[Cyanide]

Welcome to Hearthstone!

What Is Hearthstone?

Hearthstone is Blizzard's latest project and their first time delving into the world of Collectible Card Games (Can't be called TCG when you can't TRADE :P). What about WoW TCG? The WoW TCG was not developed by Blizzard if my information is correct. They simply licensed the use of their IP to another company.

What's a TCG/CCG you may ask? It is essentially a specially designed set of cards with rules for strategic gameplay.

Your role is usually that of a powerful hero/wizard/planeswalker/pokemon trainer... you get my drift. You play cards and cast spells to bring your opponents life points down to zero.

There is also some sort of resource that you have to manage. Mana, power, energy etc. These are used for you to cast/play your cards. And these cards interact with each other differently based on their abilities.

There are usually phases that are common across all TCGs. For example, Magic: The Gathering has the beginning phase, first main phase, combat phase, beginning of combat phase, declare attackers/blockers, combat damage, second main phase, ending phase. SO MANY PHASES!!!1111!!

However...

For those of you who have had some form of TCG experience, you might notice some things that are different with Hearthstone.

They've simplified many things! This is not necessarily a bad thing I guess. It makes it very casual friendly and easy to pick up.

Phases have been simplified A LOT. You have your turn, and your opponent's turn. And you pretty much cast all your spells and decide on combat targets only during your turn. (unlike MTG, where you can cast spells during your opponents turn).

Resource management is also simplified. Once again, comparing it to MTG, you don't have to manage lands for your mana resource. Instead, you start with 1 mana crystal at turn 1, and gain 1 extra mana crystal every turn until you have a maximum of 10.

So in addition to NOT needing any lands in your deck building, you also don't have to worry about being resource screwed (unable to cast spells due to not having resources) when you play.

So...

In Hearthstone, you play 1 of 9 classes that you may choose from.
Priest, Mage, Warrior, Hunter, Druid, Warlock, Shaman, Paladin and Rogue.

+ [Heroes of Warcraft] +

Each have a set of cards and a skill unique only to that class.

Your goal, as stated previously, is to bring your opponent's HP down from 30 to 0. And that is achieved by summoning creatures (or minions as they are called in Hearthstone) and using a wide variety of direct damage spells at your disposal.

+ [Minions] +

The Good

• Very casual friendly
• Easy to learn
• Game looks beautiful
• Free to play!

The Bad

Too much to say for this, and can't list them down in a concise manner. Also, please bear with me because I'll be making a lot of MTG comparisons. I understand that they are different games and cater to different target audiences. Ultimately, these are just my opinions and if we disagree. Let's agree to disagree.

So here goes...

I feel that there is very limited interaction due to the simplified nature of the game. You cannot cast spells during your opponent's turn. So you pretty much cannot react to what he does immediately. This makes the game feels like a straight up race. Not being able to fully control the game through spells kinda irks me a little bit.

Creatures are doubly important because board presence seems to be king in Hearthstone. In MTG, having no creatures on the board doesn't necessarily mean you're screwed. There are a ton of abilities and spells that let you lockdown creatures without killing them.

So far in my experience, having no creatures in Hearthstone means I'm dead. And even though there are spells like frost shock or hex. It is almost always better to straight up remove the creatures than try to "control" them

I have no idea how balanced the matchmaking system is. But I would feel very disadvantaged if I search for a constructed game without having spent a single cent on boosters. So I think I'll pretty much only be playing Arena (draft) games

Which brings me to another point. Drafting in MTG, there's an element of luck in it no doubt, but it takes a bit of skill too to read signals and know what cards your opponents are drafting. But because of the class restrictions in Arena, it feels way too luck based for my liking. Getting bad rares or no epics or legendaries while your opponent gets them would be a total blowout in my opinion.

From my understanding, boosters are luck based as well. Unlike MTG where you open a pack of say 15 cards, you'd get 1 rare, 3 uncommons, 10 commons and a land.

There are also minor things like not being able to easily customize your deck from the deck selection screen (you have to go to the "my collection" tab to build your deck) and not being able to play Windowed Full Screen. But these are really minor and can be easily implemented/changed.

Anyways, to sum up. I feel the "bad" points I mentioned aren't really "bad". In the grand scheme of things, these are needed in order to simplify the game and make it a game for the casual crowd.

The Ugly

For impatient people, or people who simply want to get the best constructed deck they can possibly get. Spamming boosters is the only way to go. Although you can disenchant and craft cards (I haven't tried it myself), but from what I've read, it takes quite a bit to get it going.

And because booster packs are luck based (once again, need confirmation), Blizzard is certainly gonna make a killing from this.

That's pretty much the ugly side of any free-to-play model. Any company that makes something free-to-play must have a way to monetize it. Cosmetics, fast tracking progression and whatever else you can think of.

I feel this is perfectly fine (Valve has taken a lot of my money lolol...) so long as it doesn't fall into the trap of being a pay-to-win game.

Final Thoughts

I'll certainly be playing this game quite a bit. I find it entertaining enough, and am eager to see what else Blizzard can offer in a game with such huge potential. Take note that many others have tried to emulate Magic's success and many have failed trying.

Lastly, feel free to correct any misconceptions or bad information that I have and I'll rectify them. Look forward to playing with you guys and trading ideas.

Home is where the Hearthstone is.

Quick Comments

	TCPLemminks:	STOP BRAGGING THAT NIRV GAVE YOU A KEY :(
	LennX:	How much have you spent on those packs of cards!?