Including the single BEST limited card game out there, HS arena and Runeterra expeditions are absolutely destroyed by MTG draft even though draft has been around for decades before them. HS/Runeterra have solid single player modes and whatnot, but MTG has evolved to have lots of organic forms of play in real life over the last nearly 30 years, and Arena supports many of them as well. Flipside, you can play magic with real people and have way more fun.ĮDIT: Magic also has the best alternate formats. Still stand by what I said - MTG is far and away a better GAME than Runeterra as well, it's just not a better service platform when it comes to a pc/phone. Meanwhile, everyh other game since has figured out how to do it just fine (including Magic). Hearthstone was always 'Well, it's like MTG but take out the cool interaction because how would you ever do that digitally?!' It's also quite keyword heavy, which the UI handles well, but could still be overwhelming for newbies.Ĭlick to shrink.Runeterra is better than HS ever was, because it borrows interaction from MTG. The passing system is not the most intuitive to grasp, but there is an in-game tutorial (called Challenges). The gotcha would be that it may be a bit tricky to learn. The free collection means you see a lot of experimentation just because people can. And even the worst meta sees tons of diversity. The meta has never been better with almost 10 tier1 decks. The last atypically big patch touched 50 cards. And their live service balance patches are ace. The players that have played since launch last year have enough dust to craft the next 2-3 exp completely.įinally, they're continuing to iterate on their version of Dungeon Run. The card pool has gotten bigger now, but it shouldn't take longer than maybe 6mo +/- 1 or 2 to just about hit a 100% collection. You should have a t1 deck that isn't an aggro pile within 2wks.

Riot doesn't expect to make money from cards, only cosmetics. There's a ton of bluffing in the game too, so it really isn't as straightforward as spend your mana. From banked mana to champions being mini-quests, there's a lot of variety in mechanics and play patterns. Runeterra is filled to the brim with smart af mechanics. Things could've changed since I've played it last, but poking my head in every once in a while, I don't think so. It has interesting ideas and cards, but the presentation and balance aren't there. Click to shrink.I love Shadowverse, but it is kind of a poor man's Hearthstone.

Hearthstone arena addons