A quick PSA about dusting cards

Note: this article mainly concerns newer, and especially free to play players, so if you're more experienced at the game or don't mind spending a quick buck, then you can ignore this post. However, I am sure most people have made this mistake at least once.

During the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion, my legendary from the first bunch of packs was Hadronox. I took a look at it, thought about it for a good few seconds, and immediately dusted it for a few rares. Then, less than a month later, Taunt Druid becomes a tier one deck, and I have almost all the cards necessary except for one: Hadronox, the core component that makes the deck work. Me being a budget F2P at the time, I couldn't manage to scrounge up enough dust in time to re-craft him.

Another, more recent example, during the Boomsday expansion, my buddy got Dr. Boom, Mad Genius as his free legendary. He tried in vain to make Mech Warrior work throughout Boomsday and Rastakhan's Rumble, but couldn't do it. He eventually gave up and dusted him (he hated playing Odd Warrior). And what do you know, a few expansion later, in the Rise of Shadows, Warrior has two tier 1 decks, both of which include Dr. Boom, Mad Genius. Granted, you don't need him to make the deck work, but it's just such a powerful card that you're really shooting yourself in the foot of you don't use it.

The moral of the story is: don't just dust cards willy-nilly. Suppose you opened Harrison Jones, but you REALLY need that 400 dust to make a second Academic Espionage for your Tess Rogue deck. But soon, you may regret that decision, not just because of the card you crafted, but because you don't have that legendary anymore. What if there's a new weapon-oriented deck like Kingsbane Rogue taking over the meta? You now no longer have an effective way of dealing with that deck. Many classic legendaries will constantly find their way into the meta no matter what, simply because most of them are either tech cards (e.g. Harrison Jones) or they're just good enough to put into the deck (e.g.Edwin VanCleef). And they never rotate, so they will likely find a place in some deck eventually. For a similar reason, it's good to hold onto some underwhelming expansion legendaries as well. It's often the case that Blizzard will print a legendary card one expansion, then print cards to support it in a  future one (e.g. Tess Greymane and Academic Espionage), or eventually someone will figure out a deck using that legendary that happens to be very strong (e.g. Kangor's Endless Army and Mech paladin).

The worst feeling for a F2P player is being unable to make a deck because you're just missing one legendary, but you opened it before and dusted it. So I think that if you open a legendary in your pack, you should hold on to it at least for a while. Now, there are exceptions: you could just open a bad legendary like Tyrantus or Harbinger Celestia, or you could get a card for a deck that you know for sure that you won't play (I never play Priest, so I dusted my Raza the Chained and didn't regret it, even when Razakus Priest was stupidly overpowered). Worst case scenario, it's 400 dust in card form, but by dusting it you lose the ability to potentially make a deck. Think of it like having government bonds, but in the form of cards. If you don't need the dust right now, then don't dust it. The disenchant value of cards don't go down over time, so you won't lose anything for the time being. 

Sorry if this has already been posted before, but I've had to suffer quite a bit because of this, so I'd rather other people learn from this mistake. Hopefully this helps someone.

There is another situation with classic cards also.

Dusting classic cards (Especially Legendaries) makes you lose more value in time.

I will explain with my own experience;

Got Leeroy Jenkins on beta as my first legendary. I looked at him, Never liked to play aggro and d/e him. After bunch of seasons, I got another copy of him from a pack and d/e'd it instantly again. After years, they announced no-duplicate legendary rule. I had many classic legendaries and got him again, in that time I was still hating to play aggro and d/e him again. In time i got 1 more copy I didn't d/e'd it since i needed 400 dust for crafting Baku the Mooneater.

It was 4 time i got Leeroy Jenkins and still I don't own a copy and guess what ? I want him now and I know as soon as I got it from a pack, it will be hof'ed. :@ I can't craft him because of my mistakes because I will lose more dust value if i craft it. I am still expecting him from my packs. :|


What I am trying to say is, If you don't like a classic legendary and dust it, You will lower your chance to get another one since there is no-duplicate legendaries rule. When you d/e it, you have a chance to get another copy of it and it makes you lose dust value in total.

