I was also fed up with hearthstone in MSOG so I decide to try some other card games,
Tried TES Legends I like it but it didnt grew on me, tried again when the mobile app launch and i couldnt even start the game it kept freezen in a galaxy s7, so no i didnt played it anymore
Tried Gwent,, interesting new mechanics, but in the end no so fun for me,
Shadowverse, i hated it, i could not enjoy the gameplay because of the art, I am not an anime hater but I couldnt not played without being distracted.
i returned to hearthstone to complete daily quest and try some wacky decks to have fun, and eventually it got better, I remembered why i got in Hearthstone in the first place, the Warcraft relation and the general gameplay, (not the cards balance and shit) the animations, the flavor, the sounds,
Hex is good. PVE focus is strong and enjoyable. It gets hard so be prepared to farm just to beat a broke ass level! At least they are optional so you can still complete the main story
I'd personally recommend Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes (though it is mobile only).
The way the turn is broken up allows for a surprising amount of strategy, with Zombies having an interrupt phase that allows them to act before combat and plants needing to play around what they might play (and zombies of course trying to figure out what mana they need to save). I feel more of the cards are viable than in Hearthstone, too.
to move away from hs, i tried shadowverse for a while... didn't really enjoy it...
now i'm playing gwent more than hearthstone now... i just clear hearthstone daily quest and switch go gwent after that...
gwent is more generous than hs, easily 1 packs per day... while hs its like 0.6 to 0.7 packs per day based on my game time...
n you really do get to play your deck... cos you need to play 1 card every turn.
unlike many other card games where you typically start with 1 mana and get another next turn. in gwent, you can play any card. even your most powerful card in your deck...
n most impt of all, i experience less feeling of being screw by RNG. turn 4 smorc down to death while you basically can do nothing when all your cards in hand are 6 mana and above...
I really enjoy Faeria. Basically you play your cards to create minions on the board. So not only is there strategy involved in how you use your cards, but also how you position them to out maneuver your opponents minions. You gain mana automatically each turn, but you gain additional mana from controlling the mana wells, so you are rewarded for fighting for board control.
Another way it's different from other card games is that you dont lose your unused mana at the end of your turn. It's cumulative. So if you save 3 mana and gain 3 mana on the next turn, you can spend up to 6 mana or continue to bank mana to respond to your opponents cards. You can end up playing relatively big minions very early on if you are patient, which is an interesting alternative to Hearthstone's 1 drop on turn 1, 2 drop on turn 2, etc.
ON Faeria, it's basically Settlers of Cathan mixed with MTG mixed with a bit of Hearthstone. Like RevenantSC said, it is positional, which initially it was especially to understand how to place yourself towards the "crystal collection spots", and also especially since the game is position-oriented some creatures near taunts are "forced-to-engage" (which also takes a bit of strategy to avoid getting oneself into trouble).
However, ever since in Faeria that "that Yellow deck" existed, it reminded me much about Hearthstone until Knights of the Frozen Throne. Of course, what really "changed a lot in Hearthstone" is the "Card Text of Reno Jackson" (What I mean by that is, remember the time when people always strived-for "Consistency = 2 of each card = shortest possible decklist or that the decklist "does not scroll".
Even before the game turned to Wild/Standard, it's like a 2nd Wrath cannot be "entertained" even though there were things like Mana Wyrms, Tunnel Troggs, and Knife Jugglers, how "strict" is Reno really. I did however understand the strength of RenoLock but even when Reno decks do not truly exist for other classes, "one duplication" does not mean the end of the world because just like in any mode, your needed-instant heal can be at the bottom of your deck, or that you don't draw it anyway, or that you're forced with the same amount of damage the next turn after.
Anyway, I am glad that Reno Jackson got more people into "card text context" and also Lady Deathwhisper fight.
Or Lich King fight. I really like that many people from since Naxxramas took upon doing "All Classes versus Heroic Baron RIvendare or Heroic Thaddius [this was before when BGH was still 3-cost that made Heroic Thaddius still quite simple for 7 other classes]
Anyway, positional strategy matters a lot as well in Hearthstone, mostly from the time of Flametongue Totem or to counter Cone of Cold or Piloted Shredder. The other cards would be the rare times of Explosive Shot or Betrayal.
