Given all the hype here I decided to check the game out as well.
While I think the game is very polished and rather nice considering it is a F2P game and still in beta, I am not sure how it will hold up in terms of long term motivation in comparison with something like Magic: The Gathering.
To me, the gameplay seems rather simplistic, but that may be because I have unlocked almost all classes but still lack a lot of cards. One of my concerns is that this game has a rather low skill cap. I wonder how much comes down to pure drawing luck as opposed to strategy. Correct me if am wrong, but right now it seems to me:
a) There is no such thing as a counterspell
b) There are no instant spells
c) I am wondering if there is the equivalent of MTG enchantments, permanent cards that have a global effect
The major difference of course is the taunt mechanic and the fact that minions don't auto heal at the end of the turn, so I will have to check out how that works in the long term.
But right now thinking of all the different deck types with completely different startegies that are possible in MTG I find this a bit disappointing. Then again, you might be able to play Hearthstone without spending tons of cash, which is certainly not possible in other TC games.
Having played both games, my thoughts on MtG vs Hearthstone are that Hearthstone has slightly less depth than MtG, but is a lot less complex. Generally you want games to be simple but have a lot of depth, but to have a certain amount of depth games must have a certain level of complexity. So it's horses for courses, but generally I think sacrificing a little depth to make it a lot less complex is a move in the right direction.
The other reason I prefer HS to MtG (at the moment at least) is that there's a lot less variance in terms of draws. Decks are smaller (30 cards vs. 60+) and there's no land mechanic, which is one of my very least favourite things about MtG; essentially you're at the mercy of the cards as to whether you get both land and spells, which I really dislike.
As for low skill cap -- certainly lower than MtG, yes. The top streamers are hitting win rates of 75-80% in Arena, though, which suggests most players do not typically reach the skill cap at least
And I think until you get a lot more cards, Arena is by far the most fun way to play the game.
He played this legendary. Then he gave it windfury and made it revive on death.
I had to take it out, but when I did, it came back alive full health, but ALSO spawned the deathrattle copy of it.
THEN he panda'd the Windspeaker to give it windfury AGAIN.
The paladin arena is at 7-2 right now. I find that with only 1x Argent Protector, 1 x Bloodfen Raptor, and 2x Faerie dragons in the 2 slot I have to mulligan rather aggressively to get decent opening hands. I wasn't kidding when I said I didn't have any free time now :P
I like Thoughtsteal now that I've tried it. I think I overestimated the number of useless cards my opponents would pick in their draft.
Before I got into the beta, I watched a lot of Trump's HS streams. He didn't value silence at all, and I picked up that habit. Now I keep finding myself in situations where a single silence would make or break a game.
The paladin ended up going 8-4. Ran into what felt like my mirror with a bunch of weapons. It got into topdeck wars where eventually his Argent Commander carried the day.
Next Draft - Shaman
2 x Lightning Bolt
1 x Voodoo Doctor
2 x Stormforged Axe
1 x Bloodsail Raider
1 x Loot Horder
1 x Mad Bomber
1 x Master Swordsmith
1 x Sunfury Protector
1 x Hex
1 x Lightning Storm
1 x Acolyte of Pain
1 x Flesheating Ghoul
1 x Imp Master
1 x Mind Control Tech
1 x Razorfen Hunter
1 x Shattered Sun Cleric
1 x Thrallmar Farseer
3 x Chillwind Yeti
2 x Cultmaster
1 x Dark Iron Dwarf
1 x Spellbreaker
1 x Doomhammer
1 x Azure Drake
1 x Sunwalker
Thoughts: Notable missings are Fire Elemental , Earth Elemental, and Lava Burst. I did pass up an early lava burst for a Cult Master, but saw no elementals. This deck feels more aggressive than the paladin one but I'll note I don't have a top end so I'll really need to make my cultmasters count to draw up more cards to overwhelm the opponent. I foresee this deck having trouble with flamestrike and other mage AoE.
I decided to check the game out as well.
