Hearthpwn

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The Player

Name: Tom Martell
Age: 31
Location: California
Stream: Tommartell

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The Decks

tommartellNAMLGMG#20-1 Unknown Deck by toastthebadger - Mar 8, 2014 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (20) 1x Bloodmage Thalnos 1x Nat Pagle 1x Ragnaros the Firelord 1x The Black Knight 1x Tinkmaster Overspark 2x Molten Giant 2x Mountain Giant 2x Ancient Watcher 2x Defender of Argus 2x Sunfury Protector 1x Harvest Golem 2x Earthen Ring Farseer 2x Ironbeak Owl	Ability (9) 1x Shadowflame 2x Siphon Soul 2x Hellfire 2x Mortal Coil 2x Soulfire	Playable Hero (1) 1x Lord Jaraxxus
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timmartellNAMLGMG#20-2 Unknown Deck by toastthebadger - Mar 8, 2014 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (25) 1x Cairne Bloodhoof 1x Nat Pagle 1x Ragnaros the Firelord 1x Sylvanas Windrunner 1x The Black Knight 1x Tinkmaster Overspark 1x Ysera 1x Faceless Manipulator 2x Molten Giant 2x Mountain Giant 2x Ancient Watcher 2x Azure Drake 1x Crazed Alchemist 2x Defender of Argus 2x Sunfury Protector 2x Harvest Golem 2x Ironbeak Owl	Ability (4) 2x Siphon Soul 2x Soulfire	Playable Hero (1) 1x Lord Jaraxxus
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timmartellNAMLGMG#20-3 Unknown Deck by toastthebadger - Mar 8, 2014 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (25) 1x Cairne Bloodhoof 1x Nat Pagle 1x Ragnaros the Firelord 1x Sylvanas Windrunner 1x The Black Knight 1x Tinkmaster Overspark 1x Ysera 2x Molten Giant 2x Mountain Giant 2x Ancient Watcher 2x Defender of Argus 2x Sunfury Protector 2x Harvest Golem 2x Chillwind Yeti 2x Ironbeak Owl 2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta	Ability (4) 1x Shadowflame 2x Siphon Soul 1x Soulfire	Playable Hero (1) 1x Lord Jaraxxus
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timmartellNAMLGMG#20-4 Unknown Deck by toastthebadger - Mar 8, 2014 View Deck String Export to BBCode Export to Cockatrice Export to MarkDown Export to Html Clone this deck
Minion (26) 1x Leeroy Jenkins 2x Blood Knight 2x Argent Commander 2x Defender of Argus 1x Doomguard 2x Knife Juggler 2x Young Priestess 2x Harvest Golem 2x Scarlet Crusader 2x Shieldbearer 2x Argent Squire 2x Dire Wolf Alpha 2x Flame Imp 2x Voidwalker	Ability (4) 2x Mortal Coil 2x Soulfire
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The Interview

Today, we are talking with Tommartell. He is the winner of the NA MLG/ManaGrind Open #20. Congratulations on your victory and thank you for taking the time for the interview.

Thank you, thank you very much.

Let’s talk about some of your gaming background.

I've played a ton of games, but competitively the only one I take seriously is Magic the Gathering. I have been on the Magic the Gathering pro circuit since 2010.

What are your thoughts on Hearthstone?

It’s a fun game and great when you want to take a break from Magic. I still think Magic is still my primary game and occupation.

What made you decide to play in today’s tournament?

I had seen these before a couple of times but never could figure out when they were. This weekend was a Magic Grand Prix and I couldn't go and was a little bummed out. So I wanted to get my gaming fix and figured out how to join and played today.

Well, at least you got to play in one card gaming tournament. ManaGrind also has a few other tournaments through the week. They are Swiss formatted with some rule changes from the open. The biggest of which, is there is no sideboarding.

I don’t like that as much. I love the format for this tournament. I think the sideboarding makes it really interesting. It plays to my strengths as a lot of people who play Hearthstone don’t have a background in competitive card games, so my Magic the Gathering background gives me a huge advantage over players who have never done that before.

What was the best part of the tournament for you?

I think the tournament structure and format were fun, playing against different classes and adjusting my deck. Warlocks are great for that and are by far the most adaptable class. They have arguably the best aggro and best control deck. This makes it really hard for your opponent to adjust.

Playing against a Warlock in this tournament is very much a mind game as their ability to switch to so many viable builds and archetypes can easily throw their opponents off.

Exactly, I forced my opponents to play more balanced rather than being completely control or aggro. I actually think in the finals and in round four my opponents should have switched it up. One was playing a Druid and the other a Warrior and both were control. Those decks have a horrible match up against control Warlock and should have switched to a more aggressive build.

Who was your toughest opponent?

Tm12, he was playing a more aggro Druid deck playing multiple copies of Force of Nature and that’s the scariest thing for control Warlock is they can kill you from 14 life. It’s really hard to stabilize against them and if you leave an opening they will kill you one shot and makes it hard to get your Molten Giants up and when you do you have to taunt them up immediately.

So you get the final win, what goes through your mind?

The final was a great match up for me so I wasn’t too surprised but I love winning. It’s fun to be undefeated, so far, in competitive Hearthstone. It won’t last though.

Now looking at your build which archetypes would have given you the biggest issues?

My control Warlock deck would have suffered to a Shaman, but is really good all around. My aggro build would have suffered to control decks.

Which card was the MVP of the tournament for you?

Mountain Giant, I played against a lot of control decks and it can really start punishing your opponent early on before they are set up to deal with it.

Let’s talk about some neutral cards. Which three do you think are the best?

Ancient Watcher, Sunfury Protector, and Defender of Argus. They are all part of the core of any control “shields up” deck. I also want to say Nat Pagle.

What makes someone good at Hearthstone?

Playing a lot. I have played Magic a lot these past four years and I spend a great amount of time thinking about board states, and how to get the best advantage against my opponents. In Hearthstone, you have to figure out how to have board advantage, when to take calculated risks and when to put pressure their life total.

With Hearthstone going live, what features would you like to see?

I think having an app for tournaments would be great, similar to eight person pickup games in poker. You can structure larger scale tournament scene based around it. The bug fixing would be nice and cleaning up the applications. I would love to see another set soon, maybe a sideboarding feature.

Before we wrap this up, anyone you want to give a shout out to?

Gabe Walls who is http://www.twitch.tv/thegwalls one of the best Magic the Gathering players that moved over to Hearthstone. He had a lot to do with me playing the Warlock control I played in the tournament.

Well on behalf of ManaGrind congratulations on your victory today and I hope to see if you can make it back to the top next week as well.

I will try to play more if I can fit it into my schedule. Thank you.

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Interview by Thechiv, Edited by Homebrewed, Formatting by Whale_Cancer

Grats Tom...you won the GP Sacto that I went to...I made Day 2 but didn't even show up Day 2 because of the Niner game. :)