Ranked Player Spotlight – ThaLucky1

Congratulations to ThaLucky1 for achieving the rank of #2 Legend for the month of April! This achievement contributed towards his qualification for the Americas Spring Preliminary taking place this weekend, May 21-22. No stranger deck building, ThaLucky1 has shown success in digital and physical card games in the past. It’s our pleasure to help you get to know him, and showcase the deck and strategies that he used successfully in Standard Ranked Play for April. Please tell us a little bit about yourself. Hi, my name is Peter Csampai. I'm 25 years old. I currently reside in Las Vegas, Nevada. I play poker professionally, as well as playing Hearthstone at a competitive level. How long have you been playing Hearthstone, and how did you get started? I started playing back when it opened to the public after one of my Magic: The Gathering friends suggested it to me. Does your BattleTag have any special meaning or significance? I got my nickname “Lucky” from Magic: The Gathering by always top decking the right cards at the right time. I had one of my friends on Xbox Live, Tha Champion, suggest the name to me, since it was hard coming up with a name that had “Lucky” in it that wasn't already taken, and I’ve stuck with it ever since. How do you approach each season, and what strategies do you use to climb your way to the top of the rankings? At first I try to just race to Legend, mostly playing more aggressive decks since I don't want to play long games, especially if I'm going to be trading wins a huge amount of the time. Then when I make it to Legend I try to evaluate the meta more and plan accordingly based on the decks I was playing against while climbing to Legend. Getting high ranks is a bit trickier. It takes a lot of luck and variance, minimal mistakes, knowing what cards to keep in my starting hand versus certain matchups and what cards to replace, and also knowing what cards my opponents are playing in their decks so I can play my future and current turns accordingly. What style of decks do you prefer playing? I've always enjoyed playing control decks the most, since they give you more room to outplay your opponents. I've always enjoyed Warlock because Life Tap is such a powerful Hero Power, being able to generate card advantage for 2 life. What decks did you use for the April Standard Ranked Play season? I ended up climbing to rank #5 in Legend with Renolock, but I kept playing vs a lot of Combo Druid so I switched to Zoo after a few losses, then ended up getting rank #1 with Zoo like 4 or 5 times before the expansion hit. Then after the expansion dropped, I lost rank #1 and retook it with Reno Freeze Mage since it felt like the most reliable deck for a meta where everyone was playing newer, unpolished decks. I try to adjust and switch off my decks based on the meta all the time, depending on what people are playing and what cards are good against those match ups. What are your impressions of Standard format and the newest expansion so far? I think Standard brings new life into the game. Opening up new possibilities with decks every year. As far as the set goes, as long as there isn't a Dr. Boom or Loatheb reprint, the cards really don't bother me too much. How did you adjust so quickly to the introduction of Standard format and the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion? I theory crafted a lot of decks before the set came out and then I had help play testing those decks with my skype group CuteGamerBoys, as well as with a few players on my friends list Casie, Firebat, Fr0zen, Muzzy, Luffy and my teammate Frescha. Are there any new decks you are excited to try out for this month? As far as new decks go, hopefully I can make something new and innovative rather than trying somebody else's deck out, but mostly I look forward to playing Miracle Rogue again. You recently participated in DreamHack Austin. How was your experience there and do you plan on playing in any other upcoming tournaments? Overall, the experience went fine. I ended up going 6-3, but the big thing for me was just being able to meet all the people that I compete against online and talk to on a daily basis. As far as tournaments go, I plan on playing in the Spring Preliminary and maybe a few more DreamHacks and as many online tournaments that I can squeeze in between. How does your approach preparing for Ranked Play differ from playing in tournaments? For ladder, I usually try to build my decks so I can beat both control and aggressive decks at the same time. That way I balance out the variance and I don't have to go back and forth between switching decks too much. For tournaments, it varies a lot on the format. For instance, in Last Hero Standing you want to try to bring a lineup that doesn't get 3-0ed by a particular deck and you tend to counter pick decks more since the games go back and forth. Whereas in Conquest, you can target decks specifically knowing they have to keep playing the decks that they lose with. What are your goals for Hearthstone this year? Qualifying for Worlds either through Preliminaries or the Last Call tournament. Where can viewers find you? I stream on Twitch at twitch.tv/Lucky1223 and am on Twitter at AGG_ThaLucky1. Do you have any advice or thoughts you’d like to share with your fans or other aspiring competitive players? The best thing I can recommend is practice and prepare as much as you can and always have confidence in yourself even when everyone counts you out. Thanks to ThaLucky1 for taking the time to speak with us! 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