Hearthstone's Patch 21.6 Drops Today With Deadmines, a Diablo Event, 5 New Mercs, Dual-Class Arena, & More

Today is a massive day for fans of Hearthstone with content coming in from all sides! We've put together this patch day survival guide to help make sense of everything that is going to be happening today.

Deadmines Finally Arrives

The long-awaited 35 card mini-set for United in Stormwind is arriving with today's patch and it should help put a spin on the Standard meta. There are three primary themes we've seen in the new cards:

• Pirates: The main focus of the mini set - almost every class got one and there are some Neutral tools too!
• Parrots - Battlecry Beasts that replicate something you previously did.
• Tradeable: Back and stronger than ever - now you get an additional bonus every time you Trade!

The mini-set will be purchasable outright for $15, or 2000 Gold. If you decide to not purchase the mini-set with real money or gold, the cards are also craftable with arcane dust or available in United in Stormwind packs. The bundle with all cards, whether you spend gold or real money, is going to be your best bang for the buck.

Here are all new cards (click the spoilers for Epic, Rare, and Common cards).

If you'd like to see our thoughts on the incoming additions, we've put together three articles talking about all of the new cards and encourage you to give them a read before the new cards drop today.

• Deadmines' New Demon Hunter, Druid, & Hunter Cards Coming to Hearthstone
• Deadmines' New Mage, Paladin, Priest & Rogue Cards Coming to Hearthstone
• Deadmines' New Shaman, Warlock, Warrior & Neutral Cards Coming to Hearthstone

We've also put together a round of Budget decks that you might be interested in! You can find the decks down below but it is highly recommended to visit the original post to learn more about each of them.

But wait, there's even more! Blizzard is reintroducing Battle-Ready Decks for Deadmines with 4 purchasable decks for $15 each - limited one per customer.

Legendary Quest Chain

Quote From Blizzard

Once you’ve picked out your costume, we have some activities planned! Embark on a Legendary Quest chain, and collect four total packs (2 United in Stormwind and 2 Standard Packs) for completing three Legendary Quests!

This Legendary Quest Chain will no longer be available starting November 10, at 10 a.m. Pacific, so get them done before they’re gone!

5 New Mercenaries & 3 New Bounties Inbound

Hearthstone Mercenaries is getting its first update, only three weeks after its initial debut on October 12. We'll be getting 5 new Mercenary characters to play with in addition to 3 new Bounties that will be added to the Blackrock Zone. Each of the Mercenaries will also get their own line of tasks to complete, similar to the original round of Mercenaries.

Here are the mercenaries we can expect to see:

• Edwin, Defias Kingpin
• Sneed
• Eudora
• Mr. Smite
• Cookie, the Cook

Fun sidenote on the Mercenaries we're getting, 4 of them relate to the Legendary cards arriving in The Deadmines mini-set. Cool!

We won't be listing all the details on the additions here, as that is a serious wall of text, but you can see Blizzard's initial preview if you're interested.

Battlegrounds Gets 3 New Heroes

Hearthstone Battlegrounds is receiving an update that brings us three new heroes to play around with! Diablo, Sneed, and Cookie the Cook are all making their debut in the autobattler mode this afternoon when the patch arrives. Here is what you can expect from each of them:

Diablo

• Realm of Terror [Passive]
  • Passive. Every 4 turns, ALL enemies fight the Lord of Terror and your warband for loot.

Sneed

• Sneed’s Replicator [Cost 1]
  • Give a friendly minion: Deathrattle: Summon a random minion of the same Tavern Tier.

Cookie the Cook

• Stir the Pot [Cost 0]
  • Throw a minion in your pot. When you've gathered 3, Discover from their minion types.

Diablo's availability in Battlegrounds is limited and will not require Battlegrounds Perks in order to play him early. Diablo is considered a "special event" character so he will leave the hero pool after the event concludes. Sneed and Cookie on the other hand are a part of the regular cast of Battlegrounds heroes and as such will require Battlegrounds Perks to play early. Sneed and Cookie will open up to all players without Battlegrounds Perks in 2 weeks, on November 16.

Duels Gets a Huge Balance Patch

The patch is going to be bringing in plenty of balancing to Hearthstone Duels, a mode that has been crying for love in recent times. The patch addresses some of the more problematic treasures, enhancing underwhelming ones, and making some swaps in the tier buckets so some treasures will be seen less.

You should check out our full commentary on the duels changes in patch 21.6 for a breakdown of what exactly is changing and the kind of impact it may have.

Oh, and Diablo is joining Duels and is the first dual-class character! You can see a breakdown of all of his abilities and workings here. Much like his addition in Battlegrounds though, it is only available for a limited amount of time so get those games in!

Quote From Avalon

Neutral minions now cannot cost less than 2.

Pretty much like [Hearthstone Card (Ooops, all spells!) Not Found], Meek Mastery gave you not one, but two different bonuses without a cap, meaning that you were able to reduce your neutral units to 0 mana as well - all in all, a way better pre-nerf All Together Now that you could pick right after the first match.

We would've settled for Team 5 to either remove the mana cheat or the buff, but we find the discount cap as effective as our proposal. With this change, your opponents won't be able to choke you out of the game in the first few turns, since they'll need to wait a couple more turns to drop their discounted and buffed units, which will give you time to set up some sort of game plan.

Beware - Meek Mastery's functionality doesn't change with summoned units, as they do not technically have a minion cost: therefore, you'll still get the buff bonus without having to worry about potential issues with your Mana Crystals!

Note: the patch notes state that Meek Mastery will be moved from Passive pool 2 Ultra Rare to Passive pool 2, but the problem is that we've never knew the said Passive having moved to Ultra Rare to begin with.

Dual-Class Arena Returns

Hallow's End finally gets its dual-class Arena event!

Quote From Blizzard

When the Deadmines Mini-Set unlocks on November 2, the Arena will include cards from the following sets:

• Deadmines Mini-Set
• United in Stormwind
• Ashes of Outland
• Rise of Shadows
• Knights of the Frozen Throne
• Journey to Un’Goro
• Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
• Core

November 2 also marks the start of the Hallow’s End Dual-Class Arena event. Pick a class’s costumed portrait, then pick another class’s hero power, and build a deck from a combination of the two!

New Tavern Brawl Tomorrow, November 3

Quote From Blizzard

On November 3, we’ll be revealing a brand new Hallow’s End Tavern Brawl. This time, The Headless Horseman is running the show—literally! In this Brawl, you play as the Headless Horseman, directing your actors as they try to perform your first-ever production. Each turn, choose a card to buff your actor as they automatically duke it out before your eyes!

Book of Mercenaries Cariel Next Week

Although not playable today, we can expect the next chapter in the Book of Mercenaries solo content to arrive next week on November 9.

Quote From Blizzard

The paladin Cariel Roame has returned home to find Stormwind in flames. Her sister Tamsin has summoned the dreadlord Anetheron and assaulted the city with an army of demons. Cariel and her companions are the city's last line of defense. At least one mercenary won't make it out alive. Find out who when Book of Mercenaries Cariel launches November 9. Defeating all 8 bosses in this linear adventure will reward 1 Paladin pack, containing only Paladin cards from Standard!

With such a large patch today, what are you most excited to experience? Let us know in the comments below!