Question for those who have played Magic too: which kinds of cards in Hearthstone haven't been (or couldn't have been) done in Magic? For example, if I didn't know better, I would have thought cards that summon auxiliary minions, like Violet Teacher, would be impractical in a physical game. But of course, Magic has those. Same goes for minions that stack self-buffs, like Scavenging Hyena (e.g. Primordial Hydra), and copying minions, Faceless Manipulator (e.g. Clone).
My current guesses about cards that Magic couldn't do practically are:
- Cards that do random selection among minions or characters, like Mad Bomber, seem impractical in a physical game. I guess you could represent each minion/character with a card, shuffle that, and select that way.
- Cards that can chain complex buffs on minions, like Crazed Alchemist, seem annoying to track physically.
- Any healing ability seems inapplicable to Magic, which doesn't persist damage across turns (right?).
1 - Actually, it has this guy:
Goblin Test Pilot.
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Goblin+Test+PilotHe taps to do 2 damage to random target (player or creature).
You usually count number of available targets, assign a number to each and roll a die.
2 - There actually are a few card that switches Power and Toughness of creatures. It is only that effect similar to that one almost always last till the end of the turn. Like this guy, for example:
http://gatherer.wizards.com/Handlers/Image.ashx?multiverseid=106668&type=cardGame has to use some sort of counters to represent permanent change, and while the most usual counters are +1/+1 and -1/-1, as pops sad, we also had weird things like -1/-2 and so.
3 - as somebody said, Wither (and later Infect) is closes to "healing" as that was a kind of damage that carried across the turns, and could be removed as well. (Creatures with Wither or Infect deal damage in form of -1/-1 counters).
Other form of "healing" is damage pervention. (cards that say "prevent next X damage done to target creature").
Edit: well, I guess, also regeneration