Hearthpwn

I think Zeddy covers it best here:

The Demon Hunter Effect

Paraphrased from Reddit:  HearthStone is like that girlfriend who's no good for you but to whom you've become too attached to leave.

I've been playing since BRM, and despite trying to quit several times (I actually managed to for 3 weeks just before and during KFT), I just can't seem to pull myself away.

I often feel mysteriously pressured to play every day -- or at least enough to knock out daily quests every 3 days.  Part of that feeling comes from having spent so much time and money on this game that I can't bear to drop all the "work" I've put in.

Advise I would give to any player is to avoid watching the "Salty" streamers.  While Kripp certainly speaks more truth than not, it's easy to let his negativity get in your head and jade your experience.  (Instead, watch Kibler, DisguisedToast, Savjz, etc.)

Overall, HS is worth playing -- especially if you're familiar with Blizzard's universes.  However, it costs a significant amount of time and/or money to "keep up".

Quote from achan1058 >>

Quote from Maehlice >>

It's practically a coin flip whether you draw your early game answers or not.  If you draw them, you probably win.  Else, you lose.  In some cases, you effectively win or lose on Turn 0.  Sounds fun.

 But why would that be aggro's fault? It's the control deck that's coin flipping. The aggro deck always have stuff to play.

My personal opinion: aggro vs aggro is skill intensive, control vs control is skill intensive, aggro vs control is brain dead from both sides.

The crux of the problem is that it triggers upon summoning a minion.  Change the text to play along with re-balancing its cost, and things will be fine.

The issue you're going to run in to is how to effectively count for duplicates in subsequent choices.

Say, for example, your deck has 12 spell cards remaining -- 6 singletons and 3 pairs of duplicates.  You are searching for one of the duplicates.

In your first roll, the odds are simple:  1 - ( 10 / 12 )

However, the odds of succeeding in the second roll are either 1 - ( 9 / 11 ) or 1 - ( 8 / 10 ) -- based on whether your first option turned up one of the singletons or one of the duplicates

So there is a significant range, which increases with the fewer number of cards available.

The odds for my hypothetical case is between 1 - ( 10 / 12 ) * ( 9 / 11 ) * ( 8 / 10 ) = 45.45% and 1 - ( 10 / 12 ) * ( 8 / 10 ) * ( * 6 / 8 ) = 50% 

As a bonus, the two median possibilities are 1 - ( 10 / 12 ) * ( 9 / 11 ) * ( 7 / 9 ) = 46.96% and 1 - ( 10 / 12 ) * ( 8 / 10 ) * ( 7 / 9) = 48.14%

Quote from Skylarapas >>

Quote from Maehlice >>

Quote from Skylarapas >>

 P.S.: If anyone has found another counter for Exodia Mage please give me some info.

 Play Exodia Mage, and you'll find out very quickly it is barely even a Tier 2 deck.  Exodia Mage is essentially a 12-card combo, and one of the cards is an absolute must have (Archmage Antonidas).  So not only do you have to create 6 random cards and play them, but you must also manage to draw into a 5-piece combo all while staying alive for 12+ turns.

• Hunter counters Exodia, because of its hero power.
• Burn Mage can beat Exodia, because of its burst and hero power.
• Ra'zakus Priest counters Exodia, because of Shadowreaper Anduin's hero power.
• Handbuffadin counters Exodia, because of Chillblade Champion and weapons.
• Rogue counters Exodia, because of both Sap and reach.  (Mill Rogue especially counters Exodia, because Exodia's huge hand is always a juicy target.)
• Any deck with Silence can beat Exodia, because silencing a Doomsayer post Frost Nova is often GG.

Exodia is not hard to counter.

Quote from Skylarapas >>

 Because without aggro, each player would play a bullsh*t deck, filled with crappy pointless cards

Please expound upon for me (A) what exactly constitutes a "bullsh*t deck" and (B) how it is a deck with "pointless cards" has any chance of winning (spoiler alert; none of the cards are pointless).

 A bullsh*t deck is a deck, that relies on pure greediness to win. Full steal Priests, "Control" decks with a crapload of legendaries (like 9-10) Wannabe-Dragon decks, Raza-Kazakus-Dragon-Steal-Mill-Velen-Deathrattle Priest-type decks. Generally any deck that has a weird curve at the expense of early board control or recovery mechanics, that are absent when aggro decks are absent. Why would you play Spirit Lash without aggro decks on the horizon?

Pointless cards is something like playing N'Zoth Dragon Paladin and putting Deathwing, Dragonlord in because dragons & N'zoth, duh. Which makes no sense, ruins the curve and it's useless against anything else but Midrange decks, with little or no removal. 

