How to Know What Chanmpion You Picked Hearthstone

Credit: Blizzard Amusement, Inc

Earlier this month, after many fierce rounds of competitive play, Blizzard hosted the Hearthstone Bound Championship with the flavour's top 8 players from the Americas. The Bound lineup featured a lot of new faces, eager to make their mark on the scene, showcase their talent and earn a seat in the World Championship at Blizzcon this November.

Nosotros sabbatum downwards with Julien "Cydonia" Perrault, winner of this season's tournament, to chat about mind games, unicorns and what information technology takes to win such a significant contest.

Bleacher Report: Going into the last leg of the Spring Championship, yous were to face up Napoleon and either Joster or Rosty if you advanced. How did you prepare for the day?

Julien "Cydonia" Perrault: Napoleon, all his decks are super standard, other than his Druid that doesn't have Fandrel Staghelm, Raven Idol or Rag, only a few cards unlike from my Druid. The other decks are substantially the aforementioned decks I play confronting all the time on ladder or in tournaments for the concluding few months.

I started prepping, and afterward a bit, I couldn't even concentrate because it was the same thing over and over, so I went to bed, woke upward and prepped against Freeze Mage. It was the deck I felt the to the lowest degree comfortable facing because information technology's rarer on ladder. I won nine out of x matches with my decks against a friend who is very adept with Freeze Mage, so I think that helped.

I mean, I couldn't encounter Napoleon's paw, then information technology's difficult to tell if the plays I made worked, just information technology seemed to exist pretty skilful.

B/R: Well, it worked. The casters said at the beginning of the last friction match that your opening paw was a solid choice against Freeze Mage, but you chose to throw them back; why have that chance?

Cydonia: I don't like Eaglehorn Bow that much. Information technology'due south like a Fireball that'due south going to take as well long to cast; maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't like it.

B/R: Well, yous were rewarded for the choice and ended upwardly with a better line of play and curved out well.

Cydonia: I recollect that's fundamental; to curve out well with Hunter. Information technology'south the new Hugger-mugger Paladin [laughs].

B/R: And then you were looking to take a more ambitious line of play?

Cydonia: Well, there'due south ii ways to win with Hunters, either curving out or having consecutive Highmanes and Calls of the Wild, but even that didn't work for the first game.

B/R: That was a crazy starting time game past the way. Speaking of the Warrior matchup, you hit a carte du jour dry out spell and spent turns four and five unable to put much on the board. At that point, Napoleon started to accept control of the friction match; what was your plan to fight back?

Cydonia: Because Warrior has a difficult time dealing with Highmanes and Calls, my program was to outvalue him. Perhaps I should accept played around his removal a flake more and traded a bit less. I could take played more than like a Zoo, create more of a board, hope he can't build and go face. I don't know; I concluded upwardly trading and he had good removal, so I lost.

Credit: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc

B/R: Napoleon is a very reactive role player; he wears his emotions on his sleeve. How much did y'all apply this to your reward? There was a bespeak during one match where information technology looked like y'all paused to ratchet up the force per unit area on him a chip. How much does sitting across from an opponent and playing off their tells impact your strategy?

Cydonia: When I play against people, I'g ever watching. Even against DeerJason, I was e'er watching him, and he was never looking upwards. The same went for Napoleon; I'd play a card and then await to run into if I got a reaction. I may non be the best technical player, but I always try to read them, empathize their hand and put that in my game plan.

I definitely tried to read him, and I noticed he was already freaking out, and then why should I play fast if my opponent is panicking in their chair? I realized I might have been playing too fast to see what happens; I feel things went better afterward slowing down and thinking about the cards in his hands.

B/R: Rosty was a chip different as he keeps a rather stern poker face. Were you able to read anything? Did information technology touch your gameplay at all?

Cydonia: A chip, but not much; Rosty's a super solid player. You heard the casters and everyone say he was probably the all-time histrion here, and so I didn't think I was going to go a huge edge.

I didn't feel that I could exercise anything to go him rattled. When I play against him for fun, yes, sometimes he gets pretty tilty, just at that place's a difference between tilting on ladder and playing on this stage. He's a smart guy and level-headed, so I didn't think I could get an edge.

B/R: The Zoo Lock versus Rosty's Dragon Warrior was hands one of your toughest losses in the series. How practice you recover from a match where your line of play meets perfect answers then turns confronting y'all?

Cydonia: When you lot're in a bad matchup, the way to win is to take risks. If you both become for safe plays and your opponent is favored, then you're going to lose every fourth dimension. The reason why I made the Forbidden Ritual choice was that my other line of play, drop a two/2 and tap, would accept but traded the next turn and left the board in an fifty-fifty worse state; then I can't recover. Then information technology was greedy, but there was a adventure that if I do that and he doesn't have the Whirlwind outcome, then I'm in a dandy position with actually proficient follow-upward plays.

