Hearthstone Legendary Crafting Guide (Standard) – United in Stormwind

Determining which Legendary Hearthstone card to craft can be a tough decision for experienced and new players alike. If you craft a card and find it less useful than initially expected, the best you can get is one-fourth of your Arcane Dust back.

Our Hearthstone Legendary Crafting Guide will help ease the anxiety of burning 1600 dust on a single card. This guide will take you through a logical Crafting Strategy to ease the pain of Standard rotations and focus on those cards that are most likely to get the best value from your dust. For each Hearthstone Set, we provide the Best Cards to Craft and Good Cards to Craft to assist you through your next crafting conundrum.

Please note that this guide is intended for Standard players. In Wild, Legendary cards have different power levels than in Standard due to additional synergies available in the format.

Be sure to check out our other crafting guides:

Hearthstone Legendary Crafting Strategy

When choosing the next Legendary card to craft, you should consider both the strength and set of the cards you’re considering. Typically, Neutral Legendaries fit into more decks and offer the best variety when crafted. As with all class cards, however, class-specific Legendaries tend to be stronger and offer additional synergy and/or class identity options.

Crafting Categories

The Best Cards to Craft are either Legendaries played in a variety of decks (mostly Neutral) or staples in a strong meta deck. Given their strength, they’re very likely to continue seeing play before their rotation. Good Cards to Craft are Legendaries that are less popular and possibly not as strong, but also playable in the current meta.Β They are usually necessary (or at least very helpful) in a specific, less common or less powerful archetype. Some of them are more of a tech cards / Legendaries specific to this meta and might not see that much usage in the future, but they still have a higher chance of being playable later than your average Legendary.

In general, cards listed in the Best Cards to Craft for each set should be given priority over those in the Good Cards to Craft. Of course, it all depends on the decks you want to play, your favorite classes, and so on – you need to apply your own filter to the list too.

Card Sets

Previously, cards from the “evergreen” Classic set were the best crafts. Now that Core Set is free for everyone, new players will find it much easier to pick the cards they want to craft. Instead of having to get all the often boring, but staple Classic Legendaries, they can now focus on the latest expansions.

Right now, cards from the current year should be given priority. Sets remain in Standard for two years, so the current year sets have a longer lifespan than the sets from the previous year. The closer we get to rotation (it usually happens around April each year), the less I recommend crafting cards from last year. For example, if it’s only 4 months until rotation, cards from the current year will remain available for a year and 4 months, while cards from the previous year will only be relevant for 4 months.

Year of the Gryphon (2021) Sets

The Year of the Gryphon consists of Forged in the Barrens (+Wailing Caverns Mini-Set), United in Stormwind (+unnannounced mini-set), as well as another expansion + mini-set combo we don’t know yet. All of them will rotate out of the Standard format with the release of the first expansion of 2023 (around April).

United in Stormwind Best Cards to Craft

United in Stormwind is the latest set, so we had less time to judge the power level of those cards – keep that in mind!

  • The Demon Seed – So far Warlock’s Questline is the best Legendary from United in Stormwind, no matter if you play Wild or Standard. Deck built around is is very strong – with a great mix of self-damage and healing, Warlock can survive while dropping big threats onto the board, and if that’s not enough the build has an inevitability of killing the opponent with self-damage (including fatigue) after Questline is finished. However, at the same time, it’s one of the Legendaries that are most likely to get nerfed looking at the current state of the game (even worse – it might not get nerfed directly, but all the related cards around it making it much worse).
  • Command the Elements – Shaman’s Questline is very powerful against most of the meta – it actually only gets countered by the other two popular builds (Questline Mage & Warlock). However, it’s still doing very well, because every other popular matchup is in the green. Not only it can defend itself against aggression, clear the board efficiently, but after the Questline is done, it either summons multiple big minions or burns the opponent with double spells (a simple Lightning Bolt turns into a Fireball and so on).
  • Darkbishop Benedictus – Benedictus is the main activator of “Shadow Priest” fantasy – if you want your Anduin to play dirty, it’s a must-have card. While a 5 mana 5/6 is useless by itself and you’re much better off not drawing it, you play him for the start of game effect. Turning your Hero Power into a better version of Hunter’s Hero Power (or an upgraded Mage Hero Power) at no cost other than having to play only Shadow Priest turned out to be very strong and more successful than most players have anticipated. If you like Aggro decks, it’s one of the best choices now.

