How to win Hearthstone’s An Evil Exchange Tavern Brawl

Another old Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is back: An Evil Exchange last showed up in 2017 after a few rounds of balance changes during its reruns. Now, nine years later, Kel’Thuzad and Rafaam are back to duke it out for evil supremacy.

This is a simple Brawl where you’re assigned one of the two special heroes and battle a player who’s using the other. Your deck and hero power are special, so it simply comes down to learning what the heroes do — and maybe a little bit of luck.

Tavern Brawl basics

• Name: An Evil Exchange
• Description: Kel’Thuzad and Rafaam are competing to see who the superior endboss is! Take a side and battle for evil supremacy!
• Fun level: 7/10
• Difficulty: 8/10
• Replayability: 5/10
• Format: Wild
• Type: PVP
• Deck: Provided
• Rewards: One Cataclysm card pack

When the game starts, you’re randomly assigned either Kel’Thuzad or Rafaam. Both have 60 health effectively, but Rafaam has actual 60 health points, while Kel’Thuzad has 30 health plus 30 armor. Their hero powers and decks are special, way above normal power levels.

Kel’Thuzad has a deck filled with strong Naxxramas minions. For example, you might get Heigan the Unclean, a 4/5 minion that deals 4 damage to a random enemy at the end of your turn, but costs only 3 mana; or Anub’Rekhan, a 5/5 for 4 mana that summons a 3/1 Nerubian at the end of your turn. Other minions in his deck are cards that were actually playable during the first Naxxramas expansion, like Stalagg and Feugen. He also has a lot of Mage Secrets.

His hero power costs 2 mana and adds a random Naxxramas minion to your hand — which often means one of those minions that are slightly more powerful than expected for their cost.

Rafaam has a lot of damage spells, varying between direct damage and board-wide damage. Like Kel’Thuzad, he features a few minions that are more powerful than normal: in his case, they’re taken from The League of Explorers rather than Naxxramas. But his minion selection is more limited, and he makes up for it with powerful spells that cost zero mana and have powerful effects, like Putress’ Vial, which destroys a random enemy minion.

But the key to Rafaam’s gameplay is his Hero Power, which costs two mana, generates discounted cards (and adds them to your hand), and can be upgraded. At first, it generates random a rare card and discounts it by 2 mana. But if you draw the Uncover Staff Piece spell from your deck, you can play it (for 2 mana) to upgrade your Hero Power, up to twice. The first time you upgrade it, your hero power will now generate a random epic card, and discount it by 3 mana. Upgrade your hero power again, and it’ll achieve its powerful final form, which adds a random legendary minion to your hand, and discounts it by 4 mana.

The key is to understand what each hero does, and play accordingly: as Kel’Thuzad, you probably want to close the game fast, while Rafaam is trying to survive and play the long game, out-valuing his opponent.

How to win Hearthstone’s An Evil Exchange Tavern Brawl

If you’re playing as Kel’Thuzad, you’ll quickly be able to place some above-average minions down on your board. Your Naxxramas minions, either drawn from your deck or generated by your Hero Power, can quickly overwhelm the enemy if left unchecked. Keep playing more and more of them, and try to kill Rafaam fast. Make good use of your secrets, especially Duplicate! If you’re able to guarantee it hits a strong minion, that can be great for you.

If you’re playing as Rafaam, your primary goal is to survive long enough to upgrade your hero power, and use it to generate a lot of value from discounted cards and legendary minions. To get there, you’ll need to be smart about how you play against Kel’Thuzad’s minions: don’t mindlessly kill them with spells, save your board-wide damage spells for the moments when it’ll count. Your powerful 0-cost spells should be saved for key moments as well: if you can “randomly” destroy a big minion (or turn it into a 2/1 Pit Snake), that’s probably much better for you than wasting those spells on smaller fish.

It might take you a few tries as you familiarize yourself with each hero (or until you’re offered the one you prefer to play), but stick to it, and your win should come at some point. Best of luck!