Interview with Hearthstone player Amaz - Part 3 of 3

This article was originally published on GameSpot's sister site onGamers.com, which was dedicated to esports coverage.

Tgeezy asks how close you were to playing a Priest deck at DreamHack Bucharest?

The moment I saw the amount of Hunters, which I predicted to be high and it was high, I also predicted Zoolock's to be as high but it was actually not that high, I was like " God damn it, I should have brought a Priest deck". This is because I had a Handlock, and a Handlock dealt with Zoo. I hadn't brought a Priest deck because I thought there would be Zoo. But it ended up that there was no Zoo so my Handlock could have been a Priest. And if it was a Priest I would have been able to beat Gaara's Ramp Druid which was pretty sad on my part. The thing about a tournament is that people have this thing called pride and they don't want to win based on like a Face deck. People mainly want to win because "Oh I did this awesome play, that's what won me the game". People play around that and unfortunately, I thought people would have a lot less pride but apparently there were no Zoolocks. I was really close and I wish I had, but maybe next time.

TheBrentPerk asks if you can explain your thought process on the decks you decided to use for DreamHack in detail? You've built up a reputation as that guy who uses Priest and he was a bit disappointed at its a absence (you already explained that in the previous answer). He is also curious to know what goes through your mind when you are preparing for an international tournament (he would ask this of everyone who attended DreamHack if he could)? And Gelbin Mekkatorque, don't forget about him.

So, Watcher Druid was my first deck, and I was so consistent with Watcher Druid, and it's funny how relevant it is even till now. So it's just a comfort pick. I ended up not using it at all after the first match when I lost to a Mage. I was like "Oh God, it's a Mage" and it was a Face Mage, and for a Watcher Druid it's really hard to beat a Face Mage. So I was like "Okay I'm not going to use this and stick with my Hunter", and it was really good, because my Hunter won every single game up till Gaara, which was interesting. So Watcher Druid is a comfort pick. Hunter I kind of had to force myself to learn it. My teammate Xixo and his friends, they actually taught me really well. They showed me the subtleties of Hunter's, like putting out a Boar at turn one is a really good play. There's a lot of subtleties with decks that you don't learn till you play like 200 plus games. I have said this on stream before, if you have played 200 matches you are basically only playing more than 20 games against each match up. 20 matches against a class is generally enough, but 10 is not enough. So you really have to just keep on practicing. So Hunter, I prepared well for it, did really good, I was really happy that happened. And finally Handlock is really just to counter Zoo, which ended up not happening so I was sad. There was no Jaraxxus so I really couldn't win against a control match up. It was really designed to kill Zoo. So, mistakes have been made. As far as preparing for a professional tournament goes, you just need to relax and tell yourself that "you have to prepare everything you need to, don't over think it too much." So two days before the tournament I actually did not play a single game. I just slept well, had hot showers, talked to people. Just live normally. And then, when you are in that zone, you go auto pilot. It's what I mentioned in the earlier question, the practice and scrimming really comes through. You really can't over think. People over think too much in tournaments and they end up doing bad plays. Just do your regular routine and if your regular routine is not that good enough, then maybe you need more practicing. Gelbin is in my Druid deck and he's actually really good. Let's explain why Gelbin is good. First, he's a 6-6 body that summons another creature which is at least 3 health (the Homing Chicken is 1 health, but everything else is 3 and above and I consider the Homing Chicken as a 3 health body as it still needs to absorb a hit) so it's a 6-9 in that sense. And a 6-9 is crazy, especially with Savage Roar, that a lot of combos there with Argus. There's so much that Gelbin could do. Unfortunately the bad part is if you get the Chicken or Poultryizer, then you are screwed. A 25% chance of not working is better than a Nat Pagle right? That's why it is in there. More generally though I think, in tournament games especially, you need to change the tech cards, the more flexible cards that you can change in and out and still be relatively the same deck. You do want to change because the thing is, if your opponent knows the exact 30 cards that you are playing with, they can play around your plays really easily. Just today, in King of the Hill, I put in the Hunter secret Snipe into my deck and it actually worked pretty well because it ended up sniping a Buzzard. He used Buzzard and queued Unleash the Hounds immediately. My Snipe took out the Buzzard and he didn't draw any cards. It's those moments that you really, even the higher tier pros, you really need to experiment with. You need to throw your opponents for a loop and Gelbin fulfills that idea really well.

LeWizardHS asks how you approach R.N.G in tournaments? In the last King of the Hill, Ignite did avoid the R.N.G play until the last time, choosing not to rely on Ragnaros, hitting your creature on turn 8 and instead making a sub optimal play and wasting a lot of removals to clear the board. Reynad did disagree with him saying that "to win tournaments, you should risk a little". How do you approach these kinds of situations?

