On October 29, we’re getting a new type of Tavern Brawl – Pre-Release Brawl. Well, technically we had some Pre-Release Tavern Brawls in the past, but they were limited to Fireside Gatherings (RIP) and worked quite differently. Blizzard just shared a blog post explaining how the new one works in detail.
The new Brawl will let players open their The Great Dark Beyond packs early and use them to build decks and face against others until 6 wins or 3 loses. All GDB packs will be eligible – of course pre-purchasing the expansion will give you the most, but the free packs given out from Twitch Drops and the in-game event should be at least enough to get a bunch of Commons and Rares from the set (hopefully the ones you need).
You can build decks using cards from Core Set, Event Set, Whizbang’s Workshop, Perils in Paradise, and – of course – The Great Dark Beyond. While technically still in Core Set, Prince Renathal is excluded from deck building. Same with Splendiferous Whizbang (it would ruin the purpose of the Brawl). More cards might get banned as time goes on – if they do, players who have an active run with those cards will have their run retired and will get refunded.
But let’s talk about the entry cost and rewards. Everyone gets one entry for free. After that, each entry will cost 2 Tavern Tickets, 300 Gold, or 400 Runestones ($4). However, while it might seem like a steep price, the rewards are actually kind of okay. I was very worried that it would be another Heroic Tavern Brawl situation with rewards heavily stacked at the top. But let’s look at a few break points.
If you go 0-3, you still get 1x GDB + 1x PiP card packs. Of course, that’s not worth the 300 Gold entry fee, but given that it’s a baseline for not even winning a single game, it’s not terrible. Then at 3 wins, so an average win rate, the rewards are 2x GDB + 1x PiP card packs + a random GDB Common card. I’d say that’s pretty much a break-even point. PiP pack is a bit of a waste if you already own all of the cards from the set, but I’d wager that most people don’t. The Common card might seem like a silly reward, but if you haven’t pre-ordered and you rely on free packs to play this Brawl, you will certainly miss some Commons, so that reward MIGHT give you a useful card you can play in another run. And finally, at 6 wins, you get 4 GDB Packs + GDB Rare card + GDB Common card.
The reward structure is very flat overall. On the one hand, it’s good because even if you lose early then it’s not the end of the world. You still have a couple of packs. On the other hand, even going all the way to 6 wins isn’t THAT rewarding. Compared to what 300 Gold buys you, you get an extra GDB Pack + Rare + Common. It’s not terrible, but I would expect at least one extra pack for reaching the top score. I’m also not a big fan of rewards progression between 0 and 3 wins. You get only 2 packs for 0, 1, and 2 wins, so the jump from 2 to 3 wins is quite big.
All of that said, would I recommend playing it? Well, yes, and no. I think the biggest elephant in the room is the Brawl being “P2W” and kind of luck-based, depending on the cards you open. Players who don’t pre-purchase will be put at a heavy disadvantage compared to players who do. Even among those who pre-purchased there will be a big disparity. Yes, pre-purchase will give you all of the Commons and Rares, but not Epics and Legendaries. One player might open the strongest ones while another might get something completely useless. Of course, we still don’t know how the Brawl meta will look. Maybe some of the strongest decks will only run a few GDB Commons. Heck, maybe there will be viable decks that don’t even require any GDB cards at all (we’ll definitely try to look for some).
On the other hand, all players will get an entry for free, so there’s no harm in trying it out, especially if you pre-ordered. If you enjoy the Brawl meta or simply want to try to gamble some Gold for extra packs, then by all means, go ahead. I can recommend it much more easily than the Heroic Tavern Brawl.
You can read the official blog post below:
Starting next week, on October 29, we’ll be kicking off the Great Dark Beyond Pre-Release Tavern Brawl. This Tavern Brawl will be a place for you to open your pre-purchase packs, try out cards from the new expansion, and earn more new cards to update your decks and try again. We also see this as a way to add value to our pre-purchase bundles without blocking other players from participating in the fun.
This is our first time doing something like this, so I wanted to share a little more about our thought process and open the floor for your feedback.
Eligible Sets and Cards
In the Pre-Release Tavern Brawl, you can build a deck with cards from the following sets: Core Set, Event Set, Whizbang’s Workshop, Perils in Paradise, and The Great Dark Beyond.*
With that card pool, this Tavern Brawl can be like a preview for the upcoming Standard, with a focus on the newest cards rather than just the current Standard meta decks. Doing it this way also keeps the new cards off the Standard ladder until the official set launch, so that people who don’t want to participate in the Tavern Brawl are all still on the level playing field in the main game mode.
* Except that we’re excluding Prince Renathal, who will still be in the Core Set at that time, but not in The Great Dark Beyond, and Splendiferous Whizbang, who would kind of defeat the point of the Brawl if allowed. We may also ban more cards during the event if needed, but if we do, we’ll invalidate decks with those cards and give affected players a refund on their entry for that run. Also, note that Standard Packs will not include The Great Dark Beyond cards until the expansion officially launches on November 5.
Entry Cost and Prize Structure
Everyone will get one free entry into the Pre-Release Tavern Brawl. After that, entry will cost 2 Tavern Tickets, 300 Gold, or 400 Runestones per run. Each run will last until you get either 6 wins or 3 losses. Prize payouts will be as follows:
Using Arena as the reference point, we increased the entry fee so that we could correspondingly scale up the prizing, giving you more new cards per game played and more new options to consider after each run. We made the runs shorter because the fun part of the loop is getting and trying out those new cards rather than being locked into the familiar 12-win run structure.
Even though we reduced the max number of wins, we kept the max losses at 3, meaning you don’t need as high of a winrate to hit the max prizes. At the same time, we also flattened the prize payouts. Both changes were aimed at getting more value out of each run and so that players would get rewarded for doing well, but still feel safe to experiment with unproven or incomplete strategies. Unlike Heroic Brawliseum, which is meant to simulate a high-stakes tournament-style environment, the Pre-Release Tavern Brawl is meant to be about exploration!
The bulk of the prizing cards and packs are from The Great Dark Beyond because those are the freshest rewards we could give during this period! This also lets players who didn’t get pre-purchase bundles play to earn more The Great Dark Beyond cards. We’ll also have a few other things taking place during this time to complement the Pre-Release Tavern Brawl, like Tavern Tickets as part of the rewards for the Darkmoon Faire’s Frightful Fantasy in-game event, and pack drops during Theorycrafting and Community Days.
Plans for the Future
We hope you check out the Pre-Release Tavern Brawl when it starts on October 29. This is just version one of this idea, so we’ll be watching for your feedback—and your decklists. We’ll see you in the Tavern, and in The Great Dark Beyond!
– Tyler
