OGN Invitational: Artosis’ Deck Choices

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I recently competed alongside Savjz, Giom, and Gerrard in the OGN Hearthstone Invitational top 4. This tournament had various rules throughout it, but became a slightly different version of the 3 deck format that we all know so well in the top 4. The rules were as follows:

• 3 Decks of different classes
• Winning deck stays
• After all 3 decks lose, reuse one
• Choose which deck you play first before announcing your class choices
• New decks can be made between the semi-finals and finals

Going in, I was aware of all of these rules, except for the the fact that new decks could be made in between the semi-finals and finals. Finding out this great news about a day before, I had to reconsider all my previous plans, and start over with something new. No longer did I have to prepare for an almost complete unknown and one of the world’s best players with the same 3 decks. At the end of the day, I was extremely happy with my choices, and wanted to explain them.

Thought process: Decks for playing vs GerrardPrime.

First off, let me tell share with you what I know about Gerrard. He was an excellent professional WarCraft 3 player, but I never really paid much attention to that. During the early days of StarCraft 2, though, I played against him a lot. Back then, we were both Zerg players. Gerrard went for Baneling all-ins almost every single game against me. There were times during the metagame where this was common, but his Baneling all-ins overlapped with times where more macro based play or higher end units were better choices.

During the first phases of the OGN Hearthstone Invitational, I got to learn that Gerrard really likes playing Mage. I also discovered that he liked some very “questionable” cards, i.e, cards deemed weaker than normal by the NA/EU scenes. From watching his play, aside from Mage, he seemed to like aggressive style play, very similar to my perception of him from the early days of SC2.

From asking around just a tad, I heard from multiple sources that Gerrard was well known for preferring Mage within the Korean scene. I then decided to comb over his stream for any additional information that I could find. Though mostly playing Arena on stream, he also played a bit of constructed. The constructed play consisted completely of Mage, with only Rogue and Warlock decks in his client during the stream.

I decided to at least be ready for the 3-set of Mage, Rogue, and Warlock going in to my match vs Gerrard.

Preparing for Mage is pretty tough….there’s freeze Mage, weird aggro Mage decks, and then the more controlling Mage, which Trump has played quite a bit, and which is basically what Gerrard was streaming with. I decided that the most likely version played would be a more controlling version, with cards like Polymorph, Water Elemental, and Defender of Argus.

When considering the Warlock class, I suspected that it would be a version of aggro Warlock, either the standard that we all know and love/hate, or maybe (much smaller chance) some sort of Murloc deck. I really didn’t expect Handlock at all from Gerrard. His play style overall has always come off as rather aggressive to me, and I feel like Handlock is a pretty tough deck to play well. On the other hand, I play quite a bit of Handlock, and feel like I have a good grasp on how to beat it with the decks I use most often (Handlock, Murlocs, Aggro Hunter, Warrior Control, Pally Control). Preparing for an explosive Aggro Warlock build seems most logical to me.

For Rogue, I guess there’s really only a few versions. Miracle, Tempo, Aggro…and I guess Malygos. First off, I just crossed off Malygos. Malygos, while still definitely able to pick up very strong wins, is just a bit inferior to other more stable, consistent, and faster versions. Miracle Rogue I kind of put under a similar place as Handlock. It can be a pretty hard deck to play right, so I thought any Rogue deck had maybe a 50/50 chance between being something Tempo/Aggro based and Miracle.

Now, at this point I was pretty far out there on the edge of a limb with these guesses as to what he would play. I realized that, and took it into consideration. I decided that I would be ready for these decks, but make sure that I would be fine if Gerrard decided to play completely different decks.

MY DECKS:

[su_spoiler title=”Deck Lists vs. GerrardPrime” style=”fancy” icon=”plus-circle”][/su_spoiler]

Warrior, Warlock (Handlock), and Aggro Hunter

Warrior:

Back at ESGN’s last Fight Night, I got to hang out with KitKatz, the father of Control Warrior, and kept in touch with him. I’ve never met anyone so convinced of the power of an archetype, and to be honest, rightfully so. KitKatz has continually been telling me that Warrior Control can beat and is infact a favorite vs almost every deck. At this point I’m really starting to believe him. In the days leading up to the tournament, I talked to him a lot about his new Warrior Build, and he explained to me in detail about how the new changes have made it favorable against Zoo decks. This was a big selling point for me on the deck, as I felt pretty hopeless in that matchup with the previous version. It felt like every single time I stabilized, they would just draw a bunch of cards and overwhelm me once again. After really theorizing a bit more with him, as well as Ekop, Gnimsh, and Savjz, I ended up taking out the one standard Big Game Hunter, and replacing it with the older version’s Brawl. Brawl was originally suggested by KitKatz as an answer to Mage decks, as they tend to commit pretty heavily to the board with cards like Water Elemental and Defender of Argus. After thinking about it some more, it’s obviously very useful (sometimes) against Miracle decks with concealed minions, and can be great at times against Zoo decks. To be honest, 1 Brawl is very rarely a dead card. I’d definitely lose a bit of power with this change in the Warrior vs Warrior mirror match, but overall I felt like it was a decent trade off, and a good answer to the unpredictable. Bam. Warrior Done.

