Hearthpwn

What types of things do you do to prepare for tournaments? Many people practice with friends or play ranked non-stop. Do you play with multiple decks or just go with one variant and change it until it's perfect? 

Interview with Gnimsh 
Winner of the ManaGrind MLG NA Open #7 
(Interview done by TheChiv1)

Name: Gnimsh
Age: 30
Location: Poland

First off I would like to congratulate flawless victory today. You didn’t lose a single match the entire tournament. I would like thank you for taking the time to do this interview.

Thank you so very much. It was a great time, and a great tournament. I have been playing in the tournaments on MLG from the start. I won a couple of the challenge tournaments as well, the 2nd and the 5th.

Yeah I knew of you and had Cooldoggie on my list in game but never saw you get very far before in the tournament.

Yeah in regular open play I didn’t do so well though. When ManaGrind was still on Challonge! I think I placed 9th at one point. But I played in all the ManaGrind MLG opens.

Now I know a lot about you already, but would you like to share with our community just what kind of gaming background you came from.

It all started in 1994; my first card game was called Doom Trooper.

You know I’m old enough to remember that game and I actually played it. It was amazing.

Doom troopers is a Swedish game. They are making it into a miniature game, I helped to kick start that. In 1995 I started with Magic the Gathering, and with that I was playing nationally. Then I got to the university and dropped card games and started playing MMO's. Then about 7 years ago I picked up the WoW TCG. After I got some cards I decided I should be playing this game. So I found a local play group that traveled for tournaments. In 2011, I hit it big in the WoW TCG. I became the Eastern Plagueland Championship. I traveled across the world. I even played in the U.S.

That’s incredible. So where in the U.S. did you play?

I played in Atlanta. It was kind of funny. For some reason the US does not have a visa waiver program with Poland. We have the highest rate of rejection for visas. Normally if you get one it’s for 3 months at first and if you’re good you can get one for longer. So I went for mine and I was talking to the counselor and I told him I was going to the US to play WoW TCG. He was like, "You play World of Warcraft?" He was a big fan of the MMO and when I showed him the cards he was even more excited. 

That had to help in getting your visa.

Totally, I got a visa that’s good for 10 years.

Anything else?

I’m a huge fan of the Japanese culture so I was playing a little bit of Pokémon. I also picked up a game called Cardfight!! Vanguard and I am the Polish champion of that.

You've won a lot of card games, but what about other video games.

Not really. I tried League of Legends casually and StarCraft, but didn’t make masters or anything. I was playing Star Wars the Old Republic, WOW, and Ragnarok. All the MMO's, when I play MMO's I try to enjoy all the elements. I love the Lore, the PvE, and the PvP.

What made you decide to come to the ManaGrind tournament?

Obviously I’m interested in all tournaments. ManaGrind was the pioneers of the Hearthstone tournament. Originally when Blizzard announced the closing of the WoW TCG a lot of people were angry and split over playing Hearthstone. But I knew I wanted to make it back to the top ranks again as soon as possible in Hearthstone.

Yeah, though we got a lot of other tournaments popping up ever all over the place now.

On Fridays there is a national tournament in Poland that gets like sixty people and I try to make that one whenever I can.

Yeah that’s another thing we have been seeing is more nation only challenges. It’s really great this game gives us that ability to do so with help of social media and fan websites.

It’s really popular. When the game goes into open beta it will grow even more.

You know that brings us to another point you didn’t get a key right away either.

No I had to hunt for one. I did everything I could to get one. Eventually I got my key from a competition I competed in. Since then I have given out five other keys.

Now back to the tournament. What was the best part for you?

I guess my favorite part was it was my birthday. Best birthday gift ever.

Who was your toughest opponent?

Hands down Savjez, he’s my friend from Finland, in team Doggie House with me.

Was there any one you were glad you didn’t have to go up against?

When the tournament started I checked the list I knew I would have to fight Savjez, but there was no one I saw that I knew was an issue.

You know we do get a lot of players no one has ever heard of come here hit us with something new and take the win.

Everybody is an opponent! Coming from the WoW TCG you can lose to anybody. When you’re facing someone that is known you expect certain things, like the meta game decks we see. Newer players come in with their own ideas and think outside the meta, it can be challenging to adapt.

Last month we saw a ton of Warlock, Today it was all Mage. What would have been your biggest threat?

Mirror matches.

You know I have been looking over these Mage decks and it seemed to be an upgraded version of the Moon’s Mage aggro deck.

Yeah when Moon made his Mage aggro deck the meta was still more mid-range and control based. What I was hearing from people today, is because Warlock is the best and the class to beat. Everyone went Mage. The Mage’s giant combo deck really counters Warlock. 

Now which card was the MVP for you?

Pyroblast would be the obvious choice but, I think after today’s tournament, I’d say  Cone of Cold. 

Moving onto the next part, what are your top neutral cards?

Argent Commander, it is the best offensive card in the game. Next I’d say Defender of Argus, it’s so hard to get tempo back when he is played against you. It is also the card that killed Warrior and Hunter. Than probably Harvest Golem, it really gives you a lot of board advantage no matter what stage of the game. Last would be Argent Squire, because of divine shield. 

