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Author Topic: Hearthstone TCG - And the card goes wild! Goodnight Doctor Boom.  (Read 150591 times)

Cthulhu

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Hearthstone TCG - And the card goes wild! Goodnight Doctor Boom.
« on: December 06, 2013, 06:04:59 pm »

It finally happened!  I got into the Hearthstone closed beta and I've been playing the shit out of it.  Anybody else in?  We should play some time!

If you haven't played it or read anything about it, it's a pretty fast-paced TCG set in the Warcraft universe.  Most games last five or ten minutes, each deck has thirty cards, and instead of land or stuff you have mana crystals that increment with each turn up to 10.  Minions have the usual health and attack, but unlike MTG and such you can directly attack the enemy player or his minions, and health doesn't regenerate. 

The biggest thing though is the class/hero mechanic.  All the vanilla WoW classes (So no DKs or Monks, at least for now) are in the game, represented currently by one important Warcraft character of that class.  Each class has a unique set of cards and a hero power that can be used each turn for two mana, plus there's a big pool of neutral cards that any class can use.  As a result decks within a class generally have similar playstyles, though there's always some variation, and you usually have some idea what cards to expect when playing.  I kind of see that as a mixed bag pro/con-wise, but overall I like it.

My favorites currently are Warlock, who burns himself with his life tap hero power for massive draw, and Priest, who methodically builds up advantage through his healing and buffing powers and his northshire clerics (who give you a free draw when a minion gets healed) to exhaust the enemy deck and then bust out the big minions for the win.

As far as I know there's currently no singles market or any kind of card economy between players, but you can buy booster packs for gold or real money (gold being gotten through playing the game, so far it's not /too/ bad, you can usually buy a booster pack or maybe two a day, and all the classes can put together reasonably viable decks just from the basic cards you get for free by leveling to 10), and you can also disenchant the cards you get from booster packs and spend the resulting arcane dust to create the cards you want, so unlike that Might and Magic card game you usually have more nuanced options for building than goodcards.dek

As far as I can tell the game's pretty well balanced, none of the classes are way out of line or useless, though the way the card economy works all the decks are a little samey early on.  Chillwind Yeti, Acidic Swamp Ooze, Sen'jin Shieldmasta, etc. end up in like every deck.

Anybody else in the beta have some insights?  I think I'm getting pretty okay at it.

EDIT:  Oh, by far the best and most important mechanic:  You can right click your hero portrait to play voice messages like in Left 4 Dead.  Also like in Left 4 Dead, spamming them is hilarious.

I greet you, I greet you, I greet you, I greet you, I greet you, I greet you.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2016, 01:45:16 pm by Cthulhu »
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DFNewb

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #1 on: December 06, 2013, 06:13:34 pm »

I got into it a few weeks ago when priests were the dominant deck. Now it seems that everyone packs strength 4 cards just to deal with them. I am making my way to master 3 with my deck at the moment, I win about 3 / 4 games with it.
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Seriyu

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #2 on: December 06, 2013, 06:33:37 pm »

I got my key on the same day as starbound so naturally I haven't been playing hearthstone much. What little I have though, is very fun! I kinda wish packs would come a little faster, even with the knowledge that they've gotta make money off it somehow. I feel like I'd have to play for quite an amount of time to get even a single one.

Cthulhu

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2013, 09:35:38 pm »

Priest definitely feels very strong.  You have a huge number of options for controlling the game and equally great prospects for closing the game out once your advantage is secure.  I've only lost twice today, once against a mage when I was just playing really dumb, and once against another priest who had a lightspawn.  Again I played really dumb though, thought I could make it two turns for MC.  I was wrong.
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Seriyu

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2013, 09:37:13 pm »

Strangely enough I can beat pretty much exclusively priests as a paladin, with the starter deck. Everyone else seems to mess me up pretty good.

Cthulhu

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #5 on: December 07, 2013, 01:09:28 am »

Why are hunters so stupid?  Seriously, WoW and Hearthstone both, hunters are fucking dumb.

