Beginner's Guide To Hearthstone

Gather round, gather round and let's get ready to help the flock of newbies.

As the 2nd batch of Closed Beta Access players will be arriving soon, [ Refer Here ] I figured that perhaps the pros and those who have experience in the game can help in welcoming them to what is going to be...the most infuriating-RNG-based-wonderful-frustating-addictive-crazy-confusing online CCG of all time.

Feel free to help add on and I'll edit this post to make it more visible for everyone to see. Credit will of course be given.

So, let's begin!

1. Mages are OP!


1. I strongly recommend the tutorial and to learn as much as you can from it.

Currently I don't think you can access it again but fret not, you can view the abilities of cards by either from their description or by mousing over them. Alternatively, you can also go on Youtube and search for people's first ever ' Let's Play ' of Hearthstone and they should be playing the tutorial for your viewing pleasure. ( Unfortunately the tutorial does not teach you about class cards and combos apart from the Mage deck which brings me to point No.2!)



2. Practice with the A.I.

This does 3 things that will help you tremendously :
- Quickest way of unlocking The Arena (Requires you to unlock every class, you unlock a class by winning against them [or was it just fighting?])
- Learn the different class cards before fighting actual players (It will prevent a great disadvantage by giving you a HEADS UP of other classes. Heck, you can even use a different class to surprise your opponent in the starting league. ;D)
- 100 Gold for winning against EVERY Elite A.I. and another 100 for UNLOCKING every class (There's no mention of this nor does the game tell you anything until you actually complete this. Think of it as a 'Hidden Achievement'.)

I would also recommend unlocking every class's basic deck asap (unless you are 100% certain you will NEVER play those classes even in Arena) because a lot of those cards will be useful and almost required in future games.



3. Consider using gold solely for Arena, never for Expert Packs. *WARNING

This is only an option once you are good enough at the game and know the majority of cards.

Currently gold is obtained in three ways :
- 10 Gold per 3 wins in either Play (Casual or Ranked) or Arena [I think there is a max of 100 Gold in Play per day as well.)
- Completing the Daily Quest (If I'm not mistaken, going to your 'Quest Log' and clicking 'X' will allow you to reroll your quest. If there's no penalty, I would recommend to reroll 40-Gold reward quests as you can get higher reward quests [they will require more to complete of course].)
- The Arena (Depends on your number of wins per run)

As such, gold is quite the 'scarce' resource and hard to obtain unless you are good at Arena Runs. Because of that, most people who can get at least 3 Wins in the majority of their runs will be able to...'maximise' their gold and thus, 'buy' more packs. (You get 1 Expert Pack [which would have costed you 100 Gold either way] and 45~55 gold at 3 wins) You can check out more about the rewards of Arena Runs here.




That's about all I have to say on what to do for now. So I'll wrap it up with a few basic combos that are useful and to watch out for :

Mage 'Ultimate' Starting Combo
Requires : Start Second, Mana Wyrm (Expert), Mirror Image (Basic)

Turn 1 : Mana Wyrm -> Coin -> Mirror Image
Result : Board has Mana Wyrm (3,3) Mirror Image (0,2) Mirror Image (0,2)

Counter : Any spell that can destroy the Mana Wyrm at Turn 2 (2 Mana). [For a mage, Frostbolt ]

Rogue's Unfair Starting Combo
Requires : Start Second, Defias Ringleader (Expert)

Turn 1 : Coin -> Defias Ringleader
Result : Board has Defias Ringleader (2,2) Defias Bandit (2,1)

Counter : Not many things can instantly stop it. Best I can think of is Hunter's Arcane Shot + Boar?

Paladin's Godlike Board Clear
Requires : 4 OR 6 Mana [Depending], Equality (Expert), Wild Pyromancer (Expert) OR Consecration (Basic)

If you are using Wild Pyromancer, the cost is 4 Mana, 6 if Consecration instead.

Turn # : Wild Pyromancer -> Equality
OR         Equality -> Consecration

Result : Enemy's minions are all destroyed. Your minions have 1 HP each.

Counter : Divine Shield would definitely help. If Hunter's Snipe is in play, Wild Pyromancer could be killed and thus combo is nullified. Alternatively, could be nullified by Mage's Counterspell.

Hunter's Beasty Card Draw
Requires : Snake Trap (Expert), Starving Buzzard (Basic)

Normally, works best at Turn 1 or 2.

Turn # : Starving Buzzard + Snake Trap
OR         Snake Trap *Turn End* *Turn Start* Starving Buzzard

Result : If your opponent attacks the Buzzard, Snake Trap will activate giving you +3 Cards.

Counter : I'm not sure if Snipe/Spells used on the Buzzard would activate Snake Trap, if it doesn't then that's a good Counter. Alternative is to silence the Buzzard.

Priest's Divine Fast Fire
Requires : Turn 1 ~ Turn 3, Minion with 3~5 HP, Inner Fire (Expert), Divine Spirit (Basic) OR Power Word : Shield (Basic)

Note : This works with any minion but I would say the overall best (for fast aggro) is Northshire Cleric, Lightwell, Shieldbearer and Dalaran Mage to name a few.

(I'll use the Northshire Cleric for the example)
Turn 1 : Northshire Cleric
Turn 2 : Coin + Divine Spirit + Inner Fire on Northshire Cleric OR Power Word : Shield + Inner Fire on Northshire Cleric

Result : Turn 2 with a 5,5 or 6,6 minion.

Counter : That first whack is going to hurt, but an Ironbeak Owl is your best bet at stopping it. Otherwise, you will need some instant-kill or Taunt on Turn 2~3.

Warrior's Near-OTK
We have too many ways of doing this but for starters, Requirements : Raging Worgen, Inner Rage, Rampage, Cruel Taskmaster, Charge or Warsong Commander on field OR Raging Worgen is ignored for one turn.

The idea is simple :
Raging Worgen + Damaged = 4 DMG x 2 Hits (Windfury, +1 DMG)
Inner Rage = Deal 1 Damage, + 2 DMG
Cruel Taskmaster = Deal 1 Damage, + 2 DMG
Rampage = + 3 HP, + 3 DMG to Damaged Creature.

Assuming Enemy is at Full HP (30) and has no taunt or anything and you drew cards like the devil,
we could have :

Raging Worgen (3DMG) *3Mana
Charge or Ignored (3DMG, ready)
2x Inner Rage = (1HP, 8DMGx2, ready)
Rampage = (4HP, 11DMGx2, ready) *2Mana OR 2x Rampage = (7HP, 14DMGx2, ready) *4 Mana
Cruel Taskmaster = (3HP / 6HP, 13DMGx2 / 16DMGx2 , ready) *2 Mana

So the earliest thing we could do with this combo, requires 6~7 cards, 6~9 Mana (without coin) and a mixture of Raging Worgen, 2x Inner Rage, Rampage, Cruel Taskmaster and either another Rampage or Cruel Taskmaster in order to do a OTK.

Or...we could always use a Southsea Deckhand from turns 1~3 with a weapon for the charge = 2 DMG for the finishing blow...hmph.

Anyway, that's all I have currently, hopefully more people will add on and I hope this post helps anyone and everyone, new or old to the game.

Beginners Guide
I saw this awesome guide on reddit. Very detailed and resourceful.