I wanted to provide some numbers on HS vs MTG, as there are different sources saying completely different things. For starters, let me say this applies to Canada and may not be true for other parts of the world.
1 box of mtg costs $114.99, while 1 "box" of hearthstone costs $158.38. There is no reason Hearthstone should be so expensive. I've put how I've come to those numbers below.
So, a booster box of MTG costs about $114.99 CAD, and comes with 36 - 15 card packs. You can resell those cards (on average you can expect to get $80-100 per box depending on the set). Included in that price, Wizards of the Coast has to pay to print and package the packs, ship the packs, and share revenue with store owners.
It costs $87.99 for 60 packs of HS, which is ~$1.47 per pack. Compared to MTG, it is like paying ~$4.40 per pack (~$1.47*3). Multiply that by 36, and you get $158.38. You cannot resell HS cards whatsoever, so if you decide to quit HS you get $0 back. There are no printing/packing costs, no shipping costs, and no revenue needs to be shared with shop owners.
Not a fair analysis. First off you can have (4) copies of a card in an MTG deck, not 2. The odds of getting (4) of anything other than a common in a single box are incredibly low. 1 box for MTG is not sufficient for any competitive play, however you have the ability to buy individual cards.
MTG releases around 250 cards per set (yes some cards are repeats from older sets). You need (4) copies of playable cards.
Journey to Un-goro was 135 cards. You only need (2) copies of playable cards.
These facts alone show how poor your comparison is. MTG is ridiculously expensive in comparison, hearthstone is cheap.
Another point, based on my above post. If you think 1 box of MTG is enough, then with HALF the cards released per heathstone expension and HALF the number of required cards, you should be able to open 1/4" the amount of cards, not the same amount.
Plus you're disregarding the point that the card face value of the box (your $80-$100 estimate) diminishes drastically once the set rotates. When you open the box you can get that $80-$100 back, but when you're done with it, so is everyone else and the value drops.
I wanted to provide some numbers on HS vs MTG, as there are different sources saying completely different things. For starters, let me say this applies to Canada and may not be true for other parts of the world.
1 box of mtg costs $114.99, while 1 "box" of hearthstone costs $158.38. There is no reason Hearthstone should be so expensive. I've put how I've come to those numbers below.
So, a booster box of MTG costs about $114.99 CAD, and comes with 36 - 15 card packs. You can resell those cards (on average you can expect to get $80-100 per box depending on the set). Included in that price, Wizards of the Coast has to pay to print and package the packs, ship the packs, and share revenue with store owners.
It costs $87.99 for 60 packs of HS, which is ~$1.47 per pack. Compared to MTG, it is like paying ~$4.40 per pack (~$1.47*3). Multiply that by 36, and you get $158.38. You cannot resell HS cards whatsoever, so if you decide to quit HS you get $0 back. There are no printing/packing costs, no shipping costs, and no revenue needs to be shared with shop owners.
Imo, HS should definitely not cost more than MTG.
But Magic cards don't have entrance animations, voice-overs, or the ability to be 'in' 18 different decks simulateously - and there is no risk of bending or wearing out a HS card.
Magic games can be 'cheated' through edge sorting - and HS has the ability to do more with creating cards on the fly which are not 'in' your collection and the games can allow interesting mechanics that would not be practical in a physical card game (your deck becomes random legendaries - shuffle 3 copies of a card into your deck - and the new upgrade mechanic).
Hearthstone is giving users a free-to-play high-tech interface where you get rewarded (in cards or arena runs) for playing.
The main appeal of magic it seems to me is the longer history and more 'collectible' aspect of the game. Hearthstone's collectibility is marred by not being able to physically have or touch your collection, and everyone else's ability to craft any given card with dust.
Being competitive and free-to-play is totally realistic - especially in wild.
Gone are the days where wallet warrior decks defined the meta. Aggro is alive and strong. If you can craft patches and two southsea captains, you can play competitively.
Being competitive and free-to-play is totally realistic - especially in wild.
Gone are the days where wallet warrior decks defined the meta. Aggro is alive and strong. If you can craft patches and two southsea captains, you can play competitively.
This! I only play wild and have no trouble keeping up with the meta decks. MTG is more expensive to play, specially older formats.
Having said that, I think hearthstone packs are expensive and that the game could really benefit from a tournament mode.
