The 2019 Hearthstone World Championship tournament begins tonight, live from Taipei. The top players in the world have come together to prove that they're the overall best in the world and take home the bulk of the $1,000,000 USD prize pool in the process.
Shacknews has spoken to players over the past few days and will continue to do so throughout the weekend. However, the time for talk is over. Everyone has their decks ready and Shacknews is spotlighting five of them today. These are five big outliers for reasons we'll get into. Are these players ahead of the curve? And are these decks worth trying in your own Ranked games? Let's take a look at these decks and find out.
A83650's Midrange Shaman
- 2x (0) Zap!
- 2x (1) Lightning Bolt
- 2x (1) Sludge Slurper
- 2x (1) Voltaic Burst
- 1x (2) Acidic Swamp Ooze
- 2x (2) Likkim
- 2x (2) Soul of the Murloc
- 2x (3) Feral Spirit
- 1x (3) Lightning Storm
- 2x (3) Unbound Elemental
- 1x (4) Hex
- 1x (4) Storm Chaser
- 2x (4) Thunderhead
- 1x (5) Bloodlust
- 1x (5) Sunreaver Warmage
- 1x (6) Cairne Bloodhoof
- 2x (6) Rain of Toads
- 1x (7) Swampqueen Hagatha
- 2x (10) Sea Giant
There are a lot of different Shaman builds popping up this weekend, a few of which are showing up here. First up, there's Kacper "A83650" Kwiecinski, who's bringing along a Midrange Shaman. This is noteworthy because it's not exactly a flat-out Aggro Shaman, nor is it a Shudderwock Shaman built for the long haul. It is, however, a Shaman that can creep up on you if you're not careful, since Thunderhead, Voltaic Burst, and Soul of the Murloc can build board presence fast enough for a Bloodlust to strike the killer blow.
A83650's Shaman is a big gamble in a lot of ways, especially since it's not packing Hagatha the Witch, which means this Shaman's missing late-game resource generation if things go south.
killinallday's Chef Nomi Priest
- 2x (0) Circle of Healing
- 1x (0) Forbidden Words
- 2x (0) Lazul's Scheme
- 2x (0) Regenerate
- 2x (0) Silence
- 2x (0) Topsy Turvy
- 1x (1) Holy Smite
- 2x (1) Northshire Cleric
- 2x (1) Power Word: Shield
- 1x (2) Acidic Swamp Ooze
- 2x (2) Wild Pyromancer
- 2x (2) Seance
- 2x (3) Acolyte of Pain
- 2x (5) Mass Hysteria
- 2x (6) Gadgetzan Auctioneer
- 1x (7) Chef Nomi
- 2x (12) Grave Horror
What in the world is this deck? It was Muzahidul "Muzzy" Islam who first brought this deck to my attention during his interview and I was almost certain it couldn't be true. But there it is! An honest-to-goodness Chef Nomi Priest.
As one might imagine, the win condition for this deck is emptying out your entire deck in order for Chef Nomi's Battlecry to take effect. If the opponent somehow manages to remove all of those 6/6 Greasefire Elementals, use Seance on Chef Nomi and simply try again. To say it's a gamble is putting it mildly, especially since there's no Archivist Elysiana to help with Fatigue. But there's a reason that David "killinallday" Acosta is bringing this deck. This could be one of those "sly like a fox" moves that nobody sees coming.
languagehacker's Shudderwock Shaman
- 2x (0) Zap!
- 1x (1) Earth Shock
- 2x (1) Lightning Bolt
- 2x (1) Sludge Slurper
- 2x (2) Likkim
- 2x (2) Witch's Brew
- 1x (3) Haunting Visions
- 2x (3) Lightning Storm
- 2x (3) Spirit of the Frog
- 2x (4) Hex
- 2x (4) Thunderhead
- 2x (5) Hagatha's Scheme
- 1x (5) Zilliax
- 2x (6) Mossy Horror
- 1x (8) Archivist Elysiana
- 1x (8) Hagatha the Witch
- 2x (8) Walking Fountain
- 1x (9) Shudderwock
My jaws that bite!
My claws that catch!
Mihai "Languagehacker" Dragalin isn't the only one bringing Shudderwock Shaman to this tournament, but his stands out above the rest. He's got some oddball tools that his Shudderwock can take advantage of, many of which make this more of a control Shaman deck. He's got a pair of Mossy Horrors, some Sludge Slurpers, and if the game goes the long haul, he's got an Archivist Elysiana to help keep him in the game.
