HCT Winter Championship 2017 Deck Highlights

With the HCT Winter Championships having recently concluded, we got to witness some really crazy decks and innovative lineups on display. ShtanUdachi and Fr0zen had one of the best HCT finals ever seen with a very hard fought 4-3 win going in favor of Shtan to get him a spot for the World Championships.

Malygos Druid – Fr0zen

Malygos Druid has been a great deck in the Karazhan meta and over time it fell out of favor and people simply just stopped using them because of how aggressive the meta became. Malygos Druid combos require you to have enough mana and pick up all of the combo pieces, which isn’t easy with decks ending games as early as turn 4 or 5 in some cases. But in a tournament setup where decks like Renolock and Reno Mage are common, you have the upper hand against such decks.

With only days before some of the most impactful cards rotate out, we only have a few days left with the deck unless of course we get new cards that keep the archetype alive. Living Roots is one of the key cards that enables Malygos Druid to do what it does and this particular list takes it a step further and includes Aviana and Kun The Forgotten King for extremely swingy lategame turns and more potential damage. You can of course play the deck without needing Aviana or Kun and simply ramp and draw until you have the combo pieces and burst down your opponent in one turn.

Fr0zen chose to include2 copies of Feral Rage to combat aggressive decks and you also have Mulch to beat control matchups that can have high end minions that your generic removals might not be able to deal with.

Aggro Shaman – ShtanUdachi

With the recent Pirate nerf, a lot of people have moved away from Aggro Shaman but ShtanUdachi with his unique take on Aggro Shaman managed to wipe the floor and win the championship. It has a unique mix of Jade and Pirate synergies. One of the most notable inclusions in the deck is of course Hammer of Twilight.

Over the course of time, Aggro Shaman has pretty much relied on Doomhammer to close out the game but with a Jade centric deck in action, you want to play on curve as much as possible and Doomhammer makes way for Hammer of Twilight. You have access to a lot of burst damage and the deck can churn out some pretty powerful minions on curve if you want to play the long game and win the board game, putting in chip damage every turn through your Jade Golems.

Overall the deck is quite powerful but it did have some hiccups in the tournament and Jade Mid-Range Shaman just did better overall. That being said if you are a fan of aggressive Shaman decks then you should definitely give the list a try and it just might click in the ladder environment.

Questing Miracle Rogue – ShtanUdachi

While Water Rogue is being hyped up by everyone, Miracle Rogue is still alive and kicking. Rogue has been one of the dark horses when it comes to the tournament meta, the class simply just happens to be at the highest levels of play and it’s the only class that was used by all of the World Champions so far since the release of the game.

Most of us are familiar with Questing Miracle Rogue and it has been on and off in the ladder meta but tournaments seem to make room for the deck all the time. Despite Pirate Warrior and aggressive Shaman decks being brought, pros did not shy away from bringing the deck which is known to be weak against aggressive deck and Rogue as a class did quite well overall in the tournament.

The goal of the deck is to use Pirates for early game board presence and snowball using cards like Questing Adventurer and Edwin VanCleef to dominate on board and close out the game. The deck is very spell heavy and has a lot of spells, meaning you might have a lot of dead draws – but if you play the deck correctly it can be very rewarding and can close out games in the mid game very consistently.

Hope you guys enjoy the decks while waiting for Journey to Un’Goro to release next week. Until next time!

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