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How Hearthstone Deck Codes Work

How to copy, share and import decks, and what's actually inside that string of letters.

Copying a deck out of the game

Open your collection, pick a deck, and use the copy option on the deck. The game puts a block of text on your clipboard: a few comment lines starting with # (deck name, class, format and the card list) and one long line with the code itself. You can paste the whole block anywhere: in chat, a forum post or the viewer on our front page.

Importing a deck

Copy a deck code, then start creating a new deck in your collection. The game spots the code on your clipboard and offers to build the deck from it. Cards you don't own are shown as missing, so you can see right away what you'd need to craft.

What's inside the code

A deck code is a compact binary list encoded as text. It stores the format (Standard, Wild and so on), the hero, and every card's ID along with how many copies the deck runs. That's why codes are short and why they still work after a card's name is translated: the code stores numbers, not names.

Codes can't carry card upgrades, cosmetics or who made the deck. If a code fails to import, the deck usually includes a card that's not legal in the chosen format, or something was cut off while copying. Make sure the whole line made it across.