Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Catch-all

As someone with little general interest in card games, this looks pretty damn cool.

I played through the intro missions last night, and then one match against another person. I spent maybe an hour in game. Here are some uninformed initial impressions. (Note that about 10 years ago I played quite a bit of Magic (via MTGO) and I can't help but compare it to that.)

The Hearthstone interface is much slicker and easier to use - way, way better than old MTGO - but not significantly better than the current Magic-based Duels of the Planeswalkers games that are available. Opposing characters speak in a cutesy way, which I found myself immediately wanting to skip over. I didn't see any way to communicate with the person I dueled, but honestly that may not be a bad thing. I would assume if you play games with friends you can chat with them somehow, but I don't know for sure.

You can buy boosters with real $$ (yes, even in the beta - they say that although your collection will be wiped eventually you will get credit + special cards when the game releases) but I haven't yet. In fact, I already received a booster pack from completing a quest. The packs contain one guaranteed rare. If you don't like the cards in your booster you can disenchant them to gain dust (amount varies based on card rarity) which can be then be used to craft other cards, but I haven't tried that yet either. Defeating opponents awards you some in-game currency which can be used, among other things, to purchase more boosters. You also level up and gain access to more cards, which is kind of cool. I suspect you could play and have fun in the full release without paying any money at all.

As far as the game itself goes, it doesn't compare favorably to Magic IMO. The combat mechanic is much weaker and so far I don't see much in the way of combos, control, or anything other than summoning monsters to attack with the occasional direct damage spell thrown in. It's like playing Magic with a G/r deck. In Hearthstone's defense, I'm pretty sure other mechanics exist, it's just that after an hour or so I haven't been exposed to them yet.

tl;dr: Initially, I don't know that I'm that impressed, but it may grow on me yet.

I should add the the mana mechanic is significantly different from Magic and warrants attention. Basically you start with 1 mana crystal and you then gain 1 every turn up after that. Cards are played by expending these crystals, which regenerate at the beginning of each turn. Basically, as best I can tell, Hearthstone has removed the possibility of being mana-screwed. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I'm not sure yet.

MyBrainHz wrote:

You can buy boosters with real $$ (yes, even in the beta - they say that although your collection will be wiped eventually you will get credit + special cards when the game releases) but I haven't yet. In fact, I already received a booster pack from completing a quest. The packs contain one guaranteed rare. If you don't like the cards in your booster you can disenchant them to gain dust (amount varies based on card rarity) which can be then be used to craft other cards, but I haven't tried that yet either. Defeating opponents awards you some in-game currency which can be used, among other things, to purchase more boosters. You also level up and gain access to more cards, which is kind of cool. I suspect you could play and have fun in the full release without paying any money at all.

As far as the game itself goes, it doesn't compare favorably to Magic IMO. The combat mechanic is much weaker and so far I don't see much in the way of combos, control, or anything other than summoning monsters to attack with the occasional direct damage spell thrown in. It's like playing Magic with a G/r deck. In Hearthstone's defense, I'm pretty sure other mechanics exist, it's just that after an hour or so I haven't been exposed to them yet.

Crafting cards is probably why they're calling it a "collectible" instead of "trading". Duels of Champions (Ubisoft's M&M digital CCG) does something similar to deal with the fact they don't have trading available as a way to get the specific cards you want. Does the game have multiple levels of boosters like in SolForge and Duel of Champions? How much real $ does each booster cost currently?

How's the combat handled, is it lane based (like most digital CCGs) or more free-form like M:tG?

MyBrainHz wrote:

I should add the the mana mechanic is significantly different from Magic and warrants attention. Basically you start with 1 mana crystal and you then gain 1 every turn up after that. Cards are played by expending these crystals, which regenerate at the beginning of each turn. Basically, as best I can tell, Hearthstone has removed the possibility of being mana-screwed. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I'm not sure yet.

Do you get mana crystals from cards in your deck or just a new one each round? Sounds similar to either what Duels of the Champions or Hex are doing to solve the resource-screw/flood problem. Is the mana colored or is it just generic?

shoptroll wrote:
MyBrainHz wrote:

I should add the the mana mechanic is significantly different from Magic and warrants attention. Basically you start with 1 mana crystal and you then gain 1 every turn up after that. Cards are played by expending these crystals, which regenerate at the beginning of each turn. Basically, as best I can tell, Hearthstone has removed the possibility of being mana-screwed. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I'm not sure yet.

