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The exciting day of Hearthstone ended with the Clash of the Titans, the battle of the two top favorites to win the entire tournament. Savjz from Finland and StrifeCro from the United States were hyped up going into this and the match did not fall short of expectations.
The battle of the favorites, the big one every one was waiting for - the SeatStory Cup made everyone wait to the last event of the day until the two big stars of Hearthstone Savjz and StrifeCro entered the virtual arena to slug it out. The fight had many interesting moves, the two secret decks of the players revealed and one shining winner: "The Nuts" StrifeCro.
At first it didn't look quite as good for the former Starcraft 2 player, who opened in the Druid mirror with his staple trademark deck and simply lost to Savjz finding a way to create a dominant board around the sixth and seventh turn. From that moment on, with a [card]Chillwind Yeti[/card] and a [card]Keeper of the Grove[/card] against an empty board, Savjz could just snowball the situation and took out every single card StrifeCro was throwing at him with ease. What Savjz didn't know, he had to go up against the same deck once more, as StrifeCro made use of the unique ability to bring in the "secret" deck, which turned out to be an exact copy of the Druid deck he just lost with.Â
In that match the deciding turn repeated itself in a way, with StrifeCro being able to remove the big [card]Druid of the Claw[/card] of Savjz with [card]The Black Knight[/card], putting him in the driver seat and leaving Savjz with little to no answers moving forward. The Fin from DogeHouse tried his best though, managed to extend the game a bit longer, but the vicious trade and the Black Knight value was not manageable for him anymore. How would Savjz now fight the secret deck? He decided to fight fire with fire and brought out his secret deck, the Miracle Rogue, which he prefers to play against the mid-range Druid like StrifeCro was bringing to the table. Unfortunately the miracles stayed small and the pressure of StrifeCro with charging [card]Druid of the Claw[/card] was just too massive to ever get into a solid position for the Fin. The fact that he didn't draw into [card]Preparation[/card] or anything didn't help either and so his hit points dwindled away, he used his burn spells like [card]Eviscerate[/card] for board clear and in the end got [card]Swipe[/card]d to the face with a 6/6 [card]Edwin VanCleef[/card] on the board for the kill.
So one secret deck ousts the other, so Savjz went with the known winning recipe of his stomp against Lucifer earlier today - it was Murloc time. Although getting a decent starting hand himself, Savjz found himself frustrated right at Turn 1 when StrifeCro brought out the Coin and [card]Innervate[/card] to play [card]Ancient Watcher[/card] with [card]Sunfury Protector[/card]. Several Murlocs ran into that wall, before the Fin could establish some sort of a board presence with his swarm of fish creatures. The tides literally seemed to have turned on StrifeCro, only until the money top deck [card]Swipe[/card] turned a hungry and angry Murloc swarm into fish soup splattered across the board. Savjz lines were broken, his recovery didn't happen and the health total of the former Starcraft 2 professional weren't threatening too much - ending in Strife taking it 3-1 with the deciding match coming up.
The move to use the "secret" deck seemed to have paid off, but Savjz still had one trump up his sleeve with his feared and trademark Shaman. At first glance it didn't look good for the Fin in that match either, but the resilience of the Nordic man and StrifeCro running out of steam were big factors. [card]Defender of Argus[/card] to taunt up and two valuable [card]Lightning Storm[/card]s gave Savjz enough of breathing room to mount the comeback - also winning the RNG coin flip with the [card]Tinkmaster Overspark[/card] on his own silenced [card]Flametongue Totem[/card] helped immensely. Savjz was still in this series, still with a fighting chance to make the comeback from 3-1 down.Â
It wasn't meant to be in the end with StrifeCro forcing the third mirror match of the series and getting the board control around the fifth and sixth round completely. The American became the aggressor, Savjz did his best to hold on to the lead and tank up every single turn, but measly 2 hit points left made him vulnerable to a lot of Shaman top decks like a [card]Fire Elemental[/card], [card]Lava Burst[/card] or the [card]Lightning Bolt[/card]. In the end it was that shock of thunder running through Thrall's veins that finished the Fin and secured StrifeCro a spot in the Upper Bracket Finals and within the Top 3 at the first ever SeatStory Cup Hearthstone event.Â
The first match tomorrow will bring him an opponent and will determine the Upper Bracket Finals matchup. Either the battle between the States and Europe continues with StrifeCro against Gnimsh, or two Americans from the same team will slug it out for the Grand Finals spot in Trump and StrifeCro. All the answers will be given tomorrow at 2 PM CET when Hearthstone action returns from the Take TV studio in Krefeld, Germany.
