I Dunno, Let's Play Hearthstone? 04/22/2014

Magic is definitely more involved and has more complex interactions.

If you get a chance to play the tutorial in Hearthstone, it's great at showing you how everything works.

Ought to love how Max completely crushed Patrick's spirit. That was pure gold, and Hearthstone at it's best.

I wouldn't mind more Hearthstone videos, but I definitely want to see Patrick play some Tokyo Jungle too. Maybe do a switch between those games?

From a high level, this just seems like Magic. Maybe someone who knows what they're talking about can point out the differences to me?

The one thing I'll add is that even if you do this with the Shaman, it's very hard to make a Shaman deck until you buy at least a few boosters. Basically ALL of the Shaman's damage spells (Forked Lightning, Lightning Bolt, Earth Shock) are commons that you get in booster packs, while the only removal spells the Shaman has access to in his basic cards from leveling up are Frost Shock and Hex, and Hex is the only one you should really use out of those 2.

Also, many of the Shaman basic cards are stuff you should never, ever play (Ancestral Healing, Totemic Might). In short, I'd advise people not play Shaman too much until they've opened a few booster packs and hopefully gotten some better cards.

o this is good because for once I know a lot about the game in question and oooff dose some of Patrick's moves make me groan but keep at it! ths game is fun.

Yeeees. YEEEEEEES.

EDIT: Dear god, Tricky. The amount of time you're taking for your turns is making me anxious. I can feel the other guy seething. Early days, though - it's so easy to forget that I've been playing this for months now and you haven't.

Honestly, Patrick's biggest problem is using the default decks the game provides for you, because they're bad.

Now that Patrick has unlocked all the starter Mage cards, my first piece of advice is that he dive into his collection and make use of all the Mage cards (and the other neutral cards) he has access to, and build a deck of his own devising.

@sl1ppyfist: You're not playing wrong, but if you find yourself running out of cards a lot you should try to put card draw mechanics into your deck. Acolyte of Pain gives you a card every time he takes damage, Cult Master gives you a card every time one of your minions dies. The cool thing about Hearthstone is that there's a type of card to help counter any issues you may run into, you just need to balance what you're using to hit the sweet spot.

Hearthstone is ridiculously random. Pretty fun, but not a competitive game.

So my experience with hearthstone has been amazing. I, for the life of me, could not win against other players for the longest time. Not even once, not hyperbole. No matter how I built my decks or which strategy I used I couldn't do it. I decided on a strategy and played around with different builds for that deck and it just clicked! Won like 7 in a row!

But here's the thing, no matter if I was losing or winning, frustrated or excited, the whole time I was having fun playing the game. It's just fun! Plain and simple! Can't describe it.

My advice if you're having trouble with it, play around with different strategies and different builds & heroes FOR that strategy. Be sure you have all of your "basic cards" through practice for any hero before you give up on them! Every hero is good for a specific strategy. Basically, if you're having trouble, just play with variety and find what works for you!

Simple and easy-to-follow tips for you, Patrick:

-Always replace >4 mana cards at the beginning, and favor lower mana cards over higher (for instance, if you get a bunch of 4 mana cards you'd want to replace them all because chances are you will get lower mana cards when you do)

-Creatures are the name of the game: make sure you always have more on the field than your opponent and always attack and try to kill their creatures rather than their hero unless their hero is low on health. Many games are won by players with much less health than their opponent but a large creature advantage because it's possible for a few unchallenged creatures to take a hero's health from 30 down to zero in only a few turns.

-Making decks is easier than you think and is half the fun of the game: when making your first deck, simply make sure that you have roughly even amounts of each mana from 1 to 5, and only a few (4-6) >5 mana cards (this is just a general guideline and you should eventually learn to use your own judgement because it depends on the deck)

Hope this helps.

