The Complete Collection

Community Discussion
1

If you hate people that spend money on things they want to spend money on–or, people who have money when you don’t…Move along, please.

Now, that out of the way, I have a question for anyone else out there who tries to keep up with maintaining the entire collection of cards in Hearthstone.

Backstory: I managed to get into the game in the first year the game was released, and when I started playing, there was only one adventure and one expansion pack available. So, Over a period of one year, I managed to somehow acquire the entire collection (because I don’t like dusting anything unless it’s listed as “extra”), and since then have just kept up with it since I enjoy playing the game.

My question is, on average, how much does it cost you to acquire an entire “set” when it’s released?

For me, I am religious about keeping up with daily quests as well as playing for a decent amount of time every night, so (on average) I have anywhere from 10 to 12 thousand gold saved up by the time a new expansion is released. I always purchase the preorder (usually about 100 packs–give or take), use all the gold I have to get packs (another 100-120 packs), and then maybe purchase another 60-pack bundle on top of that). It usually averages out to about 250 packs or so total that I open per expansion…and that (on average) nets me the whole set between the pack openings and the dust acquired from extra cards.

That works itself out to be about $100-$150 per expansion (less or more, depending on how lucky I get with opening packs), which averages out to about $600 per year (about $1.65 to $2.00 a day). Now, that’s not too bad IF you’re playing the game every single day of the year like I do. It’s literally like opting to spent $2 on Hearthstone that day instead of taking a trip to the soda machine where I work and spending that same amount of money.

However, if you’re not playing HS every single day and you’re NOT really used to the whole collectible card game experience (you should try MTG out if you want some REAL shock at deck costs!), that might seem like a lot of money.

If you’re one of those people, what’s your opinon on it? I come from a time when “expansions” for a game were around $20-$30 apiece. Now they’re more like $100. That’s a pretty steep climb even for inflation standards these days.

I’m not really complaining since I get enjoyment out of the game every day, but what’s your opinion? Would it be more fair if it averaged out to be about $50-$75 per expansion to get the whole card set for an expansion?

3 Likes
2

i used to buy 120 to 180 packs of every set for the first few years. it just wasn’t sustainable.

i love golden cards and I’d like to have a complete set, but i’m F2P the last 3 years (2017, 2018, 2019) and I realize it’s just not possible anymore

2 Likes
3

It all depends on from which perspective you look from.
As a payer, the more value you get from less money input, is the most ideal.
For F2P, the model cannot be that widens the F2P vs Payer gap too much.

In addition, recognising the rational why CCG are designed as such would benefit the players to understand and accept the genre better.

4

You use a time saving but very ineffective way to spend your gold.

5

Please explain.

What do you mean? If what you mean is that I should be spending the gold on Arena games, I disagree, because my Arena record would say that spending my gold there is a waste of gold compared to spending it on packs when a new expansion comes out.

If you mean something else, I’m all ears.

Blockquote It all depends on from which perspective you look from.
As a payer, the more valuye you get from less money input, is the most ideal.
For F2P, the model cannot be that widens the paer vs Payer gap too much.

Reaver, understood on your reply…But, you have to realize that for a game that has consistent releases of hundreds of cards every year (that’s also been out for over 5 years), there is going to be a natural widening of F2P vs Payer players over time. The gap between me (I’ve been playing since year 1) versus a F2P player who started maybe 2 years ago is still going to be quite large–mainly because during his 2 years of play, more and more cards were released during those two years.

If zero cards were released during the time he started playing to now, then the gap would be smaller, because he or she would be able to slowly close that gap while my collection remained the same. But, because cards are released several times a year every year, that gap will either stay the same or widen based on how much we play (assuming we’re both playing regularly). See what I’m saying?

6

Could you show your arena records? Here is mine: https://www.heartharena.com/profile/ssd%2321860
As you can see in rewards part it has more value from spend gold.

7

Thus, the reason Standard format was introduced to contain that gap. The collection is contain with a 2 year period. F2P players could still compete with payers due to the diminishing ROI of packs.

