It Will Soon Be Impossible To Get Duplicate Legendaries In Hearthstone

If you've played enough Hearthstone, you know the thrill of seeing that golden border around a card from a freshly opened pack. It's a legendary! Exciting! What will it be?

You probably also know the immense letdown of getting a duplicate legendary -- especially since you can only use one per deck. Congratulations, you just got 400 Arcane Dust.

As Game Director Ben Brode revealed in a brief video today, this negative experience will soon be a thing of the past. Starting with the game's next expansion, when you get a legendary in a pack, it will automatically be one you don't already have. As Brode says, this also means that "crafting a legendary can now be done with impunity." If getting a duplicate feels bad, spending a ton of Dust to craft one only to get it in your next pack feels even worse.

Brode also said that, when a new expansion launches, players will be guaranteed to get a legendary in their first 10 packs, providing a nice jump-start to the expansion experience. Brode said that the changes are particularly exciting, "especially in the context of our next expansion," which might indicate that legendary cards will play a significant role in it. Now, if only they could go back and make sure everyone gets a quest card from Un'goro ...

(At nearly the same time Brode's video went live, Jeff Kaplan also posted a video explaining his team's plans to reduce duplicates in Overwatch. You can check that out here if you're interested.)

Finally, at some point in the next few days, Blizzard will offer extra packs for purchasing bundles of seven or more. You can get more details on that, and the overall changes to legendaries, on the Hearthstone site.