How to win the Black Empire Brawliseum Pre-Release Hearthstone Tavern Brawl

Hearthstone is getting its next expansion, Reign of the Black Empire, next week, on October 20, and as usual the pre-release Hearthstone Tavern Brawl arrives just before launch day. If you already have any Reign of the Black Empire packs — whether you got them for free, from drops or rewards, or you pre-ordered the expansion — you can already open them, and use those cards in for this special Brawliseum only. You still have to wait until next week to use Black Empire cards in other decks.

But the pool of cards you can use in this brawl is limited to basically just that, which makes this a considerably less fun experience than we used to have in the past. So read on to find out how to win Escape Brawliseum, the Reign of the Black Empire pre-release Tavern Brawl..

Tavern Brawl basics

• Name: Escape Brawliseum!
• Description: Build a deck using valid cards from your collection, including cards from the upcoming expansion, and earn more new cards!
• Fun level: 4/10
• Difficulty: 9/10
• Replayability: 1/10
• Format: Special (see below)
• Type: PVP
• Deck: Constructed
• Rewards: Varies based upon how much you win

You likely already have at least a few Reign of the Black Empire packs that you obtained from drops, in-game events, or a bigger chunk if you got one of the pre-order bundles. You can open those packs, and use any new Black Empire cards you get from them. But remember the rules regarding packs for this Brawl:

• You can’t buy individual Reign of the Black Empire packs yet.
• You can’t craft Reign of the Black Empire cards yet.
• Standard packs won’t have any Reign of the Black Empire cards in them yet.

All players have unrestricted access to Common and Rare cards, but the Black Empire Epics and Legendaries you pull out of packs are what you get. And Epics and Legendaries are always the building blocks of powerful decks. You’ll use those free cards plus whichever Epics and Legendaries you got from your packs to face a sequence of battles until you accrue either six win or three losses — standard Brawliseum rules.

How does the Escape Brawliseum Tavern Brawl work?

First of all, you should open any Reign of the Black Empire packs you have. Once you do, enter the actual Tavern Brawl, and you’ll be greeted by a familiar Brawliseum screen. Remember that your first run is free. Build your deck, including any new cards you want to use, and keep playing until you reach either six wins or three losses, whatever comes first.

Since this Brawl involves a run consisting of multiple games, keep in mind that you can interrupt your run at any point and pick it up later. You should be queued against players that have a similar win-loss ratio to what you have at the moment — so if you win games, you’ll likely face tougher opponents; but if you’re losing, you’ll probably be pitted other players who aren’t doing so well either.

Finally, if you want to keep playing after that free first run, the cost is either two Tavern Tickets, 300 Gold, or 400 Runestones. But in all honesty? We don’t recommend playing any more after your free run. It’s expensive, and the experience is not fun enough to warrant it with this limited pool of cards.

What cards can I use to build Reign of the Black Empire pre-release Tavern Brawl decks?

Blizzard keeps changing the rules for these pre-release Brawliseums, and I don’t really like their recent experiments. This one is similar to the previous pre-release Brawliseum, for Violet Hold: you’re limited to cards from the next expansion only. While in that previous Brawl all players had access to cards from every class, regardless of which class they picked — ensuring that nearly every deck ended up being very similar — this time Blizzard locked classes into a few pairs or trios. So if you pick either Priest or Warlock, for example, you can use Priest, Warlock, and Neutral cards on your deck.

Once again, what this means in practice is that the decks from those who didn’t open many packs — that’s the majority of players — are very similar to each other, except grouped into a few class choices rather than all being the same.

How to win the Reign of the Black Empire Pre-Release Tavern Brawl

Our recommendation this time is simple: pick Priest or Warlock. Those two classes are grouped together, and they get several Shadow spells (from either class) that synergize with each other, often repeating their effects on the next Shadow spell you play. You’ll simply pick nearly every Common and Rare card you have access to, including Shadewing, a neutral minion that synergizes well with this deck, and whatever else strikes your fancy.

Be smart about using your Servant of Zuramat; a 1-mana silence can be really powerful in a lot of situations. It can deal with Elusive minions, it can nullify buffs, and it can remove Taunts from your path, among other things. Don’t just waste it on anything — but don’t hold it in your hand forever either. The neutral Bloatray is another 1-mana minion that can really help you, especially if you can protect it behind taunts to strike a big minion. Blasphemy is your big board clear

You’ll also have the opportunity to try the new Assemble mechanic, which lets you craft a custom card by picking parts from other cards. So far, this mechanic seems very unbalanced: you can get some extremely broken effects if you’re lucky, amidst a sea of weak ones. High highs and low lows, as they say. But I do recommend adding a few Assemble cards to your deck to try it out for yourself.

We hope you can get your wins, but don’t feel bad if you can’t; it’s a pretty strange Brawl without a lot of room to try different things, so you have to hope to have luck on your side a little.