As a Shadowplay composition player myself, I was quite interested to see MoB G.Family take the field in the tournament today. Although they fell a bit short, the matches were quite entertaining. The shock value of the composition has somewhat diminished, as many teams have started running this setup for season 4.

They had a solid First Round win, to advance them to play Fnatic, which was an interesting matchup. Orz had defeated them at MLG Orlando, a blow against the MoB franchise, and I am sure they were aching for a rematch.

The strongest card the Shadowplay composition has is pressure. Its ability to divide damage via dots coupled with the quick burst of Mind Blast+Shadow Word Death + Shadow burn allows for quick target switches during health dips. This multiple angles of damage works as both offense and defense, limiting the globals the druid (or other healer, if there is such a thing anymore) has, to do other things, such as cyclone the shaman. This setup is very fragile in long mana wars if the priest is unable to get off any drinks. The hardest counters are double healer with a sub rogue, and a good double healer hunter.

The Warrior/Warlock/Druid composition also utilizes the warlocks ability to spread damage to line up target switching, with interruptions by the druid and warrior. A match-up between these two compositions provides a very entertaining flurry of health bars dropping, quick kills in some situations, and even long endurance battles. These two teams when properly played, can quickly adapt to different play styles.

Anyway, enough about Composition. The first match went pretty close to how I'd predict it, with MoB testing Fnatic's ability to protect their warrior, but Fnatic opted to use an Affliction spec on Glickz which provided MoB with a target switch option, in which their burst potential shined. A quick burst to Glickz with a well timed silence proved fatal. Fnatic would quickly learn from this gamble.

Fnatic during the next matches opted to run a soul link build on Glickz. This makes the secondary switch more difficult and gives the Warrior/Warlock/Druid composition a bit more time to counter-pressure either the Unstable Affliction Warlock or the Shadow Priest. Rhaegyn also used incredible LoS with Hafu to counter initial damage from the Shadowplay team. Forcing a Shadowplay team to tunnel vision is the best strategy Fnatic could run for several reasons. The Shadow priest's limited mana supply can be a problem if the player over commits his mana pool.

From my perspective as running Destruction in 5v5, there becomes a point where a player is "Mana commited" to killing the selected target. Careful pillar weaving also can alleviate the druids global cooldowns by allowing them to focus heal. Shadowplay cannot tunnel vision a target down versus a good setup with strong players, as it requires a secondary target to switch or fake switch. This pillar play proved to be enough of a deterrence for Shadowplay because it broke up the quick bursts enough that HoT's were able to roll.

MoB overall looked good, they have tons of practice with the comp, but some of the bursts were not lined up as well as they could be. With the team not actively playing together on live,a lack of practice might have been an influence here. The raw shock value of the composition has also waned, as forum discussions and counter strategies have developed as a result of the clear domination they displayed in the qualifiers.

Can Fnatic take this solid win all the way tomorrow?