This Tournament saw some difficulties due to unforeseen technical issue with MLG. But, as always, ManaGrind was able to get thing back on track and press on. In the end it all boiled down to Forsen and Judoki. After the third round in the series Forsen was crowned the winner!
After the final match Thechiv had a chance to talk with Forsen and get his opinion on Hearthstone, his deck and a few other Blizzard related things!
Name: Sebastion Fors Age: 22 Location: Sweden
To see the top decks from the 11/17/13 tournament click here.
Congratulations on a great and hard fought victory today and thank you for taking the time for this interview.
Hard?? Not really.
It was difficult for us as MLG had technical issues and then there was the lack of deck list provided by you.
True, but thank you.
Many don’t know this but you were pretty well known back in the early alpha Cockatrice days of this game and then you just disappeared. Were you playing other games?
At that time I was playing Some DOTA, World of Warcraft and a little League of Legends.
You were one of the original creators of the now hated Hunter OTK.
Yeah, I was the first to take it into a tournament and all.
I messed around with it a bit myself as well as wrote many “How to Defeat” guides.
It was good when it was new but people have started to counter it. There were some slight differences in the alpha. They had another card called Dark Spear Hunter that gave all beasts an additional health so they wouldn’t die to AoE. It was fun.
Now you seem to have a very competitive mind set, but have you participated in any other tournaments?
I use to play StarCraft 2 professionally, but, with Hearthstone, I started studying. With StarCraft 2 you just have to practice for eight hours a day. When Hearthstone came out and I tried it and it was pretty fun.
But, you did take a break from Hearthstone for a bit?
When the beta was released, I played on Cockatrice during alpha for like three month so the hype wasn’t there for me as it was for all the other players. So I took a break and focused on my studies and other games. I came back 3 weeks ago and it’s fun.
Why did you come back into the competitive scene after such a long break?
Well, I’m a really competitive player and I don’t really like Arena and ranked play because it’s not competitive enough. It’s more grinding, grinding, grinding and I don’t like that. I think I will stick with competitive tournament play.
I can second that. On the NA side in play mode I keep seeing the same players over and over and I know what they are going to do and I just start predicting their moves before they play them.
I agree, but also in tournament play there are a lot of hard counters you can swap in a best of thee to counter an opponent’s deck. That’s more skill in my opinion.
Now going back to the tournament; what was your favorite part?
Winning, I guess.
That seems to be the most over used answer to date. Sadly, this time around we had some technical issues with MLG. Would you say that was a negative impact on your experience?
Yeah, I’m use to tournaments getting a little delayed, like in StarCraft 2 but not as long as we had today.
Well MLG started to pick up the pieces a little but it was still too slow so I just got you all to come to the TeamSpeak and we worked it out that way.
It was a good move.
Now besides the hiccup, will you be coming back next week?
Why not? It’s more fun than the ladder, so yeah.
Again, you were a known name in the scene and you took off. Now when you came back were there any people you were glad you didn’t have to play against?
To be honest I didn’t look at any of the players. I saw Jotto but he got knocked out early. There were a few other alpha players but no one I was worried about.
Yeah, Jotto got taken down by the Warlock early aggro. Those and Rogues have been making one hell of a comeback as of late.
Warlock is really strong.
Now I know you don’t want to give away the secrets of your deck, but what class/archetype would have given you the biggest problems?
Biggest threat would have been a Sword of Justice Paladin. It’s really annoying for my deck design. However, since I am able to sideboard I can counter it with some Acidic Swamp Ooze.
That is a little ironic because you faced one in the finals.
Well since we are on the topic of your sideboard; what did you substitute against the classes you faced?
I have only two sideboard cards: Acidic Swamp Ooze for Warriors, Paladins, and Hunters. I choose Shadow Word: Death for decks running those big minions late game. Though, I didn’t have to take the Shadow Word: Death because all the flavors of the month cards are all four damage so I can really kill them with my removal spells.
You know a lot of Rogues are also following suit with dropping the Assassinate for other minions or spells and then sideboarding back in when they face someone with a bigger threat minion like a Ragnaros the Firelord. Moving on though; were any of your matches close?
