Hearthstone: Inconsistency with the cards – what were they thinking?

Ben Brode talks about the issue of inconsistency with some cards in Hearthstone – primarily affecting the Druid.

Simplicity vs. Consistency

At more or less regular intervals, Ben Brode, one of the lead developers of Hearthstone, sits comfortably in his chair and discusses the team’s design ideas. After previously discussing power creep and “bad cards“, he is now focusing on a new topic: inconsistency with cards. How can it be that some cards are identically structured and have a similar effect, but function differently?

Almost a pure Druid problem

For those who cannot grasp the term inconsistency, they probably will not have a conflict with it in the future either. However, Brode identifies the actual problem with the cards “Claw Druid” and “Ritual of War”. Both cards have very similar text, but function quite differently in detail. When choosing the Claw Druid’s “+2 Health and Taunt”, the minion transforms into a completely new creature – specifically a 4/6 bear. This is different with the Ritual of War. It remains a 5/5 minion in its base stats and only gains the extra health (or extra damage) as a buff.

What sounds unimportant now creates a strange situation for the opponent. Because the increased stats of the Ritual can be shrunk back with “Silence”, while this is not the case with the Claw Druid.

In the meantime, a slightly different strategy is being pursued. For example, with the “Druid of the Flame,” it explicitly states that the minion transforms into another one.

Brode believes that while consistency is very important, it is still less critical than in a physical card game. “In a physical card game, you only have the card that tells you how it works. This has to be absolutely clear if you don’t want a referee to be present all the time. In Hearthstone, you automatically have that referee with you. At the latest, after you have seen the effect of a card once in the game, everything is clear.”

Furthermore, they want to keep the descriptions of the cards as simple as possible. Perhaps this will change in the future, but for now, they leave the Claw Druid and the Ritual of War as they are.