United in Stormwind Good Cards to Craft

  • Sorcerer's Gambit – While the card is popular enough to be classified as “best” to craft, Questline Mage deck is actually low Tier 2 or even Tier 3 depending on who you ask. That’s why it didn’t feel right to put it alongside two Questlines mentioned above. But overall, it’s one of the most common decks on the ladder – especially at lower ranks. It’s pretty straightforward, fun to play and also very cheap. The plan is to cycle through the deck while freezing/clearing opponent’s board and finishing to Questline, then burning them down to the ground with infinite damage from Ignite. Of course a must-craft if you want to play Questline Mage.
  • Varian, King of Stormwind – Varian would probably be one of the best Legendaries in the game right now if the meta wasn’t as fast as it is. In the right deck, the card brings insane value and a bunch of tempo too – not only you draw 3 cards, but you also play 7/7 with Rush, Divine Shield AND Taunt (in the best case scenario). Usually even hitting two of those keywords is enough to make it a much better version of Siamat. Right now it’s mostly played in all kinds of Paladin builds, because they have the easiest access to Divine Shield and play a more Midrange strategy.
  • Cornelius Roame – One of the highest rated cards before the expansion was released – Cornelius is a card draw machine. It guarantees 2 cards (+a 4/5 body) for 6 mana, but if it survives, it goes way beyond that. As long as opponent doesn’t kill him immediately, he will guarantee drawing you 6 cards in total – yep, that’s a crazy number. The current meta is a bit too fast for him, but even now he sees play in some Paladin and Druid builds. And he has a serious chance of being even better in the future.
  • Final Showdown – Demon Hunter’s Questline is an interesting one. While many good players swear that a deck built around it is actually great, overall stats don’t show it. Brute Demon Hunter is a very tricky build, which utilizes insane cycling capabilities to finish the Questline, play multiple 0 mana Irebound Brutes and then finish the opponent off with Lion's Frenzy. It’s obviously a must-have in that deck, but I wouldn’t recommend the deck to less experienced players.
  • Anetheron – Anetheron is a solid option in Giants (Hand) version of Questline Warlock. Since you draw a lot of cards and keep a full hand very often, Anetheron is often a 1 mana 8/6, which is obviously quite powerful. It’s one of the first big minions you can drop on the board (as early as Turn 4), and a good addition to your Raise Dead pool once it dies. However, he’s pretty low on the priority list, since you can easily play the deck without him – many lists have cut him in favor of other cards.
  • Highlord Fordragon – Highlord Fordragon is a solid choice in Handbuff Paladin deck – not a very popular meta option, but still a pretty solid one. Since the deck runs a lot of Divine Shields (Prismatic Jewel Kit depends on them + they work very well with Handbuffs in general), you can easily trigger Highlord’s effect a couple of times, producing some really big minions. It’s even better if the buff lands on something like Blademaster Samuro or Catacomb Guard, which benefit from those even more than your average minions. I know that it’s a common trend, but if the meta slowed down a bit, I bet that Fordragon would be even better.
  • Jace Darkweaver – And finally, a staple Fel Demon Hunter card. Interestingly enough, Fel Demon Hunter is relatively popular in high Legend (and in tournament setting), but it’s nearly absent from lower ranks. The goal of the build is to play multiple Fel cards like Chaos Strike, Fury (Rank 1) (or even better Rank 2), Fel Barrage, Metamorphosis, and then repeat all of them with Jace. You also run Aldrachi Warblades + weapon buffs + Il'gynoth for some extra burst damage. Overall, the deck is pretty tricky to play, but it has a lot of burst potential and even OTK capabilities if you hit the right cards with discounts.

Forged in the Barrens Academy Best Cards to Craft

  • Tamsin Roame – Tamsin, while pretty useless in the early game and mediocre in the mid game, has some insane late game potential. Copying any Shadow spell you cast AND making it cost 0 is crazy powerful if you run at least a few of them in your deck. Some of the popular ones you can copy include Drain Soul, Touch of the Nathrezim, Mortal Coil or Unstable Shadow Blast. As you can see, her main purpose is getting more removal and healing – the latter comes really handy against decks that want to burn you down. You can often clear wide boards with Tamsin and only 2-3 single target removal spells, while healing/drawing lots of cards in the process.
  • Manrkik would be another “best to craft” card, but he’s one of the free expansion Legendaries. If you didn’t claim him from Barrens rewards track, all you need to do is buy a single Forged in the Barrens pack and go to the pack opening menu – he will be added to your collection.Β No need to spend Dust!

Forged in the Barrens Academy Good Cards to Craft

  • Blademaster Samuro – Blademaster Samuro is a board clear in a form of a minion. Although dealing 1 AoE damage is sometimes good enough by itself, most of the time you want to combine him with some buffs – like handbuffs in case of Paladin, or Apotheosis in case of Priest (the combo was very popular last expansion, when Control Priest was still commonly played) – the latter gains an extra advantage of healing you for all the damage you deal. If you run a deck with some buffs, the chances are that you will want to put Samuro in – just bringing him up to 3 attack is often good enough to get rid of bigger boards.
  • Cariel Roame – Divine Shield + Rush is a great combo. Now if you add a mana discount on some cards in your hand… yeah, Cariel is a great pick in certain Paladin builds. If you run Holy spells you might want to discount, you probably also want to run Cariel. Right now she’s most commonly seen in Handbuff Paladin, where she gets even more value after getting buffed (you can sometimes even run her into a Giant and kill it while leaving 8/7 minion behind). Simple, but effective. She will probably see more play in Paladin going forward too.
  • Barak Kodobane – Barak used to be a Face Hunter staple ever since Forged in the Barrens came out. Not only it draws 3 cards on a 3/5 body, for 5 mana, but it also draws 3 specific mana costs – 1, 2, and 3. On 1 and 2, Hunter has some really strong cards, including Aimed Shot for more burn, while on 3 you either have Mankrik‘s 3/7 that hits face (and draws you another card instead) or Aimed Shot, both of which are insane. Mankrik on 3 into Kodobane on 5 curve is usually game-winning, but even without Mankrik, Kodobane will give youΒ 8-10 damage worth of burn spells, making him an excellent mid-late game play.
  • Kazakus, Golem Shaper – Bad news is that many decks simply can’t put Kazakus in them, because they run some important 4 mana cost cards. Good news is that your deck is not one of those, you will likely boost your win rate by plugging in Kazakus. There are some builds that love him, including certain Rogue and Priest decks. While his initial stats are very weak, the power level of the Golems you create is quite insane and can seriously win you some games (e.g. 2x 5/5 with Divine Shield, 5/5 with Poisonous that deals 3 damage to two minions clearing them instantly or even something like a big 2x 10/10 with Stealth – but the last one is a bit too slow for the current climate). In any case, it’s a good Legendary and it will most likely see a lot of play before it rotates out.
  • Lady Anacondra – Lady Anacondra is a build-around card for a certain Druid deck. The truth is that a 2 mana discount on Nature spells is not really worth it by itself, given that you would have to play at least a few spells before her cost is even paid back. But there are some ways to make her work much, much better. The first one is Germination – which is a also a Nature spell, so gets cheaper. For 8 mana, you can get 3 copies of Anacondra, discounting all of your Nature spells by 6 while summoning a decent board. Now that’s more interesting – free Nourishes, Arbor Ups and cheap Cenarion Wards seem pretty cool. The other way is by playing Celestial Alignment – if all of your cards are 1 mana, discounting Nature spells means that you are able to play a lot of them for free – combine it with Gadgetzan Auctioneer and you go through your entire deck while doing A LOT of powerful things. Overall the card is quite interesting and has some serious combo capabilities.
  • Mutanus the Devourer – Mutanus used to be present in most of the slower decks last expansion, because it’s a great disruption tool. Not only you might be getting rid of your opponent’s important card, but you also put a (usually big) body on the board. However, right now it’s much less common simply because how fast the meta is and that playing a 7 mana card that deals with a single threat from your opponent’s hand is not necessarily the best choice. The only highlight is that it can get rid of Questline rewards, but those are often played on the same turn they are finished. It’s rarely seen right now, but there’s a very, very high chance that it will come back in the future.

