Duels

Duels' representation icon

Duels was a game mode added in Patch 18.6.0.63160 on October 22, 2020. In Duels, players faced off against other players, attempting to claim 12 victories before they suffered 3 losses, similar to Arena. However, instead of drafting a deck, players were offered a choice between 6 Duels-exclusive heroes, then one of 3 of that class's Hero Powers, followed by one of 6 of that class's Signature Treasures. Players then had to build a 16-card deck, using 15 cards from their collection, and the treasure they selected.

At the end of each round, whether it was a win or a loss, the player gained 5 higher maximum health and chose three cards to add to their deck from three different choices, similar to Dungeon Run and other single-player missions. Occasionally, the player could also pick a Passive or active treasure to add to their deck.

On January 4, 2024, it was announced that support for Duels would be discontinued, and the mode was scheduled to be removed from the client in April 2024.

In Patch 29.2.0.198037 on April 16, 2024, Duels was removed from the game.

Getting started

Entry fee

Duels' methods of play

Tavern Ticket, previously called Arena Ticket

Duels offered two methods of play with separate matchmaking pools: Casual and Heroic.

• Casual runs were completely free.
• A Heroic run cost 150 gold or 1 Tavern Ticket (Purchasable with 200 Runestones). However, Heroic runs featured success-based rewards identical to Arena rewards, including gold, arcane dust, cards, golden cards, and card packs from the latest expansion.
• After Patch 18.6, Arena Ticket was renamed to Tavern Ticket, which meant if the player was sitting on unspent tickets, those tickets could be used in both Arena and Duels.

Selection

After starting a Duels run, the player got to choose the following:

• One of 6 randomly-offered heroes (classes)
• One of 3 Hero Powers of the chosen hero
• One of 6 Signature Treasures of the chosen hero

Then, the player built a starter deck, which

• Included the chosen Signature Treasure and 15 unique (no duplicates) cards, from their own collection
• Included cards available from a certain number of sets, depending on the season, and the hero's classes
• Did not include cards in the banned from deck-building list.

For more details about available selections and ban lists before the mode was removed, see #Final season.

• 

  Choosing a Hero or class

• 

  Choosing a Signature Treasure

• 

  Choosing a Hero Power

After a round

Similar to Dungeon Run and similar modes, regardless of winning or losing, after a round was finished, the player got the opportunity to add new cards to their current deck, by:

• Choosing one of three Passive treasures (after rounds 1 and 3).
• Choosing one of three active treasures (after rounds 2, 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13).
• Choosing one of three loot buckets, each consisting of three cards or none.

For more details about available treasures before the mode was removed, see #Final season.

• 

  Choosing a Passive treasure

• 

  Choosing an active treasure

• 

  Choosing a loot bucket

Loot buckets

Cards in loot buckets were sorted by card set. For example, one loot bucket might have been titled "The Witchwood", and it would have contained 3 neutral and/or class cards from that set.

Cards for buckets were generated based on cards from the player's deck, then a bucket was generated based on the associated bucket pool.

Mini-sets were grouped with their parent expansion, while Adventures were grouped with various other expansions:

• Curse of Naxxramas was with Goblins vs Gnomes
• Blackrock Mountain and Galakrond's Awakening were with Descent of Dragons
• One Night in Karazhan was with The Grand Tournament
• The League of Explorers was with Saviors of Uldum

Prior to Patch 25.0.0.158725, loot buckets were grouped by type of effect, instead of by card set.

Playing Duels

Gameplay

A Duels run with 0 wins and 0 losses (3 lives remaining)

A Duels round or game

Play in Duels consisted of a series of rounds between players, with each player using their specially constructed deck.

During each Duel run, the player could only suffer up to 3 losses, with the number of losses so far displayed as "lost lives" on the "box" screen. Once a player had lost 3 times, or won 12 times, their run ended, along with their deck being destroyed and unable to be viewed or played again.

If the player had a Heroic run, rewards befitting their success were offered.

Players could also choose to retire their deck at any time after a run's first match. However, it should be noted that, in case a player was playing a Heroic run, completing all of a deck's rounds could not reduce the reward on offer, only improve it. Retiring a deck should therefore have been a last resort used only when unwilling to play with the deck any longer.

