Hearthstone VS. Shadowverse
Welcome back Nerds! I have arrived with the question that's on the mind of every living organism on this planet.. What's better, Hearthstone or Shadowverse?
I can save you a ton of reading right now if you only care about the outcome and if you truly believe there is a clear winner. They are both great CCGs. And I truly love them both. So none come out on top. But I will go into some detail about what they do right, wrong and the differences between the two. If you are the type of person who can only stick to one CCG and you are debating which to choose, or if you are a Hearthstone player and maybe never heard of Shadowverse before, let me enlighten you!
SUMMARY
Hearthstone:
I'm sure unless you have been living like Kimmy Schmitt these past few years, know at least what Hearthstone is. A CCG (Collectible Card Game) based on the Warcraft series. Essentially the theme of the game is that the Heroes and Villains of the Warcraft series settle down in a tavern to play some Hearthstone and blow off steam. if that seems confusing, think of how Gwent is used in Witcher 3.
The game launched to instant success and popularity because it's Blizzard. Nuff' said really.
Released in March of 2014, we are just three years into Hearthstones life and have seen many different changes and expansions. Finally, with a mass wealth of cards Blizzard had to introduce a Standard and Wild format to the game to make it more friendly for newcomers and less overwhelming/a money pit. But more on that later.
Shadowverse:
A fairly brand new title (Not even one year old as of this article). Released June of 2016 to what might seem unknown but was actually a massive success for Cygames (The company behind the game). Despite not even being out for a year, the game has made over 100 million in revenue.
Also extremely hot on Warcrafts trail with expansions. Not even a year under their belt and already three expansions available for players. Which may seem extremely intimidating for anyone looking to pick up the game for the first time, but Cygames does an amazing job at allowing a great start at their game. But more on that later
STYLE
Hearthstone:
If you have never picked up a Warcraft game or taken a glimpse at the ascetics of WoW (Word of Warcraft) you should know that the art style is slightly cartoonish with bright colours. The card designs themselves can be pretty amazing, especially when you are lucky enough to crack open a Golden Legendary card. Every gold card in Hearthstone is animated. If you are familiar with real life TCGs think of this like cracking open a Foil card. Any rarity can be foil, just as any rarity in Hearthstone can be golden. But those Golden Legendaries absolutely had some extra work put into them.
The tone of the game in general is pretty humours, If you decide to play the Adventures and earn the exclusive cards from these you will come to realize that the story of these Adventures tend to be very light and fluffy. Especially with the latest Adventures story revolving around helping a party host make sure his night doesn't fall apart.
It;s nice to have a fun CCG that doesn't take it's story seriously because technically Hearthstone is just a mini game within the grand story that is the World of Warcraft lore. And to be honest, I don't think a vast majority of players (myself included) play the Adventures for the story content. I play to earn the exclusive cards.
Shadowverse:
I guess you can say this game has a cartoonish vibe in a sense. And by cartoon, I mean anime. I, myself am not a huge fan of anime. Yes, I have watched every episode of DragonBall Z growing up and am waiting for more episodes of the DB Super dub, but that is my childhood. So needly to say, Shadowverse does not win any points in my book for having an anime style. That being said, it only makes the game more impressive that I love it so much despite it being anime. That and the art on many of the cards are stunning. Just as well, Shadowverse has Animated art as well. Same concept as Hearthstone, or any other CCG/TCG for that matter. But I's say Shadowverse has a leg up over the Golden Legendaries of Hearthstone.
However, there is a feature in Shadowverse's gameplay that allows you to Evolve one of your minions on the field. Any minion can be evolved and this gives that minion some stat boosts and perks. This also changes the art of the card. Most times becoming more magical to look at. There are though, some cards that when you evolve them, the art on the card just mirrors that of the regular art. This can make for some disappointed faces when you find a card is beautiful to look at, but they have a less than pleasing transformation. Still, I give the Style point to Shadowverse
GAMEPLAY
Hearthstone:
It's no secret that most card games borrow heavily from Magic: The Gathering. And HS is no different. However, the did seem to master how that gameplay would work digitally. And vastly improved on the formula to make it work better for their IP.