Should a sub-fee be introduced, the current HS economy is disrupted. The game dev may not support F2P since the revenue would have come from the sub-members.

The ripple effect could be much worse.

8

You are a collector, and the no duplicate legendary rule benefits you the most.

I’m not a collector, but I aim to collect all playable cards. Some cards are just plain bad, so I don’t plan to spend any dust or gold to get them.

For this, I usually spend $0 (I’ve explained I don’t like gambling), but my view is that maybe $80 for the whole set (including bad cards) will be reasonable.

Given that Hearthstone prints many filler cards, most people don’t need to spend anything at all to be competitive.

If they try to even up all cards though, by closely tweaking the mana costs so that lousy cards cost less than they are now, ftp folks like me will have a harder time keeping up.

9

Good point. I don’t play and have never played Standard, so it’s not in the forefront of my mind when I make points. I suppose what I said only applies to Wild.

You are a collector, and the no duplicate legendary rule benefits you the most.
I’m not a collector, but I aim to collect all playable cards. Some cards are just plain bad, so I don’t plan to spend any dust or gold to get them.
For this, I usually spend $0 (I’ve explained I don’t like gambling), but my view is that maybe $80 for the whole set (including bad cards) will be reasonable.
Given that Hearthstone prints many filler cards, most people don’t need to spend anything at all to be competitive.
If they try to even up all cards though, by closely tweaking the mana costs so that lousy cards cost less than they are now, ftp folks like me will have a harder time keeping up.

I’d agree that $80 would be reasonable for several hundred cards per expansion. Obviously there’s that “gambling” element to opening packs with no guarantee that you’d ever get exactly the cards you want from pack to pack, but that’s a more reasonable number to spend for a complete set than what I spend to get it. Keep in mind that I’m spending about $150 in real money in ADDITION to about 12,000 gold (which equals out to roughly another $100 or so), so in reality right now if you were “real money only” and no gold, you’d be spending closer to $300 per expansion to get all the cards. The daily quests/gold count is the only thing that makes keeping up with the whole collection bearable. Otherwise, Hearthstone would be starting to compete with Magic for the title of “most expensive card game ever.”

10

I have all the common/rares from 2016 onwards, you only need 25 packs per expansion to get most of them.

I know this because I am a ‘collector’ as well - I have only ‘played’ for the last 18 months for quest gold for the cards - and used to buy up to 80 packs per expansion with gold.

Thinking that is what you needed to do to get most of them. You don’t.

By 15 packs you are getting duplicates and by 25 that rises to 4 or 5 out of 5 cards per pack.

So the last year I have completed the sets with crafting, there is no point in opening any more packs for the few remaining cards there are.

And as for the epics/legendaries - there is little or no point in trying to open packs to get them, crafting can be the only real way to ensure you get them.

And if you are going for goldens - I get quite a few from just 25 packs up to golden legendary - I have no idea what that would take, it is insane.

Completing epics/legendaries is for the hardcore only, they cost far too much just to collect; targetting specifics would be for those who want to use them to play and just what you get is for someone like me who has realised that they are realistically unobtainable and unsustainable either through % chance to draw or cost in dust.

But that is the point, somewhere in Blizzard there is a table that shows how much £/$/E you have to spend to get each card up to the full expansion and that is an underlying mechanic that drives this game. For the worse.

And justifying it as ‘a soda per day, it is nothing’ is dependant on your life and lifestyle.

Personally I just spent $500 yesterday on a new mattress and dinner sets I needed, if you can spend that out on a DCCG - good on you - my life continually demands money to maintain it - let alone improve it - and that $100 you would spend on an expansion will allow me to replace my 5 year old car battery.

Or any of the other $x,000 of things that I need to maintain, replace or improve.

11

Depends on your luck. I’ve opened more than 25 DoD packs now but still quite a few commons and rares missing (or not having two).

I think 40 packs would be the key point where you get what you need, and then the rest of the useful ones can be crafted.

Going beyond 40 just gives lots of duplicates.