~~ This thread has been archived, for up to date version go here. ~~

This thread is to be a home for legendary crafting advice. If you are not sure which legendary you should craft next, this is the place to ask! We only recommend disenchanting golden versions of legendary cards until you know you will not buy more packs from the corresponding set. Keeping even the worst legendaries will increase your chance of getting a good one next time due to the no-duplicate rule. We will try our best to stay on top of the meta-game with updates, and hope this thread can be a valuable resource for new and veteran players alike to make better decisions with your dust!

Disclaimer: A tier list like this can never please everyone; the meta game is dynamic. If you think a card is in the wrong tier, please explain and provide links to deck lists or other data to support your claim.

Please note that some of the cards may not yet be craftable, and are received through adventures or rewards.

 - Rise of Shadows
Archmage Vargoth - Strong synergies in many decks, notably token druid.
Keeper Stalladris - Staple in token druid, playable in other druid decks.

- Rastakhan's Rumble
Zul'jin - Staple in Secret and near staple in beast midrange hunter.

 - The Boomsday Project
Boommaster Flark - Staple in bomb-mech hunter.
Dr. Boom, Mad Genius - Staple in most warrior decks.
Subject 9 - Staple in secret paladin and hunter, playable secret heavy mage decks.
Zilliax - Very versatile card, playable in several successful decks for many classes.

 - The Witchwood
Darius Crowley - Good card in most warrior decks.

- Classic
Bloodmage Thalnos - Strong neutral card, playable in a variety of decks.
Harrison Jones - Evergreen neutral tech card, very strong in the current meta.
Leeroy Jenkins - Playable finisher in any aggressive deck.
Tirion Fordring - Staple mech paladin, playable in any slower paladin deck.

- Rise of Shadows
Archivist Elysiana - Staple in control warrior, playable in all slower decks as anti-control tech.
Arch-Villain Rafaam - Staple in zoolock, playable in other warlock decks
Commander Rhyssa - Staple in Secret and Secret Mech paladin.
Blastmaster Boom - Staple in bomb warrior decks.
Heistbaron Togwaggle Strong synergy with EVIL Miscreant in tempo rogue but is replaceable.
Kalecgos -Staple in Khadgar dragon mage.
Khadgar - Build-around for slower mage decks running Conjurer's Calling.
Oblivitron - Staple in mechrattle hunter.
Scargil - Staple in murloc shaman.
Swampqueen Hagatha - Interesting card playable in any shaman deck, notably Murloc shaman.

- Rastakhan's Rumble
Captain Hooktusk - Playable in slower pirate rogue decks.
High Priest Thekal - Staple in several heal-heavy decks, synergy with Nozari.
Wardruid Loti - Good card in token druid, playable in other druid decks.

- The Boomsday Project
Kangor's Endless Army - Staple in mech deathrattle paladin.
The Soularium - Strong in zoolock, but the archetype is playable without it.

- The Witchwood
Hagatha the Witch - Strong value card in all slower shaman decks.
Houndmaster Shaw - Good card in mechrattle hunter.

- Classic
Al'Akir the Windlord - Strong, flexible classic card.
Alexstrasza - Staple in several combo decks, playable in most control decks.
Archmage Antonidas - Staple in Mana Cyclone spell mage, playable in other mage decks.
Captain Greenskin - Strong card in Bomb warrior and Tempo rogue.
Malygos - Staple in OTK Combo decks, synergy with Jepetto Joybuzz.
The Black Knight - Evergreen neutral tech card, not great in the current meta but safe long term craft.
Ysera - Strong, slow neutral value card.

- Rise of Shadows
Barista Lynchen - Playable in Dragon paladin and Warrior, might find new uses in the future.
Catrina Muerte - Staple in resurrect combo priest.
Chef Nomi - Build-around in Nomi priest.
Jepetto Joybuzz - Staple in Malygos spell hunter, combo potential.
The Boom Reaver - Staple in Big warrior.
Vereesa Windrunner - Staple in Malygos hunter, playable in several spell heavy decks.
Zayle, Shadow Cloak - Interesting card but some of his decks are pretty weak.