I’m still on the fence when it comes to using Argent Squire. I like Leper Gnomes better.

I made that change, I took out my Leper Gnome for the Argent Squire and it worked perfectly.

Ok, so you play competitive and you have a lot of accolades. What makes a good competitive player?

Practice, if you have a lot of skill and a good deck you’re less reliant on luck. But luck is still a huge factor. There is an equation to all of it believe. Skill + Deck Design + Luck = Chance of Winning.

Now as we are about to hit open beta, what advice do you have for these people.

Have fun, that’s the best advice I can give. This game is awesome, from its controls, to its sounds and visual look, to its gameplay, and game modes. But just have fun first and make sure to check out some YouTube recordings and streams.

Me and you were both part of the 2p.com tournament. In that we saw Mage was the number one class. Do you think Mage is going to be the new class to get over?

In the current format yes, Mages are very versatile. Today I took two decks. I would play the aggro, then the next match switch to my control giant deck. The flexibility and the power of Mage spells, give them a lot of advantages.

What other tournament formats would you like see in the future.

Swiss, definitely, ManaGrind is known for its Swiss.

You know I actually played multiple decks in our tournament. One of them was a Murloc deck.

I love Murlocs! I love how in Hearthstone you get to immerse yourself in the Warcraft universe. Interesting fun fact, the last ever WoW TCG event was won by a Murloc deck.

That is amazing. Well I think we are going to call it a wrap. On behalf of ManaGrind and MLG I would like to thank you and congratulate you on your victory today. I hope to see you back here next week. 

Thank you.

If you'd like to learn more about Gnimish or watch his videos or stream check out the links below:

Timbolt – 1st Place:

Luzak – 2nd Place:

Lothar  – 3rd/4th Place:

Xtz – 3rd/4th Place:

Gnimsh – 1st Place:

Mundungu – 2nd Place:

Shmew  – 3rd/4th Place:

Quizpwnsu‏3 – 3rd/4th Place:

Hello everyone this is Jotto and welcome to the 1st recap of a ManaGrind tournament in article form. I will be breaking down this week’s meta game and take note of anything interesting or trending. This week it would be warlock aggro, also named zerg lock by some.

Interview with Ostkaka
Winner of the Managrind/MLG EU OPEN #6
(Interview done by TheChiv1)

Name: Sebastian Engwall
Age: 17
Location: Stockholm, Sweden

I had some really stiff competition.

Now are you a competitive gamer, play any other games?

Not really I played a lot of Heroes of Newerth. I think I’m pretty good at it but I have never played in any tournaments or anything. I have played in one other ManaGrind tournament the week before and I got knocked out in the first round.

That happens to the best of us in the tournaments. I have seen some really strong players just get smashed in the first round by someone no one has ever heard of before.

Yeah I got knocked out by a Mage last time and this time I faced like one Mage and I was able to get past him.

We use to see a lot of Mages, and then came the rise of the Warlock and that pretty much pushed Mages out.

Yeah I track my wins with this deck and Mages are the one class I have the most difficulty with.

So what made you decide to play in today’s tournament?

I have been browsing around a lot looking at Hearthstone. Last week I came across ManaGrind and I saw the tournament and decided to join the tournament. It was a lot of fun, even though I only got to play one round.

This week you made it to the top of the pile that says a lot. Now what was your favorite part of the tournament?

The wait was not my favorite part of the tournament. I had an hour wait at one point. All the people were very nice and I didn’t have any problems with reporting, and the people were nice saying good luck and have fun.

Who was the toughest person you faced off again?

The finals were the toughest. I faced a Mage and he crushed me in the first match. I think he switched up his deck and I was able to win pretty easily. Then it felt like he switched back in the third and we kept going back and forth the whole round and I managed to beat him 3-2. I also faced a Paladin before that where he absolutely crushed me in the first match.

You did really well today. Will you be coming back?

Definitely, I’ll be back.

When you won what went through your mind?

Not too much honestly. I was really happy I talked to one of my friends but not much else really.

What would have been the biggest threat to your deck, archetype wise?

No doubt Mage was my biggest threat. I tracked my stats for this deck in master 3 stars. Out of 52 games I lost 5 to Mages. Mages are a big problem for me with the Ice Block and the freeze. As a Warlock I like to play aggressively and all of a sudden he has an Ice Block up and I’m at 10 HP and he gets a Pyroblast.

Now these Warlock aggro decks can burn a mage by turn 5.

Yeah I do that a lot, but if there is a class that can beat me it would be Mage.

What are the top neutral cards, in your opinion?

Defender of Argus is really insane, Shattered Sun Cleric is a really good card, Argent Commander, I can’t imagine running a rush deck that doesn’t run this high mana cost card. Dark Iron Dwarf is really good.

Those are like the top cards that a lot of people say. They are also the top 4 cards people want nerfed.

Argent Commander is insane.

A lot of people want those cards nerfed but what do you think needs to be “balanced”?

