What Are the Free Hearthstone Decks for New and Returning Players? Decklists

Blizzard announced with the Year of the Phoenix that we'd see new and returning players receive 1 free deck of their choice from a special set. This guide can help you make a better decision on which deck to take.

Criteria to Receive a Free Deck

In order to receive a free deck, you must meet either of these requirements.

• Created a new Hearthstone account.
• You did not sign-in to Hearthstone for the past 90 days.
  • Starting from March of the Lich King patch, you are no longer restricted to one free deck per account if you have met the above criteria already before. The sign-in limit was also decreased from the initial 120 days.

This should also work on other Hearthstone regions if you haven't signed into them for the same amount of time.

Receiving Your Free Deck as a New Hearthstone Player

If you're brand new to Hearthstone, you'll need to complete some extra steps before receiving your free deck.

• Log into Hearthstone and complete the tutorial and the Starter Quest line.
• You will need to graduate from the New Player Ranks (Ranks 40-1).
• Upon completing these quests, you will be able to select your free deck once you return to the main menu.

What Are In the Decks?

The free decks contain a mix of class cards and neutral cards from the Year of the Pegasus sets and the Core set. This will not only give you a starting deck to play the game but it will also boost your collection for future success - especially when you consider that the decks use popular archetypes. Full decklists can be found further below.

• Protip: If you already own a card that is in a deck, you still receive extra copies! Free Arcane Dust!

Which Classes Are the Decks For?

Until Patch 24.6, all of Hearthstone's 10 classes had their own deck. After the patch, you've been able to select from 6 alternatives that currently are: Death Knight, Paladin, Rogue, Shaman, Warlock, and Warrior.

Which Deck Should I Choose?

A tough question with a complicated answer! We'll try to boil this down easily for you.

Best Free Decks for Returning Players

• Based on the Badlands meta, Warlock and Warrior should both give a good core for a strong deck.
  • Do note that Warrior list contains NO cards from the previous expansion!
• The Death Knight list is the most expensive deck of the bunch for the maximum dust value.
• Rogue, Shaman, and Warlock decks contain the most cards from the previous expansion - great value for a returning player!

Best Free Decks for New Players

• Anything aggressive (Aggro). They are simpler to play and will get you climbing the ladder!
• The strongest aggressive deck in the current pool is Warlock.

Starting from Patch 24.6, you've been able to borrow and test out all the available decks for a week before deciding, so it's worth to test out as many as you can to reach the most informed decision!

What Are the Full Decklists for the Free Decks?

You can find all the lists down below along with a quick description.

Plague Death Knight (Whizbang's Workshop)

The Death Knight Deck is a midrange deck that aims to fill your opponent's deck with damaging Plagues while also keeping the board pressure on.

Earthen Paladin (Whizbang's Workshop)

The Paladin Deck is a midrange deck. Keep up the tempo and resurrect your Earthen-creating cards for increasingly large Earthens.

Burgle Excavate Rogue (Whizbang's Workshop)

The Rogue Deck is an midrange deck that uses Excavates powerful reward cards as well as builds up for a big Tess Greymane turn.

Highlander Shaman (Whizbang's Workshop)

The Shaman Deck is a control deck. Keep your opponent's board in check and gain powerful rewards for playing only a single copy of each card in your deck.

Sludge Warlock (Whizbang's Workshop)

The Warlock Deck is an Aggro-Midrange deck. Create and discard tons of Barrels of Sludge to keep dealing damage to your opponent's board and Hero.

Armor Warrior (Whizbang's Workshop)

The Warrior Deck is a Control deck. Keep the board under control until you can turn your defense into an offense with Odyn, Prime Designate.

Previously Available New & Returning Player Decks

Here are all the decks that were available to new and returning players during Voyage to the Sunken City.

Here are all the decks that were available to new and returning players during Murder at Castle Nathria.

Here are all the decks that were available to new and returning players during March of the Lich King.

Here are all the decks that were available to new and returning players during Festival of Legends.

Here are all the decks that were available to new and returning players during TITANS.

Here are all the decks that were available to new and returning players during Showdown in the Badlands.

Old Decks From Year of the Phoenix

Looking for the old decks from Year of the Phoenix? We've added them to our archive over here.

Old Decks From Year of the Gryphon

Looking for the old decks from Year of the Gryphon? We've added them to our archive over here.