This weekend, December 18th and 19th, is the Hearthstone World Championship, with 8 players competing for their shot at money, glory, and the title of the 2021 Hearthstone World Champion. The decks have been created, the bracket formed, and it all comes down to the cards drawn and decisions made during the games. The Amber Flight crew is here to break down their thoughts on the weekend, including who they think will win it all.
basedinc: With a field of 7 Garrote Rogues and 7 OTK Demon Hunters, the meta this weekend will revolve around combo disruption. Celestial Alignment is the trump card in ruining opposing strategies and will be often banned away. Glide allows OTK Demon Hunter to get a leg up in this meta making it the next most dangerous deck and my pick to perform at the top. McBanterFace boldly brought Quest Handlock which has game against the 3 most common decks and is quite handy at beating most players 4th; he is my pick to win it all. By stats, I think Quest Warrior is the better 4th, but the caveat is that Quest Warrior is the most linear deck in the game despite matching well into the big 3 so it can quickly become a liability at this level, even if the stats look great.
doctorfeesh: I agree with based’s statements about Handlock, it seems really good right now, and I also believe McBanterFace will win this weekend.
dragonrider: Overall, I expect that the Rustrot Vipers that have been included in many decks will ultimately fall flat as weapon removal because most of the field just doesn't rely on weapons for their game plan. However, the several Mutanus inclusions in a few of the decks may end up getting VERY good value against the Mozaki Mage, OTK Demon Hunters, or Alignment Druids. I am very interested to see how well Xiaobai performs with his "unusual" lineup compared to the other players, with no Druid or Demon Hunter. When it comes to who will win it all, I have to go with Glory himself, aiming to be the first player to win 2 World Champion titles.
Itachi: If Tianming can execute Mozaki Mage well, he's in good position as he opted to bring a 4th combo deck instead of an "anti combo" in Alignment Druid or an unintuitive 4th in Paladin in a field of combo decks with very good removal.
Outside of this, it's hard to bet against Gaby with the triple combo + Face Hunter which has a VERY good spread into Alignment Druid and still stands a relatively good chance vs Garrote Rogue, two of the most popular decks in the tournament.
nejiboston: I think Posesi/McBanterFace have the best lineups. I like banter's warlock because it is trying to give an edge against the combo field with Mutanus and Altars. And for Posesi, Face Hunter is a smart bring because it beats up on alignment and has game vs garrote which were both very likely brings. Otherwise, I think they both brought the 3 best decks: Garrote/Alignment/OTK DH.