Hall of Fame

Hall of Fame was a special Wild format card set created on April 4, 2017, just before the start of the Year of the Mammoth. The set was formed by taking away cards from other sets to merge with its own set, including cards from the Basic, Classic, Promo, Reward, and The Witchwood card sets.

With the move of cards into the Hall of Fame at the beginning of each Standard year, dust refunds were immediately given out to players who already had copies of those cards in their collection upon logging in (see section below for more details). Note that there was no adjustment period in which the cards could be disenchanted for full dust value.

Hall of Fame cards could only be obtained through crafting.

With the release of Forged in the Barrens, the Hall of Fame set was deprecated. Cards originally from Basic and Classic were moved to the Legacy set, while Genn Greymane, Baku the Mooneater, Black Cat, Gloom Stag, Glitter Moth, and Murkspark Eel are once again part of The Witchwood.

Cards
Prior to Patch 20.0.0.77662, the Hall of Fame card set featured 35 collectible cards, including 16 neutral cards and 19 class cards.

Hall of Fame cards could be recognized with a special watermark (the Hearthstone logo within an eight-pointed spiked circle) behind the card text, not found on other cards. This watermark is currently used to denote Legacy cards (not Expert1 cards, which use the Classic swirl).

Neutral

 * Common (2 cards)


 * Rare (3 cards)


 * Epic (3 cards)


 * Legendary (8 cards)


 * Uncollectible

Priest

 * Uncollectible

Philosophy
Problematic, frequently-played, and design-hindering cards in Standard format are moved to the Hall of Fame to remove them from play in Standard format. When cards are moved to the Hall of Fame set, they are removed from their previous sets, and will no longer appear in card packs from their former set or be offered as rewards in the Arena, Highest Rank Bonus chest, or Heroic Tavern Brawl. For another reason, cards were also moved to the Hall of Fame to eliminate the Reward and Promo sets.

The developers state that, in the future, they will more likely move problematic Classic cards to the Hall of Fame, whereas problematic cards from other sets will be nerfed instead.

According to Yong Woo, if a metagame largely consists of decks with too similar cores and ideas, the development team will consider making changes to problematic cards found in such decks. Moving problematic cards into the Hall of Fame is one way in which a fresh meta can be ensured; however, it is not something that the designers plan to do on a regular basis.

Year of the Mammoth
With the start of Year of the Mammoth, Conceal, Ice Lance, Power Overwhelming, Azure Drake, Ragnaros the Firelord, and Sylvanas Windrunner were removed from the Classic set and added to the new Hall of Fame set, thus moving them from Standard to Wild format. Captain's Parrot and Old Murk-Eye were also moved to the Hall of Fame set from the Reward set. Although not previously officially announced, Gelbin Mekkatorque and Elite Tauren Chieftain were also moved to the Hall of Fame set from the Promo set.

Starting on April 6th 2017, all players upon logging in received bonus arcane dust in compensation for the full crafting cost of copies of the above Classic cards they possessed. Full dust refunds were granted for those cards that moved from the Classic set (and not the Reward or Promo set) to the Hall of Fame set, up to the maximum usable number of copies owned, preferring golden copies over regular copies. Note that the cards themselves were not disenchanted, only moved to Wild format.

Once moved to the Hall of Fame set, these cards were removed from their previous sets, and no longer featured in Classic card packs, be offered as rewards in the Arena, nor featured in the Highest Rank Bonus chest. Instead, as Wild format cards, they are now only obtainable through crafting.

A minor consequence of the change was that the Mage, Rogue, and Warlock classes now had only 5 common Classic cards each instead of 6, making these classes slightly less likely to gain class cards from Classic packs.

The new set was intended to help keep the Standard format meta fresh and ever-changing. For more on the motivations behind the move, as well as comments on each card involved, see the official blog.

Dust refunds

 * See also: Dust refunds

At the start of the year players received arcane dust equal to the full crafting cost of any copies of the formerly Classic cards they possessed. Captain's Parrot, Old Murk-Eye, Gelbin Mekkatorque, and Elite Tauren Chieftain were not eligible for this bonus since the Reward and Promo sets were already exclusive to Wild format.
 * Dust was only awarded for copies up to the maximum number of cards you could put in a deck:
 * Maximum of 1 copy for legendaries - Ragnaros the Firelord, Sylvanas Windrunner
 * Maximum 2 copies for all other cards - Conceal, Ice Lance, Power Overwhelming, Azure Drake
 * The refund prioritized golden cards over non-golden cards. For example:
 * If you had 1 golden Conceal and 2 regular Conceals, you received dust equal to the full crafting cost of 1 golden and 1 regular Conceal.
 * If you had 2 golden Conceals and 1 regular Conceal, you received dust equal to the full crafting cost of 2 golden Conceals.
 * If you had 1 golden Sylvanas and 1 regular Sylvanas, you received dust equal to the full crafting cost of 1 golden Sylvanas.
 * The dust was awarded automatically the first time the player logged in following the start of the Year of the Mammoth.
 * The Year of the Mammoth update does not provide full disenchant value for these cards. Disenchanting and crafting will be of normal value for both before and after the update. The procedure of refund for dust rewards is different from that for card nerfs.

