How to win the Blessing of the Raven Tavern Brawl

Nevermore have I wanted to play a Tavern Brawl as much as I have wanted to play the Hearthstone Blessing of the Raven Tavern Brawl. For once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten cards. While I nodded, nearly drawing, suddenly there came a calling, as of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. “’Tis Bartender Bob,” I muttered, “tapping at my chamber door—only for this Brawl and nothing more.”

Tavern Brawl basics

• Name: Blessing of the Raven
• Description: As Witchwood looms close… an enchanted raven appears in the tavern! It’s looking for mischief — choose of class and gain a deck with the Raven’s blessing.
• Fun level: 5/10
• Difficulty: 2-8/10 (depending on class)
• Replayability: 9/10
• Format: Wild
• Type: PVP
• Deck: Provided
• Rewards: 1 Standard pack. This pack can contain any card from any set in the current Standard rotation.

This is the first time we’ve seen this Brawl since its debut in the days leading up to the release of the Witchwood expansion in the spring of 2018. This isn’t a “recipe” style Brawl that served as an introduction to the expansion. The Witchwood expansion itself has little to do with the Brawl.

This is a version of the ever popular Encounter at Crossroads Tavern Brawl. All you have to do is pick your class. Like Encounter at Crossroads, you’ll receive a deck of random cards. The size of your card collection doesn’t matter in this Brawl, as the deck — the very random deck — is provided. What remains true is the RHBA (Random Hearthstone Brawl Autotext): “You’ll find everything from Legendary cards to Basic cards in your deck. You’ll have some class cards and some neutrals, but there are no strict ratios — it’s all random.”

When the game starts, you get an aura called “Blessing of the Raven.” This gives your minions either Charge, Poisonous, Lifesteal, Stealth, or Windfury when you summon them. I was surprised to see Charge still there instead of updating the Brawl with Rush since Rush was added after Witchwood.

The game then plays out like a normal Hearthstone game where you try to reduce your opponent’s life total to zero while keeping your own hit points above zero. But how can you best do that? We’ll tackle that in the next section.

How to win the Blessing of the Raven

Choosing Death Knight for your class will greatly increase your chances of winning. Since the buffs can apply to summon minions, classes like Death Knight, Paladin, and Shaman with a hero power that can create a minion each turn are a good choice. Of the three, Death Knight is far superior since its Ghouls will always have Charge, and you can use them right away. Paladin has to hope its Silver Hand Recruit gets Charge, and Shaman needs to get Charge plus proc a Totem with an Attack above zero. Plus, with the Ghouls already having Charge, they have a 25% change of getting Poisonous compared to a 20% chance with Paladin or Shaman.

Playing this Brawl requires an Arena mindset where good trades are key. Nothing trades better than a 1/1 with Charge and Poisonous. Don’t hesitate to drop a minion for pure stats, even if their effect won’t go off, like effects that trigger if you’re holding a Dragon or the like. You have no idea if you’ll have a Dragon in your deck to ever trigger it.

The decks are minion heavy, with limited opportunities to reset the board. Your opponent will have some class spells, but it should be fairly safe to commit to a wide board without fear of AOE. Try to mulligan for a good curve so you have a minion to play on turn one, turn two, and turn three. Don’t be afraid to concede early if it looks like things aren’t going your way.

If you want the card pack, just keep queuing up. Eventually, you’ll get a strong deck and overwhelm your opponent. May the RNG dice ever be in your favor and just roll with it, baby.