I have only been playing hearthstone for about 3 weeks. I really like the game, and I am an older gamer with a good job so I don’t mind spending money, but I am definitely missing something. After getting my free deck[rogue] buying the Mega bundle, and two of the large Barrens packs on top of that, I still only have the cards to build a decent Paladin, secret rogue, and agro Demon Hunter deck… That is after spending 200 bucks on cards. Maybe I should have bought packs from the last couple of expansions instead of more barrens cards ?
I realize I probably need to just stick to playing a couple decks for the rest of the season so I can learn them well, but being a new player, I want to try out playing good decks on some of the other classes to see what I like the best. I am using the HSR website to look at viable decks and it just seems weird that after spending 200 bucks I can only build 3 good decks. It seems like when I open packs I just keep getting more Paladin stuff than anything. Do you just kind of have to accept that the cards you get are Random and just play the classes you get the best cards for every expansion, or is there a way to try to get more cards for a specific Class ? I would really like to try mage but don’t have most of the cards and would need almost 5000 dust to make the deck. Sorry if I sound like an idiot. Any advice would be welcome.
Most new players pick one class and play it, dusting the rest. If you’re spending money you can probably afford two classes at first.
Also, buy packs for each expansion one at a time when you first start. You’re guaranteed a legendary in the first 10 packs so if you go one at a time you can stop when you hit it and move on to the next set.
I recommend never dusting anything unless you’re using it to build a specific deck. Even then, try to build the deck without the card and play it first. that way you’ll know if you like it before spending precious resources.
Have fun!
Yes it’s cheaper to work with what you have, especially while you still have a limited collection, since any legendary or epic you own saves you from spending 1600 or 400 dust. Dust is a slow accumulation over time, the more packs you open (or Arena you play).
To get the most dust, you hold onto cards that are likely to get nerfed, and then disenchant them for full dust value. That means not using the “Disenchant extra cards” button.
Having your collection be mostly in one expansion is a lot less helpful than having cards across all expansions. So the “smarter” way is to open packs across multiple expansions. You’ll be earning Year of the Phoenix packs along the way, so you’ll eventually have a decent chunk of last year’s expansions.
Bundles come out from time to time eg: $20 for 20 packs and 2 random legendaries. Waiting for these and buying them over time allows you to spend less money while potentially growing your collection more.
I would try out cheaper builds, if you want to get a feel for a class or deck type, the HSReplay ones either tend to be full meta-deck (i.e. expensive), or beginner/starter deck that isn’t that good, or hasn’t been teched to the meta. I try to put out some budget builds that use only common/rare and Core Set cards, since those are free.
I recommend holding onto everything. 1) you never know what’ll be nerfed and 2) you’re less likely to impulse craft something new and shiny.
Check out Old Guardian on YouTube. He regularly posts budget decks. You won’t see Tier 1 beasts there (those are always expensive) but there will be some good stuff.
Also, face hunter is always cheap and almost always strong no matter the meta.
I don’t recommend this to new/returning players, because you are missing so many cards, you benefit a lot having some extra dust to craft some staple cards.
However, do not disenchant staple cards for a class that you already have, especially if you plan to try it down the road.
Which cards are staples?
This will give you an idea:
I still need to update the Common/Rare list for the current expansion
See my earlier point about dusting only to craft complete decks. I should have said “never dust randomly” rather than “hold on to everything.”
Well shoot. I have been using the disenchant extra cards every time it is available 
Noob mistake. I guess from here all I can do is try to make better decisions when the next expansion comes out. I am not too sure about dusting cards for classes I am not playing at the moment because it may be something I want to play in the future. I think I really need to get a grasp on what and when to dust. I really want to try one of the mage,druid, and Warlock decks that have been kicking my secret Paladin’s butt but at about 5000 dust or more for me to make any of those decks I guess I should just stick to Paladin for now. It just gets a little boring playing the same deck over and over. The way I get completely demolished sometimes makes me feel like I need to be playing the deck that beat me so badly ! I am also not sure how to learn to play against other decks if you haven’t actually played them yourself to get an understanding of what the cards are and how they work.
Thanks for the great advice. I have a lot to learn.
This you learn over time, from playing against them and learning their most common plays, from watching high-level players play them (eg: on Twitch or YouTube).
You also could learn by borrowing the deck from a friend who has it and playing friendly matches. I personally don’t really do this much, but the option is there.