It should also be noted that if either player was disconnected from the server during a match and failed to return through the reconnection feature, that round was counted as a loss for the disconnector.

The player played in a Duels round like how they played in Constructed or Arena, except for the fact that Duels used their own season's format of card sets and unique cards only available in Duels.

Any cards randomly generated during a match were restricted to the initial card sets. This affected cards generated from any effect and ability.

Matchmaking

Similar to Arena, matchmaking for each pairing was determined by the player's win/loss record for the current run, attempting to find a player with as similar a record as possible. Other factors such as class, deck, and past Duels performance did not affect matchmaking.

It was possible for a player to be matched twice against the same player over the course of a single Duels run.

Heroic rewards

Main article: Arena#Claiming rewards

Similar to Arena, after a Heroic run ended, players were given a reward chest, containing up to five rewards with gold, dust, cards, and card packs. The range of possible items and values for each reward was determined exactly like how Arena currently does.

Final season

Wizard Duels

This section documents the available cards and heroes during the final season of Duels.

Card sets

• Legacy
• Curse of Naxxramas
• Goblins vs Gnomes
• Blackrock Mountain
• The Grand Tournament
• The League of Explorers
• Whispers of the Old Gods
• One Night in Karazhan
• Mean Streets of Gadgetzan
• Journey to Un'Goro
• Knights of the Frozen Throne
• Kobolds & Catacombs
• The Witchwood
• Rastakhan's Rumble
• Rise of Shadows
• Saviors of Uldum
• Descent of Dragons
• Galakrond's Awakening
• Ashes of Outland
• Scholomance Academy
• Demon Hunter Initiate
• Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
• Forged in the Barrens
• United in Stormwind
• Fractured in Alterac Valley
• Legacy
• Core
• Voyage to the Sunken City
• Murder at Castle Nathria
• March of the Lich King
• Festival of Legends
• TITANS
• Path of Arthas
• Showdown in the Badlands

Classes

This section lists all heroes, Hero Powers and Signature Treasures of each class.

Sai Shadestorm (Death Knight)

Scarlet Leafdancer (Death Knight)

Star Student Stelina (Demon Hunter)

Elise Starseeker (Druid/Priest)

Forest Warden Omu (Druid)

Brann Bronzebeard (Hunter/Warrior)

Professor Slate (Hunter)

Mozaki, Master Duelist (Mage)

Reno Jackson (Mage/Rogue)

Sir Finley (Paladin/Shaman)

Turalyon, the Tenured (Paladin)

Mindrender Illucia (Priest)

Infiltrator Lilian (Rogue)

Instructor Fireheart (Shaman)

Archwitch Willow (Warlock)

Darius Crowley (Warrior)

Rattlegore (Warrior)

Drek'Thar (Neutral)

Vanndar Stormpike (Neutral)

Passive treasures

Pool 1

This lists all Passive treasures that could be drafted after round 1.

Passive Pool 1 treasures
Swipe left or right to see the cards.

Pool 2

This lists all Passive treasures that could be drafted after round 3.

Passive Pool 2 treasures
Swipe left or right to see the cards.

Pool 2 Ultra Rare

This lists all Passive treasures that could be drafted after round 3, but only had a 1% chance to be offered.

Passive Pool 2 Ultra Rare treasures
Swipe left or right to see the cards.

Active treasures

Pool 1

This lists all active treasures that could be drafted after rounds 2, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13.

Active Pool 1 treasures
Swipe left or right to see the cards.

Pool 2

This lists all active treasures that could be drafted after round 4.

Active Pool 2 treasures
Swipe left or right to see the cards.

Pool 2 Ultra Rare

This lists all active treasures that could be drafted after round 4, but only had a 1% chance to be offered.

Active Pool 2 Ultra Rare treasures
Swipe left or right to see the cards.

Banned cards

Banned from deck-building

These cards were banned from intial deck-building, which were marked as "Banned" on a red banner.

Banned from deck-building
Swipe left or right to see the cards.

Banned from buckets and generation

These cards never appeared in any bucket, and couldn't be randomly generated or Discovered.

