Hearthstone

[Gustaran]

With the release of the iOS version there is a new achievement: Play one game on iPad and receive a free booster. So even if you have no intention of playing the mobile version it's worth to just log in once and play one game on an iPad.

[Molach]

You need to put together your own deck, if you haven't yet. You can beat every AI on expert (which is easy with a decent deck) for a gold reward. 2xflamestrike, 2xfireball, 2xpolymorph, 2xfrost bolt, 2x arcane missiles and 2x water elemental for mage cards. Then something like 2x acidic swamp ooze, 2x loot hoarder, 1x bluegill warrior, 2x shattered sun cleric, 2x ironfur grizzly, 2x chillwind yeti, 2x frostwolf warlord, 1x gurubashi berserker (do not be afraid to use your mage power on it to buff it), 2x boulderfist ogre and 2x stormwind champion. Something like that. Chillwind yeti and Boulderfist Ogre are very good cards, despite not having special effects. Because they are fat.

My biggest mistake early on was not recognizing good cards. I did not recognize them because I failed to understand that card advantage is very important - I was too focused on spending all my mana and not realizing that wasting cards (losing them to hero power, or losing multiple cards to a single enemy card/spell) quickly made me lose the game.

You get your first arena run on the house, by the way, but with every card in the game to choose from you are advised to follow a ranking list when picking. Pick higher ranked ones throughout, but do not forget that if you got nothing to play turn 2 or 3 you will struggle staying afloat. (You might get to pick any card in the game, not what you unlocked personally)

When playing, almost always discard cards costing 4 mana and higher, you will draw them later, you need plays for the early rounds. But most 1-drops are not that good in arena, it is okay to skip 1st round. (most 1-drops tend to just lose you a card, die to hero power for instance, and they are not what you want to draw off the top of your deck in the closing rounds...)

For sites there is ihearthu.com and HearthPwn.com

youtube or twitch, follow some streamers playing or see some games played with comments from experienced guys.

I like https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?...TFE&gid=20
for a decent guide on how to pick in arena, for your first few arena runs.

And welcome to the cult.

[Kuro]

Adding to the tier list rankings, I like Trump's: http://www.liquidhearth.com/guides/arena-tier-list

Watching his videos is also likely to improve your plan and understanding of the game.

[Molach]

Yup, Trumps stream is one of the 2-3 I've watched. He is missing 5 classes from the list though. (Shaman and Paladin are both good Arena classes).

Just had two nice games, both ended 1-0. First one I was very much ahead, had 19 HP, good board, my opponent down to 7. He plays Alexstraza, 8/8 dragon, resets health back to 15. Okay, no worry. I can only kill it by sacrificing my board, but I go ahead and deal 10 damage to him instead. I have a taunt. Then he smacks me with doomhammer, killing my taunt and taking 4 damage, casts windfury on dragon, hits me for 16 and another doomhammer for 2 more. I was waiting for the final 1 damage point, but he only had 18 damage after all. This was arena.

Second was a good long duel with a rogue, I got him down to 1, he had 8 damage on the board and drew a card....which did nothing, fortunately. I had 9 health so was able to win next turn.

And I just made a 'zoolock' myself...or from what cards I had lying about...very effective, I must say. Perhaps you could make a functional one with free cards as well. Idea is Warlock, lots and loads of cheap minions, when you run dry of cards on round 4-5 you can hero power and still play 2 cards every round. Doomguard and soulfire for finishers.

[Kuro]

Generally, what I did was use Trump's list for neutrals and classes if he had them and then Antigravity's for classes that Trump hasn't done yet. I tend to disagree with a lot of Antigravity's list though. I was thinking of making my own list for fun, heh...

[Kuro]

I just had the CRAZIEST Druid draft.

3 of the Swipes came all in a row!

The number of Swipes you see there is not a trick of the mind.

[haphazard1]

Thanks for the advice and info, everyone! Much appreciated.

Hearthstone seems less complex than Magic in a number of ways:

- Land and separate mana types gone
- No blocking (although Taunt sort of stands in for this, sort of)
- Does not seem to be any concept of the graveyard, although I am not sure exactly how deck mechanics are working yet. Is running out of cards still an instant loss? Cards that allow extra draws seem common enough, but I have not yet seen anything forcing opponents to discard or allowing graveyard manipulation (since the graveyard does not seem to exist).

But the streamlining seems to lead to a game that (usually) ramps up faster, and with a lot fewer games that just collapse due to mismatched mana/card luck. I am liking the hero power concept as well.

So far it has been a lot of fun. Thanks again for the help!

[SevenSpirits]

Thanks for the advice and info, everyone! Much appreciated.

Hearthstone seems less complex than Magic in a number of ways:

- Land and separate mana types gone
- No blocking (although Taunt sort of stands in for this, sort of)
- Does not seem to be any concept of the graveyard, although I am not sure exactly how deck mechanics are working yet. Is running out of cards still an instant loss? Cards that allow extra draws seem common enough, but I have not yet seen anything forcing opponents to discard or allowing graveyard manipulation (since the graveyard does not seem to exist).

But the streamlining seems to lead to a game that (usually) ramps up faster, and with a lot fewer games that just collapse due to mismatched mana/card luck. I am liking the hero power concept as well.

So far it has been a lot of fun. Thanks again for the help!

I was skeptical at first but I think the permanent damage and being able to attack creatures leads to a more interesting result than blocking.

When you draw with no cards in deck, you take 1 damage. Draw a second non-card and you take 2, third is 3, etc.

[uberfish]

thoughts so far, I beat all the AIs and then dived into casual play mode and ranked, zero real money or game currency spent. I'm trying to get all classes to level 10 before I start doing arena. Game is pretty fun. I tried the following so far

- Hunter beast deck based on all the free cards with Beast synergy. Fun to play and decently effective
- Rogue control with spellpower and a Headcrack I found in one of my free packs. I like the style but it's frustratingly slow and this one obviously requires better cards like the ones the expert AI has to work smoothly.
- Druid. Not working at all. Starfire too expensive for what it does. Even Ironbark protectors played a couple of turns early are surprisingly, not too difficult to get rid of. This deck obviously needs better high end creatures to be worth the investment of card space into mana generation.
- Warlock. I went on a ranked win streak with this up to rank 18. Didn't lose a game with it yet. This deck was so much better than my previous ones. Their level 1 creatures are the best I've seen so far and they are good for getting initiative. Class power that draws cards is awesome, in the second half of the game I just keep throwing generic fat guys at them until they run out of cards to deal with it. The likes of Yetis and Ogres may not be flashy but it's hard to make good trades with them.

I get the feeling I'll like shaman too from what I've seen of it. I want to like rogue but she needs better cards.

[yuris125]

I was skeptical at first but I think the permanent damage and being able to attack creatures leads to a more interesting result than blocking.

I wouldn't say it's more interesting. It's a good concept, which works well in Hearthstone, but for me working out good attacks and good blocks on a complex board is more satisfying, as is being able to play a creatureless deck - in Hearthstone you basically can't win if you get behind on the board

Lack of instant-speed play is what ultimately made Hearthstone boring for me after a couple of months. Playing around 5 instant-speed effects the opponent may or may not have and may or may not want to use is much more challenging than playing around what they may play on their next turn, and the secret which you know is or isn't in play