Cortyn has dared to take on Hearthstone again with the new expansion. However, currently, decks that are more geared towards solo players dominate.
Hearthstone and I have a difficult relationship. I actually like Blizzard’s card game, and for my personal enjoyment, I don’t care much if the developers sell skins for way too much money. That doesn’t change whether I like the game itself or not.
What bothers me, however, is a game design that produces decks that no longer need to interact with the opponent at all.
Cards like the Infinite Vastness are even banned in some modes:
Hearthstone, in its concept, has always been a kind of puzzle game. Alternately, you place one or more pieces on the board, and the opponent must find a response on how to react with their own cards. A long back and forth until it eventually becomes clear who has used the resources better (or had a bit more luck).
However, with the latest expansion “The Great Dark Vastness,” decks have become popular that require no interaction at all or can be influenced in any way. These are decks that basically just say: “I need to reach my win condition, and as soon as that is achieved, nothing can stop me.”
This is not inherently bad. If the win condition is hard to achieve and you have to play cleverly around what the opponent does, then that’s fine.
But currently, there are several decks that have reached this win condition as early as turn 4, 5, or 6.
Two Deck Examples That “Play For Themselves”
My absolute least favorite at the moment is the Rogue with the ability “Quasar.” The card costs 6 mana to shuffle the entire hand back into the deck, and then all cards in the deck cost 3 mana less. Through various methods, the Quasar typically costs 3 or 4 mana, so the Rogue can do this as early as turn 3 or 4.
This then leads to all cards in the Rogue’s deck costing between 0 and 1 mana. Since the deck also consists of many draw mechanics, exactly one turn after playing the Quasar, the inevitable happens: a fireworks display of damage effects rains down on the opponent. Often, 10 to 15 cards are played in one turn, and you drop from 30 health points to 0. Exciting, interactive gameplay. Not.
A similarly “great” deck currently is a Shaman deck that shuffles asteroids into the deck. Every time an asteroid is drawn, it deals 2 damage to an additional enemy. The Shaman can further increase the damage – to 3, 4, 5, or even more damage.
Since he can shuffle 20 or more asteroids into his deck at lightning speed, it usually only takes a few turns until you have to watch with a frustrated expression as he draws 10 asteroids or more in a row, and once again you go from “full health” to “bombed into digital oblivion” without being able to do anything to prevent it.
And yes, I know there are other decks that are similarly annoying and devastating. If I see one more Paladin that already drags my ears in turn 6 with his 20/20 minions, I will have a screaming fit.
Blizzard Is Responsible
Of course, one could say: It’s the players’ fault. If such toxic decks are effective, then they will be played and determine the meta. But I don’t think that’s the case here. The reason such tactics work is due to the design of the cards – and also because there are no counter cards against these strategies. Until a while ago, there was a card that could ruin such strategies by removing cards from both decks that had been added afterwards:
Now there is nothing like that anymore. These types of “I don’t care what the opponent does, I’m going to do my thing” decks are unstoppable and can only be stopped if you play such a deck yourself and hope that your death combo happens a little earlier.
It’s frustrating. In theory, the new expansion has many interesting cards that could create fun decks. But they have absolutely no chance against the currently far too strong meta decks, which require even less skill than is already the case in Hearthstone.
I can only hope that soon there will be a nerf or a clear change to these decks, because they are just frustrating. I have nothing against there being meta decks that dominate the game for a few months. But when there are decks that allow for no interaction at all and you think each time “I couldn’t prevent any of that,” then that’s just one thing: boring.
As of now, in Hearthstone, with the cycle of the current expansion, I only have one option left: to play the Battlegrounds mode. At least it is somewhat consistent, and a loss doesn’t feel like you have done nothing at all …
Maybe the Warcraft Direct will provide glimpses of a better Hearthstone future.
