Interview with dignitas Greensheep: "I think that going into 2015 Team Dignitas will definitely shine."

Recently I got a chance to sit down with James 'Greensheep' Lou, Team Dignitas’ most successful Hearthstone player, most well known for being one of Europe’s representatives at 2014 Blizzcon.

Hi Greensheep, what have you been up to since Blizzcon and Dreamhack Winter?

Greensheep: Since Blizzcon and Dreamhack Winter, there hasn’t been many major online and offline tournaments due to it being Christmas. Now it's 2015, there are going to be lots more Hearthstone events, such as Assembly Winter which I’ll be attending at the end of January. Mostly during this break, I’ve just been practicing with the new GvG cards, perfecting my decks, and playing in weekly cups.

 

Around Dreamhack Winter, you were hinting on social media that you were thinking about taking a year off from school to focus on the game, has there been any further development on this decision?

Greensheep: I’ve decided to finish up my A levels which I'm currently doing, this means that I’ll still be in school for the remainder of this year and next, but after that I may take a year off before going to university if I still want to pursue being a full time professional Hearthstone player.

 

How do you feel the TeamDignitas Hearthstone team is doing right now with the recent pickup of former Team Coast player Chakki?

Greensheep: I think that going into 2015, which hopefully will see more team based tournaments, Team-Dignitas will definitely shine. We already have a solid lineup so far with me, Blackout, and Chakki but we are looking to further strengthen it. We are already practicing hard with a few other teams and we seem to get along very well which motivates us to perform better.

 

Now onto the game, how have you adapted to Goblins vs Gnomes?

Greensheep: As I mentioned, Team Dignitas as a team has started practicing with some other teams on a daily basis, sharing our knowledge about the game and our ideas on the meta post GvG. I feel that due to so many people inputting their ideas that we have made very strong new decks which include the GvG cards.

 

Have we seen these decks yet, or are you planning on some surprises?

Greensheep: We have seen decks similar to the ones I run but there are definitely some differences between them. Every day our decks change so when the tournaments come, there should be some surprises in store.

 

The expansion has been out for about a month and a half now, do you think it’s been enough time for all the best decks to be figured out, or is there still room for innovation?

Greensheep: There are definitely lots of room for innovation since the set brought with it 130 new cards, all of which are very unique and change the mechanics of hearthstone itself. Even just a few weeks before GvG came out, new decks were still being produced so I think that there are endless possibilities for new decks with GvG and we haven't even started to find them.

 

All things considered, was the metagame impacted enough by the expansion in your opinion?

Greensheep: The meta has definitely changed a lot by the expansion but I think that there won't be a huge amount of entirely unique decks but more of old decks that have been touched up with the new GvG cards. For the meta to entirely change than you would need a whole new type of interaction to be implemented, like maybe a tool type of card which you can attach to your minion.

 

Would you like to see an equip card-type come into the game, or was that just an example?

Greensheep: In Pokemon tcg there were a lot of equip cards which were called tools, and it made the game a lot different to hearthstone since it added another playstyle. Many players were making decks around these tool cards and it made the game very interesting. This could also be implemented into hearthstone in the same way, an example would be something that you equip a tool onto a minion and you can choose to destroy it when you want to prevent your minion being damaged, like a portable divine shield.

A couple of unconventional decks have emerged since the expansion that didn’t see play before, notably Fatigue Druid and Fatigue Mage. Do you think these decks are just fun, gimmicky ladder decks or are they actually fit for tournaments?

Greensheep: I have seen that fatigue mage is quite gimmicky but has been played in tournaments and is quite effective. Mostly why unconventional decks are successful is that a lot of people aren’t used to playing against it or don't expect it before so it brings an element of surprise. Fatigue decks in general just adds another playstyle to the game which people will have to adapt to and play against now because many more people are trying to make these types of decks.

 

In addition, we’ve seen Zombie Chow become a much more popular card as of late, do you agree with the assessment of it being an auto-include in control decks, which is what it has become lately?

Greensheep: I think that since Zombie Chow is one of the strongest early game minion based on stats that a lot of control decks will choose to include, just to make their aggro and mid-range matchup a little better since zoo and hunter can sometimes just rush you down so fast that you can’t respond. Such as in Handlock where you need hellfire to clear, the addition of zombie chow just means that you have another card that ensures you survive a few more turns to put up a strong defence.The option to include Zombie Chow in control decks is optional though, depending on if you expect aggro in tournaments or ladder.

 

During a broadcast on BBC about e-sports you were a part of, you tweeted that you weren’t really a Handlock player, but many pros have said Handlock is the best deck after the expansion. Do you disagree with them?

Greensheep: Handlock has always been a strong deck, and even after the expansion it is strong. This is mostly because the deck is the same. There are a few minor differences such as Dark Bomb instead of Soulfire and Antique Healbot instead of Earthen Ring Farseer, which means people already know how to play the deck so they only have to learn the new matchups.

 

So you just think Handlock is the best deck because people are so used to playing it, in addition to it being a powerful deck?

Greensheep: Handlock also always has a chance to win any game due its heavily decision based playstyle, meaning that expert handlock players will know their matchups so well that even with a counter deck its hard to beat them. I think that it indeed is a strong deck but in this meta i’m not sure that there is a best deck at the moment. I just don’t play it much because it doesnt suit my playstyle since I prefer fast games whereas Handlock games are usually long and drawn out.

 

What has been your favorite card to emerge from the expansion?

Greensheep: I have liked a lot of cards that have came out but one of my favourites has been Annoy-O-Tron ᕕ┌◕ᗜ◕┐ᕗ HELLO HELLO HELLO ᕕ┌◕ᗜ◕┐ᕗ

 

Finally, what are your expectations for 2015 in your e-sports career?

Greensheep: I think that 2015 will be a big year for Hearthstone meaning more tournaments and team tournaments, but the big goal of 2015 for me is to win Blizzcon, since I failed to reach that point last year.

 

Any Plugs or Shoutouts?

Greensheep: Shoutout to Team-Dignitas and all their sponsors, my teammates Blackout, Chakki, CookMySock and any other future teammates and also to everyone out there that supports me and hope they continue to do so throughout my e-sports career.

Follow Greensheep on twitter: @GreensheepHS and on twitch: GreenSheepHS