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Matt and Alex take the lastest Hearthstone Tavern Brawl, Heart of the Sunwell, for a spin. In Heart of the Sunwell, you start each match with a full 10 mana rather than a slow buildup from 1 mana. Legendaries are the name of the game in this brawl.
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0:00
Welcome to another week of Blizzard Watch Tavern Brawl. I am Matt Lowe and I'm here joined again by my awesome editor, Mr. Alex Zeebart
0:09
Hello, how's it going? Good, now I've only had the opportunity to play one game of this week's Tavern Brawl. How about you
0:17
I've played a couple just because I don't have... this is a week that requires you to have a decent collection of cards and I don't
0:23
So I wanted to try out and see what class would do well without a full collection
0:28
Fair enough, and what are your thoughts on that class so far
0:32
Priest and Druid seem to get by okay with the basic cards because they have a lot of cheap removal
0:37
And if you don't have the big monster legendaries to match your opponent's monster legendaries, you need that removal
0:45
We should probably explain what this week's Tavern Brawl is. You start out with 10 mana
0:51
There's no mana curve, you don't start at 1 and work your way up. You have 10 right off the bat
0:57
That alone is pretty scary because it means a lot of opening cards, opening turns that you'd typically find in most major matches in casual ranked
1:05
they no longer apply because, well, you don't really need a curve anymore
1:09
Yeah, you can play that monster legendary first turn and every turn after that
1:14
Yep, pretty much. So today we're going to do a couple of quick games
1:19
I'm going to just queue into Tavern Brawl normally here and then I'll be going up against Alex101 and see how his training's been faring
1:27
So first up, I'm going to get started in a second here. This is my Druid deck that you can sort of see
1:33
It searches on for a while and you can see all the expensive cards I have here
1:38
And let's go. Got a couple of Nourishes, Chromagus, some Lowfebs, like just about every legendary you can think of I just kind of threw in there
1:49
Yeah, I don't have very many legendaries. My deck, it has a couple good ones, but in general it's just stuff I managed to throw together
1:58
Yeah, and the strategy for a, shall we say, budget deck that doesn't have as many weapons available to them or as many monster cards is
2:07
removal or, well, removal actually. Now that I think about it, that's pretty much the only thing you can do
2:14
I mean, you can delay with Taunts, but that's probably not going to help you all that much
2:20
Because the Taunts, I mean, some of them are good, but they're still not going to match up to some of these legendaries
2:25
Exactly. So in the Druid deck I have here you can see that I'm opening up with, well, I've kept two Savage Roars
2:31
I have the standard Druid combo of Savage Roar and, what's it called, Force of Nature in here, but I also threw in a couple of extra Power cards
2:39
Since I have 10 mana, I can easily Nourish on turn 1 and get myself three extra cards here just to set myself up and hopefully get something good
2:47
Like a Ragnaros, a Black Knight, and an Emperor Thaurissan. Oh, there you go
2:51
But that does mean I leave myself open to some obnoxious turn 1 in play like, I don't know, Alexstrasza or something or other. Who knows
3:00
It's a Mage, so I want to see... well, what's this? Antonidas. Yep, there we go
3:06
Pretty much. Oh no, this is not going to be fun at all here
3:11
I was going to play Emperor Tee, but that may no longer be an option
3:17
No, you're still playing with a mana curve, man. You've got to throw out those monsters turn 1
3:21
I do, I do. Let's see. See, if you had thrown out Cenarius, you could have Savage Roared his Treants. And there you go
3:28
True, that's very true. I should have done that instead. But at the same time I got Greed and I want to see more cards. Now
3:34
Let's do this secret in play. I say do it. Let's see what happens. I do want to play Rag. I hope it's not a Mirror Image
3:42
I hope it is, because that would be hilarious. It's only a Mirror Image
3:46
Yep. Amazing. Oh, let's see what happens here. One in three. No! What a whiff
3:56
Good job. I see you right up to the opponent here. Let's see what's he going to do
4:06
Of course he sheeps it. Uh oh, this game is going to end very quickly
4:11
