Weekly Hearthstone Roundup #7 (Jan 20 – Jan 26)

Last month in review:

• #3 – 23th-29th of December 2016
• #4 – 30th of December 2016 – 5th of January 2017
• #5 – 6th-12th of January 2017
• #6 – 13th-20th of January 2017

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

• Hearthstone client gets smaller on mobile devices – It was one of the biggest problem for players with low amount of storage space on their phones/tablets. They were forced to delete more and more apps just to keep the Hearthstone on their devices. But it might not be the case any longer, as Blizzard is cutting the Hearthstone app’s size by about half. After you update it and clear the data, it should now be around 1.5-1.7 GB.
• HearthPwn: Tyrande is now available in Southeast Asia by buying 40 Packs – Alternative Priest Hero skin caused a lot of controversy, as people from countries that weren’t supported by Amazon couldn’t get it (at least through the normal ways – it was still possible to bypass that limitation, but it wasn’t fair nonetheless). Blizzard was promising that they will look for other ways to give players the skin and one just appeared in the Southeast Asia. If you buy any bundle of 40 packs between January 25th and February 10th, you’ll be awarded with the Tyrande skin by February 28th.
• HearthPwn: This week’s Tavern Brawl is Boss Battle Royale! – You choose a class and based of that choice, you get to play as one of the Hearthstone bosses from different adventures (ranging from Naxx all the way to Karazhan). Decks are pre-built, with many non-collectable cards, so there is really a lot to discover this Brawl. Quests done as a boss still count for the class you’ve picked.
• Max McCall answers a question about matchmaking – Even though it feels rigged sometimes, as you queue into a counter matchup whenever you change your deck, it’s apparently not. According to Blizzard’s Max McCall, matchmaking doesn’t take your deck into account at all – it’s solely based on the MMR (Matchmaking Rating) in Casual/Legend and on your Rank + Amount of Stars in the 1-25 Ladder. The game tries to look for players who are closest to your rating/rank, but if it doesn’t find someone quickly, it increases the range of search every few seconds (and that’s why rank 2 player might get matched with rank 4 player when there aren’t many people online, for example).
• PC Gamer: Hearthstone’s Ben Brode on how long until Pirates walk the plank – PC Gamer interviewed Ben Brode, asking about the card’s designing and nerfing policy, rotating cards into the Wild etc. You can read a summary of the interview on HearthPwn.
• Max McCall responds to the thread about card design – This time he talks about the process of designing the expansion and adventure cards.
• Max McCall talks about the After/Whenever triggered effects – He explains that even though it might cause some confusion, both “After” and “Whenever” keywords are necessary and it’s not easy to cut it down to one and still be intuitive.
• HearthHead: Kabal Chemist was fixed – The card can finally give the Dragonfire Potion. Kabal Chemist was bugged previously and has 0% chance to give that specific potion.

Ladder/Decks/Meta

• ViciousSyndicate: Data Reaper Report #35 was released – The meta got relatively stable, the only big and surprising change is Aggro Shaman getting even stronger. The deck was already at the top of the list and it got even better. Right now, Aggro Shaman is #1 on the overall ladder with 54.35% win rate and #1 in Legend with a whooping 54.50% win rate. Overall, top 8 decks on the overall ladder are: Aggro Shaman, Pirate Warrior, Dragon Warrior, Miracle Rogue, Dragon Priest, Midrange Shaman, Reno Warlock and Reno Mage. Top 8 decks in Legend are: Aggro Shaman, Midrange Jade Shaman, Pirate Warrior, Reno Mage, Dragon Priest, Control Shaman, Midrange Shaman and Dragon Warrior.
• ViciousSyndicate: Going First vs. Having Coin: Which is Better, and When? –MsoG Edition – vS has released the stats with correlation between going first/second and the deck’s win rate. It turns out that majority of the decks want to start first and only 5 decks get higher win rates when starting with Coin (C’Thun Druid, Miracle Rogue, Malygos Druid, Pirate Warrior and Control Shaman).
• TempoStorm: Wild Meta Snapshot #3 (January 22th) was released – Tier 1 decks: RenoLock, Pirate Warrior, Aggro Shaman. Tier 2 decks: Reno Mage, Dragon Priest, Freeze Mage, N’Zoth Warrior, Secret Paladin, Patron Warrior, Midrange Shaman, Anyfin Paladin, N’Zoth Priest.
• MetaStats: Standard Meta Snapshot Week 3 (Jan 16 – Jan 22) was released – Top 8 most successful decks right now, according to MetaStats, are: Reno Warlock (62%), Control Warrior (59%), Reno Mage (57%), Midrange Shaman (56%), Dragon Warrior (55%), Aggro Shaman (55%), Control Shaman (54%), Pirate Warrior (54%).
• Reddit: Control the Meta: Wild Tier List 1
• Sector One: High Legend Decks January 2017

eSports/Tournaments

• HearthPwn: The Trinity Series – A Hearthstone Team League Week 2 –  8 teams will compete for their share of $130,000 prize pool. This week’s matches were: Alliance vs Complexity and Luminosity Gaming vs Tempo Storm (January 25); G2 vs Virtus.Pro and Team Liquid vs C9 (January 26). Games can be watched live on the esl_hearthstone Twitch channel every Wednesday and Thursday at 10AM PST (7PM CET). VoDs are available on the same Twitch channel.
• GosuGamers: Trinity Series displays first signs of meta diversification with the coming of week two – Meta in Trinity Series is much more diverse and surprising than it is on the ladder. So far, two decks that were considered incredibly weak ladder decks took 6-0 wins in Trinity Series – Anyfin Paladin in Week 1 and Tempo Mage in Week 2.
• GosuGamers: Controversy rises in the wake of China’s victory over NA in CN vs. NA Championship – China has won the third CN vs NA Championship, after two loses in the previous years. However, a controversy raised around the last round. NA players have accused Chinese players of “cheating” – apparently the team was shouting that LVGE should play the turn 2 Dirty Rat, which is a very questionable play in nearly every matchup. Of course, this time around it was a perfect play, as it pulled out Edwin VanCleef and it was the main reason why Chinese players won the round (overall, they would still probably win the whole tournament, but it left a bitter taste in the NA players mouths). However, Chinese players are denying – LVGE himself admitted that he was hearing the crowd even though he had noise-canceling headphones, which sometimes affected his decisions throughout the series, but his team didn’t tell him what to play – he just decided to take the risk. You can read the official NetEase’s statement here.

Community/Podcasts/Videos

• New episodes of the most popular Hearthstone podcasts were released: The Angry Chicken #193, Golden Wisp #110, Value Town #105, Lightforge #77, The Innervated #71
• GosuGamers: Xixo: “We don’t need more expansions, we need better expansions” (Interview)
• Reddit: Top Cards of the Week from /r/CustomHearthstone (01/21/2017)
• Reddit: The current meta in one picture
• Reddit: User Swidditch has made a 133 cards expansion
• Reddit: WarCraft2 style card back
• Video: This rogue blasted my mind!
• Video: [Trinity Series Highlight] Admirable consults “Book of Matchups” to see if a match is Druid favored
• Video: We Are Number One but it’s Murlocs from Hearthstone
• Video: Life on Hearthstone
• Video: Let me Legent #1
• Video: [HysteriA] Fist of Jaraxxus OTK
• Video: [HysteriA] Lethal on turn 2 with Voltron
• Video: [Disguised Toast] The FUNNEST Deck Ever: Djinni Priest
• Video: [Trolden] Funny And Lucky Moments – Hearthstone – Ep. 213
• Video: [Trolden] Funny And Lucky Moments – Hearthstone – Ep. 214

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!