Weekly News Recap
There's a lot to cover from last week, so let's get right to it!
- December 16
- We posted the decklists from the MLG/ManaGrind NA Open. There was no EU event due to server issues.
- Technical difficulties which plagued the European beta servers during the weekend were resolved.
- December 17
- Blizzard posted a thread talking about the upcoming changes in the next Hearthstone mini-patch.
- Some mage cards utilizing the freeze mechanic are being nerfed.
- A fix will be applied to the Arena to correct a bug which was not allowing people to play Arena.
- Hearthstone Beta Patch 4243 showed up on the test servers.
- Frost Nova's cost was increased to 3, from 2.
- Blizzard's cost was increased to 6 from 5.
- Cone of Cold's cost was increased to 4, from 3.
- ManaGrind posted their interview with Muffinsssss, the winner of the weekend's NA Hearthstone tournament.
- December 18
- ManaCast Episode #16! Discussion topics included:
- Upcoming Berlin Tournament,
- Thoughts on the new ranking system,
- State of the Meta,
- Weekend tournament decklists.
- December 19
- Jason Chayes, Hearthstone's Production Developer, posted an update on the status of open beta.
- Everyone who has opted-in before December 16th, was sent a beta key.
- Beta Opt-ins will no longer be possible starting on January 7th, 2014.
- ManaGrind's Sar posted an article titled "Common Situations with the Three Resources". It is a continuation of his first article, The Three Competing Resources.
- The Diablo team released information on the Collector's Edition of Reaper of Souls. Although not included in the announcement post, purchasing Diablo III RoS will also net Hearthstone players 3 packs of cards.
- December 20
- Curse Premium Membership Now Includes a FREE Game from Curse and GOG.com
- ManaGrind's Jotto reported on the current State of the Meta.
- Zeriyah made a post for players who did not receive a beta key but were opted-in to the beta test. If you didn't get a key, check it out to troubleshoot!
- Blizzard will not be sending out replacement keys, but your account will automatically be flagged for beta access sometime in January.
- Blizzard posted the top 100 Hearthstone players on the NA and EU ranked ladders. Did you make the cut?
- The top 43 players from North America, and the top 23 players from Europe are Legend rank.
Tournament Decklists - MLG/ManaGrind NA/EU Opens #9
We've got the top 3 decklists from both the North American and European MLG/ManaGrind tournaments this weekend. We saw Druids, Rogues, Shamans, and Warlocks take the top finishing spots this past weekend, which is is a pleasant change from the mages we have encountered during the past couple of tournaments. Maybe it has something to do with that Freeze card nerf!
Wonder if that membership perk still exists