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A smooth GosuCup #8 we had this Sunday and after the usual eight rounds of competition one Diogo "Lalah" Teque cam on top. Using a Hunter deck almost all throughout the tournament, Lalah pinned a 16-3 to the final scoreboard and walked away $100 richer.
More up-and-coming players finished after Lalah in the standings with BreizhPunisher from France as second, Dutchman Gradefor of the recently established team Wildcard as third and Z1ON from Russia as fourth. Looking at the top 8, we also see names like Team MiA's sasT, regular GosuCup high finisher Excepo and even the DreamHack runner-up Danielctin14.
GosuCup #7 standings
1. 
Lalah
2. 
BreizhPunisher
3. 
Gradefor
4. 
Z1ON
5-8. 
Excepo
5-8. Meesie6x6
5-8. 
sasT
5-8. 
Danielctin14
Thanks to Gradefor's third place and Meesie's top 8, Netherlands finally edges out Germany after a pursuit of several weeks, leading to them with 16 points to 15. At the same time, Lalah's triumph brough Portugal another precious 5 p oints and rocketed them six places compared to last week andn they're now between Russia and Italy at #4.
Due to Portugal's rapid climb, a lot of nations were pushed down a spot or two and Sweden, Greece, Denmark, Norway and the Czech Republic are all left out of the top 5 but still with enough points to be on the table.
Nation standings (Top 10)
1. Netherlands - 16 points (+1)
2. 
Germany - 15 points (-)
3. Russia - 13 points (-)
4. Portugal - 12 points (+6)
5. 
Italy - 11 points (-2)
6. 
Sweden - 10 points (-1)
6. 
Greece- 10 points (-1)
8. Denmark - 9 points (-1)
9. 
Norway- 8 points (-2)
9. 
Czech Republic - 8 points (-2)
We knew GosuCup Limited was going to be about Hunter (considering that even normal cups as well as the Hearthstone ladder is all about them too), so it's no shock seeing champion Lalah resort to Rexxar antics. He also brought a Zoo and a Windfury Shaman but he really didn't get to use them.
| [deck linked]577[/deck] | [deck linked]578[/deck] | [deck linked]579[/deck] |
More Hunter decks are coming from our silver medalist BreizhPunisher but what's curious with him is that for a first time in many GosuCup Limiteds someone dared bring an aggro Warrior deck. We had almost forgotten how these look like.
| [deck linked]583[/deck] | [deck linked]584[/deck] | [deck linked]585[/deck] | |
We're continuing to add more data to our excel tables in order to generate more accurate representation of the constructed, non-Limited meta. Here are the stats after four limited* GosuCups:
* Limited GosuCups allow only free, common and rare cards to be used
It was bound to happen - with the rising popularity of the Hunter on ladder and in tournaments, Rexxar finally overtook Gul'Dan in the pick-rate table with 23,5% to 20,8%.
While the difference between the two classes is small, the gap between them and every other class is staggering. The third most popular class - the Mage - is good 9% below Warlock, followed by SHaman and Rogue which are also around the 10% mark. If you ever plan to compete in Limited tournaments again, this is the clearest picture of the meta you can get.
The win rates in Limited tournaments, however, still hold Warlock on top, leading with 56,7% to Hunter's and Rogue's 52,1%. For Valeera, seeing her that high in the win-rates table is a breath of fresh air but Rogues have been definitely enjoying the current meta, seeing how they perfom well against Zoo and the mid-range Hunters of Kolento and Lifecoach.
Alright, first thing's first - Congratulations on becoming the reigning GosuCup champion. Feels good, I imagine?
It feels great, being the first event that I ever attended, feels great getting a win, hope it's a good sign for more events to come.
Did you know that it's a GosuCup tradition for aspiring players to come on top of established professionals?
I didn't know that, but I think that's understandable, Hearthstone is a card game and the luck factor is very present, you can be a really good Hearthstone player, but if you get a "dead hand" and "dead draws" from your next turns, there's nothing you can do.
You ran Hunter mostly, which is largely considered to be the best class right now. Do you agree with this notion? Is the Hunter even more unbeatable in limited formats?
