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Welcome to Part 3 of the series!
Healing Cards
The most basic class of healing cards is the direct heal spell. These cards generally tend to be relatively cheap and can heal a hero or minion. When used to heal a hero, such spells result in a loss of tempo and card advantage (due to spending a card and mana with no effect on the board) but result in a large increase in hero life. It should be noted that in general, healing spells are twice as effective as damaging spells; as such if Player 1 damages a hero or minion with a damaging spell then Player 2 heals that damage with a healing spell, Player 1 will in general have the larger tempo loss.
When a healing spell used on a minion to maximum effect, such a play results in a small loss in card advantage and an increase in tempo. First, why is it a small loss in card advantage? Because healing spells tend to heal for very large amounts, to use them to their maximum effect, they must be used on a large minion damaged to very low health. Such a minion still has value as a card, but because it is easily killed, it is not equal in value to a full card anymore. By healing it back to full health, you save the card, but it cost the spell card used in the process; thus, the net result is a small loss of card advantage. However, it is substantially less mana to heal a large minion than it is to play a new one; as such, healing the minion is a tempo increase. This setup can be deceptive however. It is often a rare occurrence to find a large minion which is so heavily damaged that a healing spell can be used to its full effect without the enemy completely killing such a minion. As such, it is far more common that if a healing spell is going to be used much of the healing will be wasted. In such a situation, the card advantage loss is more severe and the change of tempo will be worse (potentially a loss of tempo if the amount healed is too small). Because of this, it is more common to see healing spells used on the hero, where the full effect of the heal is far easier to obtain.
Certain minions have battlecries which heal. Some minions are limited to healing the hero, while others allow the player to choose which character they want to heal (minion or hero). Unlike healing spells, there is no card advantage lost due to the fact that a minion is placed on the board in addition to the healing effect. Healing minions will in general have lower stats than generic minions of the same cost, but how much of a stat loss occurs is fairly inconsistent (cheaper minions tend to have less of a stat loss). Healing minions tend to have less of a tempo loss than healing spells but also heal for far less. When such a minion heals the hero, the net effect is a small tempo loss in exchange for a small amount of hero healing (though it should be recalled that a small amount of healing may still be larger than comparable damaging hero effects).
When a healing minion’s effect is used to heal a damaged friendly minion, the result is usually both a tempo increase and a card advantage increase. The rationale for this is similar to when a healing spell is used to full effect on a minion, except that since a minion is being played in this case, there’s no card lost. As a result, bringing a minion back from near-death actually results in a card advantage gain, since you bring a card from being at fractional value due to damage up to full value. Similarly, you in general will save a substantial amount of mana by healing the minion compared to what it would have cost to play a new minion; even with the slightly lower stats of the minion which heals, this is usually a net tempo increase. Because healing minions tend to have relatively small heal compared to those of healing spells, it tends to be simpler to use these effects at maximum efficiency when healing damaged friendly minions. That being said, this still requires a friendly minion being damaged without dying, which tends to partially limit the usage of such abilities.
Hero Powers
The various hero powers are quite diverse, and in many ways define the class more than the class-specific cards do. As such, an in depth analysis of hero powers is beyond the scope of this article. However, what’s important to realize is that hero powers are designed to be roughly the strength of a 0-cost card or, at best, to be less than the strength of a 1-cost card. A few comparisons between cards and hero powers are shown below to demonstrate this.
Thus, all hero powers cost two mana but give the effect of approximately a zero-mana card. As a result, all hero powers inherently function as a tempo loss but a card advantage gain. Ensure this statement is not misinterpreted; many hero powers have the ability to generate tempo by killing off enemy minions or saving your own. However, as an example, what a Mage accomplishes with their hero power for two mana could also be accomplished with Moonfire for zero mana (but would cost a card in the process).
The tempo loss of a hero power tends to be more substantial at the start of the game, when playing a hero power in general will means there is not enough mana to take any additional actions that turn. In the very late game, due to having a large mana pool and potentially a small hand, hero powers can often be used without actually sacrificing plays available to you.
Conclusion
The purpose of this article was to provide a basic assessment of tempo, card advantage, and hero life. These three mechanics are the foundation for understanding more complex strategies, and will be competing resources in every game. It is important when reading the breakdown of various situations to understand that these are not judgments as to whether or not a play is the right play or not, even if the breakdown seems to imply this. Sometimes a “bad” play is the best play available. For example, using an 8-mana Pyroblast to kill a 6/2 enemy minion is hugely inefficient; but if you are going to die if you don’t kill the minion, and this is the only option available, then it is still the best play.
Using simply these concepts, you should be have a better grasp for whether certain trades and moves are advancing the game for you or your opponent better, beyond simply looking at which hero’s health is lower. Inexperienced players will sometimes look at the game as nothing more than a race between hero health, and as such, consider a player to be winning simply because their health is higher. But as indicated earlier, things are far more complex than this; while the hero’s health is indeed an important factor, such an advantage can be quickly reversed by a player who has tempo and enough cards to maintain that tempo.
And most importantly, while this article only covered the basics of these concepts, it is the first step to understanding more advanced plays and choices.
Really interesting read.
After recently finding out that there's a very low chance of us seeing another wipe, I've started playing some Hearthstone again.
I've searched for the other 2 parts of this article in the forums. Part 2 was easy to find. Is this Part 1? Sorry if it's a dumb question, I really couldn't find it (neither through google or the forum search).
Also, just a thought, maybe the previous parts could also be linked in the thread/post (at the end), I think it would make it somewhat easier for future readers.
As game is highly luck dependant correct static evaluation of the position is next to impossible. Card counts and board presence are indeed the key evaluation parameters.
Also moonfire is better due to spell power.
You can find it here.
http://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/managrind/articles/2916-the-three-competing-resources-tempo-card-advantage