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Hearthstone Championship Tour: Europe Winter Playoffs

Hearthstone Championship Tour: Europe Winter Playoffs

Another tournament another Pirate and Reno fest, however this time our winners went to the Bahamas!

While we only covered the top 16, have no doubt that these group of players are best in the West. Just getting to this point required winning a vast majority of their games against the top ranked of Europe, but their journey’s weren’t over yet, a warm and cozy vacation in the Caribbean depended on their performance here.

Series 1: Pokrovac vs. Greensheep(WIN)

  • Pirate Warrior v. Pirate Warrior*
    Both players took it a bit slow, but because Greensheep was just a teensy bit ahead he took the match in the end.
  • Renolock v. Aggro Shaman*
    Pokrovac landed a fantastic Kazakus potion but Greensheep once again came out just ahead.
  • Pirate Warrior* v. Miracle Rogue
    Oh hey it’s Pirate Warrior, thanks for that free win!
  • Reno Mage v. Pirate Rogue*
    Pokrovac, to no fault of his own, couldn’t draw into that lifesaving Reno Jackson in time, Greensheep took the match and series.

(Pokrovac unable to grab his lifesaving Reno)

Series 2: ShtanUdachi(WIN) vs. Anatkh

  • Reno Mage v. Miracle Rogue*
    Even though Anatkh got his Patches the Pirate in his opening hand he was still able to rush down ShtanUdachi before he could draw into the precious Reno Jackson.
  • Reno Mage* v. Aggro Shaman
    It was pretty much GG after Anatkh wasn’t able to clear his opponent’s Antonidas.
  • Renolock vs. Aggro Shaman*
    After roping for about 2 hours Anatkh eventually drew into enough damage from hand to win the match.
  • Miracle Rogue* v. Reno Mage
    Haha! What a marvelously brilliant tech strategy to take Beneath the Grounds to effectively shut down both Reno Jackson and Kazakus (Beneath the Grounds adds duplicate cards to the opponent’s deck which disables the Reno effect). Without his potions or healing Anatkh conceded the match.
  • Renolock* v. Reno Mage
    It was a long hard fought match but ShtanUdachi came out ahead with a clever faceless manipulator on the enemy Emperor Thaurissan to discount his from-hand damage cards enough to make his lethal work out.


  (Huge discounts with a great Emperor Thaurissan) 

Neira(WIN) vs. Sjow

  • Pirate Warrior v. Pirate Warrior*
    Two unstoppable forces converge, one must win, that one happened to be Sjow this time around.
  • Pirate Warrior* v. Reno Mage
    Same old story, Pwarrior got its free win.
  • Miracle Rogue v. Miracle Rogue*
    Edwin Vancleef doesn’t always hit, but when he does he wins the game single-handedly.
  • Miracle Rogue* v. Reno Mage
    No Reno Jackson no win for Sjow.
  • Reno Mage v. Reno Mage
    It’s perfectly fine to take things steady, but fortune favors the bold and Neira is as bold as it gets. Knowing he needed to play to win and not simply play not to lose, Neira took risky plays to put himself ahead just enough the take the tough series. Unfortunately he sent his teammate home, but the organization they belong to still came away with a big win.

(Edwin taking charge of the board)
Glaser vs. Pavel(WIN)

  • Aggro Shaman* v. Pirate Warrior
    As many of the PWarriors have been doing in this tournament, Pavel took the early game a bit slow, he wanted to make sure he not only had the front-loaded damage via weapons, but the damage over time via board control. Unfortunately for him he pulled the Leeroy Jenkins trigger a touch early which Glaser was able to deal with and counter flood the board for the eventual win.
  • Reno Mage v. Pirate Warrior*
    You can Doomsayer as early and often as you want, but there’s no stopping a Pavel with a hand full of weapons.
  • Reno Mage* v. Reno Mage
    As typical with Reno Mage, not being able to deal with their Archmage Antonidas on the turn they play it effectively ends the game due to the nigh endless Fireball cycling.
  • Pirate Warrior v. Renolock*
    I would be so salty were I Glaser, he pushed damage through and through only to have Pavel just ever so barely survive and heal himself several times over.
  • Pirate Warrior v. Reno Mage*
    Not a free win Pirate Warrior? What madness is this?? I guess only Pavel, the 3-2 King could survive long enough against Pwarrior and even eliminate Glaser’s damage through a well timed Dirty Rat and Acidic Swamp Ooze.

(Brilliant Ooze and Dirty Rat timings to seal the deal)
Greensheep(WIN) v. ShtanUdachi

  • Aggro Shaman* v. Reno Mage
    Not much ShtanUdachi can do if he’s behind the entire game.
  • Miracle Rogue* v. Reno Mage
    Oh I love it! The triple Leeroy Jenkins Shadowstep combo plus an Eviscerate top deck, oh boy I can taste the salt from here.
  • Reno Mage v. Reno Mage*
    That has to be the most satisfying play, getting an uncontested Antonidas into Emperor Thaurissan discount into unloading Fireball after Fireball into your opponent’s face, it’s the little things in life.
  • Reno Mage* v. Miracle Rogue
    Like mentioned before, tech’ing in Beneath the Grounds is a great way to shut down Reno decks, only thing is, you can’t be so far behind your opponent doesn’t even need Reno to win. Sadly this was the case for ShtanUdachi, in fact, even got an ambush the turn immediately after he played it -much to Greensheep’s annoyance.

(*Eyeroll*)
Neirea vs. Pavel(WIN)

  • Pirate Warrior v. Reno Mage*
    Anyone who plays against Mage can attest to how annoying the class can be, and Neirea is no better spokesperson than when he got back to back Blizzard’d to eliminate any chance of getting damage in.
  • Aggro Shaman* v. Pirate Warrior
    Neirea, obviously furious from the previous match, made it his life’s mission to end this match as quickly as possible, Pavel had lost before I even knew what was happening.
  • Reno Mage* v. Pirate Warrior
    Pirate Warrior’s a free win until it’s not, Neirea kept himself well out of harm’s way with an abundance of healing.
  • Pirate Warrior v. Pirate Warrior*
    Interesting matchup, the one who’s a step ahead seems to always win, in other words there’s not much of a comeback mechanism built into the deck for those who fall behind in the Pirate Warrior mirror match-up, regardless, Pavel takes the win.
  • Pirate Warrior v. Renolock*
    This is Pavel we’re talking about, of course he’s going to win the 3-2. In this instance he simply out Reno’d the aggro, easier said than done no doubt, but it can be done. Or so I’ve heard.

(That’s just… cold)
Greensheep vs. Pavel(WIN)

  • Pirate Warrior v. Renolock*
    Ugh, just too much pressure from… Pavel… on Renolock… against Pirate Warrior? What? How does that happen?
  • Pirate Warrior v. Pirate Warrior*
    Playing to win by taking desperate plays from Pavel forced this victory for him, it goes without saying it was extremely close, he had just enough damage from hand to finish off Greensheep which took this series to match point.
  • Miracle Rogue v. Reno Mage*
    Pavel made it look easy to win a massive and highly competitive tournament by Dirty Rat’ing out a Leeroy Jenkins followed up by a devastating Flamestrike, just add that trophy to the pile I guess.

(Stop winning so much Pavel, you make everyone else look bad.)
While it was more of the same decks we’ve seen before I was especially excited at the possible return of Shadowstep Leeroy and of course the genius tech card of Beneath the Grounds to break Reno match ups. Look forward to the next major tournament in the beautiful Bahamas.

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