BY SPENCER BAKER, Staff Reporter

The newest intellectual property (IP) from Blizzard, “Hearthstone,” is the best online card game I have ever played. Oh wait, it is the only online card game I have ever played.

The card game “Hearthstone” is a free-to-play computer game that went into open beta on Jan. 21, it was official released March 11 and has been a huge success so far. At any moment on the video game streaming web site, Twitch.tv, there will be around 50 thousand viewers.

The game plays similar to Magic. There are nine different decks to choose from based on classes from “World of Warcraft.” Each class has cards specific to them that you can use when building your deck. The deck that I have had the most success with so far has been the Paladin deck.

Picking up “Hearthstone” is relatively simple. There are about six tutorial fights that you do before you really start playing. At the beginning of each game, both players have 30 health points, and the goal is to get your opponent down to zero.

A deck has 30 cards in it that include minions, spells and secrets. Minions are your primary damage dealers and come in multiple forms. Some of them have taunt, which means the enemy has to attack that minion before they can attack anything else.

Minions can also have a special ability under certain circumstances. One of the more popular examples of this is the card “Knife Juggler.” As long as that card is in play on your side of the field, anytime you play a minion, “Knife Juggler” randomly does one damage to an enemy.

Spells are cards that do something instantly and then get discarded. For example, the Mage has a card called “Fireball,” which instantly does six-damage to whatever the player wants.

Secrets are cards that are played and hidden from the opponent until they do a certain action. The Hunter uses a lot of traps such as “Explosive Trap,” which does two damages to all of your enemy’s cards when your hero is attacked.

Gameplay is simple with both players starting with one mana crystal at the beginning of the game. At the beginning of every turn, you gain one mana crystal, and all of the crystals you used last turn get replenished until both players are at 10 crystals.

Every card has a corresponding mana number, which indicates how much mana it takes to play that card. You can play as many cards as you want each turn, as long as you don’t exceed your mana amount.

Both players keep going back and forth until one of them reaches zero health. After the game, the winner gets to bask in the glory over the loser who will hide in shame- at least that is how it happens when I play against my roommates.

“Hearthstone” is an entertaining game that is easy to pick up and does not have to be too competitive. One of my favorite parts about the game is that it can be a very casual game that you play against a computer or just your friends, or you can play ranked games and try and get to a higher rank.

“Hearthstone” is a great game, but I am having one minor problem with it.

My problem with the game, and hopefully they add this in, is that I want to see a trading system. As of right now there is no way to trade your cards with your friends or anyone else. I have not seen any rumors about them putting one in anytime soon, but I hope that they do.

In the beta there were a few minor glitches, and since the official release I have had a chance to play about four or five matches and have not encountered them.

Overall, “Hearthstone” is a great card game that is advertised as “fun from the beginning” and Blizzard has achieved just that. It is a great game that adds a more visual experience than normal card games. The interactive “boards” that the game is played on are all based on locations in “World of Warcraft.”

I highly suggest downloading “Hearthstone” and giving it a shot no matter how into card games you are.

The newest intellectual property (IP) from Blizzard, “Hearthstone,” is the best online card game I have ever played. Oh wait, it is the only online card game I have ever played.

The card game “Hearthstone” is a free-to-play computer game that went into open beta on Jan. 21, it was official released March 11 and has been a huge success so far. At any moment on the video game streaming web site, Twitch.tv, there will be around 50 thousand viewers.

The game plays similar to Magic. There are nine different decks to choose from based on classes from “World of Warcraft.” Each class has cards specific to them that you can use when building your deck. The deck that I have had the most success with so far has been the Paladin deck.

Picking up “Hearthstone” is relatively simple. There are about six tutorial fights that you do before you really start playing. At the beginning of each game, both players have 30 health points, and the goal is to get your opponent down to zero.

A deck has 30 cards in it that include minions, spells and secrets. Minions are your primary damage dealers and come in multiple forms. Some of them have taunt, which means the enemy has to attack that minion before they can attack anything else.

Minions can also have a special ability under certain circumstances. One of the more popular examples of this is the card “Knife Juggler.” As long as that card is in play on your side of the field, anytime you play a minion, “Knife Juggler” randomly does one damage to an enemy.

Spells are cards that do something instantly and then get discarded. For example, the Mage has a card called “Fireball,” which instantly does six-damage to whatever the player wants.

Secrets are cards that are played and hidden from the opponent until they do a certain action. The Hunter uses a lot of traps such as “Explosive Trap,” which does two damages to all of your enemy’s cards when your hero is attacked.

Gameplay is simple with both players starting with one mana crystal at the beginning of the game. At the beginning of every turn, you gain one mana crystal, and all of the crystals you used last turn get replenished until both players are at 10 crystals.

Every card has a corresponding mana number, which indicates how much mana it takes to play that card. You can play as many cards as you want each turn, as long as you don’t exceed your mana amount.

Both players keep going back and forth until one of them reaches zero health. After the game, the winner gets to bask in the glory over the loser who will hide in shame- at least that is how it happens when I play against my roommates.

“Hearthstone” is an entertaining game that is easy to pick up and does not have to be too competitive. One of my favorite parts about the game is that it can be a very casual game that you play against a computer or just your friends, or you can play ranked games and try and get to a higher rank.

“Hearthstone” is a great game, but I am having one minor problem with it.

My problem with the game, and hopefully they add this in, is that I want to see a trading system. As of right now there is no way to trade your cards with your friends or anyone else. I have not seen any rumors about them putting one in anytime soon, but I hope that they do.

In the beta there were a few minor glitches, and since the official release I have had a chance to play about four or five matches and have not encountered them.

Overall, “Hearthstone” is a great card game that is advertised as “fun from the beginning” and Blizzard has achieved just that. It is a great game that adds a more visual experience than normal card games. The interactive “boards” that the game is played on are all based on locations in “World of Warcraft.”

I highly suggest downloading “Hearthstone” and giving it a shot no matter how into card games you are.