Wednesday, October 2, 2013

Hearthstone: Philosophy for Beginners

              



Note: If you want my first thoughts and opinions on Hearthstone as a whole please check out my guest post over on Cold’s Gold Factory: Play Hearthstone Overview & First Thoughts

Now, before watching the video above I’d like to start by explaining the different resources you have at play in Hearthstone. Much like Magic or other card games you have three main areas of concern during the match.

First: Life Total
Second:  Card advantage
Third: Board advantage

Life total is simple to understand and as always the simplest things can confound people the easiest. You start with 30 and you lose the game if you ever hit 0. You must think of this as a limited resource and not be afraid to spend a couple of life in exchange for an advantage in the game – remember you can ‘spend’ 29 life [before heals] and still win the game. Card advantage refers to the number of cards or potential cards you have at your disposal through your hand, card draw mechanics, and open mana.  The player that has the most choices open to them holds the power to control the game. Lastly, Board advantage is your presence on the board in the form of weapons and minions. This doesn’t only include just having more stuff on the board, but also setting the tempo and being ‘on the attack’ meaning you are beating your opponent to minion drops and being able to attack first – the player that attacks first can often put their opponent on the defensive where they are just laying minions each turn that get destroyed before they are useful.

Knowing these concepts I’ll explain things using the video as an outline…