In terms of mana and tempo, when Zombie Chow first came out, most players tried really hard to deal "decay damage", talking about the -5 Damage. Or as rare as trying to get Corrupted Healbot to deal 8 damage. For the Zombie Chow movement, there was once when a friend of mine in a Friendly Match would have dealt -20 with 2 Zombie Chows at LATE-Game but I was eating my dinner while watching and couldn't type it until I later re-recorded it to talk about it with my friend.
The days of Zombie Chows turned to the natural essence of "board presence" and became what is essentially Turn 1 because it does infact cost 1, entailing that Card Text or that 5 heal "don't really matter since the Opponent will not FULLY benefit from a 5 heal.
I'd be interested to see that. In regards to TES, what are twitch drops?
You connect your twitch and bethesda accounts (easy google). Then you turn on a stream. Every 6 hours you have the chance of getting:
-enough gold to buy a pack.
-Enough mats to craft a rare.
-Enough gold to buy 5 packs.
-enough gold to craft a legend.
It doesn't proc every 6 hours, and the high rolls are obviously less common, but it's still 'enough' that you really don't need to spend anywhere near as much money to get a good collection as you do in hearthstone. I have 90% completion in ES:L and I've only spent $20, and that was before twitch drops.
I love Eternal. It is more like Magic than Hearthstone, but it has a much deeper interaction because of the resource system and the defender controlling where damage goes through.
Hearthstone was my first card game. I started playing when Blackrock mountain was released. The game had a developed player base already and i knew nothing about tempo, ways to play, meta, teching. I was persistant and grinded, grinded, grinded. It seemed that everyone had a better deck than me. I dreamed of Iron Sensei which was a rare card, took me quite long to obtain it. 100 dust is really much when you have almost no cards. My first legendary was Nat Pagle, i can't say i wasn't disappointed. I kept my persistency through control warriors (i was jealous of so many legendaries), freeze mages, dragon priests (oh that ysera, if i only had it i would be so powerful), face hunters, patron warriors, pirate warriors, quest rogues...then came druid. I could swallow even that. I don't even mind giants too, i fare very well against them, i shadowstep and shadowcast vilespine slayers and kick their ass. Then i got rekt by 24/28 board on turn 5 by priest and decided it was enough. I started getting a feeling that Hearthstone was a wonderful cake from the outside, but it was empty inside, like one of those giant wedding surprise cakes, only out of this one Mike Donais and Ben Broad pop out with guns and ski masks yelling "GIVE US ALL YOUR MONEY!"
Hearthstone teached me how card games work and i learned to love them, but i'm halfway to 40 years old and i need something more challenging, with layers of complexity, and less bullshit. I love rng stuff and enjoy in playing Burgle Rogue and such, but i really don't like losing 90% of my games if i'm not playing Machine Gun/Big Priest or Jade Druid. I'm aware that the game won't ever evolve into something more than this due to many limiting factors, so i searched for alternatives.
Duelyst
I started playing Duelyst in open beta, i was lured by pixel art which i'm a sucker for since i was born and bred when 2D was king. Underneath great art and music lies great layers of complexity. 9*5 grid, 6 factions and minimum random bullshit. Unit positioning plays a great role. "Lightning fast matches" is a marketing fad and it's far from truth. It takes time to play your turn thoughtfully. Decks are not too big (40 cards, you can have 3 of each cards), and hand fits 6 cards. Hero powers are present (each faction has 2, so total of 12 hero powers). Taunt, Divine Shiteld, Poison, Deathrattle, Secrets and the rest of the usual mechanics are all there. Balancing is done in a timely fashion and game is quite generous, really no need to spend money or WIN to get daily quest cash, but they demand more time it seems. There's Arena to, called gauntlet, rank floors (introduced before Hearthstone did), weekly boss fights with booster rewards etc. All in all, different, but much better experience than Hearthstone due to complexity, i still love it. Community is small, but i don't quite like it, they're a bit pretentious at times. Players who want easy and fast wins might not find it appealing. Big drawback is that we'll be seeing Android version nowhere soon, but you can play it in browser.
