Hearthpwn

I actually just lost to this deck playing Dragon Priest.  I'm methodically clearing his board, including Finja and a set of murlocs, so I'm at turn 7 with a Drakonid Operative, a Northshire cleric, and a Kabal Shadowpriest.  He plays....Send in the finishers, Coin, Send in the finisher, Everything is Awesome, Everything is Awesome.  I don't draw a taunt or anything I can do damage immediately with, so I take 30 damage turn 8.   

This is for all those new folks like me who have struggled with this brawl.  About me, I've been playing about 5 weeks, saving my golds for entries in to Naxx and BRM.  I've completed Naxx and only one wing of BRM.  I've picked up one (count'em ONE) other legendary from packs (Cairne), crafted a couple commons for some of my mage deck experiments, but otherwise, I have mostly the basic cards with maybe 7 packs received from various sources (Arena, quests).  So far, I haven't spent anything. 

I struggled through a few games with this brawl, first trying mage (hopeless, just not enough control), then warrior (a little better, but I don't have the commons/rares I really need to make it work), then shaman (can work, but really dependent on your opponent drawing bad), before I finally notice a lot of priests as opponents.  At the same time, I noticed that what gave me the most problem was the opponents speed.  So, I decided to build a priest rush deck.  Basically, I put in every charge minion I could find except the boar (too small), all my legendary minions except Rivendell (no deathrattles, so useless), and all the control spells.  I had one Thoughtsteal, so I put that in as well.  It took a bit of experimentation (Mind Vision out, playing around with Inner Fire/Divine Spirit, trying Dark Cultist and Lightspawn) before ending up with this combination.  Occasionally, I lose to Oil Rogues (I swear these guys are just playing their ladder deck), and Warriors sometimes cause problems, and of course, once in a while someone draws a huge combo at turn 1 and 2,  but generally I'm cleaning up. I actually got the "You've already won 100 gold today" message for the first time ever today, so I stopped to write this up. 

Essentially, this is a Face Priest deck.  Hit and heal, rinse and repeat.  If you don't have all the legendaries, just substitute big minions, just like I have Core Hounds.  Ogres, giants, dragons, golems, stormwind champion, whatever you have, basically anything that costs 5 or more is good.  Note that the legendaries/bigs are really decoys.  Your opponent will focus on them while you are smashing their face with bluegills and wolfriders.  The only one that really works well with this deck is Kel'thuzad, so include that for sure if you've made it through Naxx.  Mulligan for mind control and KT. 

If you want to experiment, you might want to add in an ooze (I keep putting one in and out depending on how many rogues I see) or some additional card draw (PWS is the only drawing cards, but often my opponents will help with Jeeves (why are they playing this?)   Let me know if this works for you. 

Trying to play a Warrior against a priest, he goes first and plays Maexxna-Divine Spirit X 2.  Now, I'm facing a 2/32 creature with poison.  I draw no weapons, no taunts, and no creatures with charge, so I play an Ogre and Stormpike Commando, knocking him down to 2/30. (Best I could do on the draw.)   Everyone who plays a priest knows what comes on turn 2.  Inner Fire!  30 damage...well, that was fun....NOT! 

I'm a relatively new player, playing about a month.  The nice thing about this brawl is that you get to see how all these cards work (and don't work), so that when I actually can put these cards in a constructed deck, I won't have as steep a learning curve.  Funniest one so far was a battle where the only card I could play rd2 was a Nat Pagle (what a lame-o legendary!).  For some reason, my opponent felt compelled to hit it with a 1 damage murloc.   Yea!  Rampage old Nat and I now have a 3/6 on turn 3.  I think he rage quit the next turn....  Also, I think the random selection seems to favor the lesser used cards, especially among the legendaries.  I've seen Loremaster Cho so many time, as well as Nat, FL, all sorts of weird pirates and murlocs, and a bunch other cards that you would almost never see in any other format. 

Most bizzare scenario so far....two words....Loremaster Cho!  I summoned this guy while playing against a rogue...who happened to be playing 2 Gang Ups and 2 Vanish...and I'm playing 2 Duplicates.  At one point there were 3 on the board, and I lost track of how many were in the decks.  The game took around 20 turns, but eventually they all got flamestriked out.  I ended up winning with a Gahzilla summon, but all these spells going back and forth made the game just crazy.  Now, why he would Gang Up Loremaster?  No idea, but it was truly a unique game! 

You know, I'm pretty much a newb, with less than 2 weeks under my belt, but I'm winning pretty consistently with both decks.  If I discount my first 4 games, I'm 10-2, with 7 games as Ragnaros.  Its true that you have to understand the deck to win with Ragnaros, but it really isn't that hard.   I need to grind for the 10 gold/3 wins, and I can tell you that it is a lot easier for a beginner without a huge card collection to win in this mode, versus even casual, where half the opponents are running decks with 10-12 legendaries.