The Curse Trials Recap - Day 1

— -- Earlier this month, Blizzard announced a significant change for the competitive Hearthstone scene, adding a new Standard format that rotates older expansion sets out of circulation. This change is not yet live, so the consequences of the format change on the tournament scene have been more theoretical than actually observed.

Until now, that is, when the invitational Curse Trials, presented by Team Archon, provides a tantalizing taste of what's to come.

While there is a new card expansion in the pipeline and Blizzard intends to adjust the power level of certain cards in the Classic set, which does not circulate out of rotation in Standard, the Curse Trials are our closest peek yet at how the new Hearthstone world will shake out. For this $30,000 tournament, the cards from Curse of Naxxramas and Goblins vs. Gnomes, Blizzard's first two sets of cards from post-release, are banned to reflect the upcoming Standard format. The loss of these cards from competitive play mean more than the loss of very powerful staples like Dr. Boom or Piloted Shredder, but the removal of cards that are key to existing deck archetypes. Here, each player has to make educated guesses about the best decks to play in a tournament meta that isn't established.

The Curse Trials are a three-day, double-elimination format, with different groups playing the first two days for the right to make the Friday finals. Enough with the spiel, let's get down to the games.

JEFFREY 'TRUMP' SHIH (Team SoloMid) vs. TANG 'ELOISE' HAIYUN (Tempo Storm)

Both Trump and Eloise brought Druid and Shaman, with the unique classes being Trump's Warlock and Eloise's Warrior. Druid is a popular choice on day 1 as Druid (and will likely be with Thursday's group as well), without any of the cards from the classic set having been adjusted, suffers less from the loss of the Naxxramas and GvG cards. Two cards in particular for Druid, Savage Roar and Force of Nature, are the Druid's bread-and-butter burst combo, and survived the expansion culling.

Trump started off with his aggressive Shaman build, while Eloise went with a Dragon-build for her Warrior, Dragon decks remaining intact with no dragons released in the banned sets. Eloise had lethal on the board by turn 10, but Trump had just enough burn in his hand from Lava Burst and Lightning Bolt to finish off Eloise with his Doomhammer.

Game 2 was a quick win for Trump, playing a fairly classic Zoolock deck against Eloise's Dragon Warrior, Eloise never being able to wrest control of the board away. Trump finished off the series 3-0, completing the sweep of Eloise's Dragon Warrior with his Midrange Druid, Eloise unable to get past Trump's Ancient of War to do the final two damage needed to make it a 2-1 series.

TRUMP WINS, 3-0

WILLIAM 'AMNESIAC' BARTON (Team Archon) vs. THIJS 'THIJS' MOLENDIJK (G2 Esports)

Amnesiac and Thijs both bring Druids -- again, a common theme -- with Amnesiac going Rogue/Shaman for his other two and Thijs going Priest/Warrior.

Game 1 featured a Druid vs. Druid mirror match. Thijs got the early Innervate and never lost board, finishing off Amnesiac with Ragnaros, a card not seen in Druid for some time. Amnesiac tied up the match 1-1 on his second try with Druid against Thijs's Dragon Warrior, generally a favorable matchup for the Druid.

Amnesiac brought a fairly traditional Miracle Rogue to game 3, the Miracle variant with Gadgetzan Auctioneer not seen for some time due to the powerful burst potential of (banned) Tinker's Sharpsword Oil. While Thijs's got to play a mainly intact Dragon Priest deck, Priest tends to be a reactive deck that historically has trouble dealing with decks that rely on burst. Amnesiac got a stealthed 8/4 Auctioneer on turn 7 and Thijs resigned to go down 2-1.

Amnesiac's Aggro Shaman was unable to kill Thijs's Dragon Warrior quickly enough in Game 4. A similar problem faced Amnesiac against Thijs's last remaining deck, the Dragon Priest, and Thijs took the series 3-2.

THIJS WINS 3-2

SEBASTIAN 'FORSEN' FORS (Forsenboys) vs. BRIAN 'KIBLER' KIBLER (BMK Gaming)

Kibler bucked Wednesday's trend by not bringing a Druid deck, going Priest/Shaman/Warrior for his choices. Forsen brought the trusty Druid, Shaman, and a first for the day, a Mage.

Forsen's Druid evened the match in Game 2, getting two Savage Combatants on board and finishing off Kibler's Dragon Warrior with consecutive Force of Nature turns. Kibler's Dragon Warrior went down to both Forsen's Tempo Mage and Aggro Shaman, sending Kibler to the loser's bracket.

FORSEN WINS 3-1

Meanwhile, in the unbroadcasted loser's bracket, Amnesiac eliminated Eloise to stay alive in the tournament.

CONG 'STRIFECRO' SHU (Cloud9) vs. JON 'ORANGE' WESTBERG (Team Archon)

StrifeCro and Orange both brought the same classes: Druid, Shaman, and Rogue. In Game 1, a Shaman mirror match (both aggressive builds), StrifeCro ran out of damage before Orange did, and while Sir Finley Mrrgglton changed StrifeCro's hero power to the Priest power, providing a bit of recovery, it only served to slightly delay Orange's victory.

Orange took a 2-0 lead in a Druid vs. Shaman matchup, establishing a strong enough board to win without needing Force of Nature to go along with the Savage Roar. StrifeCro prevented the sweep, his Aggro Shaman finally winning against Orange's Miracle Rogue in a match where Orange was never able to get the card draw that Miracle usually requires.

