When comparing Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft vs Eternal, the Slant community recommends Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft for most people. In the question“What are the best cross-platform PC/Android games?” Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is ranked 8th while Eternal is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is:
It has a lot of players due to Blizzard's fanbase which means finding multiplayer matches is not all that difficult.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Active community
It has a lot of players due to Blizzard's fanbase which means finding multiplayer matches is not all that difficult.
Pro Polished overall aesthetic
Possibly the most polished user Interface of digital CCGs. Unified and fun art style and flavor text.
Pro Great even for casual players
Hearthstone has a friendly learning curve that makes picking it up and getting started easy for people who don't want to spend a lot of time learning rules and tricks.
Pro Multi-platform
Available on PC and on mobile. Makes a great commute companion (provided you have internet).
Pro Familiar characters from Warcraft 3 and World of warcraft
The characters used in Hearthstone are all from the lore of the Warcraft series, making for a familiar universe for fans of the series.
Pro Brawl events, that don't require you to follow "the meta"
You can take advantage of weekly brawl events that give you a certain set of cards (so no need to pay to stay competitive). It keeps the game fresh, fun and fairly "casual".
Pro Entertaining Voice Acting
The voice work really adds to the game and makes it entertaining to play.
Pro Card Balances and Game Updates Often
The Hearthstone team is always looking at their data and community reaction towards cards and the state of the game, and they have made many card and game changes/updates to balance and improve the game for all players.
Pro You won't be cursed at in the chat.
Interaction with opponent limited to simple pre-made phrases, so you don't have to see how many 1337 gamers had their way with you or your mother. Or deal with the spam about free decks, new hacks etc.
Pro Near-perfect balance between going first or second
There's no significant first-turn or second-turn advantage in Hearthstone. The player going second gets an extra card from his deck as well as "The Coin", a card that gives one extra mana crystal for one turn. This subverts the advantage that would be gained otherwise by the player going first.
Pro Free to play that doesn't exploit
Yes it's free to play, but it's designed to easily continue to play and have fun without having to feel like you HAVE to pay. At the same time, after playing a while you'll probably want to.
Pro Great if you don't take it too seriously
HS is meant to be fun, lighthearted, and generally casual. It requires a lot of time and money investment if you wish to play seriously.
Pro Exceptional limited (draft) format
Draft allows you to keep the cards you pick and earn some extra rewards. Unique mechanics allow signalling and signal-reading in draft while still allowing you to draft on your own time (no waiting for pod or passing).
Pro Sweet spot between MtG and Hearthstone
This game is not as complex and deep as MtG, but still it requires a lot more of strategic thinking and deck-building skills than HS. At the same time, a game of Eternal can usually be finished within 10 minutes.
Pro Very friendly to free to play players
Rewards for playing vs AI help new/inexperienced players not get obliterated in constructed, and keeping cards you draft helps you build the collection you want without simply opening packs.
Pro Frequent balance changes and diverse metagame
Devs are not afraid to frequently buff or reasonably nerf cards to balance the metagame.
Pro Huge variety of deck types
You can win with weapons, spells, units, and strategies of all kinds. Brewers and casual players can explore a near-infinite variety of fun decks without tanking their win rate.
Pro Respects your time
The game's reward structure understands that players want to be competitive without spending tons of money. Rewards can even randomly upgrade to higher tiers.
Pro Generous on rewards
The game is very generous on rewards and plays very fast once you're used to it. It's not a money sink like many of the CCGs you encounter nowadays.
Pro The dev team is motivated to make this a great game
Many professional MtG players on the dev team have ensured an eye for overall balance and metagame health throughout beta testing.
Pro Rewards thoughtful gamers
Many lines of decision making and careful deck management require you to always be on point.
Pro Very fast dev response to bugs and issues
Devs are active in discord channel and official forums.
Pro Beautiful and user friendly UI
The PC UI is incredibly smooth, and although the mobile/tablet UI is a little sluggish, it is still better than some other games.
Pro Community is mostly kind
Eternal's subreddit and discord server tend to be mature and respectful. People you friend in game are more likely to talk about how cool your deck is than to give you salt.
Pro Regular updates and content
Updates and promos once a month every month since open beta.
Pro Pack system is generous
Instead of trading cards with other players, there is a recycling/crafting system for handling duplicate cards and obtaining cards you want. Every pack gives you "shiftstone" on top of whatever cards you open, making it easier to craft expensive cards than in other games.
