Weekly Hearthstone Roundup #21 (May 5 – May 11)

Last month in review:

• #17 – Apr 7 – Apr 13
• #18 – Apr 14 – Apr 20
• #19 – Apr 21 – Apr 27
• #20 – Apr 28 – May 4

Introduction

Weekly Hearthstone Roundup is a series summarizing last week in Hearthstone. By making a compilation of the news regarding game, teams, pro players, ladder, community etc. we try to make catching up easier for those of you who don’t follow the HS news every day.

If you feel that we’ve missed something important or that we didn’t properly cite the source, let us know in the comments and we’ll fix it right away.

General/Game News

• 2017 HCT Spring Championship Venue: Shanghai – We know location for the next big stop in the Hearthstone Championship Tour. After the Winter Championship on the Bahamas, it’s time for the biggest city in China – Shanghai (Silver Hall of Expo Center in Shanghai, China to be specific). The event will run between July 7 and July 9. More info about the exact times, tickets etc. will come out soon if you’re interested in attending. The total prize pool for Spring Championship is an outstanding $250,000!
• HCT Spring Championship Play-Offs will happen soon – Of course, not every player can play in the Finals in Shanghai. 64 best players from each region will compete for the spot in the HCT Spring Championship. Events will be streamed live on the official PlayHearthstone Twitch channel. European qualifiers will happen between May 20-21, American between May 27-28 and Asian between June 2-3.
• This Week’s Tavern Brawl is: A Cavalcade Of Brawls! – To celebrate the 100th Tavern Brawl (time sure flies, huh), Blizzard has decided to mix 9 previous Brawls into one. This week we have one Brawl associated with each class (which you can choose) and then you queue into another random person who has, probably, chosen another Brawl. It means that both of you have different rulesets and play a completely different game. It’s really imbalanced, but it’s a nice way to re-experience some of your favorite Brawls. Warning: Warrior seems to be bugged. He’s supposed to get a banana every time his minion dies, but sometimes his opponent also gets the bananas (which he shouldn’t supposed to get).

Ladder/Arena/Competitive

• Vicious Syndicate: Data Reaper Report #47 is out! – The meta doesn’t stop to surprise at all. Instead of settling at one deck being the most dominant, the top seems to shift all the time. It’s the first time we have at least a dozen of truly viable decks and almost every class is equally represented (between 10% and 15% – the only exceptions are Shaman at 6% and Warlock at 2%). This week the Secret Mage took ladder by the storm and became one of the most powerful lists in the game. Top 8 decks on the ladder overall last week were: Murloc Paladin, Secret Mage, Pirate Warrior,  Midrange Paladin, Burn Mage, Control Paladin, Token Druid and Aggro Shaman. While top 8 decks at the higher ranks (5-Legend) were: Secret Mage, Murloc Paladin, Pirate Warrior, Token Druid, Burn Mage, Taunt Warrior, Aggro Shaman and Midrange Paladin.
• TempoStorm: Standard Meta Snapshot #29 is out! – See the Breakdown video here – Tempo Storm has released another Standard Meta Snapshot after the last week’s focus on the Wild. Most powerful decks on the ladder, according to the Tempo Storm, are: Tier I: Midrange Paladin, Pirate Warrior, Aggro Paladin, Aggro Druid and Quest Rogue. Tier II: Taunt Warrior, Miracle Rogue, Burn Mage, Freeze Mage, Jade Druid, N’Zoth Paladin, Silence Priest, Midrange Hunter, Dragon Priest and Control Priest.
• HearthHead: Chinese Meta Bulletin #2 – Most of the meta snapshots we’re seeing come from the EU and NA regions. But the truth is that China is the biggest region with tons of interesting data, which is normally pretty inaccessible for people who don’t know the language. HearthHead has took some of the data, translated and compiled it.
• You can check out a currently trending deck for each class on the HSReplays.net site! – The site offers a selection of decks that have been rising to popularity in the last 48h. Those might not be the best builds, but they’re the ones you should be seeing on the ladder more and more right now. For a compilation of the decks in general, check out the “Decks” section.

eSports/Teams/Tournaments

• HearthPwn: Hearthstone Global Games Week 5 – Team from 48 different countries will face each other in the Best of 5 format. Week 5 of Group Stage has taken place between May 9 and 11, but there is still a lot of action to come – group stage will be played for many weeks and then play-offs will happen. You can watch new matches live every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on the official PlayHearthstone channel. If you’ve missed the action, you can also watch the VoDs from every match!
• CN vs EU Group Stage Results – Group Stage of one of the biggest Hearthstone events have happened last week. Players from Europe and China competed with each other for their place in the Play-offs and only 8 players have left – 4 from Europe and 4 from China. The Play-Offs event begin with the Showmatch on May 12, while Finals will be streamed on May 13 and 14. You can watch the English stream on the Firebat’s Twitch channel – casted by Firebat and Zalae (you can also catch up with any Group Stage action, because there are VoDs from every day). There is a huge 1st place reward – Ferrari California T or the €200,000 cash equivalent. In the previous events, only Chinese players could win the car, but this time around, the biggest reward is available for anyone!

Community/Podcasts/Videos

• New episodes of the most popular Hearthstone podcasts were released: The Angry Chicken #209, Golden Wisp #125, Value Town #121, Lightforge #92, The Innervated #79 (no new episode)
• PC Gamer: Now is the time for Hearthstone’s Wild mode to finally shine
• Reddit: Top Cards of the Week from /u/CustomHearthstone (05/06/2017)
• Art: Hearthstone Box
• Video: Funny And Lucky Moments – Hearthstone – Ep. 244 and 245
• Video: Kripp gets the shaft
• Video: Sometimes the best face, is own face
• Video: #JustPavelThings
• Video: Day9 with the sick top deck
• Video: Midrange Paladins: The Murloc Awakens
• Video: [Brian Kibler] The Quest Rogue Problem
• Video: J4CKIECHAN’s Volcano in Priest mirror
• Video: Sick Draw by Toast (Heroic Tavern Brawl)
• Video: Thijs calls upon Pavel
• Video: Ant’s Babbling Book Swings an Unwinnable Game
• Video: Praise Yogg
• Video: Deck Doctor is back!
• Video: Savjz’s Opponent Makes a Smart Play
• Video: “It can’t be that bad”
• Video: Brian Kibler: Don’t Let Your Memes Be Dreams
• Video: Savjz sees a board clear
• Video: Toast Teaching Others To Hate the Game Like He Does
• Video: Ratsmah steals his opponent’s stuff

Closing

If there are any more news from last week we might have missed, let us know in the comments. And, once again, if you have any suggestions for this series (or for the site in general!) we’d really appreciate if you’d let us know.

Good luck on the ladder and until next time!