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Hearthstone10 years agoRadoslav "Nydra" Kolev

GosuCup #9 overview: Winners' decklist and champion interview


 

 

Table of contents
 

GosuCup #9 overview

Winners' decklists

Winner's interview

Register for GosuCup #10

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Netherlands has officially hijacked GosuCup. After last week the Dutchmen came ahead of Germany in the nation standings, this week they score even more points as Gradefor of team Wildcard took the crown. 

A weekly cup veteran, Gradefor had to fight off what's been the "curse" of GosuCup for many weeks now - the one where tournament "virgins" and up-and-coming players triumph over the known, established names. He did it though, beating GosuCup #7 champion Modernleper, ZOTAC champion Drako and, finally, GosuCup #3 runner-up Daxt, who for the second time had an amazing showing but got stopped inches away from the prize pool.

For Gradefor, this is also the triumphant end of a gradual increase in his performance. Baptized into the tournament environment by our own GosuCup, Gradefor kept placing higher and higher, finishing top 16, then top 8 and then top 3 in GosuCup #8 before finally seizing the gold. 

GosuCup #9 standings

1. Netherlands Gradefor
2. Denmark Daxt
3. Belgium Alf93
4. Russia Drako
5-8. United Kingdom Cipher
5-8. United Kingdom Modernleper
5-8. Bulgaria Neekoy
5-8. United Kingdom Dapperatchik

Netherlands has officially hijacked... oh, we said that already. In this case, given that we've established Dutchmen's superiority, let's look at what's happening with the other countries striving to swim to the top.

The top 3 of GosuCup remains very much unchanged compared to the previous week. Germany is still at 15, now with two consecutive weeks without a representative in the top 8. Russia gained some poins due to Drako's fourth place but not yet enough to surpass the Germans.

Fourth is Denmark which climbed four spots due to Daxt's second place. The Danes are now sitting just one point short of the top 3 and have left other countries like Portugal (which boasts two GosuCup champions), Italy, Greece and Sweden.

On the bottom of the table, we see UK who managed to squeeze in by having whole three players in the top 8 - Team Innovation's Cipher, ZOTAC champion Dapperatchik and our GosuCup #7 champ Modernleper.

Nation standings (Top 10)

1. Netherlands Netherlands - 21 points (-)
2. Germany Germany - 15 points  (-)
3. Russia Russia - 14 points (-)
4. Denmark Denmark - 13 points (+4)
5. Portugal Portugal - 12 points (-1)
6. Italy Italy - 11 points (-1)
7. Greece Greece - 10 points (-1)
7. Sweden Sweden - 10 points (-1)
9. Norway Norway- 8 points  (-2)
9. Czech Republic Czech Republic - 8 points (-2)
9. United Kingdom United Kingdom - 8 points (+2)

 

Winners' decklists

 

Gradefor came really prepared this time, bringing whole six decks to the tournament. Although he mostly relied on his Handlock, do pay attention his burst Druid and "greedy" Shaman both of which are interesting picks for the current meta. In our winner's interview, we also talk about the thought process behind bringing those exact decks to GosuCup.


 

Gradefor's decks
[deck linked]603[/deck][deck linked]604[/deck][deck linked]605[/deck]
[deck linked]606[/deck][deck linked]607[/deck][deck linked]608[/deck]


Second-time silver medalist Daxt also has some cool tricks up his sleeve. Though his Warrior and Watcher Druid are fairly standard, his "mixed miracle" Rogue - a combination of the old-school miracle and the newly-popularized spell damage Rogues, is something which can possibly inspire Rogue aficionados.


 

Daxt's decks
[deck linked]609[/deck][deck linked]610[/deck][deck linked]611[/deck]

 

 

Champion interview: Gradefor

            "I think limited sideboarding is a great idea"

 

First, the obvious opener: congratulations on winning GosuCup #9 and taking the throne. How does it feel about finally winning after pursuing the crown for so many GosuCups in a row?

After finishing in top 8 and 3rd place last week it feels great to finally win and take the throne!

Are you aware you're the first better known name with a professional team behind his back to win GosuCup since a long time ago? The tournament usually goes to up-and-coming players or tournament newcomers!

Most people that have won GosuCup are indeed unknown players, I myself am not that famous yet. Our team Wildcard mainly consist of up-and-coming players that perform well in weekly tournaments like this so I think I fit well in the category of GosuCup winners.

As we mentioned, you're not exactly new to GosuCup, and every time you placed better than the last. Do you attribute it to just better draws and luck or to better preparation and reading the meta?

GosuCup was the first tournament that I played in and ended in the top 16, after that I have indeed been getting higher finishes in the tournaments that I play. Experience really does help, from playing tournaments you learn what good starting decks are and how to properly counter pick which is very important. Luck also is a big factor, though, and to win a tournament I believe luck needs to be on your side.

Since many of our readers are not really baptized in the tournament environment, could you share your knowledge with the world? How does one become a consistent tournament player in today's Hearthstone (e.g. what are those good starting decks that you mentioned, what do you need to prepare in terms of deck collection, do you need to be versatile or have a surprise up your sleeve)?

Choosing a good starting deck is always difficult and I generally just go with the deck that I feel like playing the day of the tournament. Picking a deck that you feel comfortable and are practiced with is key, you will generally perform better with those than just jumping on the meta. For me this deck was Handlock, my favourite deck which I played a lot in the past. Also with the decrease of rush hunters and shaman's being rare it was a perfect choice for the meta.

In terms of deck collection, you need to have a couple decks ready to counter your opponents class. I for example used my Shaman deck to counter my opponent's druid, knowing matchups is key to become a consistent tournament player.

