In Friday's Hearthstone patch which brought the pre-order for the Forged in the Barrens and the free Shadow Hunter Vol'jin card, also came with several other goodies!
One of these goodies was a new card pack that will feature cards from the Year of the Phoenix. This is the second year in a row now that we're seeing a "year of" card pack get introduced into the game which makes it appear that this pack was a huge success for Blizzard, as it can be for players trying to bootstrap their last year collection.
The packs will contain cards from the following sets:
- Ashes of Outland
- Scholomance Academy
- Madness at the Darkmoon Faire (and mini set)
Last Year's Year of the Dragon Celebration Bundle
A couple of weeks into Ashes of Outland, Blizzard launched a celebratory bundle for Year of the Dragon. It included the following for $30 USD:
- 15 Year of the Dragon Packs
- 10 Rise of Shadows Packs
- 10 Saviors of Uldum Packs
- 10 Descent of Dragons Packs
For players that were missing a good chunk of cards from the previous year, it was a no-brainer purchase. With the rarity protection that launched shortly before the new year began, new and returning players could feel confident in the purchase.
New Year, New Me
With the upcoming Year of the Gryphon, it would only make sense for Blizzard to bring out another bundle that focused on the previous year. The completely free core set of cards is going to bring plenty of players back to the game who may not have solidified their collections last year and we're bound to get plenty of more newbies into the fray.
Whether you're thinking about coming back, new to Hearthstone, or still in it for the long haul, would you buy a bundle like the one we saw last year? Let us know in the comments below!
Open a Year of the Phoenix Pack
While they aren't yet available in-game, nor do we know when they will be, we've added the pack to our pack opening simulator!
Save your results to compete on the site leaderboards to see who can open the best pack.
![All The Great Dark Beyond Card Reveals for October 12 - Day 2 [Finished]](dark-beyond-reveals-day-2-thumb.webp)
Comments
Do I recall correctly that packs like these do adhere to the no-duplicates rule, but they have their own pity timer? Meaning 15 packs would guarantee you an epic, but don't hold your breath for a legendary?
So, say I have collected all of Scholomance and all of Darkmoon, these packs would basically be the same as Ashes of Outland packs, but on a separate timer?
Regarding the Simulator, I'm not exactly sure how packs get their scores, but I think golden cards are overestimated in value, especially epics. For example, I'm almost certain that double legendary is worth less points than a single golden epic.
I just feel that tweaking those numbers might make opening a few packs from time to time more fun than it is now, where without golden a pack is considered trash. Especially since it distracts me from buying real packs when i should save 😋
The simulator is just for fun. We value goldens like crazy and there are multipliers when you get multiple goldens to make packs go real crazy.
Don't read into it too much :D Just know that each pack opening uses the same rates of appearance as the real deal, we just don't take into account collections or pity timers because to do so would be against the point!
Hehe, I'm probably a bit obsessed with numbers 😅 Yeah, I won't worry too much, I just thought that feedback about simulator might be useful to you. It's still fun when I'm pack-hungry. Thanks for the reply!
It might be fun for you, but I am deadly serious!
(too much?)
The 'year of' packs should be introduced into the game at the start of the 3rd expansion. The reward track would have felt better if they were all 'year of the phoenix' packs instead of specific ones players might not need. Especially in the case of the Descent of the Dragons pack at level 45+.
It may also be time to start converting all the wild sets into 1 universal wild pack. The in-game shop is starting to get a little long even though it does appear aesthetically pleasing.
Recently I bought Wild packs to fill in my rares and commons. A little tedious, counting the missing cards to determine how many packs of each set to buy. A universal Wild pack would have been useful in that regard.
However I would still prefer packs from individual sets when I'm looking for a particular epic.
100% would have been nicer to have them earlier!
I don't know about a universal wild pack though. I'd much rather be able to make an educated decision on what packs I want to buy. If I wanted to make a mech-style deck, for example, I'd go for Goblins vs Gnomes or Boomsday Project packs before anything else.
I think it would be cool to have a wild pack available though in addition to everything else. It would be a great way to fill in spots, which is also why we probably won't see it, lol.
Maybe the Wild Packs could be for those Wild Mega Bundles. One pack type, you can open from sets A-D. More efficient in filling in the missing pieces if you have a big gap in sets A and C, but very few gaps in the others.
Last year was my first in Hearthstone, so I bought that previous year of the dragon bundle, and it helped greatly. After learning the tips and tricks to collection management I probably wouldn't need the Phoenix packs. Just want. But I want all the packs.
And so do you.
Get. Out. Of. My. HEAD!!
It is a shame that if nobody uses the pack opener, then the only link to it is tucked away.
There isn't much we can do about it, unfortunately. Putting it on the homepage doesn't work out and space on our navigation is at a premium. Sticking it under cards is really the best we can do.
A lot of people open a ton of packs each expansion though, so it definitely gets hit! People just don't save the bad packs :D
We might have to do some more site achievements for it. It might also be neat to link the packs on the relevant collectible card pages now that I think about it. Would be a nice spot for some extra promo.