The Pre-Release Tavern Brawl is out today. You might be wondering what deck you should take to the Tavern Brawl, when there is no guarantee you will find that legendary in the Pre-Purchase Bundle, or that epic card that is required for a specific strategy. Perhaps, you have not bought the bundle at all, needing to build a deck only from Core and Great Dark Beyond cards.
Well, if you want to get those first 6-win runs regardless, you have come to the right place. This article contains 12 Tavern Brawl deck concepts to help you figure out how to navigate the limitation of card acquisition during the Brawl week. Some of these decks have common and rares from the new expansion, so you should be able to build them with a pre-order bundle. Some can function without any expansion cards at all. A couple of them do rely on you getting a bit lucky. We will give you the details.
Death Knight has a solid assortment of cards that allows it to build a respectable Starship Death Knight deck. One thing to note about this format is how consistent Assimilating Blight is. There are only five 3-mana deathrattle minions to discover, so we are likely to find Soulbound Spire or at worst, Chillfallen Baron and Fae Trickster (the latter finds us both copies of Airlock Breach!).
The deck is perfectly functional without epics or legendaries from the new expansion, but if you are fortunate enough to find either Grotesque Runeblade or Hideous Tusk, you can cut Hopeful Dryad or Creature of Madness to make space. Ursoc is another card that can easily fit in here.
Starship Crewmate Demon Hunter
Crewmate DH is not a good deck in Standard, but this is a very small format at a lower power level, so it could succeed here. The one new card that could be interesting in this deck is Ravenous Felhunter. It resurrects either Crimson Commander, Dirdra, or Arkonite Defense Crystal.
However, Felhunter is completely optional, and the deck can work without a single new card from the new expansion. For those with no pre-order bundles, just cut Felhunter and Arkonite Defense Crystal for more Draenei, such as Astrobiologist or Defender of Argus. Grim Harvest and Dreadsoul Corruptor can also slot into those last 4 spots instead.
Druid looks terrible without getting lucky in a pre-order bundle, so you likely need to find Hamuul to make the class work. If you do, then you can run an Imbue deck with no epics from the new expansion. Reforestation, an epic card, can replace Hopeful Dryad, should you find it. Resplendent Dreamweaver and Malorne are the other two cards that can slot into any Imbue deck in this article if you are fortunate enough to find them, but they are not mandatory.
Hunter has a very strong foundational set in The Great Dark Beyond, allowing it to build a good-looking Starship deck with a serviceable discover package. There are no Emerald Dream cards in this list (except the free Creature of Madness), so this deck is a great option for those looking to dive into the Brawl without a bundle.
Mage might be the weakest class in the Brawl. If you did not get a pre-order bundle, then you should stay away. Even then, you need to find Aessina and at least one Spirit Gatherer to make Imbue Mage work. Youthful Brewmasters can bounce back a 2-mana Imbue minion so that we upgrade our hero power further. In the late game, they can bounce Aessina to beat defensive decks with a lot of life gain.
What happens if we merge Libram Paladin with the most accessible cards in Paladin from Into the Emerald Dream? We get a deck that looks functional and surprisingly consistent. This Paladin deck has a good early game and can pivot to the late game with Emerald Portals.
There are plenty of epic and legendary cards that can slot into this deck if you find them. Dreamwarden is an impactful epic minion here. If you find Ursol, it can go in alongside the common Renewing Flame. Righteous Protector and Hand of A’dal can be cut to make space for other cards.
We think Priest is well positioned in this format. The featured Imbue Priest list runs a very cheap curve, which should contest early game board control very effectively against aggressive decks, while relying on its hero power to carry its late game. The format should not have much late game lethality, so a grindy game plan based around the hero power could prove to be extremely effective. One neat combo this deck has access to is Kaldorei Priestess/Gravity Lapse.
The list contains neither epics nor legendaries from the new expansions. If you happen to find Moonwell, it can replace Holy Nova.
Rogue might be the strongest class in this Tavern Brawl. An aggressive build that focuses on synergies surrounding the combo package looks very clean. Lucky Comet should be great in this deck, as there are only four combo minions in this format: Eredar Skulker, SI:7 Agent, Talgath and Eleven Minstrel. This means we are guaranteed to find damage or card draw.
This list only has a couple of rares from the new expansion, so a pre-order bundle should guarantee you will have the cards for it.
A combo package can fit inside Starship Rogue to provide it with early board control and card draw. This deck can generate an immense amount of value, which should make us feel comfortable facing any other opponent in the late game. This is a deck we think will be very popular in the Brawl if it finds moderate success.
No epics or legendaries from the Emerald Dream are needed here, but if you are lucky enough to find Ashamane, you can replace Elven Minstrel with it. But without Sandbox Scoundrel, we are not even sure this is an upgrade. Probably too fun to pass up.
Asteroid Shaman is another strong contender for players without a pre-order bundle. The only Emerald Dream card in the featured build is Hopeful Dryad. We like the card in this deck, but it can be replaced by Wandmaker.
This deck is built with the same principle as the one we remember from Standard. A small, curated spell package ensures a desired outcome from Triangulate. The rest of the minion shell consists of discover cards that find spells we can use with Ethereal Oracle. In the absence of Incindius, we run Meteor Storm, which should provide us with the extra damage we need to close out games in slow matchups.
Warlock might be on the weaker side of the Brawl power level spectrum. The Dark Gift package is reliant on Emerald Dream epics and legendaries to work, so we have opted for a Demon Warlock build focused on Archimonde and K’ara.
One neat addition to this deck is Rotheart Dryad, which can help us tutor Kil’jaeden and Archimonde. In faster matchups, we control the board as best as we can with our cheap, demon-based curve. In slower matchups, find Archimonde, slap Kil’jaeden on curve and watch the fireworks.
Much like Demon Hunter, Warrior has access to a completely fleshed out aggressive deck centered on the Draenei tribe, which does not require any cards from the new expansion. The expectation is that in a small, low-powered format such as the Tavern Brawl, it can compete much better than it can in Standard.
There is little subtlety or complexity here. Slap Draenei minions on curve and pound the opponent’s face. Akama can only be activated by Expedition Sergeant here, so it might not be that strong in the deck. You can replace it with Leeroy Jenkins if you do not have it.
We wish you the best of luck in hunting those packs!
We will see you again for Into the Emerald Dream’s theorycrafting article, on March 24th!
The Vicious Syndicate Team
None of these decks are able to be used without pre-ordering 🙁
Update was delayed for mobile, decks work as expected after update.
Creature of madness is not allowed in the brawl, suggestions for replacement in the Discover Hunter deck?
Nevermimd, update was delayed for mobile, decks work as expected after update.