I don’t know really. I think Argent Commander is so insane. When you compare it to another 6 mana charge minion, Reckless Rocketeer, there is just no comparison. When you compare decks every deck has Argent Commander. I also think that the way Mages are playing right now is not really fun. I think something in the Mage arsenal should be changed, maybe Pyroblast. Against Mages it’s like you get down to 10-13 damage and your dead. They are really strong. I don’t think Mind Control should be changed. If you learn to play around it it’s not that strong.

These days the most common Mind Control target is Argent Commander.

Guess it’s because of the charge because you can attack with it directly.

Blizzard sent out a survey where they listed off a bunch of features they wanted to see what the community wanted. What are some things you would like to see added to the game?

Spectator mode sounds nice, I haven’t really thought about it much. They already said they were going to add a new rank system. I think that will make it more worth wild to play in ranked play.

Yeah the current system feels anticlimactic.

Yeah I rolled a Priest and made it to master 3 stars and then there was no more sense of accomplishment in constructed.

Now you have not been playing that long have you?

I got my key about a month ago.

You seemed too picked up the game pretty well.

I play it a lot. I also watch a lot of streams like Kripp and Trump and I watched the BlizzCon. I also took a lot of inspiration from the decks I saw on ManaGrind and even with that there is some skill, but once you have a deck you can do a lot. You can definitely reach master three stars even if you’re bad with one of those decks.

So you won today, Hearthstone is about to hit open, what advice can you give to new players?

The biggest mistake I see players making is trying to spend all their mana each term. Think ahead anticipate what your opponent is going to do. Too often I see them spending all their mana rather than making the best play. Early game it makes sense, later gameplay not so much.

Now in your deck who was the MVP?

I wanted more value out of the Knife Juggler but it just didn’t happen. So I think it would be the Blood Imp. It is insane.

Blood imp is one of the reason people hate Warlocks. That one extra life does so much to preventing your opponent from gaining an advantage.

I really play around with Blood Imp I normally hold onto it till after turn 5 so it doesn’t die to AoE. I have also used it in between minions to mess with cone of cold. I also have to mention I used Sacrificial Pack to kill an opponent who played Jaraxxus.

This issue came up yesterday. It forced some interesting mind games in the final.

Jaraxxus saved me in the finals against a Mage. The life gain was very important to my victory.

Now our meta has been pretty much aggro. Do you see it shifting in the future?

The meta has been getting faster and faster. I can even see Wisp getting added in. I faced slower decks and they didn’t stand a chance. Rush decks are super strong. I don’t see it changes without changes to cards and a content patch.

And on that note I think we can wrap this up. On behalf of ManaGrind and MLG, Congratulations and I hope to have you back here next week.

Thank you.

Ostkakalol – 1st Place:

Fenomen – 2nd Place:

Erdurus  – 3rd Place:

Interview with Fjord
Winner of the ManaGrind/MLG NA Open #6
(Interview done by TheChiv1)

Name: Will Turner aka Fjord
Age: 28
Location: Auckland, New Zealand

Welcome and congrats on a well fought victory. I was following the bracket and you faced off against some really stiff competition. You faced off against a few previous tournament winners and some known name players.

Thank you. They were some pretty tough players.

Now are you a competitive player and if so what games? 

Yeah I’m pretty competitive, I was pretty highly ranked in Magic, Diamond in League of Legends, and I won a StarCraft tournament.

Yeah I would say that makes you a serious competitor. Still what made you decide to come out and play in the ManaGrind/MLG tournament?

I got into the beta about a month ago. I felt I was at the level to take part in these tournaments. I got enough cards. So yeah felt I was ready for this and the 2p.com tournament.

That’s right you’re in that as well.

Yeah.

Interesting side note two of the people you faced off against are also in that 2p.com tournament as well as some others who competed today.

The 2p tournament is the who’s who of Hearthstone.

Ok back to us now. What to you was the best part of the tournament?

It was pretty satisfying to play Leeroy Jenkins. It pretty much wins it every time.

Yes thank you for that. When I first saw the warlock aggro deck list I thought this is strong, but Leeroy Jenkins would make it better. So thank you for that.

You could actually for 5 mana deal 14 damage with Leeroy, Power Overwhelming, and Soulfire. I think in round 2 I actually pulled 22 damage out of my hand in one turn.

When you won what was going through your mind.

Well Kisstafer and I had some really intense mind games in the final.

Yes I was there for that and the debate over the legitimacy of the Sacrificial Pact being allowed, because it’s not allowed in other tournaments.

It came out game 2 and I kind of forgot it existed because you don’t see it in ladder and a lot of tournaments it’s banned. It cost me a game. But I think we both nearly sided out all our demons so our decks were completely changed. Then he also had the double Blood Knight, that steals divine shield, so it was always nerve racking playing out the Argent Squire.

Which archetype do you feel would have been the biggest threat and why?

Well what I like about this deck is because it consistently kills before turn 8, it’s faster than Mage, and there really is no hard counter to it. You got things like Jotto’s deck which was a midrange Druid designed to counter this, but I was just too fast for him.

Yeah I got the play by play of that match.

Druid can stabilize but they are going to take some damage till they can and they are vulnerable to burn. Paladin would have been an issue but I didn’t see a single Paladin.