No game was really close. I think I had one Paladin who beat me first game and then I subbed in the Oozes and won. There weren’t any that were really close to be honest.
Mind Control: Blizzard is trying to balance the game for casual players. This is great for the game because it makes it good for growing the community. Competitively it’s kind of bad because most players are playing with a lot of those “Flavor of the Month” cards like Argent Commander. ReallyMind Control is not that effective and I don’t think it’s worth the 10 mana nerf.
Unleash the Hounds: That’s another card Blizzard is nerfing to make the game more casual. In ranked play it has great potential but in competitive play it’s just way too easy to counter. I think it needs some change but they haven’t said what yet.
Starving Buzzard: I did not agree with the changes to this card. Most things that can kill a two health minion will be able to kill a one health minion. All they are doing is making it harder for Hunters. They will be forced to stack cards in their hand and play it mid game to get a card boost.
Yeah they effectively killed the Snake Trap combo with it and more to the point they are forcing Hunters to be a play only one way kind of class, to be effective at least.
Yeah I never thought about that. I don’t know we will have to see.
Now you talk a lot about “Flavor of the Month” cards. So in your opinion what are like 3 of the best neutral minions?
You know Venture Co. Mercenary has been coming back in style lately. Most people when they face this thing have a knee jerk reaction and just sacrifice their whole board to kill it.
The thing is with Venture Co. Mercenary is in alpha it wasn’t as good as it is in the beta cause more people were playing Big Game Hunter. But no one seems to be playing them in the beta.
The strongest for sure are Warlock, and Mages. I think if you build them correctly. The worst ones in competitive play are Hunter and I would say Warrior, maybe Priest.
But you won with a Priest?
Well yeah, because I didn’t build a standard priest deck. You have to build a very specific deck to win with a priest.
Now I didn’t get a deck list, but I have a general idea of what you played, and you went outside the meta box for this one, which I applaud you for.
Yeah well the skill cap in Hearthstone is pretty low and a lot of the skill comes from building your own deck and discovering something before it becomes net decked. That’s a big part in Hearthstone at the moment, to counter the “Flavor of the Month” decks of course.
Now is that the primary reason you didn’t give us a deck list?
Yes. It is the only reason.
You know eventually someone will figure out your deck and post it up and it will be net decked.
Well then I will have another deck ready so.
That’s pretty awesome. Now what card in your deck was the MVP? You know the one that brought you the most value really help push that win every time you played it.
I can see that. It is a really nice counter to all those low drop aggro decks that, as you say, are “Flavor of the Month”. Though to be fair it’s more like 3 months. After the wipe Blizzard has made this pretty much an aggro or go home game.
Well this deck is kind of anti-aggro so that’s one of the reasons I won.
Now we are almost done here so I got one more question for you. What advice do you have for the new players who are joining in and want to be a good competitive Hearthstone player?
Hmmm. A good Hearthstone player. Well I wouldn’t say watch streams. A lot of the people that people that people think are good are not that good and are living off their fame in other games. Kripparrian is good and all but I don’t really want to say any names. Umm, net deck a deck that has done well in tournaments and play with it get used to it. When you’re good enough you will find out ways to build your own deck that performs well.
Long as they are not yours.
(Laughing) Yeah, not mine. But also grind a lot and learn what you can from that.
Now last one, the developers at BlizzCon said some stuff about Angry Chicken and I and a few others have been trying to theorycraft with this card. Is it a joke or are there some possibilities in it?
In alpha I played a lot with Angry Chicken as a Hunter. Then we had Dark Spear Hunter which was really good with the chicken. Not easily but more easily then now to enrage it and get some damage. To be honest it wasn’t that good and gimmicky. Now, without the Dark Spear Hunter it’s way too gimmicky for my taste. It’s not a good card overall.
Well I think we can wrap it up on that note. On behalf of ManaGrind and myself thank you for staying up with us; I know it’s really late in Sweden. Congratulations on a great victory and good luck next week and hope to see you back here.
