It takes Two to Tango

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MANGO SENTINEL - Twitter | Twitch.TV | Gameskinny

As a newer player to Hearthstone (probably 3-4 months now), I decided I would learn the game from watching people on Twitch.tv. With no real CCG or TCG experience to speak of outside of Pokemon cards when I was around 10 years old, watching people who were considered the “top” players seemed like a way to learn the game. I started off with Hafu since I knew her well from League of Legends, another game that I play way too much and talk about even more. From there I progressed to other streamers such as ekop, Trump, GoodIdeaGaming, and Kripp, whichever seemed to be around at the time I needed a stream to watch while I was working.

Streams for Hearthstone are interesting enough for me, as long as the player constructs their thought process well, throws a few jokes in, and has an OK playlist in the background. Hearthstone is a game completely about decision making however, there’s only so much one person teaching you how to play the game can do. Between decklists, trading methods and general board control tactics, most of the basics in the game are the same between any streamer. The biggest difference are the nuances in their playstyles and the creativity that they can come up with in their moves (Not a lot of first week non-CCG players will think to Shadowflame their own Sylvanas Windrunner as a psuedo-Mind Control against a stacked board with 1 big monster on it, for instance.)

For me, this is where the most interesting thing I’ve seen in the Hearthstone community so far comes in: The Two (or more) Person “Player-Coach” streams that have been popping up lately. Hearthstone is exclusively about your ability to out think (OK maybe outdraw) your opponent. The only outplays can come from your mental play in the game, there is no ability to physically outplay your opponent like you can in many other games. There’s no kiting a Ragnaros the Firelord, there’s no 360 noscope Mind Control montages with .5 second reaction times (I would enjoy that though). What there is though, is chances to deceive and bait your opponent into making mental mistakes. In that sense, I believe there is only so much one person can teach you about how to play a game properly. Sure you can mimic and copy their actions and thought processes 90% of the time, but that other 10% of the time you need to think on your feet is usually the time in the game that will decide the winner.

This is where the two man stream really shines I think. Top players have their own way of doing things, everyone knows this. Put two of them in the same room and I’m sure they will find some middle ground. However, some are more prone to making the “greedy” play versus making the “safe” play. This banter between players will often get the stream viewer questioning who they agree with. Which is forcing them to critically think about the game, which is the closest thing that Hearthstone has to mechanical skill. Your ability to critically think is absolutely CRUCIAL to become better at this game. You can only get so much from mimicry and “netdecking”. The discussions that players like ekop/Hafu or Trump/Kripp have about cards and drafting Arena has been the most valuable time I’ve spent watching streams in terms of learning how to play Hearthstone properly. As amusing as watching a top decked Flamestrike is from your favorite streamer, hearing them discuss and rationalize their thought processes about the game to not only their chat, but another player of their level is beyond VALUE.

Personally, I hope these two man streams never go away. Duo Queue League of Legends streams are some of the more amusing streams in the game just because of the banter and ability to communicate for plays in the game. However, from a viewer perspective, you only really ever get half of the action unless you’re ambitious with your dual screening. With the two man Hearthstone streams, you effectively have a Coach (or some streamers will tell you backseat driver) looking at the same thing everyone else is looking at. By having all of the same information that the two players do, the stream viewers can learn to agree/disagree/critically think about the hundreds of situations and turns a Streamer will face in even an hour of play. While I am not saying the 1 man streams are useless/not worth watching, all you can really do is nod your head and think for yourself what you might have been doing differently, especially as a newer player. As you get more experienced, the VALUE of the two man stream can be diminished at least from the learning aspect, but even then it has a great entertainment value. In short, the next time you see a streamer with the header “XXXX streams Hearthstone w/ YYYY commentary”, if you haven’t checked it out, be sure to ! This is a uniquely Hearthstone experience (at least for me) that is amazing for both improvement and entertainment.