This week marks the first time Hearthstone has re-used one of the Tavern Brawl formats, but the good news is that Blizzard has picked a brilliant one, and I’m going to show you a deck that will brutally destroy your opponents.
The setup this week is ‘The Great Summoner Competition’, which means each time you cast a spell, you also summon a minion of equivalent cost. So the temptation is probably to play a spell-friendly class like Mage, and mix powerful burn spells with a few minions that make it harder for your opponent to cast stuff, like Troggzor The Earthinator, Spectral Knight, and Loatheb.
Well, forget that noise.
You need play Druid and go absolutely all in on spells.Think about it for a moment: Why would you play a single card that doesn't come with a completely gratis creature. Any time you don't play a spell here, you're losing potential tempo.
Now consider Druid. Its greatest strength is using ramp cards like Innervate and Wild Growth to cheat your way up the Mana curve. Its greatest weakness is that Druid's removal spells, like Bite and Starfall, are insanely overcosted. But in this brawl, you don’t just get the removal, you get the free minion. So suddenly the cost of a card like Recycle looks like the bargain of century. For six mana you get to remove any minion your opponent has, ignoring potential Deathrattles, plus get something like a Boulderfist Ogre or Sylvanas for free.
Even Druid’s traditional lack of meaningful early game isn’t an issue here if you mulligan correctly. In your opening hand you’re looking for Innervate, Wild Growth, Claw, and Mark of The Wild. Power of the Wild is also insane, with the buff boosting whatever creatures you already have and also summoning another 2-mana minion. Then, of course, there are the usual Druid cards like Wrath, Swipe, and the Savage Roar-Force of Nature combo, which are already excellent even without the summoning bonus tacked on.
In terms of play style, you can afford to just keep removing your opponent’s board with the spells (don’t be afraid to use one copy of the combo to clear), and trading with your own creatures efficiently, confident you’ll eventually out-value any other deck. There’s even plenty of card draw in the form of the Starfire, Wrath, and Nourish. The latter is particularly strong: Draw 3 cards and summon a 5-mana minion? It’s literally better than Ancient of Lore, but for 2 Mana less.
Let me know how you get on, or if you can find a deck that performs even better. (Unlikely.) Last time this was the format, I went something like 19-3 using this deck. Two of those losses were Druid mirror matches, and the other was because I was stuck in a doctor’s waiting room and the nurse called for me. Honestly, I almost ignored her I was winning so hard.
I'm already seeing more Druids out there this time, so get in there fast and grab your free pack for winning your first game of the week. Also, don’t forget you can complete quests like ‘win three games with any class’ and ‘destroy 40 minions’ pretty fast in Tavern Brawl without running into waves of Face Hunters and Mech Mages. Which should help with the Hearthstone PTSD.
