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Abso's guide for players on a Budget
Content
1. Game Progression
2. The Arena
3. Completing Quests
4. Budget Decks
5. Ranking Up
6. Conclusion
1. Game Progression
First of all, Hearthstone is a CCG. Naturally, that indicates that progressing in the game is working towards your card collection. From the moment you start playing, that's the first thing you are going to do, acquire new cards by unlocking new heroes and levelling them up. After that, you realize that there are cards that you can't use yet. Because you don't have them. And here's where crafting kicks off.
Cutting this short, you need resources to work with. And the resource you need is GOLD. Not cards, not dust, GOLD. This guide is all about how to maximize your gold income and how to fill up your collection.
2. The Arena
Wheter you like it or not, Arena is the best way to get gold. Not only you get cards and dust while at it, you also have a very good chance to get some bonus gold while at it. The only thing is that you need gold to earn more gold, since arena entries cost 150 gold each.
Playing Arena is not encouraged for players that are just getting into the game (i.e. have just completed the tutorial and have no previous knowledge of the game) since you'll be dealing with a HUGE cardpool. You need to be familiar with the cards you're dealt. You need to know not only what you want in your deck but what the other players you'll be facing wanted in their decks.
How to do this? Familiarize yourself with the various cards that can be played. Buy into the arena, see the classes that are available then go to "Manage Decks", "Crafting Mode" and take a look at all the class cards you may be dealt. What cards are the most attractive, the most desirable, what cards put you in an advantageous position and what cards simply don't do enough. Take a look at the various neutral cards, taking more time to study the less common ones. You don't need to know what every legendary does, but it's very good to know each common and rare.
Then to the drafting. What cards should you draft? The answer is cards that can at least trade 1:1 with other players cards. Or, in short, minions with decent stats (Chillwind Yeti, Boulderfist Ogre), minions that can buff (Dark Iron Dwarf, Shattered Sun Cleric), deal damage (Fire Elemental, Knife Juggler), protect themselves (Sunwalker, Stranglethorn Tiger), among others. Spells are also good, just don't overdo it, having 4 Blessing of Kings is NOT IDEAL. Even spells like Swipe, Fireball etc have their downsides. As to Swipe, if for any reason the other player has very durable minions, Swipe is useless, as to Fireball, if they have a lot of minions, you're toast. Draft smart or you'll end up with your hand cluttered with useless cards or worse, with no cards at all, if you draft inefficient cards like Silverback Patriarch, Shieldbearer, Frostwolf Grunt, Mana Addict, Argent Squire (read: not useless, just not efficient in arena).
Now that you have your deck, take a moment to acknowledge all the cards that you have in it. What is the best way to use them? Should you mulligan for early drops or should you hold your 4 drops in case you get one in the starting hand? Do you need to go aggressive or should you just keep trading until you can develop your board enough to take the win? These are all questions that you need to ask yourself before even playing your first game. Chances are that you may lose a game or two because you just didn't know how to use the deck.
Let me say one thing. RNG is RNG. Don't go cussing around "omg I lost to 3 back to back consecrations". It happens. You will feel bad, but just brush it off, the next game is the next game. You may win the next one because you had a Stealth minion and gave him Rockbiter Weapon + Windfury for a cheap, unavoidable win. Everything can happen in Arena so use this to your advantage.
Something that needs to be said: do NOT tell the other player what cards you have in your deck. How would you do that? Do not hover with cards. Decide what cards to play WITHOUT selecting them. If you're a warlock hovering a card around a 1 health minion, it's Mortal Coil, 4 health and you have less than 3 mana left, Soulfire, more than 3, Shadow Bolt. Do NOT tell the other player what you have. Make up your mind before you act or you'll be lending very important information to the other player that he can and will use to his advantage.
3. Completing Quests
Quests are the primary way to earn gold in the game. They are guaranteed and reliable gold that you may get every day. For a list of quests and their rewards, go to http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/general-discussion/1088-list-of-achievements-and-daily-quests-in
How does Questing work? You receive a Quest every day and it will stay on your Quest Log for up to three days, when, on the fourth, it will be replaced by a new Quest, provided that you didn't complete any Quest in that period. You can also abandon one Quest once a day, which will assign you with a different Quest.
