Hearthstone is a computerized card game developed by the folks at Blizzard Entertainment. From my research into this game, it's based off the actually physical World of Warcraft card game. When Blizzard discontinued the physical WoW card game, they made Hearthstone as a replacement. It's a very fun and addicting game. There are multiple classes to choose from which include my favorites: Warrior, Priest, and Hunter. Hearthstone reminds me a lot of Magic The Gathering. You start out with thirty life, you summon minions and attack your opponent.
How The Game Is Played
You start off by picking your hero/class. Which I will explain later on what the heroes and classes are. Your hero has 30 defense and this is your life points. Generally Heroes can't be played as minions unless you have a special ability or card. You start the game with four cards, the person who starts second usually gains a coin which allows you to gain an extra mana for that turn. You use mana to summon minions or perform magic. Does this almost sound like Magic The Gathering? Almost, but not quite like MTG.
Format is similar to Magic The Gathering
The Heroes of Warcraft
There are nine Heroes of Warcraft, each with it's different class. Let's begin with Malfurion Stormrage. As Malfurion you are a Druid and with this class you have a special ability called Shapeshift which allows you to gain a +1 Attack for the turn and +1 Armor. Meaning that you can use Malfurion to attack enemy minions as well as gain some defense.
Rexxar is the Hunter. As the Hunter your special ability is called Steady Shot, which allows the hero to deal two damage to enemy hero. Let's say that the opponent has a minion that has taunt (meaning your minions have to attack that specific minion) you can bypass that with this ability. It's very handy in those situations when the enemy minion with taunt has higher defenses than your minions attacks. Gives you the ability to damage the enemy hero and not lose any of your minions.
Jaina Proudmoore is the Mage. As a Mage your ability is called Fireblast which deals one damage to either enemy minions or hero. You get to chose who to damage with this ability. This is helpful at the begin of the game. Lets say you start out with a terrible hand, and you don't have enough mana to summon a minion. You can use Fireblast to attack minions or hero.
Uther Lightbringer is the Paladin. As a Paladin your ability is called Reinforce, which allows the hero to summon a 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit. This allows you to summon more minions on to the battlefield, and can overwhelm an opponent. The more minions, the more damage you can do to an enemy hero.
Anduin Wrynn is the Priest. As a Priest your ability is called Lesser Heal which restores two health. If I remember correctly you can give your minions or hero two health. You can choose who gains that health. Which is helpful in so many ways, especially if your hero is losing health. I found this rather annoying when I first went against a player who was a Priest. That made me want to play as a Priest, which I win most games it seems with Anduin.
Valeera Sanguinar is the Rogue. As a Rogue your ability is called Dagger Mastery which equips a 1/2 Dagger to your hero. This allows your hero to attack enemy minions or hero. Which can be helpful to you and perhaps overwhelming for your opponent. Let's say you have five minions out, and then you equip the dagger to your hero. You have six capable creatures to attack your opponent. Depending on how many minions your opponent has, this move can be devastating to him or her.
Thrall is the Shaman. As a Shaman your ability is called Totemic Call which summons a random Totem. By Totem they mean a totem-type minion which is exclusively available for the Shaman class. Most totem-type minions can only be summoned by the Totemic Call ability. Which the totem-type minions generally don't have very good attacks. They are mostly used for defense. For example, the Stoneclaw Totem is a 0/2 minion with taunt. The Vitality Totem is a 0/5 minion which has an ability to restore four health to your hero at the end of your turn. This class can be very helpful, however the Totemic Call is random. So you could summon a totem that's very helpful or not so helpful. Just depends on the situation.
Gul'dan is the Warlock. As a Warlock your ability is called Life Tap, which allows you to draw a card with a catch . . . you take two damage. I feel that this ability is rather dumb, but I know some players enjoy this class. I can see why someone would like this class, being that your ability allows you to draw a card. Lets say you have a bad hand, your take the risk of losing two life to draw another card. More likely, that you ran out of cards in your hand so you take two life to draw another card that you could possibly play that turn.
Finally, Garrosh Hellscream is the Warrior. As a Warrior your ability is called Armor Up which allows your hero to gain two armor.This can be helpful to you because on top of your thirty life, you can gain armor to your hero. I've seen matches where a person playing as Garrosh getting ten armor and thirty life, which basically equates to forty life.
The Heroes of Warcraft and Their Classes
Card Powers
There are many cards within the Hearthstone realm with many special abilities to them. I won't be going through all of them, but will cover the card powers you'll see a lot of the time while playing. Starting with Taunt, which is an ability that forces the opposing player to direct any combat damage to the minion with said ability. An example card is Sen'jin Shieldmasta which is a 3/5 minion with taunt. Bring these beast onto the battlefield and your opponent's minions have to attack Shieldmasta.
Another common card ability is Charge. This allows your minion to attack the same turn it was summoned. Just like Magic The Gathering, when you summon a creature or minion they suffer from summoning sickness which makes them unable to attack the same turn as they were summoned. However, which Charge it is different. An example card is Stonetusk Boar - a 1/1 minion with charge. Bring these guy out and you will be able to attack same turn as it was summoned. Helpful because you're able to do damage right away with it. The Stonetusk Boar only needs one mana crystal to summon which is why it has such a low attack. If you can get him on the field first turn, you can start attacking enemy hero.
Windfurry is a very helpful card power. Minions that have windfurry are able to attack twice per turn. An example of this is Thrallmar Farseer which is a 2/3 minion with windfurry. If you can attack the enemy hero with Farseer, you can cause four damage to them. Especially helpful when opponent has a low defense minion with taunt. You can eliminate that minion with taunt with Farseer and then attack the hero afterward with the same minion.
The last card ability I'll share with you is called Transform. Any minion or card with this ability is able to transform any minion into something else. Usually it transform minions into lower power minions. For exmaple, Hex is a card that transforms a minion into a 0/1 frog with taunt. Polymorph is another card that transforms a minion into a 1/1 sheep. However there are some cards that allow you to transform one of your minions into something more powerful. With Druid of the Flame (a 2/2 minion) you can choose either transform said card into a 5/2 minion or another minion into a 2/5 minion.
Weapons
Some cards are able to give your hero weapons. Such as the Rogue hero power - Dagger Mastery. Weapons can be very helpful because they give you hero the ability to attach enemy minions or hero. Some examples of weapon cards are Light's Justice (gives hero 1 attack and 4 defense) or Fiery War Axe (gives hero 3 attack and 2 defense).
Some weapons have special ability like minion card have. Such as Truesilver Champion is a weapon that gives your hero a 4 attack and 2 defense and whenever your hero attacks it restores two health. There is also Coghammer, which is a weapon that gives your minion 2 attack and 3 defense as well as a Battlecry - allowing you to give a random friendly minion Divine Shield and Taunt.
The Acidic Swamp Ooze minion has the ability to destroy enemy weapons. There are also other minions that gives your weapon higher attack such as with Spiteful Smith, giving your weapon a +2 attack. So there is all sorts of things you can do to get your hero into the fight with weapons and special powers.
An example of a card. Arcane Missiles.
Overview
Hearthstone is a fun and addictive game from Blizzard. There is a large number of classes and heroes to choose from. As well as an ever expanding collection of cards to choose and put into your decks. Hearthstone is available on PC for free with Battlenet and can be found on the App Store for iPads. Hearthstone is a free-to-play game, however there is microtransactions where you can buy more cards to put into your decks. However if you don't want to pay any money to get more cards there is another way. It's a rather slow process, but it works. If you do the daily quests which usually entail winning three matches with a certain class, you are able to gain coins. With these coins you can buy more cards. At least there is two ways of getting more cards.
I would recommend this game to anybody who enjoy playing card games like Magic The Gathering or Yu-Gi-Oh. If you're a fan of Blizzard games, you'll probably want to give this game a try. I do realize that Hearthstone has been out for awhile, but I hope people that are still considering to get this game has gotten a good look into what this game has to offer after reading this post. I wish you well on your journey into the world of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft.