Like three times today it's happened.  I pick Garrosh.  The enemy hunter goes balls to the wall and knocks me down to like 5hp in the first five or six turns.  Throws everything but bonking me to the wayside, completely trashes his momentum, ends up forced to just play his draw each turn, loses the game.

And he can't just rely on his hero power because mine counters his >:3
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Reyn

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft CCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #6 on: December 07, 2013, 06:47:57 am »

Blizzard has no plans on making trading between players available, so this is a CCG :)

I'm on EU, add me if so are you!      McFluffins#2135

As for most useless classes, those are Warrior and Hunter. Thanks to current meta, Warrior loses way too much, and Hunters have only one way of winning: UTH. Which is gimmicky, and will receive a nerf in the next patch.

In case you think you're bad at the game, or don't have it yet and want to gain some experience for when you do, I'd suggest you watch some streamers over on twitch. Notable people:
  • [arena] ek0p(yes, he's worth watching!), TrumpSC, nl_Kripp, apDrop.
  • [constructed] savjz, gnimsh


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Teneb

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #7 on: December 07, 2013, 12:58:08 pm »

Got into the beta two days ago. Playing paladin mostly. Being able to turn a 3/2 into a 11/6 can be quite a surprise for an opponent.
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Cthulhu

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #8 on: December 07, 2013, 02:14:24 pm »

And now today I'm losing every game.  Weird >:o

Yeah, hunters and warriors both seem on the weak side.  The hero power is mostly useless and they both seem to have the issue of running out of steam very easily.

Also, don't buy booster packs I've learned.  Arena mode costs 150 gold or $1.99.  You get three random hero choices, then the game gives you three random cards and you pick one, repeating the process until you have a full deck.  Then you play other arena players in a three-strike system.  Once you're out, you get five prizes.  One of them is always a booster pack, and the other four can be a variety of things but usually gold and arcane dust.  The prizes scale up with your wins. 

Basically, 150 gold seems like a lot but even if you lose every game it's almost guaranteed to be worth it.  Much more worth it than spending 100 gold on five random cards.
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Neonivek

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #9 on: December 07, 2013, 02:41:42 pm »

Yeah but people go up and down.

It wasn't that long ago where they became almost too powerful.
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Cthulhu

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #10 on: December 10, 2013, 02:36:01 am »

You know what sucks?  I just had a game that was literally impossible to win.  As in, no play I could have made at any point in the game would have changed the outcome.  It was literally all in the way the decks were shuffled.
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Un67

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #11 on: December 10, 2013, 07:50:38 am »

Just got a beta key after signing up for it months ago. Kind of lost interest after waiting a lot, but it's never too late, I guess.
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Max White

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #12 on: December 10, 2013, 07:51:50 am »

I've been watching a few games on youtubes.
Arumba's "Concede or fatigue" episodes are pretty amusing.  :)

Cthulhu

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #13 on: December 10, 2013, 03:50:07 pm »

Kts a fun game with a few issues.  Priests are far and away the basic deck kings, there's not much you can do with only the basic cards to stop them aside from like warsong warrior rush.  They'll methodically control the board and then at the critical moment when its do or die they'll mc your creature and that'll be it.

From what I've seen hunters are my least favorite.  All they can do is uth rush and if that doesn't worj they crash and burn, dumb playstyle.  I actually really like priest just because that style appeals to me but I'm trending towards lock now.  I have a fucked up lock deck in arena right now, three dreadlords, demonfire, power overwhelming, excessive draw power+mountain giant, and when things are looking grim I can drop one of my immolthar looking dudes down to steal the3ir stats and close it out.

Oh and two summoning portals.

Silly deck, but when it works it's hilarious.  Drop a dreadlord, PO, wham, immolthatr
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Teneb

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Re: Hearthstone - Online Warcraft TCG in Closed Beta
« Reply #14 on: December 10, 2013, 05:55:50 pm »

I have the most problems with mages, actually. They can just dish so much damage, flood the game with secrets and regularly freeze minions. It's a pain to fight them. Last time I faced were were down to 10 (him), 7(me). Only a kobold geomancer on his side and a buffed thrallmar farseer on mine. Cue pyroblast boosted by kobold geomancer.
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