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The first finalist in the SeatStory Cup from Krefeld, Germany is determined. The favorite and Hearthstone star StrifeCro edged out Gnimsh in a great series to clinch a spot in the top 2 with the chance of becoming the first ever SSC champion.
It was the battle of the veterans, on one side the former Starcraft 2 professional and top player in Hearthstone StrifeCro, on the other the TCG veteran and king of aggro Gnimsh. Going into this tournament both were talked up to be candidates for the top spots, their first two days proved just that.
Now it is StrifeCro who moves on to the Grand Finals in which he will either get a rematch with the Polish player from DogeHouse or a match with his teammate of LiquidValue, Trump. The matches, regardless of which it is going to be have an intriguing storyline, seeing as Gnimsh is looking for revenge and Trump is poised to turn the negative constructed stigma around.
The Nuts actually had to go through a rough first game in this one, getting a slower start in the Druid/Shaman match up, facing an [card]Innervate[/card]d [card]Chillwind Yeti[/card] on Turn 2, forcing him to use an early [card]Hex[/card] to not fall behind too much. That opened the door for [card]Cairne Bloodhoof[/card], who was unaccounted for the remainder of the game, got the buff with [card]Defender of Argus[/card] and threw haymakers straight into StrifeCro's face.
Gnimsh took the first one with Druid, but had a difficult time taking out the famous StrifeCro one afterwards. A totality of three different decks crashed and burned against the mid-range version of the famous "StrifeCro Druid", including the Polish "secret" deck, which turned out to be the Handlock. Usually that match up slightly favors the Warlock with the big minions to take over the game in a heartbeat. Sadly for Gnimsh the [card]Mountain Giant[/card]s, [card]Twilight Drake[/card]s and even [card]Molten Giant[/card]s hid inside his deck far too long - giving enough time to StrifeCro to develop a board, pound in damage and bring him into the range the dreaded combo. In the end StrifeCro still got a bit "lucky" with a top deck, as Gnimsh finally got a hold of a giant, was able to clear the board and put himself in a position to survive almost everything. The only thing he couldn't survive was [card]Swipe[/card] and the Moonfire of a [card]Keeper of the Grove[/card], which was exactly what the American drew.
Putting a stop to the reign of Malfurion in the end was the "Zoo" version of Gnimsh, his last possible deck to play. Despite StrifeCro having a really good start with [card]Innervate[/card] and [card]Chillwind Yeti[/card] followed up by a [card]Harvest Golem[/card], the Polish WoW TCG star would still develop a stellar board and push plenty of damage to the direction of StrifeCro. The absence of a [card]Swipe[/card] and consecutive [card]Doomguard[/card] into [card]Leeroy Jenkins[/card] brought the life totals of StrifeCro to the negative, keeping Gnimsh alive.
That extra life didn't last long though, as the Handlock of StrifeCro proved to be too much trouble to deal with. Gnimsh got the better early game, had good trades and got plenty of damage across, but once the great wall of Gul'dan was established with [card]Twilight Drake[/card] and [card]Molten Giant[/card] not only every creature vanished from the board in seconds, but the life total of Gnimsh dwindled down. The desperation [card]Leeroy Jenkins[/card] running into a 8/6 [card]Molten Giant[/card] to get to his chicken early was the perfect picture to describe the spot Gnimsh was in.
