We were all noobs once. Heck, in a lot of ways, we’re still noobs now. Hearthstone is a fun game that does a lot to make card games accessible, but there’s still a lot to learn at the start!
Community hero Jim joins us on this week’s show with his 9 tips and 9,000 links for helping new players get better at Hearthstone!
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The Links
- If you enjoy this episode, please consider donating
- Look at all of The Grand Tournament cards!
- Get some help from co-host Bruggy beating the Blackrock Mountain bosses!
- Qualify for the 2015 World Championships!
- Watch my videos!
- Play Hearthstone right now!
Hello!
- Jim is on the show this week
- Topic: Helpful tips for new players!
- Reasons to be happy this week
- News: The Grand Tournament is ALMOST HERE
Tip #1: Follow the Rules
Even though Hearthstone is supposed to be fairly simple, there are many odd situations where cards interact in unexpected ways. It’s good to be aware of these, and try to use them to your advantage!
- Read iHearthu’s extensive rules list
- Read Vivafringe’s special list of rules
- When in doubt, check the rule list on the Wiki
- Watch some awesome videos by the Hearthstone Mythbusters about tricks like how to get 8 minions on your side of the board!
- Our biggest surprises (discussed on the show)
Tip #2: Take Your Turn Slowly
It’s easy to rush, but you have 90 seconds. Use all of it.
Here’s a helpful checklist to go down each time you start a turn.
- 1. Check for lethal damage to your opponent.
- 2. If any of your expected choices draw you cards, do that first.
- 3. Think of what your opponent can do next turn to disrupt your board and play around them. Example: The common AoE spells and their mana costs are (2)Explosive Trap, (4)Swipe + Consecrate + Hellfire, (5) Holy Nova, (7) Flamestrike.
- 4. If you’re winning at the moment, see if you can clear your opponent’s board.
- 5. If you’re left with equal options at this point, do the one that costs more mana.
- 6. Use your Hero Power only if you have leftover mana. It is often very inefficient use of mana.
- 7. Think through your whole plan again before you play anything.
Tip #3: Choose the Right Time for your Minions
- If you play a minion that requires a choice (targeted Battlecry effect or Choose One effect), you can hit ESCAPE or select it again after placing it on the board to cancel it and put it back into your hand!
- Don’t play your surprise-damage minions until you can kill your opponent with it. The surprise factor is a huge part of its value, and your opponent will play differently once they know you have it on the board.
- Don’t cast damage spells onto your opponents’ face until it’s lethal damage either. Lull them into a false sense of security, and then nuke them all at once!
Tip #4: Search out the Secrets
- When a Secret is on the board, your first goal is to figure out what it is without causing major damage to yourself.
- First thing: Pull up a list of all the Secret cards for the class you’re playing against.
- Then, start to play your turn. When evaluating each choice, imagine what the worst-case scenario is for what their Secret could be. Determine if the risk is acceptable.
- When you take an action and the Secret does NOT trigger, take note of what that tells you about the Secret. If you’ve attacked the champion and killed a troop without the Paladin Secret triggering, you know by process of elimination that it must be Repentance. Now you can play around it.
- When making your first tests against a Secret, play small cards and attack with small minions — just in case their Secrets affects them.
- Look for ways to exploit Secrets to your benefit, such as Freezing Trap putting a minion back in your hand, or Mirror Entity copying a minion you play.
Tip #5: Build Your Collection the Smart Way
- Avoid guessing which pack to buy. Use a tool like this spreadsheet to tell you which card back will be more likely to give you cards you don’t already own.
- If you aren’t sure what are “good” cards to craft, look at the Most Popular Cards list on Hearthhead, Elie’s undervalued card list, or HearthArena’s Tier List.
- Get the most value out of crafting gold cards by focusing on cards that generate other cards! Like Unstable Portal and Piloted Shredder.
Tip #6: Give Us a Quest!
- Daily quests actually accumulate in a hidden queue behind the 3 you can see. If you haven’t completed a quest in 6 days, you can do 3 quests in one day and then get 3 brand new quests in your log the next day!
- Rerolling a quest (swapping it out for a new one) resets your hidden queue! So don’t do that on the first day if you want 3 the next day.
- Reroll a Quest every day, even if you aren’t going to play that day. Find the quests you want to do, so they’ll be ready when you can play!
- Overlapping Quests (Examples: Win with Rogue or Druid / Win with Rogue or Mage) will help and can save you a lot of time, but they aren’t necessary.
- If you have a weird combination of quests, don’t be afraid to create unique decks to complete them!
- Hearthstone has a lot of secret Quests (Achievements)! It’s lots of fun knowing about them and achieving them.
Tip #7: Learn How You Have Fun
There are many different playstyles and ways to enjoy card games like Hearthstone. Don’t let others tell you what you have to do to have fun!
- Find your fun and play that way (or experiment!). We don’t all fit into the same box!
- Timmy – Smash your opponents with big, flashy cards
- Johnny – Build your own decks
- Spike – Win lots of games
- Jim’s recommendation: No matter what style you are, play silly decks every once in a while!
Tip #8: Don’t Rush to Ranked
- Casual is a great, totally viable mode. I played only Casual for a long time.
- Tavern Brawl is a great new silly/fun mode every week. You have to be level 20 to play it, so try to level your favorite class to 20 ASAP so you can join in!
- If you just want to hit Rank 20 and get your card back each month, wait until after the first week of the month. After all the more experienced players have climbed up to higher ranks, it’ll be easier to win!
- If you’re into Arena, try playing that during the beginning and end of the month, when everyone is rushing into Ranked!
- Don’t get discouraged if you lose in Ranked! Some higher-tier players farm wins at low ranks to complete those Secret Quests we mentioned!
Tip #9: Listen to Podcasts, Watch Streams, Talk to People!
Jim put together a huge list of links to help you out, and even gave some short descriptions of each one!
Podcasts
- Happy Hearthstone (Mostly casual, kid-friendly)
- The Angry Chicken (Casual/esports, some language)
- Legend of the Inkeeper (Casual, kid friendly)
- Well Met (Mostly esports)
- HearthCoach
- The Unstable Portal
- Hearthcore
Livestreams
- Trump
- Brian Kibler
- Karma
- StrifeCro
- Mackenseize
- Or stream yourself and ask for advice from viewers!
Beginner Guides
Friendly Devs
Community
- Tony: Advice for new players with other CCG experience?
- iTunes Reviews
Donations
- Jayme: Sent some awesome GenCon Hex codes!
Card of the Week
Farewell
- Contact Jim on Twitter or Twitch. Email him or add him on Battle.net as DigitalJim#1762
- What you want to see in future episodes
- What hosts you want to visit the show
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