- Rastakhan's Rumble
Akali, the Rhino - Playable in Rush warrior.
Da Undatakah - Slow card with strong synergies in mech hunter and mech paladin.
Gral, the Shark - Niche card in tempo rogue.
Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk - Playable in Khadgar mage.
Mojomaster Zihi - Tech card vs combo decks, struggles in the standard meta. Tier 1 in Wild.
Oondasta - Synergy with Witchwood Grizzly and other big beasts in control decks.
Shirvallah, the Tiger - Playable in several heal-heavy decks, hurt by Equality nerf.
War Master Voone - Playable in dragon warrior.

- The Boomsday Project
Crystalsmith Kangor - Playable in paladin decks built for healing synergy.
Electra Stormsurge - Low play rate, but playable in most shaman decks.
Floop's Glorious Gloop - Playable in token druid, low play rate.
Mecha'thun - Unique win condition, better in the Wild format. 
Myra's Unstable Element - Hurt by the Rogue nerfs.
Stargazer Luna - Playable in most mage decks, worse win rate after the Standard rotation
The Boomship - Playable in slower warrior decks, decent win rate.
The Storm Bringer - Playable in murloc shaman.
Whizbang the Wonderful - Mediocre win rate but highly recommended for new players. Golden card value!
Zerek's Cloning Gallery - Staple in Malygos otk priest.

 - The Witchwood
Archmage Arugal - Playable in summoner mage.
Azalina Soulthief - Playable as emergency hand refill in several decks.
Countess Ashmore - Versatile neutral card, playable in warrior and hunter decks.
Shudderwock - Playable in murloc and overload shaman.

- Classic
Baron Geddon - Has yet to find a home after the Standard rotation.
Cairne Bloodhoof - Playable in deathrattle and midrange decks, low play rate.
Cenarius - Playable in treant and token druid.
Edwin VanCleef - Hurt by the rogue nerfs.
Grommash Hellscream - Playable in Rush and tempo based warrior decks.
Onyxia - Playable in dragon decks.

- Rise of Shadows
Lucentbark - Staple in Juicy Psychmelon heal druid.
Nozari - Unique effect, playable in Dragon paladin but very low win rate.

- Rastakhan's Rumble
Hakkar, the Soulflayer - Playable in mill decks, can have potential in the future.
Hex Lord Malacrass - Weak card mainly used in Khadgar mage.
Halazzi, the Lynx - Sees fringe play in faster hunter decks.
High Priestess Jeklik - Struggles to find a home after the Standard rotation.
Krag'wa, the Frog - Playable in aggro shaman.
Princess Talanji - Struggles to find a home after the Standard rotation.
Zentimo - Niche pick for aggressive shaman decks.

- The Boomsday Project
Flark's Boom-Zooka - Niche pick for mechrattle hunter.
Flobbidinous Floop - Good card in Heal druid, synergy with Lucentbark.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy - Struggles to find a home after the Standard rotation.
Myra Rotspring - Playable in deathrattle rogue.

- The Witchwood
Dollmaster Dorian - Effect difficult to make good use of, even in deathrattle decks.
Glinda Crowskin - Niche tech in Magic Carpet zoolock, lackey synergy.
Lady in White - Playable in silence priest, low win rate.
Prince Liam - Struggles to find a home after the Standard Rotation.
Face Collector - Playable in thief rogue, low win rate.
Lord Godfrey - Slower warlocks struggle post rotation. Tier 2 in Wild.
Tess Greymane - Playable in thief rogue, low win rate.
The Glass Knight - Struggles to find a home after the Standard Rotation.
Toki, Time-Tinker - Inconsistent value card for mage.

