Want to become a legend at Hearthstone — Blizzard’s new blockbuster collecting card game — or simply learn how to play better? Then pull up a chair by the hearth and join us for a talk about Hearthstone mechanics and how to improve your chance of winning using machine learning and data mining. This talk is packed with examples that show how to use the tools that we are releasing at Defcon.
First, we will show you how to uncover the most undervalued cards by building a pricing model reflecting the cards’ abilities. Next we will explain how decks can be optimized by tweaking their mana curve to maximize mana efficiency. Finally, we will cover how to predict with relatively good accuracy what opponents are likely to play turn-by-turn by data-mining game replays and building a predictive model that uses that information.
Even if you’ve never heard of Hearthstone before (shame on you!), you should still come to to the talk. That’s because it’s fun and the techniques discussed can help you improve your performance on other collectible cards games including Magic.
