Sprout and the Bean (Day 176)

I've been playing Hearthstone a lot lately and I can safely say that I really enjoy it. I'm still a relative neophyte, but I already have some gripes with game balance--or at least some of Blizzard's design decisions. I'm very much accustomed to Magic: the Gathering which I feel is a spectacularly balanced game (bar some notable exceptions) and Hearthstone is definitely not quite there yet.

I'm not in the upper echelons of the rankings just yet (and let's be honest, I probably never will be) but I've noticed that Hunter in particular is vastly overplayed. It seems to have easy access to a lot of very powerful, aggressively costed cards like Scavenging Hyena and Starving Buzzard. Its Hero Power, while very simple, is extremely useful in whittling down the enemy hero's health over the course of a match. Unless I have access to a lot of removal, it's easy to get overwhelmed by a Hunter's beast cards.

Priest and Druid are probably my favorite classes so far. Priest has a ton of removal and defensive utility while still having access to direct damage like Mind Blast and Holy Nova. Coincidentally, I was a pretty big fan of the class in WoW. I like Druid because I can put together decks quite reminiscent of Elf Overrun decks from MTG. Savage Roar is a nice 3 cost card that gives everyone on my side +2 Attack, including my hero. In addition to cards like the 1 cost Claw (which buffs up my Hero's Armor and Attack), I can dump down a lot of damage in a single turn.

One mechanic I'm not so sure about is Taunt. Its most obvious analogue in Magic is Defender, but they're actually quite different. Defender cards in Magic are typically very aggressively costed cards with high power and toughness--but unfortunately they can only block. Taunt cards in Hearthstone must block. The attacker must target an eligible Taunt card if able. Other cards cannot block at all. The problem is that these Taunt cards are costed as if they were Defender, without the normal disadvantages associated. This makes it difficult to run very aggressive creature (minion) decks because you're stonewalled by powerful and common Taunt cards like Senjin Shieldmasta and Booty Bay Bodyguard.

My opinion on the game may change as I progress through the ranks and acquire rarer cards to add to my arsenal. The game's definitely fun, but some classes certainly seem stronger than others. Hunter and Paladin seem quite strong, while Shaman might be too weak. I say this with relatively limited information on the subject, however. I will continue to experiment and see what I can figure out.