- Classic
Deathwing - Playable in Big warrior, surprise tech in Mech paladin and other decks.
King Krush - Struggles to find a home after the Standard Rotation.
King Mukla - Struggles to find a home after the Standard Rotation.
Illidan Stormrage - Has seen play in token- and demon decks.
Lord Jaraxxus - Staple in handlock which is a niche deck in the current meta.
Prophet Velen - Struggles to find a home after the standard rotation. T2 in Wild.
Tinkmaster Overspark* -  Sees some play as neutral transform tech.

- Rise of Shadows
Fel Lord Betrug - Staple in weak Plot Twist warlocks, T4 in Wild.
Madame Lazul - Weak stats and questionable value, but tier 4 in Wild as playable in Razapriest.
Tak Nozwhisker - Playable in Thief and Pogo-Hopper rogue, very low win rate.

 - Rastakhan's Rumble
Bwonsamdi, the Dead - Synergy with Spirit of the Dead, very low play and win rate.
Gonk, the Raptor - Gonk OTK decks are not viable.
Griftah - Unreliable meme card, very low win rate.
Hir'eek, the Bat - Sees experimental play in hand-buff zoo, very low win rate.

- The Boomsday Project
Dr. Morrigan - Meme card, effect difficult to make use of.
Harbinger Celestia - Situational tech card vs. deck that skip early game minions.
Zerek, Master Cloner - Effect slow and difficult to make use of, low win rate.

- The Witchwood
Blackhowl Gunspire - Meme card, effect difficult to abuse.
Chameleos - Very weak and unreliable card.
Duskfallen Aviana - Enables some big plays...for your opponent.
Emeriss - Slow card, useless in current hunter decks.
Splintergraft -  Interesting, slow effect, playable in defensive druid decks.

 - Classic
Gruul - Very slow card
Hogger - Weak to AOE, has seen play in token decks and control warrior.
Lorewalker Cho - Meme card, needed for the longest hearthstone turn ever.
Millhouse Manastorm - A liability.
Nat Pagle - Outclassed by Novice Engineer.
Nozdormu - Meme card.
The Beast - A liability.

Awaiting placement: [Hearthstone Card (SN1P-Sn4ap) Not Found]

For details on how Standard will rotate, check out this thread!

I had the " Play three games as..." quest and one of them was priest. I hadn't played much Galakrond Priest since goofing around in week one of the expansion, so I thought I would pop over to casual and goof around with it. I am not a good deck builderso most of the time in these situations I pick the key cards I want to play with and let the game complete the deck. I grabbed Galakrond, hit autocomplete, and headed into casual to goof around with randomly generated priest minions from the invoke effect. 

I was slightly confused when my opening hand had the quest in it. I opened it back in the day but have never played it because I don't much care for the style. I don't have a full collection but do have all the commons and rares from each set so I thought maybe there was some odd combination of cards I owned that did something interesting. I drew Galakrond pretty quick but was frustrated by not drawing any invoke cards. I figured it was just my luck to have all the fun aspects of the deck at the bottom. The more cards I drew, the more it looked like some odd version of quest ressurect priest. I don't own [Hearthstone Card (Catarina Muerte) Not Found] but almost everything else from that deck surfaced. Since I thought I was playing to get to Galakrond (it even put two Hench-Clan Thug in the deck), I didn't play well and lost.  I decided to go back and look at the cards in my deck and discovered that there were zero invoke cards in it. That's right, it put in Kronx Dragonhoof and the thugs, but didn't give me anything else to use with it, much less upgrade to get the 5/2 claw so the thugs could get buffed. I just don't know what to think or if I can trust the autocomplete function again.

Edit: I would have to create the deck on the site to post it in the thread. It was pretty bad and I dont want anyone else thinking I really came up with it so I'll just leave it out.

Scion of Ruin is having its mana cost increased to 4, from 3, in a patch later this week.

How do you feel about this change?

Once these changes are live, players will be able to disenchant the adjusted cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.

Fiendish Rites is having its mana cost increased to 4, from 3, in a patch later this week.

How do you feel about this change?

Once these changes are live, players will be able to disenchant the adjusted cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.

Invocation of Frost is having its mana cost increased to 2, from 1, in a patch later this week.

