Frank Zhang · @Liquid_Fr0zen
28th May 2017 from TwitLonger
Thoughts about prelims/tweet
Really surprised my tweet blew up, I don't mean any hate to my opponent. The phrasing on my tweet should have been more geared toward the fact that taunt warrior is a top tier deck and most of the time your just trying to nail hero powers, ragnaros the firelord did the same thing and it was moved into wild :/. Overall hearthstone is a lot deeper game than most casuals think at a competitive level and a lot of players spends days and countless programs perfecting every card in their lineup and it pains unfortunate taunt warrior is nearly an auto include in any lineup without aggro.
1. Lineup
After studying the tavern hero players lineups and recent history, most players bring a aggressive lineup as its generally easier to play since they usually don't have a deep grasp of the meta. (no fault to them) Therefore, it made sense to bring a lineup teched towards aggro just to make sure I don't take the L r1. As much as I hate taunt warrior, it just so happens its the best balanced deck for the tournament and it shows as around 70% of players brought it. I definitely didn't play as much ladder in the past few months to accurately gauge the power levels of most decks(burnt out from losing) and could've built better support decks for the tournament.
2. Gameplay
There's a lot of things people don't account when they say xxx pro misplayed and flame them all over whatever social media they browse. Specifically I was told I messed up my auctioneer for my druid game and the final brawl turn for my warrior game. People aren't ever in the situation actually thinking their opponents hands/cards left in their deck to judge the situation correctly. For the druid mirror, both me and Damon have used our jade idols for tempo which means taking damage from fatigue plays in a factor as value wise both decks should equal out, I ended up not needing a lot of cards as I was able to space out my removal effectively and even ended a few jade ahead.
As for the warrior brawl (ss http://imgur.com/a/Ne81k), I spent a few turns ahead evaluating my clock on my opponent and decided that at that point I was extremely far behind and the brawl was the only play to bring me back even on tempo. Ill go in depth in explaining the outcome of every scenario here. It is important to note that I know my opponent has a minion from stonehill defender and is guaranteed to complete the quest on the following turn.
There is only 2 maybe reasonable plays besides the clearcut brawl.
1.) Hero Power, Tar Creeper, Bloodhoove Brave
The problem with this play is i'm at a huge disadvantage and there's no way to recover in terms of tempo. He can value trade onto the tarcreeper or bloodhoove brave and take a 50/50 on my minion or face in both cases my minions die for free since I have very few low cost minions (I don't run armorsmiths) to help me combo my spells and come back on board. In the matchup if you lose board control your opponent can easily force rag shots onto your face. I only have big minions left in my deck which are very inflexible with my hero power/spells like brawl. In all 3 cases I believe I have <10% to win.
2.) Hero Power, Shield Block, Bloodhoove Brave
This play allows me to draw more cards and commits myself to playing brawl next turn, the only cards i really want are perhaps a ghoul to pair with the whirlwind and clear his board or maybe a dirtyrat for the brawl, in these cases I have roughly a 25% to draw and even when I draw the dirty rat im in the same situation as the turn before except I took 8 free damage from the hero power. When I miss I have to throw in my tar creeper into the brawl next turn.
3.) Brawl, Take the 33%
I went through the play with a few pros and after long discussions everyone agrees that the brawl was the best play given my hand and the situation. If I win the 33% it's a guarantee win since the tempo is on my side and I get in a big health lead. I can always remove my opponents board with my aoe and guarantee rag shots to his face putting him on a 3 turn clock.
Overall, I feel like I learned a lot from this situation. Usually i'm very passive and avoid social media for this exact reason but long losing streaks really vent up the frustration. It really doesn't matter how good or bad Damon played since being able to compete in Spring Qualifiers is really an achievement in itself. It's very likely he also spent hundreds of hours preparing for this chance and I wish him best of luck in the rest of the tournament.
Moving forward, I love and will always hearthstone, I don't mind grinding 100+ hours a week trying to build decks with friends, as well as sharing decks with the community. I also love competing and appreciate blizzard for giving the pros a chance with the entire HCT. As much as people in social media flame blizzard for being incompetent. It doesn't take much to see that they are improving on our feedback from one event to another, from the system to championship venue locations. I hope to be a better representation of NA hearthstone and be the best player I can be for the world championship.
Sorry the writing is a bit sloppy, it's been a long day.
-Fr0zen