Year of the Phoenix (2020) Sets

The Year of the Phoenix consists of Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire. All three sets will rotate out of the Standard format with the release of the first expansion of 2022.

Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Best Cards to Craft

There are currently no Darkmoon Faire Legendaries that I would consider “best” crafts.

Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Good Cards to Craft

  • Rinling's Rifle – Rinling’s Rifle is a Hunter staple – the card simply does a lot for quite cheap. Hunter Secrets tend to be pretty strong, but they are also situational. For example, putting a Freezing Trap into your deck means that sure – you will be protected against a single big minion, but it will be useless against a swarm of smaller minions. Rinling’s Rifle doesn’t have this problem, because you can pick the one that fits current situation the most. With only six Hunter Secrets in Standard right now, you can pick the ones you want pretty consistently. You get two, and you also get a 2/2 weapon to deal some extra damage, clear off smaller minions etc. It’s just a good card.
  • Greybough – Greybough was previously more niche, but it has started seeing play lately thanks to the Aggro Taunt Druid strategy getting more popular (and actually viable). The current meta is very low on Silence and Transform effects, so you can usually trigger his effect a few times, making it a great long-term threat. What’s even better is that thanks to the Oracle of Elune + Razormane Battleguard combo, you make it cost only 1 mana (so it also gets affected by Oracle’s text) – which means that on Turn 6, dropping those three cards together, you create a massive board that is very, very hard to get rid of efficiently.
  • Moonfang – Moonfang is one of those cards that seem pretty underwhelming, but turn out to be strong in the right deck. It was Guardian Animals Druid last expansion, right now it’s mostly Handbuff Paladin. In case of Paladin – each handbuff means it gets more health, which in turn means one extra attack it survives. And the thing is that most of the removals in the current meta are based on damage, not on straight-up destroying a minion. So Moonfang is often nigh impossible to clear, making him a great threat that will stick around for a while. Moonfang also sees some play in Face Hunter, although stats don’t directly
  • Il'gynoth – Il’gynoth builds were popular in high Legend before the card was nerfed (from 4 to 6 mana), then they’ve disappeared, but now they’re actually coming back in the Brute Demon Hunter shell. Il’gynoth turns any Lifesteal into damage for the opponent, and as we all know, Demon Hunter has quite a lot of powerful Lifesteal effects. Mostly Felscream Blast, which when combined with some Spell Damage and/or Mo'arg Artificer can heal for A LOT = deal a lot of damage with Il’gynoth. Current combos rely on discounting pieces with Final Showdown Questline and they actually work pretty well – still mostly in high Legend, but if the decks takes off there’s a chance that its popularity will trickle down to lower ranks too.

Scholomance Academy Best Cards to Craft

  • Instructor Fireheart – Fireheart was always a simple, but solid Legendary in Shaman. One of the best things about her is that she can simply be dropped on Turn 3 as some board presence + spell discovery, but can also be held into the late game for more impressive spell chains (depending on your luck, of course, but you can usually get at least 2-3 spells from her, up to 5-6+ in more extreme cases). However, right now her late game potential is even more powerful thanks to Command the Elements Questline. Since all of your spells are doubled after you finish the Questline, discovering a bunch of them becomes much more compelling. She can help you find more board presence, removals, burn damage, healing and basically whatever you might need at the moment. Or, in some cases, help you finish the Questline by Discovering some Overload spells.
  • Mindrender Illucia – Illucia is one of the most controversial cards in the game ever since she was released. Her ability to disrupt the opponent was always very powerful, and nearly always hated by the player on receiving end. However, while annoying in Control Priest, she’s straight up broken in many situations when playing Shadow Priest. Unlike Control, as a Shadow you run out of cards very quickly. In some cases, you might end up topdecking mode as soon as Turn 4-5. Normally that’s bad, but it’s actually great for Illucia. If you tempo out in the early game and fill the board with your minions, you’re asking to get yourself AoE’d. But if you drop Illucia after emptying your hand, you now give your opponent… nothing. You don’t care much about cards in their hand – often you won’t even “steal” anything. But you gain one free turn of dealing damage, which is often enough to just win the game. The only thing opponent can do is playing the topdecked card – which more than often is useless in their situation (Void Shard is the only exception, but depending on how big your board is, that’s probably not going to save them).

