Over the weekend, Tempo Storm hosted the Hearthstone Specialist Showdown. We got a look at what class experts think are the best deck archetypes within their class. We got to see how certain classes directly interacted with each other over the course of multiple games and with different tech inclusions.
Some players decided to focus on a sole archetype with the cards they included in their sideboard. Some tried to have a sideboard that could handle a matchup entirely differently. It’s hard to have too much deck variety with only a ten card sideboard.
Shokrukh “Fibonacci” Rakhimov, the well known Warrior expert, brought a straight up Control Warrior. The idea is to win through infinite Dead Man’s Hand shuffles, and his sideboard intended to win with Mecha’thun or Togwaggle combo.
Dawid “Zetalot” Skalski, the Priest specialist, brought with him a Quest Control Priest. On his sideboard he could either play for fatigue with Archbishop Benedictus, or go for the OTK with Mecha’thun. The other Priest player was the Topsy OTK Priest specialist, David “Dog” Caero.
The chosen Rogue expert, “Gyong”, brought with him Quest Rogue. His sideboard was simply tech options for certain matchups. Jon “Orange” Westberg brought his now nerfed Malygos Druid. His sideboard included the Togwaggle Combo, as well as Faceless Manipulators for more burst.
Cong “StrifeCro” Shu was responsible for representing Paladin with his Even Paladin. His sideboard had enough slots to change out for the OTK Paladin archetype. Stephen “DeathstarV3” Stone, the well known Hunter main, brought a Midrange Hunter with a sideboard having tech options for that archetype.
As we move to the Warlock pack, Paul “Zalae” Nemeth brought a Control Warlock with a sideboard for the Leeroy Jenkins combo. Dima “Rdu” Radu brought with him a Zoo Warlock with a sideboard of tech options. Lastly, Andrey “Reynad” Yanyuk brought with him an Evenlock and a Mecha’thun combo in his sideboard.
The Mage specialist, Jacob “Apxvoid” Coen, brought along a Big Spell Mage. His sideboard had the pieces to create a OTK Mage.
Last was the Shaman player, Mark “Ike” Eichner with his Even Shaman and his troll Baku the Mooneater in the sideboard.
Only one player managed to go undefeated in the Group stages, and that was StrifeCro. It turns out that the ability to switch between Even Paladin and OTK Paladin can help win matchups that Even Paladin might struggle against. If someone is playing control and can outlast the Even Paladin threats, the Death Knight ensures they can win those.
Priest struggled rather heavily in this showcase, where both Dog and Zetalot finished the tournament 1-5. Neither of them brought the most popular form of Priest, Dragon Control. Dragon Control Priest seems to have strong footing in the current meta and might have performed better in this tournament.
Ike struggled his way through the group stages with his Even Shaman, finishing 3-3. Thanks to the tiebreaker against common opponents, he was able to advance to the final four over all of the other 3-3 finishers.
Rdu’s Zoo Warlock proved to be the best of the three Warlock archetypes brought to the tournament, finishing groups 4-2. It fights for early board very well, and the high roll potential is high with Prince Keleseth.
Deathstar also made it through the group stages with a 4-2 record. Hunter is considered to possibly be the strongest class in the current meta, and is definitely the most represented class on the ladder.
The first semifinal was between StrifeCro and Ike. StrifeCro went up early 1-0 with his Even Paladin over the Even Shaman. After the victory, he switched it up to the OTK Paladin with his sideboard. StrifeCro ended up losing where not having Time Out!s seemed to be the difference between winning and losing. In game three Ike took control early against the OTK Paladin and won. Ike outvalued StrifeCro in the last game to a dominant victory.
In the semifinal between Rdu and Deathstar, Rdu changed his main deck to a Cube Warlock against Deathstar’s Midrange Hunter. Deathstar played a really quick game one and had the burst damage to finish off Rdu. Rdu came back with his sideboard in game two and got a lucky Doomguard plus Cube combo to win the game. Games three and four would lean in Deathstar’s favor, resulting in a 3-1 where the aggression of Hunter and Scavenging Hyena shined.
In the final match Deathstar stayed on a roll. The first game saw Deathstar make yet another giant Scavenging Hyena to win early against Ike’s Even Shaman. Game two Deathstar played the long value game, and Deathstalker Rexxar seemed to perform better than Hagatha, the Witch. Ike was able to come back in game three by getting Hagatha online as early as possible. Game four was a combination of a great draw for Deathstar and a dead draw for Ike resulting in the Hunter victory.
Images courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment via the Tempo Storm Twitch channel.
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