We've got an expansion launching later today and with it comes an exciting set rotation, and one that is going to redefine what standard is for years to come. Forged in the Barrens is almost here and here's everything you want to know for the release.
Forged in the Barrens is now live!
Forged in the Barrens Fast Facts
- 135 new cards are being added to the game. Visit our Forged in the Barrens Expansion Guide to see all of them.
- New Keyword: Frenzy - Effects that are triggered the first time a minion survives damage. It's like we're all playing Warrior.
- Spell Schools - Spell cards can now have tribes! Much like Murlocs and Pirates, you'll find new synergies within spells.
- Ranked Spells - Each class has a special spell that levels up as you gain more mana crystals. You can see them here.
- Core Set - 235 card evergreen set! (View Cards)
- Goodbye to Basic and Classic of the past and welcome to a brand new core set.
- 31 of the cards in the set are completely new.
- You will see some cards in the set from old expansions.
- Available for free to all players. Cards are unlocked through leveling your heroes.
- More Deck Slots - We can now save 27 decks, up from 18!
- If you want to save money on card packs, we have a guide on Amazon Coins.
Reminder: Sync Your Collection to Out of Cards Automatically
We've got a plugin available for Hearthstone Deck Tracker! You can use this plugin to automatically sync your collection which can help you find decks to play on the site with personalized crafting costs.
- You can access your collection manager by using your user dropdown on the site's navigation. Click "HS Collection".
- Collections are private and are not shared with other users.
- Calculations are performed in-browser to prevent the servers from melting.
Forged in the Barrens Rewards Track
The rewards track has been revamped for Forged in the Barrens! Based on community feedback, Blizzard has made the following changes:
- More Rewards - We can get golden cards now throughout the track.
- 100 Base Levels - The experience to get to the end of the pass is the same, but you earn rewards more often.
- Year of the Phoenix Packs - Great if there are certain expansions from last year you don't have a full set from yet.
- Rerolling Weekly Ranked Wins Quest - Yup, if you don't play ranked, you can just reroll the quest!
Forged in the Barrens Diamond Cards
The Forged in the Barrens Tavern Pass has also included the first-ever set of Diamond Cards! This is a brand new cosmetic tier for cards and they are only available through the pass.
Two cards in Forged in the Barrens are getting this treatment:
- Diamond Blademaster Samuro
- Instantly obtainable by purchasing the Forged in the Barrens Tavern Pass and claiming the card on the Rewards track.
- Diamond Bru’kan
- Obtained by completing the Forged in the Barrens Legendary Collector 5/5 Achievement (Collect all Legendary cards from the set.)
Forged in the Barrens New Achievements
Blizzard has added a fresh batch of achievements to the game for Forged in the Barrens. If you're looking to farm experience, these have some great potential in helping you complete the rewards track earlier than by just playing games alone. You can check out all the new achievements here which includes those that do and don't reward experience.
Remember: Once the next expansion comes out, Forged in the Barrens achievements will no longer reward XP, so do them while they are worth it!
Forged in the Barrens Day 1 Theorycraft Budget Decks
Not everyone is playing with their wallet open so we've got some great budget theorycrafts you can check out including a Warlock deck that is 100% free with Core Set cards!
Forged in the Barrens Day 1 Theorycraft Wild Decks
Not everyone is going to be diving into Standard after they open their Forged in the Barrens packs so we've put together some awesome wild theorycraft decks!
Forged in the Barrens Day 1 Theorycraft Standard Decks
We've got a round of theorycrafted decks for Standard players straight out of our card reviews! Click on any of these to go to the deck pages and get yourself a deck code for importing.
Forged in the Barrens Class Reviews
Our team of definitely-never-been-wrong-before writers have put together reviews on each of Hearthstone's 10 classes. If you're looking to kill some time before the launch or need to do some last-minute catching up on the cards, we highly recommend checking them all out. You may even learn something!
Forged in the Barrens Community Compendium
I voted, you voted, we all voted; And then the math gods did some calculations and the scores are in! Our Forged in the Barrens Community Compendium is now live and showcases the best and worst cards before we got a chance to play with them. How well will we do? We'll have to check back in a few weeks!
Comments
wouldn't have worked anyways. Zoo draws a lot, but still not enough to actually empty your deck by the time you need Neeru to come down.
Essentially you'll be out of gas by the time you have ~5 cards remaining and at that point you're trying to just hold on until you can play Neeru at which any deck will just out tempo you.
I don't believe Self-Mill Warlock is gonna work, but if anyone considers trying it out, I would suggest adding Envoy Rustwix. It would be great to shuffle Primes into your deck after Neeru Fireblade, delay some fatigue damage and get Primes. There is a chance of Envoy Rustwix getting milled, but that's not your win condition anyway.
Self Mill Warlock seemed really good to me just reading Neeru’s text, because it says the portal fills the board “each turn”. I took this to mean the same as “every turn” similar to Gruul or Kel’thuzad. If that was the case the six 3/2s summoned at the end of your opponent’s turn could attack at the start of your turn. But watching theorycrafting streams looked like it’s just at the end of your turns. So it’s nowhere near as strong as I first thought, and may in fact be too slow depending on the meta. But we’ll see.
They could make it "at the start of each turn", but since the portal is permanent and can't be removed, it is probably too strong.
18 damage worth of stats every turn looks great, and control decks will run out of AoE eventually. Fatigue can be the real enemy. I'll definitely try it out, I like Warlock and meme decks, but most probably it's not a Tier 1 deck.
End of every turn could be really good, but it depends on how quickly you can empty the deck, and how much (self) damage you took in the process. Also, playing the archetype at all will depend on if you drew Neeru or if he got burned off the top of your deck. But in this scenario, as soon as you reach that point of the portal opening the game just becomes a face race. I mean no one would trade if they understood imps summon end of turn so they can attack immediately.
Start of every turn might be okay. If the board is cleared the 3/2s that you get start of turn can’t attack right away. So the opponent could make smart trades to limit damage even though the board will just refill, while also sending some damage face to let the Warlock fatigue or set up a lethal against them the next turn.
With what it is right now I think the portal can win some games, but they will be more meme worthy games unless there’s something we’re all missing. Maybe future support is coming to restock your deck, similar to Espionage or Archivist.
For it to essentially have 'charge', the wording as to be as per Neeru's card description; 'each turn' or otherwise it would just go to sleep at the start of your turn and if your opponent clears it when it appears at the start of his turn.
Too bad it isn't. I still think the card description on Neeru should be explicit that the portal only summons at the end of your turn. At least the portal will be shown when you scroll over it on the card collection book.
Just in case anyone is interested in looking at it.
Don't look directly at Imp Portals! Or was it the Sun, I always confuse those two...