November 10th, 2013 was the stage of the latest European Hearthstone tournament hosted byMLG. After the conclusion of check in there were over 128 Hearthstone enthusiasts eagerly waiting for their first match. As the rounds went on more and more players were dropped until finally Timbolt and mkr3 were the last ones standing. After an epic battle of wits, luck and deck composition Timbolt was declared with an amazing score of 3 – 0. If you are interested in the seeding and/or how the rounds played out feel free to stop over at MLG and check it out.
After the dust had settled Thechiv had a chance to talk Hearthstone with Timbolt and analyze what helped his deck annihilate the competition.
Name: Eike Heimpel Age: 25 Location: Berlin Germany
To see the remaining top decks from the 11/10/13 tournament click here.
Before we begin I would like to thank you for stopping by and doing this Interview as well as congratulate you on a well fought win.
Thank you it was a lot of fun.
Let’s jump in, shall we? What kind of games have you played beside Hearthstone ?
On PC, I played mostly Warcraft 3 for a long time. When World of Warcraft first came out I played about month and just got bored. I came back to it a little bit here or there but nothing more than three months at a time. I also played Xbox and console games then I started playing League of Legends about a year ago.
So how long have you been playing Hearthstone?
I got my beta key about two, maybe three weeks ago. Before that I was just watching a lot of streams and thought this would be a cool game.
That’s amazing. Yesterday’s North American winner has also been playing for about two weeks and he took top honors.
I watched a lot of streamers so I knew what I was doing when I got into it.
Yesterday’s winner was actually a Yu-Gi-Oh nationals player and that gave may him given him an edge in understanding the mechanics . Did you play any other TCGs?
Not really. I tried Magic: The Gathering three or so times because my roommate plays.
That’s pretty amazing considering you picked up on the mechanics and deck construction pretty fast.
I watched a lot of streams and figured it out and got into it. It just worked out for me.
And with only playing a little bit you already decided to come to a tournament?
I don’t know. I like competitive tournaments and it was fun. The one last week I got blasted because I didn’t have any experience and this is really the only tournament done on a weekly basis that is professional.
We do our best to support the community and give them something they want. There are others, but I think we are the ones that people want to come to.
Yeah, thanks for having it.
What was the best part of the tournament for you?
Probably seeing how well my deck would do against other serious players. Most of the players I played against were really friendly and it was a good experience.
We try to encourage good sportsmanship in our players. Who was your toughest opponent?
The person I played in the 2nd round; they were a Rogue too. I ended up playing against two rogues. The first one was tough and the second one was little easier. The rest of my opponents were Mages and a Paladin and they were not a problem.
Well it sounds like you enjoyed your time here, but here is the question. Are you going to come back for more?
Of course, I like to see what people are going to be playing and I learn a lot from that.
Yeah it seems to be a great learning experience and something I have been hearing a lot from our winners. When you won were you nervous? Excited? Or did you leap for joy?
I was more nervous before the game but when I won I was pretty calm. Other than that one Rogue player the matches were pretty easy. The final I just beat him 3-0. The first couple of matches in the final were not as easy but the last battle just everything went well and it was an easy 3rd win.
Now let’s move to your deck. Which archetype would have been the biggest threat?
Overall I felt Warlock with early aggro and removal would be difficult but during the tourney I had the most difficulty with Rogues.
Rogues are a nasty class and recently we have been seeing a rise in rogue players. It’s kind of funny because after the nerf people abandoned Rogues like rats from a sinking ship and now people are playing them competitive again. What are your thoughts on this?
I think you’re definitely right on that. When I started playing I played mostly Arena and I didn’t like Rogues and everyone was talking down Rogues because they just got nerfed but I had to get every champion to level 10 and when I threw together a deck with some basic cards likeChillwind Yeti it was so much fun and so good. I couldn’t understand why people were talking bad about Rogues.
Now little off topic here but did you net deck?
With the rogue deck I made it completely by myself. Like I said, I had to get to level 10 with my Rogue and I kept changing things during the week and it’s by far my best deck. Last week there was a Rogue winner in the NA using Edwin VanCleef and I already had my deck ready.
Yeah we see a lot of people net decking from one tourney to another.
Yeah that’s kind of how card games work. People copy the popular decks. I think if you just copy a deck and go into the tournament you’re not going to do well. You really have to play the deck a lot in order to figure out what works and what doesn’t so there are some advantages to building your own.
