Terms like interactive play, counterplay, and player agency are related to one another. Counterplay is central to terms like interactive play and player agency, so let’s discuss defining counterplay:
In Chess, counterplay can be defined as “a threat or offensive position intended to counter an opponent’s advantage in another part of the board.”
In Hearthstone, counterplay usually involves trying to negate an opponent’s advantage on the board.
Think about how Warlock Zoo (in vanilla HS) fought for control of the board while pushing damage towards face any chance it got.
The ability to counteract what an opponent did on their turn gives a player a sense of control—this is what player agency is all about. If there is a lack of counterplay in a CCG, then the game has low player agency.
/yes
You are right, MtG has more player agency than does HS by design because one can interact with an opponent’s actions during their turn.
While HS has always had less counterplay and player agency than MtG, it once had enough that I found playing Ranked to be engaging. Now, not so much. During the evolution of Hearthstone’s design, counterplay and player agency have decreased significantly, which has reduced my interest playing in Ranked.
You’re right, Ranked is currently not engaging enough for me, which is one reason why I mostly play Arena and the better tavern brawls these days.
Despite the abundance of barcoders with god-drafts in Arena right now, I feel like Arena generally offers more counterplay and player agency than ranked. Certainly not in the form of deck building, but more in the sense of turn by turn interactions and counterplay. But I want point out that Arena is also greatly impacted by design problems which reduce counterplay and player agency too. So it’s not like the problem does not exist in Arena. This is a consequence of a game that contains so much powercreep, bad balance, badly designed cards, and broken cards. All of Hearthstone’s game modes suffer from these problems.
So why am I playing HS and not MtG these days?
The answer is mainly one of convenience. I can open the app and play nearly whenever I want. I can squeeze in matches in between other activities during my day. There is no time commitment of 4-6 hours for tournament play. No commuting to a place to play, while wondering if there will even be other players there to play against (for non-tournament play). Other factors include the expense of owning real cards or even digital cards for MtG.
I think my above responses should provide some insight as to why I currently dislike Ranked, and why Arena holds my interest more. Arena matches feel more dynamic than ranked. Arena decks are more diverse and play out less consistently than Ranked decks, which makes Arena less boring than Ranked.
There is much less mystery to what cards are in my opponent’s deck or hand in Ranked than there is in Arena.
I think Arena has a bit more counterplay and player agency that Ranked does.
And the there is this: