Hearthstone Dev Tracker

The final results for Hearthstone Ranked Standard, Wild, and Arena play in December 2018 are in!

The players featured below have employed top notch deck building skills, in-the-moment decision making, and unyielding dedication to achieve a most noteworthy feat!

As previously mentioned, monthly Arena rankings now take players’ best 30 consecutive Arena runs regardless of game events or format changes.

Pour a toast, pull up a chair, and join us in recognizing Hearthstone’s top Ranked Standard, Wild, and Arena players in the Americas region!

• Standard
• ...

Have you been looking for a change of pace in Hearthstone? Maybe you’d like to try a new deck or class on the ladder, but don’t know where to start. Since this is a WILD month, take a look at our Off-Meta Report and spice things up with some interesting decks that have been performing well on the Wild ladder!

To find these decks, we looked for players that have been doing well, and picked out some builds from amongst the top performers. To find these decks, we looked for players that have been doing well, and picked out some builds from amongst the top performers. We only selected decks that were played in 30 or more games at Legend level.

Mech Hunter - 63.3% Win Rate/30 games

This Hunter deck combines the mech synergies of Goblins vs Gnomes and The Boomsday Project, to create an aggressive, mechanical monster. Galvanizer a...

Tilt is shorthand for the negative (and damaging, and extremely unpleasant, and bad for your winrate) mindset or mood you can find yourself in after an unfortunate event has happened in-game. And we’ve all been there. Hopefully the pro-informed video below will help you understand how maintaining PMA is key to keeping yourself from going to the dark side.

Combat tilt before it starts! Don’t fall victim to a bad attitude; instead, realize that what is done is done, and that all the only thing you can do is move forward with a clear mindset. Thanks for watching and we’ll see you next week with another episode of Well Played!

The January 2019 Ranked Play Season is now live—and we’re unveiling a new card back you can add to your collection!

Shut the door, it’s cold one out there! Warm those frozen boots by the fire, grab a cup of hot cocoa, and snuggle up under your favorite blanket with some Hearthstone during the month of January. This month is a perfect time to sleep in, take a load off, and work on obtaining the Chillin’ card back!

These card backs replace t...

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive Hearthstone. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’re bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, we examine what the takeaways ...

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive Hearthstone. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’re bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, we learn how to deal ...

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive Hearthstone. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’re bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, get the download on how pro players navigate the...

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive Hearthstone. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’re bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, explore the similarities and differences between...

Early this year, we kicked off our Opening Moves series, where we took a closer look at the early game of competitive Hearthstone. We followed up in July with Midgame Moves. This week, to celebrate the end of the year, we’re bringing you Endgame Moves. Today, we’re diving...

The third season of the 2018 Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT) concluded on Nov. 30, and so it’s time to spotlight our Hearthstone Masters, final Pro Team Standings, and Regional Points Leaders.

Hearthstone Masters

This year, the Hearthstone Masters System was created to recognize top players based on the consistency of their performance. The program counts points earned since 2018 Season 1 through the Dec. 1, 2018–March 31, 2019 transitional season, as announced in ...

Polish up those Totem Golems and grab a seat by the hearth with Barnes and Reno Jackson—the Hearthstone Wild Open is back for 2019!

Things are about to get Wild in the third-ever Hearthstone Wild Open because this year, the tournament is more accessible than ever. The online-only 2019 Wild Open will have qualification into playoffs via the Wild ranked ladder and boast a $30,000 prize pool split among the Top Eight.

Want to try your hand? All you have to do is place in the Top 100 for your region’s Wild ladder—doing so will qualify you to participate in playoffs held for each competitive region (Europe, Americas, Asia-Pacific). The top two players from each playoff will come together for the Wild Open Finals, with China’s finalists qualifying in directly from the Wild ranked ladder in January.

Details for deck submis...

Togwaggle Druid, the famed Hearthstone combo deck that forces an empty deck upon your opponent—and makes sure they keep it—can struggle against aggressive classes that fill the board quickly. But all is not lost for King Togwaggle’s loyal subjects. Learn how one pro player turned the tide of battle with some smart tech in this week’s episode of Well Played!

Regardless of the strategy you deploy, adapting your plan by adding tech cards to your deck list is a great way to take your game to the next level. Join us next week for pro tips for the late-game!

The final results for Hearthstone Ranked Standard, Wild, and Arena play in November 2018 are in!

The players featured below have employed top notch deck building skills, in-the-moment decision making, and unyielding dedication to achieve a most noteworthy feat!

As previously mentioned, monthly Arena rankings now take players’ best 30 consecutive Arena runs regardless of game events or format changes.

Pour a toast, pull up a chair, and join us in recognizing Hearthstone’s top Ranked Standard*, Wild, and Arena players in the Americas region!