Since you talk about Mage, are you talking about a deck like this: https://www.hearthstonetopdecks.com/decks/spell-mage-1-legend-babeldude-the-barrens/
It’s a relatively “cheap” full meta build, but still contains 6 epics and 1 legendary, so if you’re missing all those cards, that’s a lot of dust.
If you’ve opened a few of the epics however, the cost goes dramatically down.
The thing is though, Deck of Lunacy is likely to be nerfed. And a bunch of the cards are only most effective in that type of Spell Mage deck with no minions. (eg: Font of Power). This can be an issue if you plan to craft these cards, that you then can’t use much in other Mage decks.
Here’s a scenario:
If you could craft only 1 epic, let’s compare Apexis Blast and Devolving Missiles.
Apexis Blast:
- is a good card, but only if your deck has no minions.
- not worth running otherwise (5 mana 5 damage but nothing else is pretty inefficient)
Devolving Missiles:
- is a cheap (1 mana) spell, that can go into all sorts of Mage decks
- Transform effects can be pretty invaluable (and quite rare now, since Polymorph is no longer in Standard)
- is also a Shaman card.
As you can see crafting a Devolving missiles becomes much more value for your collection to try new decks.
But crafting 1 card doesn’t make a deck. This is more so to help you decide on what to do with your dust.
Instead, I would go for a build with minions in it. There was a build by Old Guardian last expansion that was basically a burn Mage, key cards included Imprisoned Phoenix.
That card is still good, but many other cards also rotated out and are no longer in Standard.
We have the new Core Set Legendary Aegywnn, the Guardian. I have not tested out a list that might work, since this list on HSReplay is far from ideal. But I guess it’s a starting point.
https://hsreplay.net/decks/D4e01rCGVo1I8C0IZnfYWe/
@Jonius
What is this ‘borrow a deck from a friend’ that you speak of??
I’ve never noticed that option!
Thanks.
Don’t worry, you won’t ever need more than 2 copies of a card because a deck can’t harbour more than 2 of each. Using the disenchant extra cards option is fine in all cases bar none.
Do you have any clue which playstyle you would favor the most? Have you had any experience in any other card game prior to Hearthstone? Would you favor board control, early, mid or late game board presence, ramp, card draw, direct damage through spells or weapons, card disruption, combos?
If you know which playstyle you’d fancy the most, you can post about it here and I or someone else will give some advices about which class/es you should cling to. Then again, I got into HS thinking I’d like control decks a lot, only to end up as a druid main (historically know for it’s ramp and draw potential and arguably the least controlly class available in the game) so I’d suggest you don’t take advices here as exact science.
There’s an option to turn off recieving Paladin cards when you open packs. Its at the bottom left corner. Newbies never learn
When challenging a friend, the “Borrow Decks” button at the bottom here: https://imgur.com/a/zWvM27F
This is usually the “My Collection” button, so you may not have noticed it.
I have a build here for Mage, needs more testing.
It is only 620 dust, because you can get the 2 Scorpids for free on the rewards track.
So far, key cards that make this deck work are commons and rares. Firebrand is very good, as well as Primordial Studies. And Netherwind Portal can be pretty clutch.
Budget Mage
Class: Mage
Format: Standard
Year of the Gryphon
2x (1) Babbling Book
2x (1) Primordial Studies
2x (1) Shooting Star
2x (1) Wand Thief
2x (2) Arcanologist
1x (2) Bloodmage Thalnos
2x (2) Runed Orb
2x (2) Starscryer
1x (2) Talented Arcanist
2x (3) Counterspell
2x (3) Firebrand
2x (3) Netherwind Portal
2x (3) Venomous Scorpid
2x (4) Fireball
1x (5) Aegwynn, the Guardian
2x (7) Flamestrike
1x (7) Mask of C’Thun
AAECAf0EBPvdA4vnA5XoA5egBA3CuAP3uAP4zAPNzgOk0QOW6APQ7AP9ngT+ngTnnwTCoATEoATGoAQA
To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
Thanks! I still haven’t figured out how to challenge a friend, so that explains why I’ve never seen it. All of my ‘friendly challenge’ achievements have been met via someone else challenging me!
@Slingblade
If you do the Tavern Brawl and the Duels, you will have more opportunities to see how the other characters play. I have finally learned to do this myself in order to buff up my skills on my weaker characters.
Granted, the Tavern Brawl changes every week and you don’t always have ‘normal’ options with it, so it isn’t the best stand-in.
Now that I think of it… have you done the individual (WTH are they called?) ‘adventures’ where you play against the system? Those storylines seem to cover most of the character varieties. That should help you get a feel for which one is most comfortable.
