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Forged in the Barrens transports players to the sun-baked savanna of central Kalimdor, a proving ground where the mighty heroes of the Horde embark on their first adventures. They’ll recruit legendary mercenaries, face roving bands of quilboar raiders, and if they’re really lucky, maybe even find Mankrik’s wife! Lok’Tar Ogar!
General Information
- Release Date – March 30, 2021
- 135 New Cards
- Introduction of Core Set instead of Basic/Classic
- New Keyword – Frenzy
- New Mechanic – Spell Schools
- New Mechanic – Ranked Spells
- Year-Long Narrative – all three 2021 expansions will be connected by their story.
- Two Pre-Purchase Tiers
Cinematic Trailer
Announcement Video
Pre-Purchase
Once again, we’ll have two different pre-order bundles. You can get the bundles here. Here’s what they include and how much they cost:
Forged in the Barrens Pre-Purchase Bundle ($49.99)
- 60 Forged in the Barrens Card Packs
- Two Random Legendary cards from Forged in the Barrens
- Hamuul Card Back
Forged in the Barrens Mega Bundle ($79.99)
- 80 Forged in the Barrens Card Packs
- 5 Golden Forged in the Barrens Card Packs
- Two Random Golden Legendaries from Forged in the Barrens
- Hamuul Runetotem Druid Cosmetic Hero
- Hamuul Card Back
- Battlegrounds Perks
Pre-purchases are available through March 29, a day before expansion’s release.
New Keyword – Frenzy
This expansion’s new mechanic is Frenzy. Frenzy triggers the first time a minion takes damage and survives. If you think that it sounds a bit similar to now retired Enrage mechanic – well, that’s because it is!
Most important difference between Frenzy and the old Enrage is that Frenzy can only trigger once. Enrage was sort of an on/off thing – if minion got healed up to full health, it would lose its Enrage effect. Frenzy is one and done.
As you can see, Frenzy can trigger all kinds of diferent effects, ranging from dealing extra damage, transforming the minion to adding more value to your hand. Frenzy cards will certainly be stronger in classes that can more easily damage their own minions, such as Warrior. Rush is also a big bonus, given that you can attack immediately, which means that Animated Broomstick might see even more play with Frenzy cards!
New Mechanic – Spell Schools
Minions had their types (also known as tribes – e.g. Dragon or Beast) ever since the game’s creation, and it’s time for Spells to also have them now. Spells might now belong to one of the seven spell schools – Arcane, Fel, Fire, Frost, Nature, Holy or Shadow. It will also be applied retroactively to already existing spells.
There are also pay-off cards that synergize with a certain spell school. For now, we only know two, but we expect to see many more this expansion (and most likely in the future).
Ranked Spells
You’ve already caught a glimpse of it above, but yes, there’s yet another mechanic coming in the expansion – ranked spells. Those will start at Rank 1, but upgrade whenever you hit 5 mana and then once again on 10 mana. The upgrade is free and it doesn’t have any negative impact on the card – it only makes it stronger.
Ranked spells might be quite powerful due to their flexibility. For example, Imp Swarm isn’t the strongest 2-drop, but a 2 mana 3/2 is passable if you have nothing else to do. However, you can always wait and play it in the mid or late game, when it summons two or three 3/2’s for the same cost. Unlike your regular 2-drop, topdecking this card later won’t feel bad!
Hi guys,
Can anyone explain me why I have 2 Altruis and Nethrandamus in my collection?
roflmao
Rewards when logged in today for my total number of ranked wins was approximately 30 golden legendaries?!? Every reward page included an animation, so someone at Blizzard made these specifically.
None of them appear in my collection. What was this?
Those are Core Set cards. Golden versions of Core Set cards are obtained through achievements.
They will be in your collection after expansion launches, but they can’t be disenchanted in case you’re wondering.
Paladin got the best cards.
Do we have any word on if the Core cards that are reprints of other cards will be usable in both versions in Wild? i.e. could someone, say, Ping mage, have 4 copies of Fallen Hero- 2 from TGT and 2 from Core 2021? Or could a Meme Pally have 2 Tirions- 1 from Classic and 1 from Core 2021?
The cards will count as versions of the same card (similar to golden vs regular), so you’ll only be able to use a normal playset in a deck (i.e. 2, or 1 if legendary)
i assumed as much. just wishful thinking. will that also be true for changed cards (Tracking in Hunter, for example)?
I expect so, especially given the nature of the discussions re stonetusk boar and bluegill warrior.
Patch 20.0 releases on March 25th along with Classic mode and Nerfs and new achievements. Along with a few details on old achievement. Please update?
Calling it now: libram paladin high tier 2/tier 1 next expansion, especially with the new paladin cards
Problem is no card draw.
Xcuse me for a sec everybody..
I’ve paid for thia game for the first time.
The pre purchase bundle containing the 2 legos, “isn’t contain” the two guaranteed ones is it? I mean i’ll got these 2 legos like everybody did in the beginning of darkmoon set when we got a lego completely free.
I’m not 100% sure what you mean, but I think the answer is yes.
I mean that the 2 guaranteed legendary won’t be in my 60 packs like the galakronds did back then, got it? Thx for your answer anyway.
