The Hearthstone Americas Championship Qualifier Tournament is fast approaching, and qualified card-slingers will soon be dueling for the chance to head to the Hearthstone World Championship at BlizzCon 2014, where they’ll compete for glory and a $250,000 prize pool.
The players that will be competing in the Championship Qualifier have earned their spots in a variety of ways, such as winning invitational tournaments, conquering community tournaments, or exhibiting excellence in ranked play.
These worthy competitors each have victory on their minds, but they also bring their own unique spark to the journey as well! Join us as we get to know the people behind the decks: their stories, their favorite decks, how they convince Ragnaros to hit their intended target, and more!
RAZOR
Razor is first and foremost an innovator. He is constantly concocting his own decks, testing them extensively to see what works on ladder and in iHearthU’s King of the Hill tournaments. Razor makes a point of utilizing cards that generally see less play in hopes of making decks that are both viable and fun. Razor’s creativity reaches beyond Hearthstone as well; he writes and builds websites when he’s not cooking up exciting decks.
What is your favorite deck to play?
My favorite deck to play is a Warrior deck of my own creation featuring Warsong Commander. It has the ability to draw lots of cards and kill opponents at high life totals. While not quite suitable for tournament play, it's quite good at creating highlight reel style plays almost every game.
What’s your favorite/craziest play you’ve ever made in Hearthstone?
One of my favorite plays that I've made in Hearthstone involves killing an Aggro Hunter on the ranked ladder as Priest on turn 5. I used Divine Spirit on my 4/7 Injured Blademaster twice to make him a 4/28, and then used Crazed Alchemist to turn the Injured Blademaster into a 28/4. I was able to swing for 28 damage and the win.
What’s your process for testing decks? When does a deck officially become a success?
My process for testing decks always begins with a large volume of losing matches. It's easy to build decks with a theme or plan, and it's usually easy to predict how a deck will perform if things go according to plan and you draw the cards you need. It's a lot harder to predict performance when you draw all the wrong cards or your opponent makes their own powerful plays before you do, which is why it is important to playtest losing scenarios to see to what extent your deck can recover from them. Sometimes you need to intentionally make plays you normally wouldn't just to see how they'll play out. This in turn allows you to make corrections and iterate faster. I consider a deck officially a success when it is able to do at least one useful thing better than any other deck, allowing it to be the best response for a specific tournament situation or choice for a particular meta-game.
If you could design a card, what would it be?
If I could design a card, it would be a neutral 1/4 for 2 that reads: After you summon a minion, restore 1 health to all friendly characters.
Are there any players you’re looking forward to or nervous about playing against?
The players I'm most looking forward to are backspace, Tarei, and Dengxu. They tend to keep a low profile in terms of popularity but have made influential contributions to the meta-game with some interesting builds over the past few seasons. I'm excited to see what kind of new things they come up with for this high profile tournament.
If you could make Polymorph turn a minion into something other than a sheep, what would it be?
A hedgehog!
How does one go about making a deal with Ragnaros?
I don't know. I tend to steer clear of unpredictable Firelords, but I'm sure Amaz would know.
What are you passionate about outside of Hearthstone and other games?
I love to create things. When not brewing new deck ideas for Hearthstone, I enjoy creative writing and developing websites.
Razor can be found chatting with his viewers while experimenting with decks on his Twitch channel.
Join the Conversation