Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Table of contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Part I Beginner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
1. Getting started . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2. Building your collection and earning gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
3. Crafting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
4. Game fundamentals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
5. Hidden rules and exceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
6. Common mistakes and misconceptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
7. Building your first deck constructed play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
8. Basic arena strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
9. Part I - Naxxramas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
9. Part II - Blackrock Mountain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Part II Intermediate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
10. Tempo and value . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
71
11. Synergy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
12. The correct order of actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
13. Foresight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
14. Finding the hidden play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
15. Tilt and decision-making . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
16. Focus and mindset . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
17. How to improve . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
18. Tracking your results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
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Introduction
I view playing games at the highest level as a form of art. Players express
themselves through their playstyles and their gameplay paints a picture which is admired
by their fans all over the world. When you reach a high level of proficiency at a game, you
discover a completely new dimension. You can finally play around and still be successful.
You can start meta-gaming and outsmarting your enemies. This is what I most enjoy about
games and that's one of the reasons why I want to help other players get better.
I'm giving this e-book away to anyone who wants to become a better Hearthstone
player than they're currently, with the hope of adding just a little bit to the Hearthstone
community and elevating the average skill level of Hearthstone player-base just by a little
bit.
This e-book is designed to to help players of all levels become better at
Hearthstone. If you're a beginner it will speed up the initial learning curve by a lot. You
will learn how to avoid the most common mistakes and find some decks and advice that
you can follow step by step, right away. If you're an intermediate player you'll learn about
the most important concepts of the game and what is the difference between you and the
best players. More advanced players will find resources and methods of getting small
advantages and finding their strong points to maximize their wins.
Share this e-book with anyone new to Hearthstone to help them get a quick start to
the game without having to learn everything on their own. Remember that everyone in
Hearthstone starts from the same place. Have fun playing, learning and enjoy the rest of
this e-book!
-Asmodeus
Part I
Beginner
Chapter 1.
Getting started
When you log in to Hearthstone for the first time, you'll be guided by the innkeeper
through the very basics and after playing a few matches against AI you'll be left on your
own to explore and discover what the game has to offer.
My first advice to you is read everything! It will save you a lot of time,
confusion and effort if you just read everything you encounter. When you see a new card,
take a while to read the text on it. Nobody wants to sit down and learn card descriptions
one by one. This is playtime, not school so spare yourself the effort and get to know every
card as soon as possible, one at a time. Before you know it, you'll be familiar with most
playable cards and ready to explore further.
In chapter 7 you'll find decklists for decks that you can make with only basic cards
for each class.
Next you can jump into practice mode and fight against the expert AI. Beating all of
the expert AI opponents will grant you another 100 gold. Focus on playing 1 class at a
time and become familiar with their cards and hero power. Once you hit lvl 10 with your
first class, you'll be rewarded with a pack of expert cards. Pick another class that you like
and one by one get them to lvl 10. Once you do that, you will unlock all basic cards and
get another 100 gold.
After you defeat every expert AI hero go to the Play mode to be matched against
real players of approximately your skill level. You will get more experience points by
playing against other people than by playing against AI and on top of that for every 3
victories in play mode you will receive 10 gold (maximum 100 per day). Your first game
in this mode will also grant you 1 pack of expert cards and first 3 games, regardless of
the result will give you 100 gold.
Additionally you can also earn a single Expert Pack by playing a game on other
devices, such as iPad (this can be done also through emulators on your computer so you
don't actually have to own the iPad)
This is all the "free" gold you're getting until you hit 100 and then 1000 wins in any
game mode, which will both reward you with an additional 300 gold each. Don't spend it
all on candy!
Read everything
Unlock all basic cards
Complete unique quests for gold
10
Chapter 2.
Unless you're prepared to spend a fortune on card packs, building your collection
will take some time but many people have already proven that you can get access to every
competitive deck while going completely "free to play" on any account.
Everything mentioned above can be acquired with real money or the in-game
currency. The best use of your gold at the beginning of your Hearthstone journey is the
Arena entrance fee but in order to get the required 150 gold, you'll have to earn it from
play mode and quests first.
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An average win rate of 50% which equates to 3 wins in arena, rewards you with
almost the same amount of potential cards as 1,5 expert card packs. Anything extra is
simply a bonus. Arena is strictly more efficient way of spending your gold because you're
getting more value for your currency.
It may seem counter intuitive but waiting for more gold to enter the arena, instead
of buying packs, is going to get you cards much faster in the long run. At first your priority
is just to become more proficient at it but once you can average around 6 wins, with the
help of daily quests you can keep playing arena indefinitely and build a gold bank together
with your collection rapidly increasing in size.
As a beginner you won't get enough wins to play only arena but you can "cheat" it a
little bit by using multiple accounts. By playing on more than 1 server/account you'll get
more than 1 daily quest per day and alternating accounts will let you play more arena's,
since you'll get the 150 gold faster doing quests than grinding 30 wins in constructed. That
way you can get better at it faster and transition to playing only on your main account once
you can keep playing arena there. But it's just an option if you really want to maximize
your time in arena.
If your goal is to only play constructed and you're never planning on getting good at
arena then your options are either buying the packs for 100 gold each or spending real
money and buying as many as you need. Just know that taking the time to learn how to
play arena pays off, because grinding packs through arena can be more than 5 times as fast
as grinding packs through constructed by the same player once you can average about 6
wins. Ultimately it's your choice but those are the options.
If you're interested in more comprehensive analysis of arena vs pack cost check out
this spreadsheet: LINK
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Try to get 60 and 100 gold quests by re-rolling the 40g ones
Save gold for arena
Get a second account or alternate servers to get faster gold for arenas
Get the adventures before buying card packs
14
Chapter 3.
