points based on total wins. Following the conclusion of Week 7, players will be ranked based on their total-points-earned to determine if they will advance to the Playoffs, survive to the next season, or be relegated out of Grandmasters. Be sure to catch the start of Season 1, only on YouTube, starting on April 9!

Weeks 1-7: Weekly Dual Tournaments

During weeks 1-7, players will compete in a Weekly Dual Tournament format, starting each Thursday, to earn placement in the weekend Top 8 Stage. Players will receive points based on total number of wins each week, which will determine final standings before Playoffs.

• All 16 players in each region will co...

We’ve got some major changes on the horizon we’re ready to discuss. When card sets from Year of the Dragon (Rise of Shadows, Saviors of Uldum, Descent of Dragons, Demon Hunter Initiate) rotate to Wild at the launch of our next expansion, we’re planning to move the Basic and Classic sets to Wild as well to make way for the new Core Set!

Introducing the Core Set

The Core set replaces Basic and Classic cards in the Standard format and will contain a selection of 235 cards.

After set rotation this year, Standard will include card sets from Year of the Phoenix (Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy, Madness at the Darkmoon Faire, Darkmoon Races Mini-Set), the next expansion, and the new Core Set!

The Core Set will be free for all players and will replace Basic and Classic in Standard as a curated selection of 235 cards intended to provide a modern collection of starting cards to players of all types and make Hearthstone even more approachable for newcomers. Some of the Core Set cards ...

Lunar New Year kicks off in the Tavern on February 9 with a new Legendary Quest line, a fan favorite Tavern Brawl, and a special set of Three Kingdoms themed Hero skins in the shop!

Legendary Quests

Good fortune is coming your way! New Legendary quests rewarding a total of 9 card packs from Madness at the Darkmoon Faire and Scholomance Academy will be available from February 9 through February 23!

• Play 1 game of Battlegrounds to earn 2 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs and 1 Scholomance Academy card pack.
• Play 5 games of Duels to earn 2 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs and 1 Scholomance Academy card pack.
• Play 5 Ranked Standard games to earn 2 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs and 1 Scholomance Academy card pack.

Three Kingdoms Heroes

The Three Kingdoms skins are inspired by Romance of Three Kingdoms, an epic Chinese tale of war, heroes, and betrayal where three successor kingdoms rose to power after the collapse of the Han Empire and battled to re...

The 19.4.1 patch, arriving on January 28, includes a change for Hysteria from the Darkmoon Races Mini-Set, balance adjustments for Duels, and a handful of game improvements!

Standard Balance Updates

• Old: Choose a minion. It attacks random minions until it dies. → New: Choose an enemy minion. It attacks random minions until it dies.

Hysteria will be eligible for a full dust refund for 2 weeks after the 19.4.1 patch goes live.

Duels Balance Updates

HERO POWER UPDATES

• Old: [Passive] After you play the left- or right-most card, gain 1 Attack this turn. → New: [Costs 1] After you play the left or right-most card in your hand, gain +1 Attack this turn.

• Old: Trigger a minion's Deathrattle. → New: Trigger a random friendly minion's Deathrattle.

SIGNATURE TREASURE UPDATES

• Old: [Costs 6] → New: [Beast, Costs 8]
  • Dev Comment: Turns out Bonecrusher is a silly rabbit.

If you’re a fan of the Warcraft universe, you’re likely a fan of artist Alex Horley—whether you know it or not! Alex is responsible for some the most iconic visuals to come out of Blizzard in the past 15 years. From his spectacular key art for Warlords of Draenor to his countless contributions for Hearthstone, it’s likely you’re already familiar with his body of work.

The Person

Alex, born Alessandro Orlandelli, hails from the small town of Opera outside of Milan, Italy, where he taught himself the English language by reading comic books. “I've been drawing for as long as I can remember,” Alex said. “In my very early years, all I wanted to do was draw comics. I grew up with artists like Jack Kirby and John Buscema from the bronze age of Marvel in the seventies.”

As a teenager, Alex fell in love with the work of Frank Frazetta, an American fantasy and science fiction artist and one of the most renowned illustrators of the 20th century. Alex searched books...

Preparing for the next year of competitive Hearthstone, we’ve listened to player feedback from all levels of competitive Hearthstone and are thrilled to announce improvements to Hearthstone Masters as well as details for the first Masters Tour of 2021!

Masters Qualifiers

As the primary entry point into the Masters program for most of our players, we have been looking at ways to not only expand the Qualifiers system but to better reward high-level consistency.

