Tavern Brawl, a new Hearthstone mode

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I followed up with more thoughts in Trash Talk after racking up some wins with both decks.

Nefarian is the easier deck to play, and savvier players have a legitimate edge with Nefarian. (A prominent streamer was going for 100 Brawl wins and was 63-8 with Nefarian and 33-28 with Ragnaros on NA and EU servers.) It's still fun, and those Rag wins feel great!

I am really enjoying playing Rag more. if you win with Nef you feel like you held serve, and with Rag you feel like David taking down. Goliath.
I like going 2nd with Rag. I almost always coin out a 5/1 guy turn 1, and then another turn 2. With any luck he can only kill one of those with a spell and the other he has to trade with his board. I mulligan looking for the 6/6 taunt and the Whirling Ash which does 6 damage when he battle cries. With all that going on I can usually stabilize around 30 life and shed the weapon for some Die Insect. if I have Molten Giants in my hand around then Nef is in a world of hurt. The spells Rag has that do 5 damage with overload of 2 CANNOT be used mid game unless desperate. If you use one you are just going to fall farther behind. And of course it you must be prepared to deal with board flooded with whelps when Nef gets to 8 mana. the hardest card for me to deal with that Nef has is the 4/12 that pumps his other minions attack by 3 beginning of his turn. If Nef gets him out early it spells trouble.

I am 8-2 in my last 10 games with Rag. Against some dummies to be sure... But knowing how to play Rag has doubled my chance to win with him vs. a couple of days ago.

I agree--playing with Rag is more fun. There's a lot more game there--you do need to be thinking pretty hard in turns 3/4/5 to have a shot at winning. I Brawled my 11yo this AM (Happy Father's Day, USians), and I "missed" some DIE, INSECT shots that could have turned things. She played well and got me. At the endgame though, her board was a 7/3 and an empty hand and I had the 4/3-Thaurissan-Maker, that 20/20 dude, and my 2/4 Hounds out. If DIE, INSECT had hit that guy the turn before... sigh.

I am now 13-0 with Nef and 4-12 with Rag.

//forgot to say, I played Brawl with my Flame Imp, Magma Rager, and 6/3 guy to her Razorgore and Technician. Razorgore won (of course).

I won my second try as Rag with a board full of the 2/4 hounds that regen. The opponent made some suboptimal plays but once I got board control it was all over.

Lots of fun, regardless. Actually has me interested in playing again once a week. I had gotten really bored with arena and I never was into the grind for legend to begin with...too many face hunters.

Well, the first Brawl is over. The mode, I think, is a complete success. It makes HEARTHSTONE interesting in the short term, and it's something they can do week after week. A lot of HEARTHSTONE's growth was driven by the eSports ("Spike") community, and the focus there is on winning almost to exclusion. For that crowd, winning = fun. For folks like me, and a bunch of folks here, I imagine, given our hobby; playing = fun. So things like FaceHunter go over well with the folks yammering about HEARTHSTONE on Reddit or Twitch; but are withering to folks like us.

Tavern Brawl is an olive branch to the Timmy/Johnny communities. It's about playing and doing something interesting. Beating Rag down to single digits and playing that free Tree of Life? That's a Johnny thing to do. Swinging Sulfuras and calling forth your magma hordes--that's a Timmy experience. I saw a few Twitch streamers playing Brawl and despising it, vocally. I saw a couple that seemed to really like it. It's a great low-key way to explore HEARTHSTONE, and I think it also does a good job dangling Adventure modes to folks that are on the fence (that's the kind of game you get in Adventures). It brings a whimsical puzzle-like aspect back to HEARTHSTONE and can keep that feeling going week-over-week between big releases.

My final record was 5-12 with Ragnaros, and 16-1 with Nefarian. Kudos, Blizzard!

Guess. I'm kind of in-between there. I really like designing a solid deck and winning with it, but I'm not to the point where I'm compelled to put the time in to reach legend. I remain firmly "meh" on the first Brawl because it didn't really engage me where I like the game (putting a deck together and then running it through its paces.) I liked the pre-mades in the Naxx and BRM class challenges because they were so wacky. But doing it once was enough. Same here.

OTOH, I'm firmly in the grip of Heroes right now. I've generated enough gold to have picked up Zagara, Uther, Arthas, and Rehgar and will shortly have Tyrael and Li Li added, too. That'll be 10, which opens me up for Hero League... which I'll probably never seriously play for the same reason I don't ladder consistently in HS: lack of time. Hopefully, the next Brawl allows some creative input. If not, I'll be in the Nexus.