Your deck composition has a lot of core things that are in most Rogue decks. However, there are a couple interesting aspects I want to get into like Chillwind Yeti and Gnomish Inventor.
The Yeti wasn’t in the original deck until after the second round. I put it in against the Rogue who gave me some trouble and it just performed really well. The Gnomish Inventor was because I wanted more draw in this deck. I already ran the two Azure Drakes and the Novice Engineer but the other possibilities like Acolyte of Pain would have slowed down my aggro.
Yeah he did. TotalBiscuit called it the Value Yeti and that made me smile. Let’s talk about your sideboard. What cards did you bring in against certain classes?
Like I said, the Yeti came in against the Rogues and never left. Versus most Mages I dropped the Assassinate because most don’t have big minions. Unfortunately the next game a Ragnaros came out but it was ok because I had Sylvanas on the board and Ragnaros killed her and I got to steal him! I was so happy. Against Paladin I lost the first game and I brought in a Blood Knight and I actually crafted it for that game. I never got to use it and for that I switched out one Harvest Golem. Other than that I didn’t sideboard that much.
That is awesome to hear. So now let’s move to the MVP. Every deck seems to have one card that shines better than the rest and help ensure your victory. What was yours?
That Yeti is an amazing card! It has enough life to handle most removal and is in that neutral zone for priest so they won’t be able to mess with.
I think much of my deck falls into that area or can fall into it.
Well we talked about the deck and the sideboard lets move into some personal favorites. What are some of your favorite neutral cards?
That’s a tough one let me think… maybe Sylvanas. I didn’t think she was strong but she really is. Right now Faerie Dragon is really strong and maybe Dark Iron Dwarf. It’ a simple card but it wins so many games. It’s really difficult because there are so many good cards.
Is there a card you think is bad?
I think cards like those 1/2 taunts or things like that. I don’t understand why people play that.
Now talking about the meta on the European server… What do you think are the top 3 classes?
Priest is definitely at the top. Then I would have to say Paladin as they are so tough to play against and probably Warlocks.
Really no mage?
For me most of the Mages are not a threat so yeah I think Warlocks pose a greater threat, at least to me because they have a lot of combo potential and aggro so yeah. Priest and Warlock and you can pick either Mage or Paladin for third.
You followed the coverage of BlizzCon and the changes they want to make to some cards what are your thoughts on that?
Mind Control I’m happy with. I would rather it be a dead card then as powerful as it is. Against a priest you know you can’t play anything big turn 7 or 8 because you’re going to lose something and that really is just no fun at all. Starving Buzzard I don’t know why they did that. Even if you coininto it a mage is just going to ability kill it and it has to have some survivability. It’s just a bad idea, I mean Northshire Cleric is so much better. Unleash the Hounds they haven’t said yet, But that’s the thing I haven’t seen any other good hunter decks that didn’t run unleash the hounds so just making that one thing they can do worse and not making the class more versatile I don’t know seems a bad Idea.
Yeah the hunters really need a ground up rework to be honest. No one likes playing against them now, and if they don’t make any other needed fixes no one will play them. Not to mention many of their cards are beast dependent.
I know I play them in arena and it’s so annoying not getting any beast.
Been there, done that. But are you looking forward to the other changes to the game, like the new ranked system or adventures?
Yeah, I like of the ranking system, of course. I want to see a real ladder. It’s the one thing I’m looking forward to and give me an incentive to playing constructive. Adventuring thing and being the only way to get some cards in the game, I don’t know about that. I think E-sport wise it will be difficult. Cause in E-sports you want people with the same stuff.
True, but you’re always going to have that indifference in card collection so you really think that will matter, or will it force players to spend some time doing PvE content rather than just play mode and arena?
Yeah, I don’t know what they are going to do but in general I don’t think it’s a good idea, but I haven’t thought about it that much…
Fair points. Now since your new to the game but have pulled of an amazing win today is there any advice you can give to new players coming into the game?
I don’t spend too much money in Arena. There is a lot of good content on the internet. If you want to play only arena, there are things you can read to help you out. But you can always build a good deck. You don’t need legendaries or epics, and you can still build a good deck.
That’s some really great advice. Well I think we can call this one a wrap. On behalf of ManaGrind I would like to thank you for the interview and again congratulations on a well fought win, and I hope to see you back here next week.