What Quests should I complete? By any means, only abandon Quests that reward 40 gold since, by doing so, you have a chance to get a 60 gold or a 100 gold quest, which is a net gain of 20 (or 40) gold once you complete them.
How do I complete a Quest? Simply, by playing games. All the Quests (except the 100 gold one) require you to play games in Play (Casual or Ranked, it doesn't matter) mode or Arena mode, winning up to 5 games (or 7) or completing a certain requirement (casting 40 spells, playing 20 minions that cost 5 or more).
4. Budget Decks
To complete quests, you will need to play and win. What better way to do this but having various decks to meet each requirement and help you on many situations? In this section, you'll find cheap decks and how to play them.
Pre-Naxx
Post Naxx
This is probably the most expensive deck of the list. It can't be helped, Druids have the best epics in the game. One quick adjustment that you can do is running one Nourish to substitute an Ancient of Lore, just ONE. Ancient of Lore is one the best cards in the game, it really is, get it as soon as possible.
This is a midrange/combo deck, which means that you need to control the board up to the point that you can use your combo to win the game, namely Force of Nature + Savage Roar. A good start revolves around either having Innervate into Chillwind Yeti or getting Ancient Watcher into Keeper of the Grove, Ancient Watcher, Harvest Golem, Defender of Argus, etc.
Cards you want on your starting Hand: Wrath, Harvest Golem, Innervate
Cards you don't want on your starting Hand: 5+ drops, Force of Nature, Savage Roar, Healing Touch.
Possible changes: One Chillwind Yeti -> Cairne Bloodhoof, The Black Knight, Ragnaros the Firelord
Acidic Swamp Ooze -> Big Game Hunter, Harrison Jones, Bloodmage Thalnos
Pre-Naxx
Post Naxx
This is a pretty cheap deck that I've been playing around lately and I didn't even need to change any card. It is a midrange deck and again, you need to control the board, no surprises here. Sometimes you will feel compelled to just start going face (i.e. you have 2 Kill Command in hand, it's go time) and race the other player, but this is not what you want to do in the first 4 turns. It is encouraged that you learn when to shift gears and just go extremely aggressive.
Remember: Don't mill yourself by drawing too many cards and don't be too hopeful since you can run out of cards in hand too and when that happens, you lose.
Cards you want in your starting hand: Haunted Creeper, Animal Companion,Houndmaster
Cards you don't want in your starting hand: Stampeding Kodo, Savannah Highmane
Pre-Naxx
Post Naxx
Bringing your secrets forth and gaining tempo advantage by denying your opponent from playing spells, baiting removal with Spellbender and Counterspell. I originally run Ragnaros the Firelord on my personal Mage deck and I'm very happy with how it fits in this deck. I'd suggest getting it if you like this deck since the level of protection you can set up prior to dropping Ragnaros is amazing. Proccing a Duplicate on Rag is also awesome.
Ramping up is really important with this deck. You need to use your turns effectively, most of the time you want to use your spells to clear the board and assure you have board control every turn, while chipping away with your Mana Wyrm and other minions, then set up a turn where you can deal a lot of damage with Fireball and Pyroblast.
Cards that you want in your starting hand: Mana Wyrm, Frostbolt, Mad Scientist
Cards that you don't want in your starting hand: Argent Commander, Azure Drake, Polymorph, Flamestrike
Possible changes: Duplicate -> Bloodmage Thalnos
Duplicate -> Ragnaros the Firelord
Pre-Naxx
Post Naxx
This is a very aggressive deck. You should look to control the board early on and start chipping on the other player's health as soon as possible and line up a finisher with Arcane Golem or multiple buff cards. Do NOT play Arcane Golem early on, it is usually a bad idea and may lead to your loss.
Cards that you want in your starting hand: Leper Gnome, Argent Squire, Mad Scientist, Argent Protector, Knife Juggler
Cards that you do not want in your starting hand: Arcane Golem
Possible changes: Blessing of Might Arcane Golem -> Leeroy Jenkins Avenging Wrath
Pre-Naxx
Post Naxx
This is a tempo deck. Very underrated too. When you get ahead, it just trucks everything. It's really fast and has lots of answers. Your goal is to keep board advantage using your big minions and trading advantageously. Don't be afraid to spend Circle of Healing to heal up two or three minions and make it so that the opponent can't clear the board on his turn.
