Hearthstone

A few months back Hearthstone (online TCG from Blizzard) went into open Beta and I thought I’d give it a try.  A lot of MtG players were raving about how fun it was in closed Beta, so why not? Plus, I played a lot of World of Warcraft back in the day and all the characters were from the Warcraft Universe, so I was comfortable with the themes and silliness of it all.

Fast forward to today and I have managed to cobble together a budget Druid control deck and have started rolling Arenas with an average of three wins.  Sure, I’m not quite ready to “go infinite” yet, or climb the ranked ladder, but I sure am having fun with it.

The bottom line is that in the amount of time it takes me to play one match of Magic (if the game goes even a little bit long), I can play well over five games of Hearthstone. What this really means is that while I cannot play a match of Magic before my baby wakes up from what she considers a nap (10 minutes does not a nap make!), I can play at least one game of Hearthstone.

So, as I write this exhausted from walking back and forth until my tiny daughter sleeps, I just finished my second game of Hearthstone and it’s time for bed. Goodnight.

Having fun in a stale environment

Over the past six months I have played little to no Magic. When I have been able to play it’s only been for a game or two, never a draft or even a daily, and there is no guarantee my one game will finish. Ah, the power of babies…

But lately I’ve been able to escape my daughter’s frenzied baby-antics and play a few games of Standard on MTGO. I had originally swapped out my Junk Midrange deck for RG Monsters, but then I went down an even more verdant path…. mono-green! All I had heard was talk of how mono-black and mono-blue were dominating the environment, so I wanted to steer clear of those.

I find a lot of solace and peace in green cards that other colors just don’t have, not even white. Even though I’m likely casting some kind of hideous beast or murderous elf, there’s still a nice, verdant border surrounding the art.

So I built a green devotion deck and the few matches I’ve played have been really fun. It helps to win, but having fun with my limited time is really what I’m looking for. Cards like Garruk, Caller of Beasts, Kalonian Hydra, and Arbor Colossus do just the trick! See you in the practice room!