Rather than playing Mana (like MTG), you will automatically earn one Mana per turn. This eliminates having to build decks to a varying about of Mana to play with and saves you from having to rely on the statistics of actually drawing a Land card in order to play a card you have had in your hand the whole game.
This also means that deck size does not need to be as big, which has the potential for faster matches.
Both players will start with 30 Life Points. The point of the game is deplete the opposing players heath to zero. Or troll them so hard that they rage quit. Dealers choice.
Just as MTG has different Colours to represent decks themes and play style, HS has heroes. You pick your Class. Nine different classes are available for you to pick from, all with a vastly different play style. The Priest as you can guess excels at healing and making sure the opponent gets warn out before finally putting them down.
Warrior is all about building up their Armour so whomever they are facing will have to slowly chip through that armour before touching his Life Points.
Mage was always my favourite. Slinging spells and casting secrets to intimidate my opponents while transforming their 10/10 Deathwing into a 1/1 Sheep. Nothing feels so dirty as immediately laying waste to some of the most powerful cards in the game with a cleverly played secret.
Shadowverse:
While copying a great majority of the gameplay of it's competitors, Cygames does manage to excel in areas that HS doesn't. The biggest gameplay element which I already mentioned is the Evolution mechanic.
This allows you to evolve one of your minions the moment you play them. By doing this they do not suffer from Summoning Sickness (The inability to attack once played). Meaning they can immediately attack an opponents minion, not the player themselves though. This keeps the evolution aspect of the game balanced.
Players start off with 20 Life Points as opposed to 30 in Hearthstone. This can make for extremely quick matches if you build your deck to fight quick enough. Like HS, Shadowverse also carries over the class system. Which once again allows you to create very unique decks that play towards each heroes strength. Shadowcraft decks can use the power of Necromancy to summon the dead to the field. You gain once Necromancy point every time one of your followers is defeated.
Dragoncraft is my favourite, summoning card that give you more Mana that you can use your next turn, and an "Overflow" ability that allows certain cards to gain an extra ability by earning the "Overflow" ability. Essentially if played correctly, you can be summoning very powerful dragon creatures, much earlier than your opponent can get out their most powerful cards.
While many of the classes play similarly to Hearthstones heroes, that is because Blizzard has come close to perfecting the way a digital CCG should be played. You can only hope that Blizzard notices Cygames and takes some notes just as Shadowverse has clearly taken notes from HS.
ECONOMY
Hearthstone:
Three years and many expansions and adventures later.. Hearthstone can be a little daunting to jump into for new players. And if you are planning on spending money, you might be confused on where to spend it.
Both games are possible to play for free. But exactly how much enjoyment out of the game will you get? Lets break it down a bit..
When first starting Hearthsone you will get a decent amount of free content. Some Classic packs, cards and you will start to accumulate "Dust" and "Gold". Dust can be used to craft cards you want specifically, and Gold can be used to purchase packs of card. Gold is earned by completing your daily quests and every three wins against another player will net you 10 Gold. To buy a pack of cards you will need a total of 100 Gold. So after you have been playing for a while you are going to be getting optimistically one perhaps two packs a day. And thats if you are always completing your daily mission and playing (winning) quite a few matches.
The winning part is crucial here. Yes when you first start you are going to get free Classic packs and quite a few packs of the newest expansion. And it really is RNG based whether or not you will have a deck that can actually win matches to earn the gold you need to buy the cards. This is of course the plight of a free game. They do want you to spend money on the game to buy packs. And that's not a bad thing. Packs aren't too expensive and it's a fun enough game and popular enough that you don't feel that the money is wasted. If you don't get anything you like from the packs you can always turn them into "Dust" and craft what cards you do want. The fact still remains that if you are a new player, you will find that a player who spend money on the game is 9 times out of 10 going to win your encounters. But that is too be expected.