Setting up Ancient Watcher, Deathlord and Dancing Swords for a big turn with Wailing Soul is just huge. Activating your Watchers and getting rid of negative battlecries can mean so much for your tempo.
On a side note, I cut out the Undertaker although I think he deserves a spot here. I just don't like how he builds and often he's too slow. I like the Ancient Watcher because he's very valuable against aggro as well.
Also, it has to be said, save the Northshire Cleric until you can get good value out her. You should think before you play her on turn 1, specially if you don't have followup.
You can sub the Zombie Chow for a Haunted Creeper or Knife Juggler if you don't have it yet.
Cards you want in your starting hand: Zombie Chow, Sunfury Protector, Dark Cultist, Ancient Watcher
Cards that you don't want in your starting hand: Holy Nova, Shadow Word: Death, Loatheb
Possible changes: Thoughtsteal, Defender of Argus -> Sylvanas Windrunner
Pre-Naxx
Post Naxx
This is a tempo rogue and as such, your goal is to get minions on the board, deal damage and retain card advantage up to the point when you can start working towards the victory. Undertaker is really good here because you can defend him exceptionally well with cards like Backstab and Deadly Poison.
You should look at a balance between dealing damage, putting pressure on the board and keeping board control. This is a very aggressive deck, you need get going before the opponent can get control of the match.
Cards that you want in your starting hand: Undertaker, Haunted Creeper, Deadly Poison, Backstab, SI:7 Agent
Cards that you do not want in your starting hand: Assassin's Blade
Possible changes: Assassin's Blade -> Leeroy Jenkins
Pre-Naxx
Post Naxx
This deck is classified as midrange and relies on mantaining board control throughout the game using your removals and board clears. You have a lot of minions that are hard to kill like Haunted Creeper and Sludge Belcher. They also get a lot of value with Flametongue Totem.
In a way, it's still important to play around AOE specially against Rogues. Don't play [card]Feral Spirit[card] if your board is already very solid and he has [card]Deadly Poison[card] on or hasn't used it yet. It's ok to play it on a semi-empty board, just don't overcommit too much and remember you'll get overloaded on the next turn.
Cards that you want in your starting hand: Lightning Bolt, Feral Spirit, Rockbiter Weapon, Haunted Creeper
Cards that you don't want in your starting hand: Anything with a 5+ cost
Possible changes:Harvest Golem -> Unbound Elemental this is up to preference, both are viable, it doesn't go as well with Double Flametongue Totem though
Argent Commander -> Doomhammer, Al'Akir the Windlord
Pre-Naxx
Post Naxx
This is the infamous demonlock. Wheter you want to run that or Zoo it's up to you, I just thought I'd post this here because it's an awesome, very reliable and consistent and fun to play deck. Also diversity.
Your objective is to pull huge demons out of your hand with Voidcaller. Also, Void Terror has a lot of sinergy with Nerubian Egg. You can get a turn 3 with a 3/5 and a 4/4 in the board, it's usually overwhelming. The deck also does a great job of controlling the board with AOE clears and big taunts. Molten Giant is natural since you'll eventually drop low because of Life Tap and it provides you an extremelly effective comeback mechanic.
Cards that you want in your starting hand: Nerubian Egg, Voidcaller, Harvest Golem,
Cards that you don't want in your starting hand: Siphon Soul, Molten Giant, Loatheb
Possible changes: Soulfire, Mortal Coil -> Lord Jaraxxus
Pre-Naxx
Post Naxx
First off, Kor'kron Elite is pretty much a placeholder card. It's awesome but Grommash Hellscream is just too good for this deck. Nevertheless, I find that there are several cards that can fit here if you don't like the Kor'kron, such as Earthen Ring Farseer which enables you to get extra mileage out of your Sludge Belcher and Frothing Berserker, Dark Iron Dwarf for extra value, Spectral Knight for board presence and even Abusive Sergeant to play alongside Raging Worgen for a lot of face damage.
Speaking of which, I found the Raging Worgen to be a very expressive card in this deck. You have several ways of buffing and protecting it. Many times you can get it to hit several times if your opponent fails to remove it. The Warsong Commander also guarantees that you're going to be able to work it out. That coupled with this deck's insane drawing capabilities is a sure combo for those longer games.