Crafting
"I solemnly swear to uphold the dust and never disenchant a card without thinking"
The Argent Dust Oath
Crafting cards is one of the most rewarding features in Hearthstone. The more
patient you will be, the bigger the rewards and satisfaction. You can craft most cards using
arcane dust which you will get either from arena rewards or disenchanting other cards.
You can disenchant only the cards which you can also craft.
Before you start crafting it's important to understand as much as you can about the
cards and the crafting process itself
He thought disenchanting Hogger was a good idea, until control warriors showed
that Hogger really is super powerful!
15
The table below will show you the cost and reward for crafting and disenchanting a
card of each rarity type:
Rarity
Cost of Crafting
Regular
Golden
Regular
Golden
Common
40
400
50
Rare
100
800
20
100
Epic
400
1600
100
400
Legendary
1600
3200
400
1600
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Class Specific
Tier I
Tier II
Tier III
Archmage Antonidas
Edwin VanCleef
Grommash Hellscream
Lord Jaraxxus
Mal'Ganis
Tirion Fordring
Acidmaw
Anub'arak
Aviana
Bolvar Fordragon
Confessor Paletress
Flame Leviathan
Gahz'rilla
Iron Juggernaut
King Krush
Malorne
Prophet Velen
The Mistcaller
Wilfred Fizzlebang
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Secondly, we have to consider legendary cards that fit in most decks either because
of their versatility or sheer power. I ordered the neutral legendary cards so that you can see
which ones you should consider crafting first, and which ones are not worth it.
Neutral
God Tier
Tier I
Tier II
Tier III
Dr. Boom
Sylvanas Windrunner
Alexstrasza
Bloodmage Thalanos
Chillmaw
Harrison Jones
Justicar Trueheart
Ragnaros the Firelord
Ysera
Baron Geddon
Cairne Bloodhoof
Eydis Darkbane
Fjola Lightbane
Gormok the Impaler
King Mukla
Leeroy Jenkins
Malygos
Nexus Champion Saraad
Sneed's Old Shredder
The Black Knight
Troggzor the Earthinator
Blingtron 3000
Bolf Ramshield
Deathwing
Foe Reaper 4000
Gazlowe
Hogger
Onyxia
Skycap'n Kragg
Toshley
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Tier IV
Captain Greenskin
Elite Tauren Chieftain
Gelbin Mekkatorque
Gruul
Hemet Nesingwary
Icehowl
Illidan
Lorewalker Cho
Mekgineer Thermaplugg
Millhouse Manastorm
Mimiron's Head
Mogor the Ogre
Nat Pagle
Nozdormu
The Beast
The Skeleton Knight
Tinkmaster Overspark
How ironic that the most powerful of ogres Gruul sees much less play time than
a simple Boulderfist Ogre.
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Crafting decks
In the beginning you'll play around with the basic decks but they can only get you
to a certain point. After that, if you want to progress in constructed ranks you'll have to
build a stronger deck, using additional cards. Until you develop a strong sense of the
game, card interactions and the metagame it's best if you just copy a deck that's tested by
experienced players. Popular streamers and top pro players often keep their decks
available to the public and after every tournament, new decks are released for everyone to
copy and take advantage of the deckbuilding talent and expertise of pro players. You can
also find current, popular decklists on various websites (you'll find links to them at the end
of this e-book). There is often an option to sort the decks by the crafting cost so that you
can find something affordable for yourself. Be very careful when disenchanting cards, it
takes much more dust to craft them than the amount you get from disenchanting and it's a
very inefficient way of getting cards.
At the start it's best to stick with cheap aggro decks because you can craft them
fairly quickly and earning gold in play mode with them is faster. Aggro hunter and "Zoo"
warlock are examples of cheap aggro decks that are capable of reaching legend rank in the
hands of a skilled player.
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Chapter 4.
Game Fundamentals
"Mrrraggglhlhghghlgh"
The term drop relates to a creature that can be played on it's own for specific
mana cost. For example River Crocolisk is a 2-drop, and Chillwind Yeti is a 4-drop.
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Chapter 5.
In this chapter you will learn about some not-so-obvious rules in Hearthstone. Often
the situation in game gets complicated with multiple trigger effects in play and sometimes
you can get lost in it all. Hearthstone takes the card descriptions very literally (in most
cases molten giant is one of the exceptions).
Hidden rules
There are many rules in hearthstone which are not obvious to the new player and at
first it may seem random, or that something didn't work as intended but at this point,
Hearthstone went through so much testing that bug's are incredibly unlikely and there is
probably some hidden rule you might not be aware of. Here are some of the most
important ones:
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1. Deathrattle triggers after the combat happens in the order in which the minions
were played, one by one.
2. Playing a card, or a minion means playing it from your hand. Minions and effects
summoned by other means, do not count as "Played".
3. Battlecries work only when the minion is played from your hand.
4. Destroying a minion for example using Shadow Word: Pain on it, doesn't deal any
damage to the minion, so it doesn't trigger any effects that happen when damage is
dealt.
5. The maximum mana pool you can have is 10 if you're at 10 and want to play a
coin or innervate you have to spend some of your mana first.
6. You can have maximum of 7 minions on board at once, and when the board is full
you cannot play any more.
7. Secrets such as mirror entity are triggered after battlecries occur.
8. Secrets trigger in the order they were played.
9. Destroying divine shield does not count as dealing damage.
10. Spell damage affects every card that is a spell and deals damage, and it affects only
that.
You can find a very comprehensive list of hidden rules in the Advanced Rulebook
page of Hearthstone wiki.
Silence
Silence is one of the most confusing game mechanics for new players. The easiest
way you can look at it, is to think of silence simply as an eraser or a rubber. When you
hover over a minion you can see the description and various buffs or debuffs if they're
present. Silence removes all of that. The only thing that stays is the minion statistics such
as mana cost, attack, health and the minion type (Beast, Dragon etc.)
