Back in 2020, Blizzard started giving away free decks for new and returning players. More recently, they changed it from picking one deck right away to “loaning” 6 decks for a week. This way players have access to all 6 options for 7 days and can playtest them during that time. After the week ends, they will have to select one of the 6 to get for free, the other 5 will no longer be playable.
Sadly those decks never include cards from the latest expansion. So in the case of the new Perils in Paradise decks, they will only include cards from 2023 (Festival of Legends, TITANS and Showdown in the Badlands) expansions as well as 2024’s Whizbang’s Workshop. Still, with a few small adjustments they might be good enough to play in the new expansion.
If you just started playing Hearthstone or haven’t been playing in a while and you’re wondering what those decks are and which you should pick, this article is for you!
How to Get Them
There are two kinds of players who are eligible for free decks – new and returning players.
New players get to pick the deck when they reach Bronze 10 rank for the first time (which is the rank every player is reset to at the start of the season). To get there, they can either play through the apprentice ranks (special ranks reserved for new players) or straight-up skip them. We don’t recommend the latter option, because if you’re a truly new player, playing on those separate ranks will make you understand the game better and also offer a bunch of extra rewards.
Returning players are those who were inactive for at least 90 days, which is roughly 3/4 of the expansion. In the past, you had to complete a so-called “returning players experience”, but now just logging in is enough to get your shiny, new deck.
After one of those two conditions is met, players get 6 temporary decks for free on log-in. Then exactly 7 days later they will have to choose one out of 6 to keep permanently.
It’s also important to note that this is not a one-time offer. If you already got a free deck in the past, if you stay inactive for over 90 days again, you will be eligible for another free deck. So if you only play at the start of each expansion, you can technically get a new free deck every set.
Full List of Loaner Decks
- Format: pegasus
- Posted By:
12,600
Zilliax Deluxe 3000: Twin Module + Perfect Module
- Format: pegasus
- Posted By:
- 7,800
Zilliax Deluxe 3000: Pylon Module + Ticking Module
- Format: pegasus
- Posted By:
- 12,700
Zilliax Deluxe 3000: Twin Module + Perfect Module
- Format: pegasus
- Posted By:
- 11,040
Zilliax Deluxe 3000: Power Module + Twin Module
- Format: pegasus
- Posted By:
- 11,040
Zilliax Deluxe 3000: Pylon Module + Ticking Module
- Format: pegasus
- Posted By:
- 17,640
- 0Zilliax Deluxe 30001
- 1Armor Vendor1
- 2Dirty Rat1
- 2Greedy Partner1
- 2Needlerock Totem1
- 2Tidepool Pupil1
- 2Trail Mix1
- 3All You Can Eat1
- 3New Heights1
- 4Aftershocks1
- 4E.T.C., Band Manager1
- 4Griftah, Trusted Vendor1
- 4Ignis, the Eternal Flame1
- 7Marin the Manager1
- 7Sleep Under the Stars1
- 10Reno, Lone Ranger1
Which Deck To Pick
That’s probably the most important question. The good news is that this time there are no bad picks. All of the decks are either good meta picks (or at least will be after a few small tweaks) or they provide a lot of pure value by giving you lots of good cards.
From the power level perspective, 5 of those decks are good, meta builds. They vary slightly in power level, but they are mostly in Tier 1-2. The decks I’m talking about are Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Druid, Paladin, and Shaman. I’d say that Death Knight is the weakest one of them all, but it’s also one of the most popular decks in the game simply because players enjoy it (and that’s also an important factor). It also arguably offers one of the strongest sets of Epics and Legendaries of them all.
Now, the other way to look at those decks is in terms of value. What kinds of Epics/Legendaries they provide and how much Dust they cost. And here’s when the final deck from the bunch might be considered. Reno Warrior is much weaker in terms of power level, but it’s up there in terms of Dust value. And importantly, it’s the only deck with Reno, Lone Ranger – if you’re a fan of singleton decks, it’s a great pick because Reno has been useful in multiple decks since its release (and it’s safe to assume that he will still be played until the time he rotates out). It’s also the only slower, Control deck in the roundup, so if that’s your preferred play style, picking it won’t be a bad idea. The difference is that while the other builds are Tier 1-2, Reno Warrior is currently sitting in Tier 3, making it much harder to climb with.
On the other hand, Demon Hunter is the worst pick in terms of value. So even if you like its play style, it might be a good idea to just pick a different build for free and use your own Dust to craft whatever you need for it. For example, if you pick Shaman instead, you will only have to craft one extra Legendary card (Aranna, Thrill Seeker) to play Demon Hunter – the other necessary cards are Commons and Rares which are very easy to open in the packs (especially Catch-up Packs).
Last consideration might be the deck’s difficulty. If you’re a new player or have came back after a long break, you might want to pick something simple to get yourself in action before playing more difficult decks. And in terms of difficulty, I’d say that Demon Hunter and Paladin are the two most straightforward builds, followed by Death Knight. Druid and Shaman aren’t exactly rocket science, but they have some more complex interactions that less experienced players might have hard time with. And Reno Warrior is definitely the most difficult out of them for a new player.
However, ultimately the choice is up to you. The most important thing is for you to have fun. If you like any of those classes or playstyles in particular, pick that deck. Since you can play all 6 decks for a week, you have enough time to test all of them before committing.