Hunter is definitely the best class right now. With the Buzzard + Unleash the Hounds + Hiena + Hunters Mark, you are pretty much set for every game. There's no other class or deck where you can clear the opponent’s board, draw a new hand and still make a strong board presence all in the same turn. If you look to most of the hunter decks that run in the ladder right now or even in tournaments, there's rarely a single epic card, the only legendary would be Leeroy and even that most decks don't run it. So it's perfect!
In this tournament I preferred an agro hunter with a lot of charge minions, because I know how popular the midrange (Kolento’s Hunter) is now, and the aggro Hunter really beats that deck (it's one of the few that does). So I figured if I played that I would have a good chance to win.
Were you worried about tempo rogues countering you? I've seen anti-aggro specs with Sunwalkers that perform really well in the match-up.
Honestly I didn't feel worried against Rogues or any anti aggro specific decks, because not having epic or legendary cards limits those decks heavily and not so much the aggro decks. Also I like to run Deadly Shots and 2 Owls to prevent losing any potential damage, like instead of kill commanding a Sen’jin Shieldmasta I prefer to silence it, so I can still do damage with my charge minion, and the opponent still leaves something on the board so I can finish up with my Unleash.
Is Hunter your go-to class overall or did you pick it for the tournament specifically? What do you like to play on ladder usually?
Well, the previous seasons I got Legend playing a mix of class's, I usually like to play agro decks till rank 5 - 4, and then go heavy control. This season I ran hunter only, I had a full gold deck and made a commitment with myself that I would get Golden Hunter this season, so I could be full gold (yea i'm a nerd : x)? And guess what... I got it!
Last question about the cup before we move on to more broad subjects - was there a match that tested you to the limits? I saw you went 2-0 in the earlier rounds but the last few were not so clean score-wise.
Most of the matches were Hunter vs Hunter and I have a lot of experience in Hunter mirror. I guess the match that "threw me off" was against Z1ON, he was losing 2-0 and then changed to Paladin with a lot of heals and I think heal is really the weakness of my deck, I lost that game but I still was confident because I know Paladin gets overrun by Warlock Agro, even with the huge board clears and my bet was apparently right.
He also ran a budget Mage, did you expect that?
I kind of expected mage in a limited tournament like this, most of the best mage cards are class bounded. Things like Frostbolts, Fireballs, Flamestrike, Water Elemental, so not having the ability to run epics or legendaries in this tournament wouldn't hurt the mage so bad, so I expected it but I still thought if I could have an answer to water elemental in my hand I could win with not much stress.
Alright, let's transition into more general topic and talk metagame for a second. As we mentioned, Hunter is all the rage right now, but players are coming up with answers. Do you expect the meta to undergo another cycle soon, Hunter's phasing out, other decks coming in, etc?
I seriously think Hunter will stick around if Blizzard doesn't change something about it. I don't even think Unleash the Hounds is the problem, I think Buzzard + Unleash is the problem, maybe making Buzzard draw only one card from unleash would solve everything. I think the meta next season will be really anti hunter specific, which can be really punished by other decks and for me that's where the beauty of this game is. The trick is being always one step ahead of the meta, "if everyone is doing this, do the thing that beats it" kind of thought. Probably a lot of ramp Druid would be my guess.
I was actually arguing with some colleagues and friends that Buzzard + Unleash might even be beatable if you're VERY careful, but it's Hunter's Mark that's a big problem since it can be played for 0, which gives you free mana to play more beasts or to combo it with Buzz/UtH on T4.
You can play around unleash, but not playing minions is hurting you the more than it hurts the Hunter in my opinion. I don't mind when my opponent doesn't lay any minion on the board for some turns, I still can do damage using my hero power and using flare + tracking to get my "pieces of the puzzle". Usually when playing against control decks I like to take it slow and search for my Leeroy + Unleash + Buzzard, so I can "surprise burst" them. I don't think hunters mark is really the problem here, the card draw is the main problem, and Blizzard must do something. When you have every single deck and class changing to be able to beat hunter, there's something wrong.
