There are a lot of introductory rewards that are designed to help out new players, which can be earned from 6-12 hours of play.
New players start off with three introductory tutorial games as Mage, which are completed to unlock an Apprentice Track.
Early on, new players can choose to use either a Hunter or Mage starter deck to play, with other classes and decks becoming unlocked to use at various levels along the track. I always use Mage to complete the entire track.
At some point, after collecting some new cards, a player will get access to their collection, where stronger new cards can be edited into their deck to replace some of the weaker ones. This should be done as soon as the option becomes available and as better cards are added to the collection.
There are also quests with rewards from completing the Apprentice Track quests, such as to buy a pack from the shop, open a pack, to disenchant a card to get dust (a currency used to craft new cards), to craft a new card, etc… The quests are designed to teach new players some basic aspects of how to buy or earn packs, making cards, and changing deck lists.
Completion of the Apprentice Track will provide a new player with:
- 650 Gold
- 13 Standard Packs
- 5 Packs (from Tavern Guide quests)
- 2 Catch-Up Packs
- 2 Pre-made Apprentice decks (with 1 disenchant-able Legendary)
- 1 Tavern ticket (for Arena)
- 1 free ladder ready deck
You will also unlock all classes and get starter decks for each class.
The following screenshots show some highlights from the track:
https://imgur.com/a/Dtpp1vN
At level 15 and 24 on the track, a Catch Up pack will be earned. Open them right away and add any good cards to your deck.
The starting Mage deck looks like this:
Mage
Class: Mage
Format: Standard
Year of the Raptor
2x (1) Elven Archer
2x (1) Flame Geyser
2x (1) Glacial Shard
2x (1) Violet Spellwing
1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos
2x (2) Frostbolt
2x (2) Kobold Geomancer
2x (2) Loot Hoarder
2x (2) Murloc Tidehunter
2x (2) Redgill Razorjaw
2x (3) Arcane Intellect
2x (3) Tar Creeper
2x (4) Fireball
2x (4) Sen’jin Shieldmasta
2x (6) Blizzard
1x (8) Ragnaros the Firelord
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To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
By the time I finished the Apprentice Track my Mage deck looked like this:
Catch Up Mage
Class: Mage
Format: Standard
Year of the Raptor
2x (1) Flame Geyser
2x (1) Violet Spellwing
1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos
1x (2) Frostbolt
2x (2) Loot Hoarder
2x (3) Babbling Bookcase
1x (3) Marooned Archmage
1x (3) Nexus-Prince Shaffar
2x (3) Tar Creeper
2x (4) Blob of Tar
2x (4) Fire Plume Phoenix
1x (4) Fireball
1x (4) Lamplighter
1x (4) Resort Valet
2x (4) Triplewick Trickster
2x (4) Windswept Pageturner
1x (6) Gnomelia, S.A.F.E. Pilot
1x (6) Puzzlemaster Khadgar
1x (7) Firelands Portal
1x (7) Flamestrike
1x (8) Kalecgos
AAECAf0EDP2eBP6eBJegBO/TBN/4BcvKBubKBqjOBuPPBoXmBqvqBuHrBgmhoASf1ASyngbipga7lAeblgeHnAfLrQeLsQcAAA==
To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
I focused on some Elemental synergy when building my deck.
Catch-Up packs:
The introduction and understanding of Catch-Up packs is important to getting the maximum benefits while completing the Apprentice Track and getting three more Catch-Up packs after completing the Apprentice Track from finishing three follow up Catch Up pack quests.
It’s important to avoid collecting too new many cards for the sets that Catch-Up packs give cards for, because the number of cards one gets from a Catch-Up pack is determined by how many cards one already owns from those sets.
Generally speaking, Catch-Up packs should be opened before any other kind of packs are opened or any other cards or decks are claimed, because the more cards you already own for a set, the fewer cards you will get from a catch-Up pack, which can range between 5-50 cards.
