Mind Games and Risk-Taking with Cydonia, Hearthstone's Americas Spring Champion

Earlier this month, after many fierce rounds of competitive play, Blizzard hosted the Hearthstone Spring Championship with the season's top eight players from the Americas. The Spring lineup featured a lot of new faces, eager to make their mark on the scene, showcase their talent and earn a seat in the World Championship at Blizzcon this November.

We sat down with Julien "Cydonia" Perrault, winner of this season's tournament, to chat about mind games, unicorns and what it takes to win such a significant competition.

Bleacher Report: Going into the last leg of the Spring Championship, you were to face Napoleon and either Joster or Rosty if you advanced. How did you prepare for the day?

Julien "Cydonia" Perrault: Napoleon, all his decks are super standard, other than his Druid that doesn't have Fandrel Staghelm, Raven Idol or Rag, only a few cards different from my Druid. The other decks are essentially the same decks I play against all the time on ladder or in tournaments for the last few months.

I started prepping, and after a bit, I couldn't even concentrate because it was the same thing over and over, so I went to bed, woke up and prepped against Freeze Mage. It was the deck I felt the least comfortable facing because it's rarer on ladder. I won nine out of 10 matches with my decks against a friend who is very good with Freeze Mage, so I think that helped.

I mean, I couldn't see Napoleon's hand, so it's hard to tell if the plays I made worked, but it seemed to be pretty good.

B/R: Well, it worked. The casters said at the beginning of the last match that your opening hand was a solid choice against Freeze Mage, but you chose to throw them back; why take that chance?

Cydonia: I don't like Eaglehorn Bow that much. It's like a Fireball that's going to take too long to cast; maybe I'm wrong, but I didn't like it.

B/R: Well, you were rewarded for the choice and ended up with a better line of play and curved out well.

Cydonia: I think that's key; to curve out well with Hunter. It's the new Secret Paladin [laughs].

B/R: So you were looking to take a more aggressive line of play?

Cydonia: Well, there's two ways to win with Hunters, either curving out or having consecutive Highmanes and Calls of the Wild, but even that didn't work for the first game.

B/R: That was a crazy first game by the way. Speaking of the Warrior matchup, you hit a card dry spell and spent turns four and five unable to put much on the board. At that point, Napoleon started to take control of the match; what was your plan to fight back?

Cydonia: Because Warrior has a difficult time dealing with Highmanes and Calls, my plan was to outvalue him. Maybe I should have played around his removal a bit more and traded a bit less. I could have played more like a Zoo, create more of a board, hope he can't build and go face. I don't know; I ended up trading and he had good removal, so I lost.

Credit: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc

B/R: Napoleon is a very reactive player; he wears his emotions on his sleeve. How much did you use this to your advantage? There was a point during one match where it looked like you paused to ratchet up the pressure on him a bit. How much does sitting across from an opponent and playing off their tells impact your strategy?

Cydonia: When I play against people, I'm always watching. Even against DeerJason, I was always watching him, and he was never looking up. The same went for Napoleon; I'd play a card and then wait to see if I got a reaction. I may not be the best technical player, but I always try to read them, understand their hand and put that in my game plan.

I definitely tried to read him, and I noticed he was already freaking out, so why should I play fast if my opponent is panicking in their chair? I realized I might have been playing too fast to see what happens; I feel things went better after slowing down and thinking about the cards in his hands.

B/R: Rosty was a bit different as he keeps a rather stern poker face. Were you able to read anything? Did it affect your gameplay at all?

Cydonia: A bit, but not much; Rosty's a super solid player. You heard the casters and everyone say he was probably the best player here, so I didn't think I was going to get a huge edge.

I didn't feel that I could do anything to get him rattled. When I play against him for fun, yeah, sometimes he gets pretty tilty, but there's a difference between tilting on ladder and playing on this stage. He's a smart guy and level-headed, so I didn't think I could get an edge.

B/R: The Zoo Lock versus Rosty's Dragon Warrior was easily one of your toughest losses in the series. How do you recover from a match where your line of play meets perfect answers and then turns against you?

Cydonia: When you're in a bad matchup, the way to win is to take risks. If you both go for safe plays and your opponent is favored, then you're going to lose every time. The reason why I made the Forbidden Ritual choice was that my other line of play, drop a 2/2 and tap, would have just traded the next turn and left the board in an even worse state; then I can't recover. So it was greedy, but there was a chance that if I do that and he doesn't have the Whirlwind effect, then I'm in a great position with really good follow-up plays.