Also having some surprises can be good, I teched Black Knight into my Handlock list which you generally don’t see but it has helped me out a lot since people don’t play around it. Because of this Druid's make mistakes by taunting up their Druid of the Claw instead of charging them and being able to capitalize on these mistakes with your unorthodox card choices can be very beneficial. To many "surprise" cards generally make your deck weak so you have to be careful with implementing them into your deck.

Since we're on the topic of tournaments, GosuCup is one of those events that allow for unlimited sideboarding, even from the winner. We've been getting lots of feedback and mixed opinions - some players are still fans on the locked-deck format while others enjoy the versatility and mind-games that GosuCup rules allow. Where do you stand on that?

I honestly like both formats, they both have their advantages and disadvantages. In this format I think you have a higher chance to win after losing game 1, in Zotac the player that wins game 1 is almost guaranteed to win the match. But it can be very frustrating in the GosuCup format when you want to counter your opponents deck and they have completely switched around their deck. This is a strategy I used to win this GosuCup: being able to play Handlock and after winning to switch to Zoo is a great advantage which makes it very hard for your opponent to counter your deck.

The latter, actually, was what led me and a colleague of mine to discuss the option of "limited" sideboarding for more controlled tournaments (small scale, televised ones), where you can swap cards in your deck but only to a certain limit, say 5. That way, you can mitigate the hard-counter effect without being able to go from Handlock into Zoo. Maybe at some point Hearthstone tournaments should have that, maybe even built in the client?

That would be very interesting, that is something that has proven to be effective in other card games like Yu-Gi-Oh were you have a sideboard of 15 cards, which allows you to adjust your deck slightly to the matchup that you expect. I think that would be a great idea!

Well, we both come from MtG backgrounds where sideboarding is also a thing, and very important at that. Some matches there - as in Hearthstone - are close to unwinnable if you don't sideboard.

I myself have never played MtG but indeed allowing limited sideboarding can be great to make some match-ups like Shaman against Hunter winnable.

You and friends of yours recently founded Team Wildcard. How did the idea for a team come to be?

Duck and I both wanted to play in a team because we would love to enter big stuff like Fight Night. So we decided to recruit some good players that have been doing well in weekly tournaments with as goal to keep performing well in tournaments to get our name out there. And then after getting ourselves some publicity to look for a sponsor that fits our goals.

Are you hopeful you will find a big name to pick you up? There are some nice examples like Phoenix being picked up by MYM but then again, the scene is growing still and old organizations are just now figuring out if Hearthstone is a good idea to invest in.

That would indeed be great! We saw the success of Phoenix being picked up by MYM which was also were we got the idea from to do it this way. Hopefully our tournament results will get noticed and in the future we will be able to represent a big organization.

Speaking of the future, some advocates of the game believe it will be the next big thing in eSports and the game that will break the niche of card games and excite a huge population of players. Do you think the growing casual fanbase can eventuall push Hearthstone into the "proper eSports" category?

I definitely believe Hearthstone will become a big hit in the eSports scene, you already see a lot of tournaments being organized. And with big events like Dreamhack it will keep growing. The announcement of World Championship will also help a lot in establishing Hearthstone as a proper eSports. The future is looking bright for Hearthstone.

To me, it's very reminiscent of how League of Legends was discarded as eSport at the beginning until it snowballed... Hearthstone looks similar.

I personally didn't really experience that, when I started to play League of Legends it was already established as an eSport as far as I know. Let’s hope that Hearthstone will snowball just like League of Legends since I think card games deserve some love.

Around that topic, people have been arguing that Hearthstone needs more depth and mechanics and less randomness to truly become a sport, take the path of Magic: The Gathering if you will. Where do you stand on the issue? Does the game require some tangible design change in the future or keeping it as it is will work out fine?

I am hoping for the game to get more depth in the future since I think the game currently is impacted to much by luck. Maybe the release of more cards and some extra mechanics will give it the depth that I am looking for. I used to play a lot of checkers when I was younger which is all about skill and there is no luck involved. That will never be possible in a card game since you will always have "luck of the draw" but losing an important game to Ragnaros coin flips is hearth-breaking.

What would you do in terms of mechanics to make the game more complex and sport-y?

One mechanic I would like to see is Armor Piercing, to be able to bypass the armor of a Warrior for example. Some other mechanics that I could see being implemented in the future are Smash "When you deal damage to an enemy minion that exceeds it hit points deal the difference as damage to the enemy hero" and to add a mechanic that would ignore minions that have taunt could be a great addition for aggro dekcs.

I like the bypassing taunt/armor idea, to be honest. But the smash was suggested before it seems. Only logical, though, it's pretty standard in other TCGs as well. You don't like disruption mechanics? For example milling decks or tutoring away certain cards from the opponent?

Milling decks don’t fit my playstyle, to cheesy for me so no. I don’t think a mechanic that would discard opponent's card would be good either, that goes against the game design that Blizzard is aiming for in my opinion. They are trying to make a game that is easy to get into for casual and they try to keep the amount of "annoying" effects low to make sure that they stick to playing Hearthstone.

Discarding opponents’ cards falls under the category of extremely annoying effects in my eyes especially if it discards them at random. So I don’t expect a mechanic like that to be implemented although it’s a mechanic that you see in quite a lot of card games.

Yes, makes sense. I guess the only reason I personally look forward to something like this is because I enjoyed hand disruption so much in Magic. :D Maybe a mechanic where a card punishes you for drawing cards can be more fitting, though... Kind of like Underworld Dreams.

That’s interesting, yes.

Well, I think we can bring this to a wrap, so now's the time for your final words.

Thanks for hosting these tournaments, it’s a pleasure to play in them! I will try my best to defend my throne next week. Be ready to see more from Team Wildcard in the coming weeks!


 

 
 

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