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This Tournament saw some difficulties due to unforeseen technical issue with MLG. But, as always, ManaGrind was able to get thing back on track and press on. In the end it all boiled down to Forsen and Judoki. After the third round in the series Forsen was crowned the winner!
After the final match Thechiv had a chance to talk with Forsen and get his opinion on Hearthstone, his deck and a few other Blizzard related things!
Name: Sebastion Fors
Age: 22
Location: Sweden
To see the top decks from the 11/17/13 tournament click here.
Congratulations on a great and hard fought victory today and thank you for taking the time for this interview.
It was difficult for us as MLG had technical issues and then there was the lack of deck list provided by you.
Many don’t know this but you were pretty well known back in the early alpha Cockatrice days of this game and then you just disappeared. Were you playing other games?
You were one of the original creators of the now hated Hunter OTK.
I messed around with it a bit myself as well as wrote many “How to Defeat” guides.
Now you seem to have a very competitive mind set, but have you participated in any other tournaments?
But, you did take a break from Hearthstone for a bit?
Why did you come back into the competitive scene after such a long break?
I can second that. On the NA side in play mode I keep seeing the same players over and over and I know what they are going to do and I just start predicting their moves before they play them.
Now going back to the tournament; what was your favorite part?
That seems to be the most over used answer to date. Sadly, this time around we had some technical issues with MLG. Would you say that was a negative impact on your experience?
Well MLG started to pick up the pieces a little but it was still too slow so I just got you all to come to the TeamSpeak and we worked it out that way.
Now besides the hiccup, will you be coming back next week?
Again, you were a known name in the scene and you took off. Now when you came back were there any people you were glad you didn’t have to play against?
Yeah, Jotto got taken down by the Warlock early aggro. Those and Rogues have been making one hell of a comeback as of late.
Now I know you don’t want to give away the secrets of your deck, but what class/archetype would have given you the biggest problems?
That is a little ironic because you faced one in the finals.
Well since we are on the topic of your sideboard; what did you substitute against the classes you faced?
You know a lot of Rogues are also following suit with dropping the Assassinate for other minions or spells and then sideboarding back in when they face someone with a bigger threat minion like a Ragnaros the Firelord. Moving on though; were any of your matches close?
Okay, let’s move over to Hearthstone news. You followed the BlizzCon and saw the nerfs coming to Mind Control, Starving Buzzard, and Unleash the Hounds. What are your thoughts on that?
Yeah they effectively killed the Snake Trap combo with it and more to the point they are forcing Hunters to be a play only one way kind of class, to be effective at least.
Now you talk a lot about “Flavor of the Month” cards. So in your opinion what are like 3 of the best neutral minions?
You know Venture Co. Mercenary has been coming back in style lately. Most people when they face this thing have a knee jerk reaction and just sacrifice their whole board to kill it.
To me Big Game Hunter is more a sideboard option, almost entirely because of Venture Co. Mercenary, and Ragnaros the Firelord. So now that we are getting into the Meta. What are the strongest and weakest classes in the meta?
But you won with a Priest?
Now I didn’t get a deck list, but I have a general idea of what you played, and you went outside the meta box for this one, which I applaud you for.
Now is that the primary reason you didn’t give us a deck list?
You know eventually someone will figure out your deck and post it up and it will be net decked.
That’s pretty awesome. Now what card in your deck was the MVP? You know the one that brought you the most value really help push that win every time you played it.
I can see that. It is a really nice counter to all those low drop aggro decks that, as you say, are “Flavor of the Month”. Though to be fair it’s more like 3 months. After the wipe Blizzard has made this pretty much an aggro or go home game.
Now we are almost done here so I got one more question for you. What advice do you have for the new players who are joining in and want to be a good competitive Hearthstone player?
Long as they are not yours.
Now last one, the developers at BlizzCon said some stuff about Angry Chicken and I and a few others have been trying to theorycraft with this card. Is it a joke or are there some possibilities in it?
Well I think we can wrap it up on that note. On behalf of ManaGrind and myself thank you for staying up with us; I know it’s really late in Sweden. Congratulations on a great victory and good luck next week and hope to see you back here.