First of all, sometimes the optimal play is to make the sub optimal play. It may be to bait your opponent in over committing, etc. For that play, and especially for ignite, I would have done the Reynad play as well because you have a 50% chance of coming back into the game really strong. And the other 50% is not that bad. You would probably lose the game though. But sometimes, if you're behind in the game, you have to take risks. For example there was a previous King of the Hill where I was against a Hunter, I was playing Warrior and he had 2 minions, which was really big, and I had a Pyromancer and was at about 16 health. I couldn't remove the board normally using my removal but I ended up using a brawl and it ended up working, leaving my Pyromancer alive which was a good play. But in the end I actually won the game with one health left. So you can tell, if I didn't make that play and went for a sub optimal play, then I might not have won the game. So the thing is, if you are behind don't be afraid to take risks because maybe if you didn't do that you wouldn't have any way of winning.

Solitarang asks which class card from other classes that Priest's would you love to have?

Aldor peace keeper. It's a 3 drop, it's super good, we love 3 drops. It combos with Cabal Shadow Priest, etc. It's really, really good. And I don't know, Armoursmith would be fine. Any Druid card would be fine. That's why Thought Steal's so good, you can't think of a card that is bad (unless it's against Rogues, Deadly Poison sucks). Yesterday I demonstrated how a Shield Slam could be good even at 0 Mana because it proc's a Pyromancer. So it's really hard for a thought steal to whiff, that's why it's such a good card. So much extend or sustain because it draws from your opponent and that really adds into Priest winning a fatigue war. So any class card is welcome, I'm a Priest deck.

SappedNash asks why the love for Priests/gimmicks? He also asks what the reasoning is behind your deck tweaks and what your thoughts are on the competitive scene so far?

Well the thing is, every game I play I really gravitate towards the game lesser characters or the underdog characters, because when you win with them, you get so much joy. The sense of victory is just bigger than you would have normally. Like for example Dan from street fighter or Ellonia in HoN, those characters that you don't see. One advantage is that, when people see it in a tournament setting, they don't expect what you can do with it and if you know that class or hero really well, then you can surprise them, which is good. The thing also is when I first saw Thought Steal, I thought it was the most op card in the game and I still do, so that's why I still play Priest. So thinking back, I have a pattern of playing with underdog heroes. The deck tweaks are really just for the surprise factor. It's the same thing with the underdog classes really. The surprise factor wins you games in tournaments. Once again, if you can see your opponent's hand you should theoretically be able to win the game, so that's the strategy there. The competitive scene right now is really good. I like that they are not overdoing it because it's not League of Legends, it's not Starcraft, it's an entity within itself. So just let it be where it is, people are still exploring which is the best format, which is not single elimination by the way. To use invites or opens or a mix of both. People are still exploring, which is really the exciting part of the game right now. So I am excited about the scene, excited about where it'll be, and I will be active throughout the scene. Well as far as how to improve by the expansion itself I like how they are doing it. I am concerned if they are going to do it in the middle of a tournament. There are always tournaments so I don't think people should be afraid to let those new cards come into the environment, because I have heard a lot of people go "Oh yeah, if they release it in the middle of a tournament then we will just ban those cards". But people want fresh, so just let them do it. Blizzard should know this too. Like Reynad says, every time Magic: The Gathering has a big expansion, there is always a big tournament a week after. So it's just the hype time, people like hype so let them have it. Don't adjust the expansion times based on what tournaments are coming up. As far as Hunter and Zoo goes, we first have to see whole deck list (speaking about the new cards coming in the Naxxramas and also the meta change). I wouldn't say it needs nerfs per say. The Buzzard, Unleash the Hounds and Hunter's Mark, those cards by themselves are fine but together they can be just game breaking. Even Gadgetzan Auctioneer is a card that breaks the game. Zoolock doesn't really need to be fixed because it doesn't require a lot of decisions to play. The only decisions you need to make sometimes are "Oh I have two one drops" or what to trade on the board right. But one thing I think is a problem was that first off it's a good introductory to people who just started the game that is still competitive and it does stop people from going al out control. We do not want to see games that are double Faceless, where whoever has one more eight drop wins the game. So yeah I think it's fine.

Raxyael asks if you have any suggestions to change this heavy Hunter that we are facing?