Star Crusade
Seems like a shameless Hearthsone clone but in a sci-fi setting and a few more added keywords like Pacifist (give can't attack), Armored (takes only 1 damage from each attack), Ignore Armor, Soak X (ignore first X damage of each attack), but it goes a lot deeper than that, it's more tactical. There's very little ring shit and at most it's usually deal 1 damage to random enemy. There are 6 factions and they're quite unique. There are hero powers which use a different source of energy than mana by casting specific cards or dealing damage. First expac has just been released so it's not too late to catch up, there's about 500 cards as of now. Game is generous, but i've yet to see crafting and disenchanting costs. Decks have 25 cards which is cool, games don't last long but have a good tactical depth (much deeper than Hearhstone). Great plus is a good android client. Graphics are bit generic though.
Faeria
I just started playing this one, and it's such a gem! There's no deck size limit tho you want to keep your decks smaller of course. Seems pretty generous and straightforward but i've yet to dwell deeper into it. Certainly a lot different than existing digital ccg's which may or not be everyone's cup of tea. Android version should be out soon, and great plus are excellent graphics.
Eternal
Ah. This one's amazing. All i wanted Hearthstone to be. I imagine perfect Hearthstone to have its make up and Eternal gameplay system. I dig the resource thing, deck sizes, the way you can attack with weapon, blocking, direct minion attacking with only certain type of units, fast spells, everything is top notch and brings out the strategist in you. It's certainly hard to master, but it's really gratifying to learn and play. Definitely the best digital ccg's have to offer. It also has Android version, but don't try playing it unless you own a tablet since everything is very tiny.
Elder Scrolls Legends
Basically Hearthstone with bland graphics, lanes and runes. There's no rng bullshit except one unit that deals 3 damage when it dies, and one that summons a random animal as far as i have seen. The thing that sets me off is that generic look, but i might get back to it now when there's an Android version. Ladder is very nice, with floors and stuff, and you don't get pissed when you lose since you know it was due to pure skill usually.
From all games I tried I like Eternal the most. It's combination of mtg(mechanics) and hearthstone (visuals) with very generous f2p model and pretty good mobile client too.
Magic the gathering Arena also looks really promising. But it's not out yet, you can sign up for closed beta tho. I really hope they don't screw up this one, we could finally get good digital MTG experience.
Heartstone wins with Lore and interface Elderscrolls and Gwent also have good interface and better gameplay but Lore cannot compete with heartstone especially because of the epic gaming history of Wow millions of players knows characters and feels more familiar with.
If you compare Yugi-oh was also same till synchro stuff people watched anime and integrated to the game more easily.
So right now what would make me to play another card game would be a game with Lotr characters and settings imagine you play Gandalf when he enters to board he screams you shall not pass and deathrattle he comes back as White Gandalf. Now that would be worth to play.
Heartstone wins with Lore and interface Elderscrolls and Gwent also have good interface and better gameplay but Lore cannot compete with heartstone especially because of the epic gaming history of Wow millions of players knows characters and feels more familiar with.
If you compare Yugi-oh was also same till synchro stuff people watched anime and integrated to the game more easily.
So right now what would make me to play another card game would be a game with Lotr characters and settings imagine you play Gandalf when he enters to board he screams you shall not pass and deathrattle he comes back as White Gandalf. Now that would be worth to play.
For me, as i come from non-warcraft related background, lore is irrelevant, thought the characters in Hearthstone are really cool. But i do care (but it's not the most important thing) how the game looks like, i want it to look at least pleasant and enjoyable while i play. And in that sense, even Blizzard started slacking by reusing animations and effects which makes things less unique. I made a small mockup of currently popular ccg's, when compared, Hearthstone is really not that much far ahead (besides Shadowverse, some probably find it appealing, but i don't like the look of it at all). All in all, one should not care about the looks that much because it doesn't matter that much in the end.
Edit: when i look at the picture now, Hearthstone actually looks like 3+ game compared to the others lol.
gwent,mtg,elder scrolls are good but not as similar to hearthstone
Shadowverse is a good game and was better than Hearthstone during the Shamanstone era. But right now, SV is an aggro fest and is completely unbalanced and unplayable, IMO. Unless you enjoy playing versus aggro 80% or so of the time.
