Classic (2014-2021)

For the former Play mode format, see Classic format.

Classic (formerly known as Expert) was, prior to its subsumption into the Legacy set, the largest card set in Hearthstone, with 240 collectible cards. Prior to the implementation of the Core set, the Classic set served as one of the two core card sets in Hearthstone, the other being the Basic set. The set was first made available to the public in January 2014 when beta-testing was first announced for the game, in the era of Classic Hearthstone.

The Classic set's purpose was to ground players in a core set which players will always be familiar with, in the face of an ever-changing pool of cards available to be played in Standard format. Prior to the creation of the Core set, the Classic and Basic sets were the only two permanent sets that were always available to be played in Standard format, while all other sets eventually moved over time to Wild format.

Classic cards frequently feature as core cards in successful decks, and the developers constantly monitor the power of Classic cards to ensure they do not form too large a proportion of decklists, thus causing the meta to become excessively stale. Cards are also monitored for their playability in the meta, as seen in the Priest rework in March 2020. Consequently, throughout Hearthstone's history, many major and minor card changes have been implemented in the Classic set, occasionally moving certain Classic cards to the Hall of Fame set in Wild format, with new card additions taking their place.

Since the first expansion of 2021, the Classic is deprecated and has been replaced with the Core set. Along with the Basic set, all of its cards have been moved to the Wild-restricted Legacy set.

How to get

Classic card packs can be purchased from the in-game shop using gold or real money. They can also be purchased online in the Blizzard Shop for real money.

Classic card packs could formerly be found as rewards given in the Arena, the Tavern Brawl, various quests, and periodic Hearthstone special promotion events. Classic card packs can also be obtained from the Welcome Bundle. Individual Classic cards can be found in the Highest Rank Bonus chest, for Golden cards only. Classic cards can also be crafted.

Classic cards may be of common, rare, epic, or legendary rarity.

Cards

The Classic card set features 240 collectible cards, including 105 neutral cards and 135 class cards (15 for each class). Classic cards can be recognized by the iconic Hearthstone swirl behind the card text.

Neutral

Common (38 cards)

Rare (35 cards)

Epic (9 cards)

Legendary (23 cards)

Uncollectible

Dream cards

Class cards

There are a total of 135 collectible class cards in the Classic set.

Druid

Uncollectible

Choice cards

Hunter

Uncollectible

Mage

Uncollectible

Paladin

Uncollectible

Priest

Uncollectible

Rogue

Uncollectible

Shaman

Uncollectible

Warlock

Uncollectible

Warrior

Uncollectible

Battlefield

Four battlefields were available when the game first released.

• Stormwind
• Orgrimmar
• Pandaria
• Stranglethorn

History

See also: Hearthstone timeline

Development

See also: Design and development of Hearthstone

Card changes

See also: Card changes

The following is a list of game-changing updates that have been implemented to the cards in the Classic set since beta. Similarly, for card changes in the Basic set, please see Card changes in the Basic set.

Beta

Patch 1.0.0.3890 (2013-10-02)

• Wrath can no longer be cast on heroes.
• Cenarius costs 9 (up from 8).
• Starfall can now only hit minions. [Previously: 'Choose One - Deal 5 damage to an enemy; or 2 damage to all of them.']
• Ancient of Lore’s Healing option now only restores 5 Health. (down from 8)
• Savagery costs 1 (down from 3), and must target a single minion. [Previously: 'Deal damage equal to your hero's Attack to all enemy minions.']
• Scavenging Hyena – Now only triggers from your own Beasts. [Previously also triggered from enemy Beasts]
• Sorcerer's Apprentice has 1 more Attack. [Now a 3/2, up from a 2/2]
• Prophet Velen – Now also doubles the damage and healing of your Hero Power. [Previously only spells]
• Cabal Shadow Priest – now a 4/5 (up from 3/4).
• Lightspawn has 1 more Health. [Now a 0/5, up from a 0/4]
• Divine Favor now costs 1 more. [Now costs 3, up from 2]
• Preparation – Now reduces next spell cost by 3 (up from 2).
• Defias Ringleader has 1 less Health. [Now a 2/2, down from a 2/3]
• Conceal costs 1 Mana (up from 0).
• Headcrack costs 3 Mana (up from 2).
• Edwin VanCleef is now a 2/2, but no longer has Stealth. [Previously a 1/1 with 'Stealth. Combo: Gain +2/+2 for each other card played this turn.']
• Pit Lord - Now a 5/6 with ‘Battlecry: Deal 5 damage to your hero’. [Previously a 7/5 with 'Battlecry: Deal 7 damage to your hero.']
• Cruel Taskmaster has 1 more Health. [Now a 2/2, up from a 2/1]
• Inner Rage’s +2 Attack effect no longer goes away at the end of the turn.
• Battle Rage costs 3 (up from 2), and also counts damaged heroes.
• Frothing Berserker has 1 more Attack. [Now a 2/4, up from a 1/4]
• Commanding Shout now costs 2 (up from 1) and also draws you a card.
• Sunfury Protector now only gives adjacent minions Taunt. Previously: Battlecry: Your other minions gain Taunt.
• Mana Wraith – Now a 2/2 (was a 1/3).
• Pint-Sized Summoner – The cost reduction has been reduced from 2 to 1.
• Injured Blademaster has 1 more Attack. [Now a 4/7, up from a 3/7]
• Lorewalker Cho has 1 less Attack. [Now a 0/4, down from a 1/4]
• The Beast is now 9/7 (was 10/6).
• Lightwarden now gains +2 Attack per heal. [Previously gained +1]
• Twilight Drake is now a 4/1 with ‘Battlecry: Gain +1 Health for each card in your hand.’ [Previously: a 1/1 with 'Battlecry: Gain +1/+1 for each card in your hand.']
• Captain Greenskin is now a 5/4 with ‘Battlecry: Give your weapon +1/+1.’ [Previously a 5/5 with 'Whenever you attack with your hero, draw a card.']