Handlock:

If you ask me, Handlock is one of the most powerful decks in the world. The deck isn’t always the best on ladder, but in a 3-deck+ tournament setting, Handlock is a beast. It’s one of the ultimate control killers, and even slaughters off any less-than-lightning-fast aggro deck. The only decks I really fear with Handlock are really Hunter and Freeze Mage (which is nearly non-existent). It’s super appealing to me, and I really wanted to use it. The only thing that might be interesting about the version I used vs Gerrard was the 1 Owl, 2 Shadowflame choice. I don’t really care for 2 Owls. Infact, I don’t really care for silencing my Ancient Watchers at all. I felt like going down to 1 was just fine. As for 2 Shadowflame, I think that card is just the bee’s knees. With Power Overwhelming, sometimes free Giants, Leeroy, and Ancient Watchers in there, it is an insane 1-sided board clear. I just love the card, I want to see one every game, and oftentimes am relieved to see the second later on.

Aggro Hunter:

At the time of this tournament, variations of Lifecoach’s Mid-range Hunter deck were all the rage. So why did I play Aggro Hunter? Several Reasons. First, it seemed to me like Korea’s metagame was a bit behind the NA/EU scene. Others I talked to who had more knowledge of it agreed with me. As Mid-range Hunter is kind of a metagame shift, I felt like it might not be as powerful vs Gerrard. Second, I feel a lot more confident with Aggro Hunter, as I haven’t been able to play much recently, and thus have kind of missed out on the period of time where everyone got good with and against Mid-range Hunter. Third, this deck fills in the holes of my other decks a little bit better. More about that in a moment. For the record, I believe this exactly, card for card, Chakki’s deck that I ended up using. I played with a few other versions, but between Chakki’s aggressive brilliance, and Gnimsh’s thumbs up, figured I couldn’t go wrong.

ABOUT THE 3-SOME

This 3-some of decks seemed very solid to me. One thing that I feel is very important in a format like this, is having 2 decks that kill any one deck. If you don’t have this, you can get into a terrible situation, where your answer to a certain deck died early on, and you just can’t come back. Let’s take a look at my various matchups:

They Play	I Play
Handlock	Warrior - Does fine as long as the Twilights don’t come down earlyHandlock - Just a mirror matchup, I feel like I play it pretty wellHunter - Ez win
Miracle Rogue	Warrior - loseHandlock - FavoriteHunter - Favorite
Aggro Warlock	Warrior - pretty good matchHandlock - FavoriteHunter - Slight favorite with the Explosives
Warrior	Warrior - Just a mirror matchup, I feel like I play it pretty wellHandlock - Does fine, can definitely go either wayHunter - Mostly lose, but can pull wins with a bit of luck
Druid	Warrior - At least 50/50, and infact I think that Warrior has an edge here, especially with Black Knight and Gorehowl in thereHandlock - FavoriteHunter - At a disadvantage, but can win
Mid-range Hunter	Warrior - This new build does fineHandlock - Mostly lose, but not as bad as vs Aggro HunterHunter - 50/50ish. I’ve heard people go both ways with this, but I guess it really depends on the build and the draw.
Aggro Hunter	Warrior - Win almost alwaysHandlock - AutoloseHunter 50/50

Anyways, enough of that. As you can see, the 3 decks cover each other pretty well overall.

When my decks were submitted, I found out that Gerrard ended up playing the same classes. I was a bit surprised, but not too worried. As I mentioned above, I tried to make sure that my decks could still handle anything thrown at them. I’d go in depth about the games themselves, but this article is more about how I chose my decks, along with the alterations for the two matches, so I’ll leave that for another time.

THE FINALS — VS SAVJZ

[su_spoiler title=”Deck Lists vs. Savjz” style=”fancy” icon=”plus-circle”][/su_spoiler]

Now, I didn’t have a long time to prepare for my match against Savjz, especially since I was really focused on making sure I made the best of my match vs Gerrard. After beating Gerrard, I only had 30 minutes to submit my new decks. As I played second, this was quite a bit less time to plan compared to Savjz, but luckily I had already come up with my basic ideas before this 30 minute period.

The first thing I did was try to figure out what decks Savjz was most likely to play. I very quickly came up with the following list:

• Warrior Control
• Handlock
• Miracle Rogue
• Mid-range Hunter
• Ramp Druid

After some consideration, I thought that a threesome of the first four listed there would be what he chose. I did think that Ramp Druid was a possibility, but chose my decks with that being slightly less likely than the other 4 (as I think the other 4 all have more power overall).

So, on to my plan!

Savjz is an excellent player. He really knows this game inside out. I’ve gotten to play vs him, talk to him about the game, and watch him play, quite a bit. I feel like I really get how he plays and how he thinks. Knowing this, and that he is a better player than me overall, I knew I should take at least some risks in my deck construction.

