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?
Mirrored Sealed definitely seems like the winner out of those choices. For as much complaint as there is about RNG in Hearthstone, it'd feel incredibly bad to lose to somebody who lucked into drafting a ton of legendaries and epics that you don't have. All the same cards means that it comes down to building the better deck with what you BOTH have at hand. And that's sweet.
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I've talked about this with friends for some time now, and we agree that a tournament mode would be extremely enjoyable and helpful, as well as adding the ability to play against your own decks or against popular meta decks in Practice Mode.
Tournament mode would allow you to choose best of 5 or conquest, then allow you to choose your decks and ban one of your opponent's once you've been paired for a match. This could help players interested in tournaments get a taste of the format, and even offer some experience for those who want to test their own decks out before they enter a tournament.
Practice mode getting an expansion would be extremely helpful for players that are nervous about ladder and want something closer to the real thing than casual offers, and some players honestly just enjoy playing vs the AI for various reasons, some being they just enjoy the solo aspect of the game a lot or they don't feel confident in their decks and skills yet (though "trial by fire" and just diving in is honestly the best way to learn and improve imo).
These aren't big changes, but they offer some flavor and variety that both regular play and solo play could benefit from.
I want to see PVP Dungeon run best of 5 style game mode. Each player starts out on say with 20 health, and each picks from the randomly generated pool of cards, say 3 to start out with. Then “level up” after each fight, adding new cards to your deck each game and a bit more health. Would be a fun friend mode, lots of bragging rights.
I'd like to see some kind of a PvP adventure mode where the XP you gain during the matches really matters.
Say you start with zero XP and for each match played you gain XP that you can invest in your cards, e.g. for some amount of XP you can give a minion +1 attack or +1 health, give a spell +1 spell damage, reduce mana cost by 1 (would be much more expensive than e.g. +1 health).
The changes would be permanent for your card collection in this mode. Of course this could very well be a seasoned format so that each season all cards and XP are reset. I think this would lead to nice competitions like who would be the first one to find a broken combo etc ;)
Of course only players with similar amounts of XP would play against each other.
I think this is something much more easily to implement in a digital card game than in a real one, and in my opinion Blizzard is not taking full advantage of the fact that this is a digital card game when it comes to game play.
I'd prefer a limited format that utilizes a couple of Standard and a couple of Wild sets, and rotates every month or two. Standard gets monotonous quickly. Some of the degenerate stuff in Wild just isn't appealing; it also has a growing card pool but still neglects a mass of cards that have been power-creeped out over the years.
The idea would be to keep Basic + Classic as a way to give everyone an "in" to the format. One month may include GvG, TGT, Karazhan, and K&C. The next may be Naxx, LOE, Old Gods, and KFT. With the growing number of releases and different combinations that could be done the format would remain very diverse; just as a meta is beginning to establish the card pool changes. Also allows Blizz to push Wild cards in a less overwhelming way, particularly next year when there are four expansions and four adventures to choose from - if someone likes the pool for that month/every other month cycle, they can dig in to just the cut of sets featured.
Titan Mode: Players start with 50 health and a 50 card deck limit.
I'd like to see the ability to play friends with Arena decks, as in we both create a deck and play, perhaps best of 3 or 5
Also as previously mentioned, I'd like to see a tournament mode that allows for banning of classes etc. Something to make ranked more competitive.
i like both ideas but being a ex-MTG player, the pack draft i have to vote for. Problem with the mirrored idea is that each player has an idea of what cards are in each others decks being that all cards are the same for both players...
really like the mirrored seal, seems like it would be fun.
A mode : you can gamble cards or dusts LUL winner take all
There is more than one popular top tier deck in every meta. If you ban the very top deck the meta would just adjust to be centered on all of the other top tier decks that weren't banned.
See, but then the ban picks become a metagame, since its usually 2-3 top tier decks, so you get to ban one but not all. Some will ban the super popular one, others will ban the one with better winrates, and others will just ban some unrelated deck for meta reasons.
I get that this doesn't FEEL right to some players, since it punishes any deck that becomes monolothic, but it provides players with more tools to deal with overpowered decks and let blizzard know which decks FEEL the worst to play against, independent of what we TELL them - they'd have cold hard numbers on that info.
I would like to have raiding added to Hearthstone. One weekly boss attack, with a random class and a drafted deck. Do the most damage you can. When the boss dies, you are rewarded with packs, dust and gold. We would need a Guild Hall and the whole Guild system added to the game. It would make us interact more with our friends and reward players for being active.
Player made custom games. Like brawls, but where players can decide what goes into the brawl. What the theme is, previous mechanics used like Blackheart's treasure or random card costs, specific cards, wild cards, previous heroes used (Nefarian, Rafaam, etc.), a 2vboss battle, and more. I can see players getting super creative with this and it might help blizz figure out future expansion mechanics.
2v2 is the answer
I like both the ideas, but something more simple is better. Make it regular arena, but after every win you draft 1 or 2 other cards to replace cards in your deck you don’t want. Kinda like upgrading your deck.
to add to your thought,make it dungeon style! at 3,5,7,9 wins pick one new card to replace one old (same rarity) and at 11 wins pick three new (any rarity).another crazy thought : at 11 you get a treasure like the ones from the dungeons and the winner of the last game steals loot from the other guy (everything,just the pack/gold you name it)
I’m so dumb. I didn’t realize that my idea was just like dungeon run. I guess it had to come from somewhere. Your idea might be better, except for that last one. That’s too event oriented I think.
Id be happy with any additional game modes. Bring it!