Pro Explores unexplored design space
Complex and interesting card design that makes the most of its medium.
Pro Card art is attractive and inclusive
Art is simpler than Magic's, but leans toward realism over cartoons. Women are represented in a respectful and diverse way.
Cons
Con Huge Money Sink
Although you can "technically" play for free, Hearthstone is very stingy on rewards. To get the limit of 100 paltry coins free a day, you have to win 30 games vs mostly players who have much better cards than you. It can take a new player 6 to 8(or more) hours to accomplish this. And after all this you get a pack of 5 cards that are often completely worthless to any viable deck. It's possible to get cards like "Angry Chicken"(worthless card) as the "Rare" card several times. You can also get a bunch of cards you already have a lot of.
Con Many mechanics based on random numbers
Random effects in the game use a random number generator, which causes an uncertainty of all outcomes. This causes one or both players to be frustrated because they can lose an already won game despite playing to the best of their ability.
Con The reward system is not significant enough
Hearthstone's reward system is very lackluster, providing little to nothing of significance to the casual or excessive player. There will be times when you feel heavily rewarded by the game, but these times are few and far between and if you are driven by rewards you will likely lose attraction to this game quickly.
Con Lacking a lot of depth found in better TCGs
Con Crafting is expensive
In lieu of trading cards, this game uses a disenchanting/crafting system to handle duplicate copies in your collection and being able to obtain the cards you want. Many cards disenchant for paltry amounts, and the best cards cost lots of "dust" to be able to play with.
Con Luck is more rewarding than skill.
When you lose a game in Hearthstone you don't learn anything because you generally can't play around most of the cards, most of the cards have random effects you have no control over it whatsoever.
Con Additional "Cards" must be paid for if not earned by continuously playing
There is a bit of a grind in earning new cards, so for those that do not want to spend the large amount of time needed to earn quality cards they will need to be purchased, which can get expensive.
Con Dependent on Battle.net infrastructure, not playable offline
The game requires a connection with Battle.net servers from the developers, and thus can't be played offline.
Con Ridiculously bloated
Over 4 GB data installed on ones device. Which is quite a lot of room, something many might not have to spare.
Con No trading with other players
Con The discover mechanic alone ruined this game
Luck tends to be more important than skill: there are numerous RNG-based cards in this game. Players that care about skill are better of playing other games, like Magic.
Con Simplistic and unintuitive card design
Very little mechanical depth, most of the complexity is based on random numbers.
Con Sometimes unfair matchmaking
Sometimes players will be matched up with people who clearly have been playing longer.
Con Poor port
Plays much better on PC. Sluggish and crashes often on mobile, sometimes connections can be difficult to make as well.
Con Chinese money > Freedom of speech
Blizzard WILL sell your soul to the chinese overlords for a couple sheckels. DO NOT play this game if you care about freedom of any kind. There are many other CCG out there. Have some dignity and principles.
Con It is a MTG clone minus any skill requirements
It has almost no way to out maneuver your opponent. Your draws decide the game. The screw/flood seen in MTG is made worse with the horrible design choice to use 75 card decks.
Con Mana screw happens
There are elements in the design to help prevent it, but you will still randomly lose games to drawing little or too much mana.
Con Power Creep
This game was very enjoyable from its release right through its first 3 expansions. Afterwards the balance was thrown off by developers releasing powerful and more powerful cards with each set or adventure.
Con Hearthstone clone
Con Visually lacks in flair and drama that might be appealing to players of other games
Voice-overs for many cards were recently added in a patch, but only one game board and no interactions between particular entities (calling out relationships or rivals) can make the game feel "stale" or "bland" compared to the level of polish of, say, Hearthstone.
Con Card art may be unappealing to some
While some of the art is appealing, the design of the card eliminates completely the attractiveness that the art could have.
Con Playing constructed is expensive
It takes a huge time or money commitment to have the most powerful cards for constructed. Many of the best decks require 10+ of the highest rarity card.
Con Requires waiting for a full board
Most of the time you have to wait to fill your board with the correct units before attacking. This makes the game quite slow and clumsy.
Con Toxic community
Con Not a mobile-friendly game
Best played on a PC or a tablet. Playing on a phone can be difficult as it's a direct port from PC so text and images can be tiny. Not a problem if you're familiar with the game, but new players it will be frustrating.