Some tactics in Hearthstone require a bit more planning. But a victory only after 90 turns? Well, that is now a thing.
Hearthstone actually has quite clear rules. Whoever sinks to 0 health points first loses. Whoever can no longer draw cards suffers increasing damage each round. But after how many rounds does a Hearthstone match necessarily end?
This question wasn’t relevant before, as most matches are finished after a maximum of 40 to 45 turns – and even that is already an absolute exception.
However, with Knights of the Frozen Throne, players have gained many opportunities to increase their decks afterward, thus avoiding “Fatigue”.
One of these cards comes from the Warrior and is the Dead Man’s Hand – this shuffles a copy of all the Warrior’s hand cards into the deck. Should he have another Dead Man’s Hand in hand, then he can continue the game indefinitely.
Endless? No, not quite. After 90 rounds, Hearthstone decides that the fun must come to an end and the match is resolved as a draw.
Hearthstone always ends after 90 rounds
Nevertheless, matches can drag on for a long time. Many of these fatigue warriors rely on continually destroying the opponent’s minions while building armor. In general, the opponent eventually runs out of steam and dies from fatigue damage. The Fatigue Warrior does not have real “breakthrough” – but plenty of cards to eliminate the opponent’s minions, such as Brawl.
But what if both players are playing such a Warrior deck and can no longer defeat each other? In that case, the match ends after nearly 2 hours with the 90th turn and likely has effectively stolen everyone’s time.
For the upcoming HCT Americas Summer Playoffs, organizers have already established new rules. If a match ends after 90 turns, the player with the greater combined total of health points and armor will be declared the winner.
However, it is expected that tournament operators will have to come up with another solution in the coming weeks. Because when matches extend over up to 2 hours, it disrupts the entire tournament planning.
What do you think about players being able to “infinitely” increase their decks? Should this be excluded? Or is it good that even such ultra-long-term strategies have a place?