How Catch-Up Packs work:
Number of Cards: Each Catch-Up Pack includes 1-10 cards from each of the five included sets, for a total of 5-50 cards per pack. The number of cards you get from each set is based on the percentage of cards you’ve received* from that set:
- 25% or less of that set: 10 cards from that set
- 75% or more of that set: 1 card from that set
- Between 25% and 75% completion: scales with collection completion percentage
Rarity Distribution: At least 20% (rounded up) of the cards in each Catch-Up Pack will be a Rare or better. The overall rarity distribution for Catch-Up Packs is the same as normal packs.
Quality: All cards are normal quality (non-Golden).
First Legendary Guarantee: One Legendary in the first 50 cards from each expansion (yes, that means you get to capture five different Legendary offering bonuses in these packs).
A player will get access to two Catch Up packs while completing Apprentice Track along with a free deck. The completion of the track triggers a quest chain, which yields three more Catch Up packs. If a player carefully avoids opening too many packs until all the five Catch-Up packs are opened, they should get 50 cards from each of the five Catch Up packs.
Note that: it’s safe to open up to 5 packs while completing quests on the Apprentice Track without it causing a player to get fewer than 50 cards from each Catch Up pack. I would recommend opening a pack for the 5 most recent expansion first, since you get some additional free cards when the first pack from a set is obtained or opened.
After level 15, a new player may start facing real players instead of game controlled bots.
A real player’s name will show up atop a the Friends List (click on top left symbol, which resembles a person), and a real player’s name will appear under “recent,” while playing against them and after the game is over. An official in-game bot never displays its name atop the friend list. See the following pictures to understand.
Note that: a player must have added at least one friend to see players whom they have recently played against or chatted with. Look at the following screenshots to notice that the bot’s name never shows up under “recent,” while all the real players’ names do:
https://imgur.com/a/KgTEFXe
GhostDog is a bot, while the other names are for actual player accounts, since their names show up under recent.
At level 22 on the track, The Arena mode becomes unlocked, and I always end up completing the Apprentice Track while playing some Arena matches.
Note that: once the Apprentice Track is complete, there are six loaner decks which may be borrowed temporarily to play or one may be claimed right away, but be sure to wait on claiming a deck until all 5 Catch Up packs have been earned and opened.
As far as what free deck to claim, here is some advice from Zeddy:
https://youtu.be/0FJxk2IZNok?si=ZJC1Wd28dpJ_Kzs_
I claimed the Ladder Ready DK deck for its dust value in Legendary cards, since it has two dustable Legendary cards (Zilliax Deluxe 3000 and The Ceaseless Expanse), but it’s not a very competitive ready deck for Sandard, and it would take a lot of added Legendary cards, which are hard to acquire, to make into a decent competitive deck. I don’t have plans to play constructed decks any time soon on this account, so I chose a free deck that had a good dust value. A new player, who wants to win more matches, may want to claim a lesser dust value deck, which is capable of being more competitive, such as the Warlock, Priest, Mage, or Hunter (least value in terms of dust cost) decks would be better options.
The results of my 5 catch Up packs and 5 other packs:
https://imgur.com/a/T1aH9V5
A (EU):
Whizbang’s Workshop: 23.3% complete
Paradise: 20.0% complete
Dark Beyond: 22.7 % complete
Emerald Dream: 20.3% complete
From opening packs, I got 20 to 23.3 percent of the above four expansions. Of course, it’s mostly the Legendary and Epic cards that are missing, but I get to start out with most the commons and rares from these sets.
After claiming a free deck and opening Catch up packs, and completing up to level 18 on the Lost City of Un’Goro track (which new players start after completing the Apprentice Track), I have:
200 gold
-1750 dust (it takes 1600 dust to craft a Legendary card)
17 unopened Un’Goro packs
13 unopened Standard packs
11 disenchant-able Legendary cards.
This ^ should give new players a fairly good idea of what kind of resources they will have to play constructed with within a day or two of playing the game.