How do you feel about this change?

Once these changes are live, players will be able to disenchant the adjusted cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.

Necrium Apothecary is having its mana cost increased to 5, from 4, in a patch later this week.

How do you feel about this change?

Once these changes are live, players will be able to disenchant the adjusted cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.

So, a week has passed since the expansion, and now, as the second week starts, the dust has settled (from the recent nerfs) and all the responsible players that do not craft something in the first week now have dust to spare.

In short: what about a crafting guide for the best 'Dragons cards? So that we know which Legendarys and Epics to craft and to dust?

Dragon's Pack is having the buff it gives reduced to +2/+2, from +3/+3, in a patch later this week.

How do you feel about this change?

Once these changes are live, players will be able to disenchant the adjusted cards for their full Arcane Dust value for two weeks.

So I made the mistake of asking this question on Reddit and mostly got only answers that we’re halfway thought out.

This question excludes Battlegrounds Tribal inclusions, patching, and Balance changes. This is a more long term question.

We see that battlegrounds has done a good job of bringing some older players back while attracting some new players, I don’t know how long they’ll stay but it’s still a good sign that change is effect for HS.

I often make the assumption that new formats would help but I’d like to know what others have in mind.

Playing mage these days is not a lot of fun. 

Cyclone has been refuted by recent power creep. 

Reno mage is solid value bet gets destroyed by aggro/deathrattle rogues. If you survive until turn 9 to unleash the zero mana dragons you are winning, but otherwise...not so much.

Chenvaala is just one card. 

Secret mage? Tempo mage? OTK/TTK mage? Exodia mage? Nope. Not. 

Quest mage? Not really. Some sidequests are decent. Reno is a good card. 

Secret mage? Looked promising but did not really deliver. At 3 mana they are slightly too expensive for an aggro deck.

So...maybe it is time for a new approach? Mech Mage? Murlocs? I tried dragons/reno and it can work. 

What do you guys think?

Happy New Year! Some items in this changelog have been previously deployed and were added just to keep you in the loop.

New Features

• Added Discord integration
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• New Ad Provider
  • We've changed ad providers, to NitroPay!
  • If you are in certain regions and are a non-premium user, you'll have some options.
    • European members will receive a GDPR prompt their first time visiting the site and any time they don't have the proper GDPR cookie set.
    • California members can click on a "Do Not Sell My Personal Information" link in the footer and on our privacy policy.
• Game Portals!
  • These are customizable homepages for an individual game. If you don't want to see anything from a particular game, you can visit them and bookmark them instead.
  • There is a known issue with forum threads showing up from all forums. We're not quite ready with that part yet ;)
  • A game portal is now live for Hearthstone.
  • A game portal is now live for Legends of Runeterra.

Changes

• The premium offerings for 6-month, 12-month, and a temporarily available lifetime subscription have been added to account management.
  • You can pay for a longer-subscription at a discount to support the site.
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  • Due to the manual process involved here, please give us up to 12 hours to get your account hooked up with premium access <3
• Ad placements are now manually defined, removing any chance of ads showing up in places we don't want them (comments I'm looking at you)
• Improved performance of the Hearthstone card database.
• Improved performance of comments.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue that was preventing Patreon premium users from properly being flagged as such.
• Fixed the third Hearthstone deck widget shown on the homepage
• Fixed TinyMCE errors when some plugins were unable to be loaded.

OK so here's my unpopular opinion question for January. I've been on the good and bad side of milling whilst playing Hearthstone. I understand its weakness and strengths and  that it can feel bad to play against. But what i dont see  is that it's any underhand than any of the shenanigans going on right now. There is some support fot it at the moment mainly in druid and some neutrals but I feel like it's kinda missing from the standard meta game, even though it would get thrashed by aggro

I think that when you are playing against a mill deck and you are not aggro there is this psychological pressure that you must maintain your hand size and play your outs as quickly as possible and that adds another layer to the game that's not there at the moment. 

