Throw your sunglasses and suntan lotion away, we’re headed to the darkest location in all of Azeroth for the last Masters Tour of the year! Bask in Undercity’s bright green waters and be sure to pick up a novelty c*ckroach - you’ll want a souvenir because this Masters Tour is going to be legendary.*

Tune in to YouTube to see more than 400 players from around the world compete for a share of the $250,000 (USD) prize and the prestigious title of Masters Tour Undercity Champion!

* Swallowing green Undercity water is not recommended.

Details

• Dates: Fr...

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Welcome!

It’s been three weeks since we first released Mercenaries and we’re delighted to see our community hunt down bosses, make themselves cozy in the Village, and chase glory in the Fighting Pits. We’re excited to share some numbers with you, some insights into recent changes, some of our upcoming plans, and a few changes we’re making over the coming months to improve the player experience.

Mercenaries Launch Celebration

When we were building Mercenaries, we were looking to make a mode that delivered different gameplay experiences than Standard, Battlegrounds, and our other modes. Our goal was to figure out how to build a great collection RPG, with deep, strategic combat that you can pick up and play even for bite-sized play sessions. To us, the heart of Mercenaries is collecting Mercenaries, powering them up, and engaging in strategic combat with your foes – be they PvE or PvP.

We’re gratef...

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Edwin VanCleef has a bone to pick with everyone who found themselves so United in Stormwind. As you make your way through the Deadmines, you had better watch your back around the Defias Brotherhood. With new Pirates and Tradeable synergies, there’s a lot to look out for!

The Deadmines Mini-Set, launching worldwide on November 2, consists of 35 distinct cards: 4 Legendary cards, 1 Epic card, 14 Rare cards, and 16 Common cards. Those new cards can be found in United in Stormwind packs, or you can get the entire 66-card* Mini-Set for $14.99 or 2000 Gold!

...

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Patch 21.6, launching November 2, brings big updates across Hearthstone, including a Mini-Set full of scoundrels and scallywags! Arrrrr you ready?!

Deadmines Mini-Set Launches on November 2!

Delve into the Deadmines in the United in Stormwind Mini-Set, coming November 2! Edwin VanCleef and his crew are waiting for you with 35 unique new cards featuring Pirates and new Tradeable synergies! Get them in United in Stormwind packs, or get the entire 66-card Mini-Set* for $14.99 or 2000 Gold! Card reveals will take place over the weekend and the full Mini-Set will be published in a ...

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The fifth Masters Tour of 2021 has come to an incredible close, with Frederick “Furyhunter” Adam Møller beating fellow European Jim “badajimpom...

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The 21.4.4 patch, releasing later today, includes bug fixes, Battlegrounds updates, and miscellaneous non-player-facing backend updates.

Battlegrounds Updates

MINION UPDATES

Omega Buster

• Old: 6 Attack, 6 Health. Deathrattle: Summon six 1/1 Microbots. For each that doesn’t fit, give your Mechs +1/+1. → New: 5 Attack, 5 Health. Deathrattle: Summon five 1/1 Microbots. For each that doesn’t fit, give your Mechs +1/+1.

...

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Gather ‘round and listen in, it’s time for Tavern Talks, the series that highlights some of the amazing members of our fine tavern!

Luke “NoHandsGamer” Kooken is the talented Americas Grandmaster known for playing Hearthstone without using his hands. Here, he talks about how mindset is so important for living with his disability, and for thriving at the top level of competition. So, pull up a chair, it’s time for Tavern Talks!

The following interview has been edited for readability.

Q: Tell us about yourself and how you got into Hearthstone.

A: I have a chronic pain disability, which started in around 2009. In 2016, my pain levels flared up substantially. I started having trouble with the controls for other games, so my brother introduced me to Hear...

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Hallow’s End has returned! The Headless Horseman has taken over the tavern and the festivities are underway! The spooky celebration is spread out over three weeks this year, from October 19 through November 9, with freebies, special offers, and fan-favorite activities across that time.

Pick Out Your Costume

First things first, it’s not Hallow’s End without some costumes. With the Fairy Tales Bundle, you get classic, fairy tales-themed costumes for your Hunter, Mage, Priest, and Shaman heroes! Or, if you plan to spend your time in Bob’s tavern this Hallow’s End, you can pick up the Battlegrounds Hallow’s End bundle, which includes a Gala Medivh alternate Bartender and seven costumes for your Battlegrounds heroes.

...

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The Masters Tour heads to the Alliance capital of Stormwind! More than 400 invited players from over 40 countries will compete for a chance to take home a share of the $250,000 (USD) prize pool. Earn Year of the Phoenix Drops as you watch top players from around the world battle for their shot at claiming the title of Masters Tour Stormwind champion, only on YouTube!

Details

• Dates: Friday, October 22– Sunday, October 24, 2021
  • Day 1: Swiss Rounds 1-4
  • Day 2: Swiss Rounds 5-8
  • Day 3: Round of...

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Greetings! I’m Tian, a Lead Data Scientist on the Hearthstone team. In this blog post, I am going to talk about some details behind ratings and matchmaking in the PvP Fighting Pit of our brand-new game mode, Mercenaries!

The Mercenaries rating and matchmaking system is the most complicated rating and matchmaking system we’ve ever used in one of our game modes! At its core, though, we had two simple ideas:

• For ratings, our main goal was to make the value best indicate player skill over time, rather than Mercenary level, Ability/Equipment level, or team composition.
• For matchmaking, our main goal was to achieve “fair” matches within a reasonable queue time, taking into account your rating, Merc levels, Ability/Equipment levels, and Party Roles.

