Brann Bronzebeard Hero Guide – Hunter / Warrior – Tombs of Terror

One of the biggest differences between Tombs of Terror and The Dalaran Heist is that the latter, despite featuring unique characters, followed the regular class spread – we had one character for each class, nine in total. Tombs of Terror is different in a way that we only have four Heroes, but each one of them has two classes. This is important, as it alters the way you draft your decks and play the matches heavily. You have a lot of synergies that you normally wouldn’t think about, one class can fill up for the second’s weaknesses or bolster its strengths etc.

In this guide, we’re going to talk about the third character, which is unlocked in Chapter 4 (Halls of Origination) – Brann Bronzebeard. We’ll give you a general overview of the Hero, and show you all of the potential Hero Powers, Signature Treasures and Starter Decks.

Check Out Our Other Guides!

• Tombs of Terror General Guide
• Chapter 1 Guide – Vesh, Plague Lord of Murlocs
• Chapter 2 Guide – K’zrath, Plague Lord of Madness
• Chapter 3 Guide – Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
• Chapter 4 Guide – Icarax, Plague Lord of Wrath
• Chapter 5 (Finale) Guide – Tekahn, Plague Lord of Flames
• Reno Jackson Hero Guide – Mage / Rogue
• Sir Finley Hero Guide – Paladin / Shaman
• Elise Starseeker Hero Guide – Druid / Priest

Hero Overview

Brann Bronzebeard is a part of League of Explorers. He was previously depicted in two cards – Brann Bronzebeard and Dinotamer Brann. He’s the only character out of the four which isn’t Hearthstone original – he was present in the lore long before the card game. His brother Magni (who is even more famous) is also in game, as a cosmetic Hero Portrait.

When it comes to Tombs of Terror adventure, Brann is a combination of Hunter and Warrior classes. It’s probably the most aggressive class combination of them all, and a really powerful one if you manage to build the right deck.

The first thing that those two classes share in common is, like mentioned above, the aggression. They have lots of strong, cheap minions that can be picked throughout many buckets. While they don’t have the AoE buffs of Druid to make the Token strategy that powerful, going for an aggressive board floods is still a solid strategy. Another thing they have in common are weapons – both of those classes have access to some really strong weapon cards. They make up for the relative lack of burn damage those classes have. Given that later fights against bosses usually go pretty long, weapons can be even more effective than a classic burn. For example – Sul'thraze can be seen as 16 damage over 4 turns that you can also use to remove some minions. Compare it to Pyroblast and it looks quite good assuming you have enough time (e.g. against Plague Lords). That said, be careful and don’t pick too many weapons – some of them take multiple turns to use, so if you end up with too many, they will clog your hand. Besides weapons, we’ve also got some weapon synergies – ways to make it less painful to hit minions (e.g. Violet Illusionist) or minions that benefit form weapon swings (Hench-Clan Thug.

Both of those classes are also Mech classes. While they are mostly focused in a single bucket (some of them are scattered around others, but not a lot), if you manage to pick it a few times, you might be able to build an amazingly powerful Mech deck. The only downside is that Mechwarper is not offered, so broken combos like 0-1 mana SN1P-SN4Ps are not available (at least not easily, since you can still Discover it).

Then, we have some really interesting cross-synergies. As well know, Hunter is a Beast class ever since Classic. A big part of their minions are Beasts, they have cards that synergize with them etc. And you can absolutely build an amazing Beast deck with this Hunter/Warrior combo. While the latter does not have any Beast synergies, it has some strong Beast cards that can be then combo’d with Hunter’s synergies. Direhorn Hatchling, Ornery Direhorn or Akali, the Rhino can help you complete your Beast-based deck. Talking about the last one, it’s a great bridge to the second cool cross-synergy – Rush. When it comes to Rush cards, it’s the other way around. Unlike Warrior, Hunter does not have Rush SYNERGIES, but it can provide Rush minions instead. The keyword is rather common in Hunter class, with cards like Springpaw, Hunting Mastiff, Vilebrood Skitterer or Unleash the Beast. If you manage to stick Spirit of the Rhino and then play a few Rush minions, it can really pay off!

What’s important to note is that a “Big” strategy is also very viable with Brann. Of course, picking one of the treasures that makes your minions cheaper or lets you cheat them out onto the board makes it much stronger. While I wouldn’t go for this strategy without them, you can try to pick a Woecleaver as an alternative… or maybe a few, because it’s offered in 3 different buckets, meaning that you should see it quite often.

Other synergies for Brann include Dragons, Taunts, Deathrattles, “Enrage” effects, Armor, Secrets or Handbuffs. And just like always – you will nearly always end up with a deck combining a few synergies, since it’s very hard to stick to just one of them!

Hero Powers

And here’s how you can unlock each one of them:

• Spread Shot – Starter Hero Power.
• Well Equipped – Deal 300 damage to enemy heroes.
• Dino Tracking – Attack with a weapon 50 times.

Signature Treasures

And here’s how you can unlock each one of them:

• Ol' Faithful – Starter Signature Treasure.
• Brann's Saddle – Defeat 5 bosses.
• Titan-Forged Grapnel – Deal 50 damage to Plague Lords.
• Jr. Excavator – Defeat 1 Plague Lord.
• Flo Slatebrand – Defeat 2 Plague Lords.
• Brann's Epic Egg – Defeat 3 Plague Lords.

Of course, those conditions must be met when playing Brann Bronzebeard – playing other Heroes unlock their own Signature Treasures. Additionally, if you beat all four Plague Lords with the hero, Jr. Excavator upgrades into Sr. Excavator:

Starter Decks

Each Hero has access to three different, pre-made starter decks. While they might differ in the power level slightly, the main difference between them are the synergies they play into. They make a base of your future strategy, so to make a best deck, you should build upon them and pick cards that supplement it. It’s also clear that some Starter Deck + Hero Power combinations were made to supplement each other, but it’s up to you whether you will pick one or try to experiment more. Then, there’s always a fourth option – a random deck. Keep in mind that the deck is not completely random – when you pick it, you get 10 cards that should have a decent curve and some synergies, but you have no way of knowing what those will be before picking it.

Taming Dinos – Starter Deck

• 1x Helpless Hatchling
• 1x Raptor Hatchling
• 1x Crackling Razormaw
• 1x Grievous Bite
• 1x Serpent Egg
• 1x Slam
• 1x Desert Spear
• 1x Vicious Fledgling
• 1x Blood Razor
• 1x Direhorn Hatchling

Call for Help – Defeat 8 Bosses

• 1x Dire Mole
• 1x I Know a Guy
• 1x Bolster
• 1x Cornered Sentry
• 1x Frothing Berserker
• 1x Protect the King!
• 1x Rat Pack
• 1x Houndmaster
• 1x Marked Shot
• 1x King of Beasts

Beastly Bodyguards – Defeat 16 Bosses

• 1x Blood To Ichor
• 1x Omega Assembly
• 1x On the Hunt
• 1x Dragon Roar
• 1x Spellzerker
• 1x Animal Companion
• 1x Hunter's Pack
• 1x Flanking Strike
• 1x Baited Arrow
• 1x Ironforge Portal

Random Deck – Defeat 24 Bosses

10 random Hunter / Warrior / Neutral cards with a relatively low curve and some loose synergies.