The article was updated for Scholomance Academy – check the new version here.
In March, Blizzard introduced free decks for new players and returning players. There is one deck available for each class (except for Demon Hunter) and you get to choose the one you want. All the cards you get in the deck are added to your collection and you can do what you want with them: use them in other decks or even disenchant them.
For new players, the choice is available upon reaching the start of the main ladder at Bronze 10 either by playing through the apprentice ladder or by skipping it from options. It is not advisable to skip the new player ladder though, because you get free packs as you progress through it.
For returning players, you must not have logged into Hearthstone for four months to be eligible for a free deck. Returning players also get to choose one deck.
While the decks were built before the Standard rotation, they were all rotation-proof from the start and have not been updated for Ashes of Outland. Therefore, all the decks consist of cards from the Classic set and the expansions from Year of the Dragon, notably also from the Galakrond’s Awakening adventure. This is the only way to access adventure cards outside of buying the adventure itself! However, given the value of the adventure, it is recommended to buy it, which may reduce the value of receiving adventure cards from your free deck.
In this article, I will take a deeper look into each of the free decks to help you decide which one to choose.
Free Druid deck – Token Druid
- Format: dragon
- Posted By:
6,280
The free Druid deck is a Token Druid. Out-of-the-box, it can win some games in Bronze, but its performance rapidly deteriorates as its matchups against Demon Hunter and Warrior are pretty bad.
The Legendary cards in the deck, Keeper Stalladris and Goru the Mightree, do not currently see play in any meta decks. The Epic cards Anubisath Defender and Force of Nature are more interesting, although they are not part of the most popular decks right now either. Perhaps the most interesting card in the deck is Rising Winds from the Galakrond’s Awakening adventure because it is played in practically all Druid decks at the moment, and you usually need to buy the adventure to get it.
Token Druid as an archetype has not been popular in Ashes of Outland, but it continues to have a niche presence and is playable all the way to Legend with minor modifications to the free deck.
In order to upgrade the free deck to a playable state, you would cut most of the minions and add some of the powerful spell synergy cards from Ashes of Outland: Fungal Fortunes and Glowfly Swarm. You can make use of the Epic cards and adventure cards in the upgraded deck. This deck is still unfavored against Demon Hunter and Warrior, but it gets much closer to even matchups against them.
There is also the option to move towards a full Spell Druid, but then you’d not be able to use the free Epic cards either, so the benefits of choosing the Druid deck would become tiny.
Free Hunter deck – Quest Hunter
- Format: dragon
- Posted By:
- 7,000
The free Quest Hunter deck used to be a decent performer back when it was introduced, but Ashes of Outland has not been kind to the archetype. While you can expect to win some games in Bronze, the deck has no good matchups in the current meta: it has a number of even matchups and it just loses hard to Demon Hunter, Druid, and other Hunter decks.
The Hunter Quest is not a great Legendary card to get right now because there are no good Quest Hunter decks in the meta. The same applies to Shu'ma, in theory, an OK card, and one that did well before the rotation, but just horribly out of place in the current meta.
The most interesting cards in the deck are the Galakrond’s Awakening adventure cards Sky Gen'ral Kragg and Licensed Adventurer, but as Quest decks are not very popular right now, even their value is on the low side for the time being.
Free Mage deck – Highlander Mage
- Format: dragon
- Posted By:
- 6,780
- 1Arcane Breath1
- 1Learn Draconic1
- 1Ray of Frost1
- 2Ancient Mysteries1
- 2Frostbolt1
- 3Arcane Amplifier1
- 3Arcane Intellect1
- 3Conjurer’s Calling1
- 3Flame Ward1
- 3Frost Nova1
- 3Ice Barrier1
- 4Azure Explorer1
- 4Fireball1
- 4Polymorph1
- 6Blizzard1
- 6Dragoncaster1
- 6Reno the Relicologist1
- 7Flamestrike1
- 8Power of Creation1
On internet forums, the most common recommendation you see for the free new player deck is Mage. However, Mage is the worst-performing deck of them all straight out of the box. The deck has no redeeming qualities and is a recipe for disaster on the ladder.