I don't think the developers would do this and I realise I could just play wild to play this strategy but my post is more about standard. I think a 4 cost coldlight type  neutral card would be fair.

What are your thoughts? 

I’m finally going back to try and beat the only solo content I haven’t finished - Dalaran Heist chapter 5 heroic.  I have a pretty good deck but was just offered the duplatransmogrifier.

Question:  if I have a zero costed Obsidian Statue (discounted via Bobs Tavern) and use Duplatransmogrifier on it, will the other copies have the 0 cost?  I don’t want to screw my run up if all other copies cost 9.

Not a lot of action in the Other Modes forum so hoping for a quick answer here.

Thanks!

New balance changes landed today for Eternal with nerfs and buffs all around!

Promises by Firelight has had a major impact on the Throne metagame, and no card contributed to that impact as much as Endra, Shavka’s Champion. Endra developed a passionate following, pushing her to the extreme with dedicated combo decks built around playing Shavka’s Song as much as possible. This wave of new Endra decks truly shook up the Throne landscape for the first time in a while.

In the days that followed, players quickly adapted to the new threat. While Endra decks have continued to be the most popular, their overall usage has declined as the format has adapted to them. In fact, even the most successful Endra decks of the past week have had barely above average win rates as the metagame has become particularly hostile to unit recursion strategies.

Endra has undeniably warped the format; and while some of that is good, too much can limit deckbuilding. Overall this has turned out much tighter than we’d like; there were too limited a mix of viable strategies to fight back with. Highly tuned versions of the Endra deck have also proven too fast, making opening hands more swingy than desirable.

While there is a place in Eternal for combo decks, and Endra can lead to some fun ones to play with, she’s come out of the gate too strong and too popular for how frustrating and repetitive it can be to play against game after game. To that end, we’re making a couple of nerfs to help bring her back into line with the rest of the format.

---

Nerfs
Endra, Champion of Shavka – Now 3FFF (was 2FF)
Endra’s efficiency was just too great, and the faction requirements meant to reduce the ease at which she could be exploited by three and four faction decks was insufficient. By increasing both her cost and influence, her core functionality is being preserved as both a compelling option for combo decks and “fair” decks, while slowing her down and increasing the opportunity cost.

Note: As Endra, Champion of Shavka is only available from the Promises by Firelight campaign, falling outside of our normal system for refunding crafted cards, we are giving a one-time grant of a 1,250 gold to users who purchased the campaign (similar to previous campaign changes). Users who upgraded the card will receive an additional 1,250 gold. Players will of course keep all their copies of Endra.

In looking carefully at the cards surrounding Endra, we identified two specific cards that were the primary contributors to the problematic elements of the card. The first was Evenhanded Golem, as many of the best synergies and themes that worked for it also worked for Endra and stacked together too efficiently. The change to 3-cost addresses this area. The other card was Haunting Scream.

Haunting Scream – Now 3PS Play a unit with cost 5 or less from your void (was 2PS Play a unit with cost 4 or less from your void).
Haunting Scream has long been one of the most dangerous cards in the game, given its ability to cheat power costs, combined with its powerful synergies, burst, and one-turn kill potential. While Endra was the straw that broke the camel’s back, so to speak, this is far from the first time Haunting Scream has gone too far. That said, the card is a fan favorite, fun to build around, and can be a backbone of countless strategies. While Haunting Scream is quite strong, we mainly want to slow it down a little and reduce the ease in which it can be played as part of a multiple spell turn. The change to 3-cost is a meaningful one, and we also wanted to take this opportunity to increase the range of Scream options by allowing it to bring back 5-cost units. We’re very sensitive to the risk of any changes surrounding Endra potentially impacting non-Endra decks; so this Haunting Scream change is not one made lightly. Our hope is that this actually increases Haunting Scream’s functionality in a real way, while also slowing it down in a much-needed way.