I was also fed up with hearthstone in MSOG so I decide to try some other card games,
Tried TES Legends I like it but it didnt grew on me, tried again when the mobile app launch and i couldnt even start the game it kept freezen in a galaxy s7, so no i didnt played it anymore
Tried Gwent,, interesting new mechanics, but in the end no so fun for me,
Shadowverse, i hated it, i could not enjoy the gameplay because of the art, I am not an anime hater but I couldnt not played without being distracted.
i returned to hearthstone to complete daily quest and try some wacky decks to have fun, and eventually it got better, I remembered why i got in Hearthstone in the first place, the Warcraft relation and the general gameplay, (not the cards balance and shit) the animations, the flavor, the sounds,
Hex is good. PVE focus is strong and enjoyable. It gets hard so be prepared to farm just to beat a broke ass level! At least they are optional so you can still complete the main story
if you want a casual game like HS try Shadowverse or Eternal. If you want to go more complex try Hex, by far the best digital card game imo.
I'd personally recommend Plants vs. Zombies: Heroes (though it is mobile only).
The way the turn is broken up allows for a surprising amount of strategy, with Zombies having an interrupt phase that allows them to act before combat and plants needing to play around what they might play (and zombies of course trying to figure out what mana they need to save). I feel more of the cards are viable than in Hearthstone, too.
to move away from hs, i tried shadowverse for a while... didn't really enjoy it...
now i'm playing gwent more than hearthstone now... i just clear hearthstone daily quest and switch go gwent after that...
gwent is more generous than hs, easily 1 packs per day... while hs its like 0.6 to 0.7 packs per day based on my game time...
n you really do get to play your deck... cos you need to play 1 card every turn.
unlike many other card games where you typically start with 1 mana and get another next turn. in gwent, you can play any card. even your most powerful card in your deck...
n most impt of all, i experience less feeling of being screw by RNG. turn 4 smorc down to death while you basically can do nothing when all your cards in hand are 6 mana and above...
I really enjoy Faeria. Basically you play your cards to create minions on the board. So not only is there strategy involved in how you use your cards, but also how you position them to out maneuver your opponents minions. You gain mana automatically each turn, but you gain additional mana from controlling the mana wells, so you are rewarded for fighting for board control.
Another way it's different from other card games is that you dont lose your unused mana at the end of your turn. It's cumulative. So if you save 3 mana and gain 3 mana on the next turn, you can spend up to 6 mana or continue to bank mana to respond to your opponents cards. You can end up playing relatively big minions very early on if you are patient, which is an interesting alternative to Hearthstone's 1 drop on turn 1, 2 drop on turn 2, etc.
Check out my fun and innovative decks here:
Beat your opponent to a pulp with Revenant Warrior or outlast them with Demon Reno Warlock.
Tossing a coin.
Rock paper scissors.
Both quite similar with HS.
ON Faeria, it's basically Settlers of Cathan mixed with MTG mixed with a bit of Hearthstone. Like RevenantSC said, it is positional, which initially it was especially to understand how to place yourself towards the "crystal collection spots", and also especially since the game is position-oriented some creatures near taunts are "forced-to-engage" (which also takes a bit of strategy to avoid getting oneself into trouble).
However, ever since in Faeria that "that Yellow deck" existed, it reminded me much about Hearthstone until Knights of the Frozen Throne. Of course, what really "changed a lot in Hearthstone" is the "Card Text of Reno Jackson" (What I mean by that is, remember the time when people always strived-for "Consistency = 2 of each card = shortest possible decklist or that the decklist "does not scroll".
Even before the game turned to Wild/Standard, it's like a 2nd Wrath cannot be "entertained" even though there were things like Mana Wyrms, Tunnel Troggs, and Knife Jugglers, how "strict" is Reno really. I did however understand the strength of RenoLock but even when Reno decks do not truly exist for other classes, "one duplication" does not mean the end of the world because just like in any mode, your needed-instant heal can be at the bottom of your deck, or that you don't draw it anyway, or that you're forced with the same amount of damage the next turn after.
