Opening Moves Week Day 5 - Those First 5 Turns
Opening Moves Week concludes! Today's final topic is "Those First 5 Turns".
Quote from Kevin HovdestadEvery day this week, we’ve had a little bit of wisdom to share with you on the earliest stages of a game of competitive Hearthstone—from deciding on a win condition all the way up to your early game strategy after the mulligan. Today, we close out the week with some cards hitting the table, as we discuss the first five turns of the game.
With your deck defined, fleshed out, an opening hand drawn, and an idea of which foot you’re starting on, the first five turns play a definitive role in shaping the outcome of your game. Aggro decks often empty their hands entirely and win or lose as early as the fifth turn. Tempo decks—looking to get strong board presence combined with removal, but with less pressure on their opponent’s health total early—need to clear up aggressive enemy boards, or be chipping away at a more control-oriented opponent’s life total. Control and combo decks will be trying to stabilize and draw to the high-value plays they need to make in the mid-game to outlast faster decks, or dig for their win conditions early on in games that look to go longer.
Turning Up the HeatIs my opponent playing to set up specific cards? If they don't utilize their mana, can I rule out the possibility they have certain cards in hand? Evaluate the game state. If you're in danger of falling behind, play ambitiously and take risks; if you're ahead, focus on denying options for your opponent.
Every deck’s early game play will be characterized by which resources the player is expending to move towards their win condition. Aggro decks will use up their cards quickly; tempo decks are willing to trade a little bit of life and some (but not all) of their cards for board control; control decks will pay with their life (literally!) for card advantage as they hold out for board clears and ways to gain life or armor.
Navigating these early turns correctly is crucial. For example, if two aggressive decks meet, there are a ton of moving parts to every turn that each player must consider. You want to deal as much damage as possible to your opponent to win the race, but as you exhaust your hand, taking a critical trade on the board to protect your life total and deal more damage over time (at the expense of a few points on the turn you take the trade) might be the difference between winning and losing.
And there you have it! We’ve reached the end of Opening Moves week. Hopefully these short daily lessons have given you a peek into what complexities the early game in Hearthstone has to offer. Let us know what you thought of the series in the comments, and stay tuned for more Hearthstone esports content in the weeks to come.
Good article
I just have to smile because of our beloved 4mana 7/7 in the background which was chasing us for such a long time :-)
Back in the days when Shaman was the ruling class.
Still dying at the comments on all of these. "Fuck you Blizzard! This game's not even hard.. or good. Why you writin' shitty guides?"
Why are you people even here? Is this a thing that people do now? Invest time in giving shit to people who like or work on something that they don't like?
You know what would actually be useful ?!
If every new player would get a free cardpack instead of every one of those useless essays !
> Pick Warlock
> Play Kobold Librarian
> Tap
> Tap
> Tap (or play Mountain Giant from time to time)
???
> Heal 3525245 HP
> Rat out demons
> Play Gul'Dan DK
> I greet you
Turn one: emote.
Turn two: Keleseth + emote
Continue emote until you win. If you somehow managed to lose, keep emoting
Well done. You are magnificent
"The pleasure is mine!"
Other than as hand-holding for truly new players, I can't see the point of these things at all. They are amazingly basic.
Then again, it's Hearthstone. Play on curve, draw your wombo-combo before the other guy, done.
Truly new players are rarely on sites like this
Current opening moves in hearthstone:
Fuck turn 1, just play a fire fly or something
Turn 2: Keleseth +- a couple shadowsteps
Turn 3: Southsea Captain and CHARRRRGE
Turn 4: Hold your opponent hostage, while spamming "I will be your death" as much as possible.
Turn 5: Your opponent who wasn't skilled enough to draw Keleseth by turn 2 or pull voidlord from Manari skull concedes.
On a side note though, I really respect the time and efford you put into these guides, even though most of the comments looks like the one I posted above.
Hopefully these short daily lessons have given you a peek into what complexities the early game in Hearthstone has to offer.
Sure bro
complexities? you mean playing curvestone? well played ben
Tell us about new expansion instead of this stupid posts blizzzz
what is the point in these articles?
To share a little bit of wisdom on the early stages of a competitive hearthstone game.