Patch 1.0.0.3937 (2013-10-17)

• Battle Rage now costs 2 (down from 3) and now only counts friendly characters.

Patch 1.0.0.4217 (2013-12-10)

• Unleash the Hounds has been reworked and now reads: “(4) For each enemy minion, summon a 1/1 Hound with Charge”.
• Flame Imp’s Battlecry now deals 3 damage (up from 2).
• Argent Commander is now a 4/2 (was a 4/3).

Patch 1.0.0.4243 (2013-12-18)

• Blizzard’s mana cost is now 6 (up from 5)
• Cone of Cold’s mana cost is now 4 (up from 3)

Patch 1.0.0.4458 (2014-01-16)

• Unleash the Hounds now costs 2 (down from 4)
• Pyroblast now costs 10 (up from 8)
• Blood Imp is now a 0/1 (down from 1/1) and now reads: Stealth. At the end of your turn, give another random friendly minion +1 Health. [Previously: Stealth. Your other minions have +1 Health.]

Patch 1.0.0.4944 (2014-03-11)

• Tinkmaster Overspark is now a 3/3 (up from 2/2) and now reads: Battlecry: Transform another random minion into a 5/5 Devilsaur or a 1/1 Squirrel. [Previously: Battlecry: Transform a minion into a 5/5 Devilsaur or a 1/1 Squirrel at random.]
• Nat Pagle now reads: At the start of your turn, you have a 50% chance to draw an extra card. [Previously: At the end of your turn, you have a 50% chance to draw a card.]

2014

Patch 1.0.0.5314 (2014-05-08)

• Unleash the Hounds now costs 3 (up from 2).

Patch 1.1.0.6024 (2014-07-22)

• Eaglehorn Bow now reads “Whenever a friendly Secret is revealed, gain +1 Durability”.

Patch 1.2.0.6485 (2014-09-22)

• Leeroy Jenkins now costs 5 (up from 4)

Patch 2.0.0.7234 (2014-12-04)

• Flare now costs 2 (up from 1)
• Gadgetzan Auctioneer now costs 6 (up from 5)
• Bestial Wrath can no longer target enemy Beasts. Text now reads "Give a friendly Beast +2 Attack and Immune this turn." Previously "Give a Beast +2 Attack and Immune this turn."
• 9 mechanical minions were changed to Mechs, previously having no minion type: Harvest Golem, Damaged Golem, Alarm-o-Bot, Demolisher, Mechanical Dragonling, and all of Gelbin Mekkatorque's inventions: Repair Bot, Emboldener 3000, Homing Chicken and Poultryizer.
• The druid minions resulting from Druid of the Claw's Choose One effect were changed to Beasts: Druid of the Claw and Druid of the Claw.

2015

Patch 2.4.0.8311 (2015-03-31)

• Bane of Doom can now summon any collectible Demon. [Previously limited to Blood Imp, Voidwalker, Flame Imp, Dread Infernal, Succubus and Felguard]

Patch 2.7.0.9166 (2015-06-15)

• Shadow of Nothing (created by Mindgames when the opponent's deck has no minions remaining in it) no longer has a hidden triggered effect which destroys itself at the end of the turn.