Anyway, I am glad that Reno Jackson got more people into "card text context" and also Lady Deathwhisper fight.
Or Lich King fight. I really like that many people from since Naxxramas took upon doing "All Classes versus Heroic Baron RIvendare or Heroic Thaddius [this was before when BGH was still 3-cost that made Heroic Thaddius still quite simple for 7 other classes]
Anyway, positional strategy matters a lot as well in Hearthstone, mostly from the time of Flametongue Totem or to counter Cone of Cold or Piloted Shredder. The other cards would be the rare times of Explosive Shot or Betrayal.
In terms of mana and tempo, when Zombie Chow first came out, most players tried really hard to deal "decay damage", talking about the -5 Damage. Or as rare as trying to get Corrupted Healbot to deal 8 damage. For the Zombie Chow movement, there was once when a friend of mine in a Friendly Match would have dealt -20 with 2 Zombie Chows at LATE-Game but I was eating my dinner while watching and couldn't type it until I later re-recorded it to talk about it with my friend.
The days of Zombie Chows turned to the natural essence of "board presence" and became what is essentially Turn 1 because it does infact cost 1, entailing that Card Text or that 5 heal "don't really matter since the Opponent will not FULLY benefit from a 5 heal.
I lost to "Tempo Warrior" played Varian Wrynn which summoned Grommash Hellscream, Frothing Berserker and a Kezan Mystic. He also had a remainder Slime 1/2 Taunt from previous Sludge Belcher taken down. But hey, I did a cool clear with my love for the card Betrayal, so here's a cool Dark Iron Skulker AND Betrayal turn (to remind you I still lost but it's a cool clear): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFvuAODoffc
I love Eternal. It is more like Magic than Hearthstone, but it has a much deeper interaction because of the resource system and the defender controlling where damage goes through.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/off-topic/other-games/200917-if-you-want-a-different-game-similar-to-magic-come
Eternal: https://www.direwolfdigital.com/eternal/register/?ref=180c0383-f75d-48eb-942b-7a5c78b4fdbb
Hearthstone: https://battle.net/recruit/GV2XRPRX5L?blzcmp=raf-hs&s=HS&m=mac
Highest possible recommendation for TES Legends. This awesome dude has a bunch of videos you can check out if you want to see the game in action:
Hearthstone was my first card game. I started playing when Blackrock mountain was released. The game had a developed player base already and i knew nothing about tempo, ways to play, meta, teching. I was persistant and grinded, grinded, grinded. It seemed that everyone had a better deck than me. I dreamed of Iron Sensei which was a rare card, took me quite long to obtain it. 100 dust is really much when you have almost no cards. My first legendary was Nat Pagle, i can't say i wasn't disappointed. I kept my persistency through control warriors (i was jealous of so many legendaries), freeze mages, dragon priests (oh that ysera, if i only had it i would be so powerful), face hunters, patron warriors, pirate warriors, quest rogues...then came druid. I could swallow even that. I don't even mind giants too, i fare very well against them, i shadowstep and shadowcast vilespine slayers and kick their ass. Then i got rekt by 24/28 board on turn 5 by priest and decided it was enough. I started getting a feeling that Hearthstone was a wonderful cake from the outside, but it was empty inside, like one of those giant wedding surprise cakes, only out of this one Mike Donais and Ben Broad pop out with guns and ski masks yelling "GIVE US ALL YOUR MONEY!"
Hearthstone teached me how card games work and i learned to love them, but i'm halfway to 40 years old and i need something more challenging, with layers of complexity, and less bullshit. I love rng stuff and enjoy in playing Burgle Rogue and such, but i really don't like losing 90% of my games if i'm not playing Machine Gun/Big Priest or Jade Druid. I'm aware that the game won't ever evolve into something more than this due to many limiting factors, so i searched for alternatives.