---

Sidebuffs
Sandspitter – Now 3TT 4/2 (was 4T 5/2)
Predatory Carnosaur – Now 6TTT 5/6 (was 7TTT 7/7)
Sandspitter’s Summon is more powerful the earlier it can be played, so we believe this change to be a substantial buff, opening it up as a potential option for combatting certain types of combo or spell-heavy strategies.

Predatory Carnosaur has been crowded out at the 7-spot and we thought it would be an interesting option to revisit, particularly as a tool against large Aegis units. We explored the possibility of a return to 6/6, but found it to have too much of a suppressing impact on mid-sized units. Our hope is that this change improves the speed and ease at which it can be used to for specific tasks, without crowding out other potential options.

While our hope is that both of these changes increase the playability of these cards, they are not strict buffs and will both be eligible for refunds, as will Haunting Scream.

---

Buffs
As announced last month, we’ve been planning a series of buffs that promote novel deckbuilding and increase the range of counterplay available to players looking for tools against combo, spell-heavy, or void-based decks.

Charchain Flail – Now 1FF (was 2FF)
Gilded Flames – Now 3F (was 4F)
Phoenix Stone – Now 2F (was 3F)
Arcanum Hourglass – Now 2T (was 3T)
Bisma, Revered Elder – Now 3JJ (was 4JJ)
Embargo Officer – Now Shift 1 (was Shift 2)
Tax Collector – Now Ultimate costs 5 (was Ultimate costs 7)
Treasury Gate – Now 3J (was 4J)
Eye of Winter – Now 2P (was 3P)
Regression – Now 2P (was 4P)
Fearbinder – Now pay 2 (was pay 4)
Hideout Pistol – Now gives Voidbound to units it kills.
Vile Collaborator – Now 2/3 (was 2/2)
Knucklebones – Now 6FP (was 7FP)
Avisaur Patriarch – Now 3TTP (was 4TTPP)
Withering Witch – Now 1/4 (was 1/1)
The goal with these changes is to help enable a variety of uncommon decks, spawn some new ones, and hopefully provide a few more options for when unusual strategies go too far.

As always, we’ll be continuing to monitor community feedback and gamewide play data to make sure each of Eternal’s formats is fun, healthy, and exciting to explore. Keep an eye out for our next set of balance changes coming in the last week of January!

When will the competitions will start?  Any updates on that? 

Guys can anyone go online in EU ?

I tried it several times, first i was able to login twice but when i try to open collection, Hearthstone stopped running for twice either.

and then, it gave an error about they can't reach my collection and now it says "Your game timed out as it was requesting data from the hearthstone utility service. Please relunch Hearthstone to reconnect." and there is a code on right top corner. " HS:NT304:303:0" but when I try to relogin it gives same error again.

Does anyone have same issues ? If you won't, that means my game is broken so I will try to repair the game/open a ticket.

Edit: I've scanned the game, There was no repair required it said but still can't connect and it says same error on failed screen and now the code on top right corner changed into "HS:CT;NetCacheCardValues=1"

it seemed like my game was broken at first but i guess the problem is about my account.

Edit2: I could login with my phone and can open collection aswell. It ended up the game on my laptop was broken at the beginning but still I don't know why client can't repair the game by itself. I guess i will end up redownloading the game.

Edit3: It is completely weird. I could login with my laptop at last and I have no basic cards. The only basic card I own is Mark of the Wild. I've checked on my phone too, it is the only basic card at there either.

With battlegrounds currently rotating heroes around and they'll probably continue doing rotations, I think it would be useful to have a list showing the current rotation like Icey Vein's HoTS page. And, if there's one already could someone show me where it is?

P.S I'm not sure if I tagged this correctly

I'm preparing myself to play in Standard mode next rotation, hence I focused a bit on getting pieces for future Galakrond decks. Now, pretty much all of them have Kronx Dragonhoof in them in Standard. Should I disenchant some useless Wild cards to get him now or should I wait to gather more dust and maybe get him from the pack?