I enjoyed this stream. Especially when Max played that secret at the end. If you played as or against a hunter for a decent period of time you just knew there was an explosive trap there, and Patrick was going to smash into it in the worst way. It was like watching a character in a horror movie going down into the basement to get eaten by a monster. That's what Hearthstone is. It's being the expendable character in a horror movie, not knowing about the monster until it's too late.

There was no good move for Patrick at that point, since Max had lethal damage next turn. The only option I can see is to play that arcane intellect card and pray for like a polymorph or something. Either way, a perfect end to a fun video.

Hey the audio works this time!!!

Just wanted to reiterate all of these things. Control that board Pat! Not completely awful for not being familiar with CCGs, good show!

One of the most important things to learn when playing a CCG is the concept of the "clock". Basically, you calculate how much damage you or the opponent has versus their or your remaining life. If you have 21 heath and the enemy has a 3/2 and 4/4 minion, that means if nothing changes you will die in 3 turns. The most basic strategy for winning CCGs is to make sure your clock is lower then your opponents. By always being mindful of the clock, I was able to start really to taking control of the board. Also, some quick tips:

-Damage doesn't matter unless it's sustained. Sure you can play that 4 cost Fireball on turn four and blow all your mana, but that's not really going to help you in the long run. 2 attacks from a 3/x minion will accomplish the same effect, probably cost less, and potentially deliver more damage. I usually save direct damage spells for finishing off my opponent, or pressuring him into wasting some mana healing/playing taunt cards.

-Always try use less mana removing a minion that what the minion costs. Playing Assassinate on an annoying 3/3 Taunt monster may be tempting, but it'd be better to save that card for a truly horrific threat.

-Don't shy away from top loading your deck, but make sure you can support it. Having a deck loaded with super beefy minions is a perfectly viable strategy (especially in the current low cost/murloc meta) but try to also include cards that will prolong your life span so you can actually play some of them.

So, first things first, you want to have cards in your starting hand that you can play quickly. High cost cards should be discarded.

Also, there are some great guides for people just starting, and have no bought cards. If you google search for "trump basic deck" you will find some great decks using basic cards.

Also, unless you think you can kill the enemy quickly, you want to work on removing his minions. Board control generally = win.

Another daily feed from Patrick?

Please let it be so :D

@sl1ppyfist: I had that problem pretty bad when I first started. The key thing that prevents this is to learn proper trading and card usage. Try to make sure you're not playing two cards where one will do, and that you're not wasting valuable cards to deal with lower value targets. Never play a card when using your hero power will suffice. Another thing you can do is build your decks with more draw power (include more cards that let you draw more cards, like Acolyte of Pain, Mage's Arcane Intellect, or Warrior's Slam).

Burning through all your cards in your hand as fast as you can is a quick way to lose lots of matches. Unless you're playing Warlock. Above all, the best thing you can do is just play a bunch of matches. The more you play, the more you learn what all the cards do, and the better you can plan your decks and plays.

You have more cards than just the basic decks you start with.

Please make your own decks! Even with just basic cards, you can make much better decks than the ones you start out with by default.

Even just searching "basic hearthstone decks" and taking one of those is leagues better than what you get to start off with.

The game is pretty generous, and you start off with a fair set of cards to make decks with.

This game is GREAT !

That mage had super basic cards. None of those were special or all that powerful, the mage just had +2 spell damage on everything because you never attacked his minions. Control the board, son. But also that mage was an asshole because he played all his cards on the last turn instead of just ending the game.

I hate how he puts minutes of music at the start of some of his videos, its just annoying frankly.

Starts at 02:12

Man, this is going to be one of those videos that convinces me to play this and buy some stuff even though I am terrible at CCGs.

Video is now working properly.

Get bopped!

Sweet (for the second time ;) )

@budwyzer: I always seem to run out of cards in my hand. I'm sure I'm playing wrong

This game... makes me so mad. haha

You can be absolutely dominating your opponent and then all of a sudden WHAM. They draw the only card in their deck that wins them the game in one turn.

Pretty fun though