Scholomance Academy Good Cards to Craft

  • Disciplinarian Gandling – While Illucia is played in nearly every single Shadow Priest build, Gandling is present in roughly half of them. There are two Shadow Priest strategies you can take – one of them is based around Gandling + cheap minions. You actually run 0 cost stuff like Murloc Tinyfin and Desk Imp + a lot of other 1 cost cards, in order to drop them together with Gandling. It’s a massive tempo push – e.g. playing Gandling + two 0 mana minions creates a board of 3/6 + 2x 4/4 for just 4 mana. 6 health minion is also a bit difficult to remove in the current climate, so he works pretty well. However, unlike Illucia, you can still pick a build that doesn’t run him, so he’s not absolutely necessary.

Ashes of Outland Best Cards to Craft

There are currently no Ashes of Outland Legendaries that I would consider “best” crafts.

Ashes of Outland Good Cards to Craft

  • Murgur Murgurgle – Murgur Murgurgle is probably the most commonly played “Prime” minion ever since those were released back in Ashes of Outland. The first part – 2/1 with Divine Shield for 2 mana – is actually a decent 2-drop and even better if you run some Divine Shield synergies. But then you get a really, really powerful card shuffled into your deck – Murgurgle Prime is a massive board refill. And not just any board refill – it makes a VERY durable board given that all the Murlocs have Divine Shield. There’s also a high chance that it will give you some immediate board impact (Crabrider, Redgill Razorjaw, Fishy Flyer). Opponents will have a hard time dealing with it, often wasting a few removals for just one of your cards – and if they can’t, it usually produces enough power to kill them or at least severely damage them. Overall, it’s present in most of the Aggro and Midrange Paladin builds.
  • Kayn Sunfury – Kayn is interesting – whether its playable heavily depends on whether more aggressive Demon Hunter builds are playable. Not only it’s a Charge minion, which are naturally good in Aggro decks, but it also lets all of your other minions circumvent Taunt minions. One of the best ways to stabilize against Aggro is shielding yourself with Taunt minions, and Kayn makes them useless for as long as he’s on the board (often one turn is enough). However, right now Aggro Demon Hunter builds actually aren’t very strong and he’s mostly played in Brute Demon Hunter. His use case is similar, but instead of aggression, you want to prevent the opponent from Taunting up against your heavy hitters – Irebound Brute and Lion's Frenzy. Especially the latter, which is very vulnerable to being blocked by Taunts. But I imagine that he might still shine in some other builds before he rotates out of Standard.

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

239 Comments

  1. MilesTegF
    January 18, 2021 at 10:29 am

    Regarding Y’Shaarj, i been using it in the ladder with some success in a quest shaman. It’s basically a combo deck where Your combo is HP + Y’Shaarj to deal up to 48 dmg with 4 corrupted circus mΓ©dics and 4 corrupted dunk tanks. Now that The meta is not as aggro as it was about a month ago, The deck is doing much better now

  2. Telim Tor
    January 18, 2021 at 7:55 am

    I stop reading after this: “As you can see, the β€œnew” Old Gods are clearly successful, but the one that stands out most is Y’Shaarj…”

    Common….. Y’Shaarj is the worst of the old gods. Wich deck use it? ZERO

    • Yeetmiester
      September 19, 2021 at 3:10 am

      Incorrect, Y’shaarj is an insanely fun and good legendary when used correctly, but the problems lie in the decks that revolve around him.

      In this meta, with turn 7-8 OTK combos, sudden overpowered minion swarms and “trade blind” aggro decks, slower decks that utilise Y’shaarj:s true value simply haven’t got the time (in most cases ofcourse, there are always exeptions).

      For example, remember Y’shaarj in control warlock? It was an astonishing powerplay when you got him out, as he rewarded you with another 8/8 “screw your cards” tickatus, another “screw your board” cascading disaster , plus an 6/6 strongman and a 10/10 body, all for just 10 mana (and this was basically minimum value). How is that not good?!

      So to my point, saying a card is “the worst” because it “ise’nt being used” is not always correct. If you wanna use that argument, then almost all 9/10 mana cards (even 8 sometimes) are absolute garbage… i that is pretty wrong, ain’t it.

      OBS: This whole post is made out of a standard perspective, in wild Y’shaarj is not that strong (this is only because the corrupt abilites are only supported in standard).

  3. Flameblaze6
    December 16, 2020 at 7:52 am

    Is a darkmoon faire guide coming soon?

  4. Arun
    May 27, 2020 at 2:43 pm

    Now that the META has shifted and settling in, are there any revisions to this crafting guide?

  5. Shurchil
    May 4, 2020 at 1:32 am

    Question: I am a Wild Player from time to time.
    I have a golden copy of Stormbringer. Should I DE it? I consider it to craft a current Legendary.
    I am not a budget player but I dont buy packs with money either.