People do play this sh*t decks 1) When a new expansion is live for experimenting 2) When there's not a good aggro deck to prevent them from playing anything that comes to their minds. 

 

Quote from Skylarapas >>

Exodia Mage has no counter means there isn't a Skulking Geist type of card to use against it. 

I prefer Shaman DK.  Zombeast is fun and high value, but it's ultimately anti tempo, since every minion costs 2 more than its play cost.

Deathstalker Rexxar is really fun in Wild, though.

Bittertide Hydra can only be chosen during the first Discover set, which is out of 39 cards.

Stonetusk Boar can only be chosen during the second Discover set, which is out of 17 cards.

Odds of succeeding the first step is 1 - ( 38/39 * 37/38 * 36/37 ) = 7.692307 %

Odds of succeeding the second step is 1 - ( 16/17 * 15/16 * 14/15 ) = 17.647058 %

Odds of succeeding both steps is 0.07692307 * 0.17647058 = 1.357466 %

From https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Deathstalker_Rexxar:

• Build-a-Beast allows the player to create a Zombeast through a Discover-like interface. The player is presented with 3 Beast minions twice to choose from. The first choice will always be from Beasts with card text, whereas the second choice will always be from Beasts with either only keywords or no card text at all.^[1] A minion card is then generated for the player with the combined mana costs, Attack, Health and card text of the two Beasts. The Zombeast will have the card art and quotes of the first minion chosen.^[2][3]
  • Minions with Battlecry and Enrage count as being in the first pool of cards, since they have additional text besides the keyword to specify what their effect does (for example, "Battlecry: Deal 1 damage", or "Enrage: +2 Attack", instead of simply "Battlecry" or "Enrage").^[4][5]
  • Hunter Beasts and neutral Beasts have an equal chance of being offered.^[1]
  • The player will never be offered a Beast that costs more than 5 mana, since this could potentially create a Zombeast that costs more than 10 mana and is thus impossible to play under normal circumstances.^[6]
• If Build-a-Beast creates a Zombeast with a Deathrattle effect, the Zombeast will be able to be resummoned by N'Zoth, the Corruptor's Battlecry.^[7]

My previous answer was way off.  Recalculating ...

At 5-mana or less, there are 20 Hunter Beasts and 36 Neutral Beasts

Since Class cards are 4x more likely to appear, the total pool is essentially out of (20*4) + 36 = 116.

The odds of NOT getting one of the two desired beasts on the first step is (114/116) * (113/115) * (112/114) = 94.872563 %

Therefore the odds of succeeding in the 1st step is 5.127436 %

And, the odds of NOT getting the other desired beast on the second step is (114/115) * (113/114) * (112/113) = 97.391304 %

Therefore, the odds of succeeding in the 2nd step is 2.608695 %

The odds of succeeding at both is 0.05127436 * 0.02608695 = 0.133759 %

EDIT:  Forgot to consider duplicates.

EDIT2:  Sources or duplicates:  Source, Source, Source

EDIT3:  Omitting Beasts of other classes (whoops).

I think it is a monkey see monkey do right now but in a week or two if they do not see 50% win rates those desks will disappear.

Good, Good my minions... Today, the probability to get  a specific monster. Tomorrow THE WORLD!

(Laughs maniacally)

I've been playing HS since beta, have spent probably $300-$400 on it and play fairly casually, maybe 3-4 games a day on average. The fact I'm still playing the game > 2 years in means that is money well spent. I have basically all the cards I'd ever want and generally open 100 packs or so per expansion.

So I've spent < $1 per day, and I can't think of any other game I've played for > 3 months in the same time I've been playing HS. 

It would be funny if they decided to "buff" it so that it now draws 15 cards instead of 5. 

To answer the title: I f2p by playing without spending money. That is all.

Its a game.  Just enjoy playing it, or dont play it.  Dont get obsessed with the carrot on the stick, like 99% of Hearthstone players who are grinding just so they can get some free cards.

Time is money.  In the time people spend grinding rewards in this game, you could get a part time job, earn some money, and just buy like 50 packs every few weeks.  Jesus christ man.  

Quote from Dragren2799 >>

I see no point in net decking at such low ranks. These ranks are so far away from legend so why bother playing a stale deck with no fun/skill?

Encounter at the crossroads was always kinda-sorta cool, because it promoted board control and favorable trades and the occasional lucky RNG draws. Party crashers just completely kill this way of play with endless unavoidable smorcage, much like pirate warriors and other mindless face decks.

This can't be an accident by Blizzard and I sincerely believe they're trying to highlight how unfun it is to play against face decks.

You know what's terrible? LITERALLY ALL OF THESE EXCEPT FIREBALL AND SI AGENT