The potential for harassment is simply a facet of the online gaming experience. That’s a truth I’ve known since I first loaded up Neopets on my parents office computer back in 1999. I had been playing all of four days when I received a rather vulgar message from another player about my username. I was 12 at the time and it really bothered me. It actually bothered me enough to initially quit. My friends later got me involved again, but I was leery because of what I’d been called. People being difficult (and that’s putting it kindly) in online games has not changed since then. If nothing else, it’s gotten considerably worse as the term ‘trolling’ has become increasingly trendy. It’s now considered the height of cool to hurt the feelings of others. I can’t claim to understand why that’s the case. It’s frankly for brighter minds than my own. […]

Nat Pagle has become a staple in just about every top tier deck these days. It’s impossible to escape him. He’s all over the place unfairly giving your opponent card advantage while you curse your unfortunate draw. Nat Pagle can be a double edged sword though, if left unchecked. If you fall into a situation where you have no cards left to draw, he might just fish up your doom!  

Deck slots are precious, and several cards in Hearthstone are somewhat similar. So which one do you choose? Every Saturday, we take a look at two somewhat similar cards, and two of our writers will duke it out and make their best case to convince you that their card should be the one deserving of one of your precious deck slots. Loot Hoarder vs. Ironbeak Owl Leviathan: Another week, another battle! We’ve cycled back around to two drops, and I just have to take a moment to say that I think the cards within this mana cost are probably my favorite. You see quite a bit of variety both in power and health, but especially in card text, too. A good introduction for what we have before us today – Loot Hoarder vs. Ironbeak Owl. When Rongar presented me with our options, I immediately turned the tables back on him […]

In a press release from Berlin Germany, ESGNTV announced today that the SeatStory Cup, which takes place this weekend in Krefeld, Germany, will be the first on-site production of the web-based eSports channel. The live broadcast will be going on air on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the early afternoon (CET), to take an extensive look behind the scenes of the thrilling StarCraft II and Hearthstone matches, as well as interviews with professional players, turtle races, and further amusing offline antics. Alongside ESGNTV‘s main host, Dan “Frodan” Chou, and the popular commentator/player Dan “Artosis” Stemkoski, who ESGNTV viewers already know from the Hearthstone and StarCraft II edition of ESGNTV’s Fight Night, the Dutch commentator Kevin “RotterdaM” will also join the crew for the first time. Competing for $15,000 in prizes are eight of the top Hearthstone players in the game right now. They will all have a “Top Secret” deck that […]

Every Friday, we will be sharing with you our Blue Post Round-up – the “can’t miss”, quirkiest, or most insightful blue posts from the previous week. Golden Heroes Coming: With the next patch, players will have the opportunity to unlock a gold version of each hero for 500 ranked wins in that specific class. In addition to a new hero portrait, there will be added animations, and added effects to the hero power. Golden Heroes are coming soon to Hearthstone! With the next patch, when you hit 500 wins in Ranked Play mode with any given Hero, that particular Hero will become golden permanently! Golden Heroes gain cool, unique animations to their portrait and Hero Power. You can track your progress with any given Hero quickly and easily on the deck selection screen in Ranked Play mode. Look forward to gilding all of your Heroes in the finest of metals soon!. (Source) Weekly […]

Every Friday legendary player [DKMR]Alchemixt breaks down Don’t Kick My Robot’s “Deck of the Week” . These decks are seeing a lot of play either in constructed ladder or tournaments. Team DKMR explain the deck lists and how to play them. Make sure you check out Don’t Kick My Robot if you want to become a better player or check out their premium services if you would like them to do a 1 on 1 coaching session with you to help you better your game. View past Deck Lists of the Week. Team DKMR: Twitter | Website | Forums [DKMR]Alchemixt here from team Don’t Kick My Robot to bring you this week’s Deck of the Week.  And the deck is, Standard (Aggro) Hunter. Hunter decks are a favorite on the ladder for their lightning fast games, consistency, and its also pretty cheap to build. There seems to be many variations of Hunter as well […]

The hype train is building for IEM Katowice, one of the many major global events the ESL puts on every year. I spoke at length about it last weekend, informing you guys of the upcoming involvement of Hearthstone for the first time in the normally Starcraft II dominated eSports scene, at least as far as Blizzard is considered at these events. Well, an official blog has issued forth from Blizzard themselves giving us further details of what to expect not only from the Starcraft portion of things, but also Hearthstone. If you end up going and taking a picture in the Legendary card booth, leave a comment with a link to it for all of us to see! Don’t know what I’m talk about? Read on below for the Hearthstone specific excerpts: We’re delighted to announce our presence at this year’s Intel Extreme Masters Katowice! Poland’s biggest eSports event will […]

Earlier today, an official Blizzard Entertainment missive regarding tournament licensing went out as a forum post to several of the official sites. Among them were Starcraft II, World of Warcraft, and…Hearthstone! The inclusion of our ever beloved card game further echoes the sentiments that we have been seeing from Team 5 and Kim Phan that they are seriously committed to the idea of Hearthstone as an e-Sport. The write up specific to the Hearthstone forums also continued on that theme as they noted that they have been carefully watching the community and the growth of the tournament scene. So, what does this all mean? If you run or plan to run tournaments, rejoice! There is support for your endeavors from Blizzard, should you choose to offer a prize pool equaling or exceeding over $10,000 USD. If you’re under that threshhold, you may not be affected here, but it is still important […]

Golden hero portraits will soon be upon us, bringing with them unique animations, awesome looking hero powers and all the swag 500 wins can buy. Team Five has announced that the next patch will usher in these promised goodies for those diligent enough to grind out victories with their favorite heroes. Here’s the details via the Hearthstone Facebook page. Golden Heroes are coming soon to Hearthstone! With the next patch, when you hit 500 wins in Ranked Play mode with any given Hero, that particular Hero will become golden permanently! Golden Heroes gain cool, unique animations to their portrait and Hero Power. You can track your progress with any given Hero quickly and easily on the deck selection screen in Ranked Play mode. Look forward to gilding all of your Heroes in the finest of metals soon! And here’s a sneak peak at what we can expect the golden heroes […]

The Broke Gamer Chronicle is the story of one gamer’s quest to reach the highest heights of ranked Hearthstone play with the lowest of low budgets: nothing.  Nada.  $0.  Armed with nothing but his Free-to-Play (F2P) Shaman deck, can our hero do it?  Tune in to our hero’s stream and check back here regularly to find out!   Night #1: The Beginning of It All The first night is now in the books, as they say. If you joined me late last night, I jumped into my Broke Gamer run with my Shaman deck. As I mentioned yesterday, I didn’t have a decklist prior to starting the stream last night.  I did what any new player would have to do: I opened my collection, selected “Shaman”, and started debating card choices. It’s a process, not just an end-result, and in this case, we started out with a rough list.  I think […]