The Dungeon run style ones are best for this as they even include deck building components. Albeit with older cards.
I started playing Hearthstone when it was introduced. It was distressing because the main thing you need to appreciate is it doesn’t matter how good a deck you have, if all the cards you need are at the bottom of the deck there’s nothing you can do. I stopped playing way back then and restarted recently so I feel your pain about not having the cards you need to build decks. I’ve missed every expansion that’s been released with the exception of Barrens.
Most of the people who play have meta decks. The best you can hope is that you figure out which time of day is best to play so you aren’t dying immediately every game. I play ranked until I start hitting super meta deck players, then I switch back to casual. I read somewhere that it’s easier to gain ranks after everyone’s gotten to legendary rank in an expansion. The farthest I’ve ever gotten with my average decks is Golden.
If you like the game and you want to continue playing it, take advantage of every opportunity to get free decks. For example, if you link your account to YouTube right now and watch a certain amount of hours of the Grandmasters Tournament, you can earn free packs. There was a pre-expansion offer to watch some Twitch streamers to qualify for free packs (now expired). Keep your eye on the news panel when you log into Battle.net to find those events. At the very least, the free cards may contain duplicates you can disenchant.
My best expenditure of actual money was buying the $19.99 tavern pass. You get lots of free coins to buy packs with, free legendary cards, card backs, tavern tickets for free arena play/duels, etc. If you do all your quests every day/week and work on achievements you can move through the early levels quickly on the rewards track. Adventures give you rewards as well. Achievements don’t award a lot of points, but the ones you get DO add up so it’s still worth trying to obtain them.
I don’t know about Hearthstone, but in WoW they always had great sales during the holidays so check in the shop on a regular basis. As previously mentioned in the thread, take advantage of any “bundles” while you’re trying to build up your decks. The bundle may guarantee you a legendary card. If they don’t, weigh the cost of the bundle and the freebies it contains against what you would pay if you just bought the packs yourself. You will need to play a few ranked games to be able to access the wild card packs where most of the meta deck cards are if you haven’t already.
I found I got the best card/disenchant value buying the 60 deck packs. Everyone else gave you great suggestions for deciding what you want your main to be. Either go to meta deck sites to see the common denominator legendary cards for your class or watch the matches on the Hearthstone channel on YouTube. When you find out what deck most of the legendary cards you need comes from, focus on that deck when buying cards. The most important legendary cards never show up in purchased decks for me, so disenchanting a bunch of cards can sometimes be your only way to get that legendary you need. Save your free card packs from “rewards” to buy deck packs you have no cards from as it won’t matter if you don’t get anything but one blue. It’s a good way to gather common cards for different decks.
As you gather up all the cards you need from the deck you’re focusing on, you’ll start getting more and more cards to disenchant; i.e. you can only utilize a maximum of 2 of each non-legendary card and a maximum of 1 each legendary card in any game. Any duplicates you get over that will show up in the disenchant function. Once you have crafted all the blues, purples and legendary cards you want from a deck, pick a different deck, rinse, repeat. I like to play all the classes so it will be a while before I get all the cards I need.
I purposely look through my cards and disenchant any gold cards if I ALREADY have the maximum amount of that card in regular form. It’s helps me catch up because I’m missing most of the blue and purple cards meta decks have. That’s just me though, so keep in mind whether you want to play all gold decks before you disenchant any of them. A lot of golds can’t be disenchanted.
I record my games with OBS so I can write down what cards people are using to beat me. It’s a great way to deconstruct which cards they strung together to wipe me out in one turn, especially when it doesn’t seem logistically possible. LOL!
To keep yourself sane, work on your “Level Up A Class” achievements with Tavern Brawls. Most of them have their own card decks so you won’t be at as much of a disadvantage playing against others. It’s also a good way to experience cards you don’t have, to help you decide the order you want to craft cards.
These are just my OWN personal experiences with trying to build up my decks. If you’re a very lucky person, you may be able to get more mileage out of buying decks. It’s a really fun game once you have all the cards you need.
Have fun!
I don’t quite understand what you’re saying here. There’s a way to select a reward pack from a particular cycle (like Descent of Dragons or Uldum?)?
Thank you for so many great tips! (Several confirmed what I’ve been thinking/doing myself, so that makes me feel better about my path!)
Yes, there’s always the element of ‘Luck of the Draw’. It’s led me to shed a happy tear or two when I pull just the right card at just the right time against a powerful opponent. 
What is OBS? A Blizzard product? Windows? 3rd party?