Gaming
After the first major tournament of 2017, what’s the current state of strats in pro play?
Hearthstone in 2017 has kicked off early with the WESG Grand Finals in Changzhou, China and offered competitors a shot at the significant tournament prize pot of $300,000.
As the first major tournament of the year, it arrives as just enough time has passed since the release of Mean Streets of Gadgetzan to the point where the meta has settled and the powerful decks have risen to prominence.
Pros like to tinker, though, to give their deck list an individual twist that their opponents may not have prepared for or anticipated. So, yes, while those scurvy-ridden swashbucklers and “There Can Be Only One,” screaming Highlanders were all well represented we did get to see a couple of unique tweaks that caught players off guard in China this past weekend, and showed how the meta has subtly shifted in response to popular decks.
Let’s start somewhere obvious: Pirate Warrior. The speedy powerhouse of a deck that’s dominated the ranked ladder was brought by near enough every player to the tournament. The reason? It’s an all-but-guaranteed free win. True, the deck does have some less than ideal matchups, but there’s nothing that can shut down the pace and synergy of the eye-patch-wearing brigands. Small-time Buccaneer is a huge help too – the one-drop setting up a lot of early advantages and easy wins if it was found in a player’s opening hand.
Seriously, you could pick any match and you’d find this deck archetype represented. Lists were all as expected for the most part, but tournament champion Euneil ‘Staz’ Javinas did switch things up by throwing in two copies of Naga Corsair. Combined with an Upgrade or two it served as an interesting tech card to give more power and durability to the deck’s weapons. In one ridiculous instance, Staz managed to keep a Rusty Hook in play from turn one to turn seven through repeated weapon improvements making it the most resilient piece of degrading metal we’ve ever seen.
His opponent in the final, top European player Jon ‘Orange’ Westberg, did manage to break from expectation and brought a speedy variant of Dragon Warrior to the tournament. A decision you’d think was pure lunacy considering the wave of pirates successfully battering the board. Orange clearly knew something, however, as the deck won an impressive nine times without losing a single game, showing that you can find success playing off-meta.
Nevertheless, the pirate menace still found their way stowed aboard the deck lists of other classes. Most notably, a reworked version of the classic Miracle Rogue proved popular. Not only buoyed by the pirates, the ability to play and cycle so many cheap cards saw players build up the imposing combo of Questing Adventurer and Edwin VanCleef to a monumental size. Throw in the burst damage from everyone’s favourite reckless Paladin, Leeroy Jenkins, and the Rogue’s ability to Conceal its entire board of minions, and you have a trio of hidden heavy hitters. As has been the case with Miracle decks in the past, it made for some exciting momentum swings and crazy sequences of card draws.
Speaking of momentum swings, it would be impossible not to mention the gruelling 40 minute Reno Mage mirror match between Orange and Staz which decided the winner of the tournament. Both players were being cautious with the limited resources they had available, trying to extract every last drop of value from the cards and combinations that made up their decks. It was a game that lasted well into fatigue and included three copies of Reno Jackson, three Ice Blocks and five Kazakus potions.
Manic Soulcaster and Brann Bronzebeard combined to get the extra uses out of their key combo cards, but it was Staz’s inclusion of Cabalist’s Tome which seemed to nudge the game in his favour. The extra cards it provided, including a dream additional copy of Cabalist’s Tome to keep the chain going, ensured he had more options to break the eternal slinging of Fireballs the match could have descended into
Also, with the emphasis on powerful Battlecry effects it was interesting to see how both players took advantage of Dirty Rat, a card which has been surging in popularity due to its potential to disrupt the flow of ‘Highlander’ decks by summoning a random minion from your opponent’s hand. When it looked as if Orange had an opportunity to take the advantage back late in the game with an Alexstrasza play his plans were scuppered when Staz’s Dirty Rat forced it out with a Doomsayer on the board, negating its effect and wiping it from the game. Orange repaid the favour later, though, by pulling a similar move to summon his opponent’s Alexstrasza and transform it into a far less daunting sheep. Until Reno Jackson falls out of Standard in a couple of months, this looks like one of the best counters out there to this deck type.
Elsewhere, there was a surprising lack of Reno Priest at the tournament – players instead favoured Mage and Warlock versions of the deck. And looking at the final few slots you’ll see nothing out of the ordinary. There was the solid and entirely mundane Jade Druid, using its resilience and Golem spawning powers to overwhelm opponents – if it could survive for long enough. Many brought Shaman decks to WESG too, but the Tunnel Troggs and Totem Golems were rarely seen as players favoured banning the deck rather than facing it. A sensible decision.
Let’s also take a moment to spare a few thoughts for Paladin and Hunter, which were universally neglected. To break them down: Hunter has very little going on right now, with its identity and play style unclear, and the new Gadgetzan cards doing little to inspire or induce a creative new deck type. Paladin has some hope with its selection of new buff spells and minions, though it still feels it’s lacking that killer touch or refinement to make it competitive at a pro level. For now, the Buffadin is just a fun style of deck to play.
So, that about covers everything we learnt about the current state of the Hearthstone meta from WESG. Chosen decks were to be expected for the most part, but a few unusual flourishes spawned some new ideas and kept players on their toes. It’s likely there will be very little change over the coming months up until the big shake up occurs when the new set arrives and previous releases fall from Standard play . Until then it’s nothing but Patches, pirates and potions. Hopefully WESG has shown, though, that there’s still room for some experimentation.
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