As a result of the above rules, players could have capitalized on the move to (1) gain free cards, (2) gain free dust, or (3) upgrade to golden cards for reduced cost:

(1) Players who did not own the maximum usable number of copies of any of the cards listed could have effectively crafted them for free. (2) Players who did not already own two golden copies of the common cards listed could have gained a small amount of free dust by crafting golden copies, then disenchanting them following the refund. (3) Players who already owned regular versions but not golden versions of the cards could have also used the refund to get a discount on the crafting cost of their golden versions.
 * At the start of the Year of the Mammoth, the full crafting cost was refunded, making them effectively free.
 * This included golden cards (provided the player did not already own regular versions).
 * Alternatively, if the cards were not desired, the player could have disenchanted them following the refund at normal disenchanting value (not the full crafting cost) of the cards.
 * This amounted to 10 arcane dust for each golden common crafted (provided it was not already owned).
 * This did not work for cards of other rarities, since their golden disenchanting values match their regular crafting values.
 * The effective 'upgrade costs' for the golden cards involved are 35 for commons (down from 395); 80 for rares (down from 780); 300 for epics (down from 1500); and 1200 for legendaries (down from 2800).
 * For example, if a player owned a regular Sylvanas and did nothing, they would receive a 1600 dust refund when the card went to Hall of Fame at the start of Year of the Mammoth. If, instead, the player had disenchanted regular Sylvanas (for 400 dust) and crafted a golden Sylvanas (for 3200 dust, which would be refunded at the start of Year of the Mammoth), they would end up with a gain of 400 dust, for a net cost of 1200 compared to what they'd have gotten if they did nothing. By contrast, at any other time, upgrading Sylvanas would have a net cost of 2800 dust (3200 for crafting it, less the 400 dust gain for disenchanting the regular card).

Aside from the above three options, the dust values involved prevented players from exploiting the move.

A helpful guide on how to maximize dust refunds is here: Maximizing dust refunds for Year of the Mammoth. For more details and calculations, see Maths on Year of the Mammoth Dust Investments.

Year of the Raven
When the Year of the Raven began, Ice Block, Coldlight Oracle, and Molten Giant were moved to the Hall of Fame set. The latter-most had its nerf reversed, setting the card's mana cost back to 20 mana, at the same time as being moved to the Hall of Fame.

Dust refunds were given out to players as described in the Year of the Mammoth. A helpful guide on how to maximize dust refunds is here: Maximizing dust refunds for Year of the Raven.

Later in the year, Blizzard announced that the mage, rogue, and warlock classes would receive 4 all-new cards in the Classic set — Icicle, Tome of Intellect, Call of the Void, and Pilfer — in order to make up for the class cards that had previously been moved into the Hall of Fame. When designing these four new cards, Blizzard were thinking about new players' first experiences playing Hearthstone. The new Classic cards were designed to be relatively straightforward while still creating some exciting moments, and give players a chance to see and play with cards that they don't own. At the same time, it's important that the new Classic cards aren't so powerful that they limit future design or cause problems since they're intended to permanently remain in Standard.

Blizzard further stated that they expect more cards to join the Hall of Fame in the future, and that since there are still some gaps in the Classic sets where neutral Legendary cards joined the Hall of Fame, they are considering adding some new Classic cards down the line.

Year of the Dragon
When the Year of the Dragon began, nine cards were moved to the Hall of Fame. Three of them were from the Classic set: Naturalize, Doomguard, and Divine Favor. The other six were from The Witchwood set: Baku the Mooneater, Genn Greymane, and their synergy cards Gloom Stag, Black Cat, Glitter Moth, and Murkspark Eel.

Dust refunds were given out to players as described in the Year of the Mammoth. A helpful guide on how to maximize dust refunds is here: Maximizing dust refunds for Year of the Dragon. A simple flowchart guide is here: Simple flowchart guide.

Later in the year on July 1, 2019, Blizzard rotated two further cards - Vanish and Mind Blast. Since these were Basic cards, they had their rarity increased to Common in addition to being moved. They were replaced in the Basic set, and in the players' collection, by Plaguebringer and Radiance, respectively. Blizzard also added 8 new cards to the Classic set, replacing previously rotated class and neutral cards, thus making the Classic set complete and balanced again. These cards are Siegebreaker, Gift of the Wild, Righteousness, Brightwing, High Inquisitor Whitemane, Barrens Stablehand, 7 Infiltrator, and Arcane Devourer.

Year of the Phoenix
On March 26, 2020, about 2 weeks before the beginning of the Year of the Phoenix, eleven cards were moved to the Hall of Fame. Five of them were Neutral cards from the Classic set: Acolyte of Pain, Spellbreaker, Mind Control Tech, Mountain Giant, and Leeroy Jenkins. The remaining six were from the Priest class from the Basic and Classic sets: Auchenai Soulpriest, Holy Fire, Shadowform, Prophet Velen, Divine Spirit, and Northshire Cleric. The latter two cards were Basic cards, so they had their rarity increased to Common in addition to being moved.

The Hearthstone team added 6 new Priest cards to replace the Priest cards that were moved to the Hall of Fame: Psychic Conjurer, Power Infusion, Kul Tiran Chaplain, Scarlet Subjugator, Shadow Word: Ruin, and Natalie Seline.

Dust refunds for the eleven cards moved to the Hall of Fame were given out to players as normal, as described in the Year of the Mammoth. A helpful flowchart guide on how to maximize dust refunds is here: Maximizing dust refunds for Year of the Phoenix. The flowchart guide has not changed since the Year of the Mammoth.