2016

Patch 5.0.0.12574 (2016-04-24)

• Ancient of Lore - Card text changed from "Choose One - Draw 2 cards; or Restore 5 Health." to "Choose One - Draw a card; or Restore 5 Health."
• Force of Nature - Cost reduced from 6 to 5. Card text changed from "Summon three 2/2 Treants with Charge that die at the end of the turn." to "Summon three 2/2 Treants." Treants summoned by this spell no longer have Charge but no longer die at the end of the turn.
• Keeper of the Grove - Changed from a 2/4 to a 2/2.
• Ironbeak Owl - Cost increased from 2 to 3.
• Big Game Hunter - Cost increased from 3 to 5.
• Blade Flurry - Cost increased from 2 to 4. Card text changed from "Destroy your weapon and deal its damage to all enemies." to "Destroy your weapon and deal its damage to all enemy minions."
• Knife Juggler - Changed from a 3/2 to a 2/2.
• Leper Gnome - Changed from a 2/1 to a 1/1.
• Arcane Golem - Changed from a 4/2 to a 4/4. No longer has Charge.
• Molten Giant - Cost increased from 20 to 25.
• Master of Disguise - Card text changed from "Battlecry: Give a friendly minion Stealth." to "Battlecry: Give a friendly minion Stealth until your next turn."

Patch 6.1.3.14830 (2016-10-03)

• Abusive Sergeant - Attack reduced from 2 to 1.

Patch 6.2.0.15181 (2016-10-20)

• Coldlight Seer now reads "Battlecry: Give your other Murlocs +2 Health."
• Murloc Tidecaller now reads "Whenever you summon a Murloc, gain +1 Attack."
• Murloc Warleader now reads "Your other Murlocs have +2/+1."

2017

Patch 8.0.0.18336 (2017-04-04)

• Conceal, Ice Lance, Power Overwhelming, Azure Drake, Ragnaros the Firelord, and Sylvanas Windrunner moved to the Hall of Fame.
• 9 minions that previously had no subtype have now gained the Elemental subtype: Frost Elemental, Baron Geddon, Ragnaros the Firelord, Flame of Azzinoth, Lightspawn, Dust Devil, Unbound Elemental, Earth Elemental, and Al'Akir the Windlord.

Patch 9.1.0.20970 (2017-09-18)

• Murloc Warleader now reads: Your other Murlocs have +2 Attack. (Down from +2 Attack, +1 Health)

2018

Patch 11.0.0.23966 (2018-04-10)

• Ice Block, Coldlight Oracle, and Molten Giant are moved to the Hall of Fame. In addition, Molten Giant is being reduced to its original mana cost of 20, down from 25.

Patch 11.4.0.25252 (2018-07-10)

• Molten Giant and Mountain Giant are now Elementals.

Patch 12.2.0.27358 (2018-10-18)

• Mana Wyrm - Cost increased from 1 to 2.

Patch 12.4.0.27405 (2018-11-05)

• Four new cards added to the Classic set: Icicle, Tome of Intellect, Call of the Void, and Pilfer.

Patch 13.0.3.28329 (2018-12-19)

• Nourish – Now costs 6 mana, up from 5.

2019

Patch 13.2.0.28855 (2019-02-05)

• Cold Blood - Now costs 2 mana, up from 1.
• Equality - Now costs 4 mana, up from 2.

Patch 14.0.0.29933 (2019-04-09)

• Doomguard, Naturalize, and Divine Favor are moved to the Hall of Fame.
• The Choice cards for Wrath, Nourish, Power of the Wild, and Mark of Nature are changed.

Patch 14.6.0.31761 (2019-07-01)

• Seven new cards added to the Classic set: Siegebreaker, Gift of the Wild, Righteousness, Brightwing, High Inquisitor Whitemane, Barrens Stablehand, SI:7 Infiltrator, Arcane Devourer.
• Windfury Harpy, Secretkeeper, Eviscerate, Bite, Deadly Shot, Headcrack have received new card art.

2020

Patch 17.0.0.44222 (2020-03-26)

• Auchenai Soulpriest, Shadowform, Holy Fire, and Prophet Velen are moved to the Hall of Fame.
• Kul Tiran Chaplain, Scarlet Subjugator, Shadow Word: Ruin, and Natalie Seline are added to the Classic set.
• Thoughtsteal - Now costs 2 mana, down from 3.
• Shadow Madness - Now costs 3 mana, down from 4.
• Temple Enforcer - Stats changed to 5/6 from 6/6. Now costs 5 mana, down from 6.
• Illidan Stormrage is replaced with Xavius.
• Acolyte of Pain, Spellbreaker, Mind Control Tech, Mountain Giant, Leeroy Jenkins are moved to the Hall of Fame.

2021

Patch 19.2.1.70828 (2021-01-08)

• Edwin VanCleef - Now costs 4 mana, up from 3.

Patch 20.0.0.77662 (2021-03-25)

• Deprecated and replaced with the Core set. All Classic cards were moved to the Legacy set in Wild format.

Videos

The original Classic and Basic cards when they first released in January 2014 for beta-testing.