Now Warlock aggro has been pretty dominant in the meta. Any thoughts on what’s to come next?

I don’t know but I think we are going to see a lot of new decks in the 2p.com tournament that may shift the meta.

Maybe, but my concern is you’re going to see meta decks face off against non meta decks and meta is going to storm through it which then when the NA faces off against CN we may get a massive miss match.

I think the meta is starting to make a comeback to what we saw in the invitational, like Chillwind Yeti. I have been watching a lot of the top Chinese streamers and they love Sen’jin Shieldmasta. They got two in almost every deck. He is strong against everything else.

Well in the early days of Hearthstone Sen’jin was king. Then players decided to just silence him and by pass creating super aggro decks. Do you think our fast pace meta will be an issue for the Chinese.

Yes. They run a lot of tool box builds with one offs in a deck. Those builds are less consistent which really matters in the first few turns.

Now let’s look at your deck you brought to the tournament. You ran almost a standard of what we see in Warlock aggro decks. There were some differences though. You had the Leeroy Jenkins, Sylvanas in there, and you had no draw mechanic cards.

Well a lot of Warlocks have been dropping spells but a turn 2 Demonfire is really powerful as is Power Overwhelming. When I added the Leeroy to this deck I began shifting it less to board control and more to burning my opponent out and having a Leeroy as a finisher is just amazing. As my focus shifted things like Leper Gnome became more viable and I did some testing and most of the time I was using Elven Archer to ping for 1 so yeah cut that to a single copy.

Now what were some of your sideboard choices?

Well I brought in Jaraxxus. The potential life gain was really helpful. Sen’jin Shieldmasta came in quite frequently. Against the more control mages I brought in the Darkscale Healer . Void Terror was in there because of freeze Mages. Frozen creatures are useless so you suck them up into a Void Terror.

Now, why no other draw mechanic cards?

Well with Warlock as long as you have board control you really don’t need them they kind of slow you down.

Who was your toughest opponent in the tournament?

The finals were really tough. Jotto’s Druid deck was quite strong; he was on the edge of stabilizing ever match we had.

Yeah they are both really solid players. What was your deck’s MVP of the tournament?

Leeroy Jenkins is amazing at closing out a game. Second best was Voidwalker; it answers everything on round 1.

Now what are the top 4 neutral cards?

I’m going to switch this and go with cards that are undervalued: Sen’jin Shieldmasta, Doomsayer, Wild Pyromancer, and Earthen Ring Farseer.

Now you played Magic the Gathering and you did really well there. What do you think it takes to be a good Hearthstone player?

The good opponents will be able to read you. Against LuigeZZ he had a good Soulfire read on me. I could just really tell they were thinking about my hands more than in the early rounds of competition.

How did you prep for this tournament?

I have been laddering with this deck. My goal is to win 30 in a row and leave it at that to get in top 50.

Yeah I ran a similar deck in ranked and it has about 80-85% win rate, so I can see it happening for you.

What’s really important is the burst damage you can put out in the end.

Now we are coming up on open beta for Hearthstone. What advice do you have for these new players?

I see a lot of players who are afraid to use some one else’s deck list. It’s a really good starting point and you can make changes as you play with it.

Do you think net decking is too relevant in the meta and we are getting less originality? 

I mean even if you’re no copying a deck you should be looking at them. The more net decking we see it allows for things like Forsen’s priest to come in a win.

Yes the one deck I get asked about more than anything else that he refused to share.

I’m pretty close to having it at this point.

Ok now in your opinion what are the best and worst classes in Hearthstone? 

Warlock is strong; Paladin can be really strong because it can be built so many different ways. Warrior’s I don’t think you will see too much until Defender of Argus comes out because taunt is so powerful against them. Hunters I’m not to overly impressed with that class, I think there are one or two secret decks out there. Once they nerf the one turn kill decks, the rest of the cards are pretty much garbage. I think Priest is still in a good position to be a counter deck because no one puts out big minions like Priest.

Now where do you see this game going in the competitive play? Do you see it hitting League of legends levels? 

Definitely, I think it’s a good game to watch. I think once they iron out the technical side. Look at BlizzCon, the game is still in beta and it beat out StarCraft in terms of viewers.

Are there any features you would like to see added to this game?

The ability of playing with my friends more would be nice or watching them play. A 2 player vs. a boss could be really fun.

What type of format do you prefer to play in when it comes to card games?

People always argue that the bigger tournaments are based on skill. This one was what 4-5 hours so I think that’s a better gauge. Even with single elimination you’re still going to get skilled players.

We get a lot of people chiming in on cards that need balancing, what are some cards you would like to see changed.

I would like to see one power of Argent Commander, two toughness of Dark Iron Dwarf, and one power of Shattered Sun Cleric removed.

Well I think we can wrap it up here. Again, I would like to thank you for taking the time for to have this interview. Congrats on your victory and I hope to see you back here next week.

Thank you.

Fjord – 1st Place:

Kisstafer – 2nd Place:

LuigEzz  – 3rd Place:

Interview with Y4P

Winner of the ManaGrind/MLG EU Open #5

Name: Robin Engen Andersen aka y4p
Age: 22
Location: Norway

Thank you.