Sometimes you have to go for it.

B/R: It's true, even your follow-up play with Knife Juggler and Argent Horserider, you had to take the higher-risk play just to see if the juggle would hit.

Cydonia: Exactly! With that, I have a 25 percent chance to leave a board and live, but the safe trade would have meant that I had a 100 percent chance to die from anything he played on his next turn.

B/R: I have to ask, Young Dragonhawk, Finals MVP?

Cydonia: Yeah, that was a great play. It wasn't obvious at first because as Zoo that's not normally one of the cards you look for, but it was worth the risk.

Credit: Blizzard Entertainment, Inc

B/R: In the Hunter vs. Hunter matchup, you both had different approaches; your deck leaned more toward mid-range, and Rosty's played a more aggressive lineup. What was your strategy going into this match?

Cydonia: Face Hunter has existed for a long time, and everyone knows that Face is favored over mid-range; that's just how Hunters go. The way his Hunter deck was built, it was all early-game stuff and Calls, with kind of a hole in the mid-game. It was really good at getting board control, but if it failed, you had turns four through seven to kill him before he does multiple Call of the Wilds; that's what I tried to capitalize on.

B/R: Now that you have a guaranteed seat at Blizzcon, how do you plan to prepare for the tournament?

Cydonia: I'll analyze the meta, try all the decks I think could be good and practice my favorite ones as much as possible, then test with practice partners and craft a lineup that makes sense according to that.

B/R: I noticed that you signed up for DreamHack Montreal. Any plans to attend other competitions before the 2016 Blizzcon finals in November? Since winning the Spring tourney, have you seen an increase of invites to tournaments?

Cydonia: I'll also be at the Hearthstone Championship Tour Summer Preliminaries for sure. I'd be interested in attending other events if opportunities present themselves but nothing set in stone for now. I've been flying a bit under the radar so far, so I haven't been invited to anything yet. I watched a bit of SeatStory this week, and it looks like a lot of fun though.

B/R: When we last left off, we joked about the possibility of you joining an established eSports team, how has that progressed?

Cydonia: I'm talking with teams and learning how the industry works. I haven't joined one yet because I want to be sure to find the best fit for the team and me, but it's very likely I will join one before DreamHack Montreal.

B/R: Tournament format, specifically Conquest vs. Last Hero Standing, is a heavily debated topic in the Hearthstone community. Each side declares benefits. Conquest backers argue it's more about creativity, and Last Hero Standing advocates say it's about the skillful piloting of refined decks. Which do you prefer?

Cydonia: I have only played Conquest in serious tournaments, and it's been treating me well so far, so I have to say I prefer that one! I'll have the opportunity to play LHS at DHmtl soon, and I'll have a more informed opinion afterward.

B/R: You mentioned that you had played against a lot of the same decks on the ladder and in tournaments, during the lead-up to the Spring Championships; do you feel players are less inclined to experiment in larger competitions? Does the pre-release of deck info stifle creativity at all?

Cydonia: Of course, there are fewer incentives to try to surprise people with off-meta archetypes if lists are known ahead of time. I think it depends a lot on a player's personality and play style; some like to experiment and be known for interesting decks, and others prefer refining lists. There's always an advantage of opponents not knowing how to play against you when it's a new deck, so there is still a good reason to bring unknown builds if they are strong enough.

B/R: There are plenty of rumors about the next Hearthstone Adventure taking place in Karazhan, are there any specific cards or themes you'd like to see introduced?

Cydonia: I like cards like Jaraxxus that replace your hero and have cool emotes. I think it's only a matter of time before other classes get their own.

B/R: Ben Brode's comment about the creation of unique and successful decks after the meta has settled has sent many in search of an undiscovered Unicorn Priest deck. Which class do you feel still has the most amount of room for deck experimentation?

Cydonia: I'm a big fan of unicorns as well, so I would like someone to find the unicorn Priest. Someone thought his Reno C'Thun priest build was good, so I tried that for a few games, but I like winning and switched back to more established decks soon after.

It seems pretty obvious what the strong individual cards and the best builds are at the moment. Other than grindy control decks, I'm not sure if there's anything major to discover. There's been some experimentation lately with control Shaman, but I'm still leaning towards Rogue.