I have lost chances to get 4 another legendary cards (2 in real because 2 were before duplicate rule) + 1600 dust value now if i craft it it will cost me 3200 dusts. So basically those mistakes costs me 6 legendaries it means 9600 dust. I have lost 9600 dust to get 1600 dust.

Don't make same mistakes and never disenchant legendary cards, Especially classics. Don't even disenchant any cards. Disenchanting makes you lose in long term. Disenchant only extra copies and goldens (if goldens matter nothing to you like me)

This is the only reason Hir'eek, the Bat is still in my collection...

So I should keep my Illidan Stormrage then?

Do I have to? 

I never dust any legendaries.. at all.. the dust value from them is so low..

I AM NOT.. convinced!

Having the card is nice but do you Use it?  I'll still wait till I feel inspired and need a specific card to dust him but the future looks dim for ol' Illidan.

IMO, it's not that hard to tell between a useless card and a card that is currently unplayed but has potential

• Any card that is currently seeing play, or historically saw play shouldn't be dusted, even if you don't like the deck it's in (Leeroy, Harrison, Dr Boom, Scargil).  There's a couple reasons for this
  • Powerful cards are more likely to get hall of famed or nerfed
  • Cards powerful enough to see play in one deck at some point are likely to be powerful enough to show up in other decks (eg. Leeroy was historically in a few combo decks and also renolock)
• Any unplayed card with unique but synergistic or conditional effects should be kept (Hadronox, Raza, Krag'wa, Hir'eek, Commander Rhyssa, Kangor's army).  If cards are printed that facilitate those conditions and synergies, it can become playable
• Any unplayed card with unique/powerful effects but is currently in a dead class/archetype should be kept (Fel Lord Betrug, Arch-Villain Rafaam).  Controlock just needs to stop sucking, in these cases

• Any unplayed card with basic, replaceable effects and no synergy is an easy dust (Griftah, Gral, Illidan, Toki)... unless you never dust legendaries so you don't open them again, of course

I only ever dust wild cards that are not usable by Priest. I basically picked a class for wild and only keep those cards (plus neutrals) that way I don't have to spend too much on standard (I have all the cards for standard) and I get to have fun in wild as there are plenty of different decks you can play just using one class in wild.

I only dust duplicates. If I'm really desperate for dust I have a nice little piggy bank of dustable cards that I also have a golden copy of.

My rule of thumb is to keep any Classic Legendaries.  That way, should you open a pack with a legendary, it should be either a Golden one, or one you don't have.   That being said, I am 3 classes away from having all Golden Heroes, so I will typically only keep the Legendaries that I crack in expansions that I will use in my preferred classes.  But that's me.  I'm trying to gold out my Warlock class.

The problem with dusting legendary classic cards isthat you can get them back, however you will never get duplicate copies of the legendaries. I should know because I have dusted Lorewalker Cho a couple of times. Sometimes dusting a useless legendary is a necessary evil, though, because it's far cheaper to craft the card you need for a deck than buying tons of packs hoping to get the exact card you need. As a matter of fact, I think I got a lot of value out dusting Lorewalker Cho twice given that at the time I had the classic legendaries I needed anyway.

Everything else in the OP is right on, though. Legendaries that come to you should typically just stay in your collection, especially if they are part of an expansion set. Every expansion different cards become very important. As a matter of fact, between expansions it can also happen. Barista Lynchen didn't catch on until last month, really.

I stopped dusting anything except extras a while ago. I saved up and didn't dust cards for a long time then once I built up a bunch of duplicates I only dust cards when I have something specific to craft and only duplicates. It has saved me a lot when cards go from crap to great and I still have them. I think the key to smart use of dust is patience. If you want something right away you pay a premium for it. If you wait then you can work the system more intelligently. This strategy works out great when cards get nerfed too as I usually have them for dusting. 

Right now I only dust commons without any regard to anything. 

Home is a long way away.  I consider dusting a strategy and a big part of the game.  For instance, I play the same deck on all accounts - even the F2P ones.  I look at the cards and dust what I can to get a winning deck for the meta and hopefully beyond.  On my P2W account, I never dust anything except extras, but for F2P I would advise finding a deck you really like, something T1 in the meta, but also look for versatile cards like Zilliax that are good in everything.  Extra, Rarity:Legendary, and Rarity:Epic are a great dustmine.