Goodbye Innervate, goodbye Doomhammer.

On Twitter, James “Firebat” Kostesich, organizer of the Batstone tournament series, revealed the last two contenders to join the inaugural edition. Reigning world champion Sebastian “Ostkaka” Engwall and innovative deckbuilder Drew “TidesofTime” Biessener wrap up the player line-up, now consisting of:

ThijsNL
SuperJJ
Ostkaka
Ness
Kolento
StrifeCro
TidesofTime
Chakki

A much more intriguing addition is that each player has been given an additional card ban to add to the pool of Yogg-Saron, [card]fiery war axe[/card], [card]tuskarr totemic[/card], [card]barnes[/card] and [card]call of the wild[/card]. Thus, a total of 13 cards will be banned for Batstone #1, which itself is scheduled to begin tomorrow.

Right off the bat, there go a number of possible decks. With [card]ice block[/card] gone, we’re guaranteed to not see any Freeze Mages and with Druid hit from three sides – Yogg, [card]Fandral Staghelm[/card] and [card]Innervate[/card] – it’s likely Malfurion never makes an appearance either. Aggro Shamans are also slowed down immensely first with [card]tuskarr totemic[/card] and now with their source of sustained damage [card]Doomhammer[/card].

Thus, it’s possible that slow decks such as Control Warrior and Crusher Shaman are popular picks, alongside N’Zoth Paladin, whose main counters in Freeze Mage and Miracle Rogue ([card]preparation[/card] is among the banned cards) will likely not be present. Despite losing [card]Darkshire councilman[/card] and [card]doomguard[/card], Zoo remains a strong deck to play as it has access to [card]sea giant[/card] and [card]leeroy Jenkins[/card] as finishers and can fill the vacancy left by the Councilman with the new discard mechanics from Karazhan.