Without Dr. Boom, Ancient of War has found its way back into Druid decks, at least for the players on the first day, and the 5/10 body held the board after StrifeCro's Big Game Hunter took out Orange's big play, an 8/8 Edwin VanCleef, trying the series at 2.

StrifeCro took the match in the Rogue mirror, establishing a strong board at a point when Orange had a clucky hand of Coins, Conceals, and a lonely Blade Flurry.

STRIFECRO WINS 3-2

TRUMP vs. THIJS

Trump, playing the only Warlock of the tournament so far, defeated Thijs in the first game, the low-curve Zoolock getting taunts up and finishing off Thijs before his Druid could utilize the Force of Nature and two Savage Roars in his hand.

Dragon Warrior's tough day continued in Game 2, Thijs losing the unfavorable matchup to Trump's Midrange Druid. Thijs finally got in the win column against Trump with his Midrange Druid against Trump's remaining deck, Shaman, finishing off the Shaman with a minionless Savage Roar. For Game 4, Thijs went to Dragon Priest against Shaman, but while Control Priest typically have Cabal Shadow Priests and the Auchenai Soulpriest/Circle of Healing combo to deal with aggressive decks, Thijs's Dragon Priest was unable to effectively remove Trump's minions in time.

TRUMP WINS 3-1, ADVANCES TO QUARTERFINALS

AMNESIAC vs. FORSEN

In Game 1, Amnesiac's Druid got an early ramp against Forsen's Aggro Shaman and concerned about his life total given the aggressive nature of Forsen's deck, made the risky play of healing with his Ancient of Lore rather than drawing cards, given that he had Harrison Jones in his hand with the possibility to draw cards.

The move paid off, Forsen playing his Doomhammer on turn 7, enabling Harrison Jones to destroy the Doomhammer and draw six cards. Forsen got Amnesiac down to 13 health, but the card draw from Harrison Jones gave Amnesiac the ability to stabilize behind two Druids of the Claw and an Ancient of War, a taunt wall too solid for Forsen to breach, giving Amnesiac game 1.

Amnesiac quickly won a Game 2 Shaman mirror thanks to a 16-damage Doomhammer on turn 6; a stealthed 8/4 Gadgetzan Auctioneer and SI:7 Agent were enough for Amnesiac to take the sweep with his Rogue and advance to Friday.

AMNESIAC WINS 3-1, ADVANCES TO QUARTERFINALS

FORSEN vs. STRIFECRO

Forsen's Tempo Mage got off to a hot start in Game 1 against StrifeCro's Rogue, getting Mana Wyrm and Mirror Image down early, but StrifeCro got his unchallenged Edwin VanCleef down and with Eviscerate was able to clear the board. That left Forsen in a topdecking situation and StrifeCro with a full hand and the game snowballed out of control for the Mage when StrifeCro got both of his Violet Teachers down uncontested.

Forsen's Mage fared better in Game 2, a clutch Flamewaker on turn 8 taking StrifeCro's health from 18 down to 5 and with StrifeCro's Druid unable to remove it, an Arcane Blast draw on turn 9 tied up the series 1-1.

StrifeCro's Druid fared better in Game 3, getting the big taunts (Druid of the Claw and Ancient of War) down and winning as Forsen's Aggro Shaman was unable to remove them cleanly. StrifeCro took the Shaman vs. Shaman Game 4, his Feral Spirits holding off Forsen's buffed Tunnel Troggs just long enough to get full value out of Doomhammer.

STRIFECRO WINS 3-1, ADVANCES TO QUARTERFINALS

In an unaired match, Amnesiac won his part of the loser's bracket against Forsen, 3-0, advancing to Friday's quarterfinals.

KIBLER vs. THIJS

This match was for the final spot from Day 1 for the quarterfinals.

Unlike Thijs's Dragon Priest, which was geared towards being stronger in control matchups, Kibler's version included the Cabal Shadow Priest and was geared to be stronger versus the aggressive decks, but Thijs did not bring an Aggro Shaman to this tournament. Kibler's Priest in Game 1 was able to deal with both the Ancient of War (with Entomb) and Ragnaros (Shadow Word: Death) from Thijs's Druid. But after Kibler had a two Wyrmrest Agent and Azure Drake on board, Thijs was able to remove them efficiently with his first Force of Nature/Savage Roar Combo. Kibler had the card advantage, but a hand that consisted fairly weak cards that were unable to challenge Thijs's Emperor Thaurissan/Azure Drake board. Thijs took Game 1 with his second Savage Roar.

A similar predicament faced Kibler in Game 2, playing the Dragon Priest again, this time against Thijs's Dragon Warrior. The board situation became so dire for Kibler that he had to play both Northshire Clerics and heal Thijs's one-health Blackwing Corruptor just to draw the resulting two cards.

The heal kept the Blackwing Corruptor alive and the second Blackwing Corruptor and Fierce Monkey from Thijs over the next few rounds gave Thijs firm board control that he never lost, putting Kibler down 0-2.

In Game 3, the Dragon Priest mirror, Thijs got off to the faster start, dropping an activated Twilight Whelp on Turn 1, an activated Wyrmrest Agent on Turn 2, and an activated Blackwing Technician on Turn 3. Thijs's strong board presence proved insurmountable for Kibler as the latter never having the cards to pull off a big swing turn.

THIJS WINS 3-0, ADVANCES TO QUARTERFINALS