Sometimes you have to go for it.

B/R: It'southward true, even your follow-up play with Knife Juggler and Silver Horserider, you had to have the higher-risk play simply to see if the juggle would hit.

Cydonia: Exactly! With that, I accept a 25 percent chance to leave a lath and live, but the safe trade would accept meant that I had a 100 percent risk to die from anything he played on his adjacent plow.

B/R: I have to ask, Young Dragonhawk, Finals MVP?

Cydonia: Yeah, that was a great play. It wasn't obvious at first because every bit Zoo that'due south non usually one of the cards yous look for, merely it was worth the take a chance.

Credit: Blizzard Amusement, Inc

B/R: In the Hunter vs. Hunter matchup, you both had different approaches; your deck leaned more than toward mid-range, and Rosty's played a more than aggressive lineup. What was your strategy going into this match?

Cydonia: Face up Hunter has existed for a long time, and anybody knows that Face is favored over mid-range; that'south but how Hunters go. The way his Hunter deck was built, it was all early on-game stuff and Calls, with kind of a pigsty in the mid-game. It was really expert at getting lath command, but if information technology failed, you had turns four through seven to kill him before he does multiple Call of the Wilds; that's what I tried to capitalize on.

B/R: Now that you take a guaranteed seat at Blizzcon, how do you plan to prepare for the tournament?

Cydonia: I'll clarify the meta, try all the decks I think could be adept and exercise my favorite ones every bit much equally possible, then test with practice partners and craft a lineup that makes sense according to that.

B/R: I noticed that you signed upward for DreamHack Montreal. Any plans to attend other competitions before the 2016 Blizzcon finals in November? Since winning the Spring tourney, have you seen an increase of invites to tournaments?

Cydonia: I'll also exist at the Hearthstone Title Tour Summertime Preliminaries for sure. I'd be interested in attending other events if opportunities present themselves but zero set in rock for now. I've been flying a bit under the radar so far, and so I haven't been invited to annihilation even so. I watched a flake of SeatStory this week, and it looks like a lot of fun though.

B/R: When we last left off, we joked nigh the possibility of you joining an established eSports team, how has that progressed?

Cydonia: I'm talking with teams and learning how the industry works. I haven't joined one yet because I desire to be sure to find the all-time fit for the team and me, but information technology's very likely I volition join one earlier DreamHack Montreal.

B/R: Tournament format, specifically Conquest vs. Concluding Hero Continuing, is a heavily debated topic in the Hearthstone community. Each side declares benefits. Conquest backers contend it's more than about creativity, and Last Hero Standing advocates say it's about the skillful piloting of refined decks. Which do you lot prefer?

Cydonia: I have only played Conquest in serious tournaments, and it's been treating me well so far, then I have to say I adopt that one! I'll have the opportunity to play LHS at DHmtl shortly, and I'll take a more informed stance afterward.

B/R: You lot mentioned that you had played confronting a lot of the same decks on the ladder and in tournaments, during the lead-upwards to the Spring Championships; do yous feel players are less inclined to experiment in larger competitions? Does the pre-release of deck info stifle creativity at all?

Cydonia: Of grade, there are fewer incentives to try to surprise people with off-meta archetypes if lists are known ahead of time. I think it depends a lot on a role player's personality and play style; some like to experiment and be known for interesting decks, and others prefer refining lists. There's always an advantage of opponents not knowing how to play confronting y'all when it'south a new deck, so at that place is withal a adept reason to bring unknown builds if they are stiff enough.

B/R: In that location are plenty of rumors nigh the side by side Hearthstone Adventure taking identify in Karazhan, are at that place whatsoever specific cards or themes yous'd like to come across introduced?

Cydonia: I like cards like Jaraxxus that replace your hero and have cool emotes. I recall it's only a matter of time earlier other classes get their own.

B/R: Ben Brode's comment nigh the creation of unique and successful decks after the meta has settled has sent many in search of an undiscovered Unicorn Priest deck. Which class exercise you feel still has the nigh amount of room for deck experimentation?

Cydonia: I'1000 a big fan of unicorns as well, then I would like someone to detect the unicorn Priest. Someone thought his Reno C'Thun priest build was good, so I tried that for a few games, but I similar winning and switched dorsum to more established decks before long later.

Information technology seems pretty obvious what the strong private cards and the best builds are at the moment. Other than grindy control decks, I'k non sure if there'due south anything major to find. There'due south been some experimentation lately with control Shaman, but I'm still leaning towards Rogue.

How to Know What Chanmpion You Picked Hearthstone

Source: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2654390-mind-games-and-risk-taking-with-cydonia-hearthstones-americas-spring-champion

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