    • Delta51596
      July 7, 2020 at 6:49 am

      If you need the dust I think you can DE that, because to be honest it is strong in some Shaman deck such as EVOLVE Shaman or EVEN Shaman. It is op when you DISCOVER it but if you are not prefer to play these decks there is not reason to put that in your deck.

  6. Juauke
    April 29, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    Hi, your article is great.
    Though, I have several questions if it’s not too much for you to answer :
    – Are Harrison Jones and Cairne Dragonhoof cards to keep or to dust ?
    – Considering I already have Flik Skyshiv and the two legendaries mentioned above, what craft would you consider the most useful for the Rogue class (among Heistbaron Togwaggle, Kronx, Siamat and Edwin VanCleef) ?
    – Here is my collection : https://hsreplay.net/collection/2/910217017/
    How would you build a Rogue deck with my collection ? (I can craft some cards if necessary but for 3200 dust at most if there are some alternatives for the time being)
    Thanks in advance for your response and thanks again for the awesome guide.

    • Deal8
      April 30, 2020 at 4:27 pm

      Hi,
      Harrisson Jones is a good tech card. You should keep it. Don’t hesitate to include him in your deck if you face a lot of weapon.
      Cairne has not been played for a long time. You can dust it.

      You collection is not up to date, i can’t find Flik πŸ™

      Rogue is currently an expensive class. Some decks run up to 10 legendaries.
      If you want a cheap rogue deck, you should look here : https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/budget-secret-galakrond-rogue-deck-list-guide-ashes-of-outland/ (thanks a lot Stonekeep btw)

      I truly recomand you to craft both togwaggle and kronx since they are key cards of any rogue deck. (And fun to play)
      Your next priority will be first Hannar then Van Cleef

      If you can’t craft the whole secret package from the guide , you can include SI:7 Agent (from your current collection) and some common neutral cards from Ashes of Outland like
      * Frozen Shadoweaver (a must have)
      * Imprisoned Vilefiend
      * Burrowing Scorpid
      * Bonechewer Brawler
      * Overconfident Orc

      You’ll have most of these after opening a few AoO packs.

      I hope it will help !

      • Juauke
        May 4, 2020 at 11:37 am

        Hi,
        First and foremost, thanks for your reply.
        Strangely enough, Flik was my first non-given-for-free legendary but the collection should be updated by now.
        Then, thanks for the advice and the budget guide : I’ll make that my goal.
        Last but not least, thanks for the alternatives.

        N.B. : should I prioritize getting the adventure wings or getting Ashes of Outland packs ?
        And if I were to spend money on the game, to you, what would get me the most bang for my buck ?

        • Deal8
          May 5, 2020 at 8:04 am

          I sent a twitch DM to answer this.
          It should be more suitable to discuss about this πŸ™‚

  7. DragJok
    April 29, 2020 at 1:14 am

    Thanx for the article! It’s really usefull.

  8. Shurchil
    April 28, 2020 at 11:14 pm

    I have a question: does Flik clear the death pool of rezz as well? Or is it pure “kill” of existing minions?

    • Irhmgg
      April 29, 2020 at 4:23 am

      existing

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      April 29, 2020 at 7:31 am

      He only clears minions on the board (excluding Dormant ones), in both hands and in both decks. He doesn’t do anything about resurrect pool.

  9. Arun
    April 28, 2020 at 5:02 pm

    You my friend are doing God’s work. I can’t thank you enough for taking your time to come up with this.

    Being a F2P player your guides are a huge help. As you emphasized on one of your replies to a comment here. This is exactly what I wanted, a safe craft guide.

    Appreciate this very much.

  10. Peter
    April 28, 2020 at 2:20 pm

    So right now the crafting guide is just craft every rogue card, cause rogue is still super broken, hasn’t dropped out of tier 1 in who knows how long, and has almost no chance of being nerfed in a way that would do anything (cleef rotates)

  11. LukeSBE
    January 9, 2020 at 4:51 am

    I would *love* if Blizzard moved Whizbang to the Classic Set.

    • DustDodo
      January 25, 2020 at 2:15 pm

      I think what Blizzard is doing from now on is printing Whizbang like card, like Zayle, Shadow Cloak.

  12. DukeStarswisher
    September 4, 2019 at 7:00 am

    Now this isn’t a judgement on the validity of this updated list (I agree with every bit of it), but it seems like this guide since I first discovered it two years ago has become super…. “safe”.

    There seems to be only a handful of cards (literally 10 hearthstone hand size lol) that are solid crafts for competitive play. Is this a result of the meta? Have you consciously tried to limit the “must-crafts” because of fear of misleading new players?

    Even with the disclaimer at the beginning it seems like the list is trying to cover its a** in case changes are made in the near future. Would you say this is a true?

    • Sbud78
      September 4, 2019 at 4:05 pm

      I’ve always read this guide as a list of legendaries I should craft if I finally scrounged up enough dust for one or two legendaries. In that case, I can’t pick from a list much larger than a hearthstone hand size, or else I will definitely end up painted into a corner with no dust and a useless tier 3 deck that I can never reasonably climb with.

      So in a sense, you’re right, the list is “safe”, but to me, it’s the exact intent of this list.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      September 4, 2019 at 5:37 pm

      Yes, you are correct about that. I tried to go a bit more “wild” with the list in the past, made a lot of assumptions and predictions about the cards’ strength in the future etc. And while most of time I was correct, sometimes I wasn’t – it happens, you obviously can’t know how the future metas will look like.