You can silence enemy buffs, taunts, divine shields, deathrattle and trigger effects
but you can also silence debuffs from your own creatures. Silencing a minion which has
been frozen, will remove the freeze effect and let you attack with it this turn, just make
sure that the minion doesn't have other beneficial effects because silence will remove all of
them. You can even silence minions after a player used Equality to restore their hp or
minions affected by Aldor Peacekeeper to bring back their attack power.
25
Polymorph and hex turn minions into completely different creatures, they're not
counted as debuffs and thus you can't silence them to get your original minions back.
Silencing Ragnaros the Firelord will let the owner attack with him like with a
simple 8/8 giant, it can be sometimes used to finish the enemy off by avoiding the random
component of the card.
Card descriptions are simplified but almost always precise with their wording
Try to remember the order in which secrets were played
Remember the order in which minions with deathrattle were played
When silencing a creature remember that all effects are silenced, not only the ones
you want
26
Chapter 6.
27
28
New players often care too much about their health and the enemy health. Once you
learn the most common combinations of burst damage you'll be able to very precisely tell
when you're safe and when you should protect your health pool. Especially in arena, you
can easily go to 15hp while your enemy sits at 30hp and still be in a dominating lead
because of your board presence and card advantage. Don't waste your resources to damage
the enemy hero unless you'll be able to finish him in the next 1 or 2 turns with lethal
damage. Using any spells to damage enemy hero without having lethal in this or the next
turn is almost always a big mistake.
Think about the future turns and try to anticipate what can happen. It's better to use
spells to protect your minions because your minions can hit the enemy face multiple times,
while spells are gone after you cast them.
Lethal refers to having enough damage to kill the enemy hero right away
29
Chapter 7.
At the beginning of your Hearthstone journey, in order to earn your gold from daily
quests and victories in the play mode, you will need some starting decks. On the next page
you'll find a list of decks created entirely out of basic cards which are available to you
once you hit lvl 10 with that class.
Play mode, just like the name suggests should be a playground. Here you can try
things out and get familiar with cards, game mechanics and the flow of the game. Get
comfortable playing against all classes before you move to arena.
These basic decks will help you learn the fundamentals and gain some experience.
You will have an advantage over new players who are just starting and trying to play with
their own decks but it can only take you so far. When you face decks with legendary and
golden cards, don't get discouraged, everyone in Hearthstone was a beginner at first and
had to deal with strong competition. With time you'll develop your skills and your card
collection and you'll be able to take on the best decks in higher ranks.
30
31
32
Once you get more cards that you'd like to put in your original decks you can
consult the arena tier list to see which cards are better than the ones you were using.
Become familiar with every class in play mode before you go into the Arena
Start with the basic decks from this chapter and upgrade them as you earn cards
Basic decks can take you only so far, but probably much further than you think
Stay positive, everyone in Hearthstone started from the same place
33
Chapter 8.
The Draft
Drafting is incredibly important in arena. There are many things to consider but the
first choice you'll be faced with is always picking one of three random classes. For
advanced players the strength of every class will be relatively close and classes like Rogue
or Hunter become stronger at the top level. You can perform well with all of them.
For beginners I recommend that you go either with a class that you have the most
experience with or use this simple tier list:
Tier 1:
Rogue
Paladin
Mage
Tier 2:
Shaman
Druid
Hunter
Tier 3:
Priest
Warlock
Warrior
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You should have at least five or six 2-drops (you can count the 1 drops as well)
Good 3-drops are hard to get, when you have a hard choice, lean towards them. You
should have at least four 3-drops
There are some great 4-drops, you can be more picky about them.
Don't pick too many cards that cost 6+ mana, the peak of your mana curve should
be around 4 mana.
Mana curve is the distribution of your cards mana cost across the deck. For
example - a lot of cheap cards makes for a low mana curve.
Every few picks you should take a look at how many cards you have left and how
your deck looks so far. Try to identify strong and weak points in it so that you can proceed
with the draft accordingly. It is important to have a plan and think about how you will try
to win the game. If your deck consists of many small minions you should get a little more
draw power when given the chance and if your deck seems very top heavy, with multiple
big creatures, you should look to fill your early game holes.
Around pick 15 and even more after 20 you should prioritize a little weaker cards in
order to balance your mana curve. Even legendary cards won't save you if you lose badly
the fight over board control in the first 4 turns.
Removal spells, such as Fireball and Swipe are very versatile, pick a lot of them.
On the other hand, situational removal, for example Shadow Word: Death, can sometimes
be a dead card in your hand. It's very important to have one or two of them but any more
will hurt you more than help.
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Just like with removal, you can consider every card in that sense. Minions and
spells which are versatile and good in every situation should take priority over niche and
situational cards that require special conditions to work well.
Good way to balance your deck is to have just enough draw, just enough removal,
just enough big threats and a lot of ways to win or stay even in the early game (turns 1-4).
The more experience you have playing arena, the easier it will be for you to identify these
thresholds.
Synergy in arena
Synergy and combos are very often overvalued by new players. Whenever you're
trying to build a deck around certain synergies, like Houndmaster or Mad Scientist, you
should look at what you already have in your deck, rather than trying to think about what
you can get in future picks. You can't predict what the draft will give you, that's why you
need to focus on the information that you already know. Look to the future but rely on the
deck that you already have. You can also expect specific mana cost minions more reliably
than spells.
Try to remember or better yet screenshot your decklist or use the deck tracker
before you jump to your first match in arena.
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Chapter 9.
Part One
Naxxramas
Bring it on Kel'Thuzad!
37
Anub'Rekhan
Beating this boss should not be a problem.
The fight is very straightforward, just make sure
you're controlling the board, which should be easy
with the card choice of this deck. Play your
minions, kill his minions and once you get enough
of an advantage, squash that nasty bug.
