Game Mechanics Updates
Game Mechanics Updates are large changes to the game mechanics in Hearthstone, released in various patches.
- See also: Advanced rulebook#Changes to game rules
History[edit | edit source]
April 2024[edit | edit source]
- Cards that force spells to be cast (like duplication or recasting) now check for target legality. (Meaning, for example, you can no longer use cards like
Conductivity to 
Altered Chord an Elusive minion or 
Promotion a minion that isn't a 
Silver Hand Recruit). If the would-be target is not a legal target, that portion of the spell won't have any effect.
March 2024[edit | edit source]
- Temporary mana (such as from
The Coin or Innervate) can now make you go above max mana. This applies to the base max mana of 10 and to any modified max mana, like if you've played 
Wildheart Guff or Audio Amplifier. - You can now have multiple of the same Sigil, Objective, or Aura in play at the same time. Secrets, Quests, Questlines, Sidequests, and Battlegrounds effects that use the Secret Zone are still restricted to one instance in play at a time.
April 2023[edit | edit source]
- Cards that cost Health (or Armor) instead of Mana no longer count as "dealing damage." That means, for instance, the player will still pay that Health if they are Immune or have Divine Shield. This change does not apply to spending Health instead of Gold in Battlegrounds (e.g.,
Leeching Felhound).
- For more information about this mechanic, see Change Cost to Health.
- All Death Knight cards with any three-rune requirements (Frost-Frost-Frost, Blood-Frost-Unholy, etc.) are now removed from all Discover pools and random generation effects.
- More examples of how exclusions work in card generation can be seen below.
December 2021[edit | edit source]
With Patch 22.0, we did a sweeping review in order to bring more cards into alignment with the general rules about priority order when card effects conflict with each other. That general order is the same as before:
Cards referencing their own properties (e.g. 
Eye Beam) take priority over cards referencing other cards' properties continuously (e.g. 
Taintheart Tormenter), which then take priority over cards referencing other cards' properties in a single instance (e.g. Freezing Trap).
For many cards, this review resulted in no changes—they either had no overlapping effects, or their effects were already working in this way. For example: Lady Anacondra is a card that continuously references other cards' properties (second category), so it should further reduce costs after Celestial Alignment, a single instance reference (third category).
We've also updated a few cards and how they resolve damage. For some cards, this will end up with a different result than before. For example: 
Moonfang is a card that references its own properties, while 
Mo'arg Artificer is a card that continuously references other cards' properties, so now Moonfang will take 1 damage from spells, even when doubled by Mo'arg.
When cards in the same category interact with each other, then priority is based on the order the cards are played, with later cards applying on top of earlier cards.
As with many sweeping changes, we have also seen a few bugs that we're working on smoothing out (including that Lady Anacondra – Celestial Alignment interaction, the hotfix for which is going out now). As always, there may also be some special cases where certain cards break the general rules so that they can work as intended. We encourage you to continue to let us know if a specific card interaction doesn't match what's expected.
August 2020[edit | edit source]
- Discover cards can no longer Discover themselves as a random effect; however, Discover cards can still Discover copies of themselves from places that exist in the game, such as from the hand, deck, graveyard, etc.[1][2]
- Example:
Nature Studies is not able to Discover another Nature Studies. - Example:
Primordial Glyph is not able to Discover another Primordial Glyph. - Example:
Frightened Flunky is not able to Discover another Frightened Flunky. - Example:
Emerald Explorer is not able to Discover another Emerald Explorer. - Example: Shadow Visions is still able to Discover a copy of Shadow Visions in the deck.[1][2]
- Example: Madame Lazul is still able to Discover a copy of Madame Lazul from the opponent's hand.[1]
- Example:
Stitched Tracker is still able to Discover a copy of Stitched Tracker in the deck.[1] - Example: Body Wrapper is still able to Discover a copy of Body Wrapper from the graveyard.
- Example:
- Cards that 'generate a random card' can no longer generate themselves.
- Example: Evocation is not able to generate another Evocation.
- Example: Sky Raider is not able to generate another Sky Raider.
- Example: Jar Dealer is not able to generate another Jar Dealer.
- Example:
Underbelly Angler is not able to generate another Underbelly Angler. - Example: Dune Sculptor is not able to generate another Dune Sculptor.
- Example: Jandice Barov is not able to summon another Jandice Barov.
- Example: Lightforged Crusader is not able to generate another Lightforged Crusader.
- Example: Skeletal Dragon is not able to generate another Skeletal Dragon.
- Example: Psychic Conjurer can still copy a Psychic Conjurer from the opponent's deck.
- Example:
Shifting Shade can still copy a Shifting Shade from the opponent's deck.
- Example:
Dev comment: Overall, this change is aimed at helping games feel a bit more varied. While generating the same card can be an exciting individual moment, these types of experiences tend to have diminishing returns after a while. These adjustments should make for healthier games against classes with a ton of resource generation.
November 2018[edit | edit source]
- Different damage redirection effects can chain with each other, but each one will only occur once. Re-directed damage is applied before modifiers (e.g.