With every pack being avarage ~100dust (if you have all the cards) and if you have none - whole lot more. 60 packs in HS let you create standard competitive deck by obtaining every common, most rares and crafting legendaries and epics you need from dust.
a booster box of MTG costs about $114.99
Have fun building top7 meta decks from a booster box. You need approx5 booster boxes to have all rares in x4 (playset).
Luckily, MTG players can just buy cards.. but even then, top7 standard staples cost ~5-40$ *PER CARD*. So standard competitive deck is 300$+, and meta changes every 4 month...
Being competitive and free-to-play is totally realistic - especially in wild.
Gone are the days where wallet warrior decks defined the meta. Aggro is alive and strong. If you can craft patches and two southsea captains, you can play competitively.
This! I only play wild and have no trouble keeping up with the meta decks. MTG is more expensive to play, specially older formats.
Having said that, I think hearthstone packs are expensive and that the game could really benefit from a tournament mode.
I am gonna make a crazy statement.
Hearthstone packs SHOULD BE VIEWED AS EXPENSIVE BY MOST PLAYERS in order for the collectible aspect of the game to be a success. If hearthstone is seen as cheap, the whole idea of collectibility goes down the drain. People who enjoy building and managing a collection in order to 'show-it-off' to opponents friends, etc. would not feel proud about what they have assembled if it is viewed as cheap or relatively easy to attain.
Collectibles are Veblen goods - the quantity you buy increases as price increases - at least for some range of prices. Blizzards 3 expansions a year are testing where on the curve people are - and I think that by their financial results we can see that we are still in the sweet spot of pricing - they raised prices and people bought more.
Good for you Blizzard, ticker symbol: ATVI.
Now, if you are free-to-play like me, you are flying in the face of the games cash-customers. You have assembled something at zero cost, decks which can compete with what they had to spend money to attain. They tried to pay-to-win what you can get for free. That is the ultimate accomplishment in my mind and it should inspire F2Ps to NOT spend money and taint an otherwise commendable accomplishment.
TLDR: suck it whales - buy the stock, not the packs
No, on second thought, buy both - keep dropping those all golden legendary wallet decks for me to slam my lowly non-golden doomhammer into.
1, 15 HS cards =/= 15 mtg cards, since decks and playsets are half the size in HS.
2, you're ignoring the 50 for $50 deal, and the use of amazon coins, both of which make things much cheaper.
3, crafting a legendary will always cost 1600 dust, while a playset of an important mythic in mtg could easily run you hundreds of dollars.
4, mtg has 4 expansions per year, each of which has more cards than a Hearthstone expansion, which means there are way more important cards you led to get your hands on every year
5, HS literally gives you hundreds of free packs every year, not to mention some free legendary cards
In short, anyone who has played both can tell you that keeping a Hearthstone collection up to date costs a fraction of a mtg set.
You should factor that a hearthstone player gets close to 1 free card pack per day at minimum.
Daily quest = +-55 gold (minimum is 40, but with the play a friend quest, the win 7 games quest and all the 60g quests, an averge of 55 gold per day from quests should be realistic)
Tavern brawl: 15 gold (100/7)
10 gold every 3 wins: you can win around 9 games every day and have a normal life: 30 gold.
This is allready 100 gold a day, or a pack per day. Being decent at arena will provide even more free stuff. Not to mention free stuff during events and exp launches.
This will get you an easy free 400 packs per year.
Enough to be competitve? I think yes, you cant play all the fun decks, and cant expirimentate much, but you should be able to craft a tier 1 deck for free every 3-4 months or so.
Hearthstone is way cheaper. From a competitive standpoint, you spend way less money to get every tier 1~2 HS deck than to build two or so competitive MTG deck (sometives even a single deck).
Magic is a f**kin expensive game. Trust me. No need to compare.
Good unfounded statement. Just post nothing then.
There are enough arguments on the first page that show Magic is not as expensive as you may think.
I've play magic since 2002 year. Spend several thousands dollar on it.
Normal standard deck cost 100+$. TopTier standard deck cost 500+$. Rotate every 1.5 year? After rotation you can burn almost 70% of those cards, cause noone need them anymore.
Wanna play modern. Double prices i wrote before.
Legacy? Tripple.
And pay for every fnm or other tournament to win crapy boosters with one dollar rare.
