Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Hearthstone is Blizzard’s free-to-play collectible card game that draws its inspiration from the rich history and lore of World of Warcraft. Specifically optimized for online play, with lots of special effects and random elements, Hearthstone is a game you can play for 10 minutes or three hours. There are an infinite number of ways to build your deck and games require strategic thinking and the ability to adapt rapidly to an ever-changing field of play.

You’ll start by creating a deck based around a hero who represents one of the classes of World of Warcraft, such as hunter, mage, warlock, or druid. Decks contain 30 cards, with no more than two of any individual cards or one legendary card. Legendaries represent some of the most powerful and notable characters in the World of Warcraft universe, such as Ragnaros or Deathwing, and can swing the balance of a game the instant they hit the board.

Games are turn-based. On your turn, you play minions and cast spells, and then use your minions to attack your opponent’s minions or his hero directly. Each player starts with 30 health, and the object is to reduce your opponent’s health to zero before he can do the same to you.

There are several game modes in Hearthstone. You can play casual games or compete in ranked play to work your way up the ranking ladder and achieve the Legend status. There’s also the Arena, where players pay a fee to enter and build their decks from a random assortment of cards. They are then matched up against other Arena players until they take three losses or win 12 games. The farther a player progresses in the Arena, the greater his rewards. There are also Tavern Brawls, which features specialized rules or random decks, which rotate out on a weekly basis. Blizzard adds new card sets and solo adventures on a regular basis, so there are always new cards to collect and strategies to explore.