Last Updated: August 13, 2014
Disclaimer: There will be many parallels with established Magic: The Gathering (MTG) philosophy and concepts in this series, which is perfectly natural. Hearthstone is very much alike MTG in a lot of ways, and as such it's no surprise MTG's 20 years of insights can be applied to this very new - and casual - digital CCG to a certain extent. Still, Hearthstone as a game is still vastly unique, due to design decisions made by the team at Blizzard. The 'Hearthstone Fundamentals' articles are not meant to draw comparison between the two games, instead to celebrate their shared wisdom.
"Time and time again, card drawing has proven to be a solid, almost risk-free path to victory, so much so that many players live by the statement 'If you draw more cards than your opponent, you will just win.'"
Brian Weissman, "Taking Card Advantage", MTG
Introduction
Card advantage is a concept often talked about. If you were around during the early days of closed beta for Hearthstone, it was hands-down THE most talked about factor in deck-building, decision-making and general judgement of a card's value. There has been a lot of changes in player mentality since then, with a lot of pioneers driving those changes. Even then, card advantage remains a fundamental of the game, and the most straight-forward one. If you've watched a stream of a popular player, or seen a tournament, you've probably heard of it, or its companion concept "value". Ideally, after reading this article, you - as a player of any level - will be able to better apply (or start applying) this concept in a more practical sense.Card Advantage




Virtual Card Advantage
So you've seen, and hopefully understood, card advantage. But have you heard of virtual card advantage?







Delayed Card Advantage





Subtler Card Advantage
It's a pretty easy process to identify which effects obviously have to do with card advantage. However, this is only the fundamental step of improving as a Hearthst. Many opportunistic cards in the game give players the ability to generate (or lose, the concept goes both ways) card advantage, depending on how they are played. Regardless of what people may tell you, Hearthstone isn't Solitaire. Many times, your cards' efficiency are determined on how well your opponent can respond to them.













Conclusion
As you can see, card advantage - while a fundamental concept - has various amount of depths that is only unlocked with skills and understanding. These examples I've provided are practically the simplest I could produce, as this article is aimed at a general audience. As you gain more experience with the game, you'll find more ways of exploiting the board state, manipulating your draws, planning ahead multiple turns, to swing the card advantage in your favour. It's highly important to fully grasp the concept of card advantage and how to apply it to regular play and deck building. It is best to, at the same time, be reminded that card advantage is not the only source of advantage you can gain in Hearthstone, nor is it always the most significant. There are three parts to this Hearthstone Fundamentals series for a reason. If there's a tease I can give for the next part, I'll leave you with this: "It doesn't matter how many digital pieces of cardboard you have if you're dead." Naturally, comments and questions are welcome, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my reasonable ability.About the Author
Someone facing massive identity crisis.
I can be found trying to poorly translate poetry, or acting like the world is going to end on my blog.
I also have a Twitter account, or a Twitch channel where I stream absolutely anything.
I'm also going to suggest you a song every article. You can find it here.
Cited reading: "Taking Card Advantage" by Brian Weissman, 2009.
SHOW MORE
Last Updated: August 13, 2014
Disclaimer: There will be many parallels with established Magic: The Gathering (MTG) philosophy and concepts in this series, which is perfectly natural. Hearthstone is very much alike MTG in a lot of ways, and as such it's no surprise MTG's 20 years of insights can be applied to this very new - and casual - digital CCG to a certain extent. Still, Hearthstone as a game is still vastly unique, due to design decisions made by the team at Blizzard. The 'Hearthstone Fundamentals' articles are not meant to draw comparison between the two games, instead to celebrate their shared wisdom.
"Time and time again, card drawing has proven to be a solid, almost risk-free path to victory, so much so that many players live by the statement 'If you draw more cards than your opponent, you will just win.'"
Brian Weissman, "Taking Card Advantage", MTG
Introduction
Card advantage is a concept often talked about. If you were around during the early days of closed beta for Hearthstone, it was hands-down THE most talked about factor in deck-building, decision-making and general judgement of a card's value. There has been a lot of changes in player mentality since then, with a lot of pioneers driving those changes. Even then, card advantage remains a fundamental of the game, and the most straight-forward one. If you've watched a stream of a popular player, or seen a tournament, you've probably heard of it, or its companion concept "value". Ideally, after reading this article, you - as a player of any level - will be able to better apply (or start applying) this concept in a more practical sense.Card Advantage




Virtual Card Advantage
So you've seen, and hopefully understood, card advantage. But have you heard of virtual card advantage?







Delayed Card Advantage





Subtler Card Advantage
It's a pretty easy process to identify which effects obviously have to do with card advantage. However, this is only the fundamental step of improving as a Hearthst. Many opportunistic cards in the game give players the ability to generate (or lose, the concept goes both ways) card advantage, depending on how they are played. Regardless of what people may tell you, Hearthstone isn't Solitaire. Many times, your cards' efficiency are determined on how well your opponent can respond to them.













Conclusion
As you can see, card advantage - while a fundamental concept - has various amount of depths that is only unlocked with skills and understanding. These examples I've provided are practically the simplest I could produce, as this article is aimed at a general audience. As you gain more experience with the game, you'll find more ways of exploiting the board state, manipulating your draws, planning ahead multiple turns, to swing the card advantage in your favour. It's highly important to fully grasp the concept of card advantage and how to apply it to regular play and deck building. It is best to, at the same time, be reminded that card advantage is not the only source of advantage you can gain in Hearthstone, nor is it always the most significant. There are three parts to this Hearthstone Fundamentals series for a reason. If there's a tease I can give for the next part, I'll leave you with this: "It doesn't matter how many digital pieces of cardboard you have if you're dead." Naturally, comments and questions are welcome, and I'll try to answer them to the best of my reasonable ability.About the Author
Someone facing massive identity crisis.
I can be found trying to poorly translate poetry, or acting like the world is going to end on my blog.
I also have a Twitter account, or a Twitch channel where I stream absolutely anything.
I'm also going to suggest you a song every article. You can find it here.
Cited reading: "Taking Card Advantage" by Brian Weissman, 2009.
SHOW MORE
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