Cursed Blade) and will only damage the final target once. - For some great examples of damage redirection, see Snapjaw Shellfighter#Notes.
- However,
Shirvallah's Vengeance is still able to chain with itself.
- Example: If both the player and the opponent have one on their field, 5 damage will keep being dealt from player to player until one player is defeated.
July 2018[edit | edit source]
- If a card is copied, the copy will now retain enchantments, unless copying to a different zone in a "backward" direction.
- Example: If a card is copied from deck to a deck, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Archbishop Benedictus)
- Example: If a card is copied from a hand to a hand, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Mind Vision)
- Example: If a card is copied from play to play, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Molten Reflection)
- Example: If a card is copied from a deck to a hand, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Thoughtsteal)
- Example: If a card is copied from a deck to play, the copy retains enchantments. (eg. Mindgames)
- Example: If a card is copied from hand to play, the copy retains enchantments. (eg.
Kobold Illusionist) - Example: If a card is copied from a hand to a deck, the copy does not retain enchantments. (eg. Dead Man's Hand)
- Example: If a card is copied from play to a deck, the copy does not retain enchantments. (eg.
Baleful Banker) - Example: If a card is copied from play to a hand, the copy does not retain enchantments. (eg. Feral Gibberer)
- Example: If a card is copied from deck to a deck, the copy retains enchantments. (eg.
- Cards that transform will no longer keep any enchantments when they transform.
- Example: Shifter Zerus, Molten Blade, and Shifting Scroll no longer keep any enchantments when they transform.
- Example:
June 2018[edit | edit source]
- Counterspell beats whenever and after triggers.
- Summon and Play triggers are now evaluated using their in-hand stats before they are affected by board modifiers and their Battlecry.
- Example: Playing Faceless Manipulator targeting a 5-attack minion will no longer advance Jungle Giants. It will be considered a 3/3.
- Example: Playing
- Minions that enter the battlefield without being played from hand will have any (Whenever or After) summon triggers evaluated before board modifiers are applied.
- Example: If Azure Drake is pulled onto the battlefield adjacent to Dire Wolf Alpha it will no longer advance Jungle Giants.
- Example: If
- Choose One minions that Transform now consider their transformation effects before entering play.
- Example: Playing Shellshifter and selecting the 5/3 option will count as a 5-attack minion and advance Jungle Giants.
- Example: Playing
October 2017[edit | edit source]
- This update addresses the unintuitive resolution of "whenever" and "after" effects. Now, in order for a card's trigger to activate during a sequence of triggers, the card needs to be present and valid before the sequence of triggers begins. In other words, all triggers in a trigger sequence are validated before any can activate. Since all triggers are initially validated, new triggers that appear during a trigger sequence are invalid and no longer activate.
- Example: Player 1 has a
Mad Scientist on the board, and a Mirror Entity in their deck. Player 2 plays Stampeding Kodo. Stampeding Kodo kills Mad Scientist. Mad Scientist pulls Mirror Entity into play. Mirror Entity does NOT trigger, because it did not exist when Stampeding Kodo was played. - Example: Player 1 has a
Piloted Sky Golem and a Wisp on the board (played in that order). Player 1 plays Deathwing. The Piloted Sky Golem spawns a Cult Master from its Deathrattle. The Cult Master does not trigger off the Wisp's death, because it wasn't present to see the Wisp destroyed. - Example: Player 1 has Starving Buzzard and Rotface on the board. Player 1 also has a Flame Leviathan on top of their deck. Player 1 plays Savannah Highmane. Starving Buzzard triggers off of Savannah Highmane, causing Player 1 to draw Flame Leviathan. Flame Leviathan triggers, dealing 2 damage to all characters. Rotface triggers off the damage and summons Spiritsinger Umbra. Spiritsinger Umbra does not trigger off the Savannah Highmane, because she was not present when Savannah Highmane was played.
- Example: Player 1 has a
2014-2015[edit | edit source]
Patch 3.1.0.10357 (2015-09-29): AoE damage that hits all minions now ignores mortally wounded minions, becoming inconsistent with AoE damage that hits all characters hitting mortally wounded minions.- Patch 3.0.0.9786 (2015-08-18): AoE damage that hits all characters now hits mortally wounded minions, consistent with AoE damage that hits all minions.
Patch 2.0.0.7234 (2014-12-04): Area of effect healing effects now affect all targets simultaneously, rather than one at a time. Related triggers will still activate one at a time.[3]
Patch 1.0.0.4944 (Open beta, 2014-03-11): Secrets can now only activate on your opponent's turn.- Unknown alpha patch: Turn time reduced from 90 to 75 seconds.[4]
Advanced rulebook[edit | edit source]
- Main article: Advanced rulebook
This wiki provides an advanced rulebook providing extensive information on the game mechanics of Hearthstone.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Chadd Nervig on Twitter (X). (2020-08-13).
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 cmdylux on reddit. (2020-08-13).
- ↑ Ben Brode on Twitter (X). (2014-12-02).
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/hearthstone/comments/3agk6v/turn_time_has_been_reduced_from_90_to_70_seconds/