Hearthstone Grandmasters 2019 Day 1 Recap

The first day of Hearthstone’s premier Grandmasters league kicked off today. We got to see the top rated pros for the first time in a Specialist environment. We will do a quick rundown of who is playing what decks and who beat who on the first day of the inaugural season in our Hearthstone Grandmasters 2019 Day 1 recap.

Asia-Pacific

The scores for the Asia-Pacific region on Day One are as follows:

Kim “Surrender” Jung-soo [2 : 1] Euneil “Staz” Javiñas
Dylan “FroStee” O’Mallon [1 : 2] Cho “Flurry” Hyun Soo
Yashima “Alutemu” Nozomi [2 : 0] Chen “tom60229” Wei Lin
Dasol “Ryvius” Sim [2 : 0] Kim “che0nsu” Cheon Su
Liu “Shaxy” Wei-Chieh [2 : 1] Pathra “Pathra” Cadness

Surrender brought Bomb Warrior against Staz who brought Dragon Mage. Staz was able to take a favorable Game 1, but that would be all. Surrender’s secondary deck was teched with a second Brawl, two Big Game Hunters, a second Omega Devastator and a Supercollider. All of these gave him the edge against Mage and worked out just as planned.

FroStee played Bomb Warrior into the Tempo Rogue of Flurry. Flurry was able to win Game 1 without his deck being teched for the Warrior match up. He then switched to his deck with Hench-Clan Burglars, Harrison Jones, Sprint and Chef Nomi to increase his odds, closing it out in Game 3.

Alutemu and tom60229 played one another in a Tempo Rogue mirror match. Alutemu’s main list was more aggressive than tom’s and that ended up creating a quick 2-0 for Alutemu. Alutemu even cut Captain Greenskin from his main list to play around weapon removal which tom had.

Ryvius took Tempo Mage up against che0nsu who brought Tempo Rogue. Ryvius made quick work of che0nsu, his secondary deck doing work against Rogue. It had two Acidic Swamp Oozes, two Vex Crows and a Giggling Inventor.

Shaxy had his Tempo Rogue go up against the Bomb Warrior of Pathra. Pathra stuck to her Primary list in all three games. Shaxy won Game 1, so stuck to his Primary list in Game 2, but lost. He switched to his Chef Nomi tech list in Game 3 and won.

Europe

The scores for Europe looked like this:

Torben “Viper” Wahl [0 : 2] Thijs “Thijs” Molendijk
Elias “Bozzzton” Sibelius [0 : 2] Aleksandr “Kolento” Malsh
George “BoarControl” Webb [0 : 2] Vladislav “SilverName” Sinotov
Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer [1 : 2] Chris “Fenomeno” Tsakopoulos
Joffrey “Swidz” Cunat [0 : 2] Radu “Rdu” Dima

Thijs swept Viper’s Tempo Rogue with his Tempo Mage. Thijs went Mountain Giant into Conjurer’s Calling and that was it for Game 1, Viper having no answer. In Game 2, Thijs got a good Harrison Jones into Conjurer’s Calling and Viper had to play the entire game from behind. Rogue can’t handle that position and Viper lost.

Kolento swept Bozzzton with his Tempo Mage against Bomb Warrior. Bozzzton couldn’t answer Mountain Giant into Conjurer’s Calling and lost Game 1. The game was much longer in the second, but Kolento was able to generate tons of Fireballs with Archmage Antonidas on top of big boards for victory.

BoarControl took his Midrange Hunter up against SilverName’s Bomb Warrior. SilverName would sweep BoarControl in a match up in which Boar thought he was favored. It was only two games, but due to the nature of the matchup, it last an entire hour.

Bunnyhoppor brought Bomb Warrior against Feno’s Tempo Mage. Feno built up a board state Bunny had no answer for in Game 1 for victory. In Game 2, Feno never got his Giants online and Bunny’s good tempo lead to a turn nine victory. In Game 3, Feno got decent tempo and Bunny started drawing dead without Dr. Boom, Mad Genius, giving Feno the set.

Swidz brought Bomb Warrior against Rdu’s Control Warrior. Typically Bomb Warrior is favored due to its ability to apply more pressure, but Swidz didn’t have Elysiana in his main list. Game 2 was lost for Swidz as he simply could not find Dr. Boom, Mad Genius while Rdu got it online very earlier and went hard with tempo.

Americas

Lastly in the Americas region, we had the matches end like this:

Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam [1 : 2] Frank “Fr0zen” Zhang
Lucas “Rase” Guerra [2 : 1] Facundo “Nalguidan” Pruzzo
Eddie “Eddie” Lui [2 : 0] Brian “bloodyface” Eason
Francisco “PNC” Leimontas [0 : 2] James “Firebat” Kostesich
William “Amnesiac” Barton [1 : 2] Cong “StrifeCro” Shu

Muzzy and Fr0zen faced off in a Bomb Warrior mirror match. The first game would go to Fr0zen who managed to burn 25 damage worth of bombs by keeping his hand at 10 cards. Fr0zen had his secondary teched for the Warrior match up by playing Mecha’thun plus The Undatakah. Fr0zen actually lost Game 2 because he couldn’t kill off Undatakah, but played Game 3 much better and took the series.

Rase and Nalguidan faced off in a Bomb Warrior mirror match. Thanks to Rase having Archivist Elysiana in his main deck while Nalguidan did not, Rase took Game 1. Rase went with his greedier list in Game 2, but it cost him, resulting in too much pressure against him. In the final game, both players got down low, but Rase found Dr. Boom, Mad Genius in a crucial moment, leading to victory for Rase.

Eddie and Bloodyface faced off in a Bomb Warrior mirror. Bloodyface lost Game 1 due in part to Eddie having Elysiana in his main deck while he did not. Game 2 saw Eddie’s more greedy list take it away from Bloodyface due to the excessive damage.

There is a surprisingly large amount of Warrior in the first week of play. We will have to see how they perform against the other classes over the weekend and if the representation is warranted.

Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via the PlayHearthstone Twitch channel.

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