I just started playing a few days ago but I am feeling a little discouraged by the matchmaking. My deck is no match vs the people who I am matched against. I played against someone who seemed to just toy with me, let me take him down to 6 hp, then he just dropped all this stuff on the table and I went from 26 to 0 in 3 turns. I have pretty basic cards, a couple rares, and it seemed like everything he put down was a silver dragon portrait that just wrecked me.
I’m not beyond spending a little money for packs, but I feel like I am already completely priced out of this game by the matchmaking. I frequently have no chance in my games. Is this game worth playing for someone like me? Am I too late to get in on this?
Are you still on Apprentice level? If not, matchmaking doesn’t care what your collection looks like, it only cares what rank you are and a lot of people are ranked at the bottom from the season reset on the 1st.
I believe the new player experience on Apprentice should be easier and you should be fighting people with similar stuff than you.
It’s also important to remember that hard counters exist. If you were playing a deck/class against another deck/class that hard counters you, it could feel like the game is lopsided.
It felt like I wasn’t even playing the same game as the other person. He had tons and tons of special effects and secret things to throw at me. I don’t know if I am apprentice or not, probably.
If I am willing to spend 20-30 bucks on this game, does that get me anywhere or am I just so far behind and not spending enough money to get anything from this game? I’d say out of 5 games 2 of them are fair matches, 1 of them is competitive but im overmatched, and 2 of them are totally hopeless causes. So I win maybe 1-2 out of 5.
Not sure if this is still doable as i haven’t kept up with all the patches, but you at least used to be able to do several different quests against someone on your friends list. If you still can, then you can easily get at least some of the quests done against a friend and have them take it easy on you til you can build up your card list.
If you aim to be competitive within a very short period of time, you WILL be disappointed/discouraged.
There is quite alot of stuff you need to learn before you get proficient.
Spending money at your stage is high not advisable, as you do not know what value you are getting from that money spent.
If you are willing to spend a few months to learn this game, find a mentor/guide, and you can expect a more enjoyable experience.
Apprentice is actually pretty crowded with top meta decks these days
20-30 bucks on pack means pretty much nothing because a lot of cards are just pack fillers so you have pretty huge chance to open crap.
There used to be “buy a deck” feature - I have no idea if its still there and how much does it cost. Maybe somebody can confirm or deny it?
While the deck wasnt top meta stuff, it was playable and it would perform way better than normal stuff you have access to as a new player.
That could help you win more games, progress the quests, get some gold on reward track and start building your collection.
But truth be told - HS is a typical microtransaction heavy game - you either grind really hard for a very long time till you have any decent collection or you just pay to avoid that grind and be ready to play.
If you are OK with being smashed for a few months because you lack the collection, its ok for you to continue. If you are OK with spending A LOT of money to skip that grind, its ok for you to continue.
I think I am too casual for this game. It doesn’t seem to be an after work card game for me. Thank you for everyone willing to give me some advice. The community seems good on here. I’m going to find another game though. Thanks!
Also, play a deck like facehubter that doesn’t take much dust to craft and grind with it tell ya build your collection if you are going the f2p route, don’t they give you a starter deck of a class of your choice still?
You don’t need to spend money to be competitive. There are some extremely cheap decks at the top of the meta; don’t be bamboozled into thinking a bunch of random legendaries makes a deck stronger.
That said, you’ll need to learn what the meta decks are and how the game is played beyond the beginner stuff. The game shows you basic, crappy minions and vanilla spells, and that stuff is utterly useless in the actually competitive parts of the game.
Best advice I can give is really to just do some research on top tier decks, pick one with a low dust cost that looks fun, spend your $30 and start there. Your collection WILL grow over time, whether you spend money or go F2P. I started with a basic Zoolock deci years ago which at the time was quite good.
I also decided to dust pretty much everything outside of my longtime favorite WoW class, Warlock. This let me quickly build up pretty much every deck in the game for my chosen class. Since then I’ve added a few other classes to focus on but I still use the rest for dust fodder. If you’re willing to drop $50 on preorders each expansion that’s more than enough to build solid decks in at least a couple classes in each meta!
I was strictly a Homebrewer in MTG so I understand the desire to stay away from netdecks- but you can’t really homebrew until you have a good understanding of the game and metal best way to do THAT is to netfeck for a while
Well you can always check battlegrounds mode if you find it interesting. It doesnt require any payment, though its autobattler. Not a typical card game.
Maybe you can check Legends of Runeterra. Its more complicated than HS (though it really isnt any rocket science and you should get hold of it pretty fast). While it also require you to grind, its more free to play (and new player) friendly game.
It has some tutorial missions on new keywords and mechanics so you better understand how certain stuff works and crafting / reward system seems pretty generous compared to HS.
But once again - even in LoR you would have to grind. Though compared to HS, the grind isnt that intensive at all.
And you even get rewards for PvE so you can start with building your collection in PvE mode and do some PvP to mix it up.
But its different game than HS but why not to check it. If you do not like it, you can just unistall it later
when you will go up in rank and see even better decks, you will go from 30 to 0 in one turn
you are in the perfect time: soon (april probably) the 3 oldest expansion will go to wild.
This means that if you play standard, you can only use cards from the core set (free for all), barrens, stormwind and alterac.
Start saving your gold (buy the upcoming miniset with 2K gold if it’s good also), so in april you can buy around 40-60 packs (so 4-6K gold) and be in a good spot
If you don’t mind, you can start with Arena. It requires no collection to start with, and is actually the most rewardable mode for good players.
I’d suggest you use the 2 other servers for practice, and do it on your main after you can easily average 3+ wins. It’s actually the same as ranked, just slower and with its own meta. You can also learn the most from this mode.
First, was this in the Apprentice area (new player section) or was this after you joined the rest of the player at Bronze?
An idea going forward is to pick a couple of classes to focus on, and build up a deck that way by dusting the rest of the cards and crafting the ones you need/want.
I don’t believe you are priced out the game. It just takes a little time to get going and focus on quests and the reward track for extra goodies.
I recommend saving your money until more battle ready decks are for sale. By then you should also have some gold to buy more packs, but you should probably save your gold for the miniset. Good luck!
I am a F2P player who took a long break from the game and then came back.
It is hard to deal with the new player ladder because there are people who are whales spending lots of money on the game. Don’t let that get you discouraged.
If you play enough to complete your weekly quests, daily quests, and tavern brawl each week, you will build up a pretty good stock of gold to buy cards at the start of the coming year, which will put you in a better place.
If you are still in apprentice ranks, I believe you get a free deck at the end, but I would have to verify.
It is possible to casual this game, it just takes patience to get going.
