If Magic the Gathering and World of Warcraft could produce a child; Hearthstone would be it. With just over 40 MILLION players, Hearthstone is leading the way in online strategy card games. With the newest expansion “The Grand Tournament” being released last August, it became the second expansion with many more to come, including one set to be released in the spring of this year.

So what exactly is Hearthstone and how do I play?

Hearthstone is a turn based strategy card game between two players. The objective of the game is to drain your opponent's life points, while maintaining your own. Before you start your matchmaking journey, you must first select a character to play and a deck to use. Once you’ve entered a match both players are given three random cards to which they can keep or discard in exchange for new cards. Then one player is randomly chosen to go first. The other player receives a card that allows the user to get an extra mana crystal to balance out the first play advantage. Once the game is underway both players start with one mana crystal, and each turn the amount of crystals goes up by one until a maximum of ten is possessed. The more mana crystals you possess, the more powerful the card you can put into play.

What characters can I choose from?

From druids to warriors, paladins to warlocks, Hearthstone has everything a fantasy lover could ask for. If you’re a fan of the Warcraft series you’ll notice some familiar faces including Thrall and Jaina. With nine different heroes to choose from, each with a unique skill and play style, Hearthstone is jam-packed full of hours of thought-inducing strategies and careful planning before the game even starts.

What kind of cards are there and what do they do?

Cards are broken down into three categories, you have minion cards, spell cards, and weapons. You use minion cards to summon minions to aid you in battle. Minions have both attack and life points and attack at the start of your next turn after summoning it, but are killed when their life points reach zero. Now minion cards can do a variety of things when summoned, from having a charge attack which lets you attack immediately, to buffing allies adjacent to it. Spell cards are fairly straightforward. Whatever the card says, that’s what it does. A fireball that deals four damage to all minions, will deal damage to all minions; no fancy trickery is involved. A weapon card allows the hero to gain an attack as if it were a minion and attack the other hero or his minions. However, any damage taken will be deduced from your hero’s life points, so be cautious.

Do I get all the cards? How do I get more?

You start off with some basic cards, but most cards are gathered through booster packs. Booster packs are a package of five random cards. You can get them one of two ways. The first is by simply paying actual money; each costing $0.99. Another method is by completing in game quests for gold, and gold can be exchanged for booster packs as well. The last method of acquiring cards is a bit different than the others. With this method you take the cards you do not want, and turn them into powder. With the powder you can make specific cards. So if you’re looking for that perfect card, this is your best bet!

What’s the community like?

With thousands of viewers on Twitch, and many online guides and forums, Hearthstone has, without a doubt, a thriving and rich community. Also be sure to check out the Hearthstone e-sports scene with the prize pools are up to $250,000!

Overall

Whether you rather sitting down for a few quick games or spending hours theory-crafting the best deck and strategy, Hearthstone is for you. While each game takes only about 15 minutes you’ll soon find the hours flying by. Also be sure to check out the mobile version. Just like the computer version mobile Hearthstone is free and easy to use! So be sure to check out Hearthstone free on Battle.net, and I’ll see you on the battlefield!