Not really, we just have to wait for Naxx. I think Hunters are always going to be popular. It's because it's proven to work. Both Face Hunter and also the Mid Range Hunter, these decks are proven to work especially in tournaments too. It works so well in tournaments, why stop now? Until the meta shifts to every single deck countering Hunter, then we will see a change. For example, nowadays more people have started playing Rogues to counter Hunters. But Hunters will always be popular because the three card combination is just too strong. But when there are a lot of Rogues, people will counter Rogues, then people will play Hunter again to counter the counter Rogues. It's fun, it's the environment that changes.

Nonviablerex asks how you would feel if Blizzard makes Buzzards draw off when a beast attack,s instead of when a beast is summoned? This can lead to the player actually having a chance to play around it, making Buzzard more strategic and prevent players from Unleashing to fish for a Hunter's Mark draw.

I don't think that change is the best, because you can still attack with the Hounds and it would still be the same thing. I don't enjoy that too much. I think there was one suggestion where Unleash just doesn't draw you cards, which I think would be totally fine but I don't know how it would be in the game. It needs to be changed, but I don't know how it's going to be changed. What I think Blizzard will do is up the mana cost, because they did come out and say that they don't want to change the card effects too much because that changes everybody's perspective of it. So a higher mana cost will be my predicted change and not card text.

Noberg asks if you are going to DreamHack Sweden?

I want to and I will try to. The thing is, for DreamHack Bucharest, I used my own money to pay for the plane ticket, and I was lucky to get it back. So hopefully I can get sponsored to go to this one. So it's a bit less risky per say, but I still really want to go, because there will be a lot of people there, so hopefully I can.

JacobTheLiar remarks that there are great things viewers have witnessed through your respective channels and asks if you can think of any big comebacks or magical moments in Hearthstone you can remember that weren't recorded?

I don't remember those. My recorded ones are already co enough and the offline ones are cool. I would say something on Twitter I guess. But then people can't relate to it, so no.

ThatPikapp asks how you feel about the Priest deck like Nox's with the ten legendaries in it?

Yeah random and win right? It's fun, but unfortunately not very competitive. I have played against it with my own Priest deck, and I beat him every single game. It's fun and sometimes you just want to play the game for fun. But some fun is making an underdog class competitive. Different definitions of fun I guess.

Martzilla asks how much Hearthstone you play in a day?

Well four hours for sure, for streaming. But usually, if I want to play more I would just play in the mornings, because I have to work in the afternoons. So I would probably say 4-6 hours a day.

MoriPPt would like to know what you think of Light Warden?

A: Very good card if it is 3 health. At 2 health it's pretty bad, it just dies to anything.

Strawcow asks when we can hear your epic sax skills on stream, along with Valrria who asks where we can hear you play and what your INFJ psych type is?

The sax thing we covered already (see part one of this interview). You cannot hear me play sax anywhere else. I did do a concert at the Hong Kong university, but I think the video is private. So I don't think that can be released. I arranged the whole thing but it's kind of a private thing with a hundred people so it's not going to be released. For the psychology thing I took a test and was like "whatever". A lot of things I do overlap so I'm the "chill type" I guess. The thing is they really separate the introverts and extroverts, and I really don't think I'm one of those. I like my private time but I like to hang out with people as well. So I don't really associate with the psychology types that well.

A question from me, I wanted to ask your opinion about the growing Hearthstone pro scene, do you think it's only going to get bigger? Or do you think that everybody needs to be careful about how it's handled as it might develop into a bubble that could burst?

I don't think they should worry about the bubble thing. Because the more events happen, the more better events can happen. I mean Bucharest "Oh single elimination is apparently bad" so yeah. Just don't worry about it too much. And the thing is, it's interesting ,because nobody expected Hearthstone to be this big. It's just an online card game. So the thing, is if you analyse it a bit more, it's really relatable. If you're playing like League of Legends, sometimes a new player doesn't know what's happening. Like sometimes you don't know what's happening in a MOBA or Starcraft as well. There's so much cam switching, etc. But with Hearthstone, all the information is there and you get to make the choices along with the player. That's really what drives Hearthstone to be where it is right now, and I am really excited to see where it's going. I don't think we have to be careful of a bubble bursting, so just go allowing out.

Final question, do you think it's going to become a regular game at other events like MLG?

I hope so, of course I hope so. Maybe, I mean I could see it happen in like a longer time. Maybe a year or half a year. Right now people are still trying to catch it on. It's like the number one most downloaded app on iTunes. And theoretically, my grandfather could watch me play and understand what's happening. So I think that's pretty cool.

That's all for this interview. Once again a big thanks to Amaz for doing it with us and you can follow him on his twitter AmazHS. More interviews soon, albeit in video form.