Whew, this past week has seen a lot of Hearthstone news - and we are now nearing the release of United in Stormwind. If you tend to play the Duels mode on a regular basis or engage in that very demanding task called "reading through the patch notes", you might already know it's possible to experience some of the upcoming new card interactions over there (this special treatment has already happened before).
On top of that the ratings have been reset once more, Kobolds & Catacombs expansion set has joined the fray, and we have seen another handful of Passive Treasures being added to the mix. All of that means a different meta - and once we can put Stormwind cards into our starter decks (Questlines!), things may change yet again. There are rumblings of many explosive games happening.
Let's take a closer look at everything of note:
The Total Pool of Cards Keeps Expanding
Unlike with the Arena, there is no typical rotation of existing sets in the works for Duels. In fact, the endgame here seems to be everything and anything, according to Associate Game Designer Ates Bayarak (who often shares various tidbits regarding the current and future standing of this mode):
Quote From Tabayrak Yep, as duels matures it will include your full collection.
Whether you are a fan of this solution or not, it looks like we will be slowly heading into even Wild-er territory. Good news for avid collectors, not so good for newer or Standard-only players. Now and then you may wish to stop and consider crafting something truly powerful from the past, although let's hope there will always be other alternatives to explore.
A Sneak Peek at United in Stormwind
Aside from all the Questlines (being excluded for a reason), it's possible any of your draft buckets coming up between games - or Discover/random generation effects during the games themselves - could throw some of the newest cards your way. This is one way to try to complete that pesky Tradeable daily quest you might've already rerolled into, or see about sniping any of the new XP achievements while your Tavern Pass bonus is still in effect (if you got it, but don't plan on purchasing the upcoming one).
Quote From Tabayrak You can still add them to your base deck. They were only banned from buckets. The reasoning for banning quests from buckets is because they are fairly build-around archetype. Getting a build around card in a bucket without being able to support it feels really bad.
Don't expect to pick up that many during a single run (as there are hundreds of options), but you should be able to catch at least some of that United in Stormwind early flavor.
Brand New Passive Treasures
We clearly don't have enough options there yet, so how about 7 more? There are a few strong contenders:
Already being called out as one of the most busted Passive Treasures (especially for Pool 1), you can think of it as a combination of All Together Now and Captured Flag. And it is an aura affecting the entire board. Your Mor'shan Watch Post Grunts might become even more annoying, Meeting Stone can suddenly attack while generating 3/3s, Mankrik and Wandmaker become even better, and so on. Apparently lucky Murloc Shamans already ate many adventurers for breakfast thanks to its power.
Certainly not looking meek at all with all the juicy Neutral minions in the pool.
More than decent, especially for that early board contention. You are basically guaranteed a minion every turn, with more or less useful random keyword. Sometimes it might be a crucial Divine Shield or Poisonous, but anything helps not falling behind on tempo. It seems to be in Pool 2 of Treasures, so that's one drawback if paired with strong alternatives.
Another wide board aura effect, as if made for Harvest Time! and Illidari Strike. And pretty much anything (hint: spells) that spawns multiple minions for cheap. Also seems to be in Pool 2.
[Hearthstone Card (Ooops, All Spells!) Not Found]
Now here's a fun one. Okay, maybe not so fun in the hands of opposing Mind Tether Priest. But it opens up opportunities to experiment with in Mage, Demon Hunter, or any other class where you can come up with a fitting game plan. The effect is undoubtedly powerful. Looks like a Pool 2 pick.
It does look potent at a glance (and apparently from Pool 2), but the effect is random and doesn't seem to be limited only to enemy minions. Not so deathly after all; usually there should be more reliable options to choose from. But maybe Hunters will take it for a spin.
Not so inspiring in light of many better discount treasures, and it might not even be working fully as intended. If you recall the early Nazmani Bloodweaver bug with lowering the cost of cards that were already at 0 mana, we've seen a few reports of similar issues. But even after the fix you might prefer several other Pool 2 picks.
You could always highroll with something such as Woecleaver or The Runespear. Or mill yourself with Aluneth.Sphere of Sapience would still be more useful for most classes than Skull of the Man'ari. Should be another pool 2 mainstay.
And besides that? The last time we closely looked at the treasures, the big question was whether yet another nerf to Rally the Troops could finally balance the odds. A month later, we can tell that it still quite hasn't. Still arguably the most powerful of the bunch, still being dubbed 'Rally the Broken", it even had Death Games decks doing weird things by including a good deal of Battlecry cards just for a chance this treasure gets offered. Now it has another buddy in Meek Mastery. If somebody hits those two together with the right kind of deck, 12 wins should be all theirs.
While we don't have the exact official data for many of the % treasure appearance rates (only what the community pieces together), we do know that the system has become less deterministic again, and it's become harder to always force the same handful of treasures by including specific cards in your starter deck. Sometimes you will get there, sometimes you will whiff. The gap between weak and powerful treasures feels even greater nowadays, so that's what's often going to determine how successful your run is going to be.
Dungeon Runs or Kobolds & Catacombs
Close to 4 years ago now, this was the very expansion which brought us a full-fledged concept of a PvE Dungeon Run, and everyone fell in love with it back then. It was then iterated on in some of the following sets. Years later, that's the foundation the current PvP Duels mode is based on, with some tweaks here and there that have been added since. So it's oddly fitting to have cards from that set available to play with.