Waste time on road to local store.
What i have now? 2-3 modern decks, 1-2 legacy, and a solid commander collection. Wow.
Now hearthstone.
I play little more than a year. Spend around 400$ and can make 20-40 (!!!) competitive decks to play in wild. Can play anytime and anywhere. Dont waste time on road to local stores to play.
This! I can double everything MutuhPwn said, tho I started playing competitive standard 3yrs ago.
All this bullshit about 50$ decks has zero background. You can make even 25$ budget decks - but they stand no chance against fullprice meta decks. And meta decks cost.. welll.... you get the idea.
Ridiculous comparison that ignores several important factors. In addition, they don't owe it to anybody to be more affordable than MTG. Different markets, different companies, different player bases. This thread is a joke.
Magic is a f**kin expensive game. Trust me. No need to compare.
Good unfounded statement. Just post nothing then.
There are enough arguments on the first page that show Magic is not as expensive as you may think.
I've play magic since 2002 year. Spend several thousands dollar on it.
Normal standard deck cost 100+$. TopTier standard deck cost 500+$. Rotate every 1.5 year? After rotation you can burn almost 70% of those cards, cause noone need them anymore.
Wanna play modern. Double prices i wrote before.
Legacy? Tripple.
And pay for every fnm or other tournament to win crapy boosters with one dollar rare.
Waste time on road to local store.
What i have now? 2-3 modern decks, 1-2 legacy, and a solid commander collection. Wow.
Now hearthstone.
I play little more than a year. Spend around 400$ and can make 20-40 (!!!) competitive decks to play in wild. Can play anytime and anywhere. Dont waste time on road to local stores to play.
Now u are satisfied?
You neglect the fact that you can sell the cards. A lot of cards retain value even after rotation and you can always sell before rotation and start working on new decks.
Local stores are every few km's here in the Netherlands so that's a non-issue for me. Next to that, you have online shopping.
And of course you have to pay for FNM as the rent of the location doesn't come for free, nor do the prices. Compare it to Arena. The better u are the more you can earn. But if u suck, then yes you lose value.
Good for you that you spent 400$ and can make so many competitive decks. I've spent a similar amount and I got so many shit epics and legendaries that I can build just a few good decks.
I definitely do not want to undersell the costs of getting a full MTG collection. That costs way and way more than Hearthstone will ever cost. But getting competitive decks in MTG was a lot less costly for me due to wise reselling.
My major idea not about money. Yes, u can ressel cards. Maybe even have a profit in the end. But u must be absolutly involved in this trading game. Buy promising cards when they cost less. Sell them when they become staples in the middle of season. Bla bla bla. But it is hard to manage all that small trading things and they often depended on your intuition. Some cards raise in price after rotation but most of them worth nothing afterward.
Hearthstone save u a time. No waste time for getting to store. No time for trying to sell cards u dont need or finding cards u need. U can play any day, any time. 3-10 minute game, non of that 45 fetch-shufling bulls**t.
And final point, 400$ 20-40 decks much better and interesting than 400$ 0.5-3 decks.
I wanted to provide some numbers on HS vs MTG, as there are different sources saying completely different things. For starters, let me say this applies to Canada and may not be true for other parts of the world.
1 box of mtg costs $114.99, while 1 "box" of hearthstone costs $158.38. There is no reason Hearthstone should be so expensive. I've put how I've come to those numbers below.
So, a booster box of MTG costs about $114.99 CAD, and comes with 36 - 15 card packs. You can resell those cards (on average you can expect to get $80-100 per box depending on the set). Included in that price, Wizards of the Coast has to pay to print and package the packs, ship the packs, and share revenue with store owners.
It costs $87.99 for 60 packs of HS, which is ~$1.47 per pack. Compared to MTG, it is like paying ~$4.40 per pack (~$1.47*3). Multiply that by 36, and you get $158.38. You cannot resell HS cards whatsoever, so if you decide to quit HS you get $0 back. There are no printing/packing costs, no shipping costs, and no revenue needs to be shared with shop owners.
Imo, HS should definitely not cost more than MTG.
I earn free Hearthstone packs with swagbucks! https://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Smartmoney
There are many ways to get free cards in Hearthstone.
I'm not saying being free to play and competitive is easy or realistic, but they do have a lot of features that reduce cost.
