The Arena

The Arena gives players the opportunity to test their on-the-fly deck building skills against other players. The Arena becomes available once all Heroes have been unlocked. The first Arena run is free, but all other runs will cost either 150 gold or real-world money.

The Great Equalizer

The Arena is the most egalitarian mode in Hearthstone. While it's possible to gain a true power advantage through earning or buying Cards in regular play, Arena mode forces competitors to build their decks from a pool of relatively balanced and equally limited resources.

A player who masters the deck Building principles of Arena can reap rich rewards against far more experienced players. Players have found that winning above seven games in an Arena run can result in obtaining at least a pack of Cards and enough gold for another Arena entry fee. If you are good enough in the Arena, you can consistently enter the Arena and and gain Card packs very often. It goes without saying, that because of this; The Arena has turned out to be the most beneficial way to earn Cards, gold and dust for skilled players.

How the Arena Works

Upon entering The Arena, a player is given three randomly selectedHeroes to choose from. After choosing a Hero, the player is then shown three randomly selected Cards, the player chooses one Card and is then shown another three randomly selected Cards, this process is repeated until the player has chosen thirty Cards to complete their Arena deck, of which they will then use to compete against other Arena players with their Arena decks.

In The Arena you have three lives. Once you have been defeated three times in The Arena, you are given rewards dependent on how successful your run was.

Building an Arena Deck

Building an Arena Deck is very different from building a normal deck. The key difference in the limited scale of the Card environment. Most of the familiar combos you'll see in regular play aren't possible in Arena, since the pool of Cards available to each player is too small to create consistent combinations.

1. Arena decks are therefore much more fundamental. You want to keep a good mana curve (ratio of cheap Cards to expensive Cards).

2. You'll want plenty of Minions at your disposal.

*Learn How to Draft Neutral Minions in Arena

3. Look out for Cards which provide strong Card advantage. AnyCard that offers two-for-one rewards, either by providing two minions or destroying two or more enemies, is very important. Likewise, Cards which allow you to draw more Cards are powerful.

*Learn More About Building Card Advantage

4. Keep an eye out for direct effects, Cards which can be used for removal or to steal or immobilize enemy Minions. These abilities are invaluable.

Playing An Arena Deck

Learning to use Arena decks demands patience. Adjusting your play tendencies from your custom deck strategies to the improvisational world of Arena takes a while, and you'll likely lose quite a few matches before you really get the hang of it.

Since you never have the opportunity to tune the deck through play testing, you're going to need to learn to live with your mistakes and learn from them. Every Arena match is an educational experience, especially the losses, which teach you just where your deck is weak. Adjust your play style accordingly.

For example, you may discover that you've stacked your deck with good, cheap Minions and Card drawing, but you're shorter on large closing Minions and removal than you realized. You may want to adapt your next game play strategy to pure Aggro (all out attack) in the hope that the vulnerability will never have a chance to manifest itself.

Arena Rewards

Depending on how many wins you get in your Arena run, you will be rewarded with an Arena Reward Key at the end.

Wins	Key Title
0	Novice Key
1	Apprentice Key
2	Journeyman Key
3	Copper Key
4	Silver Key
5	Gold Key
6	Platinum Key
7	Diamond Key
8	Champion Key
9	Ruby Key
10	Frostborn Key
11	Molten Key
12	Lightforge Key

The more wins you get in one Arena run, the better the Key. The better the Key, the better the rewards. Rewards come in small boxes that pop up on the screen after you use your Arena Reward Key at the end of your run.

Even if you are defeated three times in a row, you are guaranteed at least a pack of Cards for your efforts. Thus making playing The Arena, often more beneficial than simply spending all of your Gold directly on Card%20Packs Card Packs.

AU: WIN A MAGNETO HELMET WITH X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST!

This competition is now closed and all winners notified. Michael Glasswell from Auckland, NZ was our grand prize winner - check out his awesome entry below.

And here are a select few pictures from our runner up winners:

By Dane Kirkland, NSW

By Patrick Brown, TAS

By Dane Atienza, NSW

By James Robinson, NSW

By Trent Lambert, SA

To celebrate the upcoming release of X-Men: Days of Future Past, we have an extremely limited edition (200 made) Magneto helmet to give away to one lucky Australian reader, plus 20 double-passes to the film as runner-up prizes.

To go in the running to win this money-can't-buy prize, we want you to draw a picture of yourself wearing the helmet in your everyday life, and send your picture to ozcomps@ign.com under the subject line X-Men Competition.  You can use whatever tools you like to create your picture, so go nuts, and the creator of the picture we like the most will win the helmet plus a double-pass. Runner up winners will receive a double-pass each. This competition is open to Australian and New Zealand residents only, although please note the tickets will not be redeemable in NZ.