I'm not sure they will, though, I think Ben Brode said they aren't fixing any cards soon, which probably makes sense for them since Naxx needs to be launched.
Yup, that's my only hope for some change with this Hunter fixation at the moment. The new expansion can really change everything
What do you think about said expansion overall, from the cards that they've shown so far?
I find it cool and refreshing that they adding new mechanics with the double deathrattle effect, I'm not sure if that's enough change to make decks more viable against hunter though. About the new stealth minion that seems really overpowered for some people. So your opponent plays that and leaves it there for a few turns? You playing Hunter... you flare it, Hunter’s Mark + boar or you Deadly Shot... Well it doesn't seem very strong to me, maybe the rest of the cards will really change something, I have some hope.
What's your take on the new Druid card?
Seems like a reasonable card, you can combo it with Starfall, which makes the combo 9 mana, but still with innervate might be viable for Druid. But I honestly don't like it too much.
There will be one new class card with the patch. We know what Druids are getting. What do you think/want to see in the other 8 cards?
I really have no idea what's Blizzards plan for this game, I can tell you what I would enjoy to have, I would love more card draw engines, every class should be able to combo stuff like the hunter so you can lay your entire hand in a turn buy it all again in the same turn. I think it's much more fun when both opponents have like 9 cards in hand all the time, expands the options and the plays so much, makes the game much more fun.
Well, I will use this answer of your for our quickfire card-design game at the end of this interview - but more on that later!
Towards the end of the interview, let's talk about you for a second, since you're unknown to the wide public: How did you get into competitive Hearthstone? Have you played any card games before?
I've got legend on all seasons since this new ranks came out and I think there's not many people in my Country (Portugal) that accomplished that, I also started to stream recently and that gave me a bit of visibility which made possible the k1ck team invite. We started to look for events to start playing competitively and this was the first one that I participated. I played for 3 years Magic the Gathering a long time ago, I guess that experience also helps a bit in Hearthstone.
Are you planning to pursue Hearthstone as a full-time career?
I would love that, being unemployed right now and having bill's to pay is not fun. Being able to pay my bills while playing a game that I love would be the so called "The Dream".
It seems like most teams in HS don't get lots of exposure with the scene being too young still. Do you think the option for more team leagues need to be explored? Or HS should remain primarily a solo game?
I think Hearthstone should remain a solo game, adding the option to 2v2 or 3v3 to the game wouldn't make much sense to me. I think that makes sense in tournaments things like the Fight Night format are awesome for the competitive scene. Essentially the game should be exactly what it is, but definitely more events in the competitive scene for teams. Maybe a team tournament. 4vs4, where each player has a specific class only would be fun.
OK, before we close the interview, let's get back to that quickfire design game I teased. I've played it with two of our winners already, so you're next. Time to design eight more class cards.
Alright, here I go:
Warrior, 6 mana, Spell
Armor Chewer
Destroy your armor. Spawn a 1/2 minion for you for each armor you have.
Mage, 4 mana, 0/4 minion
The Icecube
Draw a card for each minion you freeze.
Priest, 3 mana, 1/4 minion
The opportunist
Draw a card for each minion your opponent plays.
Warlock, 4 mana, spell
Viceversa caller
Change your discard mechanic to draw a card
Paladin, 2 mana, 1/3 minion
Traitor Squire
Restore 4 life to your opponent, equip a 2/2 weapon
Hunter, 4 mana, 0/1 minion
Mocking bird
Every beast costs -1 mana, but never less than 1. Every time you spawn a beast lose 2 life.
Shaman, 3 mana, spell
Totem caller
You choose which totem you spawn for the next 3 turns, draw a card
Rogue, 5 mana, spell
Name?
Your hero is stealthed (cannot be targeted) till the end of your oponents turn.
Nice! Well, that’ll be all man! Thanks a lot for the design input, some seriously nice stuff in there (inb4 "This is OP" comments). Final words to our "camera" before we close this?
It was a pleasure and I hope I will chat with you again Nydra, it will mean I won a GosuCup again, haha. Thanks you and the GosuGamers team keep doing an awsome job.
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