Category: News

The Hearthstone competitive year for 2019 comes to a conclusion on the 25-28th April, 2019.

In my opinion, it’s been an awesome year following all the Prelims and Championships, and looking at the lineup, which I show you below, it’s going to be an awesome event.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Hearthstone World Championship 2019 Schedule, Location, Players, Prize Pool, and more.

Hearthstone World Championship 2019 Schedule

If you’re going to be watching along you can catch all the games on the official Hearthstone Twitch Channel.

Here’s which rounds/games are being played each of the 4 days:

Day 1 – Group Stages – April 25th

Groups are settled over two days. After day one we will know who will be playing their final matches for those top 8 places.

Day 2 – Group Stages – April 26th

Players with two loses are out, and the players with wins still have a chance to make it through to the top 8.

Day 3 – Deciders and Quarterfinals – April 27th

The top 8 battle it out on the Saturday.

Day 4 – Championship Sunday – April 28th

We get the semi-finals and finals on Sunday.

Hearthstone World Championship 2019 Qualified Players

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Muzzy – NA

Justsaiyan – NA

Ike – NA

Bloodyface – NA

Languagehacker – NA

Killinallday – NA

Viper – EU

Bunnyhoppor – EU

Hunterace – EU

A83650 – EU

Roger – ASIA

Tyler – ASIA

Bloodtrail – ASIA

XioaT – ASIA

SNJing – ASIA

LFYueying – ASIA

Who to Pick for the Most Free Packs?

The community always go nuts for the free packs from the ‘Choose a Champion’ promotion Blizzard always run for their major events.

I wish there was a way of knowing, or at least narrowing down who is likely to perform the best – but let’s be honest, there isn’t.

Just go with who you want to support, or think will do the best. I think it’s fair to say that Ike will be one of the most popular fan favorites if you want to jump on that.

While in my opinion, Muzzy, Bunnyhoppor, Hunterace, Viper, and Bloodyface have the best chances of making the top 8 if you want a try-hard pick. From there, I think any of them can take the Championship.

Hearthstone World Championship 2019 Prize Pool

With 1 million dollars on the line shared among the participants, there is a lot on the line for these 16 players.

The person who wins and lifts the trophy takes home a cool $250k!

Here is how the prize pool is split across the top 10, with the other 6 players getting the same as the 10th place player.

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So, a few days before the month end I had decayed to #100. I had to play some games to get between #50-75 to secure a top 100 finish.

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And.. well.. basically what happened was Hearthstone. I think most people who play can sympathize with a 10 game losing streak.

That’s right. After having such a crazy high win rate to hit legend, I played again and lost 10 straight.

Looking back, I made a few mistakes. I didn’t play after I hit legend back on the 3rd of the month.

I should have tried to maintain top 50 so I was in-touch with the META, held a better MMR, and would have been able to recover from a losing streak.

Well, I had a load of fun playing wild and it was good to actually have a goal that mattered. Here’s to the next challenge.

I’m sure most people reading this will agree that the next Hearthstone Standard Rotation 2019 can’t come soon enough.

The meta gets pretty stale towards the end of a standard years rotation. But don’t worry, not long to wait now – the Year of the Raven, which begun in April 2018 will be coming to an end in April 2019.

For those new to rotation, basically what happens is that any expansions prior to the last 2 calendar years rotate out to make room for the last 2 years worth of expansions and future releases for the next year to work together.

This shifts the entire meta and creates a whole new list of decks, archetypes, the power level of classes change, everything is turned on its head – it’s awesome.

Here is everything you need to know about which sets are leaving, when we can expect the rotation to happen in 2019, and more.

Which Expansions / Sets Are Rotating out in 2019?

The three sets that will be leaving the standard pool of cards (they’ll still be available in Wild of course) are:

Journey to Un’goro

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The most notible cards from the Journey to Un’Goro set that will be moving to Wild includes:

• Quest Cards – Some of the quests have a very high power level and were responsible for some tier 1/2 decks, such as Quest Rogue, OTK Mage, and Fire Plume’s Heart.
• Lyra the Sunshard – Who hasn’t won a bunch of games from Lyra RNG? She’ll be missed.
• Sunkeeper Tarim – Often referred to as the strongest minion in the game.
• Primordial Drake – A staple 8-drop in anti-aggro decks.
• Vicious Fledgling – That annoying bird that can solo a game by itself if it connects with face.

Knights of the Frozen Throne

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The most notable cards from the Knights of the Frozen Throne set that will be moving to Wild includes:

• Deathknights – The first wave of deathknights were, and still are the most powerful (broken) cards to be released – these going will have a huge impact on future decks.
• Spreading Plague – Already nerfed once, it’s still one of the most powerful anti-aggro cards in the game.
• Ultimate Infestation – Insane power level card, one most people can’t believe was never nerfed, well it’s finally leaving.
• Lich King – A staple in most decks as an 8-drop, helped shape the meta on release.
• Prince Keleseth – One of the highest win rate cards when played on turn 2 the game has seen.