Shadowverse:
A little shy of a year in and already three expansions on the table. Cygames really wants to catch up to the juggernaut of the digital CCG games. And it is doing a fantastic job.
Let's talk about accessibility. Yes, three expansions have been released so far. However, Cygames is extraordinarily generous with giving away free packs. In my first half our of playing I earned close to 55 packs of cards. Spread across all expansions of the game. So I started with a very decent collection of cards and keep earning a generous amount of them still to this day. Just like HS you have daily quests, However, you also have achievements. These also earn you "Rubies" (Equivalent of HS Gold) so you can buy packs, and other achievements will earn you a card ticket. These are redeemable for 1 card pack of whatever expansion the ticket is named after. This eliminates the struggle of trying to choose what packs you want to buy when you are just beginning.
If you are playing the hardest difficulty AI and playing ranked PVP you can be earning an average of two to three packs a day. However, the potential in your first few days of playing Shadowverse, is coming in close to 80 packs. I have never experienced a CCG that was so generous to new players. By doing this it eliminates at least some of the barricade from the poor and wealthy players and lets basic skill and knowledge of the game decide the winner.
however, don't expect to becoming master of the game in your first month. Just like every free to play game, there are quite a number of people who play to win, and that often times means dropping some cash on the game.
After a few weeks of playing however, I feel I am well equipped to keep climbing the ladder, and I never really get discouraged because I know I am always earning new packs and learning how to create and master new decks.
Thos are the points I have been able to gather thus far on both games.
I am a massive fan of both. I have been playing Hearthstone since it's Beta, and have been very impressed with how far it has come and how popular it is.
I am now growing more and more fond of Shadowverse and am very excited to see what comes from it after its first year is over. I can only hope it succeeds and helps drive the competition. There is plenty of room for two fantastic digital CCGs in my life.
Let me know your experiences with these games, or if you haven't tried them but are curious! I'm out Nerds!
I can save you a ton of reading right now if you only care about the outcome and if you truly believe there is a clear winner. They are both great CCGs. And I truly love them both. So none come out on top. But I will go into some detail about what they do right, wrong and the differences between the two. If you are the type of person who can only stick to one CCG and you are debating which to choose, or if you are a Hearthstone player and maybe never heard of Shadowverse before, let me enlighten you!
SUMMARY
I'm sure unless you have been living like Kimmy Schmitt these past few years, know at least what Hearthstone is. A CCG (Collectible Card Game) based on the Warcraft series. Essentially the theme of the game is that the Heroes and Villains of the Warcraft series settle down in a tavern to play some Hearthstone and blow off steam. if that seems confusing, think of how Gwent is used in Witcher 3.
The game launched to instant success and popularity because it's Blizzard. Nuff' said really.
Released in March of 2014, we are just three years into Hearthstones life and have seen many different changes and expansions. Finally, with a mass wealth of cards Blizzard had to introduce a Standard and Wild format to the game to make it more friendly for newcomers and less overwhelming/a money pit. But more on that later.
A fairly brand new title (Not even one year old as of this article). Released June of 2016 to what might seem unknown but was actually a massive success for Cygames (The company behind the game). Despite not even being out for a year, the game has made over 100 million in revenue.
Also extremely hot on Warcrafts trail with expansions. Not even a year under their belt and already three expansions available for players. Which may seem extremely intimidating for anyone looking to pick up the game for the first time, but Cygames does an amazing job at allowing a great start at their game. But more on that later
STYLE
Hearthstone:
If you have never picked up a Warcraft game or taken a glimpse at the ascetics of WoW (Word of Warcraft) you should know that the art style is slightly cartoonish with bright colours. The card designs themselves can be pretty amazing, especially when you are lucky enough to crack open a Golden Legendary card. Every gold card in Hearthstone is animated. If you are familiar with real life TCGs think of this like cracking open a Foil card. Any rarity can be foil, just as any rarity in Hearthstone can be golden. But those Golden Legendaries absolutely had some extra work put into them.