So, why does everyone recommend it?
The Mage deck is recommended not as a deck, but for the parts. You get three phenomenal Legendary cards in the deck, and two of them are Neutrals! Zephrys the Great and Dragonqueen Alexstrasza form the backbone of all Highlander decks in the game, for all classes. There is also the Mage Highlander synergy card Reno the Relicologist as well as the sweet Epic Power of Creation in the mix.
The problem is that you need to invest in several other expensive cards to make Highlander decks work. Yes, by choosing the free Mage deck, you get a big headstart, but consider whether you’re willing to make the effort to go the rest of the way or whether those sweet Legendary cards will just gather dust with no support from others of their kind. If you want to start building Highlander decks, the free Mage deck gives you the most valuable parts out of all the free decks, but it is not playable as such nor is it cheap to upgrade to a playable form.
Free Paladin deck – Pure Paladin
- Format: dragon
- Posted By:
- 5,420
The free Paladin deck is abysmal. There is only one Legendary card in it, and the deck sucks hard on the ladder. Paladin, in general, is in the gutter in Ashes of Outland, and the deck has only Paladin class cards, so it can only be recommended to die-hard Paladin fans who refuse to consider any other class. There is Shotbot from Galakrond’s Awakening in the deck, that’s an adventure card. Yeah. Don’t pick it, please.
Free Priest deck – Resurrect Priest
- Format: dragon
- Posted By:
- 6,860
The free Priest deck used to be a strong deck when it was introduced, but Ashes of Outland has been one downward journey for Resurrect Priest. Galakrond Priest came, saw, and conquered, and there are currently no Resurrect Priest decks with an above 50% winrate in Diamond or Legend ranks. Early in the expansion, the archetype was still playable, but now it is not doing well at all.
The deck is not that great even for parts in the current meta. While the cards in it are good cards: Catrina Muerte, Archmage Vargoth (which was given out for free one year ago, so if you’re a returning player you may already have it), Psychopomp, Batterhead, and Plague of Death are all fine cards. There just aren’t any decks for them right now. Plague of Death sees play in Galakrond Priest as a singleton, but that’s about it.
Free Rogue deck – Galakrond Rogue
- Format: dragon
- Posted By:
- 7,640
If you want to win, go Rogue. There is a reason several streamers who have completed free-to-play Legend climbs with new accounts have chosen Rogue as their free deck. The free Rogue deck is the best deck out-of-the-box and immediately playable all the way to Legend without any modifications, and it becomes a real beast with a couple of additions.
You get three Legendary cards, two Rogue class cards and one Neutral card, and all of them see extensive play in the current meta. Edwin VanCleef and Heistbaron Togwaggle are the definitive Rogue class Legendary cards – you probably want to add Flik Skyshiv to the mix when you can afford it, but Edwin and Heistbaron are the best-performing ones. Kronx Dragonhoof is used in all Galakrond decks, and several classes use Galakrond at the moment, so it even gives you a headstart to expand to other classes.
Simply a wonderful deck.
Free Shaman deck – Galakrond Control Shaman
- Format: dragon
- Posted By:
- 8,140
The free Shaman deck performs well for a Shaman deck. That said, Shaman is the second-worst class in the game right now, so in reality, the deck is not doing all that great. At least it’s better than the free Mage deck, but it does not have nearly as valuable cards in it. You can climb a little with the Shaman deck, but nowhere close to Legend.
The Fist of Ra-Den may look like a Legendary card, but it is actually from the Galakrond’s Awakening adventure, which means that if you buy the adventure, you are guaranteed to get it, and thereby it is not quite as rare as other Legendary cards. There is also Kronx Dragonhoof in the deck, and it is a highly useful Neutral Legendary card that goes into all Galakrond decks, but that is not nearly enough to make the deck worth recommending.