Now I had a chance to watch the finals between you and Vortex. I’ve got to tell you that was an amazing match. To be honest I’m not sure if we have had one go down to the wire like that in round 5.

Yeah it was cool.

So you’re a competitive player. You won this tournament, but what other games have you played and competed in?

I have played competitive Heroes of Newerth and Dota 2. I didn’t play competitive Counter-Strike, but I played at a higher level. As far as card games go Hearthstone is my first.

When it comes to card games I’m an old school player. I got into Magic the Gathering back when Beta was out in stores. Then I expanded to other card games over the years, but I prefer Hearthstone. It’s fast its fun, easy to pick up difficult to master.

I agree. I played a little bit of Magic. Hearthstone is much faster paced and fun. As far as competitive scene it is much easier to do tournaments and streams and those kinds of things. In some competitive games you might have a match that last an hour and that can be a problem.

Oh yeah. You look at StarCraft 2; some of those matches just go on forever. 

It’s also easier to get into. If a commentator is commentating StarCraft he has to know a lot about the game. But in Hearthstone it’s much easier to get into.

I don’t know if you don’t know what the pest possible play is in Hearthstone being a commentator could be a problem.

Well yeah you have to be good, but I think its way easier for people to get in to and much faster pace than other card games.

Now speaking of competitive games and the scene, what other competitions have you been in? 

I played a lot of ESL cups in Heroes of Newerth; I didn’t have a good placement in Dota 2 those tournaments but played a lot.

Ok so you like to compete, but what made you come to the ManaGrind/MLG tournament?

Well I played Hearthstone for some time and I was looking for a tournament to play and I found your tournament on IHEARTHU.com and I signed up.

Well we have been providing tournaments for Hearthstone since before it was even out using the Cockitrice emulator.

Yeah you guys have been consistent.

So let’s get a little into the tournament. What was the best part for you?

One of the decks I played was a delay deck which revolves around 2 Pyroblast and just taking them down till I can pull them. So there was a lot of tension for me to see if I could draw the right cards, sometimes I couldn’t win because of 1 damage and I don’t know I like that tension. It gets me excited.

You know I took a look at your deck list. Your delay deck, look very similar to Reckful’s from the invitational. There are a lot of differences but some of the core is there. And there is your other one which is a whole different monster on its own.

Both decks are kind of control decks, but the burn one has less minions and those that are in there are either to delay or draw cards. The other one with the Baron Geddon I designed to beat rushing decks like the Rogue and Warlock because they have a lot of cheap minions. I did sideboard some cards depending on what I faced off against.

Now in the finals you were down 2-1 and you brought out your Baron Geddon anti rush deck and you flipped the tables on the guy. He got so worried about that one card he actually gutted a lot of good cards and a few others to craft a Leeroy Jenkins. Even with that and something like a 33% change in his deck from side boarding you just powered right through.

He did??? WOW!!

Though these are some really interesting decks. They kind of go outside the meta box to a degree from what we have been seeing. 

Well the burn one is inspired by Reckful’s deck. It’s all about drawing till you get the right card.

Yeah I mean you got the Coldlight Oracles, Azure Drakes, and Bloodmage Thalnos. 

This deck is kind of weak against healing decks because you have to do so much more damage, and if you run out of spells you’re done. I usually open with this deck to see how they react and then I switch to my minion deck because healing minions are good against a deck like this but they don’t have the stats to be really good.

Now let’s get into the Geddon Deck because this is a card we have not really seen much in our tourneys and it’s just kind of a very interesting deck. First off there are a lot of things we do not see in this deck we normally see in every Mage deck and then there are some elements that just seem to work so well in it.

I don’t use Arcane Missiles in any of my decks.Geddon almost feels like a second Flamestrike in this meta. People play a lot of really cheap minions. One cost and two cost cards are really popular. If you got 7 mana and a Flamestrike and a Geddon in your hand you can play the Flamestrike and have nothing on the board. You play Geddon most of the time you clear the board and have something on it and will have to deal with it. If all they have is a small minion it’s really hard for them to deal with it. All the Rogues I played none of them had an Assassinate so I took my chances with it and it worked.

It was a brilliant gambit. It was very much counter to the meta.

I think at this point in Hearthstone people have figured out what’s best and then figured out how to counter it and then you have to counter the counter. In a best of 5 it’s all about predicting what he is going to play and trying to counter it.

Yeah and some classes actually have a huge advantage in this. Warlocks come to mind. You can run them so many ways you could literally throw 3 decks at them and each one would be different. I mean you can even throw a Murloc deck at them and throw their game right out the window.

Warlocks have one of the best hero power in the game. Even if you get a board clear they can just draw and rebuild it and you don’t have an answer to it cause you don’t have enough board clears.

Now let’s get back to your tournament experience. Who was your toughest opponent? 

Vortex was in the final. I face Rogues earlier in the tournament and some games were close but I don’t know. He just had a more solid deck and a better understanding of the game I guess.