Yep, you're done. Yeah, I think so too. Look at all those fireballs. Oh. Oh
4:19
Echo of the D's. Oh. You're screwed, man. I am totally screwed right now. This is not looking good
4:27
He hit the sheep. That's true, I hit the sheep. That's my one saving grace right now
4:31
Oh man, what do I do? How do I get myself out of this
4:35
I have no... removal... Well... I was going to say Cenarius would give you those taunts as a delay
4:45
but he has so many fireballs in his hand now. Yeah, he doesn't have to go through the taunts, he can just bypass them entirely
4:52
Okay, let's just play Cenarius and see what we get. Well, I mean, by that I mean let's see what he does next turn
5:00
But there's the other mirror entity. This mage got the perfect opening hand. Yeah
5:07
Antonidas, two mirror entities, holy cow. And an Echo of Medivh in there too, which... Yep
5:13
Just recopied everything. Oh, there's the blizzard. Yep. Oh, that's not good at all
5:20
Oh, that's not good at all. There's the fireball going for the rag against me
5:24
Good call, good call. Oh man, I could really use a Force of Nature right about now. Nope! Nope
5:36
I mean, that would stop one of the fireballs, but that's about it. You're still done
5:40
I'm so done. Well, let's go ahead and roar. Nothing I can do, I'm just going to tag into him and be like
5:50
you're never taking me completely alive. Which he's not going to do
5:55
I think you threw away that first turn. Should have threw down one of the... I should have done something else instead
6:00
The turn one... Cenarius. If I had an innervate or something, I think I would have kept that
6:05
and then done the same play, but it would have opened up more options for me. Oh man
6:12
Let the BMing begin, guys. There's the rag. There's the other rag
6:17
Let's try this again. I'm going to make a quick deck adjustment here. In this brawl, that first turn is precious
6:23
I think whoever goes first has a decided edge here. You got to get something on the board
6:29
Let's remove these two shades and let's add... What are some awesome minions I can add right now that would help me out here
6:39
Let me check out most legendaries. Do you have big game hunters in your deck
6:46
I have two of them. I have two of those, yep. Maybe a faceless manipulator
6:52
That'd be good. Actually, there's one option there, and then I'll add one more
7:01
I can't think of anything else I actually want to add. Ren, Blackhand? No. Maybe Ysera, actually
7:05
Ysera would be a nice addition. Okay, let's try this. Two adjustments made, and let's go
7:21
See, now I'm kind of eager to see how my deck does against yours
7:25
I mean, you've seen some of the cards already. Oh, yeah. So you have a pretty good idea
7:30
The problem is that you're going to be put in a position where you want to ask yourself
7:34
what should I shadow wear death? When the better question is, what shouldn't I shadow wear death
7:38
Because there's so many options, there's literally almost no wrong answer. Yeah, and board control is huge
7:43
Especially people playing these big legendaries, they're probably only playing one per turn
7:47
So if you can get even the smallest board advantage, I think you're in a good position
7:55
Speaking of cards, I got myself a big game hunter, keeper, rag, and nefarian
8:00
The question is, what to play first, nef or rag? Rag. Yeah, I think that answers that question
8:10
Oh, man. Actually, you know what? This does sort of work somewhat well, because I can coin into a big game hunter against stalag. Yeah
8:20
Yeah, let's do that. One up. Boom. I'm just hoping there's no phuegen in there. Phuegen
8:29
I'm sure there is. There probably is. I mean, why wouldn't you have both? Yeah
8:34
In a brawl like this? I'm sure that's true. Or even in general. I don't think they're particularly amazing on their own, but if you can get the fattiest, that's awesome. Yeah
8:42
I think I've only ever seen that happen once. Oh, Dr. Boom. Okay
8:47
Let's see. What is the best way to get around this? I can play Cenarius, or I can do that
8:53
Actually, this works really well. I think Cenarius, to give those bombs more targets, might be a good idea
9:03
Yeah, or... Force of Nature, whichever. Yeah. It was one or the other
9:07
The Force of Nature only sticks around for a turn, but I was debating playing a Keeper to silence the Sludge Belcher, or one of the bombs, and then just forcing, running the trees into the bombs
9:17
Well, if you just do the two damage and kill the Belcher..