Do you get mana crystals from cards in your deck or just a new one each round? Sounds similar to either what Duels of the Champions or Hex are doing to solve the resource-screw/flood problem. Is the mana colored or is it just generic?

The video showed that some cards will give you mana immediately, like Crystal Ring. Mana is generic, there's no colors.

I like the mana system, at least what I saw in the video. It maintains the general power curve of MTG, which is to say you'll start casting bigger spells as the game goes on, but as Brain said avoids mana screw. SolForge does a similar thing, though it does it via card levels and player levels during the match, and I really like it there too.

ahrezmendi wrote:
shoptroll wrote:
MyBrainHz wrote:

I should add the the mana mechanic is significantly different from Magic and warrants attention. Basically you start with 1 mana crystal and you then gain 1 every turn up after that. Cards are played by expending these crystals, which regenerate at the beginning of each turn. Basically, as best I can tell, Hearthstone has removed the possibility of being mana-screwed. Whether this is a good or bad thing, I'm not sure yet.

Do you get mana crystals from cards in your deck or just a new one each round? Sounds similar to either what Duels of the Champions or Hex are doing to solve the resource-screw/flood problem. Is the mana colored or is it just generic?

The video showed that some cards will give you mana immediately, like Crystal Ring. Mana is generic, there's no colors.

I like the mana system, at least what I saw in the video. It maintains the general power curve of MTG, which is to say you'll start casting bigger spells as the game goes on, but as Brain said avoids mana screw. SolForge does a similar thing, though it does it via card levels and player levels during the match, and I really like it there too.

Ah I missed part of what Brain said. The Hearthstone system sounds similar to what DoC does where one of your possible Hero actions in a turn is to raise the amount of "mana" you get each turn by 1 (instead of drawing a card or using the hero's special ability). There are cards that can give you additional "mana" in a turn as well (or increase the capacity in some cases) in that game too. I definitely like the way DoC handles mana and Hearthstone should play pretty well too in that case. In both cases they've decoupled the power curve from required cards in the deck which I think is one of the more problematic aspects of M:tG for me these days.

If anyone gets an extra invite I'd be very much interested in trying this out, if only to be able to get the mount in WoW. XD

Subbing to get in on the sweet Hearthstone chit chat.

Also Blizzard seems to have ignored my beta registration so if anyone has a spare beta key getting in their way by all means please send it my way.

I hate everyone who can play this right now. It's the top of my most wanted list atm.

Hope they will open the beta for Europe soon and do release this by the end of the year!

For those who can play: How does it compare to Scrolls? I hope the matchmaking will solve the issue I had with Scrolls where I just got rofl stomped by better decks about 1 week after the release already. Seems like Mojang pretty much forces beginners to grind through the beginning as a punching bag (or spend a ton of money) until they get the cards they need to compete.

Yea, I am addicted to watching YouTube videos of this game. It combines my desire to get into a card game and my long love of Warcraft that has been going since Warcraft 2.

Perfect storm, but its the perfect storm that I want to be apart of. I can't get into another game right now, simply because of the hope that I can get into the beta. Its crazy.

Turns out I like this game quite a bit more now than I did at first. Combat is maybe still not as robust as I might like, but there's more complexity there than I originally realized.

Lately I have been enjoying the Arena - the equivalent of Magic's limited format. Basically, you pay in-game currency (which can be earned by completing quests in standard mode) or $1.99 to build a deck and compete against others in the Arena. You are given a choice of 3 classes to start, and then you choose your 30 cards one at a time. Instead of cracking packs, you are given 3 cards to choose from, all of the same rarity. Repeat x 30. At the end, everyone has (if I remember right) 1 legendary, 3 rares, and 26 other cards. Your selected cards and mana curve are all displayed so you can make sure that you "curve out" properly, have enough removal vs. creatures, etc.