The tone of the game in general is pretty humours, If you decide to play the Adventures and earn the exclusive cards from these you will come to realize that the story of these Adventures tend to be very light and fluffy. Especially with the latest Adventures story revolving around helping a party host make sure his night doesn't fall apart.
It;s nice to have a fun CCG that doesn't take it's story seriously because technically Hearthstone is just a mini game within the grand story that is the World of Warcraft lore. And to be honest, I don't think a vast majority of players (myself included) play the Adventures for the story content. I play to earn the exclusive cards.
I guess you can say this game has a cartoonish vibe in a sense. And by cartoon, I mean anime. I, myself am not a huge fan of anime. Yes, I have watched every episode of DragonBall Z growing up and am waiting for more episodes of the DB Super dub, but that is my childhood. So needly to say, Shadowverse does not win any points in my book for having an anime style. That being said, it only makes the game more impressive that I love it so much despite it being anime. That and the art on many of the cards are stunning. Just as well, Shadowverse has Animated art as well. Same concept as Hearthstone, or any other CCG/TCG for that matter. But I's say Shadowverse has a leg up over the Golden Legendaries of Hearthstone.
However, there is a feature in Shadowverse's gameplay that allows you to Evolve one of your minions on the field. Any minion can be evolved and this gives that minion some stat boosts and perks. This also changes the art of the card. Most times becoming more magical to look at. There are though, some cards that when you evolve them, the art on the card just mirrors that of the regular art. This can make for some disappointed faces when you find a card is beautiful to look at, but they have a less than pleasing transformation. Still, I give the Style point to Shadowverse
GAMEPLAY
It's no secret that most card games borrow heavily from Magic: The Gathering. And HS is no different. However, the did seem to master how that gameplay would work digitally. And vastly improved on the formula to make it work better for their IP.
Rather than playing Mana (like MTG), you will automatically earn one Mana per turn. This eliminates having to build decks to a varying about of Mana to play with and saves you from having to rely on the statistics of actually drawing a Land card in order to play a card you have had in your hand the whole game.
This also means that deck size does not need to be as big, which has the potential for faster matches.
Both players will start with 30 Life Points. The point of the game is deplete the opposing players heath to zero. Or troll them so hard that they rage quit. Dealers choice.
Just as MTG has different Colours to represent decks themes and play style, HS has heroes. You pick your Class. Nine different classes are available for you to pick from, all with a vastly different play style. The Priest as you can guess excels at healing and making sure the opponent gets warn out before finally putting them down.
Warrior is all about building up their Armour so whomever they are facing will have to slowly chip through that armour before touching his Life Points.
Mage was always my favourite. Slinging spells and casting secrets to intimidate my opponents while transforming their 10/10 Deathwing into a 1/1 Sheep. Nothing feels so dirty as immediately laying waste to some of the most powerful cards in the game with a cleverly played secret.
Shadowverse:
While copying a great majority of the gameplay of it's competitors, Cygames does manage to excel in areas that HS doesn't. The biggest gameplay element which I already mentioned is the Evolution mechanic.
This allows you to evolve one of your minions the moment you play them. By doing this they do not suffer from Summoning Sickness (The inability to attack once played). Meaning they can immediately attack an opponents minion, not the player themselves though. This keeps the evolution aspect of the game balanced.
Players start off with 20 Life Points as opposed to 30 in Hearthstone. This can make for extremely quick matches if you build your deck to fight quick enough. Like HS, Shadowverse also carries over the class system. Which once again allows you to create very unique decks that play towards each heroes strength. Shadowcraft decks can use the power of Necromancy to summon the dead to the field. You gain once Necromancy point every time one of your followers is defeated.