      The truth is that maybe only half of people (and that’s a generous estimate) read the disclaimers at the start. Even though they’re there, I’ve got dozens of complaints over the expansions that I recommended X even though it quickly stopped seeing play once the meta changed. Even before the meta change, I had many people saying “why X or Y card is on the list?” and to be honest, I’ve got kind of tired of that. Telling people to read the first part of the guide (which is probably even more important to understand than the list itself) after every single update and explaining why X or Y is on the list wasn’t particularly thrilling. Yes, I could just ignore those, but I’m not someone who ignores complaints or criticism (at least not deliberately, sometimes I just miss it). Since a lot of people complained, something was clearly wrong about that approach.

      So that’s why lately I’ve decided to go super safe with those. For the most part, I’ve stopped trying to predict where the meta might go, which cards might be good and just focus on the cards that are solid right now and simply safe. And I think that this kind of approach works better for this kind of list, simply because most of those who really need it are either new players or F2P players that are low on Dust and can’t afford to experiment.

      Another side effect of this is that I’m taking more time to update the list. Before I would slap it very quickly and make a lot of assumptions (again, mostly correct, but not always). Right now I’m trying to wait for the meta to stabilize before updating it. That’s why in this case I waited for nearly a month after the set – because right after the initial meta really stabilized they already announced a nerf patch. I had a new list almost ready to publish, but didn’t want to do it since the new patch was coming and I didn’t know how it will affect everything yet.

      I’m not sure whether it’s the correct approach or not, but that’s what I’m doing for now. Maybe I’ll go back to the old ways in the future, who knows πŸ™‚

      • DukeStarswisher
        September 5, 2019 at 6:41 am

        I’m sorry that people have pushed you away from the old ways… Its frustrating because even some of these cards could be nerfed or HoF (Leeroy I think is long overdue…) and it would be nobody’s fault.

        Thanks for all you do Stonekeep! Keep up the good work!

        • Smasher101
          September 5, 2019 at 12:45 pm

          A nerf or HOF is a good thing for a card that has been crafted I don’t get your point there.

      • Irhmgg
        April 29, 2020 at 4:24 am

        Skipper’s pirate tag is not fixed

  13. Neverdustever
    September 3, 2019 at 11:33 am

    Great guide! Bazaar Burglary isn’t a Witchwood card though!

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      September 3, 2019 at 1:44 pm

      And it’s not under the Witchwood category πŸ™‚ It’s a part of the Tess’ description, it just happened to start a new line.

  14. Stonekeep - Site Admin
    September 3, 2019 at 7:35 am

    Legendary Crafting Guide was just updated for the Saviors of Uldum Post-nerf. Comments below this one might be outdated.

    Apologizes about the delay, but the nerf patch came out right after we were ready to post the first Uldum update, so it became obsolete immediately πŸ™

    Let me know if you spot any mistakes!

    • OldManSanns
      September 3, 2019 at 11:43 am

      I won’t call it a mistake, but my personal opinion is that Sir Finley, King Phaoris, and Making Mummies are pretty niche cards that need a very specific deck to work which might or might not be viable in future months, meaning they aren’t really worth crafting unless you want to play those respective decks right now. Conversely, Vessina and Dark Pharaoh Tekahn aren’t necessarily top tier right now, but they are powerful and generic enough to package into any aggro deck and should be viable for as long as they stay in standard.

  15. SANDRG
    August 2, 2019 at 7:20 am

    Hello, got a doubt about the legendary drop rate .Assuming i haven’t opened any pack from Boomsday Project expansion, so after the Saviors of Uldum expansion is out am i still guaranteed to get 1 legendary out of 10 boomsday packs or is it 1 out of 20 boomsday packs if i starts opening the boomsday packs now.

  16. Stonekeep - Site Admin
    June 10, 2019 at 6:31 pm

    Legendary Crafting Guide was just updated for the Rise of Shadows Post-Buff Meta. Comments below this one might be outdated.

    Let me know if you spot any mistakes!

    • OldManSanns
      June 11, 2019 at 9:21 am

      I see you downgraded Harrison from “Best” to just “Good”, presumably because weapons have largely fallen out of favor… Any other major changes I’m missing?

      • Stonekeep - Site Admin
        June 11, 2019 at 1:59 pm

        Harrison is still a good craft (and if someone got him before, he definitely should not regret it), but it’s not as good anymore when Rogues with Waggle Picks aren’t 20% of the ladder πŸ™‚

        When it comes to other “major” changes, I’ve added Khadgar to Best from RoS and SN1P-SN4P to Boomsday (once he’s no longer free, that is).

        But most of the changes were to the “Good” crafts. Neither the nerf, nor the buff patch changed the most played Legendaries THAT much.

  17. Shurchil
    April 29, 2019 at 12:01 am

    Control Shaman seems to be one of the more popular and potent decks so why is Hagatha (the minion, not the hero card) not on the list? I think she needs to be mentioned at least.