Yeah, that’s right. You should receive them the first time you log in when the expansion drops, regardless of whether you open any packs
Vol’jin is a free legendary, but not part of the guaranteed legendaries from the prepurchase.
You will get 2 guaranteed legendaries on launch day, from the cards that have not yet been released from this expansion.
Thanks, a lot my man!
condemn in rogue lol(quick error, might wanna fix that)
Would be pretty nice for Rogue though tbh
Thanks, I already fixed it. But yeah, Rogue would really like some AoE 🙂
I just heard about two new Forged In The Barrens mage cards that haven’t been posted here yet. The first is Mordresh Fire Eye, a 10-mana 10/10 legendary. “Battlecry: If you’ve dealt 10 damage with your hero power this game, deal 10 damage to all enemies.” That’s a lot of tens! A supporting 4-mana Rare card is the 3/5 Reckless Apprentice. “Battlecry: Fire your Hero Power at all enemies.”
Dang! Those core set hero power buff cards don’t look so bad anymore.
@Stonekeep/anyone else…
Do you think Darkglare Warlock has a chance in standard next month?
No one can really say for sure, but given current iterations of darkglare zoolock lose very little to the rotation, I would say probably. It should almost certainly be a good deck during the first week at least.
shouldnt we have more then 4 commons?
isnt it 5 legendaries
3 epics
3 rares
bunch of commons
or is this one differetnt?
I put 4 slots in all Neutral rarities, because I simply don’t know the rarity distribution – it’s just a placeholder 🙂
Last year we had less Neutral cards, because Demon Hunter was getting extras since it was a new class and needed to catch up. This year Demon Hunter will get the regular 10 cards, so we will probably have some extra Neutrals – but I don’t know how many of each rarity.
ahhhh, that makes snese thanks!
If i have Grommash Hellscream and other classic cards,
I can dist them, and then i will get them back for free?
The ones you get from Core Set will be separate from the ones you own and “temporary”.
You will still have your own Grommash, and then will get a new, free version playable in Core Set that might disappear next year (if they decide to rotate it out and add something else instead).
If you’re interested in Wild and the upcoming Classic format, you should probably keep your old cards, since they might be useful after rotating out of Core Set.
Question, we know that Tyrion stays, but will we have two shots or will one simply replace the other? And if so, it would be advisable to disenchant Tyrion before the expansion, right?
The Tirion we get from Core Set will be separate and temporary – so if it even rotates out of Core Set, it would disappear from your collection.
There’s definitely no rush in disenchanting cards, since Core Set ones won’t replace the ones you already have. But if you don’t care about having those for Wild or Classic format, disenchanting them might not be a bad idea.
Any Idea on the cost of the reward track pass? I am 169 right now and have 11000 gold without getting it but with the big bundle last expansion. i kind of feel like i might get the same pay off with the xp boost but without buying a bundle
No info about Tavern Pass, but it will probably cost $19.99 like it does right now.
With how much you have, you would probably earn like 2.5k more Gold by the end of expansion if you had it from the start.
Will there be any giveaway like in darkmoon faire pre purchase bundles?
We’ll see, it depends on whether Blizzard gives us some codes.
But we’re running a Celebration Collection Epic Pack giveaway right now on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HSTopDecks/status/1363174385893466115
Are they running out of ideas? Frenzy sounds a bit “déjà vu” doesn’t it? The upgrading spells have been seen before too. The schools of spells might be interesting for the mechanics, but it’s too early to know. Aren’t all the Shaman’s spell damage cards “Nature” for definition? They need to introduce a “Pauper” format with limited cost so that new players can compete at same level and at the same time learn the new mechanics…
Yeah, Frenzy is very close to Enrage in how it works. Upgrading spells are quite different from Scheme cards if that’s what you mean. Spell Schools sound really fun given that they apply retroactively to all spells, which means that we might get more synergies in future expansions. And about Shaman being only Nature – mostly yes, but not only. There are some Fire and Frost spells too. E.g. Lava Burst, Molten Blast for Fire and Frost Shock or Invocation of Frost for Frost.
Pauper format is not a bad idea, but the biggest issue is that the game rarities were never balanced with it in mind, it would make some strategies really broken compared to others. Some decks like Face Hunter or Aggro Demon Hunter that need no expensive cards would just absolutely dominate. At the same time, many classes would be completely unplayable, since they rely on certain Epics/Legendaries.
is there a block function? I’ll whitelist the site.
What do you mean by “block function”?
Hearthstone is turning generous now? Giving 2 random legendaries instead of 1?
Don’t wanna sound too ungrateful, but it’s better if they give wild card so we can choose what legendary we want.
(not wild card as in old expansion, but wild card like Runeterra)
Plus, they still stick with the old $80 mega-bundle which doesn’t include Premium Reward track bonus. Best guess, they still gonna charge $20 again. Unbelievable.
Man, all you do is complain. Go find another game.
I was born salty, and for your info, everything they gave to the players up to this point was because people spoke for it, and all the players gain the benefit from it.
What was I suppose to do? Be a good licker up their ass everytime they f*cked the game like in the past? No thanks.
But changing it for the better is a good direction so far, and I only complain about them not doing it sooner.
No offense tho, I will keep being honest to myself.
If you don’t like my comment, feel free to search another that suits yours.