Beginner’s Guide to Crafting Legendaries

Introduction

Greetings, I’m Sheng, a Legend rank constructed and 7.5 win-average arena player. I run HearthstoneCoaching.com where our coaches have helped many students achieve the same.

If you’ve been playing for a while, you’ve probably gotten to the point where you have enough dust to craft a Legendary. But which Legendaries are best, and which ones should you craft first?

This question tends to be asked a lot, so I thought I’d write a quick-and-dirty guide to help you guys out on your crafting decisions. If you’re a free-to-play or have a limited budget to spend on cards, it’s important to make your dust go as far as possible.

How to Acquire Dust

The best way to acquire dust is to play arena! Every once in a while, one of your reward boxes will contain a small amount (or a large amount if you’re a good at arena) of dust that will help you get closer to your goal of crafting a legendary of choice.

I’d recommend players to only dust duplicate and golden cards, because you’ll often find that dusting a rare or epic card for a class that you don’t play will come back to bite you once you’ve built up more of a collection, and want to start branching out to playing other classes.

(This has happened to me a few times in the past. I’m looking at you Control Warrior!)

Please note that Neutral Legendaries can be used in any class, while Class Legendaries can only be used in a deck for a specific class.

Neutral Legendaries

I’d recommend that most people start with the Neutral Legendaries list, and then craft Class-Specific legendaries based on which class they like to play the most.

1. dr-boom

• Fits into almost all but the fastest decks. Easiest way to populate a board that’s empty. Certainly the best 7 mana minion in the game.

2. sylvanas-windrunner

• Another extremely flexible card that can be fit into almost any deck. Her Deathrattle is unique, and will often trade two or even three for one if you include the minion that she steals.

3. ragnaros-the-firelord

• An 8 mana finisher. Best used when you’ve cleared the board to isolate a few large targets, or to end the game. This is a card that will fit into the late game (big dude) slot for most mid-range and control decks.

4. alexstrasza

• A neutral legendary that is pretty essential in many control decks. Can go into Control Warrior, Freeze Mage, Handlock, and new Miracle Rogue among others.

5. justicar-trueheart

• While her stat distribution may not seem very intimidating, her instant ability to upgrade your hero power is. Justicar Trueheart has become a staple Legendary for Control Warrior, Midrange Paladin, and Control Priest.

Meta-Dependent Neutral Legendaries

The Meta-Dependent Neutral Legendary list is a nice to have, if the rest of your Neutral Legendaries collection is complete.

1. the-black-knight

• Great in a taunt-heavy meta, the battlecry that allows you to destroy a taunt minion is unique in the game, and can give you a massive tempo-boost. Unfortunately, a bit weak when aggro decks are popular on the ladder, as when he doesn’t hit the battlecry, he’s a 6 mana for a 4/5.
• Primarily used in control decks to counter other control decks, as holding a situational card for a large part of the game in hand isn’t as punishing.

2. harrison-jones

• Good in a weapons-heavy meta, and primarily used in control decks.

3. ysera

• A great card when the meta is super-slow and filled with other control decks, as she’ll give you card advantage. However, in a ladder filled with aggro, she won’t be effective, as you’ll be dead before you’re able to take advantage of her card generation.

Crucial Class Legendaries

These are pretty much must-haves for any deck that wants to play competitively for these classes.

tirion-fordring (Paladin)

• Tirion is just insane value. The only true way to deal with him is through a hex, polymorph, or mind-control. Even killing him with the-black-knight brings out the formidable ashbringer.
• There are very few minions in the game that can flip a game as much as Tirion can.

grommash-hellscream (Warrior)

• Grommash is an incredibly unique minion used in both control and combo warrior. With the right set of cards in your hand, he’s 10 points of reach on a single turn. There’s no substitution for that outside of pyroblast, and chances are, if Grommash isn’t dealt with immediately on the turn after he’s played, it’s game over.

archmage-antonidas (Mage)

• A late game win condition for many common Mage decks at the moment. Archmage Antonidas can secure games for you as Mech Mage by turning your 1 mana spare part into an infinite number of fireballs.

malganis (Warlock)

• A staple card in Demon Zoo and Demon Warlock, and a primary win-condition in both decks. Mal’Ganis synergizes extremely well with cards like voidcaller, allowing you to play him for free at times, and im-plosion.

Nice to Have Class Legendaries

These aren’t as crucial as the first list, but will improve your deck if you have the dust. Otherwise you can substitute them with a neutral legendary or rare/epic card at the same mana slot.

• edwin-vancleef (Rogue)
• voljin (Priest)
• confessor-paletress (Priest)
• neptulon (Shaman)
• alakir-the-windlord (Shaman)
• lord-jaraxxus (Warlock)

Nice to Have Neutral^* Legendaries

These are neutral legendaries that are nice to have, but not necessary.

• bloodmage-thalnos (Mage, Rogue)
• baron-geddon (Control Warrior)
• chillmaw (Dragon Priest, Dragon Warrior)

Super Special Secret Against Mobile Users

• nozdormu
  • Make your opponents regret checking their email while playing on their phone!

Coaching Lessons

If you’re interested in reaching Legend rank, or earning unlimited gold from arena, my team at HearthstoneCoaching.com would love to help! We’ve provided over a thousand hours of excellent coaching to students around the world. 

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