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Maexxna
Fight against Maexxna is a very interesting
one. There are many ways of beating her but the
easiest one is by using minions with battlecries,
charge and small token minions that will play
around her hero ability. On normal difficulty you
can fairly easily overrun her with low cost
minions and paladin hero power. Once she returns
a minion with battlecry or charge to your hand,
you'll be able to benefit from it again. Flooding
the board with small guys is better than playing
one large minion.
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Loatheb
Playing against Loatheb can be very fun.
The finish is always very explosive due to
the spores which buff your creatures. Try to
flood the board as much as you can with
small minions and your hero ability. When
you manage to keep several minions on the
board you can use one of them, or
something like consecration to gain the
attack buff and finish loatheb in 1 turn so
don't worry about his health untill you fill
your side of the board with minions.
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Instructor Razuvious
This boss is all about preparation. If you
know what's waiting and you come with
correct deck, you can win without any
problems, otherwise Instructor can destroy
you in just a couple of hits. Make sure to
get your water elementals and oozes early,
they're the key to winning this battle. You
don't need to activate the crystal until after
you take 1 hit from his weapon, feel free to
develop your board by playing the early
minions. Once you can hit him with the
water elemental and prevent his weapon
from obliterating you, it's just a matter of
playing minion after minion and killing him
with them.
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Patchwerk
Patchwerk is a very unique boss. He doesn't
have any cards except his giant hook. Just
like in the Instructor Razuvious encounter,
you will rely on mages ability to freeze,
mirror images and Acidic Swamp Ooze.
Pay attention to his mana costs and plan
your turns accordingly. Flooding the board
with small minions will play around his
hero ability and with this deck you should
have no problem beating him.
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Grobbulus
This hideous fellow will try to AOE your
creatures down, that's why priest is again
the right choice. Your holy nova should deal
with the slimes and echoing oozes, while
your beefy minions endure his hero power
miltiple times. Getting the Gurubashi
Berserker in play is a very quick way to
victory.
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Gluth
Gluth is one of the harder opponents in
Naxxramas. His weapon can become a
problem over time, so try to clear the board
when it's not equiped or when you can play
the Ooze afterwards. Pay attention to the
deathrattles and use them to your
advantage. You can heal yourself by killing
the zombie chow's and clear the board with
unstable ghouls after he uses his hero power
and you buff your minions with Stormwind
Champion.
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Thaddius
This encounter can be very fun and
unpredictable. You can take advantage of
the AOE buff auras from mnions like Raid
Leader and Stormwind Champion, because
your minions will gain stats permanently
after Thaddius uses his hero ability.
Remember when planning your next move
that each turn the health and attack of all
minions will change.
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Frostwyrm Lair
Sapphiron
The encounter with Sapphiron can last a
long time and even take you to fatigue, but
it's only due to Sapphiron freezing your
minions and the limitation of his hero
power that will let only 2 of your minions to
survive each turn. The fight is actually very
easy, it just takes a while to finish the
mighty frost-wyrm.
Try to keep 2 biggest minions that are
available to you on the board, one on each
side of the Frozen Champion. Keep healing
them and killing off Sapphiron's threats.
Once he runs out of cards you can just keep
healing and attack whenever your creatures
are not frozen.
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Kel'Thuzad
Definitely the most challanging boss in all
of Naxxramas (he would like me saying
that). The most important card against KT is
Flamestrike. You can survive a lot of his
Frost Blasts, just try to develop your board
and kill his armor once you'll have at least 7
mana and a flamestrike or Frost Nova
available. He will play a lot of minions at
the same time and you'll have to catch up by
using AOE. If you manage to successfuly
cast at least one flamestrike the final boss
should fall to the onslaught from your
bigger minions.
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Chapter 9.
Part Two
Blackrock Mountain
53
Blackrock Depths
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Emperor Thaurissan
We're going to use priest class here to keep
Moira Bronzebeard alive. Control the
board, keep Moira alive and as your board
grows, you'll be able to kill the boss easily.
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Molten Core
Garr
The key to beating Garr is controlling the
turn at which his minions die. You can heal,
buff or damage them to keep their
deathrattle damage in check. Priest works
well here because you can draw the cards
while you heal your or enemy minions and
your Gurubashi Berserkers will stay alive
longer.
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Baron Geddon
The faster you defeat this boss, the easier
the fight. Mulligan for your 1 drop and
remember that you can kill off your own
minions to prevent Living Bomb from
exploding. Plan ahead so that you can
always spend all your mana and rush the
boss down.
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Blackrock Spire
Highlord Omokk
Smash! The best way to deal with Highlord
is rushing him down with a lot of small
creatures. His spells and abilities are not
mana efficient when he has to deal with
small minions, and this agressive warlock
deck makes short work of Omokk.
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General Drakkisath
For this boss, we're again stacking our deck
full of huge minions. Try to mulligan for the
Mind Control spell, as it very strong in a
format where you can use only 1 card each
turn. Mind Control allows you to both remove a minion, and put a minion on your
side of the board.
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Rend Blackhand
A basic mage deck does well in this
encounter. Spells like Arcane Explosion
help you against his hero ability and you'll
be able to develop your own board while
dealing with his. Closing the game out
quickly, before he gets a lot of value out of
his hero power, is a good idea.
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Blackwing Lair
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Chromaggus
How fitting that Chromaggus fight is
tedious and takes a lot of time. Trade, heal,
remove his card from your hand. Rinse and
repeat until he runs out of cards and armor
gain. If you didn't make too many mistakes
you should have enough to kill the boss
after he runs out of steam (which takes a
while).
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Omnotron
If you want to defeat this boss easily, you
should try to use the minions he spawns
with his hero ability, against him. For
example, when he first spawns arcanotron,
you can let him play a couple more
minions, and wipe them all with arcane
explosion. You can hover over his hero
power to see which minion he'll spawn
next.
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Maloriak
Maloriak will start the fight very
aggressively, but don't worry, you will take
over the control of the board soon enough.