Banned from buckets
Swipe left or right to see the cards.

Removed Duels cards

These cards were removed from Duels, according to the announcements or patch notes.

Removed Duels cards
Swipe left or right to see the cards.

Seasons

At the end of each season, new heroes were occasionally added, and the pools of treasures were occasionally changed.

Each season also had a theme tied to it. For example, Early Access and Season One's theme was Wizard Duels, which brought several familiar professors and luminaries from Scholomance Academy.

The following table lists all past seasons of Duels in Hearthstone history.

Season	Patch	Start date	Card sets	Resets MMR?	Rotates?
Showdown in the Badlands, Season 12	Patch 28.0.0.189017	November 7, 2023		Yes	Yes
TITANS, Season 11	Patch 27.4.0.185749	September 19, 2023		Yes	Yes
TITANS, Season 10	Patch 27.0.0.181554	July 25, 2023		Yes	Yes
Festival of Legends, Season 9	Patch 26.0.0.170824	April 4, 2023		Yes	Yes
March of the Lich King, Season 8	Patch 25.0.0.158725	November 29, 2022		Yes	Yes
Revendreth, Season 7	Patch 24.0.0.145077	July 26, 2022		Yes	Yes
The Sunken City, Season 6	Patch 23.0.0.135540	April 5, 2022		Yes	Yes
Alterac Valley, Season 5	Patch 22.2.0.130051	January 25, 2022		Yes	Yes
Wizard Duels, Mid-Season 4	Patch 22.0.0.126807	November 30, 2021
Wizard Duels, Season 4	Patch 21.6.0.124497	November 2, 2021		Yes	Yes
Wizard Duels, Season 3	Patch 21.0.0.88998	July 27, 2021		Yes
Wizard Duels, Season 2	Patch 20.0.0.77662	March 25, 2021		Yes
Wizard Duels, Mid-Season 1	Patch 19.4.0.71003	January 21, 2021		Yes
Wizard Duels, Season 1	Patch 19.0.0.65614	November 12, 2020
Wizard Duels, Early Access	Patch 18.6.0.63160	October 22, 2020

History

Duels was announced October 22, 2020 during the Hearthstone Fall Reveal Stream and the trailer. Afterwards, Duels was immediately launched into season Early Access as a part of Patch 18.6, available to players who either:

• Pre-purchased Madness at the Darkmoon Faire Bundle or Mega Bundles.
• Received Twitch Drop which contained Early Access to Duels.

Duels was set officially launch on November 17, with the transition from Early Access to Season One.

Card changes

Main article: Duels/Card changes

Card changes are the alteration of cards from their previous designs. Hearthstone's designers prefer to avoid changing cards, but when the need arises, card changes will be implemented within patches.

Like collectible and Battlegrounds cards, Duels cards have been design-changed intentionally through the patches.

Group Learning

Group Learning bucket, always in the middle

Group Learning (smart bucket, or auto-generated bucket) was a special bucket. Unlike most buckets which have a predetermined card pool, Group Learning had their card pool generated from gameplay data, and it was always in the middle of offering screen.

Functionality

Group Learning was determined by three factors:

• How were cards played in each game?. In simple words, if you see two cards were played by players repeatedly, it’s a good indicator that there is some synergy between them.
• Which stage of the game and what turns were these cards played?. Cards played in close turns and turns far apart usually indicate different things. The previous pair usually shows signs of combo pieces, and the latter shows cards used as earlier tools and late-game powers.
• What is the end-game impact (win/loss) after the card pair was played?. Win-rate information is embedded in the card pair synergy score. In general, the higher the win-rate, the bigger the score. Afterwards, the score is aggregated for the bucket with some restrictions applied.
  • One of the restrictions is that the cards in the bucket needs to be different. Since each bucket contains 3 cards, {A,B,C}, the aggregation consists of 3 different card pairs: {AB, AC, BC}. Mathematically speaking, a "reversed soft-minimum" function is chosen as an aggregation method. The benefit of this over simple addition or some other aggregation methods is it helps to avoid the scenario that {AB} and {AC} has a large score value, but {BC} has a very small score value.

Group Learning was removed in Patch 25.0.0.158725, after it started regularly offering low-quality cards.

