POSTS IN THE SHELL

Believing in the heart of the cards is no longer just a 2005 Yu-Gi-Oh! catchphrase. Thanks to Blizzard Entertainment, I can passionately shout it at my iPad at 2 a.m.

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is an online card game produced by Blizzard. It’s a spin-off from the World of Warcraft series, using some of the same characters.

Players choose one of nine heroes, all based on WoW classes.

Each hero can use special specific cards, all with a different power. For example, Valeera Sanguinar, the rogue, can use her power to summon a weapon that does one damage. Jaina Proudmoore, the mage, can use a fireball to strike anything on the map, doing one damage.

All heroes start with 30 health points, and the point of the game is to take the opponent down to zero. Players do this by assembling a deck of 30 cards. There are three types of cards: minions, spells and weapons.

Minions vary in strength and ability. Some are feeble and weak, and some are strong and carry other benefits. Blizzard adds more functions every time it releases a new expansion. 

Spells are anything that relates to the hero. Valeera uses sneaky assassination tactics that might completely destroy a minion or deal damage to the entire enemy team. Jaina might turn an enemy’s strongest minion into a useless sheep.

By now you might be thinking, “OK, if there are good minions and weak minions, and good spells and bad spells, why don’t I just play all my good stuff on my first turn and win?”

Well, first, players only draw one card per turn, so if your luck isn’t very good, you won’t draw your best cards immediately. The other thing preventing this strategy is the mana system. At turn one, players start with one mana crystal and gain another every turn until turn 10. The number of mana a player has dictates how long he or she can play cards.

Another twist is the fact that when your minion deals damage to another minion, yours takes damage as well.

The game is more than “whoever has the rarest cards win.” Hearthstone is a mix of luck, strategy and planning.

Half the fun is opening card packs, obtained by paying real money or spending 100 gold per pack. Gold is accumulated as reward for ranking or completing simple daily quests the game gives you.

My friends all crowd around one another when they open their packs, in hopes that they might get a legendary card — the rarest and strongest cards in the game.

My favorite thing about Hearthstone is the amount of time it wastes. Each game can take anywhere from five to 15 minutes — the perfect amount of time to play in between classes … or during class, but you didn’t hear that bit from me.

Sure there are times I get sick of Hearthstone and won’t play for a couple days, but I always end up coming back.

You can download Hearthstone through your smartphone’s respective app store and through Battle.net for your computer.