The decks you need to win the Shadow Reflection Hearthstone Tavern Brawl

Who knows what evil lurks in the Hearthstone Shadow Reflection Tavern Brawl? The Shadow knows! If you’re going to win, you can’t let anyone, not even a wealthy playboy, secretly operating as a vigilante terrorizing the city’s underworld, to cloud your mind. Don’t worry, The Shadow [Reflection] will come blazing to your rescue with explosive results.

Tavern Brawl basics

• Name: Shadow Reflection
• Description: Build a deck of any size and we’ll fill the rest of the 30 cards with Shadow Reflection that copy the last card you play
• Fun level: 3/10
• Difficulty: 6/10
• Replayability: 3/10
• Format: Standard
• Type: PVP
• Deck: Constructed
• Rewards: 1 Standard pack (can contain any card from any set in the current Standard rotation)

I’ll be there… around every corner… in every empty room… as inevitable as your guilty conscience…

With this Brawl, you can put anywhere from 1 to 30 cards in your deck. Whatever slots you don’t fill become Shadow Reflection when the game starts. You may remember Shadow Reflection as the Hero Power from the Valeera Death Knight hero card in the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion: when you play a card, Shadow Reflection becomes a copy it. It will copy any card whether it’s a minion, spell, weapon, or even a Hero card.

How to win the Shadow Reflection Tavern Brawl

As with almost every Constructed Brawl, there are two components to winning: your deck and how you pilot that deck. In Constructed Brawls, players usually discover the most powerful lists very quickly, which leads to the Brawl falling into a meta structure like we see on the Ladder — and that means you’ll usually find plenty of strong decks you can use. But you also have to be able to pilot the deck, making the right turn-to-turn decisions in order to win — which is essential even if you’re using the best deck available. Most of the decks appearing so far are hyper aggressive so keep that in mind if you’re going to build something on your own.

Let’s check out some solid decks to use for this Brawl.

New Shadow Reflection decks

Updated Plague Death Knight

Deck: Plagued Grain, Staff of the Primus, Distressed Kvaldir, Down with the Ship, Dryscale Deputy, Frozen Over, Helya, Chained Guardian

Credit: ManiacEh

This is an update on the Plague Death Knight that proved a popular choice during the last time this Brawl was active. It’s the same basic game plan of shuffling Plagues into your opponents deck. Cheap Chained Guardians are your backup plan.

Casino Mage

• Deck: Chaotic Tendril, Rehydrate, Prison of Yogg-Saron
• Credit: toothpickwilly
• This deck won’t be super consistent thanks to the multiple levels of randomness, but it does provide moments of entertainment. Use at your own risk and temper expectations.

Updated Astral Automaton Priest

• Deck: Astral Automaton, Deafen, Funnel Cake, Creation Protocol, Power Chord: Synchronize, Thrive in the Shadows, Melted Maker, Pendant of Earth, Shadow Word: Ruin, Shattered Reflections, Storm Giant
• Credit: Covalerahien
• This list is an update to the popular Astral Automaton list that dominated the last iteration of this Brawl. It doesn’t leave room for many Shadow Reflections, instead opting for more interactive cards to keep you alive until you can build up for your mech army.

Coin Rogue

• Deck: Dig for Treasure, Dart Throw, Greedy Partner, Flik Skyshiv, Storm Giant
• Credit: Astropunk
• This list generates a ton of Coins. Use those Coins to get Flik out as soon as possible. That will ruin your opponents game plan. If that doesn’t work, keep Forging your Storm Giants until you can drop a full board of cheap 8/8s.

Old (but still good) Shadow Reflection Tavern Brawl decks

These older decks still work, without requiring newer cards.

Plague Death Knight from Ben Hearthstone

• Deck: Staff of the Primus x2, Distressed Kvaldir x2. Down with the Ship x2,  Helya, Tomb Traitor x2 , Chained Guardian x2
• This deck shuffles a ton of Plagues in your opponent’s deck. If that doesn’t kill them, then you can slam down cheap Chained Guardians.

Momentum Demon Hunter from Cerily

• Deck: Dispose of Evidence x2, Crimson Sigil Runner x2, Chaos Strike  x2, Mark of Scorn x2,  Runic Adornment x2, Spectral Sight x2,  Sigil of Time x2, Momentum x2.
• This deck is all about getting Momentum. Crimson Sigil Runner, Mark of Scorn, Spectral Sight, and Sigil of Time ensure you get a cheap Momentum. That cost discount is applied to the Shadow Reflections. Just build up a huge attack on your Hero until you have lethal.

Druid from Jazzwozza

• Deck: Free Spirit x2, Groovy Cat x2, Unending Swarm x2, Dew Process x2
• Dew Process makes sure you both players have good card draw and usually a Shadow Reflection or two in hand. Groovy Cat and Free Spirit will build up your Hero Power to frightening levels. Unending Swarm brings Groovy Cat and Free Spirit back over and over to send your Hero Power damage even higher.

Arcane Hunter from Electric Sheep City

• Deck: Arcane Shot x2, Ricochet Shot x2, Conjured Arrow x2, Sivermoon Farstrider x2, Celestial Shot x2, Eversong Portal x2, Halduron Brightwing, Starpower x2
• This deck makes you feel like one of those rangers in fantasy with the magic bow that never runs out of arrows. Sivermoon Farstrider and Halduron Brightwing buffs the damage of all your shots, plus gives you bigger Lynxes from Eversong Portal. Whatever you shots aren’t taking down, Star Power can take care of.

Mech Mage from tresser

• Deck : Annoying Fan x2, Click-Clocker x2, Drone Deconstructor x2, Audio Splitter x2, Trench Surveyor x2, Explosive Runes x2, Mecha-Shark x2, Molten Rune x2
• This is a mech package with spell generation. Annoying Fan and Explosive Runes helps to control your opponent’s board. Mecha-Shark and Molten Rune add even more damage.  Audio Splitter gives you more copies of either Molten Rune or whatever good card Molten Rune provides. This deck can be a little inconsistent due the RNG on Molten Rune.

Astral Automaton Priest from Ben Hearthstone

• Deck: Animate Dead x 2, Astral Automaton x 2, Creation Protocol x2, Power Chord: Synchronize x2, Thrive in the Shadows x2, Switcheroo x2
• Creation Protocol and Power Chord: Synchronize ensure you have a never ending supply of ever growing Astral Automatons. Switheroo just ensures you draw your Astral Automaton. Thrive in the Shadows gets more copies of your spells. Animate Dead will resurrect your Astral Automatons.
• This is probably your Tier 1 deck.

Mech Rogue from Ben Hearthstone

• Deck: Click-Clocker x2, Drone Deconstructor x2, Frequency Oscillator x2, From the Scrapheap x2, Security Automaton x2, Mimiron, the Mastermind
• Drone Deconstructor, Frequency Oscillator and From the Scrap Heap give you plenty of cheap mechs to summon to make a huge Security Automaton. Click Clocker is a sticky Magnetize target as well as buffing your hand. Once Mimiron is down, you’ll be getting all kinds of Gadgets. This deck is a little inconsistent due to multiple levels of RNG but powerful when it hits.

More Shadow Reflection deck suggestions

If all you want is the back, my suggestion is the Astral Automaton Priest from Ben Hearthstone. If you find another great list, share it with us in the comments. But if you’re looking for new combos, keep checking Hearthstone Top Decks. There are more Tavern Brawl decks being added by the hour.

Overall, the heavy tilt toward aggressive decks isn’t my favorite way to play, but it might be just what you’re looking for. Good luck getting this week’s pack!

Originally published November 10, 2023; updated August 8, 2024.