• Standard
• ...

Rastakhan’s Rumble has already begun for players around the world, but there’s someone else who will soon be battling for glory in Gurubashi Arena. Find out what happens when you step into the role of Rikkar, a fiery young troll hoping to earn glory in the Rumble!

Join Hearthstone Mission Designer Paul Nguyen as he delves into the new Rastakhan’s Rumble single-player content: Rumble Run!

Watch this Hearthside Chat to learn more about Rumble Run and watch some of the single-player only cards and Shrines in action!  

When you start a Rumble Run, you’ll get to choose from one of three different team Shrines to start your run with. Each team (and therefore each Class!) has three different Shrines that can appear.

You’ll always choose from three different teams, but here’s a look all the Shrines that can appear for Hir’eek’s Bats:

...

In Hearthstone, navigating the mulligan phase properly is key to starting off a match on the right foot. Typically, pro players will keep some low-cost cards so that they have something to play in the first few turns—but a proper mulligan goes much deeper than this. Learn how to master the mulligan based on how you anticipate the game state evolving in our latest episode of Well Played!

So you see, the mulligan isn’t just about cards you don’t want, it’s also a chance to find the cards you must have. That’s it for this week! Let us know your fave mulligan rules-of-thumb in the comments.

The gates of Gurubashi Arena have been thrown open! As the thundering of drums fills the air, the teams make their way into the ring to battle for the glory of their Loa in Hearthstone’s newest expansion: Rastakhan’s Rumble!

For a limited time, log in to claim 6 Rastakhan’s Rumble card packs, as well as a random Legendary Loa and 2 copies of the Spirit card for the same Class—FREE!

Rastakhan’s Rumble

King Rastakhan, the all-powerful god-king of the Zandalari trolls, presides over the once-a-generation event held in his name. The toughest trolls in history have gathered into Loa-fueled teams for this knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred, rough-and-tumble, beautifically brutal gladiatorial celebration of all things troll: Rastakhan’s Rumble!...

Hearthstone’s heroes are part of the crowd cheering on the knock-down, drag-out, no-holds-barred, rough-and-tumble, beautifically brutal gladiatorial celebration of all things troll: Rastakhaaaaaan’s Ruuuuuumble!

One lucky contestant has won the Rumble raffle, but the prize isn’t what he bargained for! Will Thrall prevail? Will Rastakhan rumble? How many teeth does a crab have?

Find out in Wronchi Animation’s Ticket to Greatness – Part 5!

LAST CHANCE to Pre-purchase Rastakhan’s Rumble

The Rumble is about to begin, so don’t miss your chance to save on Rastakhan’s Rumble card packs and add the Ready to Rumble card back or the mighty King Rastakhan Shaman Hero to your collection!

Rastakhan’s Rumble!

King Rastakhan won’t just be hosting the Rumble, he’ll be brawling with the best of them...

Rastakhan’s Rumble is under way and seats are filling fast—no one wants to miss this fight of the century! Welcome to the Rastakhan’s Rumble Inn-vitational, the first tournament where this new expansion’s cards will see competitive play.

This eight-player tournament will pit competitors from North America, Europe, Korea, and Taiwan against each other to fight for the glory of their Loa (and to show us some of the finest decks and plays of the new meta).

Players & Talent

These eight competitors will play one match each and chat with us about their decks afterward:

The December 2018 Ranked Play Season is now live—and we’re unveiling a new card back you can add to your collection!

The Frostwolf clan of orcs are renowned for their wisdom, honor, skill in battle—and their massive canine companions, the frost wolves! Theirs is a lineage of heroes, including their chieftain Durotan, and his famed son, Thrall among many others. When other orc clans fell prey to the machinations of the burning legion, the Frostwolf clan saw through the deception and stood firm. You could say that they choose their friends carefully. Prove that you are a friend of the Frostwolf: add the Frostwolf card back to your collection by playing Hearthstone during the month of December!

These card backs replace the art decorating the reverse side of your cards and are a great way to show off your Hearthstone accomplish...

Hi! I’m Tian, a Senior Data Scientist with the Hearthstone team, and today we’re talking about the math behind Arena balance.

Arena matches are played all the time, and they constantly generate data—A LOT of data—that we can use to help make sure that Arena is more balanced. If you had to place me in Boom Labs, I’d probably be in the Mathematical Science department!

The Balancing Game

Arena balance is done in two stages. First, we determine which bucket(s) each card goes into (a bucket is a subset of cards with similar performance quality). A card generally falls into two buckets, and we divide Legendary and non-Legendary cards into two different bucket systems. We decide which bucket each card falls into by its win-rate and pick-rate during games. That means each of the three cards you see during a pick are on similar power tiers.