You don't need to heal your hero, just keep
playing minions and taking favorable
trades. Eventually one of your high attack
minions will stick to the board and you'll be
able to destroy the boss swiftly.
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Atramedes
Atramedes is going to use a weapon, which
means that he'll lose some hp doing it and
that makes him easy to rush down. Playing
warlock gives us even more chances to
draw Acidic Swamp Ooze. Keep the
weapon in check with special cards you get
and oozes and the encounter should be
short and easy.
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Nefarian
The final boss. This fight consists of 3
stages. Playing mage will give us the option
to freeze onyxias weapon and flamestrike
comes very handy to recover at the
beginning of third phase in this encounter.
Nefarian quickly runs out of cards so just
deal with his threats and the last boss of
Blackrock Mountain will be defeated.
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Part II
Intermediate
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Chapter 10.
Tempo
The understanding of tempo is incredibly important in Hearthstone. In the most
basic sense it refers to how much you can do with the same amount of mana as your
enemy. Playing faster, or having better tempo, means that you can put in play more
meaningful stats (health and attack) by using efficient minions or deal more damage by
using cheap spells.
Decks based on tempo rely on playing lots of cheap cards and dealing a lot of
damage, very quickly (for example aggro Hunter) or overrunning the enemy with a board
full of minions which are able to trade efficiently (such as Zoo Warlock). There are also
decks that use specific combinations of spells to gain a big tempo lead, or finish the game
right away (for example midrange druid or handlock)
The trade-off for playing faster decks is the fact that you would be spending cards
too fast to stay relevant for more than few turns. Because of that, decks that rely on tempo
require much more draw power.
Priest is able to recover its hand size by using the Northshire Cleric, and Zoo
Warlock supplements his natural draw with the hero ability Life Tap.
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Value
Value refers to how much a card can accomplish in terms of gaining card advantage
and in relation to its mana cost. For a simple example, let's take a look a 2/4 Gnomish
Inventor vs. 4/5 Chillwind Yeti. Both cards cost 4 mana, that's why it's easy to compare
them. Gnomish Inventor is a good card, it allows you to put a minion in play and draw a
card, however you would need three Gnomish Inventors to take out the Chillwind Yeti,
and he would kill all three of them in the process. In a vacuum, this situation would give 1
card advantage to the player who chose the Yeti and we can say that the Yeti has higher
value than Gnomish Inventor.
You can also compare the combined value of all the cards in your deck with your
enemies deck. If you're playing a ramp druid vs. an aggro deck consisting of small and
cheap creatures, you will probably need only 15 or 20 of your cards to kill off the entire 30
card deck of your enemy, because your cards have more value (the difficult part is
surviving long enough to draw and play them).
Hero power
Hero abilities are another way to gain value. By killing off a damaged creature with
your hero ability you can eliminate enemy card from play without spending any cards of
your own. Same with healing your injured minions. If you keep them healthy, they'll be
able to trade for more than 1 enemy minion and put your opponent at a card disadvantage.
Hero ability lets you gain value, at the cost of tempo.
Ramp Druid is a deck that uses mana gain mechanics in order to play many big
minions, turn after turn until the enemy has no answers to them and gets overwhelmed.
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If you have a significant card advantage over your enemy, you can afford to spend
your cards less efficiently. You're unlikely to lose by having less cards than your enemy, so
make sure you don't fall behind in tempo. Instead of saving your minions by using hero
power you can play more minions, to advance your position on the board and sacrifice
your weaker minions. Spending cards faster than your enemy will allow you to capitalize
on your card advantage.
On the other hand, when you have stronger board than your enemy, and you're not
in immediate danger of dying, but you're behind on cards, compared to your enemy, you
should utilize the tempo advantage (you already have more minions or stats in play than
your enemy so he needs to catch up) and make the most efficient trades possible. Try to
save your creatures, use your hero ability, but make sure to not overextend against possible
AOE.
Always evaluating your position in game with regards to tempo and value/card
advantage will let you pick the best play in any situation. With time and experience, you'll
be able to see it more clearly and make finer distinctions that allow for even more optimal
plays. In the current state of hearthstone, tempo is very important, and when you're in
doubt, you should probably chose the line of play that allows you to do more things and
play more stats for less mana.
Always try to be aware if you're ahead or behind on cards and board position
Hero ability provides value at the cost of tempo
Faster decks require more draw power
Identify your opponents deck, so that you know if value or tempo is more important
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Chapter 11.
Synergy
Many players, including me, are initially attracted to Hearthstone, because of all the
cool combos and synergies. When the stars align, you can make some incredible plays.
You can even kill your enemy with a single attack from an Angry Chicken. The drawback
of any combo deck, is inconsistency. Combo decks are viable only due to their powerful
draw engines, which allow the player to draw so many cards that having the necessary
combo pieces is almost guaranteed.
In the beginnig try to rely on the expertise of seasoned players when it comes to
building decks based on synergy between specific cards or complicated combinations.
New players often overestimate how good these decks are, because they don't have any
kind of real refference. They don't know how likely it is to draw specific two, three or
even more cards. In order to know that, you need to play enaugh games for the luck factor
to even out across them all, that way you'll know what to expect on average.
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Powerful, multiple card combos are unlikely to work, unless you can draw many
cards consistently
Multiple small synergies are better than one big combo
Use versatile cards that can synergize with more than 1 piece of your deck
When adding cards to your deck, check for cards that benefit or become worse by
adding that new card
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Chapter 12.
You already know from previous chapters, how important it is to cultivate good
habits and avoid creating bad ones. Even if the situation doesn't call for it, you should
exercise the correct way of playing, just to practice and make it automatic. That 5% of the
time, when it actually matters, will make the difference in your win-rate.
Here is a list you can use to make sure you're doing everything right when it's your
turn to act. You can develop your own mental checklist, but these are the general
guidelines you should try to use.
