Hearthpwn

Article by Jotto

Hello everyone, this is Jotto and welcome to the 15th MLG/ManaGrind tournament review. This week we saw the return of both Priest and Paladin along with two interesting Rogue decks.

On the European servers, Druids are still at the top; however, we had a variety of other classes show up. These included Shaman, Paladin, and Rogue. The Rogue deck in particular was very interesting as it did not play the standard “cantrip” engine and was more focused on fast paced aggro with powerful cards over hard sustainability. We also had a healing Paladin make top four for the first time in months, even though the deck has seen a reasonable amount of play on the ladder. The Paladin’s deck list was very similar to what a lot of people have been running on the ladder; however, the deck was more focused on its late game rather than it's midgame.

The North American tournament has been just as interesting, variety wise, the standard Druid and Shaman decks showed up but we also had a completely traditional “cantrip” Rogue show up. This was very odd as most of the time “cantrip” Rogue has to tech up against Druids and other slower decks, but by the looks of it the original deck can still do well all be it with a few tweaks here or there. Lastly, in the North American tournament, we had a Priest which is the deck that I will be talking about today.

(Note: You can watch a video version of Jotto's review here)

Analysis

Now, we haven't seen a Priest do well in tournaments for as long as anyone can remember; so I feel that this list will have more impact on the meta game than any other this week.

Firstly, the deck ran a solid engine of early to midgame minions to set up for the mid-late game and establish an advantage early. This included cards like Loot Hoarder and Northshire Cleric for early draw power. It also gave the deck some early plays. Furthermore, the deck played a Lightwell and two Harvest Golems to set up a board position early while preventing any aggro decks from getting on the board quickly in a dangerous manner.

This was to set up the decks midgame, which is a “shields up” core, comprised of Sunfury Protectors and Defender of Argus as the taunt enablers. It also used Mountain Giants and Twilight Drakes as threats that are hard to deal with during the midgame.

Late game, the deck played Ragnaros the Firelord as a win condition along with Sylvanas Windrunner and Tinkmaster Overspark to give minion based removal for large threats such as Ysera. Spell wise, the deck played Shadow Madness, Holy Smite, and Holy Nova to hold down the early game and to get a possible deathrattle effect off a Loot Hoarder or Harvest Golem. For late game, the deck played one of each Shadow Word: Death and Mind Control, as between them they can deal with any win condition efficiently. Lastly, the deck played Thoughtsteal to obtain answers that are unavailable to Priest and the information on your opponent’s deck that comes with it.

Conclusion

In conclusion, while it is apparent that there are definitely a few “best” decks, the lesser known tier two decks can still do well with the correct tweaks and techs as long as the player uses them correctly. I do expect the meta game to stabilize from here with a few or the lesser known classes making into top four every week.

Thank you all for reading and I’ll see you next week!

MG_Jotto
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 Article by Jotto, Edited by Homebrewed, Formatted by Whale_Cancer