Duelyst
I started playing Duelyst in open beta, i was lured by pixel art which i'm a sucker for since i was born and bred when 2D was king. Underneath great art and music lies great layers of complexity. 9*5 grid, 6 factions and minimum random bullshit. Unit positioning plays a great role. "Lightning fast matches" is a marketing fad and it's far from truth. It takes time to play your turn thoughtfully. Decks are not too big (40 cards, you can have 3 of each cards), and hand fits 6 cards. Hero powers are present (each faction has 2, so total of 12 hero powers). Taunt, Divine Shiteld, Poison, Deathrattle, Secrets and the rest of the usual mechanics are all there. Balancing is done in a timely fashion and game is quite generous, really no need to spend money or WIN to get daily quest cash, but they demand more time it seems. There's Arena to, called gauntlet, rank floors (introduced before Hearthstone did), weekly boss fights with booster rewards etc. All in all, different, but much better experience than Hearthstone due to complexity, i still love it. Community is small, but i don't quite like it, they're a bit pretentious at times. Players who want easy and fast wins might not find it appealing. Big drawback is that we'll be seeing Android version nowhere soon, but you can play it in browser.
Star Crusade
Seems like a shameless Hearthsone clone but in a sci-fi setting and a few more added keywords like Pacifist (give can't attack), Armored (takes only 1 damage from each attack), Ignore Armor, Soak X (ignore first X damage of each attack), but it goes a lot deeper than that, it's more tactical. There's very little ring shit and at most it's usually deal 1 damage to random enemy. There are 6 factions and they're quite unique. There are hero powers which use a different source of energy than mana by casting specific cards or dealing damage. First expac has just been released so it's not too late to catch up, there's about 500 cards as of now. Game is generous, but i've yet to see crafting and disenchanting costs. Decks have 25 cards which is cool, games don't last long but have a good tactical depth (much deeper than Hearhstone). Great plus is a good android client. Graphics are bit generic though.
Faeria
I just started playing this one, and it's such a gem! There's no deck size limit tho you want to keep your decks smaller of course. Seems pretty generous and straightforward but i've yet to dwell deeper into it. Certainly a lot different than existing digital ccg's which may or not be everyone's cup of tea. Android version should be out soon, and great plus are excellent graphics.
Eternal
Ah. This one's amazing. All i wanted Hearthstone to be. I imagine perfect Hearthstone to have its make up and Eternal gameplay system. I dig the resource thing, deck sizes, the way you can attack with weapon, blocking, direct minion attacking with only certain type of units, fast spells, everything is top notch and brings out the strategist in you. It's certainly hard to master, but it's really gratifying to learn and play. Definitely the best digital ccg's have to offer. It also has Android version, but don't try playing it unless you own a tablet since everything is very tiny.
Elder Scrolls Legends
Basically Hearthstone with bland graphics, lanes and runes. There's no rng bullshit except one unit that deals 3 damage when it dies, and one that summons a random animal as far as i have seen. The thing that sets me off is that generic look, but i might get back to it now when there's an Android version. Ladder is very nice, with floors and stuff, and you don't get pissed when you lose since you know it was due to pure skill usually.
Gwent
Haven't tried it yet, but i will.
From all games I tried I like Eternal the most. It's combination of mtg(mechanics) and hearthstone (visuals) with very generous f2p model and pretty good mobile client too.
Magic the gathering Arena also looks really promising. But it's not out yet, you can sign up for closed beta tho. I really hope they don't screw up this one, we could finally get good digital MTG experience.
Heartstone wins with Lore and interface Elderscrolls and Gwent also have good interface and better gameplay but Lore cannot compete with heartstone especially because of the epic gaming history of Wow millions of players knows characters and feels more familiar with.
If you compare Yugi-oh was also same till synchro stuff people watched anime and integrated to the game more easily.
So right now what would make me to play another card game would be a game with Lotr characters and settings imagine you play Gandalf when he enters to board he screams you shall not pass and deathrattle he comes back as White Gandalf. Now that would be worth to play.
Shadowverse by far
gwent,mtg,elder scrolls are good but not as similar to hearthstone
Eternal
There is no cancer deck in hearthstone ! You are the Cancer !
try Krosmaga or Krosmaster, those are fun.
Its similar to MTG and very generous with cards. If you want to try, below is my invite link:
https://www.direwolfdigital.com/eternal/register/?ref=f2e58b10-dfed-4837-a3bb-aa2099a036e6