I really liked the Rise of Mechs event and wanted to try my hand at doing something similar for wild. I looked for cards that needed mana discounts to become viable in wild and I looked for cards that had cool abilities if I made them Battlecry and Deathrattle, instead of just being a battlecry or deathrattle. My hope would be that some tier 4 and 3 decks might make use of these changes, or that entirely new decks might emerge.

Let me know what you think!

It might be easier to look at in Imgur

So, I'm curious to know already, what are your current favourite non-card games? Let's find new favourite games! My favourites at the moment are definitely destiny 2 and halo reach, bungo knows how to do good games!

This deck is very simple. The best decks seem to play them selves to great efficiency. This deck does the same.

It is actually a massive swarm of big minions after turn 6, and it happens essentially 60% of the time.

Given user is signed in

And he set up a filter in his profile

When news feed is populated

Then articles are filtered 

I hope it's not that difficult to make. I only play hs so the rest of the content is not relevant. 

Priest players, can you inform me how you beat Quest decks?

I'm a reasonable new player, but I managed to get rank 13 last season (second season of play). I face multiple tier 1 decks, and I know how to play against them, but Priest is always a problem (I'm currently 3-25 against the control variants with Quest and resurrect shenannigans). I can't seem to beat them by SMOrcing, but outvalueing the late-game is also not possible. These are the decks I have available (standard versions unless mentioned):

- Quest Paladin

- Galakrond ZooLock (without Sea Giants)

- Combo Priest, the Amet Inner Fire version

- SMOrc Hunter

- Quest Malygos Druid (with some cheap replacements like Novice Engineer > Crystal Merchant)

- Budget Galakrond Tempo Rogue (no Flik Skyshiv)

What is a way to beat Priest?

I've been working on this for a few weeks. I've been thinking of how this can be implemented into the game, how it rewards players, how it can pay for itself in the long run, and mainly how it can be fun. As we go through this, if you spot anything that I didn't cover, stuff that would be un-fun, or things that need improvement, let me know. If the player base stays vocal on this topic (maybe this thread) we might be able to make things work and bring some new fun to our favorite game.

The Basics:

The way the mode will be implemented will be similar to that of Tavern Brawl. It will be live for an entire week before maintenance/reset.

Cards/sets will be rotated in and out. This will give us use of older cards and while also taking away staple Classic and Basic cards. This is to prevent a stale meta. this is why Battlegrounds is a hit. Team 5 have been very vigilant and hands on when it has come to balance Battlegrounds, if they could use this philosophy with Tournament Mode (The one I'm describing) then it will last.

Rule sets can be used to limit deck construction even more. Rule Sets such as;
- Pauper: No Epic or Legendary Cards
- Stay Dead: No Deathrattle Cards
- Be Quiet: No Battlecry Cards
- This is My Main: Only Class Cards are used

Tournament mode can also use the Standard format, to make things more interesting since the Standard format Meta is more often than not figured out.

There are 3 different levels of entry to this mode, I will go over the rewards after I lay these out.
1 - Free: Everyone will get one FREE entry into the mode each week. After you have use your Free play, you'll have to play in the other levels. This free entry will also give you access to ALL of the available cards whereas the next two levels come straight from your collection. This mode will not affect your rating.
2 - Casual: The cost of entry will be 150g or your local currency. This is for people to practice in while still obtaining rewards. This mode will affect your rating.
3 - Competitive: The cost of entry will be 500g or your local currency, this is where the big boys go to play. Go hard, or go home. This mode will affect your rating.

With the introduction of Battlegrounds, Team 5 has shown us that Hearthstone can hold 8 people together enough to get through a game. So Tournament mode will be using an Eight Player Bracket. You will see your opponents Tournament Portraits and their rating and they can see yours as well.

This is a rough draft of what it will look like, match- ups are not set in stone:

With each game you'll have your rating changed according to how well you did, similar to Battlegrounds.
For example: 

Obviously it will go higher than 999 but Hearthcards can only do so much. Do not worry about the portraits at this moment, I'll get to that soon.

The Rules:

As stated earlier, there will be sets/cards rotating in and out each week to keep the game mode feeling fresh each week. This also keeps people from developing unbeatable strategies for too long.