There are several factors that impact how we update your post game ratings and how we find you an opponent during the matchmaking phase, including: your ratings, the level of y...

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The 21.4 patch, releasing tomorrow, launches Hearthstone’s newest game mode, Mercenaries! The patch also includes some bug fixes and preparations for future updates.

Quite the Roster

Mercenaries is launching with 51 playable Mercenaries! We’ve compiled a list of all Mercenaries who will be playable at launch, as well as all their Abilities and Equipment. The Card Library will hold all this in...

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Grandmasters 2021 Season 2 has concluded, and three more players have secured their spot in the Hearthstone 2021 World Championship! Congratulations to Gabriel “Gaby” Jeanne, Kyle “...

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The top eight players from each region are advancing to this weekend’s Hearthstone Grandmasters 2021 Season 2! Over seven weeks of individual regional tournaments, 48 players from around the world competed to make it to this final weekend where they will compete in a Conquest tournament for the final regional invites to the 2021 World Championship. Here’s everything you need to know to keep up with Season 2 action!

Standings

Americas	Asia-Pacific	Europe
Monsanto	Posesi	Gaby
Nalguidan	Alutemu	Frenetic
DreadEye	Giv...

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As we enter the final regular-season weekend of the Hearthstone 2021 Grandmasters, it’s time to set a date for this year’s World Championship! On December 18-19, the top eight players from around the world will face-off in the Hearthstone World Championship for their share of the $500,000 (USD) prize pool and a spot in the Hall of Champions!

Here are the first four competitors to secure their spots at the Hearthstone 2021 World Championship:

• Facundo “Nalguidan” Nahuel Pruzzo – Grandmasters 2021 Season 1, Americas
• Wataru “...

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It takes luck, skill, and an absurd amount of willpower to accomplish some of Hearthstone’s tougher achievements. Flawless Duel-It-All and Flawless Azeroth Gladiator are two of the toughest achievements of all! Those achievements are obtained by getting 12-0 finishes with each of the 10 classes in Duels and in Arena, respectively. They are the two rarest achievements in all of Hearthstone. Only the most talented and devoted players have claimed either achievement, and we spoke to the world’s first for each! So take a look at what it takes to claim these elusive crowns.

The Fastest Achievement Hunters Alive

Aleksey “ShtanUdachi” Barsukov is a long-time professional player and streamer from Russia. He played in the 2017 Hearthstone World Championships and many other major tournaments before shifting his focus to his ...

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The 21.3 patch, releasing tomorrow, includes several updates across Standard, Wild, Battlegrounds, Duels, and Arena.

Standard and Wild Updates

The following cards have been adjusted down in power level.

Irebound Brute

• Old: [Costs 7] → New: [Costs 8]

Dev Comment: Irebound Brute was playable a bit earlier than intended on average. Pushing it back a turn should soften extreme turns.

Mindrender Illucia

• Old: Battlecry: ...

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Below are the Arena leaderboards for July 1, 2021 - September 1, 2021. Arena rankings reflect players’ best 30 consecutive runs throughout a season. The players featured below have exhibited top-notch deckbuilding skills, in-the-moment decision making, and unyielding dedication to achieve a most noteworthy feat!

For an Arena run to be included in this season, its end time must have been between July 1, 2021 at 10:00 a.m. and September 1, 2021 at 9:59:59 a.m.

Dynamic ladder rankings are now also available for the Standard and Wild ladders.

Americas

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Starting with the 2021/2022 academic year, we are adjusting the structure of the collegiate Hearthstone ecosystem. The new Hearthstone Collegiate Masters is designed to better offer unique and consistent fan-first experiences that cultivate and celebrate student talent by connecting them closer to the hype of game content releases and Masters Tour events.

Hearthstone Collegiate Masters and Expansion Qualifier Tournaments

Hearthstone Collegiate will now feature an open signup qualifier season for each major expansion. Top teams from each collegiate qualifier can earn cash prizing and an invite to the annual championship event: Hearthstone Collegiate Masters. Collegiate Masters will feature a cash prize pool and an opportunity to earn an invite to the Hearthstone Masters Tour in 2022. We hope that these changes will create multiple opportunities for both new and experienced players alike, and we’re extremely excited to cheer on our collegiate commu...

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Welcome, recruits!

Hearthstone Mercenaries is the new game mode where you collect iconic Mercenaries, assembling Parties to take down procedurally-generated Bounties. It is an entirely new way to play Hearthstone, combining RPG and roguelike elements with some of your favorite Hearthstone characters. There’s a lot to take in, so we created a series of blog posts to help you jump right into Mercenaries when it launches on October 12!

This post will give you an Overview of the new Mercenaries game mode, then you can check out the Gameplay blog for more specifics on how to fight, and the ...

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Today's 21.2 patch brings pre-purchase for Mercenaries, the massive revamp for Battlegrounds, a new Book of Mercenaries featuring Tamsin, and more!

Mercenaries for Hire!

Hearthstone Mercenaries is the new game mode where you collect iconic Mercenaries, assembling Parties to take down procedurally generated Bounties. It is an entirely new way to play Hearthstone, combining RPG and roguelike elements with some of your favorite Hearthstone characters. Check out our Overview, ...

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