The decks you need to win Hearthstone’s The Lost City of Un’goro Pre-Release Tavern Brawl

For the third time in a row, you can try out the cards from an upcoming expansion in a special pre-release Tavern Brawl: this time, The Lost City of Un’goro cards are here ahead of the official release on July 8.

So let’s go! Here’s all you need to know about this pre-release Tavern Brawl, as well as some decks you can use to win, have fun, or both!

Tavern Brawl basics

• Name: Pre-Release Tavern Brawl
• Description: Build a deck using valid cards from your collection, including cards from the upcoming expansion, and earn more new cards!
• Fun level: 9/10 (or 2/10 if all you face are Paladins — more on that below)
• Difficulty: ?/10 (varies as you win or lose)
• Replayability: 5/10 (the fun aspect is nice, but the entry cost after the first run prevents it to some extent)
• Format: Special (see below)
• Type: PVP
• Deck: Constructed
• Rewards: Varies based upon how much you win

The main draw of this Brawl is that you get to open any The Lost City of Un’goro packs you may have already obtained from pre-orders, drops, or other events, ahead of time! Any card you get from those is usable for this event. But keep in mind that you can’t buy Lost City of Un’goro packs or craft any cards yet. Your selection is limited to whichever packs you’ve obtained from promotions and pre-orders only — and that’s specifically Lost City packs, since Standard packs won’t have any Lost City of Un’goro cards in them until the official expansion release on July 8.

How exactly does this Brawl work?

The first run is free, so you can just queue up and play like any regular Brawl — once. If you want to keep playing after your first run, it’ll cost you two Tavern Tickets, 300 Gold, or 400 Runestones.

The overall structure is similar to Heroic Brawliseum (ugh), where you’ll keep playing until you reach a certain number of wins or losses. In this case, your run ends at six wins or three defeats. You can interrupt your run at any point and pick it up later, don’t worry. You’ll always be queued against players that have a similar win-loss ratio to you at the moment, so the more you win, the tougher the opponents you’ll face. Good luck!

What cards can I use to build Lost City of Un’goro Pre-Release Tavern Brawl decks?

The eligible card pool for the brawl will be:

• Core Set
• the Event Set
• Into the Emerald Dream and the Embers of the World Tree Mini-set
• The Lost City of Un’Goro

Note: the cards Creature of Madness and Hamuul Runetotem are banned for this brawl.

Update: three more cards have been banned 24 hours after the Brawl went live, in response to the early prevalence of Imbue Paladin. Those cards are Ursol, Goldpetal Drake, and Aegis of Light.

The card pool also includes a selection of cards from other sets to help support some of the new Quests and cards from The Lost City of Un’Goro expansion:

• Hunter: Painted Cavasaur, Toyrannosaurus
• Priest: Nightshade Tea, Orbital Halo, Silvermoon Brochure
• Rogue: Agency Espionage, Adaptive Amalgam
• Warlock: Sweetened Snowflurry, Sketch Artist

Even if you don’t have too many cards from Lost City, playing the Brawl is still a good idea, since the rewards include a good amount of packs from the new expansion to kickstart your collection — that you can open right away!

What decks do I need to win the Lost City of Un’goro Pre-Release Tavern Brawl?

This brawl is dominated by Paladins — especially a brand-new Lost City deck, Quest Murloc Paladin, which already seems very scary. But we’re also offering a few other fun options that let you explore different archetypes that are coming with the new expansion — since that’s the point, isn’t it?

Zeddy’s Murloc Paladin

• Credit: Zeddy (credit: hearthstonetopdecks.com)
• Deck code:

  AAECAZ8FAt2UB+ysBw61nwTu0wSV9QW1ngbUngagjAeGlQeHlQe6lgeglwehlwe9mQfrmwevsAcAAA==

• The Lost City version of Quest Paladin is all about summoning Murlocs, so that’s what you do here. Get them on the board quick, complete that Quest (multiple times!), and rely on tools like Crusader Aura to absolutely overwhelm your foes. This deck is probably too strong at the moment, so we have to present it as the #1 option.

Discover Imbue Mage

• Credit: vicioussyndicate.com
• Deck code:

  AAECAf0EBKT4Bu/8BsODB/KDBw2G5gaw9QbW+gb0/Ab3gQfAhweaiQfujQfxkQe2lAewmwf6mweLsQcAAA==

• This deck is similar to the standard Imbue Mage that is currently played, but strengthened by a few Discover cards from Lost City. The Discover package for mage in the new expansion is both powerful and fun.

Ramp Wallow Warlock

• Credit: vicioussyndicate.com
• Deck code:

  AAECAf0GBKn1BuSCB8ODB6yIBw2PnwSCoATi5gae+QbZggffggeOgwfDhwepiAe2lAfqmwf2pweTrQcAAA==

• Wallow Warlock is a super fun deck, and this version is similar to the current one on Standard, but missing Creature of Madness (since it’s banned here). The addition of Fyrakk makes it more explosive, but your goal is still using all those Dark Gifts to get a nice Charge + Windfury (and high attack) on your Wallow and finish them off.

Funkimonki’s Elemental Shaman

• Credit: Funkimonki
• Deck code:

  AAECAaoIBJ6WB/GWB9iYB/SqBw3joATt5gbx/Aaclgedlgeglgfslgf9mAfOmweHnAeYrAfLrQexsAcAAA==

• You know the deal with Elemental Shaman: play Elementals, on every turn. The difference is that Lost City supports this playstyle with the new Kindred keyword, and new Legendary Bralma Searstone makes things even spicier than before.

Egg Token Druid

• Credit: vicioussyndicate.com
• Deck code:

  AAECAZICAqWFB6+HBw6HnwTRoASB1ASsngbUngaIgweuhweSlweUlweYlweZlwe8mgeHnAfJrAcAAA==

• Hamuul is banned for this brawl, but Druid still works well in this aggressive Token option. This deck is all about flooding your board with small minions, buffing them, and going to town.

Imbue Paladin (Banned!)

• Credit: vicioussyndicate.com
• Deck code:

  AAECAZ8FBOHrBrSBB/KDB+usBw2cnwTunwTJoATW+gah+wbP/gbv/gbI/wb3gQfAhwfCjwfDjweIrQcAAA==

• Pick this deck if you hate fun. Pick this deck if all you care about is winning, not trying out the new cards and testing new possibilities. Pick this deck if you’re okay with being just another unoriginal player of one of the most boring decks in Hearthstone history. I’m loathe to include this as an option, but it’s a solid option, so I’d be remiss not to. (Don’t pick this.)

Update: Blizzard has now banned three core cards of this deck from this mode, rendering it unplayable in this Brawl.

Your experience may not correspond to what we’ll get in Lost City — but may luck be on your side!

This Brawl doesn’t necessarily work super well as a demonstration of the new expansion, because most players will still have a limited card pool, and therefore will have to make do with modified decks from the current meta. In addition to that, there are balance issues, with the Paladin class in particular being so dominant that a majority of players are flocking to it — if they were lucky enough to have already obtained the new Murloc Quest.

My personal opinion is that a better experience would have been a Brawl with some pre-made new decks, where you just pick a class and are given a full deck with cards from the new expansion. But that solution would sadly defeat the purpose of opening packs in advance — which is, admittedly, a big part of the fun.

All in all, enjoy let’s enjoy what we have, open our packs, build some decks (to the extent that luck allows us), and have fun — especially if we don’t run into too many Paladins!

Originally posted July 2, 2025. Updated July 2, 2025.