Everyone who reads my blog knows that I am a big fan of Magic the Gathering. But these days it seems Wizards of the Coast just keeps releasing more and more sets that kind of dilute the power of Magic cards. More and more cards seem overpowered or strictly superior to the older cards, that annoy me.
Recently, I found an online-only card game, called Hearthstone, which is very similar to Magic, except that its free to play, every card can be gotten for free (with enough grinding), and its very simple to play. Basically, they took Magic’s principles, kept the fun strategy and interaction and mana restraints, but eliminated the complicated stuff like tapping to attack, blocking, mana pools, turn phases, etc.
In Hearthstone, every player starts out with 3/4 cards and 30 life, has a maximum of 30 cards in a deck and 2 copies of any card, draws a card every turn, gains mana every turn, has a maximum of 10 mana, and only one turn phase in which they can do everything. All creatures (minions they are called) must wait a turn before attacking, and can either attack the player directly or another minion, just like Magic. Every player has a special hero ability that can be used once per turn for 2 mana. And the goal is to reduce the opponent’s life to 0. That’s it. They basically distilled Magic’s rules down while still keeping it fun, which is great.
That said, I’ve been playing Hearthstone a lot these days, and these are the decks I currently use online. As with Magic having 5 colors, Hearthstone has 9 classes you can play as with special cards available with each class.
Mech Mage
This is a Mage deck that uses Mechs and an aggro playstyle to win the game.
//22 common/basic
2x [Frostbolt]
2x [Snowchugger]
2x [Fireball]
2x [Clockwork Gnome]
2x [Cogmaster]
2x [Annoy-o-Tron]
2x [Mechwarper]
2x [Harvest Golem]
2x [Spider Tank]
2x [Tinkertown Technician]
2x [Piloted Shredder]
2x [Polymorph]
//2 rare
2x [Goblin Blastmage]
//5 legendary
1x [Loatheb]
1x [Dr. Boom]
1x [Archmage Antonidas]
1x [The Black Knight]
—————————–
Midrange Paladin
This Paladin deck uses a ramp strategy which balances the cost of the cards in a normal distribution across the deck, going from small threats early game to big threats late game.
//1-2 cost
1x [Equality]
1x [Ironbeak Owl]
2x [Knife Juggler]
2x [Shielded Minibot]
//3 cost
1x [Big Game Hunter]
2x [Muster for Battle]
2x [Aldor Peacekeeper]
1x [Mind Control Tech]
//4-5 cost
2x [Piloted Shredder]
2x [Sludge Belcher]
2x [Truesilver Champion]
2x [Consecration]
1x [Loatheb]
1x [Harrison Jones]
1x [Antique Healbot]
2x [Quartermaster]
//6+ cost
1x [Tirion Fordring]
1x [Sylvanas Windrunner]
1x [Emperor Thaurissan]
1x [Dr. Boom]
1x [Lay on Hands]
——————————-
Fatigue Rogue
The goal of this Rogue deck is to run the opponent out of cards so that they have no options, and therefore lose the game eventually due to fatigue.
//18 common/basic
2x [Backstab]
2x [Deadly Poison]
2x [Eviscerate]
2x [Sap]
2x [Gang Up]
2x [Shadowstep]
2x [Antique Healbot]
2x [Vanish]
1x [Fan of Knives]
1x [Youthful Brewmaster]
//8 rare
1x [Blade Flurry]
2x [Coldlight Oracle]
2x [Deathlord]
2x [Azure Drake]
1x [Sludge Belcher]
//2 epic
2x [Preparation]
//2 legendary
1x [Bloodmage Thalnos]
1x [King Mukla]
——————————-
Warlock Zoo
2x [Power Overwhelming]
2x [Abusive Sergeant]
2x [Flame Imp]
2x [Leper Gnome]
2x [Voidwalker]
2x [Young Dragonhawk]
2x [Annoy-o-Tron]
2x [Dire Wolf Alpha]
2x [Haunted Creeper]
2x [Knife Juggler]
2x [Nerubian Egg]
2x [Arcane Golem]
2x [Imp-losion]
2x [Dark Iron Dwarf]
2x [Piloted Shredder]
Video
Here are some of my decks in action…
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SoucIJVdFbs
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fThe4KcIQHw
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25NkSfMdt_I
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWLXcYyqZPs