Team SoloMid's Trump on RNG, Goblins vs Gnomes legendaries and why Hearthstone isn't chess

Trump had just finished eating a slice of pizza with Hafu and his friends when I saw him sitting outside of the convention, no doubt talking about Hearthstone. Just an hour or so earlier I was watching him and Hafu explain why paladin curves often get cluttered at 4 mana at their "How to be an arena master" panel. Being a long time fan of his stream, I sat him down for a couple of questions.

We’re here at Blizzcon 2014 with none other than Trump himself, the Mayor of Valuetown. How has it been, man?

It’s been great. I actually had a meet up with fans, and I have something to show you.

Oh, this should be great. I can’t wait to see this.

*Shows Mayor of Valuetown name plaque*

Well, there you have it. That is indeed the Mayor of Valuetown. I expect to see this on your stream.

I will make some use of it for sure.

You know, speaking of Valuetown; Goblins vs. Gnomes. I would have never predicted it, but now that I see it, it makes perfect sense. What’s your first impression of the new expansion?

Well, I mean, the first impression with almost any expansion is just, “Oh, boy, there are new cards” and that’s pretty much everyone’s reaction—they really like to see more cards. This one has, I’m not going to say any mind-blowingly good or bad or strange cards, but they’re just solid cards. I like, in particular, the piloted ones that were shown off so far, because they bring a little bit of Arena into Constructed. In Arena, you have to think on your feet, and when you’re playing this piloted card—which summons a random 2-mana or 4-mana minion—you’re going to have to get into situations that you don’t often get into. That’ll be where the “think-on-your-feet” Arena skill comes in, I’d say.

Constructed players often have the luxury of basically knowing every card in their opponent’s deck, and they’ve been in that situation dozens of times. But of course, in Arena, you don’t know what they’re going to play. One card that we know you’ve already taken a liking to is Sneed’s Old Shredder, right?

That’s right.

Tell us about that card. Honestly, it does seem like one of the most powerful Legendaries in the set.

Okay, well I’ll talk about the Deathrattle, which is summon a random Legendary minion. Barring a few other abilities, I have to imagine that that’s one of the strongest card techs in the Game. As it turns out—and I’ve done the math, because I like doing this type of stuff—it turns out the average Legendary is a 5/6 with severe upset, because there’s all of these cool Deathrattles like Sylvanas, Cairne, Kel’Thuzad, and Sneed’s Old Shredder. If you get any of those, then you’re really good, and if you just get, like, a random 8/8 Alexstrasza, even if you don’t get the Battlecry, you know, it’s still an 8/8. So that’s one of the biggest Deathrattles I anticipate will be in most Control decks. Maybe it’ll replace the Ysera in Control Priest, it’ll find a place in Control Warrior; it’s amazing. It’s weak to Silence, but that’s about it.

And I don’t see any other card you would rather pick in an Arena deck, either. If you were given the choice, I can’t think of any Legendary that you’d pick over it.

I think that’s a really good point. It’s really strong. It probably is on par, if not better than, all of the top Legendaries like Ragnaros and Cairne.

On that topic, we’ve already had some knee-jerk reactions to the set. A lot of people are saying, “Oh my gosh, more RNG? That’s what makes Hearthstone the hardest to play” What do you think of this set’s theme of Goblins, Gnomes, and randomness?

Ben Brode actually had a panel about the expansion, and had a chart about how, basically, this game shouldn’t quite be chess. And I agree, because, if you want to play chess, go play chess—chess is a fine game. But a game like Hearthstone should naturally come with randomness, because without randomness, you can just cold-calculate the result of each game, and that’s not quite the flavor [of Hearthstone]. Ben Brode called it a “high-skill, high-luck” game —like poker, for example—where the way that you play will really influence the decision of the game. Another thing that he told me was that, if you match up a guy like Kolento against a new player and give them all the same cards, Kolento still wins 99.9% of the time.

Back to the randomness, let me do another side tangent on the Shaman class. One of the reasons that Shaman is really cool is that, whenever you press that Totem button, you have to consider all of the scenarios which could happen: one-fourth chance of this, one-fourth chance of that, etc. And then you have to actually think about, okay, if this happens, I do this, but if that happens, I do that. That’s where the randomness is really lovely, because it throws in that “thinkon- your-feet” thing, so you have to think through a lot of different plans. So, knowing that something is going to happen, in some ways, tests a different skill, and the randomness actually introduces more of that different skill to the game.

Also, Ben said that these specific cards were released because they are more flashy, so I would expect the rest of the set to not have as much randomness. So, I don’t have a problem with it; and even if I did have a problem with it, the rest of the set won’t have as much [randomness].

That’s a very practical look at it, because, yes, chess is out there, it already exists.

It’s a good game! Play it!

So, one of the last questions that’s been on everyone’s mind, and has been a hotly debated topic in the last couple of days. Trump; Gnomes or Goblins?

Well, you should expect my answer to be Gnomes, as I appreciate the scientific rigor of the Gnomes over the impulsive, explosiveness of the Goblins. I, as a Control player, side much closer with the Gnomes, and their research and ingenuity—nothing wrong with Goblins; they take the ingenuity in different directions, but, you know, I prefer less explosives.

Alright guys, there you have it: Trump is on the side of the Gnomes. You know, I think most people have been siding with the Gnomes.

Oh, man, if you’d told me that, you know, maybe—*laughs*. I appreciate the Goblins, too—in some ways, I’m neutral, like sometimes you just throw bombs around and good stuff happens.

So maybe you could say that the Goblins are the “high-skill, high-luck” characters, as they rely on the variance that “this might explode” Trump, now that you are officially the mayor of Valuetown, is there anything that you’d like to say to your citizens?

Yeah, this Blizzcon, I really appreciate all of the citizens of Valuetown meeting up with me. It turns out that they’re nice people, and they’re really uplifting, and I really appreciate meeting everyone. It’s been a great con!



Jeffrey "Trump" Shih is an American Hearthstone player for Team SoloMid. He is one of the most active Hearthstone streamers and known for his precise arena drafting and superb card evaluation. Check out his stream at twitch.tv/trumpsc