How to win the Badlands Recipe Hearthstone Tavern Brawl

Hi, it’s Gus Ferrari, and we’re rolling out for the Badlands Recipe Hearthstone Tavern Brawl. We’ve been to all kinds of joints in all kinds of locations. We’ve been to the icy north and even underseas. But just south of Loch Modan, you’ll find some of the roughest territory around: it’s called the Badlands, and good eating spots are few and far between. But it’s just the kind of place where a talented chef can make a real-deal one-of-a-kind treat.

That chef is “Chef” Overheat. You’ll find him in a little place called Fuselight in the Lethlor Ravine. The dish? It’s called Undermine Clam Chowder. The ingredients seem simple enough. Just Zesty Clam Meat. But man, this seafood is so fresh, it’ll slap you. What Overheat does is use secrets learned deep in the Undermine. The result is a chowder that is off the chain. I just hope the C.A.M.A.R.O. can get me past the Crag Coyotes to get there.

Now let’s dig into the Badlands Recipe Tavern Brawl.

This week’s Tavern Brawl is an introduction to Showdown in the Badlands where we get to try out some of the expansion’s most interesting cards and two new keywords — Excavate and Quick Draw — 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. If you’re 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 Badlands Recipe Tavern Brawl
Description: There’s a showdown in the Badlands! Choose a class and enjoy the latest deck recipes!
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 its 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 Showdown in the Badlands. 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 Badlands 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. While you might still see a Festival of Legends or TITANS! recipe on the collection screen when you make a new deck, only the Showdown in the Badlands-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.

All of the Showdown in the Badlands recipe decks (and how to play them)

Death Knight

• Death-xcavation
• Delve deep and excavate your way to The Azerite Rat, resurrecting deadly minions like Reska from the grave.
• The deck is one of several to showcase the new Excavate keyword. Contest the board and keep your opponent on their heels while you build (or more appropriately dig) for treasures. The Azerite Rat will resurrect your highest cost minion and give it Reborn and Lifesteal. Reska is the big prize, but Cage Head could also be a great target.

Demon Hunter

• Naga in the Badlands
• Unleash a storm of Naga and spells as bullets on your enemy.
• This deck is full of Naga minions. Many of  your minions synergize well with your spells. You can build up to a large attack power on your Hero and put a hurting on your opponent. This deck also has more life gain than most Demon Hunter lists.

Druid

• Dragons? Dragons!
• Take to the skies! Use dragons to control the board, ramp, and overwhelm your opponent.
• You’ve seen Dragon Priest. They tried Dragon Warrior. Now meet Dragon Druid. You’ve got lots of cards that activate with a dragon in hand. Dragon Golem is an instant board in most cases, and the more dragons you play, the cheaper Fye, the Setting Sun gets.

Hunter

• Highlander Hunter
• Theldurin might be lost, but he sure found a home in this highlander deck.
• While the description features the Legendary card Theldurin, I didn’t find him critical to the deck. This plays more like a buff beasts deck where Thronmantle Musician, Ten Gallon Hat, Doggie Biscuit, and Lor’themar Theron buff your Bovine Skeleton, Spurfang, and Hallow Hound. Quick Draw shows up on several cards which seems appropriate for Hunter. This deck also runs Reno, Lone Ranger. Like many highlander decks, it can be inconsistent, but I enjoyed it.

Mage

• Elemental Excavations
• The elements are fighting back! Combine Elementals and Excavate cards to control the board.
• Don’t be fooled by the name or description: there are no Excavate cards in this deck. It’s a minion-based Elemental deck with few spells. If you don’t draw your Frozen Touch, or can’t get it Infused, you don’t have many other options. That said, the Elementals are powerful and synergize well with each other. It’s a different take on playing Mage.

Paladin

• Is that a Mirage?
• Spirit of the Badlands is here to help you overwhelm your opponent with an army of minions.
• This deck is highlighting the Spirit of the Badlands card in a highlander Paladin deck. Spirit of the Badlands is a 3 mana 3/4 Legendary with text “Battlecry: If your deck
  has no duplicates, get a permanent Mirage.”
• If you’re not familiar with Mirage, it’s a Legendary spell that reads “At the start of your turn, transform into a copy of a minion in your deck.”
• The trick with this deck is drawing Spirit of the Badlands while overcoming the inconsistent nature of highlander decks. Order in the Court can help you get Spirit earlier. The deck also runs powerful cards like Leviathan and Reno, Lone Ranger to keep you going in case Spirit hides at the bottom of your deck.

Priest

• Bottled Magic
• Pip has bottled up plenty of natural resources in the Badlands for you. She’ll copy every 1-Cost card in your hand for twice the effectiveness.
• The Pip referred to in the description is the Legendary 4 mana 3/5, Pip the Potent. The idea behind this effect is to give you more Animate Dead and Astral Automatons. Power Chord: Synchronize is another source of more Automatons to summon. Ra-den works well after you use Swarm of Lightbugs.

Rogue

• Wishing for a Win
• Toss a Coin to your Wishing Well to get random legendaries. If you want to be considered a skilled pilot, try to only get the good legendaries.
• Wishing Well is an Epic 5 mana, 0/7. Greedy Partner and Bounty Wrangler are your only two Coin generators (assuming you don’t go second). With the Coin being zero cost, you can play them as soon as you drop Wishing Well. Then it is simply a matter of your “skill” of getting “good” Legendary cards from Wishing Well.

Shaman

• Elementals Awaken!
• Slumbering Elementals are awakening in the Badlands. Use their destructive might to overwhelm the opponent.
• This deck is chock full of Elemental minions. You should almost always be able to activate your “if you played an Elemental last turn” text. The damage from Skarr, the Catastrophe should be board clearing, and your Azerite Giant should be almost free. Once you have Bloodlust in hand, always be checking for lethal.

Warlock

• Sludge-covered Slugfest
• The mining operation has lots of leftover sludge in need of disposing. Why not throw it way by tossing barrels of it at random enemies?
• Tram Mechanic, Disposal Assistant, Sludge on Wheels, Pop’gar the Putrid are your Barrel of Sludge generators. Barrel of Sludge is 2 mana card that when played, discarded, or destroyed deals 3 damage to the lowest health enemy. If your opponent’s board is clear, that lowest health enemy is going to be their face.

Warrior

• BLAST! BOOM! BOSS!
• Excavate deeper and deeper into the Azerite mine with this Warrior deck! If you’re done blowing up the mine, blow up your opponent’s deck with Boomboss Tho’grun.
• This is another Excavate deck. Your goal is to build up to an Azerite Ox, all while you get Slagmaw the Slumbering to awaken far sooner than 8 turns. The Azerite Ox discovers and summons two 8-mana minions. There’s a little RNG to deal with, but it should produce a board your opponent will struggle to handle. Boomboss Tho’grun is a great backup plan. He’s an 8 mana 7/7 Legendary that puts three TNT cards in your opponent’s deck. When they’re drawn they blow up a card in your opponent’s hand, one in their deck, and destroy a minion on the battlefield.

I love this Brawl

As a casual, 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.