Coin Concede - Episode 180

Hat * Botticus * Appa* Guest*

Intro (~10 min)

Welcome to Episode 180 of Coin Concede, a Hearthstone podcast dedicated to making the competitive side of the game more accessible to you.

Joining us from Gadgetzan, New York, it’s RidiculousHat!

Also joining us - from Karazhan, California it’s Botticus!

Joining you all from the Maelstrom, Louisiana, it’s Appa!

And now live from Undercity, Pennsylvania it's Edelweiss!

Coin Concede is supported in large part by you, the listener. If you’d like to find out how you can support us and receive rewards in return, head to patreon.com/coinconcede

Thanks to Dante VS for being our newest producer!

You can also support us by leaving an iTunes review!

How's life and ladder? -

Hat - "Do you know what Soulwarden does", he asked rhetorically

Appa - Legend after 9 times at the final boss!
Botticus - Myracle, PogoRogo

Edelweiss -

News Highlights -

• Regarding Competitive Integrity in Hearthstone (Reddit)

• Roger will not be allowed to compete in the Hearthstone Grandmasters tournament this year.

• Leaked Hearthstone Grandmasters (InvenGlobal)

• A specific starting date is unknown, but Hearthstone Grandmasters is set to start soon after the Hearthstone World Championships have concluded. Its format is as follows:
• Hearthstone Grandmasters will consist of two seasons per year, with each season lasting eight weeks;
• Each region will have sixteen players competing in Hearthstone Grandmasters. Those players are then split across two groups of eight;
• Participants play twice a week. They face off against each other following a double round-robin system, with players competing against others in their group two times in total over the course of a season;
• Matches are played during the weekend, from Friday until Sunday, with the broadcast of one region stopping right before the next region starts its broadcast;
• After the two seasons have ended, the two players who performed worst in season 2 in their respective region will be demoted and no longer play in Hearthstone Grandmasters;
• Hearthstone Grandmasters conclude with global finals. The specifics of this event are unknown, but the best players per region per season qualify. It is unsure if this means that the top players per group per season face off to determine who will be sent to the global finals;
• As expected, the Specialist format will be used, with matches being a Best of Three.
• Each player participating in the Hearthstone Grandmasters will earn $1,000 per week as an appearance fee. For each match won, another $500 is given to the participating players. The prize pool of the global finals is said to be $500,000. It's highly likely there'll be more rewards per seasonal performance.
• Seiko        BoarControl        Feno                 Justsaiyan        Muzzy        Amnesiac
• Casie        Kolento        Thijs                 Fr0zen        Zalae        Purple
• Bunnyhoppor        Rdu        Hunterace                 Dog        Firebat        Bloodyface
• Orange        Bozzzton        Jarla                 PNC        Nalguidan        Monsanto
• Pavel        Silvername        Swidz                 Seohyun

• Rise of Shadows card reveal schedule (HearthPWN)

• The first major card reveal stream will be Monday March 25 10 AM PDT and will feature CORA!!!! (Twitter)
• The remainder of the card reveals will span until April 2nd (and I assume a final card reveal stream on the 4th?)
• 42 community card reveals. (is this more than normal?)

• Battle of the Bans Tavern Brawl (HearthPWN)

• Pick 4 cards
• Opponent bans one (one card is hidden)
• Deck is made of 10 of each of the remaining cards

Tournament Results -

High Level Recap

A ton of qualifiers have been completed and we will still jump in to those, but WESG finished and purple took the trophy over MalygosTW in a 10 day slog!! Darong took the women's finals trophy over BabyBear. Playoffs were Bo5 conquest. There was both a Grand Finals and a Women's Grand Finals played out.

In the coed division, Alex took third and JustSaiyan took fourth. Justine took third in the women's bracket.

Tournament Meta

WESG:

For the coed, Purple played Togwaggle Druid, Cube Hunter, Big Spell Mage, and Zerek's Priest (the now-standard Vivid Nightmare build) and took it over Malygos's Cube Hunter, Quest Rogue, Zerek's Priest, and Even Warlock.

For the Women's, Darong played Cube Hunter, Secret Paladin, Cube Rogue, and Cube Warlock over BabyBear's Mid Hunter, Odd Mage, Odd Paladin, and Odd Rogue.

