Hearthpwn

5 Exceptionally Fun Tavern Brawls

Since time immemorial, or at least since June 2015 when they were first released, Tavern Brawls have been gracing us with a weekly dose of light-hearted Hearthstone fun. Blizzard has done an awesome job of creating a wide variety of Tavern Brawls over the past two plus years. They’re often wacky, sometimes crazy, but always worth a try. Some aren’t for everybody, which is to be expected…even Blizzard can’t please everyone, but some are truly special and keep you coming back to play again and again until the week is over. 

It’s those Tavern Brawls that we’re paying tribute to today. Below are five of our favorites, these brawls stood out from the rest for their exceptional fun, their interesting mechanics, or their unique opportunity to play with new or different cards. It wasn’t easy choosing only five, (there are a lot of great ones out there) so be sure to let us know which ones would make your list!

1. A Frozen Recipe

This Tavern Brawl was released after the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion and gave players a taste of what it was like to play with those decks. Each class played with a pre-made deck that featured a recipe of new cards from the expansion. 

Similar Brawls have been featured after other expansions were released including A Dark Recipe (after Whisper of the Old Gods) and An Ancient Recipe (after Journey to Un’Goro). They captured the same spirit of what put this one on the list as well.

What made this brawl special is that it gave you a in-game preview of what you otherwise wouldn’t have had, especially with the release of the Death Knight cards which added a big twist to gameplay. This brawl presented players with an excellent opportunity to test drive the expansion, and it was just a downright blast to play. 

Want to see if Frost Lich Jaina is worth it before you spend your precious dust on her? Or maybe you got a few good Death Knights, but you want to check out the ones you missed just for fun? This brawl gave you that opportunity, no cost required. It was basically a taste test of the new expansion, and allowed Blizzard to show off what was possible with the new cards and mechanics.

2. Decks Assemble!

Decks Assemble! was definitely one of the more complex Tavern Brawls, but it was also one of the most fun. This wacky brawl had players discovering cards instead of drawing them and every time a card was played, a copy of it would be added to the players deck.

Some brawls require the player to craft and use a careful strategy to win, and others require them to hold on by the seat of their pants, pray to the RNG gods, and hope for the best. This brawl was definitely the latter, but that’s what made it so fun. It is also what made it replayable, every match was different than the last. 

It was a wild departure from standard Hearthstone gameplay, as many on this list are, but that’s what Tavern Brawls are all about. They give us the chance to experience the goofier side of Hearthstone. 

3. Who’s the Boss Now?

In this brawl, the player built their own deck but instead of their normal hero power they got a random one from a pool of past bosses. Each time they used their hero power they got another random one from the same pool. 

The best part of this brawl was the accidental synergy that could happen between hero powers. For example, one hero power changed the health of all enemy minions to 1 and another dealt 1 damage to all enemy minions and if any die, summoned a slime. So with a little luck you could play back to back hero powers and wipe out your enemy’s entire board and fill yours with slimes at the same time. 

This is another brawl that required a little luck, but it didn’t rely solely on it like some others since you still had your deck to fall back on. That being said, the random hero powers were certainly able to throw a wrench into things and kept players on their toes. 

4. Miniature Warfare

Miniature Warfare has been featured a few times, and was one of the more recent brawls we’ve had. In this constructed brawl, the twist was that every minion you played is a 1/1 that costs 1 mana! This leads to some interesting decks and brawls like this really shine because of the creativity of its players.

There’s a lot of trial and error involved, figuring out which cards work well and which cards fail miserably, but figuring it out is part of the fun. Once you find the right combination of cards it's extremely satisfying. The wild format allowed players to bring back some of their faves (see below) and gave them the chance to try out cool combos that likely wouldn’t be possible otherwise due to mana costs.

Plus, what’s more adorable than a little 1/1 Ragnaros the Firelord that does 8 damage to the enemy’s face on turn 1?

5. Top 3

This brawl is…exactly what it sounds like! Instead of building a deck, the player chose three cards and their deck was filled with copies of them (10 of each card). This was a sequel to an earlier brawl called Top 2 that (you guessed it!) let you choose only two cards to fill your deck with. 

Seeing the choices that other players would make, and seeing what insane combinations you could come up with yourself, makes this brawl great.  Sometimes you’d lose spectacularly, but you weren’t even mad, you were just impressed by your opponent’s wickedly awesome deck. And then you’d steal that deck and continue the vicious cycle. 

As with all of the brawls on this list, this one would be great to see make a return. It would be fun to see how much things change with the new pool of cards available.

You’ve seen our favorites, now it’s your turn! What tavern brawls have you had an absolute blast playing? Do you have a Top 5 of your own? Let us know in the comments below!