Hearthstone is a heavily strategy-based digital card game that involves a lot of advanced mechanics that might prove to be intimidating for new players. The biggest thing that turns a lot of players off when starting out is when they find it too challenging to win matches in the main game mode – Ranked. Luckily, this beginner’s guide aims to show players the best ways to improve their gameplay so that they can increase their chances of winning more games.

BlueStacks' Beginners Guide to Playing Hearthstone

Even the early ranks of Hearthstone contain a lot of skilled players who are obviously familiar with advanced card game strategies. Players with more resources are able to build a full deck the moment they commit, but that shouldn’t stop free-to-play players from competing. It may take F2P players more time to build their decks, but once they’ve created a complete deck, they can begin climbing up the ranked ladder and fight on equal ground against any type of player.

Choosing a Class

The first and most important thing that players (especially F2P ones) need to do is choose a class that they’ll commit to. Building a deck can have a hefty price, and if you choose one that you don’t like or one that doesn’t match your playstyle, it’ll take even more time to build another deck. When you begin playing, it’s recommended you play the various game modes since they don’t require a full deck to compete, which should give you a general idea of how the decks work.

BlueStacks' Beginners Guide to Playing Hearthstone

A great thing that players can do when choosing a deck is to watch some videos online that contain highlights of how a deck or archetype works. There are so many Hearthstone streamers and YouTubers that upload their games and guides that cover how to pull off various classes and deck builds. Once you find a deck that you can really connect with, that’s when you should start building your deck, ensuring to use the scarce resources that you’ll get as you progress through the game.

Creating Your First Deck

Creating your first deck is the trickiest part of the game because of the Booster Pack system. Cards are acquired either by getting them from a pack or by crafting them using Crystals that are acquired from destroying non-Core cards. Players have the option to keep cards that they own, but if you want to speed up the process of building your first deck, we recommend destroying as many non-essential cards as possible to build one that you’ve committed to playing.

BlueStacks' Beginners Guide to Playing Hearthstone

Destroying cards only rewards you with 1/4th to 1/8th (depending on the rarity) of the cards’ original value. This means that players that are just starting out don’t have the luxury of building multiple decks at once. The best way to speed up the process of building your first deck is to stick with one class and destroy all of the cards that you get from other classes to earn Crystals. Once you’ve built your deck, stop destroying cards and prepare for future sets because you might need them.

Learning How To Use Your Deck

Learning how to use your deck is where players may start to feel regretful. A lot of players start to believe that the deck they’ve built sucks, but they shouldn’t give up too early; chances are that the player is to blame rather than the deck. Every deck has a chance to win, even if it’s not an equal chance (other decks have higher chances of winning). The best thing to do in these situations is to learn from your losses and start mastering how your deck works the old-fashioned way: trial and error.

BlueStacks' Beginners Guide to Playing Hearthstone

A player that masters their own deck will start having somewhere between a 40% to 70% win rate. This should get you through apprenticeship and allow you to prepare to build a better deck in case the first one you built truly isn’t viable. Even the strongest deck will have a very low win rate if the player doesn’t know how to execute important combos and create counter-plays in their heads when facing certain matchups. In short, just play the game until you git gud.

Keeping Up With The Meta

There are two types of players: the ones that play to enjoy (4fun players) and meta slaves. It doesn’t really matter what type of player you are because the main purpose of playing a game is to have fun and enjoy it. If winning is your main source of joy, the meta is your best friend. Keeping up with the meta is an important part of being a competitive card game player. You can do this by researching the trends, win rates, and popularity of certain decks online, either in forums or databases.

BlueStacks' Beginners Guide to Playing Hearthstone

There isn’t a card game in existence today where one deck archetype isn’t well ahead of its competition. Unfair, sure, but that’s just how the game works. The great thing about card games is that there are often rock-paper-scissors-type matchups where one deck is a counter against another deck. This will equalize your chances as long as you study your environment and learn which archetypes are more popular in the current rotation that you are playing in.

Preparing For the Rotation

One way that card games try to make the game interesting is by introducing the Rotation system. The rotation basically means that new cards are introduced in Sets which will make certain decks stronger while others suffer. Old cards will Phase Out, meaning they’ll either become too weak to use in the current meta or totally removed from the game. This is a healthy part of the game since it prevents some card archetypes from being too overpowered for too long.

BlueStacks' Beginners Guide to Playing Hearthstone

Players should prepare for the rotation by learning when the next set will arrive and which cards will be removed. Reading up on the new set from articles online or by watching videos from credible Hearthstone players will allow you to determine if the upcoming set will make your class stronger or weaker. During this time, you should decide if you want to continue playing your class or start earning enough Crystals to jump ship and play another class.