Hearthstone Needs More Game Modes - What New Modes Could They Create?
Game modes are always an interesting topic in the Hearthstone community. Originally, the game on release had regular play through Ranked and an Arena mode originally called The Forge. Over time we received Tavern Brawls and Adventures which made for some other great content to play through, though that doesn't run all the time.
Without a doubt, the Hearthstone team is still interested in adding more modes to the game though, proven with Dungeon Run being added in the Kobolds & Catacombs expansion, though PVE content isn't for everyone.
Clearly, Hearthstone needs more game modes!
We've been thinking about it recently and had a couple of ideas we thought were worth bringing up to encourage community discussion to see what ideas other people have. We're interested in different ways of drafting cards much like the Arena, so we're going to talk about that!
The modes described below both share a unique attribute Hearthstone doesn't currently have in that it would be something played upon entry and not something you can play over time like Arena. You'd also be paired up with an opponent (maybe even multiple people - tournaments?) and we think playing a few matches against them, best of 3, would be a better test of skill and make the processes more worthwhile.
Idea #1 - Pack Draft
Hearthstone's Arena is modelled after a traditional card game drafting tournament but downscaled for one player. What would normally happen is a pack of cards is opened and each player participating in the draft event take turns picking cards from the packs until they're all gone, which ends up being a very lengthy process.
Blizzard themselves has stated having a true draft would take too long, so why not draft packs of cards instead of single cards, taking turns between players?
- You end up in a lobby with your opponent(s) where pack selection can take place.
- In order, each player takes one pack from the pool of packs until all packs are exhausted. Pack contents are visible.
- You build a deck using the cards opened from your packs in a limited amount of time and then fight!
Idea #2 - Mirrored Sealed
Similar to the first idea, you're going to receive a brand new set of cards to build your tournament deck with, but there's no drafting phase at all!
- Each player receives the exact same collection of cards from randomly opened packs.
- You're given a set amount of time to build your deck using the cards opened from those packs.
One neat take away from this idea is that it can add some serious depth and mind games to the deckbuilding process. You have the exact same cards, who can build and play the stack they're dealt better?
What do You Think?
Polls are awesome and we'd like to know what you think. Which of our ideas do you think is better and even more importantly, what ideas do you have for new game modes?
Sealed please. Just have "play whoever is on", MODO does that now anyway.
Not really interested in draft mode. Tournament mode on the other hand would be cool. They could have big Sunday tournaments like the poker sites used to have and little "sit n go" style tournaments with maybe 8 players. Make it like 100 gold entry fee with payouts going to the top finishers and please don't have a rake. No need to get greedy with it.
pauper mode. only basic, common and rare cards allowed.
Inc ZooStone!
How about a "Giant Mode", with a 35 or 40 deck size, increase health, and (just) maybe start with extra mana. (Of course that would also mean to increase the turn limit before the game ends in a draw)
Follow the example of Overwatch, take the numerous brawls from over the years and put them in "the pit" where players can access them to play at any time.
Yes, please! Kind of like WoW's bg system, but with HS brawls.
monthly or even weekly bans(1 card for every class and 2-3 neutrals). we we dont have to play against the next patches and anduin for ages again. maybe let the community vote for 1 class and neutral card every time
And how would people feel when the cards they crafted with their hard-earned dust gets banned? Blizzard couldn't give full dust refund for temporary bans.
Good idea, but I'm not sure it would work.
easy solution,ban lasts 1 week and you cant ban the same card two weeks in a row
2v2 game mode please blizz
Highlander.
Possibly without special card types such as Quests or Dark Knights.
I feel like a game mode where you can only use random sets (brm, msg, Naxx, etc) that would change every once in awhile to make it always fresh.
Modern format: constructed ladder where the newest six expansions are legal – no evergreens, rotation with every expansion launch. Would be fun i think.
Well, thats actually the current standard (the evergreen sets are comparable to the mtg coresets that brings back the same cards almost always, they tried to remove them in origins but had to backoff in that idea)
No it's quite different from standard as there would be no evergreens and three rotations a year instead of one.
Clan war would be great no doubt that maybe a clan will be about 5-10 members and they, of course, face other clans with a given time or period depends how it goes. Cards regarding, If it's 5 members per clan they will be given altogether 150 cards (spells and minions) per class and they can get to choose their class and choose 30 cards from the 150 and build a deck to face off opponents clan member chosen randomly, I really dunno how to explain it but yea. All I'm saying, in general, is clan wars in HS will be so damn epic like seriously. Hear me out Blizz!
How about a nice and simple tournament mode?
How about a game mode where you battle it out with deck recipes? It'll give people a reason to collect them and blizzard can balance those decks.