Kobolds and Catacombs

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The most notable cards from the Kobolds and Catacombs set that will be moving to Wild includes:

• Spellstones – This is huge, the Druid and Hunter spellstones are crazy strong.
• Legendary weapons – Spell Hunter, Tempo Mage, and Warlock builds take a huge hit here.
• Voidlord (Void Daddy) – The strongest taunt minion in the game.
• Sonya – A broken card in certain decks and situations.
• Carnivorous Cube – This totally broken card and mechanic is leaving.
• Fungalmancer – Aggro’s favorite 5-drop.

When Is the Standard Rotation for 2019?

We know that it will be when the first expansion for the year is released in April 2019. But at the time of writing this we don’t know the exact date.

Previous expansions in April have been the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd weeks, so it’s really hard to predict the exact date of release.

All we can hope for is that it’s sooner rather than later. The meta has become really stale, Hunter is way too strong and oppressive, and a shake up of the card pool makes the game much more interesting and fun for everyone!

Last month I posted an article about the upcoming Wild Tournament and how I was going to make an attempt to qualify.

Well, 10 days in and it’s looking good so far.

I started playing Even Shaman, playing a few games on the 1st and 2nd days of the month. It wasn’t going bad, but at rank 3 I started going 50/50 for a few games and decided to try a different deck.

I saw a Jade Druid list someone had used to climb to legend, nostalgia kicked in, I used to like playing Jade Druid back when it was in standard.

I hadn’t played it since then, but it’s a pretty strightforward midrange deck. The result was a 16-1 streak to legend, pretty nuts!

My only loss was to a Topsy Priest. Even after the recent Druid nerfs, the value of continually growing Jades along with the armour from Branching Paths, (broken) death knight Malfurion, and card draw, it’s a solid deck.

I entered legend at rank #8 on the 3rd of the month. I have since decayed to #14, and I think I will leave it until I decay to at least #75 before I consider playing depending on the date this happens.

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Blizzard announced that there is going to be a third Wild Open Tournament in 2019. I’m one of the few who enjoy playing wild, it’s a kinda crazy format as I will get into more later, but I do play a bit of wild ladder and enjoy it.

Moreso, I like a challenge, so, I figured, why not see if I can qualify for the Wild Open. And, I may as well blog about it so you guys and girls can follow along and laugh when I fail – or we can hook up and help each other!

How Do You Qualify for the Wild Open?

The qualification requirement is pretty straight forward:

Finish in the top 100 for your regions wild ladder in the January 2019 season.

Sounds simple, right? On a regular season I don’t think it would be too hard, if you hit legend in Standard, you’d just have to concentrate on Wild and I’m sure it would be possible.

The top 100 will then face off in a playoff tournament in the middle of February, with the top 2 from each region facing off at the Open Finals towards the end of February.

So, there are two parts to this. Finishing top 100 (which obviously I will focus on first), then the knockout tournament.

Hearthstone Wild Tournament 2019 Prize Pool

I’m not in it for the money (everyone cool says that), but there is a fairly decent prize pool on the line.

I think it’s enough to stimulate a lot of decent players to compete, especially as there isn’t much going on with the Standard ladder next month:

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What Is My Plan for Finishing Top 100 – Am I Good Enough?

I’m all about efficiency. I don’t want to play more games than I have to, so I’m going to be smart about how I approch this and try to come up with the path of least resistance to getting that finish.

First of all, I pushed to legend on the wild EU ladder this month. I did this for two reasons;

1. I will now start at rank 4 when the season resets.
2. Wild is pretty dead when there isn’t a tourney going on, so it was probably easier to rank up now than it will be next month.

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I entered legend at around #250 and thought I might as well see if I could hit top 100.

I actually didn’t lose a game and stopped at rank #89 for now.

Now it’s not going to feel as foreign next season when I hit top 100, but I do expect it to be a lot more difficult.

So, yeah, I think I’m good enough. The challenge will be adjusting to the META next month.

Which Decks Are Good in Wild?

In case you haven’t heard, in the Wild format you can use any card for your entire collection (opposed to just the cards printed in the last year that are available in standard.)

This makes for a much wider range of possible decks. Although, in my experience, there are fewer “Top tier” decks than you see in standard. But this is mostly due to lack of refinement and the smaller player base in my opinion.

There are a lot more broken cards that can turn games on their head however. Barnes, pulling Mal’Ganis, Aviana combos, and Dr.Boom are just a few examples.

Anyhow, the three main decks I’ve been using for months now that have gone almost unchanged are Even Shaman, Odd Rogue, and Big Priest. Decklists as follows:

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I might have to mix it up a bit more next month, but we will see. I will start playing some games and see what meta is forming.

The Even Shaman is great at dealing with aggressive pirate decks with the double crawlers and Maelstrom Portals. It also has big minions to push past taunts and small AOE’s. I think it’s one of the top deck currently for sure.