Cards that you want in your starting hand: Fiery War Axe, Amani Berserker
Cards that you don't want in your starting hand: Loatheb, Warsong Commander
5. Ranking Up
Ranking Up is about winrate. It's about knowing your deck, knowing how to deal with evey matchup and how to get advantage on each of them. The first thing you need to know before ranking up is that the deck doesn't make the rank, you make the rank. There is no legend deck if it wouldn't be for the player. Sure, some decks are stronger than others, but knowing how to play a deck is far more important than building a better or different deck. You can usually adapt a deck to fit your needs better than you would create a different deck.
At the end of the day, what matters when you're ranking up is your winrate. If your winrate is higher than 50%, you're ranking up. And you do that by taking mental notes whenever you play another player, getting to know what they run in their deck, what you need to counter, what you need to remove and what you can expect so that you know when you can play your big guns, when you can take a risk and when you can get advantage. For instance, say you're playing a Priest and you know for sure he's not running Auchenai Soulpriest. Right away you know that you can overextend as much as you want before turn 5 and also you can play an early Gadgetzan Auctioneer and start cycling cards as soon as possible because he's not going to be able to remove it without anything on the board.
Different players do have different versions for their decks. Do expect to be surprised when you're playing ranked but don't hold back. You can't play around every card in existance. Go for the best win percentage and chances are, you will end up winning.
6. Conclusion
Playing Hearthstone is great, but it's even better when you can work with what you have and not rely on RNG or a big investment to be successful in the game. I have managed to acquire a very solid collection, with 20 legendaries and counting, most epics and all other cards up to this point and all this without spending a buck. I hope this guide allows other players to work on their card collections while minimizing their efforts as well as their investment on the game.
Credits
Rexxar art - nikmao.tumblr.com
Uther art - games-open.com
Gul'dan art - danmasso.deviantart.com
Slybass for the Warrior deck
All other art is copyrighted to Blizzard Entertainment. I claim no right to any image posted in this topic.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
Reserved.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
Reserved.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
The guide is now complete.
Feel free to post any questions or comments in this topic.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
Awesome ! must be featured in the main-page.
keep up the good job !
Great guide Absolution! Great addition to the community.
Great post! This has everything a new player would need in one place. This is a really awesome resource.
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HearthStone Blog: TheTauntedFrog.wordpress.com
Perhaps. What would you think to be useful information to be added to this guide?
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
It will be done. I'll have to give more time to see how the meta shifts though, it's way too early to say anything.
With that said, I'm currently running the 1/2 spider on my everyday Mage deck. I like the pressure it builds.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
80% Updated with Naxx cards.
Just pending a new Warrior deck.
Feel free to post feedback and questions.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
I'm going to iterate on some Warrior decks tonight and try to find something that works in the current meta. I do have a Warrior deck but it's waaay too expensive for this guide. As soon as I find a suitable deck, I'll update the guide.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
eh, i wouln't count zombie chow as budget tbh; i can see why decks with Loatheb and webspinner are "budget" since 2 weeks are enough to get them but zombie chow being part of the 4th Naxx quarter is jsut a really heavy investment for someone just starting, i'd recommend changing zombie chow for other things in the naxx priest one
Zombie Chow is really valuable, the replacements wont be as good.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
then it loses the point of being a "post-naxx budget priest" because 2800 gold is a pretty large investment, and that would just confuse new players, and make it even more confusing since the card is marked as a common.
it's my only complain with the guide though, the other decks are pretty nice.
Added a line for Zombie Chow possible replacements.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
Warrior deck added, credits to Slybass.
Reno Druid Rank 5 72% wr // Cards: Fix Shaman and Hunter
This is an awesome guide! I am getting a couple of my friends into this game, and this will be a great way for them to sink their teeth into it. I know a lot of new players get discouraged when they face people with a million legendaries or they just get rolled over and over.
really nice guide, well done. Hopefully you keep the deck lists updated.
Nice guide :)
The only thing I think should be added is to have people watch other's play. Watching people like Trump was how I became familiar with all of the cards, and how to actually play the game :p
I do my best to create good content for the Hearthstone Community.
