【Rajni Bhabhi 2.0 (2023) Hindi Short Film】

Hearthstonehas a new champion! Pavel wasn't the weekend's only winner,Rajni Bhabhi 2.0 (2023) Hindi Short Film however.

The BlizzCon 2016 audience also won, as viewers were treated to some unique takes on the deck styles that have been dominating the game's player pool in recent months.

SEE ALSO: A deeper look at 'Hearthstone: Mean Streets of Gadgetzan'

The matches played during the Hearthstone World Championship were among the most high-pressure, high-stakes games each finalist has faced, so it’s a big vote of confidence that each of them showcased these unusual builds.

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Here are four of the strange-yet-successful Hearthstonedecks that we saw at the World Championships.

Pavel’s Tempo Mage

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Many Mage decks take advantage of the spells, obviously. There’s a pile of powerful ammo in the Tempo Mage style, but Pavel "Pavel" Beltukov’s build leans more heavily into minions than the average take. And you can bet that if the new world champ thinks this deck has merit, you’ll be seeing it quite a bit on ladder in the near future.

He runs a Water Elemental as a mid-game threat to help protect important early minions such as the Sorcerer’s Apprentice and Mana Wyrm. Going into the late game, the Faceless Summoner proved to be a useful tool for increasing board presence. And rather than an Archmage Antonidas, Pavel runs two Firelands Portals and one Flamestrike in the seven-mana slot.

This combination of minion power on top of the usual Tempo Mage combinations for damage generated by the Flamewaker turned Pavel’s deck into one of his best builds during the championship.

DrHippi’s Dragon Warrior

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Artem "DrHippi" Kravets was a favorite for the big win, and he made several noteworthy choices in the decks he chose to bring for the tournament.

One of the young European player's most unusual was his Dragon Warrior. The ladder has seen a large number of Dragon Warrior players in the past year, but DrHippi has made so many changes from the norm that it feels like an entirely different deck.

Before the competition started, DrHippi had said that his BlizzCon decks were designed to target Shaman players. That strategy is clear in his Dragon Warrior build; he placed a higher importance on weapons in this set.

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There’s an Arathi Weaponsmith and a Malkorok in his build, each of which creates a weapon in additional to the requisite Fiery War Axe option for hero-inflicted damage. Those are all useful tools for bludgeoning down totems.

DrHippi also has a little more taunt power, adding a Fierce Monkey to the typical two Twilight Guardians. This setup interrupts the constant chip damage from a mid-range Shaman.

Those choices worked well against more than just Shaman, though, proving that the Dragon Warrior can support some player personalization and still be a strong contender. Drawing perfectly and getting multiple lucky Ragnaros shots in a row, as DrHippi did in his semifinal match, also doesn’t hurt with the deck’s win rates.

Che0nsu’s Malygos Druid

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Cheon Su "Che0nsu" Kim earned himself some new fans during BlizzCon with his uncanny sense for mind games and reading his opponents’ hands. But he also brought several unique variants of his own that tripped up even some of the world’s best.

For instance, Che0nsu responded to lots of players targeting the popular Maylgos Druid build with a few unexpected tech choices.

Malygos Druid stacked up as one of the most potent decks following the One Night in Karazhanadventure. Che0nsu took full advantage of the newly released cards by including Barnes in his lineup.

The card has been one of the most impactful in the post-Karazhanmeta, and Che0nsu was able to score a few very lucky RNG moments with Barnes in his BlizzCon matches. Nothing like having a surprise +5 spell damage to give a turn that extra kick of power.

He also plays just one Ancient of War. This is a late-game defense card that was very popular in early Ramp Druid decks. It does have some flexibility options; Che0nsu did wind up occasionally playing it in the less common Uproot form, which puts 10 attack on the board.

But even in the taunted Rooted form, Ancient of War allowed him to stall out and stabilize against some of the more aggressive decks Che0nsu took down in his march to a semifinals finish.

Hamster’s N’Zoth Priest

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Yes, for all the digs and memes about the Priest class, Zhuo "Hamster" Wang has proven that it can in fact be viable on the global competitive scene.

This is a bit of an honorable mention, as Hamster lost to fellow Chinese player Jasonzhou in the first quarterfinal matchup of BlizzCon and didn’t get to show off this deck on the main stage. But during the Opening Week, his Priest play was one of the standouts.

Hamster had the option to switch it out of his quarterfinal lineup in favor of one of the more common decks like Secret Hunter or Tempo Mage, but he stuck to his guns with the N’Zoth Priest. That’s the chutzpah a great Hearthstone player needs.

His build is very carefully calculated to fight against control decks. As with any N’Zoth deck, there’s a heavy presence of deathrattle minions. The ones Hamster chose are serious threats; cards like Cairne Bloodhoof, Sylvanas Windrunner, and Shifting Shade.

He also runs plenty of strong removal and disruption tools from the Priest arsenal. Thoughtsteal isn’t a common sight these days, but combining it with Entomb allowed Hamster to show off his ability to play with flexibility and adapt to the cards he was dealt.

Topics Blizzard Entertainment Esports Gaming