1. Make a mental list of all your options when your enemy takes his turn.
How much mana will you have next turn?
Which cards can you play?
Can you use your hero power together with some of them?
Are you likely to have lethal damage and finish the game?
Are you ahead or behind in cards?
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2. When it's your turn to act, sit back and don't touch the mouse. You have 75
seconds to make your move. In a game based around decision making, time is
your friend.
If you hover over the cards that you can play, your enemy can guess what's in your
hand.
Imagine the entire turn in your head before you start doing anything to make sure
you have enough mana
3. In most situations this is the order in which you should act during your turn.
Draw cards if you decided on doing it this turn they may change what you
ultimately do this turn
Roll the dice for example if you play shaman, getting a specific totem might
affect what you can do this turn, or hitting certain targets with Mad Bomber could
allow you to trade more efficiently.
Play minions with trigger effects first Questing Adventurer or Knife Juggler will
benefit from playing them before other minions.
Play the rest of your cards or use hero ability.
Attack enemy minions or the hero.
4. End the turn after you make sure there is nothing else you can or want to do.
If there is no possible plays, you'll hear the Job done. sound and the End Turn
button will turn green.
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Chapter 13.
Foresight
This ability alone is the difference between an average player and the top of the
ladder. Without it, most games would be determined purely by luck of the draw and which
deck counters which.
"Foresight - the ability to predict or the action of predicting what will happen or be
needed in the future."
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To better predict the enemy take note of the most popular cards in arena and learn
the most popular ladder decklists
Always keep your next turns in mind when making a decision
Know the deck your playing, take a screenshot or use the deck tracker
Try to calculate or estimate the percentages of possible outcomes to predict what's
most likely to happen
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Chapter 14.
Deceptive simplicity
On the basic level Hearthstone is a very simple game, this creates an illusion that
the game is simple in every aspect. This in turn causes many players to never find out
about the depth to which they can push their ability to make the best decisions.
Sometimes the mark of a superior player is playing the game slower instead of
faster. One of the Hearthstone pro players - Lifecoach - is often brought up when talking
about people who take a lot of time to make their turns but there is a reason why he's one
of the most consistent tournament performers in the world. There are many traps for
players who are easily satisfied with the first convenient play they see. Gaining small,
incremental advantages every few turns really makes the difference. There are many things
to look out for, when you're searching for the most optimal play.
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Don't be satisfied when you find a good play, always try to look for something even
better
Keep in mind all the changes that will happen when you take each action during
your turn
Watch out of unusual mechanics you don't normally interact with
Pay special attention to dynamic effects such as buffs, debuffs and battlecries
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Chapter 15.
Tilt
Being on tilt means that you make poor plays, which you know are wrong, but the
emotions interfere with your ability to stay focused and think clearly. Nobody is immune
to tilt, even the best and the most calm of players will sometimes be affected by it.
The most common cause of tilt is having specific expectations that don't come true.
If you play a card with randomized effect, when you're 80% favourite and lose the roll few
times in a row, you might get frustrated, because you expected the outcome to be different.
That's why understanding probability and statistics helps a lot when it comes to expecting
specific outcomes. Make sure you understand how random effects work and remind
yourself and everyone gets just as unlucky, and has their share of so called bad beats.
Keep your head up, and try to keep making good decisions despite the bad luck.
Losing streaks
Another way of becoming frustrated because of your expectations is simply losing
many games in a row. If you're focused on winning each particular game, you may become
angry when you don't reach that goal over and over again. The simplest way to deal with
it, is focusing on how you play, instead of the end result.
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You should be satisfied as long as you played to the best of your ability. Don't try to
control things which are outside of your reach, instead, focus on things that you can
influence directly. Focus on the decisions you make, and always try to look for ways you
can improve. If you set improvement and making better decisions as your goal, you'll stop
worrying about losing games and in turn, it will be easier for you to win! I'll explain more
about outcome dependence and process orientation in the next chapter.
Simple remedy
Everyone will tell you this when you're on tilt take a break. People often ask:
What should I do when I'm on a losing streak?
First of all, stop the streak instead of extending it. Playing more and trying to chase the
loses never works. If you can record your gameplay, it can be very helpful to watch the
lest few games or better yet, let someone else watch it, so that they can look at it with a
fresh eye.
Take a look at your surroundings. Is there something bugging you? Is someone
bothering you, or is there some unfinished tasks waiting for you and making you
distracted? Deal with these issues first so that you can come back to play when you're
calm and collected and actually enjoy the game while having some fun playing.
Staying healthy through good nutrition and regular exercise WILL make you play
better!
Try to notice the triggers for your frustration. Knowing yourself helps just as much
as knowing the game.
Staying in good physical shape reduces your tendency to go on tilt
Record your games or let someone watch you play when you're not sure why you're
losing
Taking a break always helps when you're on a losing streak
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Chapter 16.
In order to succeed at anything you need two things. Clear and compelling vision or
goal, and focus. You cannot hit a target that you can't see, that's why having a specific,
measurable goals is incredibly important.
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Focus
In order to stay on top of your form with regards to decision making you have to
feel well.
After each game, take a short break, you can reflect on the game or do something
unrelated for a while
Daily exercise will help with bringing more oxygen to your brain that's a good
thing!
These are the obvious things you can do, but often overlooked when players
wonder why they sometimes play better and sometimes worse.
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Chapter 17.
How to improve
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Did he clear the board without losing as many minions as you did?
After some time, you'll find that you can often make the exact same decission as the player
you're watching, this is a good sign that you're improving.
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If you learn more about the popular decks and how they play out your
probabilities of winning are greater.
If you keep learning about tiny advantages you can get with your deck your
probabilities of winning are greater.
It's not just luck anymore. If you trace it back you'll find out that there are certain things,
just the smallest changes, that affected many of your wins or losses. Ignore the luck and
improve your chances!
