Brawl description
General info and Tips
My personal experience
Brawl description
This week's Brawl features Discover mechanics under the name "Captain Blackheart's Treasure". That is right; we have another Discover based brawl. The rules are following: no matter what class you will play, your deck consists of 30 cards. Each card in your deck is 2/3 Pirate that costs 2 Mana crystals. At the start of the game, you are given 3 deck cards, if you start the first turn, or 4 deck cards and a coin, if you start the second turn. The decks don't automatically draw themselves, instead, each turn you have to choose between 3 cards; just like in Discover mechanics. Cards you can get vary from class specific cards to random neutral cards. Note that there is no weapon draws, however, you can gain a weapon by the means similar to the Blingtron 3000 mechanics.
Sometimes, you get to choose between three class cards, as on the picture above, but usually its either three neutral cards or one class card and two neutral cards. From time to time, you can stumble upon units or cards with Discover mechanics in the beginning of the turn. This allows you to draw two or more cards in one turn. The chance totally depends on the amount of Discover-ception you can do in one turn 🙂
Other important thing to keep in mind is: any other draft mechanics, which say about a direct card draw, is useless; as your deck consists of 2/3 Pirates, so, you will just draw few of them. Of course, this can be used to gain a tempo in some situations, or to get a value out of Ship's Cannon, but most of the time it is a bad decision. This also means that cards like Varian Wrynn will put out 3 Pirates on a board.
General info and Tips
Game mode is very similar to Arena: you don’t really know what opponent will have next turn, however, you know that he might have some class specific cards; so, you can account for them. Also, Arena values are working pretty well here. You want to value AoE spells over minions and, of course, boar control is everything.
Since the environment is totally unpredictable, you want to have such approach: each move that increases an amount of options you have is your best move. At the start of the game and in the midgame, it is very important to draw cards based on your Mana curve, rather than fall for expensive Legendary cards.
List of the tips I found to be useful:
Dire Wolf Alpha is really good for early game trades while a board consists of 2/3 Pirates.
Fel Reaver is amazing. You don't get punished for using it, as your deck is full of Pirates.
Reno Jackson doesn't work because your deck is the same card.
If you don’t have anything specific that will benefit from Coin, it is better to use it at your first turn, to secure tempo advantage.
Class specific tips:
Don't forget that any class can draw, at any point in the game, a class specific board clear; Flamestrike for mages, Twisting Nether for warlocks, Brawl for warriors, and so on. It is better to review each class cards to mind all the AoE cards. I was very surprised when I saw the Twisting Nether card. I mean, it's been awhile since someone played it.
You don’t want to overdraw your spells as Mage, but having them is necessary to win a brawl.
For Priest, Entomb is like Rogue’s Assassination card.
Rogue's Burgle is hilarious: you draw two cards, and often times you find answers with its help; but it is very random.
Don’t forget to use Shadowstep on any silenced minions or minions that have battle cry effects.
When playing as Paladin, please don't use Blessing of Wisdom. It just draws useless Pirates and might play against you.
As the Hunter class, you don’t want to draw beast specific cards unless you already have a synergy in your hand.
Druid’s Recycle also plays like Assassinate. Your opponent needs to be very lucky to get a draw and then to draw a card that you have recycled.
Like Hunter, Warlock sometimes may discover demon cards that are weak without synergies; however, the discovery of Sacrificial Pact in mirror match feels game breaking.
Warlock's hero power is useless, unless you want to draw a 2/3 Pirate.
When playing versus Warlock, don’t forget that he can draw Twisting Nether at any point of the game.
My personal experience
I managed to play all the classes a lot, and I was most successful with Mage, Druid, Paladin, Priest and Rogue.
Just like in Arena, you draft tons of valuable spells as Mage. And if you don't, somehow, there is always Spellslinger or Ethereal Conjurer waiting around to help you. Oh, and Summoning Stone is game breaking with all those spells.
Druid gameplay is average until you reach lategame cards. Sometimes, you stumble upon Astral Communuion and the game ends very fast; as you start swarming enemy with expensive cards and Legendaries in the midgame.
Despite the fact that there are no weapons in the brawl, Paladin is very strong. You have tons of incredibly good cards that are thrown at you constantly: Keeper of Uldaman, Murloc Knight, Tirion Fordring, Eadric the Pure, and so on.
Priest is just epic. Not only you get insane value from your hero power, but also options you have as a class are incredible. Often times you find cards like Velen's Chosen and Shadow Madness to be insanely valuable. I'm not even talking about Entomb or Confessor Paletress…
Rogue is fun to play overall, but very mechanics and luck dependent. From time to time, you are able to perform crazy stuff with Blade Flurry, Betrayal, and Burgle, as well as do some crazy Combos; but quality of games is too dependent on what you Discover each turn.
Other classes are average or bad. Warrior feels like a weak class without all weapons, and board clear is weaker compared to other classes; however, Frothing Berserkers can do wonders. Huntard is hard to play. Often times you get beast cards that are weak without synergy, and your board clear options is not that good as other classes have, but better than Warrior's. At least, some traps are really nasty. Shaman is very fun to play and offers decent experience. He has tons of valuable cards and very good board clears. The only major problem I've encountered is you can have too much Overload, or Overload at each turn, and loose tempo because of this. Lastly, Warlock is like Hunter but with better board clear and synergies, but his hero power is really useless. At least, those nasty Shadowflames and Twisting Nethers are still visiting my opponents' dreams.
This is the end! I hope, I helped you figure out this week' Tavern Brawl, and, it will earn you tons of victories and fun!