November 10th, 2013 was the stage of the latest European Hearthstone tournament hosted byMLG. After the conclusion of check in there were over 128 Hearthstone enthusiasts eagerly waiting for their first match. As the rounds went on more and more players were dropped until finally Timbolt and mkr3 were the last ones standing. After an epic battle of wits, luck and deck composition Timbolt was declared with an amazing score of 3 – 0. If you are interested in the seeding and/or how the rounds played out feel free to stop over at MLG and check it out.
After the dust had settled Thechiv had a chance to talk Hearthstone with Timbolt and analyze what helped his deck annihilate the competition.
Name: Eike Heimpel
Timbolt EU 11/10/13
Unknown Deck
by Auhdit - Dec 7, 2013
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Minion (23)
- 1x Bloodmage Thalnos
- 1x Sylvanas Windrunner
- 2x Argent Commander
- 2x Azure Drake
- 1x Defender of Argus
- 2x SI:7 Agent
- 2x Defias Ringleader
- 2x Harvest Golem
- 2x Chillwind Yeti
- 2x Dark Iron Dwarf
- 1x Faerie Dragon
- 1x Gnomish Inventor
- 2x Novice Engineer
- 2x Shattered Sun Cleric
Ability (7)
- 1x Assassinate
- 2x Backstab
- 2x Deadly Poison
- 2x Eviscerate
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Age: 25
Location: Berlin Germany
To see the remaining top decks from the 11/10/13 tournament click here.
Before we begin I would like to thank you for stopping by and doing this Interview as well as congratulate you on a well fought win.
Let’s jump in, shall we? What kind of games have you played beside Hearthstone ?
So how long have you been playing Hearthstone?
That’s amazing. Yesterday’s North American winner has also been playing for about two weeks and he took top honors.
Yesterday’s winner was actually a Yu-Gi-Oh nationals player and that gave may him given him an edge in understanding the mechanics . Did you play any other TCGs?
That’s pretty amazing considering you picked up on the mechanics and deck construction pretty fast.
And with only playing a little bit you already decided to come to a tournament?
We do our best to support the community and give them something they want. There are others, but I think we are the ones that people want to come to.
What was the best part of the tournament for you?
We try to encourage good sportsmanship in our players. Who was your toughest opponent?
Well it sounds like you enjoyed your time here, but here is the question. Are you going to come back for more?
Yeah it seems to be a great learning experience and something I have been hearing a lot from our winners. When you won were you nervous? Excited? Or did you leap for joy?
I was more nervous before the game but when I won I was pretty calm. Other than that one Rogue player the matches were pretty easy. The final I just beat him 3-0. The first couple of matches in the final were not as easy but the last battle just everything went well and it was an easy 3rd win.
Now let’s move to your deck. Which archetype would have been the biggest threat?
Rogues are a nasty class and recently we have been seeing a rise in rogue players. It’s kind of funny because after the nerf people abandoned Rogues like rats from a sinking ship and now people are playing them competitive again. What are your thoughts on this?
Now little off topic here but did you net deck?
Yeah we see a lot of people net decking from one tourney to another.
Your deck composition has a lot of core things that are in most Rogue decks. However, there are a couple interesting aspects I want to get into like Chillwind Yeti and Gnomish Inventor.
The Chillwind Yeti is a great card.
Yeah he did. TotalBiscuit called it the Value Yeti and that made me smile. Let’s talk about your sideboard. What cards did you bring in against certain classes?
That is awesome to hear. So now let’s move to the MVP. Every deck seems to have one card that shines better than the rest and help ensure your victory. What was yours?
That Yeti is an amazing card! It has enough life to handle most removal and is in that neutral zone for priest so they won’t be able to mess with.
Well we talked about the deck and the sideboard lets move into some personal favorites. What are some of your favorite neutral cards?
Is there a card you think is bad?
Now talking about the meta on the European server… What do you think are the top 3 classes?
Really no mage?
You followed the coverage of BlizzCon and the changes they want to make to some cards what are your thoughts on that?
Yeah the hunters really need a ground up rework to be honest. No one likes playing against them now, and if they don’t make any other needed fixes no one will play them. Not to mention many of their cards are beast dependent.
Been there, done that. But are you looking forward to the other changes to the game, like the new ranked system or adventures?
True, but you’re always going to have that indifference in card collection so you really think that will matter, or will it force players to spend some time doing PvE content rather than just play mode and arena?
Fair points. Now since your new to the game but have pulled of an amazing win today is there any advice you can give to new players coming into the game?
That’s some really great advice. Well I think we can call this one a wrap. On behalf of ManaGrind I would like to thank you for the interview and again congratulations on a well fought win, and I hope to see you back here next week.