Copy the things that great players do and try to understand why they do them
Instead of giving up - be motivated by plateaus and challenge yourself to raise
above them
Try to make decisions and choices together with the player you're watching during
the stream and compare them
Try to get as many small advantages as you can they accumulate over time and
help you win more games
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Chapter 18.
This Alterac Valley battle is going on since yesterday, has either side made any
progress?
The tips and advice I'm going to give you next, apply not only to hearthstone but to
virtually any activity that can be measured and tracked over time. Whether it's for other
games, like League of legends, StarCraft 2 or real life activities such as working out.
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Tracking software
First step is to chose 1 method of tracking and stick with it. It's important to use 1
method of tracking consistently because the more data you can gather, the more accurate it
becomes. You can simply write everything down in a word file or on paper but it would be
a huge waste of time considering there are already plenty of tools you can use.
Hearthstone Deck Tracker is what I use and recommend, it captures the results
automatically and lets me overview them any way i want. Feel free to check out any
number of those tools and pick one that suits you the best.
You'll find more links in recommended resources section at the end of this e-book.
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Remember, that it's not always the deck that needs changing. Sometimes your
playstyle needs to be adjusted. Maybe you have some bad habits or tendencies that make
you lose more against certain decks. Now you can see which decks are the hardest for you
to beat and what you should focus on.
Another interesting tip if you notice your win rate with and without The Coin you
can see how well you're using it. The percentages should be around 50/50, so if you're
losing significantly more games when you go as the second player, you can look at
improving your usage of coin and gain additional edge to win more games that way.
Unless you're not human, you can't track your results accurately in your head
Find the best tracking method for you and stick to it
Regularly check your win percentages against each class to find the biggest
weakness that you can fix
Make sure to gather a lot of data, the more data you have, the more accurate it
becomes
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Part III
Advanced
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Chapter 19.
Mulligan is one of the most overlooked parts of the game. You can win or lose
matches right then and there if you mulligan incorrectly. Basic strategy is to throw away
cards which can't be played in the early turns to ensure smooth mana curve and have
something to play on each turn. Mulligan is more important than you think... even if you
already think that.
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Arena mulligan
In arena, early game is incredibly important. The first 3-4 turns, will often dictate
how the game goes, that's why you need to know precisely how many minions you have,
that you can play on each of the early turns. If your deck lacks in the early game, you
should generally keep anything that costs 3 or less mana. If you have a lot of early game,
and you're offered some of your best cards for the midgame you can keep some of them.
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Chapter 20.
Experienced players are able to guess fairly accurately what cards the enemy is
holding. Often when you play, you can name the card that the enemy is about to play
before its revealed based on how fast he reached for it. If he did it fast it's most likely the
most obvious response to the current situation.
What would be the best card my enemy could have to respond here?
Is this a good time for my enemy to AOE?
If my enemy had removal, would he use it on one of my minions now?
Keep track of the possible scenarios during the game and when it's time to commit
to the board either with a big threat or multiple minions, you'll know if your enemy is
likely to have a response to it, based on his previous actions.
If you already played a big creature and he had to run his smaller minions into it,
putting you in the lead, that means, he probably doesn't have the appropriate removal and
you're safe to play the next big threat.
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With that in mind, if you see that your enemy is playing cards only from the right
side of his deck, you can safely guess that on the left side of his hand are either situational
cards, for which there was no good turn yet, or cards with larger mana cost than your
enemy had available up to this point.
If you notice someone holding on to one card for the entire game, it's likely to be a
late game finisher card something like Pyroblast or Mind Control.
Keep track of the board situation for both sides to see if your enemy has
opportunities to play important removal or AOE
Unless you're playing against someone that you know is a top player, they will
likely do the most obvious plays
Keep track of the positioning of enemy cards as much as you can
Pay attention to enemy hovering over his cards, they're usually an obvious reaction
to what just happened in the game
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Chapter 21.
I sea a giant
Small advantages
Like I mentioned before, Hearthstone is deceptively complicated, even though it
seems very simple on the surface. Once you get to higher level of play, it stops being about
finding a good play to make, and starts to be about avoiding mistakes and making
marginally more optimal decisions.
When everyone is playing well, you have to gain small advantages and accumulate
them to win the game. They won't win you every game because of the significant factor of
randomness, but over time, that one small thing that you learned to do, can give you 0.1%
better win-rate. Find ten ways to get small advantages and that's 1% higher win-rate, and if
you keep it up for a while, soon you'll learn enough to boost your winrates across all
matchups by a few percent, and that's enough to turn a losing player into a winning player
who can climb the ladder easily.
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Everything matters
From how well you eat and sleep to the specific ways you play the game,
everything can give you an advantage. These are the things that you don't notice. These are
the things that you'd like to know when you go on a losing streak and have no idea why it
happened. It's very hard to look at yourself and what you do in a a very broad spectrum. If
you can do something better, to increase your chances of winning the game, there is no
reason not to do it. After each game, ask yourself two questions:
1. What have in done well?
2. What could I do better?
You can learn something new from each game, regardless of the result. If you keep
asking yourself these two questions after every game, you'll be on the fast track to
improvement.
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Chapter 22.
Don't try to coin me, your dirty gambling money has no power over me.
Hearthstone may be a very popular game, but it's not as popular as poker has been
throughout history. Poker games have been around for much longer and they've been
studied extensively. With money on the line, people went to great lengths to find every
possible way of getting an advantage, that's why learning from poker can help you
immensely.
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Statistics
Statistics can get very complicated but all you need to know are just the basics.
You need to know that data or outcomes will vary a lot in small numbers, and the more
data you collect and the more outcomes you observe, the more accurate the distribution
will be. Which means that when you're trying a new card, deck or a strategy you'll need to
try it more than a couple of times to see whether or not it works.