FINAL FANTASY X’S WAR ON ORGANISED RELIGION

Circa 2001 when it originally came out for the PS2, no one was paying attention to that. The games media of the time focused on what would appeal to the everygamer: It was all “Amaaazing graphics” this, and “The first fully-voiced JRPG ever” that (actually untrue – the little-known Septerra Core beat it to that historic punch by almost two years).

What a difference over a decade of retrospect makes.

The infamous laughing scene now seems more meta than absurd. Mentally Photoshop Final Fantasy X director Yoshitori Kitase’s bobbling head on top of Tidus’ body for that part and he’s now howling with atheistic glee. At a blood moon.

FFX is set in a world called Spira, and at base, FFX is a picaresque story from the point of view of someone (Tidus) who is technically from the place he is supposed to be a stranger to.

Kitase’s laughter begins about here.

Day to day life in Spira is characterised by the omnipresent dread that comes from having a million-ton flying sea beast of doom cruising the ocean floor at all times. They called it ‘Sin.’ More Kitase laughter: It looks a lot like the biblical scourge, Leviathan. Maybe it’ll do a barrel roll on your island community this weekend, maybe it won’t.

Sin, eh? Subtle...

The only thing keeping people together, curiously, is the church of Yevon. ‘Church’ is a misnomer seeing as Yevon is Spira. Spira is a theocracy, and despite how colourful and carefree its archipelagos and cities might seem, it is also a fascist theocracy. That kind of dualism is intentional, and represents FFX’s broader Buddhist subtext. Hey what? We’ll get to that. In the meantime, if you go against Yevon, you’re gonna have a bad time.

You Just Gotta Have Fayth

Unlike the fantastic concept of something like Satan, Yevon’s devil is a real and present danger. They’ve even christened it what they want it to represent: Sin. The presence of Sin equals the promise of potential salvation, even though Sin always reappears, even when a summoner like Yuna manages to destroy it. Always.

Yevon placates the masses and maintains their power structure by insisting that Sin will only truly disappear once everyone has properly atoned through following their teachings to the letter. There is no rationale given for why this would work, and especially not when it will work. Nobody questions it. They are too afraid. The absence of technology and education creates a vacuum where “you just gotta have faith” can flourish. Faith in the powers-that-be.

Water is one of the recurring motifs of FFX.

In truth, Sin is no divine punishment. It is the desperate creation of a man, different to machina in form but not function. ‘Machina’ is what FFX calls technology, and it is a massive point of contention. Of little direct mention in the game itself is the Machina War, seemingly the only major event in Spira’s history. It is why scenes of verdancy and ruin coexist so frequently they define the landscape. It’s why Yevon is what it is.

1,000 years BT (Before Tidus… this is not an official quantity), the city-states of Bevelle and Zanarkand warred with each other for reasons unknown. Bevelle had advanced technology – machina – on their side, Zanarkand had the ancient magics of its summoners. Bevelle’s weapons were going to win and win easily, so Zanarkand’s leader sacrificed the city’s remaining populace to create Sin. Sin promptly and undesirably rolled over onto Zanarkand and smushed it, ending the Machina War. Sin’s creator? Zanarkand’s leader – a man called Yu Yevon. It’s later revealed that Sin is just armour, and that he is the driving force inside it.

How he came to be Spira’s own Christ figure is a subtle parallel to the many different arguments surrounding who exactly Jesus was. FFX’s point is: Nobody knows, and it is too late for those questions. The more overt parallel is sharp and deliberate: Jesus’ martyrdom created something misunderstood by many and misused by many more. Yu Yevon’s martyrdom did the same. Spira’s saviour is Yevon, and Yevon is Sin, Spira’s oppressor. This cycle is entirely godless. People made it. People sustain it.

Yu Yevon - quite the friendly chap.

It’s important to note that FFX does not take issue with the concept of creationism. Spira itself doesn’t even have a creation myth. Instead, it is hugely critical of what people do with what gives rise to creationism, and under what unique and powerful social circumstances organised religion finds the opportunity to rise in the first place.

In this case, the end of war creates a desperate hope that war will not happen again. Fear is Final Fantasy X’s answer, and fear is exploitable. This is hard to argue with, and we have seen religion-as-regime over and over throughout history. It’s easy for that to happen. Some more radical thinkers even claim that Christianity was designedspecifically as a system of control. FFX contends that the entire thing – Yevon – is an accident; a strange turn of events seized by opportunists and culturally ingrained as quickly as possible. In only 1,000 years, the majority of an entire world is indentured to its church. This should, fittingly, be ringing some bells. Clang clang.

