Heroes of Hearthstone: Beginner decks for Newbies! .

Hello there! Please do come in! Welcome to another one of my weekly columns, Heroes of Hearthstone! In this week’s article we’re going to talk about beginner decks for new players! This is definitely the place to be if you’re new to the game and need a bit of help! But if you want to read why I think Hearthstone is one of my favorite games, head on over to this article.

Basics of building a deck

The actual task of building a deck in Hearthstone is easy; however building a good deck that actually works and can win in matches is an entirely different beast especially if you’re new to the game. The main reason you’ll have problems when you start off won’t be because you’re bad at the game but rather because you won’t have access to a very large amount of cards and the cards which you will have access to won’t have a lot of synergy.

Unfortunately for you, synergy and getting cards to work together is how you’ll win in Hearthstone (or any card game for that matter), if you have a deck without synergy then it’s pretty much worthless.

Having said that, Hearthstone does give you access to enough cards that allow you to make something happen and allow you to pull together some sort of strategy, even if it’s not exactly the best thing in the world. But finding out what works and what doesn’t can take an awful lot of time, and this is where I come in. I’m going to show you some low cost, easy to use and understand, decks which you can create pretty much from the get the go.

Hunter

The first deck on the list is for the ranger class. Why? Because this it’s one of the easiest decks to create with the basic cards that you are given and because it’s incredibly easy to understand. One thing you should know first, and this applies to all the decks I show you, is that you should level up each class to its maximum level first and foremost because this will give you all of the basic class specific cards for that class and each of the decks I show you will use class specific cards. Anyway, enough of that, let’s get to the good bit!

The Deck

0 – Hunter’s Mark
1 – Arcane Shot
1 – Stonetusk Boar
1 – Timber Wolf (2 cards)
2 – Freezing Trap
2 – Bloodfen Raptor (2 cards)
2 – Dire Wolf Alpha
2 – Ironbeak Owl
2 – Starving Buzzard (2 cards)
3 – Eaglehorn Bow
3 – Animal Companion (2 cards)
3 – Kill Command (2 cards)
3 – Ironfur Grizzly (2 cards)
3 – Raid Leader
3 – Silverback Patriarch
4 – Multi-Shot (2 cards)
4 – Unleash the Hounds
4 – Houndmaster (2 cards)
5 – Stranglethorn Tiger
5 – Tundra Rhino (2 cards)
7 – Core Hound

Aim

The purpose of this deck is to get as many beast minions on the field as possible and buff them up once they’ve hit the board. It’s basically a deck where you’ll overrun the enemy with minions, having a few decent spell cards to clear the board however ultimately your minions will be doing most of the clearing and will be attacking the enemy the most.

The use of the Starving Buzzard, a card which draws another card when a beast is played, will allow you to get more access to more cards whilst you’re playing your assortment of beast cards, which in turn will allow you to play more cards. Of course with such a card, it’s paramount that you have a minion with taunt so that you can get the most out of it and Starving Buzzard doesn’t die the second it hits the board.

Note the use of 1-3 mana cards, and how many there are. This deck is excellent at building up a small, cheap force which, whilst being open to board wipe spells, can beat down the enemy and keep them in place.

Weakness

This deck will fall apart if the enemy can properly and promptly clear all of your minions off of the board, not allowing you have a full hoard of beasts. Once more you’ll be in even more trouble if the enemy destroys one of your minions as soon as they hit the board (Mage, Priest or Rogues are particularly good at this).

Another problem with this deck is that it’s a fairly basic and fairly standard deck and one which more experienced players will see coming and will be able to react to.

Perhaps there is one more floor to this deck and that is after the initial early to mid game beat down that you’ll deal your late will be lacking due to the lack of decent late game monster you’ll have access to in this deck.

Omissions/Changes

If you don’t have access to Freezing Trap or the Eaglehorn Bow then just try to add more beast minions wherever possible or an additional Arcane Shot.  This should help you out with building up a strong minion army.

Overview

Ultimately this is an excellent starter deck and can be used as a good base to build upon, and you shouldn’t think of it as anything more.

Priest

I’m not going to lie, this is a deck that I love playing however the main problem is though that it can be a bit hit and miss from time to time.  Despite that, the reason I’m showing off this deck is because it’s another great way of showing card synergy and working with a specific class’s abilities to achieve something magical and awesome.

The Deck

1 – Holy Smite
1 – Inner Fire
1 – Power Word: Shield
1 – Northshire Cleric (2 cards)
1 – Shieldbearer
1 – Voodoo Doctor
2 – Divine Spirit
2 – Acidic Swamp Ooze
2 – Dire Wolf Alpha
2 – Faerie Dragon
2 – Lightwell
2 – Master Swordsmith
2 – Novice Engineer
3 – Shadoow Word: Death
3 – Injured Blademaster
3 – Ironfur Grizzly
3 – Raid Leader
3 – Razorfen Hunter
3 – Shattered Sun Cleric
4 – Lightspawn
4 – Mogu’shan Warden
4 – Stormwind Knight
5 – Holy Nova (2 cards)
5 – Booty Bay Bodyguard
5 – Gurubashi Berserker
5 – Stormpike Commando
6 – Lord of the Arena
7 – Stormwind Champion

Aim

The aim off this deck is to buff and heal your minions, keeping them at high hp whilst you completely overrun the enemy with minions. In that regard this deck works in the same way as the hunter deck, however there is less natural synergy. Instead of grouping together a load of the same type of minions this deck has some high HP but low damage minions, as well as minions with equally high hp and damage, requiring the player to manage the HP of his minions properly with the Priests heal ability.

Weaknesses

As with the ranger deck, if the enemy can lay siege to your minions on the board before you can build up a big enough force then you will have problems. If however you get past mid game with a strong set of cards, then you should be okay.

Another weakness this deck has, which isn’t the same as the Ranger deck, is that if the enemy can get a lot of minions on the deck before you can and beat you down quickly, then you’ll be in a lot of trouble. Having said that, this is what the Holy Nova card is for; it deals 2 damage to all enemies and heals all allies for two heath. It’s an excellent board clearing spell however don’t be baited into using it when it’s not needed. One example of this is when I was using this deck up against a Warrior rush deck and I was baited into using the card, whereas if I had just saved it I would have been significantly better off.

Typically this deck is weak against mages and other caster classes, however you should be able to pretty much outlast everyone if you play your cards right (no pun intended).

Omissions/Changes

If you don’t have access to Light Well (you should try to get this card as quickly as possible if your main class is Priest) then instead replace it with some cards that can heal your minions such as an additional Voodoo Doctor so that you can synergise well with Northshire Cleric. If you don’t have Injured Blademaster, which is another excellent card for the Priest because you can just heal him up to full HP after he spawns on the board and does damage to himself, then just replace it with a strong 3 mana minion card.

Overview

This is a slightly harder deck to use than the Ranger deck, however using this deck will teach you once again how to properly synergize your cards as well as teach you proper card timing.

There you have it, two basic decks for beginners which should help you out on your journey to become the best Hearthstone player in the world (if you have such a dream)!  I do want to do some more of these newbie friendly decks in the future, and I hope to do so, however for the time being this should be enough to get you going.  The key thing to understand is to keep cards synergised well and to use weaker cards into baiting out the enemy spells so you can get your deck to where it needs to be. Until next time, happy deck building!

Want some more tips and tricks for mastering the Arena? Go to this article!