My foray into a game that I had played once so very long ago...
The magical and inviting title screen for Hearthstone <3
I am here to update you on a game that I have some familiarity with but have never really gotten into: Hearthstone.
My last memory of playing it was during history class in high school when I should have been learning about the Cold War, but instead, I was secretly playing Hearthstone on my phone.
Was playing Hearthstone fun? YES!
Did I understand the strategy or tactics? NO WAY.
The very fact that Hearthstone was a fantasy-based card game got me to play it. I had no idea it would require strategy. At the time, I only played FPS games (a.k.a. first-person shooters like Call of Duty).
I had no idea how to play, and I had no interest in going through the tutorial because I had only 50 minutes of history class, and I was too busy making sure my history professor did not know I was goofing off. And before you judge me any further, I was and still am a history buff. In my free time, I look up history videos online JUST FOR FUN. I knew about everything the teacher was discussing in class, and I was BORED.
ANYWAYS.....
There I was, putting down cards from my deck at random to see how it worked. My strategy was no strategy.
Which leads me to my first realization of this Hearthstone game:
Strategy is a key factor in Hearthstone
My strategy of no strategy worked until it didn't. And I got bored and deleted the game off my phone. Since that one week in history class learning about the Cold War, Hearthstone had been a long-forgotten memory... until now.
The Hearthstone Journey Begins!
My recent foray into the older games I played as a kid led me to my battle.net account, and seeing that I had downloaded Hearthstone eons ago, I decided why not play for old times' sake. Just for a few minutes.
I knew I was a noob at it, and that 10 years meant a lot of new updates and rules added to the game. But this time, I was determined to actually understand how to play. My 5-minute perusing the game turned into a full-on 2-hour session that led me to unlocking all the basic decks in Apprentice mode, a mode for beginners that helps them learn the strategy and know-how behind the mechanics of the game.
I am a Hearthstone GOD now! Thank you, Apprentice mode. I am sure not many people use you, and that you don't get enough credit. But you are worth the time spent! I know all the secrets and can now go up against real people.
The game is actually far more fun than I initially expected and easy to understand. With an online battle mode to face against other players and endless options for customizing your own deck to be unbeatable.
If you are a fan of strategy games and card games, Hearthstone is a fun game for beginners. Nothing like Magic: The Gathering, another card-based strategy game that’s leagues harder. Hearthstone eases players into a very niche category of card strategy games.
Hearthstone indeed has strategy, for there are different ways to play the cards in your hand depending on the card deck you choose. For example, there is the Mage deck, the Warrior deck, and the Paladin deck. The Mage deck focuses heavily on spell cards—cards that do not leave a minion (or player) on the board to attack or defend your hero. Spell cards are one-use-only cards and can help or hinder if you don't know how to play them (I didn't know how to play them).
The Hero or card decks you can play as -- each requiring different strategies
Thankfully, the cards tell you how to play them with a little description below the cool illustrations.
I am so not a Mage player. I need minions (the cards that turn into your little battle buddies and defenders) to win. Not the foo-foo spell cards that blast confetti at the enemy hero.
So I moved on to Warrior. An aggressive playstyle that I had a hard time understanding at first. A lot of Taunt cards (Taunt is when a minion gains a shield, and enemy minions HAVE to attack the minion with Taunt. A great strategy, for the opponent can't attack you or any other minions on the board. This means you have a buffer and time to execute your next move).
This card has Taunt, which forces the nemy player to attack this minion only.
The strategy for Warrior took me a little more time to understand, but once I got it down, it was a blast.
I realized I am an aggressive player, and in Hearthstone, they call that 'aggro.'
For the Paladin class, it's a mixture of both aggression and spell cards, which is PERFECT.
Of course, everyone's play style is different, and they have other classes that I think are no good, like the Warlock. The dude's cards will deal damage to him when you play ANY card, with no healing cards in sight! You just hurt your own Hero and lose life every turn. I was dead in five turns. It was no fun. I am sure there is a strategy with the Warlock's card deck, but that strategy wasn't for me.
MANA
Another aspect to understand in these fantasy/strategy card games is the implementation of mana. Mana is energy that is used to play a card. You start off with one mana to spend, and each turn you gain one additional mana. In Hearthstone, the max amount of mana you gain is 10. Each card has a certain number of mana to play them. Lower level minions need 1 or 2 mana to use, and stronger cards have more mana like 8 or 9. Therefore strategy once again must be used. It's fun to be strategic, and I had a lot of fun understanding which cards to use and how I could strategize which cards to play.
Start your Hearthstone Journey
I would recommend that everyone take five minutes to download Hearthstone on their phone or computer and at least play a round. Discover your preferred play style, experiment with different decks, and master the art of card strategy! Who knows! You might just become a Hearthstone legend!
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