Great news for all Duelists out there! We will be getting a sizeable update alongside the release of Patch 20.0 on March 25, allowing us to play with Forged in the Barrens cards even before they become unlockable in Constructed modes.
Some of the other highlights include:
- New Passive Treasures
- New Core Set, Journey to Un'Goro and Forged in the Barrens joining the existing sets (Legacy Basic/Classic stay in too)
- A larger list of Banned Cards getting introduced (Self-Sharpening Sword will be unbanned)
- Updated unlocking criteria for Hero Powers and Signature Treasures
- A few Balance Updates along with other General Updates
Read on below for more details!
Quote From Blizzard The 20.0 patch includes a big update for Duels! When the patch hits on March 25, Duels ratings for Casual and Heroic will reset, and the pool of eligible cards you can use to build your 15-card starter deck will be updated as follows:
- (NEW) Forged in the Barrens
- (NEW) Core
- The Darkmoon Races Mini-Set
- Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
- Scholomance Academy
- (NEW) Journey to Un’Goro
- One Night in Kharazan
- Whispers of the Old Gods
- Curse of Naxxramas
- Legacy (Basic/Classic)
What’s more, Forged in the Barrens cards can be found in card buckets offered between matches in Duels before the expansion unlocks on March 30!
New Passive Treasures
The following Passive Treasures can now be found between matches in a Duels run:
Duels Balance Updates
Watermarks on cards pictured below are not final.
Frost Shards
- Old: [Costs 2] Deal 1 damage. Add a 1/1 Ice Shard that Freezes to your hand. → New: [Costs 1] Deal 1 damage. Add a 2/1 Ice Shard that Freezes to your hand.
Ice Shard
- Old: [Costs 1] Attack 1, Health 1. → New: [Costs 2] Attack 2, Health 1.
Dark Arts
- Old: Look at up to 4 cards in your hand and discard 1. Then, draw 1 card. → New: Look at up to 3 cards in your hand and discard 1. Then, draw 1 card.
Favored Racer
- Old: Battlecry: Cast 1 random blessing on this minion. (Improves during run) → New: Rush. Battlecry: Cast 1 random blessing on this minion. (Improves during run)
Tempest’s Fury
- Old: Attack 2, Durability 2. → New: Attack 2, Durability 3.
Connections
- Old: At the start of your turn, add a 1/1 Informant to your hand. → New: At the start of your turn, add a random 1-Cost minion to your hand.
Deathstrider
- Now has the Beast tag.
Banned Cards
We’re banning several cards from Duels in 20.0 for deckbuilding specifically, and then excluding a few more from card buckets. As you may have noticed, Self-Sharpening Sword has been banned in Duels since the mode launched. In the 20.0 patch, Self-Sharpening Sword will be unbanned from Deckbuilding, will become Discoverable, and can now show up in the Group Learning bucket.
Unbanned from Deckbuilding and Card Buckets:
- Self-Sharpening Sword
Banned from Deckbuilding:
- Ice Lance
- Sylvanas Windrunner
- Leeroy Jenkins
- Ice Block
- Doomguard
- Divine Favor
- Prophet Velen
- Auchenai Soulpriest
- Mind Blast
- Old Murk-Eye
- Divine Spirit
- Tour Guide
- Pen Flinger
- Lightning Bloom
- Nozdormu the Eternal
Banned from Card Buckets:
- Jungle Giants
- The Marsh Queen
- Open the Waygate
- The Last Kaleidosaur
- Awaken the Makers
- The Caverns Below
- Unite the Murlocs
- Lakkari Sacrifice
- Fire Plume’s Heart
Duels General Updates
We’ve made a few miscellaneous updates to Duels outside of the balance changes listed above. You might notice we’ve updated the general game flow to offer Passive/Active Treasures, adjust Health values, and offer card buckets at new intervals throughout a Duels run. Also, Spell Schools have been added to several Signature Treasures!
- Nature – Warden’s Insight, Marvelous Mycelium, Deadly Weapons 101, Chaos Storm
- Shadow – Fractured Spirits, Shadow Word: Void, Acquired Allies, Demonology 101
- Fel – Summoning Ritual, Gift of Legion, Binding Chains
- Holy – Men at Arms, Humble Blessings
- Fire – Elemental Learning
- Arcane – Infinite Arcane
We’ve also added six new buckets of cards that will appear between matches:
- Little Bites (Hunter)
- Razerrattle (Demon Hunter)
- Hero Power (Mage)
- Divine Duty (Priest)
- Hero Power (Neutral)
- Barrens Chat (Neutral)
Lastly, we’ve updated the unlock criteria for all Signature Treasures and Hero Powers to now count duplicates in your Collection, and no longer require unique cards.
Comments
"Duels General Updates" - slightly vague description...
"updated the general game flow to offer Passive/Active Treasures, adjust Health values, and offer card buckets at new intervals throughout a Duels run"
It would be nice to know the rules, before playing, you know :D
Yep. One of the most interesting parts and they don't give us details... typical.
Banning Nozdormu the Eternal
Team5, you fiends.
I wish they'd remove basic/legacy, and maybe other set.
Yeah, it's getting a little crowded in there. Then again we were already able to pick cards from various other sets through loot buckets. Duels was more like Wild in some instances.
Barren's chat loot bucket is now a must pick purely for that nostalgic trolling feeling
It sure is a great throwback name.
Still not keen on duels being tied to your collection but at least this is an improvement.
Have all the cards been revealed? don't we normally get a card dump after the last stream?
they have been revealed, gotta look at their site.
https://playhearthstone.com/en-us/cards?order=desc&set=forged-in-the-barrens&sort=dateadded
lol.
Do we get a arena/duels ticket for an open run?
Arena (Probably). I don't remember if it was actually confirmed that a Heroic Duels rewards a free ticket.
I tried this last expansion and I did receive a ticket for an open Arena run, but I did not get one for my open Heroic Duels run. Presumably, this is because no sets were removed, just added.
Yes, this. Last time we did not get a ticket for Duels, don't expect one this time either when no sets are being removed. Unless they change their philosophy without telling us (no harm to keep your run open at 2 losses if you are not trying to complete any more XP achievements).
For Arena we should be getting our "free" Tavern Ticket as usual.