What is Hearthstone?
Hearthstone is a free-to-play online Collectible Card Game (F2POCCG, which is a real genre) from Blizzard, based on the Warcraft universe. Choose a hero corresponding to one of the nine classes in Vanilla WoW and create a deck using their signature mechanics to fight other players in Casual or Ranked matchmaking. Earn Gold for every three wins and use the Gold to buy booster packs in order to expand your card pool, or use the Gold to purchase a ticket to the Arena where you construct your own deck on the fly using a random pool of all cards in the game. There is no offline play, but there are singleplayer adventure modes.
Download the client (Windows, Mac) on the main site. Note, you will also need a Blizzard account to log in to their launcher.
How to play Hearthstone?
I'm not going to go into that here, just play the tutorial to learn the game.
How to really play Hearthstone?
Read articles, apply critical thinking, watch good streamers.
Is there an in-game/player-driven economy?
No. There is no card trading or buying cards from other players and there probably won't be anytime in the foreseeable future. In its place is a crafting system. You can disenchant cards you do not want for arcane dust. You can then use that arcane dust to craft cards you do want.
Is this game Pay2Win?'
Of a sort. The thing you should know about Hearthstone is that if you're not going to pay money, plan on playing a lot (read: grinding) or becoming really good at Arena. The longer a player has played, the bigger their card pool will be. This means that an older, frequent player will always have better cards than a newer player. This is just an unavoidable part of collectible card games.
A paying player can save a lot of time by buying boosters, but it's not cheap and they're not guaranteed the best of the best cards, which is, in the end, what separates good decks from the best decks. Buying some boosters right off, however, will help you build a foundation to reliably win games in order to get Gold.
If you really hate not having good cards, then stick to Arena, which is a "level" playing field for a certain definition of "level".
Le Reddit Guide - Probably the best place to start if you're totally new.
Trump Teachings - A video series by one of the game's most notable streamers. This is essentially Hearthstone 101 and is mandatory viewing for any new player looking for a crash course in Hearthstone strategy.
Liquid Hearth's Beginner Guides - Some of the info is outdated but the general ideas remain the same.
Three Competing Resources Parts 1, 2, 3 - A series of articles on "resources" in the context of a card game, which goes well beyond just mana.
ResetEra Hearthstone Discord Server
Official Forums - A veritable nest of QQ and cries for nerf, just like your WoW days!
Team Liquid's Hearthstone Portal - Better place to discuss and learn about Hearthstone, frequently featuring competitive analysis and deck tech articles.
IHearthU - Another good site for high level Hearthstone discourse.
Hearthpwn and Managrind - Part of the Curse family of gaming sites, not only does it have an online database of cards and deck building tool, it is also home to ManaGrind, one of the premiere Hearthstone tournaments!
Hearthstone Wiki - Obligatory game wiki.
HearthArena - This website will help you out while drafting for arena. You enter the three cards you are presented for each pick and the tool will attempt to recommend you the best pick based on a general tier list and your current deck.
Gutshot's Hearthstone Collection Spreadsheet - You can use this to keep track of your current card collection.
Official Blizzard Channels: YouTube, Twitch. Blizzard's Official YouTube/Twitch channels. Used for officially sanctioned tournaments and announcements.
Amaz: YouTube, Twitch - Over the top reactions. Says "That's a card". Constructed and arena.
Brian Kibler: YouTube, Twitch - High level, very professional streamer. Former MTG Champion. Doesn't usually play meta-decks. Constructed-only.
Disguised Toast: YouTube, Twitch - Variety video content and fun streaming.
Dog: YouTube, Twitch - Popular, chill stream.
Hafu: Youtube, Twitch - Very high level arena play.
Kolento: YouTube, Twitch - Very high level stream.
Kripparian: YouTube. Twitch - Very popular stream. High-level arena play. Good YouTube content.
Reynad: YouTube, Twitch - Pro player who nonetheless probably hates the game and his life. Some of his donators sexually identify as attack helicopters.
Trump: YouTube, Twitch - Nice guy, most of the time. Lots of good YouTube content. Constructed and arena.
Funny and Lucky Moments (Trolden): YouTube - Crazy play montages.
Epic Plays (Rage Orc): YouTube - More crazy play montages.
Hearthstone Science: YouTube - Advanced Rules Experimentation and Discovery
Hearthstone Calendar
Team Liquid Calendar
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