There’s always a lot of questions about how the Dust refunds are going to work when the Standard Rotation hits with the Hall of Fame, so I’ve created a small guide explaining the process of the Dust refunds and how crafting cards will work.

How does the Hall of Fame Arcane Dust Refund Work?

Once the Standard rotation goes live, cards from the Classic Set will be added to the Hall of Fame. This means that the cards will no longer be usable in the Standard Format and can only be played in Wild.

When will the Standard Rotation Happen?

There’s no official date, but it happens on the release of the first expansion of each year. The history of previous launches tells us it is usually in Early-Mid April.

Year of the Dragon Hall of Fame Additions

Here is the full list of cards that will be moved to Hall of Fame with Year of the Dragon:

How Does The Dust Gain From Rotation Work

Blizzard is giving players Arcane Dust for each of the cards they own that are transitioning to the Hall of Fame, while allowing the players to KEEP the cards. This Dust refund, however, is only up to the amount of a particular card that can be placed in a deck (1x for Legendary, 2x for other rarities). You also get Dust for the highest quality version you have (Golden vs. non-Golden).

Here’s what this means:

You get Dust once for each of the Legendaries that you own (does not apply to Year of the Raven).

If you own 1x Golden copy and 1x non-Golden copy you will only receive Dust for the Golden copy.

You get Dust for up to 2x of each other card you own that isn’t Legendary.

If you own 1x Golden copy and 3x non-Golden copies you will receive Dust for 1x Golden copy and 1x non-Golden copy.

If you own 2x Golden copies and 3x non-Golden copies you will receive Dust for 2x Golden copies.

How much Dust could I receive all together for Year of the Raven?

If you own all of the cards listed as non-Golden: (2x Legendary: 3,200 Dust + 4x Epic: 1,600 Dust + 6x Rare: 600 Dust + 4x Common: 160 Dust) = 5,560 Dust

(2x Legendary: 3,200 Dust + 4x Epic: 1,600 Dust + 6x Rare: 600 Dust + 4x Common: 160 Dust) = 5,560 Dust If you own all of the cards listed as Golden: (2x Legendary: 6,400 Dust + 4x Epic: 6,400 Dust + 6x Rare: 4,800 Dust + 4x Common: 1,600 Dust) = 19,200 Dust

How do I Maximize the Amount of Dust I Get?

So, what is the best course of action if you want to maximize your Dust? First, disenchanting the cards after you receive the refund will give you the normal amount of Dust back. So, in the case of a Golden Epic you would receive 400 back and a non-Golden Epic would give you 100 back if you disenchanted them after the rotation happens.

If you don’t own any or own some of the cards

You should craft the ones you don’t have in Golden if you have that kind of Dust lying around. You either get all the cards you didn’t have for free in their Golden form, or you can disenchant them all after receiving the refund during the rotation.

If you own all of the cards in non-Golden form

You only really gain Dust if you craft Golden common cards (assuming you want to keep the non-Golden copies), because the Dust returns end up being the same.

You get 400 Dust back if you already have one of the Epic non-Golden cards.

If you craft a golden Epic it will cost you 1,600 Dust, which you then get back, and then you can disenchant it for 400 Dust.

Either way you are gaining 400 Dust.

However, if you really wanted to have the Golden version of the card it’s worth crafting because you can always disenchant it later for the 1,600 Dust.

Common cards are the only way you can gain extra Dust if you own regular copies of a card:

If you do nothing you’ll gain 160 Dust for the 4x Common Cards.

If you craft 4x Golden Common cards for 1,600 dust, receive the Dust back, you can disenchant them for 200 Dust gaining you 40 Dust for a minute or two of work!

I’m ready to start crafting!

Hold on there, Turbo. You would actually be better served waiting until very close to the rotation because you could get some of these cards in packs which would get you Dust for free rather than having to front the cost and gaining it back later!

I hope this helps everyone understand the process, but I can answer questions in the comments if anyone has any. Also, please let me know if you think something could be explained better!