Reminder: Full Dust Refunds for Hearthstone's Second Castle Nathria Balance Patch End Soon - Added Tips & Tricks

Time flies when you are stuck investigating false clues within the shadowy castle. As it's been almost exact two weeks since the second Constructed balance patch for Murder at Castle Nathria restored (?) the meta to be less Roguestone-y, and we have just witnessed a brand new Mini-Set announcement along with the initial reveals of a handful of fresh powerful cards. Some of which might get nerfed at one point and even feature in this segment, who knows. But we won't concern ourselves too much with such potential distant future, as for now we only have today left to act on the currently active set of dust refunds. 

Admittedly, this could very well be one of the worst balance patches in Hearthstone history as far as the potential for accumulating bonus arcane dust goes. We might've actually never seen so many Legendaries (plus an Epic) changed at the same time, and those aren't the kind of cards whose rarity makes it easy to get a hold of any extra or golden copies. With the 7 nerfs in question, there isn't a single (!) Common card, and only one Rare to be found: 

• Nightcloak Sanctum - Now has 2 Durability (down from 3).
• Wildheart Guff - Both Guff's Battlecry and Hero Power give an empty Mana Crystal (instead of full ones).
• Defend the Dwarven District - The first step of the Hunter Questline now takes 3 spells to complete (up from 2).
• Magister Dawngrasp - Arcane Burst Hero Power's Honorable Kill now gives +1 damage (down from +2).
• Edwin, Defias Kingpin - Rebalanced into a 4 mana 4/4 (up from a 3 mana 3/3).
• Kael'thas Sinstrider - Cost is now 8 mana (up from 6).
• Smothering Starfish - Cost is now 4 mana (up from 3).

Fairly slim pickings this time around, especially compared to certain patches in recent memory. In any case, now would be the last moment to pull that disenchanting trigger in case you haven't yet done so. 

Quote From Blizzard

The above cards will be eligible for a full dust refund for two weeks following Patch 24.2.2.

The exact cut-off hour is rarely ever being specified in these cases, and sometimes there are random extensions (last time we somehow had been given 24 extra hours, for example) - but if you want to be safe, best conclude all your dust refund business before all of Friday's scheduled card reveals begin in earnest.

At least until then, all of the listed cards will remain disenchantable for their respective 'base craftable' dust values: 1600 per Legendary, 400 per Epic, 100 per Rare. As usual, Golden copies are worth far more here: with Legendaries going for 3200, Epics for 1600, Rares for 800.

Castle Nathria & Sunken Voyages - Round Two of Card Nerfs

As always, no real harm in dusting everything for its full arcane dust value, since you can always recraft any cards at no loss at a moment's notice. Or even pull some of them from your packs in the future, once this opportunity is long gone. Although don't really expect to be able to do that with all those Legendaries, unless you somehow end up owning every single one from its respective expansion.

There isn't one unifying theme on display here - only two of the eligible cards actually belong to the newest Murder at Castle Nathria expansion set. And since you are very unlikely to own more than one copy of Kael'thas Sinstrider, it's all down to collecting some bonus dust via the extra Nightcloak Sanctum Locations.

Besides that, we have the lone Epic in the form of Smothering Starfish, courtesy of Voyage to the Sunken City. Most players won't have more than two in their collection. 

Between Stormwind and Alterac Valley

Opening any other pack types than Castle Nathria or Standard is just not going to pay off much on this particular occasion - unless you have been closely tracking your progress and know you are almost guaranteed to pull a Legendary (worst case scenario, every 40 packs) from elsewhere. And already don't or haven't once owned either of the other 4 cards in question. The odds certainly aren't the highest.

From United in Stormwind (and Deadmines Mini-Set) hail the Hunter Questline Defend the Dwarven District, and one notorious Edwin, Defias Kingpin.

And from Fractured in Alterac Valley, we've got two potent Hero cards - the evil incarnate that was/is Wildheart Guff, and sneaky Magister Dawngrasp. If you've tried to seriously play Druid or Mage during this year, you should be intimately familiar with at least one of them.

Questline Hunters have greatly diminished in their presence over the past couple of weeks, but the Hero cards and Edwin still enjoy their fair share of action. And you might even end up having to recraft them at some point. The choice to say (temporary) goodbye belongs to you. 

Diamond Card Achievement Rewards

As noted before, it's rather unheard of to see so many Legendary cards hit with a nerf bat at the same time. It's even rarer still to see a couple of them belonging to the same set - such as is the case with the Stormwind/Alterac pairings featured above. Which actually provides us with a certain unique opportunity. 

Now, you might recall that the modern Collection achievement reward for owning 25 Legendaries from any given expansion results in earning a free Diamond card - in this instance, in the form of one Balinda Stonehearth for Fractured in Alterac Valley, and Darkbishop Benedictus for United in Stormwind. 

Whether you have Wildheart Guff & Magister Dawngrasp or Defend the Dwarven District & Edwin, Defias Kingpin in your collection or not, it's a simple matter. As you can currently craft them essentially for free, and from there just add a few more Legendary picks (all Hero Cards are still generally a safe choice for many viable decks, and there are enough useful other 'free agent' Legendaries) until you hit the exact count of 25. Then collect your chosen free Diamond card achievement reward and profit. Afterwards, you are free to thank the aforementioned cards for their service by collecting their full dust value while it lasts.

This way you can also be certain any of the cards mentioned above won't start reappearing in your respective packs (at least until you have owned all 29 Alterac Valley and/or Stormwind Legendaries, even temporarily). Even if you don't intend to closely follow this Diamond plan, it might be worth it to craft and instantly disenchant at least Defend the Dwarven District for that very reason. Might not be particularly playable in the foreseeable future, and it could sting greatly to find the card months from now when it's only going to be worth mere 400 dust.

Refund Command in the Collection Manager

One of our all-time favorite quality of life improvements is officially over a year old! And yet it's still worth talking about.

By typing 'refund' in the card collection search box, you will be able to easily locate all the cards in question and decide whether or not to turn them all into shiny arcane dust. You can use the 'Golden Cards' filter separately in order to view these precious copies of eligible cards as well. 

Quote From Blizzard

Searching “Refund” in the Collection will now populate with cards eligible for a dust refund.

P.S. Sometimes you may encounter a rare bug where refundable cards don't show as such or don't display full arcane dust values, even though the refund window is still technically active. Always restart your Hearthstone client and double check again in such cases.

Have you made something dust-worthy out of all these refundable Legendaries this time around, or it was closer to a full pass for you? Perhaps there is now a new Diamond card shining brightly in your collection? Tell us all about your arcane dust hoarding!