
Having more life than your opponent does not mean you are winning. In hearthstone you have to consider the value of life. So when analyzing Board Pressence, be aware also of the players' current health. Even if you can not win on the current turn, if you can bring an opponent from 15 life to 5 and represent fatal damage for the following turn, that could be a better choice.

However, there are a lot of situations where that may not be the correct decision. Generally it is considered sound strategy to control the board (prioritize killing your opponent's minions over dealing direct damage). I would also like to tie the idea of Board Awareness to this. That does not mean that the player with the most minions on the board is going to win, but you need to understand in what situations what cards are useful. When you play an Arcane Blast that kills off 3 minions on turn 4 and you still have a 2/2 and a 1/4 each with +1 Spell Damage in play, you have captured board presence.Ĭertain cards help to generate board advantage more quickly, but trying to recapture board presence is like climbing uphill. Strategically, you need to be aware of the concept of board presence.

#Arena tactics hearthstone how to
You did get a draw out of the Shield, but understanding how to make cards work together will help you become a better player. Now if you opponent does have a spell to kill your creature on turn 2, they have gone "1 for 2" against you since you invested two cards already (plus the coin, which usually isn't counted). Powerword shield makes your minion a 1/5 (hard for your opponent to deal with on turn 2), it also lets you draw a card. A 1/3 creature played on turn 1 can draw a lot of cards if not answered quickly.Īn example of a great play for card advantage here would be going 2nd with a Priest, you play a Northshire Cleric for 1, use your coin and follow it up with Power Word: Shield. A great example of this is the Priest's Northshire cleric. In this sense, a card that draws cards can generate a powerful amount of card advantage sometimes by giving up Tempo.

Sometimes it is the best decision to do nothing (wait a turn).Ĭard advantage can also be thought of as "Number of card choices available", as in your handsize. Knowing what cards can be used in what situation to generate card advantage is important to increasing your skill level as a player. In the second example you would have gone "1 for 3" or "3 for 1" (it is often said either way, the point is 3 cards were negated by 1). If you used your Arcane Blast as in the 1st example in the last paragraph, you would have gone "1 for 1", that is, you used one card to kill 1 card. But if you instead play out 2 minions with +1 Spell Damage and play the Arcane Blast on turn 4 do deal 3 damage to all those minions and get 3 kills, you are creating card advantage.Ĭard advantage is often referred to as going "2 for 1" or "1 for 1". Card advantage is gained or lost based on the efficiency of your cards as well as how you play them.Īs an example, as a mage you could play Arcane Blast (deal 1 damage to all enemy minions) on turn 2 to kill his turn 1 creature with one health. That advice given, here are some areas to be aware of tactically.Ĭard Advantage is king - One of the first concepts you need to understand is card advantage. These will help you to see what other people have done well and poorly and you will be able to better understand your own mistakes. It is also valuable to watch them play with the decks they draft and to see how it all comes together. I have found his commentary to be the most insightful as to card value when drafting. TotalBiscuit has ~20 videos of himself drafting and playing Arenas. Sadly, he doesn't always speak through his thought process so it is harder to learn from him if you are not familiar with the game, so this is not the best place to start, in my opinion.Īnother option is to go to Youtube and watch some of the arena videos posted by Husky (huskystarcraft) or TotalBiscuit (thecynicalbrit). Kripp (kripperian) streams a lot and is a very good player. I spent over 40 hours watching people play before I got my access. If you go to, select "games" from the menu on the left and select Hearthstone, it will give you a list of people streaming their games. One of the fastest ways to do this is to watch videos of other people playing the game.

Learn the cards (all of them) and how they interact. The best way to learn is to gain exerience. I also have CCG experience from a long time playing Magic the Gathering. In my 93 arenas, my average wins is 5.29 (I have done at least 6 runs with each class). This question is pretty vague, but I will give the best advice I can from personal experience.