Free Warlock deck – Galakrond Zoo Warlock
- Format: dragon
- Posted By:
- 7,480
The free Zoo Warlock deck is an interesting one. Hardly anyone plays Galakrond Zoo in Ashes of Outland, all the Zoo decks are Discard Zoos. It is not a bad deck though, you can get to Diamond with it, maybe even all the way to Legend if you get a little lucky with your matchups.
There are some good cards in the deck: Kronx Dragonhoof is used in all Galakrond decks, and Dark Pharaoh Tekahn has recently increased in popularity and sees play in multiple Warlock decks. Veiled Worshippers are used in all Warlock Galakrond decks as well.
The upgrade path for the free Warlock deck is probably not Zoo at all, but a Lackey Galakrond Warlock along these lines:
The free deck gets you more than halfway there, but you still need Dark Skies and Alexstrasza to complete the deck.
Free Warrior deck – Pirate Warrior
- Format: dragon
- Posted By:
- 6,080
- 1Sky Raider2
- 1Upgrade!2
- 3Ancharrr1
- 3Livewire Lance2
- 3Skybarge2
- 4Kor’kron Elite2
- 4Mortal Strike2
- 5Arcanite Reaper2
The free Warrior deck is the second-best free deck in performance: it can be played all the way to Legend. That’s not bad for an archetype that sees practically no play in Ashes of Outland! All the meta Warrior decks are some form of Enrage Warriors, but this free Pirate Warrior deck is just pure aggro.
If you want to play Warrior, the deck also comes with several good cards in it: Ancharrr, Captain Greenskin, and Livewire Lance all see play in the top meta Warrior decks.
There is only one small obstacle: all the Enrage Warrior decks are built around Risky Skipper, which is from the Galakrond’s Awakening adventure, so if you want to upgrade the deck into a top meta deck, you have to buy the adventure to get the Skipper.
Conclusions
At the moment, two of the free decks can be played all the way to Legend with no modifications: Galakrond Rogue and Pirate Warrior. Galakrond Zoo Warlock is right behind them in performance and can also reach Legend with a little luck.
Looking at the parts, all the decks are of roughly equal value from a dust point of view, but there are major differences in the quality of cards themselves. The Mage deck has the most valuable Neutral cards and overall the most playable expensive cards, but it is the weakest deck of them all out-of-the-box. The Rogue deck can match the Mage deck in card value, but only if you play Rogue because it has more important class cards in it.
The Galakrond Zoo Warlock and Pirate Warrior both include several great cards for their classes, but require further investments to turn into meta decks: Zoo into a Galakrond Warlock and Warrior into an Enrage Warrior. The needed Warlock cards can be crafted, whereas Warrior needs the Galakrond’s Awakening adventure for Risky Skipper.
The Token Druid deck can be upgraded into a Legend-capable deck fairly easily, but most of the expensive cards in it are not used in the meta right now.
The free Hunter, Paladin, Priest, and Shaman decks are weak options in the current meta.
Old Guardian
Ville "Old Guardian" Kilkku is a writer and video creator focused on analytic, educational Hearthstone, and building innovative Standard format decks. Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/old_guardian
Highly disagree with the mage review.
If you can swing 3400 dust it’s can carry you to d5 if not legend. You need 4 cards to be viable, kalecgos, astromancer, imprisoned observer and deep freeze are your replacements. With another 800 for tortollan and rolling fireball you can go to legend. 4200 dust for returning players or new players who save their dust in apprentice league can easily achieve this.
Free deck rewards are disabled on Europe for 10 days or so, the latest patch hasn’t fixed anything.
“Free decks are working again – previously new players have got Warrior deck no matter what they picked.” – Now you can pick any of the 9 decks, but there’s an error message that tells you to restart hearthstone and login again, which doesn’t do anything, there’s no problem on Asia and America, though.
Patch notes said that they fixed it, so I assumed that was the case. But I’ll investigate, and I hope that they will fix the error soon (the article should still be useful for players from other regions + for EU players after it gets fixed).