He made some interesting choices in sideboard, like the crafting of a Leeroy Jenkins.

Yeah he wanted to rush me down. In the first game when I rushed him he put in healing minions to counter it and he rushed me with those Southsea Deckhand that get the charge when you have a weapon. So to counter this I added in Voodoo’s  to delay enough to get my Geddon out.

Hey when it comes to a Mage, delay is everything. One extra turn is the difference between winning and losing.

That is so true.

Now I know this should go without saying but you are coming back for another tournament right?

Yeah. I’m competitive.

When you look at your decks and what they can do where you do see the biggest difficulty in terms of class archetypes.

I think Priest actually. My burn against a Priest he heals so much that it’s really difficult to finish them off. Other than that they have Lightspawn and other minions and I wasn’t running any silence in the burn deck so I really didn’t have much of an answer to that. If he gets some of those minions going it’s really hard to stop.

Now yesterday’s winner in the ManaGrind/MLG NA tournament played a Shaman. What are your thoughts on that since you did face a Shaman in the tournament?

I don’t know I think there playing a Mage is better than a Shaman especially when you consider control. I like playing Shaman though it’s probably my second class.

Shamans are a decent class. They probably have some of the highest burst damage potential in this game.

Yeah that’s probably true.

Now you had a come from behind victory in the finals and won the tournament. What went through your mind that moment you won?

I was really happy. I signed up for this tournament because I thought it would be really fun. As I advanced I saw people playing the kind of decks I thought they were going to play so I had a chance and once I was in the finals I saw he was better than the others I had faced so yeah I was happy to win against him. He was a very good player.

Were there any preparations you took before this tournament?

I played the Daily Hearthstone tournament yesterday and I saw what people were playing there. Aggro rogue and Warlock decks. So I thought of ideas to counter that and I tested with a friend.

A lot of players actually netdeck a lot things they see are winning.

Yeah a lot of players take stuff they see on ManaGrind, Value Town, and Turn 2 and I expected that so I tried to think outside the box and it worked.

Out of the box thinking is a sign of a great competitor.

Thank you.

Now what are the top 3….wait no one ever gives me just 3 so what are the top 4 neutral cards.

Right now the way Hearthstone is. Defender of Argus is the best. In Hearthstone taunt minions kind of suck but if you can take a minion with good stats and give them taunt its better. I think the game would be better without the card to be honest. I think Argent Commander is second best. The thing is its charge with divine shield. It’s like a Hammer of Wrath with a minion on the board. It’s hard to choose the last two…I will take Shattered Sun Cleric and the Harvest Golem.

That’s pretty much the same cards they pick every time. Now in your tournament who was the MVP for you?

Baron Geddon or the Faerie Dragon was for sure.Geddon did so much for me. If they had four minions out us would just wipe them. The Faerie Dragon really messed with Rogues in the early game because Rogues couldn’t back stab it and that was a really huge deal.

Now you won in a tournament and some might think you know what you’re doing. So tell us what does it take to make a good hearthstone player?

I think one of the most important things to know is the value of your cards. There are many players who don’t think of alternative ways to clear the board. The ability to think of different moves is really important. You can make your opponents really paranoid thinking you have a Flamestrike.

What advice would you give to people who want to improve their skills in Hearthstone?

Knowing what cards are good and which are not is really important. Have a plan when you make a deck. Don’t just throw a bunch of cards together. I think you will need some cards to compete at the competitive level, but with a basic deck you can do really well with it.  I think Legendaries are not really that strong compared to other cards. In some decks when you have a plan with them sure, but you don’t need them to win.

Though using the occasional Epic card does help. Now recently most of us got a survey from Blizzard asking about which classes were fun which were not. In your opinion, what are the top and what are the bottoms?

Top I think Paladin is up there. Divine shield is a beautiful mechanism. Priests are really strong but they are going to get nerfed and will be useless. Rogues and Mages are pretty close. The worst right now is Druid it’s not good as other classes there are some things you can do but not much. Hunters are also not as strong. They have that one turn kill deck but other than that they are bad. Shamans also not so good cause of the RNG with a Lightning Storm.

Also in the survey they asked what features would you like to see? Now which would you like to see yourself?

Spectator mode is my number one. If you ever played Warcraft III you had these built in tournaments and you push a button and you enter a tournament. I think they need to make an option for side boarding.

Now we all know about the 3 nerfs coming to the game in the near future. Are there any cards you think should also be nerfed?

I think the Mana Wyrm should be nerfed by 1 health. They should do something with Defender of Argus it’s just too strong in this meta. Another good card that I’m not sure needs a nerf is Bloodmage. You can so combo off it, like as a Mage there are so many things you can do with it. Feral Spirit when you put them out on turn 3, even with the overload it doesn’t matter. Backstab is also too good.

Now as you have been watching the meta, what do you think is going to be the next big shift? What cards do you think are going to be coming in to counter the aggro rush?

I think equality will be used more. It’s just insane with Consecration, and Avenging Wrath. I think Geddon will get played more; it’s a mini Flamestrike and a minion.

