I don't know how many hours (or money) I have spent in this game. I played consistently with a few breaks here and there from a little before Whispers of the Old Gods up untill the release of Fractured in Alterac Valley which is about 6 years. I mainly played standard until Descend of Dragons where I switched to wild. I then stopped playing for over a year and came back just before Festival of Legends dropped. On top of this I have watched an ungodly amount of Hearthstone content on youtube. That is all to say that I care alot about the game event hough that I think it is flawed in many many ways.

At some point their card design started to favour big and satisfying plays rather than subtle and clever synergies and interactions. It is clear that they design cards and expansions with the power fantasy of the player in mind - that it's fun to feel like you're actually cheating a little bit. But this, I feel, ultimately makes the game about hitting those big moments while the strategic aspect suffers because most games will be dertermined who can do their 'big thing' first. Whether it's an aggro deck hitting the most beautiful curve you have ever seen, or a slower deck that can have mutiple winning plays in certain matchups or a combo deck that kills you before you can even begin to describe what is happening. It may all seem very trivial but over the years I have become less excited to win or loose depending on who of me or my opponent draw our powerful cards first. It is rare that a win feels truely earned and that a loss feel truely justified beyond that they drew better or had the better deck. It does happen, but a lot of the time it all feels too draw, luck and matchup dependant. And that critique of Hearthstone has been around for as long as I have been a player.

To keep the game "fresh" they produce cards and expansions at an all time high rate which I guess is good to keep interest in active players and intrigue old players with new exciting stuff, but I can't help but feel that it makes the game to expensive in both time and/or money to "keep up" with if you're not in the mood for playing it daily. You can get by with a viable deck or two per expasion but that is not the experience that are being sold to us. Not by Blizzard and not the content creators who have more resources the play the game with.

Lastly I want to praise the game's presentation. The sound design, the music, the animations, the voice work the game feel it's all of a level that I don't think you can find in any other digital competitive card game. I think it is in large part due to these factors that I have been playing the game for so long. Hearthstone is a deeply flawed but really satisfying card game that can absolutely be fun no matter what mode you prefer and at what level. And I am reluctantly very passionate about it.