    • Dpskane
      April 29, 2019 at 3:56 am

      she could maybe be mentioned as a good craft, maybe. I haven’t seen much control shaman. That might have changed now with the HCT, but even though hunterace made an excellent job with control shaman, it might not be a strong ladder deck, even for skilled people (because ladder competition).
      in that sense i find it the correct choice of stonekeep to currently not include Hagatha Swamp Queen. The card is too uncertain yet (it’s a very good value card for sure, but control shaman needs to become a solid tier 2 deck to merit a craft advice). Note that this is basically a preliminary crafting guide right now: the meta has not settled at all, so stonekeep tries to only advice crafts that *already* look pretty good (like elysiana & boom). this list of best & good crafts is likely to be extended once the meta is better understood

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      April 29, 2019 at 12:36 pm

      “Control Shaman seems to be one of the more popular and potent decks” – not really, though. When i was updating this no one was playing Control Shaman (and as much as I would love to, I can’t predict the future). Calling it potent is also a bit of an overstatement. It’s a Tier 3 deck right now according to stats. It’s played now mostly because of HCT World Championship, not because it’s an amazing deck. Keep in mind that tournament meta is different than ladder meta, mostly because you can just ban Warrior, which is something you can’t do on ladder.

      I’ll probably do another round of updates soon(-ish) and if Control Shaman actually sees common meta play (it might happen, because Shaman got some really good cards this expansion, but so far they don’t seem to be just enough), then I’ll definitely add it.

  18. AryannaLao20
    April 28, 2019 at 10:15 pm

    I saw Leeroy Jenkins and Harrison Jones being played frequently by Asian players in WCG. Ironically, one player lost a match to the Whelps that Leeroy Jenkins summoned. Must have been his last resort.

  19. Dimarco70
    April 28, 2019 at 2:36 am

    Boommaster Flark is both on the “Good to Craft” list and on the “Safe to Disenchant” one. Maybe the last needs an upgrade!

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      April 29, 2019 at 12:38 pm

      Safe to Disenchant cards weren’t updated for the Rise of Shadows yet. And yeah, I didn’t expect Flark to actually start seeing play back then. But that’s what can happen after rotation.

  20. Superband
    April 24, 2019 at 5:05 pm

    i agree with most points except for elysiana. she is really only good in control vs control. you don’t need her in other matchups and is mostly only really viable in control warrior so far where you don’t really have pressure cards in the deck. she is the worst topdeck against aggro too and a dead card most of the time. not hating the card but it is the truth. she is overhyped but she is queen against control matchups.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      April 24, 2019 at 5:58 pm

      The thing is – it doesn’t matter that she’s bad against aggro, because you absolutely need her for Control mirrors. And since Control decks are rather popular right now, you can’t drop her. If you want to play Control (so Control Warrior, Bomb Warrior, Control Shaman), Elysiana is a must. If your opponent has her and you don’t, you lose. Not 100% of the time, sometimes you will pull off a win through pressure, but most of the time you will just get outgrinded.

      That’s why there’s not really much you can do – if you play Control, you need to get her.

  21. Hawk819
    April 24, 2019 at 7:16 am

    I’m good. I have all Legends for both Witchwood & R.o.S. hopefully, I’ll nab some goldens when I re-purchase Witchwood w/ Raven Bundle. Cause I sure could use the dust. I’m missing a s!$# load of Epics.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      April 24, 2019 at 7:24 am

      Yeah, right now Epics seem to be a lot bigger concern than Legendaries. There aren’t a TON of “must have” Legends, while lots of decks require multiple Epics to play them competitively.

      I’ll update the Epic crafting guide next – it should be ready by Friday!

  22. TheMessenJah
    April 24, 2019 at 4:53 am

    i think it’s safe for anyone who doesnt have it to craft Elysiana. As announced yesterday a nerf is incoming blizzard will return the dust spent! Am i correct???

    ps: this post will raise the number of Elysianas being crafted and played and HS will be unplayable for the next few weeks πŸ˜›

  23. Stonekeep - Site Admin
    April 24, 2019 at 4:48 am

    Legendary Crafting Guide was just updated for the Rise of Shadows Meta. Comments below this one might be outdated.

    Let me know if you spot any mistakes!

    • MilesTegF
      April 24, 2019 at 7:03 am

      Thanks for the update on this guide!
      The only error i spoted is in the description of the year of the Dragon sets: “The Year of the Raven consists of Rise of Shadows and two yet to known expansions” It says “raven” where it should say “dragon”

      • Stonekeep - Site Admin
        April 24, 2019 at 7:23 am

        Thanks, fixed it! I’ve copied the description from YotR and missed that part when changing it πŸ™‚

  24. Stonekeep - Site Admin
    January 14, 2019 at 9:34 pm

    Legendary Crafting Guide was just updated for the Rastakhan Post-Nerf Meta. Comments below this one were made for one of the previous versions.

    • Dave
      January 14, 2019 at 9:45 pm

      Nice work, could you also put there wild crafting guide?

      • Stonekeep - Site Admin
        January 14, 2019 at 10:24 pm

        I’m not really a Wild player myself, but I’ll see what I can do!

    • Jordan
      January 15, 2019 at 2:53 am

      Under lynessa there is voudwalker listed whereas i think you meant to put voidlord.

      • Stonekeep - Site Admin
        January 15, 2019 at 6:45 am

        Yes, you’re right. I always mess up those close names, like Voidlord vs Voidwalker or Kabal Lackey vs Possessed Lackey lol. Fixing it right now, thanks!

  25. Evident
    December 20, 2018 at 10:54 am

    I’ve added some notes to the cards that might have been hurt due to the nerfs. We’ll be re-evaluating this list once the nerfs have had sometime to settle into the meta.

  26. Bill Gates
    December 19, 2018 at 4:09 pm

    Love these guides! Can’t wait for the epic guide. Best Hearthstone site by far! Keep up the stellar work!

