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 120 days starting on April 1, 2020.
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 Class 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 Phoenix 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?
All of Hearthstone's 10 classes now have their own deck, with Demon Hunter being added in Madness at the Darkmoon Faire.
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
- We love the Paladin and Rogue lists. Both include important class cards, in addition to the respective Old Gods that can be used in multiple decks!
- Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Mage decks have the most legendaries for the best rarity value.
- The Druid deck is full of cards from the Year of the Phoenix expansions - 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!
- There are plenty of aggro decks available. Warlock and Demon Hunter seem like the best choices although the former is also the cheapest of these decks.
What are the Full Decklists for the Free Decks?
You can find all the lists down below along with a quick description.
Demon Hunter - Faire Outcasts (Forged in the Barrens)
The Demon Hunter Deck, Faire Outcasts, is a Tempo deck that takes advantage of the class mechanic, Outcast.
Druid - Darkmoon Menagerie (Forged in the Barrens)
The Druid Deck, Darkmoon Menagerie, is a ramp deck. Overwhelm your opponent with Guardian Animals and other big minions, and resurrect them with N'Zoth, God of the Deep for the final blow.
Hunter - Petting Zoo (Forged in the Barrens)
The Hunter Deck, Petting Zoo, is an aggro deck. Disrupt your opponent's gameplan with your secrets and unleash the Petting Zoo to take over the board.
Mage - Brainpower (Forged in the Barrens)
The Mage Deck, Brainpower, is a tempo deck! If your Elementals and spells were not enough to get the job done, trust that Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate has your back.
Paladin - Justice of the Deep (Forged in the Barrens)
The Paladin Deck, Justice of the Deep, is a midrange deck that heavily utilizes the Libram mechanic. N'Zoth, God of the Deep provides another win condition by resurrecting a bunch of big minions.
Priest - Relentless Rally (Forged in the Barrens)
The Priest Deck, Relentless Rally, is a combo deck. Keep resurrecting Sethekk Veilweaver and Nazmani Bloodweaver and generate a ton of cheap spells to beat your opponent with while removing or stealing their own threats.
Rogue - Shattered Secrets (Forged in the Barrens)
The Rogue Deck, Shattered Secrets, is an aggro deck. Disrupt your opponent's gameplan with your secrets while working towards your eventual win condition - C'Thun, the Shattered.
Shaman - Infinite Doomhammer! (Forged in the Barrens)
The Shaman Deck, Infinite Doomhammer!, is a aggro deck. Use your hero to relentlessly attack your opponent and beat them down with Doomhammer.
Warlock - Big Top Brawlers (Forged in the Barrens)
The Warlock Deck, Big Top Brawlers, is an aggro deck. Manipulate your Mana with Darkglare to go wide right from the start and manipulate your health to cheapen your Flesh Giants.
Warrior - Whatley's Warriors (Forged in the Barrens)
The Warrior Deck, Whatley's Warriors, is a midrange deck. Take advantage of the multi-tribe support cards to out-tempo your opponent.
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.
Comments
If you have signed say at the end of april for the last time, can you login at the end of august and still get a free deck?
The blog with these Scholomance-updated decks said that 120 days is the limit. As long as that is fulfilled, you're good to go.
If you want to get into Wild, Pirate Warrior is Tier 1 currently. It shares many common cards with the starter deck listed here, you only need to craft a few commons, Patches the Pirate and Leeroy Jenkins. Both of which are extremely safe crafts and are used in many other aggro decks.
How do you find out what is the date when you logged in for the last time? And don't tell me that I have to login to figure it out, I am not falling for that :)
I believe there is something in Battle.net account management that shows you.
This was always really annoying how long it would take to get the free deck, I had some friends that tried to join when they heard about it and after learning how long they would need to play to get it they immediately dipped out.
Hunter seems the best one
Rogue seems to be the best value...
Priest is just scary....
This time around Hunter seems to be the best one