Well we are going to wrap this up here. Thank you very much for the interview. On behalf me, ManaGrind, and MLG, Congratulations on a great victory and I hope to be seeing you back here next week for another victory.

y4p – 1st Place:

Vortex – 2nd Place:

Falcon  – 3rd Place:

Interview with Kisstafer 

Winner of the ManaGrind/MLG NA Open #5

Name: Kisstafer
Age: 22
Location: Toronto, Canada
Stream: Link

Well actually it was a really hard tournament. In the past few ManaGrind tournaments I got bounced out early due to some random stuff like a Mana Wyrm and Arcane Missiles combo’s and I felt like I got cheated because people were running some bad cards. This week they all had really good decks, but I just somehow manage to win.

Yeah I was watching your stream and some of them it seemed like you just barely got that victory.

Well every round I think I lost one game. They were all pretty close.

Still you did really well in this tournament, but what other games do you play, competitively and casually?

Well the game I played the most was Guild Wars and I used to PvP and was a top 20 player. After that I played StarCraft 2 and just couldn’t put in the time for it but still made it into the Master League. Then I played some random games like Path of Exile and Diablo.

Now you said you were top 20 in PvP in guild wars. Were there any other competitive things you did in games?

I was on a team in Guild Wars and we were top 8 or top 16 consistently.

Would you say that experience helped you out here?

Oh definitely. The one thing with a tournament is you always second guess your build or play. Many times you do that and it back fires, when doing what you were planning would have worked much better. Because you’re psyching yourself out rather than your opponent doing it.

Speaking of second guess, you had a moment in the tournament where you had a few low drop minions on the board and your opponent had a Sylvanas Windrunner. We all were talking about the proper play and you did something that most said “WHAT!!” What was that about?

The thing with Sylvanas you have to make a snap decision that affects the whole game. You either go all in to the opponents face or you sack all your minions to kill her. I had to deal with her earlier in the tournament and I sacked all my minions to killer her, but it was just a judgment call on the situation and what you have left in the deck and what they have in their deck and you base your decision off of that. But in that situation I had a bunch of low cost minions and nothing that did over 4 damage so she would have had to attack them twice in order to do anything and even if he played a Leeroy Jenkins with a power overwhelming I still had enough life to win.

Yes you took a calculated a risk and raced him down rather then play it safe.

The thing is Warlocks will drop two cards a turn in that situation and they will drown you out with card advantage.

That makes a lot of sense. Now many people come to these tournaments to get a higher level of competition and to test their decks. What was your driving force to play in them?

Well I play this game all day anyway and I want to be the best at it. And to be the best you have to beat everyone else so.

That’s awesome. Moving on but what was the best part of the tournament.

I really enjoyed being able to change cards in between games and talk to my friends and see what they would do. A lot of tournaments you cannot side deck and I like those too, but I think there should be more tournaments with different rule sets.

Like I said I was watching your stream and it sounded like you had your own coaching staff there with you. 

Yeah I had people complaining in my stream chat that I was taking too long.  ::Both Laugh::

Now I know you knew a lot of people, like Curi, Sylas and a few other good players but were there any players you saw that you didn’t want to face off against?

I didn’t recognize any of the players who I faced off against, but there were some big names in the tournament. Like Savages, Specialist, and some other people that were big names. They got eliminated early so I never had to face them. Oh and of course Curi and Sylas. I actually had to face Sylas. He is one of my teammates and that was probably one of my most interesting matches.

Would you say Sylas was your toughest opponent?

No, I knew what he was playing because we play together so I just straight up countered him. That was the most interesting, but I think it was the Semifinal. All the games kind of blur together. The final was hard because I dropped game one.

You dropped your first game in like every round.

Yeah I dropped game one in like every match then did some side decking and came back and swept the series. There was one guy who ran Scarlet Crusader and Argent Squire and I put in a Blood Knight. And I coined turn 2 a 6/6 Blood Knightand that was the game right there.

Now you are coming back for another chance at the top right?

Yeah. I play every week unless I wake up late, which happened once.

I remember that. You came on our TeamSpeak and said, “Did I miss it?” I felt so bad telling you, “Yep”. So now you won you final match what went through your mind.

I was sitting there going “Ok the tournament is over now.” Because the whole tournament I was like next opponent and then after the last guy I was like, “What do I do now?”

Let’s talk a little bit about your decks. You did play two classes in the tourney while still abiding by the rules, but what would have been the biggest threat.

Mage. Outright Mage. It’s the scariest. All the really strong decks right now are all about board control: Rogue, Warlock, and Shaman stuff. All of these are weak to pyroblast.

That is very true. So let’s get to the Top 3 Neutral cards.

They were Argent Commander, Shattered Sun Cleric,Dark Iron Dwarf, and Defender of Argus. They are a bit overpowered.

Do you think they need a nerf?

Yeah they do. They make playing control decks impossible.

Now you talked about your team and other competitions, but what did you do to prepare for this tournament?

I got a whole lot of friends who are really good at this game. We have Skype conversations where we talk and throw around ideas. We play around and have a google doc with decks and their win % and stuff. We all are Team Liquid writers. There is Curi, Monk, Sylas, Strifeco, Trump, ChanmanV, Kithros, and we got Kayce, who was a Magic: The Gathering player before and he is pretty good at Hearthstone too.