Removal

On January 4, 2024, it was announced that support for Duels would be discontinued, and the mode was scheduled to be removed from the client in April 2024. In Patch 29.2.0.198037 on April 16, 2024, Duels was removed from the game.

Various reasons for the removal of the mode are listed by Ridiculous Hat:

• "How isn't Duels static?" - "Duels requires a LOT of maintenance - it's not a sealed pool. we release new cards all the time that impact the balance of the mode, make new buckets, and have to change interactions between old treasures and new cards. mercs is static."
• "What about locking existing expansions for Duels and not adding new cards?" - "A lot of different options were explored, including the one you mentioned. unfortunately, to really tighten up hearthstone's focus like we stated in the article, we had to go this way."
• (Comparing the above factors to Arena) - "The amount of maintenance between the two modes is not equivalent."

Patch changes

Note: This section only includes gameplay changes to Duels and not individual card changes.

• Patch 29.2.0.198037 (2024-04-16):
  • Removed from game.
• Patch 28.0.0.189017 (2023-11-07):
  • Adventures in loot buckets are now grouped with other expansions.
• Patch 25.0.0.158725 (2022-11-29):
  • Group Learning bucket removed.
  • All card buckets now give cards by expansion, instead of by grouped type of effect.
  • Players can now choose one of 6 heroes, instead of 5.
• Patch 24.2.0.148211 (2022-08-30):
  • Paid entry can now be purchased using Runestones only. Option to buy directly with real money no longer available.
• Patch 24.0.0.145077 (2022-07-26):
  • All hero powers and signature treasures are now available for all heroes, for all players, no matter what. No more unlock requirements!
• Patch 23.0.0.135540 (2022-04-05):
  • Players can now choose one of 5 heroes, instead of 4.
• Patch 22.2.0.130051 (2022-01-25):
  • New card buckets will be added to better support the new heroes.
  • Pool 2 Treasure offerings will now be more synergistic with your deck.
  • 2022-02-01: Fixed a bug where Duels achievements were not properly tracking runs.
  • 2022-02-01: Fixed a bug where Duels Health totals did not match the Health totals intended for run progress.
• Patch 22.0.0.126807 (2021-11-30):
  • New main art updated (to Fractured in Alterac Valley key art) (previously: Scholomance Academy key art)
• Patch 21.8.0.126299 (2021-11-16):
  • Fixed a Duels bug where favorite card backs were not being applied to decks.
• Patch 21.6.0.124497 (2021-11-02):
  • All original Scholomance Heroes will have all their unlock requirements removed.
• Patch 21.2.0.91456 (2021-08-31):
  • Modes menu updated.
• Patch 21.0.0.88998 (2021-07-27):
  • Fixed a Duels bug where Diamond cards would only be Diamond in appearance for the first game of a run.
• Patch 20.4.0.84593 (2021-06-03):
  • Passive treasures are less deterministic.
  • Fixed a bug that would result in duplicate treasures being offered in Duels.
• Patch 20.2.0.81706 (2021-05-04):
  • New tech has been added so that you’ll more regularly be offered Treasures that synergize better with the cards in your deck.
  • Fixed a bug where Legacy and Core set filters were not appearing when making a deck in Duels.
  • Fixed a Duels bug on mobile where the client could become stuck on the rewards screen after finishing a Heroic run.
• Patch 20.0.0.77662 (2021-03-25):
  • Fixed a Duels bug where the win counter could show -1.
  • Fixed a Duels bug where duplicate card buckets could appear.
  • Fixed a Duels bug where your deck would not appear on the end of run screen.
• Patch 19.4.0.71003 (2021-01-21):
  • Passive Treasures offered between matches in Duels should now present more options that are better suited for the class you're playing.
• Patch 19.0.0.65614 (2020-11-12):
  • Fixed a Duels bug where Golden cards would appear as normal cards.
  • Fixed a Duels bug where the Best Runs counter was being unintentionally reset.
• Patch 18.6.0.63160 (2020-10-22):
  • Added.

External links

• Blizzard Entertainment (2020-10-22). Introducing a New Game Mode: Hearthstone Duels!.