Once your deck is built, you play games until you lose 3 times (you don't have to play all at one sitting, which is nice). At the end, you are given rewards based on how many wins you accrued with your deck - these include packs, more coins, or dust to create new cards. So far with my Arena decks, I've gone 5-3, 5-3, and 2-0 with my current one. For me the Arena has been a more effective and more fun way to acquire new cards. Since the Arena entry fee is 150 coins and buying new packs straight up is 100 coins, I'm coming out ahead.

MEATER wrote:

For those who can play: How does it compare to Scrolls? I hope the matchmaking will solve the issue I had with Scrolls where I just got rofl stomped by better decks about 1 week after the release already. Seems like Mojang pretty much forces beginners to grind through the beginning as a punching bag (or spend a ton of money) until they get the cards they need to compete.

I don't know anything about Scrolls, but re: getting stomped by super amazing decks, this has only happened to me a couple of times. Even the default basic decks with no cards unlocked can beat better decks if you get a decent draw and play them correctly. The matchmaking is supposed to be accounting for this of course.

Even if you lose early on, your character still levels up a little bit, which will eventually unlock more cards. So far it seems like a good system for leveling the playing field.

Would love an invite if anyone has one to spare..

Man, I really want into this game. It's been high on my interest list since they revealed it.

That Arena format sounds gorram fantastic.

MyBrainHz wrote:

Turns out I like this game quite a bit more now than I did at first. Combat is maybe still not as robust as I might like, but there's more complexity there than I originally realized.

Lately I have been enjoying the Arena - the equivalent of Magic's limited format. Basically, you pay in-game currency (which can be earned by completing quests in standard mode) or $1.99 to build a deck and compete against others in the Arena. You are given a choice of 3 classes to start, and then you choose your 30 cards one at a time. Instead of cracking packs, you are given 3 cards to choose from, all of the same rarity. Repeat x 30. At the end, everyone has (if I remember right) 1 legendary, 3 rares, and 26 other cards. Your selected cards and mana curve are all displayed so you can make sure that you "curve out" properly, have enough removal vs. creatures, etc.

Once your deck is built, you play games until you lose 3 times (you don't have to play all at one sitting, which is nice). At the end, you are given rewards based on how many wins you accrued with your deck - these include packs, more coins, or dust to create new cards. So far with my Arena decks, I've gone 5-3, 5-3, and 2-0 with my current one. For me the Arena has been a more effective and more fun way to acquire new cards. Since the Arena entry fee is 150 coins and buying new packs straight up is 100 coins, I'm coming out ahead.

So you keep all the cards you drafted? That seems like a much better deal, why would anyone buy a booster pack for 100 coins if you can get a whole deck for 150?

My guess would be odds of getting cards you don't already have. Since there's no value in having more than 1 of a given card, it sounds like doing a lot of Arena will wind up giving you a lot of the same cards again and again.

Sdnick wrote:

So you keep all the cards you drafted? That seems like a much better deal, why would anyone buy a booster pack for 100 coins if you can get a whole deck for 150?

No. Sorry that I gave that impression.

When you finish your Arena rounds - after losing 3 times with the deck - you are awarded treasure chests equal to the number of wins you accrued. Each chest has a chance to be gold, dust, or a pack. So, with my record of 5-3 twice, I've gotten 10 chests. Out of those, I got 2-3 packs, some gold to offset the cost of entry, and some dust to craft cards with.

Also one of the packs I opened from Arena had 2 rares and a legendary, although maybe that was just dumb luck.

ahrezmendi wrote:

My guess would be odds of getting cards you don't already have. Since there's no value in having more than 1 of a given card, it sounds like doing a lot of Arena will wind up giving you a lot of the same cards again and again.

You definitely want more than 1 of each card for the decks you build. I'm not sure what the deck limit on specific cards is since at most I only have 2 of a given card. But at some point I would imagine you would start to get duplicates of your cards beyond the deck limit, which is where disenchanting comes in. Does that make sense?

Oh, the video above indicated you could only have 1 copy of a card in any given deck, has that changed?

Damn now I want the game even more...

The good thing about the arena mode is that - like a Magic draft - it equals out the chances and does not give the one with the most expensive cards any advantage.

Also good to hear that you don't have to play all games in a row but can take as long as you want. Great idea!

