The Hearthstone Championship Tour (HCT) hosts its Summer Championship starting tomorrow, and 16 hopefuls have spent the last week training furiously to take their place among the top four to secure a spot at the HCT World Championship.
Before the tournament kicks off, we wanted to take one last in-depth look at what to expect—so we sat down with Jacob “Apxvoid” Coen and Julien “Cydonia” Perrault. Both of these players are well-positioned on the Season 2 leaderboard, sporting top 20 placements at the time of writing. Without further ado, let’s see what they have to say!
Who Brought the Best Deck Lineup?
“It comes down to who has the best read on this specific tournament,” Cydonia says. “Everyone is trying to counter control, but killinallday went level one—ban Warlock and beat greed.” He thinks that read is correct, and believes that this is, in fact, the year of David “killinallday” Acosta.
Apxvoid agrees, noting that the meta evolution here is to be expected: “We just saw that hunterace in Seoul brought aggro, then people countered that. This is the response.” He also concurs with Cydonia that the lineup brought by killinallday and Marco “Turna” Castiglioni look the best on paper.
A Coherent Field, but What About…?
Cydonia: “I couldn’t figure out why Leaoh brought Shudderwock, or A83650 has Control Priest.”
Apxvoid: “I think A83650 is trying to target Even Warlock.”
Cydonia: “Playing the four best decks is the only reason not to play a lineup strategy.”
Apxvoid: “Maybe he’s just really confident in his Priest.”
Not Sure About That
Cydonia: “Everyone seems to have a clear idea. I don’t like the no Druid call in Bunnyhoppor’s lineup.”
Apxvoid: “It looks like he’s trying to target both Even Warlock and Taunt Druid. He needs both of those decks in his opponent’s lineup.”
Furthermore, Cydonia says he doesn’t see Raphael “Bunnyhoppor” Peltzer’s Shudderwock Shaman working, disputing the choice to cut Prince Keleseth. “It looks like the relative absence of Token Druid surprised people,” Apxvoid says.
On Bans
Apxvoid: “Even Warlock and Taunt Druid are considered the best decks, but no one is trying to ban them.”
Cydonia: “People are trying to target, except for killinallday and Turna, who are just ignoring Warlock and all-in on that.”
Apxvoid thinks that most players will elect to ban Miracle Rogue.
Cydonia: “It’s good against Priest and Warlock.”
Apxvoid: “It also beats Warlock, Druid, and Shaman.”
Cydonia scans the deck lists and says that as an example, David “dog” Caero absolutely has to ban Miracle Rogue.
The Night of the Hunter
On the arguably off-meta choices to bring Recruit Hunter or Control Mage (no one player brought both), Apxvoid wastes no time demonstrating his love for Mage. “I love Mage!” he exclaims. “I’m sad to see no Tempo Mage, but it makes sense here,” he adds, continuing to point to the Rogue ban as mandatory for Mage players. “I think it depends on the deck versions,” Cydonia counters. “For Mage, it’s Shudderwock or Miracle Rogue for the ban.”
Cydonia: “I’m surprised there’s no Spell or Midrange Hunter.”
Apxvoid: “Nah. They lose to Druid and Shudderwock. I can understand why no one brought Spell Hunter.”
Cydonia retorts that someone could have played an anti-Miracle Rogue lineup. “That’s not safe,” Apxvoid counters. Cydonia concedes that maybe the competitors simply expected less Rogue. Apx concurs, pointing to Lucas “Rase” Guerra’s lineup: “Rase clearly expected more killinallday lineups.”
Tech Card Chat
“The Black Knight should have been in Even Warlock all along,” Cydonia states. Apxvoid agrees, but also points to the importance of Stubborn Gastropod as an early Mountain Giant counter in the mirror. Cydonia likes Gastropod, but also thought more Even Warlock decks would cut Plated Beetle, since early Armor runs counter to the ability to activate Hooked Reaver’s Battlecry.
Where Is the Cube?
Cydonia: “It’s really bad in Conquest.”
Apxvoid: “It’s unfavored versus Even Warlock. Maybe if you were banning Even Warlock?”
Cydonia disagrees, saying even then, it’s not good.
Apxvoid: “What if killinallday had Cube Warlock? It beats Shudderwock and Druid better. I think Cube Warlock would have been better in his lineup.”
Cydonia reminds Apxvoid that Cube Warlock loses to aggro, and Apxvoid concedes: “Yeah, people expected more aggro. Even Warlock is safer.”
Cydonia: “If you’re not banning Warlock, Even wins the Warlock mirror.”
Final Thoughts
Apxvoid: “I’m interested to see how the Priests do. I’m not sure how well Hunter will do, though.”
Cydonia points out that they’ve spent all of their time talking about matchups, not skill.
Cydonia: “Tournaments have been stacked. Skill matters more at this level—top players’ consistency is nuts.”
Apxvoid: “I’m seeing some of these names for the first time.”
Cydonia: “It’s easy to say known players are good based on their reputation.”
Who Wins?
Cydonia: “I picked dog. I was really impressed by him at Playoffs.”
Apxvoid: “Killinallday has the best lineup.”
Cydonia agrees, adding that if he had waited to see deck lists before he voted in Choose Your Champion, he would have picked killinallday, too.
Thanks again to both of these players for their time and talent! Do you agree with their assessment of the tournament? Do you think it’s killinallday’s time to shine?
The HCT Summer Championship goes live on the official Hearthstone Twitch channel at 8:30 a.m. PDT tomorrow, running through to championship Sunday. Make sure to tune in, and join the conversation using #HCTSummer on Twitter and Facebook.
