
The second of three Masters Tour events is underway this weekend in Seoul, South Korea. This tournament is very wild in terms of meta, coming just 10 days after the release of Saviors of Uldum. There’s been plenty of upsets so far in Masters Tour Seoul Day 1 due to this, and some lesser known players have a shot at winning it all.
It is important to address the meta of the event especially since the ladder meta has yet to settle down. Some players have opted for very little change, going for archetypes that were quite solid before the expansion. Some players have gone with completely new decks, and both paths are finding decent success.
Far and away the most popular class in Seoul is Mage, with over 50 percent of the field bringing the class. This is thanks mostly in part to the card Luna’s Pocket Galaxy. Against any deck that is not aggressive, dropping this card on five is nearly an automatic win. This pick has worked out great as well, with Warrior being the second most popular class and Mage’s best match up.
As mentioned, Warrior is the number two represented class, but only has about half the number of players as Mage. The class might suffer against the Mages, but it good against pretty much everything else. Overall the class has not been in the favor of those who play it. With too many Mages, it has made Warrior the lowest win rate class in Masters Tour Seoul Day 1.
Rogue and Hunter are the third and fourth most popular classes, with a few more players choosing Rogue. Rogue does pretty well against Mages, but because of the large volume of Warriors, it has had a hard time overall. Hunter has also had its struggles against Warrior, but is definitely one of the better anti-Mage classes, rocking around a 60 percent win rate against them.
Priest sits in a solid fifth place for class popularity. There are a few variations of what’s being played, but the best performer seems to be a Tempo Inner Fire Priest. Mage doesn’t really contest on the first few turns, and this opens up a perfect window for Priests to develop a high health minion. Then, by the time Mages start to develop on board, a Divine Spirit plus Inner Fire combo usually ends the game.
Paladin and Druid are very close together in representation in sixth and seventh. Paladin has been a coin flip against Mages, which is probably based around if Mages play an early Luna’s Pocket Galaxy or not. They also struggle against Warrior because most Paladins are OTK Paladin, which usually can’t do enough damage to actually kill Warriors through their armor. Druids have generally just struggled overall, as the Quest often times takes too much out of their early game to turn it into a win.
Then the bottom two classes are Shaman and Warlock. There are various types of Shaman, from Quest to Token, and they have actually been pretty decent. Mages don’t have a ton of AOE, especially in the early game, and Shamans have taken advantage of that to the tune of an over 70 percent win rate. Warlocks of course also take advantage of those first few turns where Mages do nothing and have seen similar success. However this is on a very small scale as literally only a handful of players brought Warlock to Seoul.
After the first day of play, only three players remain undefeated in the Swiss rounds. Currently number one by tiebreakers is French player “Zhym”. He is using Reno Mage which has led him down a solid win streak, even beating top Grandmaster player Kevin “Casie” Eberlein in a round seven mirror match which leaves Casie at a solid 6-1.
Also at 7-0 is UK Hearthstone player Jack “DeadDraw” Bancroft. He’s made it this far with Control Warrior. The last player at 7-0 is Grandmaster Euneil “Staz” Javiñas. Staz has been getting his job done with Highlander Hunter.
Staz took a win off of fellow Grandmaster Linh “Seiko” Nguyen’s Reno Mage to put Seiko at 6-1 after the first day. Seiko is among a ton of 6-1 players after the first day. Notable names with some of the best tiebreakers include Remi “Tars” Roesch, “Sooni” from South Korea, and “Hatul” from Israel.
Tars is rocking a Reno Mage with Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron in his main deck. Sooni is playing a Tempo Combo Priest. Then Hatul is playing Reno Mage with a Pyroblast in his main deck.
Some Grandmaster players fell flat in the early going of Masters Tour Seoul Day 1. However, there are still quite a few of them left in decent spots to make the Top 8.
Elias “Bozzzton” Sibelius, William “Amnesiac” Barton, George “BoarControl” Webb, and Muzahidul “Muzzy” Islam are all 5-2 with Cyclone Mage. Cong “StrifeCro” Shu is 5-2 with Freeze Mage. Raphael “BunnyHoppor” Peltzer and Tsao “SamuelTsao” Tsu Lin are 5-2 with Reno Mage. As it is plain to see, the Grandmasters players have been favoring Mage.
Eddie “Eddie” Lui is the odd Grandmaster out at 5-2 with Quest Druid. He is one of the few players to experiment with and actually see success with Druid. Popular streamer Tugay “MrYagut” Evsan also finds himself at 5-2, on the back of Tempo Thief Rogue. MrYagut has played a ton of Rogue including before Uldum’s release so its no surprise to see him not come off it.
Reigning World Champion Casper “Hunterace” Notto is hanging on at 4-3. He is playing OTK Paladin and has obviously struggled. He placed 39th in Las Vegas with an 8-4 record, so it’s going to be difficult to do better in Seoul than he did there. A lot can still happen before top eight, so it will be interesting to see who remains after Day 2.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via their official website and the PlayHearthstone twitch channel.
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