Descent of Dragons Launch Survival Guide - Everything You Need To Know

Descent of Dragons launches in less than 24 hours, and we've put together all the information you might want about the release.

Descent of Dragons Fast Facts

• Descent of Dragons launches with 140 new cards - 135 of these can be opened in packs, while the other 5 are freebies!
• Pre-orders for the expansion will end when the expansion launches, so if you want to take advantage of the deal or just get that Deathwing portrait, make sure to do so soon!
• With the launch of the expansion the in-game shop will be receiving an update. Details below.
• As is customary now, Arena will have a new rotation of cards available. Details below.
• The single-player content, Galakrond's Awakening, will be launching in January and will introduce an additional 35 cards to the game! We currently don't know what the price of it will be; a reasonable guess would be ~$20 or 2800 gold, so keep that in mind while purchasing, especially if you're F2P.
• Speaking of purchasing, we have a guide on Amazon Coins if you're interested in saving some money on card packs.

Descent of Dragons Freebies

As mentioned before, we're getting quite a few freebies this time around!

• Log in anytime in the first 90 days to receive 3 free Descent of Dragons packs, along with two copies of Shield of Galakrond.
• Upon opening your first Descent of Dragons pack, you'll be rewarded with the five Legendary Galakrond Hero Cards, for free!
• Additionally, there's a 6 Quest chain for a total of 5 Descent of Dragons packs, 2 Saviours of Uldum packs, 2 Rise of Shadows packs, and 200 Gold. Make sure you leave a Quest slot open for these - it's likely a new one will unlock each day after the expansion launches.

Quote From Out of Cards

Quest Chain: Dragons Descend! (1)

• Desc: Play 30 cards in Play mode.
• Reward: 1x Descent of Dragons Pack

 Quest Chain: Dragons Descend! (2)

• Desc: Draw 30 cards in any mode.
• Reward: 1x Descent of Dragons Pack & 1x Rise of Shadows Pack

Quest Chain: Dragons Descend! (3)

• Desc: Win 3 games in any mode.
• Reward: 1x Descent of Dragons Pack & 1x Saviors of Uldum Pack

Quest Chain: Dragons Descend! (4)

• Desc: Play 20 Spells in any mode.
• Reward: 1x Descent of Dragons Pack & 1x Rise of Shadows Pack

Quest Chain: Dragons Descend! (5)

• Desc: Take 50 turns.
• Reward: 1x Descent of Dragons Pack & 1x Saviors of Uldum Pack

Quest Chain: Dragons Descend! (6)

• Desc: Play 100 cards.
• Reward: 200 Gold

Descent of Dragons Launch Day Goals

• Log in and claim your freebies (see above).
• Craft any golden legendaries you want; with duplicate protection on packs, you won't open a second normal copy of them until you own all the legendaries.
• Open up your card packs! You're guaranteed a Legendary in the first 10.
• Share your deck ideas with us! You can use our deckbuilder to show them off. Don't forget to write a guide!

Descent of Dragons Mechanics

• Galakrond and Invoke - Your five free Galakronds come with their own buildaround keyword, as seen on the also free Shield of Galakronds. Invoking powers up Galakrond and activates his Hero Power. There are 12 Invokers, 5 cards which benefit from Invocation, and the 5 Galakronds.
• Sidequests - The anti-EVIL classes all have access to these. They function like Quests, but don't start in your opening hand, and multiple can be played at once (even alongside Quests themselves).There are 8 in total, 2 each for the four classes.
• Explorers - Each of these Dragons Discover a Dragon themselves. The anti-EVIL classes get one each.
• Breaths - Spells which gain additional power when holding a Dragon. Each class gets one.

Standard Card Pool and Arena Rotation

The Standard card pool gains a new expansion, retaining all those it had before - rotation doesn't happen until the first expansion each year.

Your new Standard card pool is:

• Basic & Classic
• The Witchwood
• The Boomsday Project
• Rastakhan's Rumble
• Rise of Shadows
• Saviors of Uldum
• Descent of Dragons

As we've come to expect, Arena will be receiving a new rotation of cards with the launch of Descent of Dragons.

Your new Arena rotation is:

• Basic & Classic
• Blackrock Mountain
• The Grand Tournament
• One Night in Karazhan
• Knights of the Frozen Throne
• Rastakhan's Rumble
• Descent of Dragons

The five Galakronds, along with Invoke cards, will not be available to draft in Arena.

New and Improved Shop

Also now live is an overhaul of the in-game shop.

• Adventures and Wild card packs return, with the option to purchase card packs with gold.
• Alleria, Magni and Medivh have left the shop for an undetermined amount of time.
• The Priest hero, Tyrande, will be available to all players for free from the shop with the expansion launch.
• The new Hunter hero, Sylvanas, will be available for purchase for an undetermined (but limited) amount of time. Price: $9.99
• The Winter Veil Bundle will be available for purchase starting from December 19th through to January 7th. Contains 30 card packs (6 each from non-Descent of Dragons Standard expansions) and the new Druid Hero, Dame Hazelbark. Price: $24.99

Theorycraft Decks

The community has been hard at work thinking up deck ideas - here are some of them!

Regis Killbin

Dekkster

Funki Monki