HANDLOCK

On the morning of the tournament, I got up extra early and messaged my friends and teammates, Gnimsh and Ekop. Going over the decks I was going to use vs Gerrard, they offered a few bits of information that really made me think. Ekop pointed out that, in theory, Handlock doesn’t need Alexstraza or Jaraxxus. Gnimsh also mentioned playing Sylvannas in the deck can be good, but isn’t necessarily needed. This really got me to thinking. It stayed in my mind for about 20 minutes after leaving the house, until it hit me.

First, let’s discuss why Alexstraza and Jaraxxus aren’t theoretically needed in Handlock. These 2 cards are to kill people who misplay. Every top player knows how to play vs Handlock. You get them pretty low, and then kill them all at once. This prevents huge Molten Giant plays, and huge life gains with Jaraxxus and Alexstraza. (Of course, things don’t always work this way, but this is all in theory).

So, if Jaraxxus and Alexstraza are just there to protect me against someone overextending damage into me, I should take them out from time to time. Savjz already will have seen me play a regular Handlock deck with them both in it, and thus has to play around them. Now, what to replace them with? Well, Sylvannas seems good. Warrior Control I put down as the most likely deck for Savjz to play. Its just too powerful to pass up, and he knows that I really prefer Aggro Hunter to Mid-Range, so he should be even more likely to play it than normal. Warrior control does not play silences, so a Sylvannas with taunt is pretty nice. With 4 Giants and 2 Twilight Drake, and a Faceless Manipulator, the Warrior’s removal is already somewhat taxed. I felt like Sylvannas would be a pretty nice addition, even vs any Handlock that he might play, as there’s really only 1-2 Owls maximum to deal with her really cleanly. Nether Void is the card I’m really proud to have added into the deck. I knew this would be a card that Savjz would never in a hundred years predict to come out of my hand. I felt like I could easily bait out enough cards on his side of the board to have a huge and unexpected turn.

AGGRO WARRIOR

I knew that Savjz knew that I would play Warrior Control. I always play Warrior Control. It’s by far one of my favorite and most played decks. I feel very comfortable with it, and at its current strength, I would be crazy not to play it.

This is where I felt my biggest advantage in the series would lie. Here are some advantages of Aggro Warrior:

• Beats Warrior Control (my version at least)
• Beats Miracle
• Out-damages Hunter
• Can just win sometimes (kinda like Murlocs used to)
• Opponent will mulligan incorrectly

Let’s talk about some of the card choices I made to try and kill Savjz with this deck:

• Gorehowl - This was a nod to the possibility of Druid being played.
• Black Knight - Another nod towards Druid, can also be useful vs Handlock and sometimes Mid-range Hunter
• Upgrade - My super teched out card to destroy Miracle and Warrior Control. Neither should have Weapon Kill, and this card is some of the most ridiculously cheap damage output in the game. If you play it on a one charge Fiery War Axe, it creates 5 Damage for 1 Mana. If you put it on a 1 Charge Arcanite Reaper, it creates 7 Damage for 1 Mana. The card can be ridiculous.
• Harvest Golem, Scarlet Crusader, Argent Squire, Argent Commander - Both cards put in to help kill off Warrior. Both take multiple hits to kill, so I should have a minion on the board the next turn to better utilize cards like Dark Iron Dwarf

AGGRO HUNTER

One of the main reasons for why I played Aggro Warrior was Aggro Hunter. I wanted to make sure I could really destroy a Warrior deck, paving the way for my Hunter deck to do its work. Aggro Hunter kills off Miracle, Handlock, does fine vs Mid-range Hunter, and can sometimes just win.

I tried to make a few mind-game based changes to the Hunter deck, but sadly I was running out of time. The 30 minutes ended, and I just had to submit something. Here are my thoughts at the time of submission:

• Flare out - I knew Savjz’s Mid-range Hunter didn’t run Traps, so figured this card wasn’t needed
• Misdirection out - I knew Savj’z Mid-range Hunter was running 2 Flares, so didn’t want to run into that. Also, switching Trap numbers can be really cool, because your opponent has to play around them whether they are there or not.
• River Crocolisk in - This was a total mind-game. I was hoping to get one early on and lead him to believe I was playing Mid-Range Hunter, and then just suddenly pour on the damage. I also thought it would be OK just for some extra damage, since the 3 life makes it a bit more robust.

If I had had more time to work on this deck, or could go back in time, I definitely would not have played with these exact changes. I’m not sure exactly what I would have done if I had more time to think, but I probably would have kept the deck very similar to what I played vs Gerrard. Maybe keep the Flare out for another tech-y card.

WELL…

The finals didn’t quite go my way (0-4), but overall I was very happy with my choices. The first 3 games were extremely close, and definitely could have gone my way. I was happy with how my mindgames worked out with my deck choices, despite the loss. The only regret was a less than optimal Hunter deck, but oh well!

Anyways, thanks for reading! Hope you enjoyed the little explanation of my thought process behind my decks!