If there’s one game that’s totally unpredictable and at times truly irritating, it’s certainly Hearthstone. A very popular game in the eSports scene, Hearthstone started off as your simple trading card game that had plans to rival that of Magic the Gathering among many others. Now, Blizzard’s creation has amassed an enormous following and is played by millions worldwide. So what makes this traditional style of play so interesting to play? Well for one, the World of Warcraft lore is ubiquitous with many gamers worldwide whether you’ve played the series or not, so the brand itself speaks a lot more than anything. For those who have dabbled with WoW at some point in their lives, Hearthstone provides this charming atmosphere where you can play with all of your favorite heroes and villains from the franchise, pitting them against each other in card form. Coming up with your own deviceful deck is very absorbing as you could spend sometimes up to an hour or more just coming up with a deck that can take on the best, in an online ranking platform.

However while that rank or casual match in play mode may seem very peaceful at first, RNG will start to creep up on you and at times make the experience a little annoying. Be that as it may, it is a genuine card game and it should come as no surprise that there’s never a real guarantee as to whether you’ll win a lot. Even if you do happen to generate a lot of wins with your deck, there will be plenty of times where you’ll be scratching your head in bewilderment as your opponent somehow steals the win from you because one card changed the entire flow of the match. Some will truly hate that function while others may revel in its way of surprising you, and always encouraging you to come up with sophisticated ways to beat your opponent. With a new upcoming expansion slated to release next month known as Journey to Un’Goro, players will need to rethink their strategies once again to see who can take the number one legendary position this season.

To reiterate what we mentioned in the opening paragraph, RNG is quite simply a system which prevents players from tampering with the system, creating an unfair and often times frustrating environment for those on the opposing end. RNG adds in an element of thrill and excitement because you’re just never too sure where the tempo will go, whether it be in your favor or the opponents. That’s what makes RNG very interesting because while you may have all of the skills necessary to outwit your adversary on paper, RNG reminds you that skills aren’t everything and often times you just need to rely on the the random outcome to favor you majority of the time.

A lot of people, especially those of the anime community are very well acquainted with the celebrated Yu-Gi-Oh! franchise and the sheer thrill it brought to our hearts when watching. So imagine taking all of that very same thrill from the anime, and transforming it into a competitive card game. You pretty much get a lot wild action on the table and plenty of thrills to go along with it. Yu-Gi-Oh! has somewhat waned in popularity in the west but that’s due to such an influx of other popular trading card games out on the market, but the series is still highly competitive in Japan. It’s become very popular among the youth, mostly those in their adolescence or early high school years, and they travel out to the game bars to partake in the excitement in competing.

This isn’t to say that Yu-Gi-Oh! isn’t respected in the west because it truly is, but every event you go to be it a game event like Tokyo Game Show or C3 Tokyo in Japan, Konami has set up a booth that’s strictly dedicated to it and many kids flock to that booth like crazy. While RNG doesn’t really create as much salt in person as it does online, there are still those thrilling moments when you’re hanging on by your coattails begging for RNG to favor you, and then boom that one defining moment arrives and the tides have turned dramatically. Seeing that in action is truly a spectacle because you along with the players feel the rush of the swinging pendulum that is RNG, and not knowing where it may swing is what pushes you beyond your limits to come out on top. RNG creates a pretty random yet fair environment, and while you could argue against it simply because it didn’t work in your favor, the truth is that we all can’t be winners and RNG reminds us very sharply. We recommend if you haven’t dived into Yu-Gi-Oh! now’s a good time since there are plenty of tournaments in North America for you to d-d-d-d-duel.

Never in control, that’s the concept behind RNG and what makes such a powerful weapon in the world of trading card games. While you might think you’ve the upper hand against your opponent, RNG puts you in check and reminds you that there’s so such thing as having the advantage. One minute the tables have dramatically turned in your favor then several seconds later, your opponent drops a deadly minion that now puts them in the lead and nothing can salvaged. All of that hard work that went into creating a devastating board has now been wiped totally clean by the aoe effect (known as Area of Effect in card terms), and now all that’s left in your hand is a measly 1 mana spell that couldn’t save even the bravest of souls. This tormenting process that RNG places upon players can be downright demoralizing because every turn was a withdrawal out of that mental bank balance, and then boom the stocks suddenly crash and all of your investments go down the trading card drain. Be that as it may, trading card games provide some of the best forms of building self control and one great card game to exemplify this is none other than Magic the Gathering.

Before there was Hearthstone, Yu-Gi-Oh or any other card game on the market today, there was the father of them all and that was Magic the Gathering. Many of the professional TCG players of today have all derived from MTG, and now showcase their prowess in the eSports arena. Magic the Gathering is truly a game of wits and long before computers allowed us to perform magic spells and drop 9 mana minions on the fly, much of that was all done in hand by the players at the table. Things are a lot more gripping when playing in person because now you have your opponent in front of you, and so making the correct reads are vital when in dire straights. However, just because you’re in person doesn’t mean RNG isn’t lurking somewhere in the vicinity, waiting for that time to strike and create a momentum shift. Yes players typically shuffle their cards and are aware of what could potentially be drawn, but the random factor is still there and it could really go either way.

One monster could be sitting on the board threatening your every move, and while your hand is stacked with a brick of cards you simply can’t find the answer to the problem. Sweat starts to drizzle down the side of your face in anxiety as the entire match hangs on this one card to be drawn, but it never seems to want to come out. Card after card you pray to the gods to somehow grant you their powers, but they sit there in silence and let the game play out to their hearts content. A constant reminder that you’ll never be in control of the flow and so you’ll need to rely on other ways to turn a problem into a quick solution with what you have in hand. Sometimes those cards that may seem unplayable at first may come in handy in the long term, so taking risks is also what RNG promotes at times because when your back is against the wall, everything counts. Magic the Gathering is still an incredibly popular franchise and is played by millions all across the world, so if you’re looking for a truly genuine TCG experience we highly recommend giving this classic game a shot.