Hearthstone Update 13.4 (March 14)

Hearthstone Patch 13.4 was just pushed out! It’s a pre-expansion patch, which adds Pre-Purchases as well as some other things.

• You can now buy one of the two Pre-Purchase bundles.
• Log in March 25 through April 3 to get three packs for free – one from each of the Year of the Mammoth expansions (Journey to Un’Goro, Knights of the Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs)
• Tavern Brawl – “Brawl Block: Year of the Mammoth” will start on March 25, letting you build a deck only from Year of the Mammoth cards.
• Tavern Brawl – “Shadows Rise in the Tavern” will start on April 1 and let you earn a Rise of Shadows card pack before the expansion launches.
• Game improvements that were announced previously are now live – optimized mobile size, reconnect improvements, rerolling of Legendary (event) quests, random card back selector, Arena wins now count towards Golden Hero portraits.
• Smarter deck builder was introduced.
• Trigger Order Updates – Updates to how Lifesteal, Poisonous and Overkill keywords trigger. They should feel more natural now.

Read more about it below!

In this update we draw up the plans for Rise of Shadows and give you a chance to join the crew before the heist begins. We’re also saying goodbye to the Year of the Mammoth card sets in style, adding some cool quality of life improvements, and fixing some bugs. Read on for details!

Events

Pre-Purchase the Rise of Shadows

Be ready when Rise of Shadows, Hearthstone’s newest expansion, begins!

Rise of Shadows Bundle
Get 50 Rise of Shadows card packs, the Jewel of Lazul card back, and a Legendary minion from Rise of Shadows.

Rise of Shadows Mega Bundle
Get 80 Rise of Shadows card packs, the Jewel of Lazul card back, a golden Legendary minion, and the new Priest Hero Villain Madame Lazul!

Farewell to Mammoth!

With the Year of the Dragon swiftly approaching let’s take a moment to remember and celebrate the Year of the Mammoth which will soon be rotating to Wild. Join us for a Mammoth send-off!

• Free Packs – Log in March 25th through April 2 to receive 3 free card packs! (1 each from Journey to Un’Goro, The Knights of the Frozen Throne, and Kobolds & Catacombs)
  
• Brawl Block: Year of the Mammoth – The Tavern Brawl starting March 25 invites you to take those free cards and build decks using only expansions from the Year of the Mammoth.
• Shadows Rise in the Tavern! – The Tavern Brawl starting April 1 gives you an opportunity to earn a Rise of Shadows pack that you can open once the expansion is released.

Card Backs!

Game Improvements

We’ve further optimized Hearthstone’s app size
It will be necessary to re-download app data, but Hearthstone will take up a lot less space now!

Reconnect Improvements – Players attempting to reconnect to matches should now have a smoother overall experience.

Reroll Legendary Quests – To give players more freedom over how they’ll be rewarded while playing Hearthstone, we have now added the ability to reroll legendary quests (Special event quests, Expansion launch quests, etc.) into standard daily quests.

Random Card Back Selector – Let the Innkeeper curate your card back collection. Select the Random card back for a deck, and a random card back from your Collection will be chosen each time you play.

Golden Heroes Now Count Arena Wins – Go for the gold in the Arena! We are updating the 500 Wins requirement for Golden Heroes to include Arena wins along with Ranked wins.

• NOTE: This will only apply towards Arena wins earned after this update is live. Any past Arena wins will not count towards the 500 Wins total.

Complete My Deck – Hearthstone’s better at helping you build decks than ever before.

• Helps you build established, proven decks using your collection.
• If you’re short of an established deck, the helper will help you choose the strongest stand-alone cards from what you have available.

Trigger Rules Update – We’re updating the rules regarding how Poisonous, Lifesteal, and Overkill keywords work in specific cases, to make cards behave in a more intuitive way.

• Fixed several issues that could cause User Interface elements to overlap.
• Fixed an issue where Gral, the Shark’s effect could cause the eaten card to appear permanently on the gameboard.
• Playing Gral, the Shark will no longer cause visual effects to display on incorrect parts of the board.
• Gral, the Shark will now correctly gain the extra stats if the minion it eats was buffed in the deck.
• Fixed a visual issue with the effects in Rastakhan’s portrait.
• Nozdormu’s visual effects will no longer persist after he is transformed.
• The Boomsday! card back will no longer light up during the mulligan phase.
• The lock icon for future overloaded mana crystals will no longer be erased after playing Mojomaster Zihi.
• Fixed issue where Magnetic minions could incorrectly execute their end-of-turn effects additional times after being bounced and replayed.
• Astromancer now correctly summons a minion immediately next to her instead of the far right of the board.
• If Big Bad Voodoo’s effect triggers on a minion that doesn’t have any valid minions to evolve into, it will now summon a random minion of equal cost.
• Fixed an issue where mulliganed cards would not be tracked as having started in your deck.
• Kalimos’ Invocation of Water’s card text will no longer indicate that the effect will be doubled while Prophet Velen is in play.
• Fixed an issue which could cause the Mass Disenchant menu to show an incorrect amount of cards and dust.
• Fixed an issue where a person on your Friends list would show their last rank if they set themselves to appear offline instead of going offline.
• Fixed an issue where Card Backs earned from completing a Heroic Adventure would not show up properly in the Collection Manager.
• Returning players who had not previously completed the tutorial or a PvP match will now be included in the New Player Ranks.
• Fixed an issue where players could sometimes get stuck on a loading screen if they tried to spectate a game that ends before they finish loading.
• [Reconnect] Addressed an issue that could cause players who were attempting to reconnect to Arena matches to lose additional matches.
• [Reconnect] Fixed an issue that could cause players who were attempting to reconnect to matches to become stuck in an infinite reconnect loop.
• [Rumble Run] Choices from Branching Paths will no longer trigger twice with Pirate’s Mark in play.
• [Mobile] Fixed an issue that could cause some sound effects to fail to play even after all sound files had been downloaded.
• [Mobile] Fixed an issue that could cause the text bubble for the adventure announcer to appear incorrectly sized.
• [Fireside Gatherings] Fixed an issue that could cause missing and duplicate patrons in the friends list when connected to a Fireside Gathering.