Hearthpwn

Friendly Fights

Hearthstone has so many crazy and fun cards. Like every game, there are rules that keep things in order. That’s one of the reasons Tavern Brawl is a lot of fun. Once a week, we get a new kind of game where they break the rules for a more unique experience. While we can’t modify those rules ourselves when having a game against a friend, it’s still possible to make your own Tavern Brawl with proper set up. Hearthstone has provided all the tools needed to create and play our own custom games. One just needs to know how to do it. Here we’ll discuss one of many possible custom games you can set up and play with friends.

Nothing But Rift

Both players fill their hands and deck with Astral Rift, which will generate ALL the minions for the game.

Extra: As an additional option, you can also have one person have Raid the Sky Temple and the other person play Sideshow Spelleater if you also feel like generating random spells. It takes very little extra effort, so it’s not 100% necessary. But if you happened to have it, I recommend trying it. Who doesn’t like random spells?

Key Cards for this Game

Astral Rift - This is the card that’s going to supply you with all of your minions.

Dead Man's Hand - This is one of the only cards that is capable of shuffling specific spells into your deck, which is needed to shuffle Astral Rifts.

Lorewalker Cho - Needed to pass Astral Rift and Dead Man’s Hand back and forth.

Azalina Soulthief - The Mage player’s hand can get messy when initially casting Astral Rifts. It helps to copy the Warrior’s hand.

Archmage Vargoth - Specifically to replicate Dead Man’s Hand a second time. While you could easily just run a second Dead Man’s Hand, Vargoth is one of the free Legendary minions. So almost everyone will have him as opposed to a second Dead Man’s Hand.

Violet Illusionist - She protects you from taking any fatigue damage while trying to replace your decks with new cards.

Augmented Elekk - It makes filling up your deck significantly more efficient.

Raid the Sky Temple/Sideshow Spelleater - This is optional, but it’s a fun extra to add on since the game is very minion heavy.

The Game Plan

One player needs to be a Mage and the other needs to be a Warrior. Suggested deck lists will be at the bottom, but it’s important to know what should go in these decks and why.

Step 1: Draw Out Your Deck

Load up your deck with plenty of card draw in order to empty your deck so that you can refill it with new cards. However, be careful with putting too much draw in. You still have cards you’ll need to keep in your hand, so burning one of them can ruin the whole thing. Be sure to include sone throwaway cards to keep some space in your hand.

Emperor Thaurissan is not 100% necessary, but if you throw him down for a few turns, it helps make the set up faster since you can play more things in fewer turns.

Archmage Antonidas can let you clear away any unwanted minions in order to make room for the set up minions.

Once Mage completes the Quest, Warrior can then copy it with Sideshow Spelleater.

Step 2: Have the Set Up Cards

Any minion that isn’t a part of the set up needs to be removed. All of the board space is needed.

Mage’s hand should have exactly 2 Astral Rifts, Azalina Soulthief, and any combination of 2 Faceless Manipulators or Lorewalker Chos.

Warrior’s hand should have exactly 1 Dead Man's Hand, 1 Doomsayer, and any combination of 2 Faceless Manipulators or Lorewalker Chos.

Both players should have 1 Violet Illusionist, 2 Augmented Elekks and an Archmage Vargoth on the board.

Step 3: Begin Set Up

-Both players will summon their pair of Lorewalker Chos.

-Mage then plays both Astral Rifts, then Azalina Soulthief. Then kills both enemy Lorewalker Chos.

-Warrior kills the remaining Lorewalker Chos, then plays Doomsayer first, and Dead Man's Hand second.

-Mage then plays their Doomsayer, then Dead Man's Hand.

Step 4: Get Stuff / Play Stuff!

The best way to start this game is first deciding who’s the first person that’s going to be playing minions.

Whoever is going to be playing minions second gets to cast 2-3 Astral Rifts first. Then the next person gets to play the first minion, but must spend their mana on casting Astral Rifts as well. This is the best way to balance going first/second advantage.

He has 15 seconds to cast discounted Mage Spells with massive Spell Damage and random targets.

Rules

1: Neither Player can use any hero powers until the game begins.

2: Both players must be at 30 health (or at least equal health).

3: No going face until the board is clear (Stealth doesn’t count). This keeps games from being too short.

Of course, you’re definitely allowed to change up these rules and even the set up if you wish. In fact, we’re all for it! After all, it’s a custom game. Do things the way YOU want to do them.

Decklists

Thanks to deck-sharing, it’s totally fine if only one of you can build the necessary decks. Here are the more effective decks to use during this particular game. Feel free to replace any nonessential cards with whatever you have.

We understand that not everyone is going to have all the cards needed to play these custom games. In fact, the point of Friendly Fights is to bring to everyone’s attention that there’s even more ways to have fun in Hearthstone than you might’ve thought. Hopefully, Friendly Fights will not only offer you a new kind of Hearthstone gameplay, but also inspire you with the creativity to come up with your own! We hope you like this new series and thank you for dropping in!