Hearthstone

[Gaspar]

His big problem imo is being way too conservative. Sometimes you need to say screw it and take an inefficient gamble (in terms of cards or especially tempo) because you're already in a hole. Trump does this way less than top tier players. In fact the only constructed deck I've seen Trump play and was very impressed with was Zoo which is consistent with his extreme board control play-style and the fact that Zoo doesn't typically require taking large gambles from a state of weakness. Or, if they do require a big gamble, it's obviously the only line of play anyway.

Yeah, this I suppose is really what I was driving at. I recall watching him play hunters and just being absolutely paralyzed by traps. Like just completely unwilling to take any risk whatsoever and not recognizing that by doing nothing he was actually doing more for his opponent than he would have by activating the traps. There's other examples but this one stuck with me because it was infuriating to watch.

[Kuro]

I would also agree that Trump is a step below the very top and that he can be too conservative at times, it's just that I would say he is still extremely good. It's like comparing Russell Wilson to Peyton Manning or Hisashi Iwakuma to Felix Hernandez, to use two sports analogies: Yeah, one is worse, but they're still obviously one of the best at what they do. I do think that Trump is too conservative too often, though, because I think that sometimes he doesn't consider the "If I don't do something risky, I'll lose" plays quick enough. You gotta recognize when to tempo at the cost of some card advantage, yo.

[WilliamLP]

I think Trump can and will tune his game sense over time, if he just plays a lot more constructed with different decks. He's already done this quite a lot.

About the very top players, I'm very sure that to be near the very best at this game (which I couldn't be) one absolute requirement is a savant-like familiarity with numbers and adding series instantly and effortlessly. Some streamers have this more than others. The ones you you see who have to slowly count it out (and miss lethal frequently) have just too much of a tactical disadvantage over the ones who have this on autopilot. Someone with that, _and_ game sense will win more often. This, since time does matter, especially on a complicated board where there are many combinatorial possibilities to enumerate.

[Jowy]

Trump will always be "up there" because he plays the game as his living, which is something that very few people can afford to do.

[Ichabod]

So, I drafted a very, very good shaman deck. It's still only 1-0, because I'm afraid of losing with it, since it's so good. It has 4 fire elementals (I was offered more than half a dozen, I think), one earth elemental, 2 axes, 3 unbound elementals, a lightning storm, 2 hexes and so on. It lacks lightning bolts, but that's manageable.

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, he deck was also offered a legendary! The three options were Harrison Jones, Alexstraza and... Nozdormu! I couldn't allow myself not to pick Nozdormu, since I get really mad with people that take too long to play their turn. In the only game I played so far, my opponent lost 2 turns to Nozdormu massive power! I love that card.

In a more serious note, Nozdormu seems to be really buggy. The time it takes to finish turns when he's in play is definetely not constant... At least that was my impression...

[pindicator]

That sounds like an awesome draft! Try not to stress about the winning and just enjoy the ride

Also, can you post the deck full list?

[WilliamLP]

What's amazing to me about Trump is how he has acquired such a fanatical fan base now. He has his own kind of charm, but he's not someone you tune into at first and think "wow, now that is a charismatic personality". But last night I saw that he was playing "Papers, Please" and 16,000 people were watching him, making it the third most popular game on Twitch at that time, with more viewers than all of Hearthstone! So at least at this moment in time, Trump has successfully made himself a larger force than the specific game he's streaming, which is the dream for a streamer.

Also, when you consider how much time people spend watching streams, and how big a number 16,000 is (compare to attendance of concerts and sporting events and how much economy is involved), it's quite amazing.

[Cyneheard]

That sounds like an awesome draft! Try not to stress about the winning and just enjoy the ride

Also, can you post the deck full list?

Any deck that can look at a Fire Elemental and say "thanks, but no thanks"....

Definitely want to see the deck list. Do you remember what you took over the Fire Elementals?

[Gaspar]

Trump will always be "up there" because he plays the game as his living, which is something that very few people can afford to do.

Well, pretty much everyone we're talking about as top players does this to varying degrees. That's how e-sports work.

So, I drafted a very, very good shaman deck. It's still only 1-0, because I'm afraid of losing with it, since it's so good. It has 4 fire elementals (I was offered more than half a dozen, I think), one earth elemental, 2 axes, 3 unbound elementals, a lightning storm, 2 hexes and so on. It lacks lightning bolts, but that's manageable.

So, why am I telling you all this? Well, he deck was also offered a legendary! The three options were Harrison Jones, Alexstraza and... Nozdormu! I couldn't allow myself not to pick Nozdormu, since I get really mad with people that take too long to play their turn. In the only game I played so far, my opponent lost 2 turns to Nozdormu massive power! I love that card.

In a more serious note, Nozdormu seems to be really buggy. The time it takes to finish turns when he's in play is definetely not constant... At least that was my impression...

That's amazing. Yeah, I don't think I'd have been able to pass on Nozdormu either. Hope you have fun with it, that does sound awesome.

[Ichabod]

I'll post the full deck when I get home. Mostly what I'm trying to avoid is playing when I know my internet connection is flaky, since I really don't want to lose due to disconnects.