Just because something you did gave you a positive result that doesn't mean it's
the right play. Think what would happen if you made the same play 10 000 times? Would
you win most of the time? It works both ways, so don't get discouraged when something
doesn't work. With large amounts of randomness in Hearthstone, you have to be patient
and see more than just few examples to learn what works best.
At the end of this book you'll find some recommended resources to learn more
about it.
Take some time to study the basics of poker if you haven't already
Many aspects from poker overlap with other games, especially games focused on
decision making that involve random elements
Remember that not everything is the same in both games
Check out the recommended resources at the end of this e-book to learn more
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Chapter 23.
Calculating probability
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Chapter 24.
Deckbuilding
I am The Black Knight, sent by Lich King himself... putt me in your deck, pretty please?
Synergy
Synergy between cards is often the premise behind the deck, but it's also often
overvalued. If you want to build a deck around a certain combo, remember that the more
cards required for the combo the harder it is to pull off.
The best combo decks either have lots of synergies so that you can use any of the
many combinations that are within the deck, or they draw nearly the entire deck, to
guarantee getting the essential combo pieces.
Using multiple cards that synergize with the core of the deck is usually a better way
to build the deck than having super powerful combos that can be rarely pulled off.
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Win condition
Every deck has to have a win condition. Sometimes it's not obvious, like for
example in control paladin or priest. In their case, the win condition is having more value
in their cards than the enemy, thus, if they survive to draw most of their deck, their cards
will simply beat the entire deck of their enemy.
In aggro decks like tempo mage or hunter, the win is achieved by dealing enough
damage to kill the enemy before they can take control of the board and finishing off with
burst damage from burn spells like kill command and fireball. Always make sure you
understand the win condition of your deck, so that you know the correct playstyle in each
matchup.
When copying a deck, make sure it's well suited for ladder
Make sure you understand the win condition of your deck
Include cards that synergize and support your win condition
Adjust the amount of draw to the mana curve of your deck
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Chapter 25.
Adjusting decks
Did you run out of cards before you could take enemy hp low enough?
Were you stuck with multiple copies of high cost cards at the start of the game?
Whatever it is, try to find out which scenario happens the most often and adjust for
that first. Always try to keep in mind your win condition and make changes that support it.
Testing your deck is very important because of how complex the game can be.
Something that seems like a good idea on paper - may never work out in real game. When
I first started to play Hearthstone, I thought I'll be able to just out heal everyone with my
defensive priest deck and win the game by fatigue, but I didn't have the right idea about
just how much damage other decks can deal, and my plan couldn't work. I had to then
change my deck and make it work against what actually happens on ladder.
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Check your statistics for each matchup to know what your deck is weak against and
consider adding cards that will help you overcome it. Sometimes a Zombie chow or
healbot is all you need to swing your matchup against hunter from 49% to 54% and
suddenly you're happy to see hunters, because you know you can climb while facing this
matchup.
Always test the decks. A great idea in theory might not work so well in practice
Pay attention to the decks that beat yours, what do they have in common?
Track against which classes you're playing the most, and change your deck to boost
your chances against them
Always keep evolving your deck and keep an eye for things to improve
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Chapter 26.
Innovating
Everyone can be creative. Have you ever had this experience - where you had a
cool idea, and then weeks, months or even years later you see someone who made that
idea into a real thing? The great secret to being innovative is asking questions and not
taking anything for granted. If you're able to take a step back and go to the basics of the
game, you can find many unexplored paths to the victory.
During the time when I played StarCraft 2 I was able to stay ahead of everyone else
in my league by innovating completely different style of playing, it was so much better
than the standard way of playing that I could take on and beat Master and Grand Master
players who had much better mechanics and more experience than me, and a couple
months later I saw more people using these builds.
Hearthstone is still a young game and many classes are not yet fully explored in
constructed play. With new cards being added frequently this is the best time to be
creative.
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It's fun
Innovating and trying to make things work can bring you a lot of joy, especially
when you find something that works. That's why I always encourage people to experiment,
because the more fun you're having, the faster you learn. It's very satisfying to reach the
legend rank, especially for the first time, but even more satisfying is getting to legend with
your own deck!
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Recommended resources
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Personal Coaching
I hope you enjoyed this e-book and I wish you good luck on your way to reach any
goals that you may have set up for yourself. If you'd like a little shortcut to get there, I'm
offering personal coaching for both - arena and constructed in Hearthstone.
During almost a year of helping other players reach their goals, Ive learned quite a
lot myself by observing when people make the biggest progress. That is why I wanted to
let you know about all available options, so you can take advantage of them.
Coaching is done through skype but there are a couple ways we approach it. One of
them, is using screen sharing or the spectator mode to give you advice while you play, and
help you understand the important decisions. Afterwards I will usually review the crucial
points of the game and well focus on improving the biggest mistakes.
Another way involves recorded footage of your gameplay. The advantage of using
VoDs of your previous games is that you can focus 100% on improving, without the
distraction of playing and I get to see your natural playstyle, which lets us choose the best
approach to your improvement.
The optimal way for you to benefit from coaching is a mix of both methods, so if
you want to get the most out of it, I recommend you consider recording some games and
during our session well take a look at the situations that gave you the most trouble.
I recommend the coaching for you regardless of your skill level. Whether youre
new to the game and want an accelerated start to catch up with the competition or a
seasoned player who hit a plateau and wants to push for higher ranks or better scores in
arena. I've worked with people brand new to Hearthstone as well as legend players.
It's also a great way to ask all the questions that are very specific and relate to you,
that you can't find answers to on the internet. I like to stay in touch with everyone I coach
by adding them on Battle.net so that they can ask questions and I can see them climbing
the ranks afterwards.
You can always find up to date information about my coaching rates and availability on
my BLOG or simply contact me through coaching.asmodeus@gmail.com
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