  27. Bell
    December 19, 2018 at 6:08 am

    You should modify this article now. Kingsbane and Valeera the Hollow probably dead now. Maybe Malfurion the Pestilent, too.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      December 19, 2018 at 7:53 am

      Well yeah, I could not possibly happen to know that they will go with such a quick nerf patch. 2 weeks after the release is unprecedented. My work on this update is basically thrown to the garbage and I will have to do it again when the new meta settles down.

      I’m glad that I didn’t update the Epic guide yet, because I’ve meant to do it tomorrow, lol.

      • Yrkomm16
        December 19, 2018 at 12:46 pm

        I have a question – what font did you use for infographics>

      • Bell
        December 19, 2018 at 5:20 pm

        Poor guy. Anyway, keep up the good work. Your page is the best.

  28. Anggadaz
    December 18, 2018 at 6:19 pm

    Why Whizbang is worth to craft?

    • JoyDivision
      December 19, 2018 at 1:20 am

      ‘… It lets you experience 18 different decks, some of which are actually quite viable. And it’s not limited to Boomsday Project – when the recipes get updated after a new expansion launches, you will get to play with all of the new builds. All of that for 1600 Arcane Dust.’

  29. Nerose
    December 17, 2018 at 8:51 pm

    I love the day this post comes out! I wait until then to craft anything. Thank you, Evident, for your hard work.

  30. JoeBar
    December 17, 2018 at 3:11 pm

    I woudn’t recommend to craft cards that will disappear from Standard in 5 monthes …

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      December 17, 2018 at 4:03 pm

      There are multiple warnings about that in the article.

      I can’t just say “don’t craft cards from 2017 expansions”, when there are stuff like Deathstalker Rexxar, Prince Keleseth or Sunkeeper Tarim in there. You really need some of those to make certain decks successful. They ARE still good crafts, just will be relevant for only ~3.5 months in Standard.

      You always have to keep in mind that cards from the previous Standard year have a much shorter shelf life and take that into account, but if you’re not a F2P player on a very tight budget, getting them is not a bad idea lots of times.

      • Skoopy
        December 18, 2018 at 12:52 am

        Can you explain what will happen to those cards which are rotating out.
        I only play since Witchwood.
        Can i decide keeping them for wild?
        And how much dust i will get out of them, if decide not to keep them? Will i get 100% (i mean full cost to craft it) or do i get 50% (like you normally get)?

        • JoeBar
          December 18, 2018 at 4:56 am

          When they rotate out, they are only playable in Wild.

          You can disanchent them for 25% of their cost (400 dust refunded for 1600 to craft).

        • Stonekeep - Site Admin
          December 18, 2018 at 6:33 am

          When cards rotate out of Standard, you still own them, but they can only be played in Wild. They’re still in your collection, just like they are right now, so you can decide to do with them whatever you want.

          You can just keep them to play in Wild – I would generally recommend doing that unless you’re sure that you will never play Wild. Alternatively, you can Dust them at the normal rate, which is 12.5% for Commons (5 from 40), 20% for Rares (20 from 100), 25% for Epics (100 from 400) and 25% for Legendaries (400 from 1600). That’s for regular cards, Golden have a higher rate.

          There are rare exceptions – sometimes when they rotate out a Classic card (Classic is a set that was meant to be in Standard forever) to “Hall of Fame” (basically a set that consists of Wild-only Classic cards), then we BOTH get a full refund and get to keep the card. But so far there are only 13 cards in Hall of Fame, so you can’t count on a lot of extra Dust (e.g. last rotation Ice Block and Coldlight Oracle rotated out).

  31. Zombie69
    December 17, 2018 at 1:45 pm

    Just a small nitpick: in the Kathrena section, you mentioned 3/15 Witchwood Grizzlies, but they’re actually 3/12.

  32. Kversta
    December 17, 2018 at 12:03 pm

    ,,All three sets will rotate out of the Standard format with the release of the first expansion in 2019″
    All of them? But they were released differently; not simultaneously. How they can remove them in the same time?

    • Abel
      December 17, 2018 at 12:42 pm

      This is the rule for understanding rotation. Let’s say that the first expansion of year XXXX is released. Then all the expansion that were released in the year XXXX – 2 are rotated out. It does not matter if a expansion was released at the end of year. That is the reason why expansion like Kobolds and Catacombs (the last expansion released for the year of the Mammut) are in standard less time than previous expansions of the same year (Journey to Un’Goro and Knights of the Frozen Throne).

      • Zombie69
        December 17, 2018 at 1:47 pm

        And that’s also why they typically make the last expansion of the year to be stronger, to compensate for it sticking around for a shorter duration.

  33. Evident
    December 17, 2018 at 11:49 am

    Comments under this are from the previous update.

    • Yrkomm16
      December 17, 2018 at 12:07 pm

      WHat about Glass Knight?

      • Stonekeep - Site Admin
        December 17, 2018 at 2:45 pm

        It’s only played in a single, not very popular meta deck* (Even Paladin), and it’s not even required there – multiple builds don’t run it, meaning that it’s not a must-have card. I definitely wouldn’t craft it right now unless you absolutely want to play a specific, Glass Knight build and you have lots of spare Dust.

        *Even Paladin is a pretty strong deck in my opinion, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s severely underplayed, with less than 0.7% play rate on the ladder (according to the latest Vicious Syndicate’s Data Reaper Report).