9:21
I have the one two I got to deal with, too. Then Force of Nature, you can kill the slime that comes out and the two bombs, and everything would live long enough to potentially absorb that damage from the bombs
9:33
That's true, yeah. Hmm. Well, I better make a move
9:44
Let's go Force. One, two, three, and... come on, Rag! Don't let me down
9:57
Of course he lets me down. Oh, well. I mean, I think that still worked pretty well
10:06
I mean, your throwaway minions absorbed the bomb damage. Yeah. Nothing went to Rag, and nothing went to me
10:17
Of course, he might have his own rag. And there's the execute
10:23
Oh, never mind. Oh, oh. Placed his own rag. Alright, alright, alright
10:31
I think you would want to give Rag more potential targets. So would this be a good time for Cenarius
10:38
Yeah, I think so. Cenarius gives me a little extra... well, variance
10:46
Of course, now I've got to figure out the dude with the phone. He's going to run his orc into that
10:51
Oh, cool. The Cenarius options are stuck on my spectator screen. Oh, are they
10:56
I can't see the field anymore. I can only see the two minions in the middle
11:00
Yeah, that's definitely... Which is awesome. Ooh, that one. That's alright, that's alright
11:09
He's not within lethal range yet, I don't think. Hang on. 9 plus 2, 11
11:15
Not even close just yet. Hmm. Just trying to wonder what's the best way to go about this
11:23
I can silence his rag, and then drop a chunk of glory
11:27
Yeah, silence, then the tone. Yeah. Silence his rag. Oh, hooray, the bugged card has disappeared
11:39
There you go. I guess it clears itself up if I play other cards or something, perhaps
11:43
Yeah, something like that. See, now I've got to force him to attack the druid with either..
11:50
Well, both death'sbite and potentially rag. Execute? Yeah. Oh, no. Oh, that's messed up
11:56
That's alright. Forgot about the weapon. He's going to attack trade rag into that
12:00
Sure, sure. Well, you can take out rag if you're keeper of the grove. Yeah
12:08
Now the next question is do I want to play nef or the ancient of lore
12:15
I'm actually feeling sneed, and you can armor up. Oh, that's true
12:19
That's a good idea, yeah. Let's do sneed. Yeah, it gets me a little insurance, too, in case that guy gets a root
12:26
Armor up and attack him. I mean, nefarian isn't impressing me very much against warrior
12:39
because I can't think of any warrior cards I really want. Ooh
12:43
That's a tough one. Sylvanas, five. Hang on, he's at five right now
12:52
Oh, that might be, hang on, seven plus my three. Oh, that's perfect, actually
12:58
Yep, you win. And voila. Absolutely
13:10
One and one. Let's see how many more of these I've got to do
13:15
I've got to do three more. Three more games on this. Alright, Alex, you ready
13:20
Yep, I'm ready. Let's do this. Oops, I've got to actually go in tavern ball and hit the challenge button
13:31
You got your priest deck ready to go here? Yep. Let's see
13:38
Again, I mean, I have some legendaries, but not very many, and I think almost every legendary I own is in this deck
13:45
Well, I mean, that's all you really need is you've just got to get some well-timed removal
13:49
and, you know, me playing stupidly. Why don't you waste your first turn again? Probably
13:59
Okay. Oh, boy. Let's get rid of you, get rid of you
14:09
Ooh, I like you. Okay, I'm not too upset about this. Turn one, Rax
14:20
Well played. Let me know if you want to concede and start again
14:25
No, no. I'm good. You sure? Alright. Smartass. Just giving you an option, you know
14:36
Ooh, a force tank max. Aww, that's not good
14:46
That's perfectly good. Well-timed. Okay
15:05
Of course. Yep. Let's see, what's the best way to go about this here
15:18
Let's go ahead and do this. Ah, well played. And..
15:30
Well... How much of a choice in this matters? We'll do that. Alright
15:41
Yeah, I'll burn them both. Hmm. Surely you don't have a lot of one toughness minions, or one health minions
15:51
Yeah, I don't think that would fit very well in this brawl. No, probably not
15:57
Ooh, this is tough. Well... Alright. Figures
16:10
Fair enough. Ooh. Arrgh
16:24
This would have worked so well, but nope. Uh-oh. I don't like the sound of that
16:29
My plan requires more time before I can come to fruition. I'm already down to 14 health
16:43
That's not a terrible number. Well, I mean, considering this brawl, you can probably beat that in a turn. Yeah
16:51
Especially playing a druid. Oh, Tasha. Oh, Tasha. You don't really see Tasha used that much in ranked or casual play, actually, now that I think about it
17:06
I mean, he's not great. He's not great first, either, yeah. But he's what I have, so..
17:12
Yeah, you gotta work with what you got. Okay. Well, this is probably going to be really dumb
17:23
But I may as well get him out there anyways, so... Ooh, that one health difference. Uh-oh. Yep
17:42
It's going to take both of your... Aw, man. Saw that coming. Sorry
17:48
Saw that coming. But I left myself in terrible, terrible territory with my health. Yeah. Plus..
18:00
Five is 13, plus 11, plus 17. Oh, there we go. There's the..
