How to win A Lich King Recipe Hearthstone Tavern Brawl

Hi, it’s Gus Ferrari back once again, and we’re rolling out, taking the Triple D Camaro up to Northrend for Hearthstone’s A Lich King Recipe Tavern Brawl, here just in time for the release of the March of the Lich King expansion. Back in my native dimension, we have Pat’s vs. Geno’s battling it out for who has the best Philly Cheesesteak. But in Northrend, the battle lines are drawn over Dalaran Clam Chowder. First up, you’ve got Katherine Lee, executive chef at A Hero’s Welcome Inn. Her chowder is creamy and delicious. This is some real deal chowder. Then you’ve got Awilo Lon’gomba, chief cook and bottle washer at the Filthy Animal Inn. His chowder packs a punch with those Northern Spices. Shut the front door! That’s some good eating!

This week’s Tavern Brawl is an introduction to March of the Lich King where we get to try out some of the expansion’s most interesting cards and deck recipes — and win a card pack in the process. Though oddly absent from Fractured in Alterac Valley, this type of Brawl has become a regular addition when we get a new expansion. We had An Outlandish Recipe for the Ashes of Outland expansion, Recipe of Tenacity for the Forged in the Barrens expansion, A Recipe United for the United in Stormwind expansion, A Sunken Recipe for the Voyage to the Sunken City expansion, and A Mysterious Recipe for the Murder at Castle Nathria expansion.

If you were on the fence about what cards are worth crafting or how much of your hard earned gold to plunk down on packs, this Brawl will let you give expansion a trial run.

Tavern Brawl basics

Name: A Lich King Recipe Tavern Brawl
Description:
Fun level: 5/10
Difficulty: 9/10 to 4/10 depending on your class, deck, and opponent
Replayability: 5/10
Format: Standard*
Type: PVP
Deck: Provided
Rewards: 1 Standard card pack (this can include any card from any set in the current Standard rotation)

For this Brawl, you choose your class and you’re assigned their deck recipe. These are premade decks, and the same decks you’ll find on the deck creation screen, but there are two big differences for the Brawl. One, you get the deck with all the cards regardless of whether you own them or not. You’ll have every Legendary and Epic card you need for the deck. Two, the decks are Standard but the Brawl format is Wild. You can discover anything, not just the options you’ll see when you use these decks on the ladder.

Each class has a recipe meant to give players a good introduction to how the class will play in March of the Lich King. These recipe type Brawls appear close to release of the expansion, though some appear closer than others. The Brawl is generally more fun when we get it closer to the release like this one.

How to win A Lich King Recipe Tavern Brawl

Let’s look at each deck and a quick tip for playing it. You can only choose the class: the deck will be assigned. Each class received a new recipe with the expansion. You’ll still see either a Voyage to the Sunken City or Murder at Castle Nathria recipes on the collection screen when you make a new deck, but only the March of the Lich King-themed decks are available in this Brawl. To get started, pick the class you’re most comfortable with, and don’t be afraid to concede the match if the game isn’t going your way. You may also want to pick the new Death Knight class to give it a try and see how you like it.

March of the Lich King deck recipes and how to use them

Death Knight

• Might of the Frozen Wastes
• Blast your opponent with the chill of Frost. Draw and duplicate powerful Frost spells to support your Undead army.
• Use your Rimefang Sword to reduce the cost of your Frost spells after you copied a bunch of them from Lady Deathwhisper.

Demon Hunter

• Chaotic Souls
• Xy’Mox’s latest find seems to grow in power over time. Play your relics to empower future ones and finish off your opponent with Xy’mox himself.
• This deck has the same text as the Murder at Castle Nathria version. It continues to showcase the Relic cards, but no new Relic cards were introduced in March of the Lich King.
• Don’t pick DH. The deck is a spell-based deck empowered by having no minions in your deck, but there are minions in it, so it doesn’t work. Souleater’s Scythe (Start of Game: Consume 3 different minions in your deck. Leave behind Souls that Discover them.) doesn’t do anything at the start of the game and all of your “minion-less” spells are inactive.

Druid

• Unending Swarms
• Corrupt the wilds and disrupt the natural order! Summon a swarm of Undead minions to show your opponent the might of the Scourge.
• This is a new take on the trope of a token druid, but this one adds a far stickier board and a resurrection effect.

Hunter

• Arcane Volley
• Empower your Arcane spells with the help of Farstriders. With enough Spell Damage, your spells will easily take down your opponent.
• This expansion seems to be trying some different tropes on classes. This version of Hunter plays almost like a Mage. You build up your Spell Damage and rain down Arcane damage with your spells.

Mage

• Arcane Power
• Overwhelm your opponent with Arcane power! Add lots of Arcane Bolts to your hand to empower later with the help of Vexallus.
• The payoff is nice and Vexallus is only 5 mana. That said, there aren’t many generators and you’ve got Fire and Frost spells in the deck as well.

Paladin

• Divine Dragons
• Control your future with the help of the Bronze Dragonflight. Summon tons of dragons and buff them up with timely use of Paladin spells.
• This relies on getting a good buff spell from Knight of Anointment, and drawing into Timewarder early enough to control the board.

Priest

• Undying Shadows
• Forsake healing in favor of Shadow magic and aggressive Undead minions. Resurrect your fallen Undead to fight again and close out the game.
• Blizzard really want to make Shadow Priest a thing. They’ve added plenty of firepower plus several resurrection type spells in this deck. Will it work? Only time will tell.

Rogue

• Concocted Combos
• Mix together different concoctions to always keep your opponent guessing. Set up to play a ton of cards in a single turn to make use of Necrolord Draka and the Sinstone Graveyard!
• This is all about showcasing the concoctions. It’s not solely reliant on Potionmaster Putricide, but having him on board when you have some minions to kill certainly helps.

Shaman

• From Da Other Side
• Stall with Taunts and Freeze until you can cast From Da Other Side to shift the game into your favor. Later in the game, your massive minions will be able to take down your foe.
• It is a little rough to be so reliant on drawing one card to win the game. The stall package is good, but there are some aggressive decks and players that will make this hard to pull off.

Warlock

• Slimed Scourge
• Summon powerful Undead minions with Amorphous Slime. Bring them back with Infantry Reanimator and Habeas Corpses for a neverending onslaught.
• Warlock with a resurrect package and a little bit of Discard. There’s some inherent inconsistency on what Amorphous Slime will hit, but like many Discard decks, you can try to manipulate your hand to get better results.

Warrior

• Light of the Phoenix
• Damage your own minions to empower your Fire spells. Asvedon and Disruptive Spellbreaker ensure opposing spells won’t get in the way.
• The name sounds like a Paladin deck, but this is Warrior through and through. We used to call this Enrage decks, and they’ve been around since the earliest days of Hearthstone. I just wonder if the deck has enough Fire spells to keep Thori’belore in play.
• Think of this Brawl as your test drive

As a free to play player, this Brawl is great. It gives me a taste of what these decks play like and lets me target those cards I need to craft. These decks will continue to get refined as players get more experience with them, and other decks may arise that aren’t part of these recipes. I’ve been burned too many times to go spending big on dust to craft cards. So for now, enjoy the Brawl and let the meta work itself out.