A game update is now live and that means duplicate protection is here! Get cracking open those packs!

Please Note: You must patch before this is active - be safe! Mobile, updates always lag behind desktop.

Originally announced when Ashes of Outland and Year of the Phoenix were announced (see our huge recap), it is now no longer possible to receive duplicates of any card until you have collected all the cards of a particular rarity in a set. Here's how it works:

  • Previously, only Legendary cards received duplicate protection.
  • Now, Legendary, Epic, Rare, and Common cards are protected.
  • This applies to every expansion that has ever come out.

There is an extra level of detail here now though to prevent abuse of the system. Cards now get marked as collected as you receive them even if you disenchant them. This would curb abuse should a card be nerfed so you can't just keep opening packs to get plenty of dust. It also prevents you from targeting certain golden cards, as was possible with legendaries in the past (though really, the chances were so low it didn't matter). Here's an example of how that works.

  • I open an Ashes of Outland card pack.
  • I receive an Enhanced Dreadlord, it is marked as collected internally.
  • I decide to Disenchant the Dreadlord. My collected count for this card remains at 1.
  • I open another Enhanced Dreadlord. I've now collected 2 in my lifetime.
  • I disenchant Enhanced Dreadlord. I cannot open this card again in a pack until I have collected 2 of every Ashes of Outland rare.

It will be a bit weird at first to not see duplicates, but this is a fantastic change since it allows players to collect Common and Rare cards quicker from sets, lowering the cost of entry to a new set. If you want a full set of Epics of Legendaries, that'll still require quite a few card packs, though we won't be opened 4 of the same Epic anymore which is going to feel amazing.

One nice benefit of the "collected" tracking is that you can safely disenchant a card at any point in time and you won't have to see it again until you've collected the full set of cards of a particular rarity in a given expansion.

Quote From Blizzard

A few years back, we made changes to how opening card packs works to ensure that every time you got a Legendary card, it would be one that you didn’t already have. Starting March 26, we’re extending this to cards of all rarities!

Once this change goes live, you will no longer receive more than two copies of any Common, Rare, or Epic until you have owned two copies of all cards of that rarity in a set. Crafting a card counts towards acquiring it, and any cards you acquire and later disenchant (whether golden or non-golden) count as well. This means that if you get a card that you don’t want, you can disenchant it and you will not receive it again until you have all cards of that rarity from that set. This change does not affect the overall distribution of rarities in card packs.