The $150,000 team league is in its second week, and off-meta decks are starting to make an appearance.
Handlocks, Pirate Paladins, Freeze Mages and Kun Combos – the Trinity Series invitational is spicing up the established Gadgetzan meta as each week teams bring nine decks to the table. Yet, what shocked the viewers on the first day of week two was Luminosity Gaming’s Tempo Mage, an echo of a long-gone era.
Tempo Mage has been away from Hearthstone tournaments for some time now, having troubles dealing with the aggressive decks which arrived with Gadgetzan, but the format of the Trinity Series, allowing for two bans right from the door, opened room for the deck to exist. In their second match, Luminosity correctly identified this possibility: Banning Shaman and Warrior, they knew Tempo Mage would have only but a handful of counters. If they managed to get over them, it would be smooth sailing for the deck against a meta that is rich on slow decks such as Reno highlanders and Anyfin Paladins.
The gamble paid off and Luminosity went 6-0 with the Tempo Mage to demolish Tempo Storm and take their second win in the league. The deck itself is nothing new, featuring zero Gadgetzan cards and going off the last stable Karazhan build with [card]barnes[/card] and double [card]firelands portal[/card]. A single [card]polymorph[/card] is included as a tech card to further improve the match-up against decks with big finishers such as RenoLock and Jade Druid.
Full coverage of the Trinity Series is available here, and you can find more top decks from Hearthstone players and streamers in our deck library.