All eight players will be matched together, you will all be shown what sets are in use, followed by being sent to the a collection manager inside the mode and everyone will have 40 minutes to craft 4 decks.

The matches will be best of 5.

You will be able to ban an opponents deck.

Once a deck wins, you cannot use it anymore in that game until the next match.

There is 1st Place, 2nd Place, 3rd Place, and 4th Place.
- 1st place is the winner.
- 2nd Place belongs to the person who lost to the winner,
- 3rd place will be decided in a match between the two players who didn't make it to the final match-up.
- 4th Place belongs to the player who lost the decider match for 3rd Place.
- All other players will not get a placement.

There will be spectating in place for those who lose, but no cards from either players hands can be seen.
-The only match they can watch is the grand final of the tournament, this prevents sniping.

Once you have won your match-up you will sit in the bracket screen until a match-up ends, then you will be matched with the winner of that match-up. There will be  a two minute pause before the match begins to let the winner take a small break.
- This is your time to do what you need to do before the next match.

Rewards:

Competitive will grant the largest amount of rewards.

Casual and Free will grant the same amount of rewards.

These rewards should be;
-Gold
-Dust
-Pack Tokens for YOU to DECIDE which pack you want.

Rewards for placements will be;
- Players in 1st place will receive a pack token, some dust, and more gold than what 2nd place got.
- Players in 2nd place will receive a pack token, some dust, and some gold.
- Players in 3rd place will receive a pack token and some dust.
- Players in 4th place will receive some dust.
- Players below 4th place will not receive anything.

These rewards will scale based on if they are played in competitive or casual.
-It should be noted that Arena tickets should be given out in competitive.

Progression:

Progression comes in the form of Tournament Mode exclusive Hero Portraits.
-These will be rewarded based on how many games you have won with a particular class inside Tournament Mode.

Hero portraits will not be represented in the match-up themselves. If you play Shaman, you will be whatever Shaman you chose for your deck during deck construction or be defaulted to your favorite.

This is a great opportunity to use some old art, here are some examples;
Druid - 500, 1000, 1500

Mage - 500, 1000, 1500

Warrior - 500, 1000, 1500

So on and so forth for each class. Also, ignore the health for these portraits, I couldn't find any without health indicators.

These portraits aren't set in stone but it's a good motivator to work towards something.

Friendly Matches:

Friendly matches should be available within this mode.

A host should be able to make their own rule sets and decide what's banned and what isn't.

Friendly matches are free, and thus no rewards are given.

Things to Consider:

Deck boxes.
-While this mode exists people will want to keep decks they know work for next time around. There needs to be a feature implemented that way players who don't use 3rd party sites to save their decks (Like outof.cards) can, well save their decks.
-If cards in those decks are now illegal, they can copy/paste the deck code within Hearthstone to make a clone and edit it.

Splitting the player base:
-Some of you will have fears that this will split the player base and I totally agree. I'm not a Legend Wild player but I've heard it's slim pickins up in the higher ranks. My philosophy on this is the same from when I played WoW wishing for something like WoW Classic: "It's better to have a split player base than no player base at all." Agree with that statement or not, that's just how I see it.

How long will a round of Tournament Mode Take?
-This is probably the most concerning, and may very well be the reason as to why it hasn't came to fruition yet. Doing a round in tournament mode is and SHOULD be a commitment, it shouldn't be a throw away game because you're at 1 HP and think you've lost.
-It will take well over two hours four one full Tournament. Simply because players need ample time to look through what's available and decide what the best route is.

Is it worth anything in the competitive scene of Standard Hearthstone Tournaments?
-No, this is something entirely separate from official events.

Conclusion:

I think I've laid out a pretty good foundation on what Team 5 could do with Tournament mode. Is it perfect? I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is, that I'm trying to help and I'm trying to get you, the players, behind this idea that we've all been asking for, for years.

Thank you for reading.
-Grif.

How much longer until hearthstone works again?