Hearthstone: Arma Cup Paris

Arma Cup Paris occurred over the weekend. The minor tournament featured France’s best players and few contenders from neighboring countries. There were eight rounds of Swiss play followed by a playoff for a share of 5000 Euros.

The victor was young up and coming player “Draz”, who shows that he wants to be considered France’s best Hearthstone player. He defeated many of the most talented in France to earn his victory at Arma Cup Paris.

Swiss Round Play

After the end of day one, some young guns were playing at the top of their game. French newcomer Draz went through Swiss play 7-0.

Another lesser known player but not new to competitive is “scarface”, who also dropped a 7-0 record in Swiss. Scarface actually finished second at Arma Cup 1, only losing to Maxime “Kalàxz” Thierry in the final, one of France’s best.

Of Course Kalàxz himself was no slouch, losing only a single game in the Swiss rounds. Kalàxz recently finished top four at HCT Oslo, losing to David “JustSaiyan” Shan, the American who has been the hottest player in Hearthstone.

Aspiring player “Flaco” put on quite the performance as well at 6-1 in Swiss. Flaco actually is a Challenger level player, making his success even more surprising as a non-pro player.

Loic “Dizdemon” Poulain is another one of France’s best who put up an early good performance, going 6-1 in Swiss. Dizdemon recently put up a top eight appearance at HCT Germany, losing only to the great Thijs “Thijs” Molendijk from the Netherlands.

Yoann “Hypno” Pfersich was one of the players trying to ruin the French fun, as the Swiss player battled his way to 5-2 in Swiss. He recently also placed top four in HCT Oslo, losing the to eventual winner, Xuwei “Zuhex” Zhao.

Top 16

Scarface, Dizdemon, Kalàxz, Draz and Flaco all continued to the top 16 playoff. Kalàxz was the only one to fall out of contention in the top 16 round.

Dizdemon’s Deathrattle Hunter was unstoppable.

Dizdemon met up against scarface in top eight and took the set 3-1. The two both brought a Shudderwock Shaman, Malygos Druid and Deathrattle Hunter. They both banned the Druids leaving them with a unique third deck: Odd Rogue for scarface and Evenlock for Dizdemon. Dizdemon’s Hunter won the mirror and powered through the set three games in a row.

Draz and Flaco had a showdown in the semi-finals. The set saw Draz cruise his way to a 3-0 victory. Draz brought an aggro lineup with Murloc Mage, Even Paladin, Odd Rogue and Deathrattle Hunter. Meanwhile Flaco had a control lineup with Shudderwock Shaman, Malygos Druid, Evenlock and a Zerek’s OTK Priest. Draz only needed his Even Paladin to win all three games.

Draz’s Even Paladin is one of two off-meta decks in his lineup.

On the other side of the semi-final, Dizdemon would lose to “Ares” in a 3-0 sweep. Even after the nerf to Giggling Inventor, Ares swept the series with Quest Rogue alone. As stated by many pros, Quest Rogue didn’t need the Giggling Inventor to be good, the card just made the deck really good. Ares still has Inventor in his deck, as three 4/4 bodies including some taunt and divine shield after playing the quest is just good.

Ares and Draz Battle for First

In the final showdown, it turned out that the aggressive lineup of Draz was too much for the control of Ares to handle. Draz left the Quest Rogue on the table because he knew the aggressive game plan was the best way to play against the deck.

Game one saw Draz’s Mind Control Tech steal Hadronox away from Ares’ Taunt Druid. That killed the game right in its tracks for Ares, as the Deathrattle Hunter had amassed too much of a board to come back from without the Taunts provided by Hadronox’s Deathrattle. Ares conceded on that turn.

Game two actually saw a victory with the Quest Rogue of Ares. He got out an early quest completion with Glacial Shard, and the lack of removal from Deathrattle Hunter resulted in Draz’s imminent death and a concede.

Murloc Mage was the most valuable deck of the final.

Games three and four unleashed the power of Murloc Mage. Quite an off-meta deck for tournament play, Draz simply plowed through Quest Rogue and Cubelock. Draz won France’s Nationals earlier this year, and has once again shown he is worthy of the title of France’s best. The next step would be making the jump to top international HCT finishes. Still, these smaller events provide some great Hearthstone action and some new decks.

Images courtesy of armatvhs’s twitch channel.

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