How much are 150 coins in real world money?

ahrezmendi wrote:

Oh, the video above indicated you could only have 1 copy of a card in any given deck, has that changed?

Yes.

MEATER wrote:

How much are 150 coins in real world money?

About $2 I think.

MyBrainHz wrote:
ahrezmendi wrote:

Oh, the video above indicated you could only have 1 copy of a card in any given deck, has that changed?

Yes.

You can have 2 copies in a normal deck and as many copies as you choose in an Arena deck (if the same card happens to come up multiple times).

Also I believe you always get 5 chests after finishing an Arena deck, the rewards are just different depending on how good your record was. I saw one streamer finish at 9-1 and he ended up with about 250 gold and a pack of cards.

So any thoughts on this game in comparison to Scrolls or SolForge?

Seems like a lot of digital card games are coming out now...rather nice but it becomes an issue of which one to go with. Still holding out on a Netrunner online game though...

Also saw the Quick Look for this and saw how polished it was but not sure if it truly brings something new to the table.

If anyone has a spare beta key they'd like to send over my way, I would be very grateful.

Started playing this about a week ago and I must say it's slowing growing on me. I was having fun to begin with but now that I've unlocked all of the classes I've also started to focus on a couple of them and begun the cycle of acquiring new cards as I win matches in PvP.

The Blizzard level of polish is everywhere on this game. There are so many nice usability touches and things they've done with their flow and interface that just makes the game a pleasure to play.

watshisname08 wrote:

So any thoughts on this game in comparison to Scrolls or SolForge?

Seems like a lot of digital card games are coming out now...rather nice but it becomes an issue of which one to go with. Still holding out on a Netrunner online game though...

Also saw the Quick Look for this and saw how polished it was but not sure if it truly brings something new to the table.

If anyone has a spare beta key they'd like to send over my way, I would be very grateful.

It's a friendlier game than Scrolls and even SolForge because of their slick new user experience.

I can't comment on which game is going to have the greatest depth or the longest legs. I find Scroll's economy a bit irritating and the matches can take a very long time to complete. With SolForge I find that a match will hit a tipping point where one player will suddenly fall behind and have a lot of trouble clawing back. So far I'm not feeling that effect as often in Hearthstone. I also haven't played nearly as much Hearthstone and they actually have a matchmaking system that works pretty well. SolForge will be getting matchmaking in the next update.

Maclintok wrote:
watshisname08 wrote:

So any thoughts on this game in comparison to Scrolls or SolForge?

Seems like a lot of digital card games are coming out now...rather nice but it becomes an issue of which one to go with. Still holding out on a Netrunner online game though...

Also saw the Quick Look for this and saw how polished it was but not sure if it truly brings something new to the table.

If anyone has a spare beta key they'd like to send over my way, I would be very grateful.

It's a friendlier game than Scrolls and even SolForge because of their slick new user experience.

I can't comment on which game is going to have the greatest depth or the longest legs. I find Scroll's economy a bit irritating and the matches can take a very long time to complete. With SolForge I find that a match will hit a tipping point where one player will suddenly fall behind and have a lot of trouble clawing back. So far I'm not feeling that effect as often in Hearthstone. I also haven't played nearly as much Hearthstone and they actually have a matchmaking system that works pretty well. SolForge will be getting matchmaking in the next update.

I've been watching videos of HS pretty much everyday since beta, and like you say, it doesn't seems to have a long endgame. Battles can stretch, but that's usually because of even matches or crazy combos/spells that slightly alter control.

Nothing really has enough life points to really make for a protracted endgame. You get 30 cards per deck, and you max out on mana by turn 10. Also, you're drawing only a single card/turn(and cards that let you draw more are fairly rare), so massive combos are best saved as finishers or board reset, in order to then quickly finish your opponent.

Hope they announce the release date soon, I'm itching to play it. I'm guessing we'll need to wait the two months until BlizzCon to hear anything though.

Sonicator wrote:

Hope they announce the release date soon, I'm itching to play it. I'm guessing we'll need to wait the two months until BlizzCon to hear anything though.

Yeah, I'd love a beta key, but I'm really looking forward to playing this on iPad. I hope that the mobile version quickly follows the PC release.