Not a fair analysis. First off you can have (4) copies of a card in an MTG deck, not 2. The odds of getting (4) of anything other than a common in a single box are incredibly low. 1 box for MTG is not sufficient for any competitive play, however you have the ability to buy individual cards.
MTG releases around 250 cards per set (yes some cards are repeats from older sets). You need (4) copies of playable cards.
Journey to Un-goro was 135 cards. You only need (2) copies of playable cards.
These facts alone show how poor your comparison is. MTG is ridiculously expensive in comparison, hearthstone is cheap.
So you're just not going to address the fact that you CAN play Hearthstone without spending a cent? That skews the economy enormously.
Hearthstone is free to play... one more time, HEARTHSTONE is FREE TO PLAY. What's cheaper than free?
Another point, based on my above post. If you think 1 box of MTG is enough, then with HALF the cards released per heathstone expension and HALF the number of required cards, you should be able to open 1/4" the amount of cards, not the same amount.
Plus you're disregarding the point that the card face value of the box (your $80-$100 estimate) diminishes drastically once the set rotates. When you open the box you can get that $80-$100 back, but when you're done with it, so is everyone else and the value drops.
Being competitive and free-to-play is totally realistic - especially in wild.
Gone are the days where wallet warrior decks defined the meta. Aggro is alive and strong. If you can craft patches and two southsea captains, you can play competitively.
Is the OP trolling? This is such a clear poor context apples to oranges comparison.
With every pack being avarage ~100dust (if you have all the cards) and if you have none - whole lot more. 60 packs in HS let you create standard competitive deck by obtaining every common, most rares and crafting legendaries and epics you need from dust.
Have fun building top7 meta decks from a booster box. You need approx5 booster boxes to have all rares in x4 (playset).
Luckily, MTG players can just buy cards.. but even then, top7 standard staples cost ~5-40$ *PER CARD*. So standard competitive deck is 300$+, and meta changes every 4 month...
Your numbers are misleading, for several reasons.
1, 15 HS cards =/= 15 mtg cards, since decks and playsets are half the size in HS.
2, you're ignoring the 50 for $50 deal, and the use of amazon coins, both of which make things much cheaper.
3, crafting a legendary will always cost 1600 dust, while a playset of an important mythic in mtg could easily run you hundreds of dollars.
4, mtg has 4 expansions per year, each of which has more cards than a Hearthstone expansion, which means there are way more important cards you led to get your hands on every year
5, HS literally gives you hundreds of free packs every year, not to mention some free legendary cards
In short, anyone who has played both can tell you that keeping a Hearthstone collection up to date costs a fraction of a mtg set.
You should factor that a hearthstone player gets close to 1 free card pack per day at minimum.
Daily quest = +-55 gold (minimum is 40, but with the play a friend quest, the win 7 games quest and all the 60g quests, an averge of 55 gold per day from quests should be realistic)
Tavern brawl: 15 gold (100/7)
10 gold every 3 wins: you can win around 9 games every day and have a normal life: 30 gold.
This is allready 100 gold a day, or a pack per day. Being decent at arena will provide even more free stuff. Not to mention free stuff during events and exp launches.
This will get you an easy free 400 packs per year.
Enough to be competitve? I think yes, you cant play all the fun decks, and cant expirimentate much, but you should be able to craft a tier 1 deck for free every 3-4 months or so.
.
Hearthstone is way cheaper. From a competitive standpoint, you spend way less money to get every tier 1~2 HS deck than to build two or so competitive MTG deck (sometives even a single deck).
Magic is a f**kin expensive game. Trust me. No need to compare.
This! I can double everything MutuhPwn said, tho I started playing competitive standard 3yrs ago.
All this bullshit about 50$ decks has zero background. You can make even 25$ budget decks - but they stand no chance against fullprice meta decks. And meta decks cost.. welll.... you get the idea.
Ridiculous comparison that ignores several important factors. In addition, they don't owe it to anybody to be more affordable than MTG. Different markets, different companies, different player bases. This thread is a joke.
Magic is more a nerdy-luxury lifestyle with own community. And its totally fine when rich people have such a great hobby.
But if u have lack of finances and want to have a positive expirience in playing (not living) a card game, than Hearthstone is a much better choise.
That is my opinion. U can have your own. No problem.