Besides Legendary weapons for every class, it's where we first learned about Rogue Secrets, got Spellstones, used Recruit keyword, and saw a handful of cards become fairly notorious in their own right (primarily the 'sleeper' Corridor Creeper, which had to be heavily nerfed in turn). Remember some of those?
Quote From Tabayrak We felt like Kobolds was a great set to add at this time. I am very excited for the reintroduction of Legendary Weapons. Sorry no Dragon Shaman yet :P
There are certainly a few new potential themes to explore. Who knows, maybe we will even see some fresh archetypes rise up.
Kick the Bucket(-s)
A few additions here as well, if we are keeping track:
Quote From Blizzard Seven new designer card buckets have been added as well:
- Furious Fel (Demon Hunter)
- AHHHH RATS!!!! (Hunter)
- Fire!!! (Mage)
- SI:7 (Rogue)
- ARRRRRRG! (Warrior)
- Auction House (Neutral)
- Live to Win (Neutral)
Smart buckets have also been updated to include the two new card sets, and two previously missed card sets: Legacy (Classic/Basic) and Demon Hunter Initiate.
You have to admit they pick truly cute names for those.
Don't Ban Me
When building your starter deck there is always that helpful "Banned" text plastered across a card, but it's a little different when it comes to knowing what you might or might not see throughout various bucket offerings. Soon we are going to need a proper spreadsheet just for this:
Quote From Blizzard The following cards have been banned from between-game card buckets and will not be Discoverable:
- Final Showdown
- Lost in the Park
- Defend the Dwarven District
- Sorcerer's Gambit
- Rise to the Occasion
- Seek Guidance
- Find the Imposter
- Command the Elements
- The Demon Seed
- Raid the Docks
Other Banned cards:
- Unstable Evolution is banned from card buckets but will still be Discoverable.
- Maestra of the Masquerade is banned from deckbuilding, card buckets, and will not be Discoverable.
So in short, no Questlines to be found in buckets (we have already covered the official reasoning behind that earlier in the article) - but starter decks are fair game, same as with all other Quest mechanics to date; and no Maestra of the Masquerade antics allowed for anyone in any manner whatsoever, folks! Let's shed a tear.
Bugs and Fixes
New patch, a couple of potential new issues. But also a few resolutions for former problems. Here is what we got:
Quote From Blizzard Hey everyone,
We’re aware of the following issues with the 21.0 Patch, which went live today:
- Some Duels players were not transferred to the next Duels season.
- Pave the Way, the second portion of the Paladin Questline, does not upgrade Duels-only Paladin Hero Powers.
Both issues are being monitored and will be addressed in a later patch. In the meantime, any Duels players who were not transferred to the next Duels season can reach out to Customer Service in order to be manually transferred over.
About how effects tied to Hero Powers might mesh with the current Duels ones:
Quote From Tabayrak We have not come to a conclusion on how it will interact just yet. I would not expect something flashy. :P
And our fixes:
Quote From Blizzard
- Fixed a Duels bug where Diamond cards would only be Diamond in appearance for the first game of a run.
- Fixed a Duels bug where Lone Champion and minions summoned by Gift of Luminance were not buffed by Hold the Line.
- Updated the description of the Roguish Maneuvers Hero Power in Duels to be more accurate.
You will undoubtedly stumble onto another bug or several while playing Duels, as there is no shortage of strange interactions. And it's definitely quite a headache trying to catch everything. For example Hunters keep finding Shenanigans among their Secret offerings. If you can, it's worthwhile to report if something looks broken.
That about covers where we are at with Duels while heading towards the famous gates of Stormwind city. How have your first impressions been so far? Or maybe you are waiting with your runs until the expansion proper and/or another balance patch?
Comments
Were past quests ever discoverable in constructed? I started a bit before the RR launch and I don't recall ever getting a quest from a discover a spell card.
Not that I recall either, it would've made relatively little sense. But in an environment like Duels where anything goes... I can see why they might need to specify.
The new spell treasure is pretty good and I even managed to get 12 wins with it with a rogue solely focusing on going face. It does however seem quite rare and inconsistent to get as i havent seen it since, and i have even tried making decks with 100% spells in order to try and get it again.
It is sadly not the most broken new treasure though, because meek mastery brings many decks to a whole new level. This the case for both murloc and elemental shaman which is both super consistent decks and also were super good before the update. Now shaman is just too consistent with three good permanent treasures in each pool.
Also it is nice to see quest are only banned from buckets when i first read the patch notes i thought they were banned entirely
The new Spell Treasure seems really broken, you thin your entire deck and just draw all of the good stuff. Not bad at all!
I really enjoyed Duels for the last month or so. It's a interesting middleground between contructed and arena mixed with a bit of chaos. But I do wonder when the mode will get a new theming and heroes. The later one was already confirmed to come later this year in the Blizzcon q&a.
Oh an there is a small mistake in the Article
Just like the Ungoro quests you will be able to put them into your starterdeck, you are just unable to find them in the buckets.
Oh, not a mistake per se. It was just referring to the earlier developer quote as well as the linked patch notes (both clarifying that it's about buckets-only ban), but I can see how it could read differently out of context! I have added a line to make it even clearer.
"A bit of chaos" might be a generous way to put it. ;) But it can be good fun. And yes, I believe their early plan included more new heroes and powers by now. Presumably that's all tied to the Mercenaries mode, and since that has been delayed, so could the relevant theme for Duels. Hopefully we won't have to wait that much longer.