Introduction
Greetings, I’m Sheng, a Legend rank constructed and 7.5 win-average arena player. I run HearthstoneCoaching.com where our coaches have helped many students achieve the same.
The Problem
Recently, I’ve heard concerns from many players that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to start a new account to play Hearthstone. While the general mechanics for earning Gold within the game have not changed, new players don’t have the priviledge of earning all the Gold they missed from Daily Quests since the game was released.
In addition, there have been special bonuses tied in with the launch of adventures and expansions that provided free booster packs and arena tickets. The most impactful reward was an entire Wing of Naxxramas for free during the launch of the Curse of Naxxramas single-player adventure — worth 700 Gold.
What Can You Do?
So what’s the solution? For many, it’s just to spend money to catch-up with all the content that’s been released since the start of the game. Unfortunately, this is a daunting task that can be quite expensive, even if the goal is to earn a reasonable collection of cards to play every class effectively.
Single Player Adventures
In terms of value, it’s definitely most effective to purchase both single-player adventures with cash. Currently there are two single-player adventures, Curse of Naxxramas and Blackrock Mountain. Both of these unlock crucial cards that are played in many competitive decks.
The reason why it’s most effective to purchase both with cash is because if you purchase all 5 wings of an adventure at once, there’s a discount. However, if you only use Gold to purchase an adventure, there’s no discount, and you’ll need to spend 700 Gold for each wing, making it 3500 Gold to unlock a complete adventure.
Single Player Adventures
- Curse of Naxxramas — $25
- Blackrock Mountain — $25
Each adventure is really fun to play through, and as you defeat each boss, new cards will be unlocked. There’s also a second difficulty mode for each boss called Heroic. Defeating each boss on Heroic for an adventure unlocks a special cardback, which makes the process more worthwhile. Overall, I think it’s fair to spend $50 to unlock both adventures as it’s a great source of entertainment.
Booster Pack Sets
The most expensive aspect of building a collection is definitely opening enough booster packs from the Classic, Goblins vs Gnomes (GVG), and the upcoming The Grand Tournament (TGT) card sets.
Classic Set
Of the three card sets, the Classic card set is definitely the largest with 245 cards. It’s also the most important, which includes many useful Rares, Epics, and Legendaries that are staples in competitive decks. I’d recommend newer players open at least 100 Classic booster packs as a baseline.
GVG and TGT
Afterwards, I’d recommend players open approximately 50 Packs from each of the smaller expansions Goblin vs. Gnomes and The Grand Tournament, which should yield about half of the cards from each of these sets.
Final Costs
Overall, these 200 Packs should cost approximately $200 if you purchase them through Amazon Coins (You can get more coins at cheaper rate with this promotion). Overall, in conjunction with the single-player adventures, which can also be purchased through Amazon, a new player will most likely want to spend $250 to catch up to those who have played the game for a longer period of time.
While only having 50% of the cards from each Booster Set is limiting, I would recommend players dust Golden cards and duplicates to craft Epics and Legendary cards that they are missing for the deck they want to create. I’ve created a Legendary Crafting Guide that may be a useful resource.
The Future
Moving forward, it’s possible for a player who has spent $250 upfront to continue playing the game without spending money. If one is diligent and rerolls every 40 Gold Daily Quest to look for a 60 Gold or better quest, then one can approximately earn about 60 Gold a day.
Over the course of a year, this comes out to about 22,000 Gold. This is enough to purchase 150 packs from 1.5 GVG size expansions and 1.5 single-player adventures, with the remaining Gold that can be used on other expansion sets.
Summary
- New players miss out out all the previous daily quests and have to catch up hard, or resort to spending quite a lot to catch up
For new players, recommend the following:
- Do daily quests and reroll the 40 gold quests into 60 gold quests
- If spending money, be sure to buy adventures first
- Your first 100 packs should be Classic Set, followed by 50 from Gnomes and Goblins and 50 from The Grand Tournament
- Dust all duplicates and golden cards to create the missing cards needed for decks
- Take advantage of Amazon Coin and its promotions to get more packs for less money
Conclusion
Though it’s unfortunate that one may have to spend $250 for newer players to catchup to older players, keep in mind that those who have only played by earning in-game Gold have played for over 16 months, earning cards at a snail’s pace. However, I do hope in the future that Blizzard will provide mechanisms for players to earn more cards from older sets at a reduced price to lower barriers to entry.
Other Readings
Check out thundyr’s free to play journey documented here, and an older guide on how to start a F2P account here.
Coaching Lessons
If you’re interested in reaching Legend rank, or earning unlimited gold from arena, my team at HearthstoneCoaching.com would love to help! We’ve provided over a thousand hours of excellent coaching to students around the world. 
Want to Become Better at Other Games?
I also run RankOneCoaching.com, where our top coaches will develop a personal plan for you to achieve your dreams in other games. Personal lessons are an in-depth experience and most students improve significantly after just one full session!