That’s a lot of big names. It sounds like you had a really good group of coaches helping you out.

They came on Skype after they lost and we were helping each other out.

Do you think that gave you an unfair advantage?

Not really. The deck kind of plays itself out, and most of the time there is an obvious choice.

So you have the group of friends who are great Hearthstone players, but what do you think it takes to be a good Hearthstone player?

Being able to evaluate your deck in terms of its mana curve besides decision making.

Mana curve is a huge part of this game. Now let’s get to the MVP of your deck. What card shined brighter than any other card in your deck?

I think the Kodo. It’s a recent thing I started using because everyone is using these low drops to get the early advantage. It’s a drop that kills something then they have to spend 2 more guys to kill it because it has so much health. It’s a pretty nice card. It’s the one I was running that no one else was running.

You know a lot of us here in ManaGrind have been talking about how to counter the aggro and Kodo has been brought up a few times along with Wild Pyromancer and a few others.

You can quote me on this one “Wild Pyromancer, Stampeding Kodo, Mad Bomber, and Elven Archer are all good cards”

Now you play around a lot and you do see all the decks and see what winning. How do you feel about the current meta?

I feel like, to be honest I don’t like it along. I feel like every class is being filtered into this one type of archetype they have to play or they lose. Except for Mage, they are the only one that has other options. But yeah that early minion buff them up to kill stuff for free aggro decks.

Mages are one of those classes that just can hurt you no matter what you do. I had a chance to play against ChanmanV and he just BURNED ME SO HARD. The deck had like 4 minions and all of them were draw mechanic cards.

ChanmanV comes up with some pretty unique decks. He doesn’t talk that much in Skype but when he does he throws up these weird decks that work pretty well.

Yeah I have seen a lot of his decks, like what he took to the TL tourney. They are interesting but they do work.

Yeah ChanmanV is a lot like you representing that Hunter OTK… :::Both Laugh::::

I keep forgetting that’s how I met you, I posted a list and you wanted to face it and yeah. 

Yeah. I think you were playing that concept before most were. You and ChanmanV were in a class of your own there.

Yes I believe it’s affectionately referred to as Huntard. Now you took a Shaman to 1st. That’s something we have not seen in a bit.

Yeah, the funny thing is that wasn’t even our best deck. I knew I was going to come across some Warlock aggro decks the further along I got in the tournament brackets, so I decided to change things up. I choose Shaman because I thought it had a better chance for me than slugging through mirror match after mirror match with the Warlock deck. I got a lot of luck draws. RNG worked a lot in my favor. Cards like Lightning Storm got a lot of kills on targets that if they didn’t die I would have been in trouble. But at the end of the day you have to rely on the “Heart of the Cards”.

Oh god not the Yu-Gi-Oh catchphrase! This is Hearthstone; it’s all about the RNGESUS. 

::::Laughing:::: RNGESUS and the “Heart of the Cards” clearly work as one.

Now Blizzard sent out a survey asking about some stuff and one of the things asked was options you would like to see? 

Well I don’t really care so much about things like rewards card backs and other cosmetic stuff like that. I would like to see different mechanics. Maybe some new features like spell-taunt or maybe graveyard mechanics. Anything that adds variety to the card pool is a good thing. A really good spectator mode would be good cause then you wouldn’t have to use stream and just use your client.

I’m kind of hoping we see a built in stream clients like Path of Exile.

That’s a good idea, but I think the most important changes would be seeing where you actually are on the ladder and spectator mode. I have another suggestion, but it’s for ManaGrind and not Blizzard. You should have team vs. team tournament.

That’s a pretty good idea; maybe in the future we can get something like that. At the least would be worth looking into.

But I definitely think the way to move this forward is going to be team based environments. Because you could have me and Team Liquid vs. Artosis and his team or verse the ManaGrind people. I think that would be the most competitive way forward.

Now you and I, as well as a bunch of other big names in this game, will be taking part in the upcoming 2P.com Tournament. Are you looking forward to that? 

I’m really looking forward to that tournament. It’s going to be so epic. Even if I don’t make it to the final 4 as long as someone from my team makes it to the end and you can root for North America then that’s going to be awesome.

Well that should do it for us here. On behalf of ManaGrind and myself congratulate you and hope to see you back here sometime soon. 

Thank you.

Kisstafer – 1st Place:

Glory7 – 2nd Place:

Cyriius  – 3rd/4th Place:

Skullhunter – 3rd/4th Place:

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.

Yeah. I didn’t have the Acidic Swamp Ooze in the first game and I was lucky he only had oneSword of Justice . The second and third game I had the Acidic Swamp Ooze and it was countered.

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.

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?

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?

First one is Leper Gnome, has been since the buff in alpha. My second used to be Mana Wraith when they were a 1/3 but 2/2 is much worse than a 1/3. But Venture Co. Mercenary,Mana Wraith, and Leper Gnome are my top 3.

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.

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? 

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.

Wild Pyromancer for sure was my MVP.

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.