Hearthpwn

The 2020 edition of the Hearthstone Grandmasters went into its sixth week this weekend. 48 of the best players in the world began the eight week event with a total of $500,000 and a ticket to the World Championship on the line. The action featured a drastically overhauled format which saw players start with Swiss Rounds previously and are now divided into groups and completing Round Robin stages.

This weekend saw the tried and true format of 4 Deck Conquest with 1 Ban. The way it works is that both players bring 4 decks, and both players ban 1 deck of their opponent. They then choose to play a deck of the remaining decks and every time they win with a deck it gets eliminated. Once either players wins with 3 decks, they win the match.

Video Recaps

Since we are posting our article close to the ending of Day 3, not all of the matches have been put onto YouTube yet, so check the official Hearthstone Esports YT Channel for the uploads later here!

• Asia-Pacific Week 6 Feature: che0nsu vs kin0531.
• Europe Week 6 Feature: Jarla vs Silvername.
• Americas Week 6 Feature: Bloodyface vs Empanizado
• All The Recaps: All Regions.

Road to Playoffs

The Grandmasters started with 3 weeks of Swiss, where everyone scored points. Those points lead to players being divided into Groups A and Groups B. In every Region those Groups will fight in a Round Robin style over the next 4 weeks before the Playoffs and Relegation matches will be played. Who gets to go to the Playoffs and Relegations will be decided as shown in the graphic below.

Decklists & Recap

Americas

In a bit of a Goliath vs David match up this week for our featured Americas match, it was Bloodyface, undefeated during the Round Robin stage, against Empanizado who had only won 1 of his 4 matches so far. Their first game was a Demon Hunter mirror match though both players played slightly different decks, with Empanizado choosing to play two Vulpera Scoundrel vs bloodyface choosing to play two Sightless Watcher among the differences. The game was very close but in the end a clutch Skull of Gul'dan gave Empanizado, who was facing lethal from his opponent, just the cheap damage he needed to win. Bloodyface stayed on his Demon Hunter and used it to quite quickly put Empanizado on his Quest Warlock in some trouble. But Empanizado was quite unperturbed, played through his turns as best he could and eventually found himself with the upper hand. Bloodyface had to face tank an 8/8 taunt Empanizado had put in the way with his Abyssal Summoner to try and finish his opponent, but the damage put him so low himself that he was then soon after beaten, giving Empanizado a commanding 2-0 lead.

With his only hope now to pull off the reverse sweep, bloodyface set to work. First he switched to his Spell druid, to set up a mirror match, which he won in quite swift and convincing fashion. Bloodyface then went back to his Demon Hunter and truly masterfully first set up lethal and then delivered it, all the while staying tantalizingly just outside lethal range for Empanizado. All of this set up the 5th and deciding game between the two players, with Empanizado on his unusual Dragon Spell Druid deck and bloodyface on his Galakrond Rogue deck.

Things were going pretty well for bloodyface at first. He built up a board with amongst the minions an 8/8 Edwin, until Empanizado played Malygos and started to wreak havoc. Bog beam suddenly dealt 8 damage and took care of the Edwin. With no answer in hand bloodyface had to turn the game back over to Empanizado again, with Malygos still on board and got his board and his face wrecked by double Malygos empowered Swipe bringing him down to just 1 health remaining. Bloodyface needed an absolute miracle from there, and he got it. He played Galakrond needing Flik for zero mana, and he did. This started a ridiculous series of back and forth turns, with both players hitting on amazingly lucky turns, with bloodyface trying to claw back into the game and Empanizado still trying to finish him off. In the end Empanizado hitting on not one but two Zixor, Apex Predator finally managed to create a board state where bloodyface had no answer for, preventing the reverse sweep and finishing the David vs Goliath series, winning 3-2.

Empanizado's Americas Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

bloodyface's Americas Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

Europe

Europe's Featured Match this week is between Jarla, with a 3-1 record so far, against SilverName, with a 1-3 record so far. Standings be damned though, because SilverName made quick work of Jarla in the first game, with his Highlander Hunter deck against Jarla's Galakrond Warlock. The second game the roles were reversed. Jarla disrupted SilverName's game plan and made swift work of his Pain Warrior deck, while still using the Warlock deck from game 1. This brought up game 3, with SilverName still on his Pain Warrior and Jarla now on Highlander Hunter after some initial back and forth left SilverName potentially looking in dire trouble, Jarla couldn't quite dig the lethal damage from his deck, which left him vulnerable to double Kor'kron Elite from SilverName for lethal.

With Jarla now staring down elimination, he needed to win out to still win the series. He started his quest with Highlander Mage against SilverName's final deck Galakrond Priest. The game was pretty evenly matched with both players trying to work into a better position, but Jarla was the slightly sneakier one. He managed two Malygos discovers and chose Malygos's Fireball both times, and then very astutely played around his opponent's Murozond to not give him full value. SilverName did go for the Murozond play to build up a bigger board, but with Jarla still having a dragon in hand, that he played for zero cost the turn after, this left Silvername with no choice but to kill off both big dragons, leaving him with no mana to do anything else, and Jarla with just the opening he needed to spring his surprise Fireballs for lethal.

It came down to the last game then with SilverName still on his Priest and Jarla back on his Highlander Hunter deck. Even through SilverName's best efforts he never quite managed to get comfortable in this game. He also never drew his Galakrond, which left him without minions to play eventually and a greatly diminished capacity to keep up with Jarla's board pressure. A late game Dragonqueen gave Jarla the last push he needed to finish the game and finish the comeback, winning the series 3-2.

Jarla's Europe Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

SilverName's Europe Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

Asia-Pacific

Asia-Pacific's Featured Match saw Che0nsu match wits with kin0531 and although this series saw some back and forth, the results within games were quite one-sided. In the first game che0nsu was on Highlander Hunter vs kin0531 on Rogue, and he managed to get a decent start into a decent mid game, but eventually ran into a buzzsaw turn from kin where kin ended with a 12/12 Edwin. Che0nsu never found an answer for it and lost the game shortly after. The second game was a Demon Hunter mirror match and some immensely clutch Frozen Shadoweavers meant che0nsu was left with very awkward turns with little development that completely thwarted his plans and left kin0531 with a pretty easy path to victory.

With kin0531 in a commanding 2-0 lead this meant che0nsu was now fighting for a reverse sweep as that would be the only thing to still get him this much needed win in a match up between Group A bottom dwellers. He switched decks yet again and started on his Spell Druid, against kin0531's only remaining deck, which was also a Spell Druid. And finally che0nsu got some good fortune, managing a turn 3 full board Glowfly Swarm which lead to a turn 4 lethal. The next game, with che0nsu now on his Demon Hunter, was also over in the blink of an eye. Kin0531 had no answers for the early aggression and by turn 5 it was over.

So this series too went to the final game. Kin0531 still on his Spell Druid and che0nsu on his Highlander Hunter, both players desparate for the win in their quest to still make the playoffs and stave off relegation bracket play. Kin0531 certainly made a game of it, setting up a really nice Mountseller board on turn 5, which his opponent would have had no chance to deal with. Unfortunately for kin0531, che0nsu already had brough him down to Zeprhys lethal range at this point and finished the game on the next turn, completing the reverse sweep 3-2 and getting that much needed win to get to 2-3 in the standings.

che0nsu's Asia-Pacific Grandmasters Season 3 Decks:

kin0531's Asia-Pacific Grandmasters Season 3 Decks: