by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

My Hearthstone eSports Play of the Week returns to the Archon Team League Championship, this week we take a look at game 6 of Nihilum vs Value Town. In this game, Lifecoach’s Patron Warrior faced off against Trump’s Handlock. This match was of key importance as Nihilum’s had a lot of Big Game Hunters in their line-up, so they definitely wanted to prey on Trump’s Handlock.

Lifecoach delivered for his team with a quick turn 6 kill, but what really impressed me on this game was his mulligan and how he played every turn leading up to the finish. During this game, the Nihilum Ace really lived up to his “Ropecoach” moniker. The German Player took his time, and we saw some rope burn during all of his first 4 turns. This seemed to get in Trump’s head, and the Mayor of Value Town even stood up and left his chair while Lifecoach played. But despite his “slow” start, the Nihilum player knew exactly what he was doing. After 4 turns, the plan was already set up and in motion, so Lifecoach was able to  play his turns 5 and 6 lightning fast in route to a crushing victory.

The Mulligan

Initial Draw:

He keeps:

One of the most interesting things about this match, is that we have Archon Zalae on commentary. Zalae is a highly accomplished ladder player, and he’s found most of his recent success with Patron Warrior. Zalae explains how Patron is a very complicated deck to play with lots of different options and a lots of decisions to consider. The Archon standout remarks that Lifecoach is playing this match completely different than he would. Starting from the mulligan we see the differences, Zalae is not a fan of keeping combo cards in the start, but Lifecoach decides to keep his Frothing.

Despite the differences in their playstyles, Zalae recognizes that Lifecoach is a great Patron player himself, and that there must be a good reasoning behind his decisions.

The Set Up

Early Game:

Indeed, Lifecoach takes all the time in the world to plan out his game and consider all the different possibilities. Lifecoach seems to decide pursuing a very aggressive line with a turn 2 Fiery War Axe to the face of Trump. Turn 3 for Lifecoach is wait, wait, wait some more, keep analyzing all the possible lines of play, probably even looking into the next turns. Finally he Hero Power passes, keeping one charge of his weapon, presumably to serve as an activator for his Execute.

Turn 4:

Lifecoach’s turn 4 draw is a Warsong Commander, which is probably exactly what he wanted to see. With a Warsong, Frothing, Armorsmith, Unstable Ghoul, and Execute in hand, Lifecoach has lots of possible burst, and with just one Emperor Activation, the entire combo is only 6 mana.

Provided Trump has at least a minion on board so Lifecoach can sacrifice his Ghoul, the Combo is good for at least 9 damage. But if he can add the Death’s Bite Deathrattle to the combo that number quickly rises to 14 and continues to grow if Trump has more than one minion on board.

More importantly, if you add the 3 damage from the remaining charge of Fiery War Axe and both Deathbite Charges, we are looking at 25 damage which is actually enough to kill Trump. Lifecoach knows he has all of the tools he needs to kill Trump by turn 6, so his turn 4 play is to completely ignore a Mountain Giant on the board, Lifecoach’s weapons only have one target, and that’s Trump’s face.

Turn 5:

While Lifecoach’s famed rope saw action on the first 4 turns, turn 5 was easy. Coin, Emperor, Go! The cost reduction on Lifecoach’s combo pieces was key, and he knew that Trump would have a lot of problems trying to prevent the turn 6 lethal.

The Kill

Turn 6 came and Lifecoach immediately started playing his killing combination. I wouldn’t be surprised if he had already calculated what would happen if Trump played the cards that he did. In fact, since Lifecoach is a master of Handlock, I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he had already calculated all the possible plays that a Handlock in Trump’s position could make.

Lifecoach sacrifices the Ghoul and his Armorsmith gives him enough armor so he can actually use the Death’s Bite on a taunt and only go down to 2 hp. The Casters point out that if Trump had played Darkbomb to the face that would’ve prevented this play, but Lifecoach could’ve won 2 extra armor by attacking with the Emperor and Armorsmith first.

In all, Lifecoach had all the answers, and I’m sure he figured out most of it on those turns he invoked that trusty rope of his.

Lifecoach’s extreme planning is enough to earn him my play of the week.