The evolving tournament meta:

3/15 - Hunter, Hunter, and Hunter. 33 of the 48 top 8 decks were Hunter - 21 midrange, 11 cube. 5 of the 6 qualifiers were won by midrange and the last was a cube. Paladin briefly became the second most place played class, with 6 top 8 spots - 5 of them odd and 1 of them Even. Rogue was right behind, then Warlock and Warrior each had 1-2. No Mage, No Shaman. There was a Taunt Druid in one top 8!

3/16 - ...actually the exact same win count - 5 and 1 for mid and cube hunter. 31 out of 48 decks were Hunter, 24 of those 31 were Midrange, and Rogue jumped back up to second place with Myracle Rogue having 5 copies represented while Odd had 2.

3/17 - A little bit more variety! 27 of the 48 top 8 decks were still Hunter and 16 of those were mid along with 9 Cubes, but there was a secret and an ODD hunter sighting… not to mention that Mid Hunter only won two of the qualifiers. We had a win from Od Warrior, one from Myracle Rogue, one from CUBE Rogue, and one from Maly Druid!

All told in week 2, Hunter is more than 50% of the meta and winning more than 50% of the time - Rogue is the second best class with a 50.3% winrate while Paladin is just behind it at 50.1%. Nothing else has a winrate over 50%, and even Priest - the second most popular class - is getting hit by Rogues down to 48%.

QUIK HITZ Anecdotes

• There is now a player who has played in 32 qualifiers, one who has played in 31, and 4 who have played in 30.
• Zyrios has played 150 matches! There are 4 other players over 130 matches. But, even in 27 qualifiers and multiple top 8s, he has not qualified.

Actual quick hit: Finals game 5 Babybear vs Darong

Secret pally vs Odd mage - what a fitting sendoff to the year of the mammoth. Darong's opener has double Divine Favor, but it also has the King himself, and he goes bananas on turn two even though he's facing down a couple of Fire Flies and punches through a Tar Creeper. The Maul unfortunately rolls Taunt, but even though Mukla can be pinged down, BabyBear elects to play a second Tar Creeper and that also gets smashed by the king of the apes. BabyBear is pretty actively emptying her hand to play around Divine Favor, and a topdecked Call to Arms walks right into a Dragon's Fury... but that just lets Divine Favor finally happen and with the mage hand being Blastwave, double Blazecaller, and Astromancer, there might be a chance here for the paladin. Tarim is very good against Astromancer and the mage's hand is looking more and more awkward... and a big Vinecleaver is very good with both Knife Juggler and applying consistent pressure! In fact, the board gets wiped, though a second Dragon's Fury was made from Blast Wave... and that clears the board, leaving behind a hand of just two blazecallers and a Zilliax.

Darong is on the quest to empty her hand, and Vinecleaver is still real good, esp with a blessing of kings coming after it. Call to Arms gets topdecked, Zilliax gets hit with a big sword, the Maul gives +1 damage to 7 minions, and then coin Divine Favor is 3 new cards. Flamestrike comes but leaves behind a 10/3 Amani Berserker that gets buffed with Fungalmancer and swings in with Cleaver for lethal!!!

Coming Soon

More qualifiers!

World cyber games! International online olympics equivalent, signups are on http://wcg.com/ 

CC Not-League 2!

Decksplanations - The New Cards

We only have three new cards this week, but hey, let's dig into them - as you can hear from the schedule, we're going to have a packed few weeks, and talking about only a few might be a nice bit of calm before the storm.

Lazul's Scheme - Priest epic spell. 0 mana - Reduce the attack of an enemy minion by 1 until your next turn.

Oblivitron - Hunter Legendary Mech. 6 mana 3/4 - Deathrattle: Summon a mech from your hand and trigger its Deathrattle.

Swampqueen Hagatha - Shaman Legendary. 7 mana 5/5 - Battlecry: Add a 5/5 Horror to your hand. Teach it two Shaman spells.

Outro (~5min)

Thanks and contact!

We have many folks we'd like to thank - check out our THANKS! section on the website at www.coinconcede.com, where you can also find our contact info, our show notes, and our Patreon information!

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SPOTIFY

BIG THANKS to our producers VIRIATUS, RYAN, DONALD, DANTE, and JOSHUA!!!

Coin Concedes (Shout Outs):

- 

Hat- TBen, Krispy Kreme donuts, specifically not my cohosts, Cinder, Markshire and Momosdad

Botticus- Spyvr, WashintheWind

Appa - Slizzle

Edelweiss -

Keep Calm and NO NEVER EVER

And if you see us on ladder…

“Coin Concede” Hat

“Coin Slempo” Bott

“Slempo Concede” Appa

“Coin Concede” Edelweiss