Esports News: The Hearthstone World Championships are being held in the Netherlands this year, ending its three-year run in California.
The tournament is shaping up to be packed with intense battles, not least because many players have chosen to run a similar selection of decks.
Priest selected by all
Each player has submitted four decks for this tournament, with every single participant selecting Priest as one of their deck choices, with Warlock and Druid just behind at 15 selections apiece. During a best-of-five series, each player bans a class, and thusly a deck, from their opponent, leaving them with three available decks. The first to claim victory with each deck is the winner; after winning, the victor must switch their deck to a new one.
Given the state of the meta, in which almost every player knows a majority of the decks run, decks are primarily constructed as counters to other decks seen at the tournament. The most obvious of these decks is SamuelTsao’s Warlock deck; which, contrary to the typical control-oriented Warlock, is an aggressive Zoo deck, built to defeat the late-game decks that fill this tournament.
Patches the Pirate and Corridor Creeper
The key cards that shape this event are likely to be Patches the Pirate and Corridor Creeper –cards that work incredibly well together and that also create a unique problem for Blizzard’s balancing teams. Patches has long ruled the metagame ever since the card’s creation, continually forcing the “Pirate package” (or synergistic Pirate cards that utilise Patches) into competitive play. Patches is such a strong early-game tool that even late-game decks are currently running it in most cases in order to keep the board fairly even early on. Corridor Creeper is a card that was just printed with the most recent expansion, with a potential to swing the board in almost any matchup, given its reduction in cost for every minion that has died while it sits in a player’s hand. The combination of Patches and Corridor Creeper within the meta gives the player that can utilise both first an incredible advantage, unfortunately swinging the game due to luck of the draw in most cases.
Orange will play Hunter
Orange is a player with a lot of hype surrounding his presence in this year’s Championship, given his position as the only player in the round of sixteen to run a Hunter deck. This does create an interesting predicament for his opponents, as while they could look to ban the typical strong deck, usually Priest or Warlock, some could look to ban Hunter in order to play against decks they are more familiar with. Orange has constructed an aggressive Hunter deck, built around controlling the board early, before transitioning towards face damage. Orange’s selection of classes will lead to an interesting match no matter his opponent.
Ant may cause problems
The only player not running Warlock is Ant, who has a unique array of decks. In place of a Warlock deck is a Murloc Paladin deck, which has seen a vast re-tooling from the latest expansion. Joining his Paladin deck is a fairly typical Rogue deck, an Aggro (token) Druid deck, and finally, a big spell Dragon Priest deck, based off Dragon presence early that transitions into large spells later in the game. Ant’s unique array could catch his initial opponent on edge as they look to adapt to his style of play.
Perhaps the most recognisable name taking part in the championships is Kolento, who has primarily brought Control decks to the table. One concern for Kolento is the limited diversity of his deck selections, as an opponent could look to take away his one Aggro deck (Tempo Rogue), while countering his late-game decks with either Aggro or Jade Druid. Kolento is an experienced player, who will look to control the board in almost every single matchup.
With a $250,000 first-place prize on the line at the Center Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam, and the overall uncertainty of play, this sets up as a World Championship not only where anything could happen, but probably will.