Languagehacker is hoping to assert control against Warrior decks here, as he noted in our exclusive interview. But can it withstand the other deck types coming to this tournament? It should be interesting to see what happens if this Shaman deck manages to go the distance and whether Hagatha the Witch will be able to give him an edge at the very end.
Yueying's Minion Mage
- 2x (2) Book of Specters
- 2x (2) Doomsayer
- 2x (2) Firetree Witchdoctor
- 1x (2) Khadgar
- 2x (2) Sunfury Protector
- 2x (3) Conjurer's Calling
- 2x (3) Voodoo Doll
- 2x (4) Scaleworm
- 2x (4) Twilight Drake
- 2x (5) Dragonmaw Scorcher
- 1x (5) Rotten Applebaum
- 1x (5) Zilliax
- 1x (7) Crowd Roaster
- 2x (7) Giggling Inventor
- 2x (8) Power of Creation
- 1x (9) Alexstrasza
- 1x (10) Kalecgos
- 2x (12) Mountain Giant
There are a lot of Minion Mages coming to this weekend's tournament, with the basic strategy the same. Fill your hand up with Book of Specters and play some early Mountain Giants. Then use Conjurer's Calling (ideally with Khadgar, for double value) to fill up the board by sacrificing weakened or expendable minions. Xu "LFYueYing" Kai has decided to get clever with the latter concept.
Remember our old friend Giggling Inventor? The Giggling Inventor that proved to be such a high-value play that it needed to be nerfed into a 7-drop? YueYing is now using this nerf to his advantage, casting Conjurer's Call on the 2/1 base minion to get two better 7-Cost minions, while still getting to keep the pair of Annoy-o-Trons that come with the original Battlecry. It's an ingenious play when it comes down to it, even if it comes at the expense of Astromancer, which didn't make this deck's cut.
YueYing's Minion Mage is among the most unique to come to this tournament, as is Shang Yuan "Roger" Luo's build that uses Hex Lord Malacrass (!) and two copies of Unseen Saboteur (!!), which are a gamble, to say the least. But that's not the deck from Roger I want to focus on. Instead, let's look at...
Roger's Undatakah Paladin
- 1x (2) Acidic Swamp Ooze
- 1x (2) Crystalsmith Kangor
- 2x (2) Crystology
- 1x (2) Immortal Prelate
- 1x (2) Lightforged Blessing
- 1x (2) Sound the Bells!
- 1x (3) Acolyte of Pain
- 1x (3) Aldor Peacekeeper
- 1x (3) Bronze Gatekeeper
- 1x (3) High Priest Thekal
- 2x (4) Annoy-o-Module
- 2x (4) Blessing of Kings
- 2x (4) Truesilver Champion
- 1x (5) Harrison Jones
- 2x (5) Mechano-Egg
- 2x (5) Wargear
- 1x (5) Zilliax
- 2x (6) Mechanical Whelp
- 1x (7) Countess Ashmore
- 1x (7) Kangor's Endless Army
- 1x (8) Da Undatakah
- 1x (8) Tirion Fordring
- 1x (10) Nozari
Shacknews has been a big fan of the Undatakah Paladin, going back to the start of the expansion. And while the ladder meta has caught up to this deck, it has yet to be truly tested on the competitive stage. Roger looks like he's willing to be the guinea pig, but not without a few twists.
There are a handful of buffing tools for Immortal Prelate and Da Undatakah, but that doesn't appear to be the total focus of the deck. There are a handful of Magnetic Mechs, some of which can be brought back by Kangor's Endless Army.
So while the original iteration of the Undatakah Paladin deck uses Deathrattles from Immortal Prelate and Recurring Villain, this one looks to use the Deathrattle for Mechano-Egg and Mechanical Whelp to ruin the opponent's day. The trick is going to be reaching Da Undatakah in the late game, because with Zoo Warlock being a prevalent deck in this tournament, this Paladin deck may prove a bit slow.
Those are the big decks to watch out for this weekend. What decks have impressed you the most? Join the conversation and let us know. And be sure to tune in to the 2019 Hearthstone World Championship, which begins tonight at 7PM PT on Twitch.
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Shacknews
replyOzzie Mejia posted a new article, 2019 Hearthstone World Championship: 5 decks to watch