Odd Rogue is more aggressive and better at beating slower decks than Shaman, so I usually switch to it if I’m running into Big Priests and Control Warlocks.

I play Big Priest mostly for fun. If you draw Barnes on 4 you have a very high % chance of winning, but it’s not something I like to rely on. It’s still one of the strongest decks in wild due to the amount of large high-value minions you can get on the board.

Right, that’s it for now. I will post weekly updates on my progress. The plan is to hit legend quickly in week 1, then go into cruise control, but we shall see how it goes.

Wait no longer peeps, the next Hearthstone expansion has been leaked (revealed) and it’s called The Boomsday Project.

There are some cool new effects, keywords, of course loads of new cards, and more.

Here’s what we know and I’ll update it as we get more info:

When Is the Boomsday Project Released?

The Boomsday Project is due to be released on the 7th August.

What New Cards Have Been Revealed from The Boomsday Project Expansion?

Spider Bomb – Hunter Card

Biology Project – Druid Card

Omega Defender – Neutral Card

Electra Stormsurge – Shaman Legendary

Myra’s Unstable Element – Rogue Legendary Spell

New Ability / Keyword – Magnetic

There is a new ability being revealed with the Boomsday set called – Magnetic

Magnetic allows you to fuse mech minions together to make combined, stronger, minions.

You can take the Spider Bomb above for example and add 2/2 plus the Deathrattle: Destroy a random enemy minion to an existing mech.

New Ability / Keyword – Project

There are going to be a number of Project cards released with the set. These are cards that have an upside for both players.

The Biology Project Druid card above is one of the revealed cards that demonstrates this.

If you want to ramp, you’re going to have to take your opponent with you and ramp them too!

New Ability / Keyword – Omega

Omega cards are cards that have fairly ordinary stats and effects, but when you play them while you have 10-mana crystals they get a huge boost.

The Omega Defender above was the example they have revealed to demonstrate this.

When you have 10 mana crystals and play it, it goes from a 2/ to a 12/6 gaining + 10 attack.

Legendary Spells

The Doomsday expansion is the first to release legendary spells. I think we all knew this day would come at some point to increase the reach of cards and their uses.

You can see the Rogue legendary card above, Myra’s Unstable Element as the example they’ve shown us.

Pretty powerful effect – Draw the rest of your deck. Great for combo and OTK

Boomsday Expansion Release Video

Here is the pre-release video with all the info above for you to see for yourself:

 

If you’re a fan of Hearthstone what better way to let everyone know than by wearing a Hearthstone shirt!

Let’s be honest, all those shirts with the Hearthstone logo in the middle are pretty boring.

I’ve had a good look around and found some funny and cool Hearthstone shirts on Amazon, have a look and see if any of these are what you’re looking for.

Jinx Hearthstone Knife Juggler ‘Put This Apple on Your Head’ Shirt

Even after being nerfed, Knife Juggler is still a popular card played in token and aggro decks and still a favorite of the HS community.

The Knife Juggler is known for his catchphrase, “Put this apple on your head.” Which is what is written on this t-shirt (in case you play without sound).

This shirt is a little different from the usual pack, but any Hearthstone fan will know exactly what it is.

Jinx Hearthstone Leper Gnome ‘I Feel Icky’ Shirt

This shirt uses another well-known piece of speech, “I feel icky,” as said by those annoying little 2-mana Leper Gnomes

I’ve seen people wearing this shirt at expos and Firesides. It’s cool art, another one for the hardcore HS fans.

Jinx Hearthstone Ysera ‘I Dream and the World Trembles’ Shirt

This is one for all the Ysera fans out there. The image of Ysera doesn’t look much like the HS card to be honest, but it’s a cool shirt.

As one of the best cards from the classic set, Ysera has been wrecking people since open beta so any Hearthstone player will know this one.

Jinx Hearthstone Evil Heckler ‘Your Mother Was a Murloc’ Shirt

This is a shirt based on one of the lesser known cards in HS, the Evil Heckler.

That 4-mana 5/4 that didn’t see much play, but had a piece of speech that people like to quote – ”Your mother was a murloc!”

It’s a cool shirt, don’t be surprised if random people ask you what it means. It’s a strange quote if you don’t know what it means.

Jinx Hearthstone Archmage Antonidas Fireball Candy Parody Shirt

This shirt is a bit bizarre, but it’s a cool looking shirt and I played a lot of exodia mage so it’s fine with me. Plus, that cartoon Antonidas is pretty cool.

It’s a parody of some firey cinnamon candy. Not sure exactly what I think of that, but it’s the best mage shirt out there.

Jinx Hearthstone Grim Patron ‘Everyone, Get in Here’ Shirt

I think people reading this will agree with me that there were few more annoying cards than Grim Patron. Not just because of the absurd power level, but the annoying trigger effect speech.

So, what better than to buy someone (or yourself) a shirt with that annoying phrase on to show your appreciation for the old Patron Warrior deck – ‘Everyone, get in here!’

Grim Patron may have rotated out to wild, but he will never be forgotten!