It feels like just recently that we had the topic of outstandingly high power Tavern Brawls come up with the "Fury of Kael'Thas". The rules of Blood Magic also let us cheat out lots of spells, but by paying Health instead of Mana. With that in mind and the entire Wild pool of cards at our disposal, the only thing even stopping you from already destroying the opponent on turn 1 is the rope!
Below we present a handful of our usual recommendations that should help you achieve this not-so-noble goal and establish total domination.
Spell Druid
Likely the most consistent Class you can run is Druid. We want to kill our opponent on the first turn, and to accomplish said FTK (First Turn Kill), you simply draw through the entire deck, gaining lots of Armor and Attack in the process. We purposefully left out any Spells that have "random" Discover effects, as the first turn is on a short timer, and any time spent on decisions is better used flinging the first card you get your hands on. Here are some quick tips:
- For the mulligan, you're looking for any form of card draw.
- Capture Coldtooth Mine should always draw for the highest cost, Ultimate Infestation.
- If you have trouble managing hand size, remember that you can start throwing out Attack buffs while waiting for other animations to finish!
Druid might be reliable, but at the end of the day you can't guarantee which way the coin flips. The games are usually decided after turn 1 either way, but the amount of actions you need for some of the decks below isn't as demanding.
Spell Druid - Budget Alternative
Just to prove how busted Druids are, here's a list consisting of only free and Rare or lower quality Standard cards. This wouldn't be as viable if there wasn't the temporary Core Set addition of Frozen Throne cards, which lets everyone use Ultimate Infestation for free. Quite the opportunity!
The last card that made the list is Aquatic Form, which doesn't really act as draw on its own, but can at least be paired with actual draw spells to find the strong plays, like Nourish, Infestation, and Miracle Growth.
Spell Demon Hunter
What's better than gaining Armor to offset the paid Health? Being Immune of course! Since Demon Hunters are already known for their plethora of draw power and Attack buffs, all you need is Blur or Relentless Pursuit to chew through your deck without paying a single droplet of blood.
A few of the included cards have dangerously long animations, and thus should be played only when necessary. Notably, Dispose of Evidence has you wait for other queued animations to finish until you make a choice, whereas Glide just takes a while to finish shuffling and redrawing.
Spell Mage
It's simple: Play burn spells like Pyroblast and Mask of C'Thun for big damage and use Arcane Artificer to recycle all the spent Health into Armor. The Frost Spells, Frostbolt and Ice Lance don't represent as much damage, but seeing how the two previous decks need their Hero to deal the finishing blow, it's somewhat nice to use Freeze effects for a second turn to fall back on.
If you really wanted to be annoying, you could even run Flame Ward to mess with the Paladins. You'll see why in a second...
Front Lines Paladin
From the moment that Front Lines got printed, Paladins seem to find a way to abuse it in these Spell-cheating Brawls. You could say rightfully so, as casting it going first pretty much guarantees an easy win. In case you don't have the random assortment of minions provided, you can look into weaker replacements, like Arcane Golem or Wolfrider... or Bluegill Warrior, if you are really desperate. (I myself didn't have Mr. Smite, which is why it got left out of the list. Whoops!)
Paladin also has a surprising amount of cycling going on, with Solemn Vigil, Lay on Hands, Service Bell, and so on. But nothing compares to Order in the Court, which is basically your third and fourth copy of Front Lines. That's the best kind of draw, as your greatest fear with this list is ending up with too many Charge minions in hand before you even get to summon them from the deck.
Do you like these kinds of fast-paced constructed Brawls? Let us know what deck you found the most fun in the comments below!
Comments
I had a really bad time with animations completing this with Demon Hunter (though I did win anyway because my opponent whiffed turn 1). I recommend Multi-Strike instead of Dispose of Evidence. The former has no meaningful animations and the latter's dialogue web is absolute suicide.
I also toyed with throwing quest in replacing a damage source to mitigate self-damage until you draw some immunity. But I got bored before I could figure out if occupying the starting slot was worth it, so . . . maybe.
I personally put in Solid Alibi and Arcane Brilliance to reduce damage taken and to tutor out Mask and Pyro when i farmed this brawl for the weekly in a mage deck
You are absolutely right, those are some great cards I missed! Definitely makes more sense than some of the filler I ran, like Arcane Missiles and Ice Lance.