18:04
You got me? Yeah, I got you. Yeah. I hate that combo. It's the worst
18:10
It's literally the worst. I mean, it's... I mean, I use it all the time, so it's totally legit
18:17
But I also feel like it's kind of cheating. It totally is. Like, that amount of burst damage is insane
18:23
In a single turn, especially on like turn 5 or something. Alright, any adjustments on your end? Um..
18:29
I don't think I have anything else I can put in it, so let's just do another one. Another one? Should I make a new deck, or...
18:34
No, we can play the same one. Let's just see what happens. If I lose again, no problem. Okay
18:40
I mean, this is kind of the situation. Like, I think I even probably have more legendaries than a lot of people playing Hearthstone
18:46
So, in that, you know, I played the ones that I have, helped
18:50
But anybody who's new or doesn't even have my level of a collection, they're probably screwed
18:56
Yeah. It's... I think this week's Tavern Brawl... And you can actually see that there's a lot of complaints about this on the forums, even right now
19:03
It's the fact that this week's Brawl heavily favors, um... You know, people without a lot of really awesome good cards
19:15
Yeah. I mean, that's kind of been the pattern, too. Like, one week of you build your own deck, one week of they give you a deck
19:21
And that's... that held true this week. Last week, we just had, they give you whatever, and this week you have to build
19:27
And when you have to build, the newer players, or players who haven't spent a lot of money, are at a severe disadvantage
19:32
Well, so we're in that first game where I lost. We're gonna see if history repeats itself here
19:38
Draw three cards. Come on, get lucky, get lucky, get lucky. Oh, alright, this works
19:46
Uh oh. I don't like the sound of that. Ah ha! Ooh, innervate
19:51
Two cards and a Dr. Boom. Oh, I hate Dr. Boom. He's a little explosive
19:59
Just a tad. Oh my goodness, Sea Giant. Oh my goodness, Big Game Hunter. Yep
20:08
Oh boy. Well, two can play that game. Aw. Alright, I've already lost. This is amazing
20:24
That was a huge setback. I have no answer to any of this
20:28
You didn't put in a Holy Nova or anything? No. Oh boy
20:38
Let's see if we can recover here. Oh, that's not terrible. I mean, at this point, you have enough on the board that
20:50
if you ignored any of my plays, you're already way ahead. Well, especially if I do that
20:55
Yeah, right. If you just go face, I'm done. Just do that, yeah
21:05
I almost feel bad. Oh, crud. Well, that's not really going to help
21:15
No, it's not. You needed a taunt of some sort. Except I don't think I put any taunts in this deck
21:21
Other than my druids. Yeah, none of this is going to help
21:29
You have to crash it? Yep. Two, six, seven, eight. Okay. That's a very fast game. Hang on
21:38
Six. Yes, I did. Oh, that was a vicious turn. Yeah, I'll accept that. Yeah
21:48
I mean, that's pretty much the essence of this brawl. You can definitely lose for a second turn
21:52
You want to try a new deck entirely? No, let's call it good
21:57
I think we showed off this brawl pretty well. Okay. That's just going to happen
22:04
I think even if you have an amazing deck, there's still the potential for losing on the second or third turn
22:10
It's just... When you're starting out with 10 mana, the amount of combos you can do with 10 mana
22:16
it's just... I mean, that's usually endgame stuff, but you can do it first turn
22:22
And the momentum can swing pretty hard there, as evidenced by the big game hunters
22:26
and the shadowbird deaths and all that other removal. Yeah, I actually didn't see a single one of the shadowbird deaths
22:31
in my deck in those two games. Yeah, it's kind of unfortunate
22:35
but I guess that's just kind of the theme of this week's deck. It's just whoever has the better cards
22:40
will, in the long run, win more games. Yep. It's definitely advantageous to the people
22:46
who have been playing either a really long time or have dumped a lot of money to get other legendaries
22:50
Yep, exactly. So I guess... But next week's probably another random where they just give you a deck
22:58
So I'm looking forward to the next week much more than this week. Yeah, for sure
23:02
I'm hoping that it's something a little bit more balanced. I'm hoping that there's a little bit more feature stuff that's going on
23:06
I believe there's an announcement happening later today. Well, or on... Well, by the time they see this video, it could be tomorrow
23:12
That's true, too. Well, we'll be back with you guys at some point
23:16
There's going to be another video. Alex and I will be doing more of these videos once a week
23:20
just kind of demonstrating some of the newer tavern brawl stuff and hopefully having fun with it in the process
23:24
Maybe I can learn something new. So that'll do it for us
23:28
Alex, any parting thoughts? Thanks for watching. That's all. Yeah, check us out, blizzardwatch.com
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