Dragoncraft is my favourite, summoning card that give you more Mana that you can use your next turn, and an "Overflow" ability that allows certain cards to gain an extra ability by earning the "Overflow" ability. Essentially if played correctly, you can be summoning very powerful dragon creatures, much earlier than your opponent can get out their most powerful cards.
While many of the classes play similarly to Hearthstones heroes, that is because Blizzard has come close to perfecting the way a digital CCG should be played. You can only hope that Blizzard notices Cygames and takes some notes just as Shadowverse has clearly taken notes from HS.
ECONOMY
Hearthstone:
Three years and many expansions and adventures later.. Hearthstone can be a little daunting to jump into for new players. And if you are planning on spending money, you might be confused on where to spend it.
Both games are possible to play for free. But exactly how much enjoyment out of the game will you get? Lets break it down a bit..
When first starting Hearthsone you will get a decent amount of free content. Some Classic packs, cards and you will start to accumulate "Dust" and "Gold". Dust can be used to craft cards you want specifically, and Gold can be used to purchase packs of card. Gold is earned by completing your daily quests and every three wins against another player will net you 10 Gold. To buy a pack of cards you will need a total of 100 Gold. So after you have been playing for a while you are going to be getting optimistically one perhaps two packs a day. And thats if you are always completing your daily mission and playing (winning) quite a few matches.
The winning part is crucial here. Yes when you first start you are going to get free Classic packs and quite a few packs of the newest expansion. And it really is RNG based whether or not you will have a deck that can actually win matches to earn the gold you need to buy the cards. This is of course the plight of a free game. They do want you to spend money on the game to buy packs. And that's not a bad thing. Packs aren't too expensive and it's a fun enough game and popular enough that you don't feel that the money is wasted. If you don't get anything you like from the packs you can always turn them into "Dust" and craft what cards you do want. The fact still remains that if you are a new player, you will find that a player who spend money on the game is 9 times out of 10 going to win your encounters. But that is too be expected.
Shadowverse:
A little shy of a year in and already three expansions on the table. Cygames really wants to catch up to the juggernaut of the digital CCG games. And it is doing a fantastic job.
Let's talk about accessibility. Yes, three expansions have been released so far. However, Cygames is extraordinarily generous with giving away free packs. In my first half our of playing I earned close to 55 packs of cards. Spread across all expansions of the game. So I started with a very decent collection of cards and keep earning a generous amount of them still to this day. Just like HS you have daily quests, However, you also have achievements. These also earn you "Rubies" (Equivalent of HS Gold) so you can buy packs, and other achievements will earn you a card ticket. These are redeemable for 1 card pack of whatever expansion the ticket is named after. This eliminates the struggle of trying to choose what packs you want to buy when you are just beginning.
If you are playing the hardest difficulty AI and playing ranked PVP you can be earning an average of two to three packs a day. However, the potential in your first few days of playing Shadowverse, is coming in close to 80 packs. I have never experienced a CCG that was so generous to new players. By doing this it eliminates at least some of the barricade from the poor and wealthy players and lets basic skill and knowledge of the game decide the winner.
however, don't expect to becoming master of the game in your first month. Just like every free to play game, there are quite a number of people who play to win, and that often times means dropping some cash on the game.
After a few weeks of playing however, I feel I am well equipped to keep climbing the ladder, and I never really get discouraged because I know I am always earning new packs and learning how to create and master new decks.
Thos are the points I have been able to gather thus far on both games.
I am a massive fan of both. I have been playing Hearthstone since it's Beta, and have been very impressed with how far it has come and how popular it is.
I am now growing more and more fond of Shadowverse and am very excited to see what comes from it after its first year is over. I can only hope it succeeds and helps drive the competition. There is plenty of room for two fantastic digital CCGs in my life.
Let me know your experiences with these games, or if you haven't tried them but are curious! I'm out Nerds!
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