He moonlights as Wang in the Tekken games.

FFX even speaks of organised religion’s virtues – in this case, a strong sense of community – as an indictment of its hypocrisy. All races on Spira are united under Yevon, but only so long as they follow the teachings. Being that those teachings seem suspiciously engineered to favour the Dark Ages, the progressive Al Bhed are outcast as heathens for their interest in the technology that defined the Machina War. Machina is aggressively banned by the church.

That was the wind-up, here’s the pitch: Upon visiting Spira’s holy epicenter Bevelle, machina are to be seen in abundance. The mere suggestion of using them is enough to condemn an entire minority, it seems, but machina “officially sanctioned” by Yevon that fulfill identical and even warlike roles to the ones Rikku and co. go diving for are fine. Yevon’s word is law unlawful to itself: “Machina started our troubles,” is their excuse, “so machina is not allowed. Except for us.”

Machina also gave Bevelle such a decisive advantage during the Machina War with Zanarkand that it forced Yu Yevon to create Sin. They are right and they are wrong, but they are right for the wrong reasons. God vs. science has so far been a losing battle for the former. Take away the people’s means and command their minds. Clang clang.

AU: WIN ONE OF 50 DESTINY BETA CODES

To go in the draw to win a code, simply send an email to ozcomps@ign.com telling us in 50 words or less which character class you're going to choose in Destiny, and why. Please title your subject line Destiny Beta Comp. The most inventive/well thought out entries will win! Simple!

Please note - the codes are only redeemable via Bungie.net so winners will need to register and simply choose which platform they would prefer. While the beta date is yet to be announced, winners will be able to redeem the codes prior to this. This competition is open to Australian residents only age 15+.

From the creators of Halo and the publisher of Call of Duty comes Destiny. With an unprecedented variety of FPS gameplay, Destiny promises to deliver an incredible story set within a newly-imagined, always-connected universe filled with action and adventure.

Everything changed with the arrival of the Traveler. It sparked a Golden Age when our civilization spanned the solar system ... but it didn't last. Something hit us, knocked us down. The survivors built a city beneath the Traveler, and have begun to explore our old worlds, only to find them filled with deadly foes. In Destiny, you are a Guardian of the last safe city on Earth, able to wield incredible power. Defend the City. Defeat our enemies. Reclaim all that we have lost.

MAD MEN: "WATERLOO" REVIEW

Hey guys, with the Mad Men midseason finale airing in the middle of a holiday weekend, I'm afraid my review may not be finished until Monday morning. In the meantime, you can post your spoiler-filled thoughts on "Waterloo" in the comments section below and share what you thought of the last Mad Men episode of the year - with the show returning in 2015 for its final seven episodes.

Look for my review at his same URL.

STAR CITIZEN HITS $44 MILLION IN FUNDING

Unstoppable crowdfunded project Star Citizenhas now passed $44 million in funding, says Roberts Space Industries.

Those who pledged before this milestone will receive an additional room added to their hangars.

"Walk among the distant horizons you’ve charted in Star Citizen’s dedicated 'map room' featuring a 3D holographic representation of the known universe," the blog postsays of new feature Stellar Cartography. The rooms acts as a sort of "digital diary," expanding into something unique to your as you explore new worlds.

Roberts Space Industries is hoping to lure in more backers with the promise of another feature, an Updated Scanning Software suite, that will become available once the funding pool hits $46 million. And as for the reward goal after that? Players will be able to vote on their favourite choice of three options: a role-specific outfit, an engine tuning kit, or a space plant. Be sure to check out the Star Citizen blog to cast your vote.

Star Citizen initially raised $2.1 million when it was first revealed as a Kickstarter project. The first of several "modules" - chunks that the game has been broken down into in order to get something playable into the hands of backers - was released last year, allowing players to walk around and examine their ships. More modules will be released this year, with the finished game expected no sooner than 2015.

MINECRAFT HALO MASH-UP PACK IS ON THE WAY

The Mash-Up Pack contains an exclusive texture set and 40 Halo character skins, but it's not just a bunch of Halo-themed retextures. It also adds a Halo-themed user interface, new items inspired by Halo, and music from the Halo series.

According to the Halo Waypoint blog, the pack also includes heaps of iconic Halo locations such as Valhalla, Blood Gulch, and Sandtrap, recreated in Minecraft's blocky terrain. Be sure to check out the beautiful screenshot gallery.

This is the most of the Mash-Up Pack that we've seen since it was first teased on Twitter, but platforms and a release date have yet to be announced. This isn't the first cross-game Mash-Up pack that Minecraft has had; we've previously covered Mash-Up Packs for Skyrim and Mass Effect too.