While assessing how to best improve the Qualifiers, one piece of community feedback has consistently stood out: expanding opportunities to earn invites to each Masters Tour. We are addressing this in three ways for Hearthstone Esports in 2021.

• First, we are returning to 120 individual Qualifier events each season.
• Second, we are lowering the number of Top-8 finishes required to earn an invite—from five down to four. In reviewing previous Qualifier placements, we have found that players making Top 8 four times are skille...

Below are the Arena leaderboards for November 1, 2020 - January 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 November 1, 2020 at 10:00 a.m. and January 1, 2021 at 9:59:59 a.m.

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

• Americas

The 19.4 patch, releasing on January 21, includes the new Darkmoon Races Mini-Set, new Heroes and Minions for Battlegrounds, a Mid-Season Update for Duels, an Arena rotation, bug fixes, and more!

Battlegrounds Updates

NEW BATTLEGROUNDS HEROES

• Prize Wall [Passive]
  • Every 4 turns, Discover a Darkmoon Prize.

• Sprout It Out! [Passive]
  • Give +1/+2 and Taunt to minions you summon during combat.

Players with Battlegrounds Perks will have early access to these new Heroes before they’re formally released on February 4.

NEW BATTLEGROUNDS MINIONS

• [Tier 3, Demon] 3 Attack, 3 Health
  • Battlecry: Choose a friendly Demon. Remove it to gain its stats and 3 Gold.

• [Tier 4, Demon] 6 Attack, 4 Health
  • Taunt. Deathrattle: Summon two 3/2 Imps.

MINION POOL UPDATE

• Floating Watcher has been removed from the Battlegrounds Minion pool.

The Darkmoon Races Mini-Set

Hearthstone’s first ever Mini-Set, The ...

Strap yourself in and mount up at the starting line for the most perilous and high-octane competition in all of Azeroth: The Darkmoon Races! Doesn’t matter if it rockets, rides, gallops, or glides—it’s all fair game at the Faire once the starting wand is waved. The only rule is getting to the finish line in one piece!

The Darkmoon Races Mini-Set, launching worldwide on January 21, consists of 4 Legendary cards, 1 Epic card (x2), 14 Rare cards (x2), and 16 Common cards (x2)—which can all be obtained from Madness at the Darkmoon Faire card packs! And, for the first time ever, the entire 66 card set is available for purchase from the in-game or web shop for $14.99 or 2000 Gold!

Buy Now!

Legendary Racers

The Darkmoon Races Mini-Set includes 4 Legendary minions, 3 of which are Legendary racers that each hearken back to an expansion in the Year of the Phoenix!

Returning Mechanics

Card mechanics from throughout the year are making a return! That means you can expect cree...

The 19.4 patch, launching on January 21, brings the first-ever Mid-Season Update for Duels! All players’ Duels ratings will be reset for Casual and Heroic, the Darkmoon Races Mini-Set will be added to the pool of eligible cards you can use to build your 15-card starter deck, and each class will gain access to one new Hero Power and three new Signature Treasures—one of which is Dual-Class! Lastly, we’re adding 4 new Passive Treasures and 2 new Active Treasures for you to supplement your deck with between games.

Each class will now have access to 3 Hero Powers and 6 Signature Treasures in total! These new Hero Powers and Treasures can be unlocked by meeting the below criteria associated with your Collection.

• Hero Power #3 (Each Class) – Collect 1 Scholomance Academy Legendary Class card from that class.
• Signature Treasure #4 (All Classes) – Collect 125 Unique Madness at the Darkmoon Faire cards.
• Signature Treasure #5 (All Classes) – Collect 12 Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Legend...

We’ve got a small balance patch with a few big changes planned for release this Friday, January 8!

Standard Balance Updates

Edwin VanCleef

• Old: [Costs 3] → New: [Costs 4]
  • Dev Comment (Updated): The last few weeks have been the best Edwin has ever performed as an individual card (the highest win rate card in multiple Rogue archetypes). Alongside cards like Foxy Fraud and Shadowstep, the frequency of early 8/8 or 10/10 Edwin VanCleefs reached a point we are no longer comfortable with. Edwin's mana cost is increasing by 1 to weaken some of the powerful openings at Rogue's disposal. We were planning on rotating Edwin out of Standard in a few months (still are, more info on that soon!), but want to evaluate how the rest of Rogue's kit performs without this very powerful iteration of Edwin. Cards like Foxy Fraud, Swindle, and Prize Plunderer are important pieces for future expansions and card interactions, so we'll be keeping close tabs on how they perform with the influx of new ...