As I've promised yesterday (well, actually, the day before), I'm going to present a little write-up on the free-to-play status of Hearthstone, and how this game has become a lot more challenging for newer players to get a hold on. I'll also post some decklists I'll be using for the upcoming season.

Hearthstone, and its Free-to-Play Status

Back when I first started playing Hearthstone sometime last April, the game was very different to what it looks like now. First, neither Naxx nor the GvG expansions existed back then. Second, the rise of Zoo as a top-tier competitive deck in March gave many players a genuinely cheap and competitive deck to ladder with (for better or worse). Back then, it was genuinely possible to succeed in the game as a free-to-play player. With enough patience, even a basic Mage deck with a few Rares and single Epic could grind its way to Legend.

The release of the Naxx expansion, however, fundamentally changed how the game works. It is now impossible to succeed in the game without Naxx cards. Cards like Undertaker, Haunted Creeper, Loatheb, Sludge Belcher and Zombie Chow have become the most powerful and often-used cards in the game. Without Naxx cards, your basic Mage deck with River Crocolisks would probably not get past Rank 15. Naxx has become the 3500 gold obstacle that every new player has to get across, if they want their decks to be remotely successful on ladder.

Well, that was only an assumption. To 'prove' my assumption somewhat, I decided created a F2P new account on EU. Knowing how important the Naxx cards were, I decided to focus all of my energy on getting these cards as soon as possible. This was my plan:

1. Unlock all the classes, get gold.
2. Defeat all Expert AIs, get gold.
3. Grind the quests daily, get gold.
4. Unlock the Naxx wings.

After a few days of grinding, I generated 600 gold from quests alone, around 100 arcane dust, some extra rewards from a mediocre 6-3 Arena run, and 2 Classic card packs. This was barely enough to unlock the first Naxx wing, which cost me 700 gold. Keep in mind that I've been playing this game for over 9 months now, and already have a background in TCGs. Despite that, the amount of grinding I had to do was abysmal. 

Since I refrained from doing Arena runs, my only source of gold, outside of the 'hidden quests', were the daily quests. 40 gold quests were the norm. Neither ladder nor casual queued me against equal-skill players, either. Even though I was in Rank 21, I had play against Taunt Druid and Midrange Hunter, complete with Legendaries. In casual mode, I played against Control Warrior and Control Priest, again, complete with all the Legendaries. Now imagine you are a new player with a neat little winstreak. You get queued against a Control Warrior who just Black Knight'd your Sen'jin. How would that feel?

At this rate, it will take me at least one or two months to unlock all the Naxx wings. But I've been playing this game for a while, and I know how enjoyable it can be once you learn the basics, have a n actual card-pool to work with, and start building good decks. Now consider this: a completely new player goes through the same experience as I did. Would he be as persistent? I don't think so.

But the extent to which Hearthstone is unaccommodating to newer players, I think, goes far beyond what I've just described. For one, newer players might just spend all their initial gold on packs, a terrible investment. They might not know that the hidden quests actually exist. They might not know how good (and necessary) the Naxx cards actually are. And having queued against people who farm Golden Portraits at Rank 20, they will be discouraged, and be led into thinking that buying packs to get Legendaries is the only way to succeed at the game.

To be sure, being good at Arena is a very good way of generating income. But the fact is, Arena is hard for new players to get into. Even if you do have a background in TCGs, Arena requires you to have a good knowledge of all the cards. It requires you to know basic interactions, and to have an overall plan. It's much harder to succeed in Arena than to netdeck Zoo and ladder with it. For newer players, the 150 gold price tag on an Arena entry probably just isn't worth it.

Blizzard's reward system, I believe, is completely outdated for its free-to-play model. Unless you are a good Arena player (and not many new players actually are), or are willing to spend money on packs, this game will be agonizing for a F2P player. There's just too little gold to go around. 

Perhaps this is what Blizzard actually wanted: if you want to succeed without the arduous grind, buy packs. And Hearthstone's immense popularity goes to show that perhaps, people are mostly wiling to spend a bit of money on a F2P game. Fair enough. But with more expansions coming our way, this game will have more and more power creeps, newer cards that players need to have in their decks. And with that, I feel that Hearthstone will become increasingly hard for newer players to get into - unless you want to spend money, and perhaps, a lot of it.

Decklists for February 2015

Oil Rogue

The first list is pretty much a direct net-deck, although I took out the Coldlight Oracles for Violet Teachers since I prefer board control. Some lists also run 1 Gadgetzan Auctioneer, which I've yet to try out. I think it needs two Oil because the card is practically a win-condition.

Mechmage

Haven't play-tested it yet. This list is more mid-range than aggro due to a whooping four Legendaries, which might lead to consistency issues. Kolento's list runs 2 Mad Scientists and 2 Mirror Entities, which looks very good and a bit more consistent than my list. Antonidas, I think, will be very good. Not sure about the Toshley, although I actually rather like him, and I just want to find a deck for him.

Midrange Hunter

I think Hunter will remain very relevant in the seasons to come. What made Hunter strong wasn't just the Undertaker - it was a combination of Mad Scientist, Freezing Trap, Kill Command and Savannah Highmane, all of which are extremely good cards on their own. Put them in the same package, and you get an insanely strong deck. Besides the weaker early game, this list is as strong as it was pre-Undertaker nerf. This deck is mostly tech'd against Control match ups.