How to win the Lost City Recipe! Hearthstone Tavern Brawl

Welcome to the Lost City, explorer! The latest Hearthstone Tavern Brawl repeats the formula from the past few expansions, giving us a very simple “pick a class, get a deck recipe” experience. Direct and to the point: exactly what players need to get a taste of what The Lost City of Un’goro has in store for them.

So let’s head into this journey with a new Tavern Brawl!

Tavern Brawl basics

Name: Lost City Recipe! Tavern Brawl
Description: Explore the Lost CIty! Choose a class and enjoy the latest deck recipes!
Fun level: 7/10
Difficulty: 4/10 to 8/10 depending on your class, deck, and opponent
Replayability: 9/10
Format: Standard
Type: PVP
Deck: Provided (one for each class)
Rewards: 1 The Lost City of Un’goro card pack

The replayability factor is at a 9/10 because there are so many different classes to try, and it’s a brand-new expansion — which might make you compelled to figure out what each class is all about now. Personally, I had a ton of fun repeating this Brawl several times — first with Mage, then Demon Hunter, then Paladin, then Hunter… it can be used to give you a very nice idea of how each class will operate, and maybe even entice you to consider crafting some decks in the future.

Of course, the difficulty level will vary depending on which class you pick — and on who you face. All of the recipes are based around the Quest mechanic, but sadly the quests are not perfectly balanced with one another. Paladins flooding the boards with an endless barrage of Murlocs might have a much easier time than Rogue players, with their stealthy turtles popping out of their deck — one reward just seems much stronger than the other at this point.

How to win Lost City Recipe! Tavern Brawl

Every player will be trying to complete their Quest, and use the reward as effectively as possible — so learning what each Quest does is your best bet at not only implementing your game plan, but trying to play around your opponent’s as best as possible.

Death Knight asks you to spend 18 Corpses, so cards like Airlock Breach and Foamrender will be invaluable. This is also a Starship deck, and operates like a Blood DK (all the leeches!), so play in a more control-oriented fashion. The reward is an 8/8 Undead Beast that refuses to die — it turns into a Location that lets you deal 4 damage twice, and then comes back.

Demon Hunter has one of the most fun quests: you have to deal exactly 2 damage to things on your turn, 15 times. Infestation is a super strong card for working on your quest while trading, and AOE spells Wyvern’s Slumber and Hot Coals can give you massive progression if you get to hit a full board. Ball Hog is there to heal you and keeps coming back. You’re rewarded with the Gorishi Colossus, which makes all your 2-damage sources deal damage twice for the rest of the game — enough to seal the deal.

Druid brings back its tried-and-true token gameplay, asking you to completely fill the board with minions on three of your turns. It might sound hard, but Druid can create so many tokens, with tools like Ravenous Flock and Flipper Friends, among others, that players can reliably get there. The reward is a weapon that gives your minions +2/+2 whenever your hero attacks. A slightly smaller Savage Roar on a stick, but often just enough to get the job done.

Hunter asks you to play Beasts with four different attack sizes, but has several tools to make that much easier to accomplish than it seems. Grazing Stegodon, if found early, can help you hit whichever number is missing. The reward is a big dinosaur that adds several other Beasts to your hand, massively discounted. You’ll win by hitting them hard and fast, all the time, playing Beast after Beast and relying on discounts and Kindred effects.

Mage has one of the most fun quests and rewards overall: you’ll need to Discover 8 cards, and there are plenty of Discover effects in the game. As you try to complete the quest, you usually get lots of tools to deal with whatever your opponent is throwing at you. Story of the Waygate can give you fantastic discounts for what you’ve Discovered. The reward is a weapon that plays whatever you don’t pick from future Discovers. Fun and powerful!

Paladin is simple, easy, and effective. Summon Murlocs (they can be played from hand or come from any other sources) five times and the Quest gives any future Murlocs you summon +1/+1. But it’s a repeatable Quest, meaning your Murlocs keep growing stronger and stronger. Frankly, this might be the easiest Quest in the game, and is a safe pick for players just trying to win a game as fast as possible.

Priest has one of the most insane Quests this time around, asking you to play five Holy spells for a reward, five Shadow spells for another, and giving you the ultimate reward if you complete both sides of this ordeal! The idea is really neat on paper, but the reality is that you’ll have a very clunky deck that asks too much of you. The ultimate reward is an 8/8 Elemental with Reborn that summons a copy of itself, and each time one of these things dies, it deals five damage to a random enemy. Random enemy? Yeah, I’m not so sure about this one.

Rogue likes turtles. Alright! But the quest doesn’t seem that strong at the moment. You’ll want to shuffle cards into your deck five times, and tools like Interrogation mean this isn’t that hard. The reward is a Hero Card that makes it so any Ninja Turtles you happen to summon are shuffled back into your deck when they die, and your hero power potentially summons two of them for only one mana. Neat idea, but maybe a bit slow and clunky?

Shaman has a Menagerie-type deck and requires you to play minions of seven unique types. Easier said than done, as I’m sure you can already imagine: it’s not rare to be missing just one or two types, but never seeing them. This quest rewards you with an 8/8 Elemental Beast that Adapts twice — yes, the Adapt keyword is back! — and gives those same Adaptations to any future minions you play. Frankly, a bit underwhelming.

Warlock has a super clunky one. You need to play six Temporary cards — which mean potentially doing a lot of sub-optimal plays, since you don’t really get to choose when to play Temporary cards that much. You might not have the mana, you might not have ideal targets, it might not be the ideal time. The reward lets you get rid of cards — Temporary or not — by throwing them into a Rift, which spits out two Fel Beasts in return. The Fel Beasts honestly don’t seem strong enough for what they ask of you.

Warrior is once again at its control-heavy version, with a quest that asks you to simply survive for ten turns. While I don’t particularly enjoy the kind of gameplay this leads to, I have to admit that the reward is one of the most fun ones of them all: you get two Rewards from the Journey to Un’goro expansion added to your hand, and the rest of them to your deck! That’s right: Galvadon, the Last Kaleidosaur is alive and well in current year!

A quick, simple, and fun Brawl

All in all, this is a much better introduction to The Lost City of Un’goro than last week’s Brawl was. It’s easy to play and you don’t need to try your luck with opening packs — just pick a class and go!