well, I consider the interaction between Velen and Saronite Chain Gang a bug, but apparently blizzard had the intention to create a neutral 2-card combo that completely shuts down creature combat (barring a very specific subset of cards that silences, transforms or exiles)

[Progression] Fixed a bug where multiple older Achievements didn’t progress correctly if you used Core Set versions of the relevant cards instead of the originals.

I waited for this so long and posted it so many times. I hope it works!

imho the introduction of the “caverns of time” set was also a failed attempt at monetarization, specifically targeting players that try to complete a collection. These collectors now have to get all those “reprinted” cards that they already own a second time – because owning the “cavern of times”-version of a card does not count as owning the original version.

they just took this tavern brawl to show how the new order in the court works.

coin-order-front lines is definitely one of the stronger openings.

beindes that, druid has the upper hand against mage, and all other heros are not to be seen

in my quest to find the optimal build for this deck I noticed that sometimes the Divine Spirits are buried so deep in the deck that it is drawn too late to build the gigantic creature.
So I cut 1 Tidepool Pupil and 1 Inner Fire for 2 Shadow Visions, which should theoretically always find me the spell I need.
In practice many games had me searching for that single remaining Inner Fire, so I should probably cut Rally, which is a mediocre Lorewalker-resurrector anyway.

The biggest fail was the replacement of Power Word: Shield by Anduin’s Gift.
With Lorewalker active, it allowed the opponent to discover shadow word pain with disastrous results.

Thank you!

However, i noticed that I faced some problems again and again, but I found solutions:

first, sometimes I had no good answer to the 3/3s and 4/4s he spawned in the early game, which my shadow word: death could not handle. –> I changed those to The Light – It Burns, which also happen to be cheaper

second, I found myself often in the situation that Cho was in play, both players had 10 mana, but each turn I had to spend all my mana on spells to fill my opponent’s hand to keep him from drawing his outs (Mind Control Tech is also capable of ruining your day, also the simple 0-mana silence spell). On his turn he would fill my hand to 10 cards, preventing me in turn from drawing new cards. –> one Audio Amplifier gave me extra mana and extra hand space to gain the upper hand in these situations. Emperor Thaurissan also allows you to play more spells after his hand is full, opening up hand space so you can draw new cards.

third, there were those heartbreaking games where I had established the pin, but my deck was almost depleted, and I died from fatigue before i could cash in my billions. Initially I thought Photographer Fizzle could help me here, but the real answer was –> Educated Elekk. That card ensured that I would never die from fatigue again unless I burnt it somehow because my hand was full.

Finally, not playing Mass Dispell in the first place was a big mistake, so these were added as well.

From the original deck I removed the Anchorite/Divine Hymn-combo and one Shieldbearer (5 cards) to make room for the Amplifier, Thaurissan, Elekk and 2 Mass Dispell.

Finally I noticed that there is no integer overflow any more, just a limit how far your creature can grow until Divine Spirit and Blessed Championhave no more effect

nice, i answered a survey from blizzard and told them (among other things) that the power level was too high, reno was everywhere and the should do more nerfs and one day later everything comes true!

Now I hope they will fix all those bugged achievements just as I told them …

8 years of power creep made this brawl a lot easier

You can test your skills against an AI opponent and compare your results with others.

Below people posted numbers like 138, 360, 225, 884, 1625.

Can you tinker a deck that can beat these numbers?

And if you do not ike it, you get at least one free pack for this week

For those who have not been around in 2016, some clever guys broke this brawl to unbelievable extents. Thanks to the brawl returning after 8 years, you too can experience the magic of dealing 2 billion damage (give or take a few) in one single attack.

How can this be done?
Well, the engine you are playing against acts predictably to a certain extent. Namely, if they have Divine Spirit in hand, they cast it. This becomes very interesting as soon as Lorewalker Cho (or two) enters the stage. Now health totals of minions double again and again. In 2016, if you reached the magic number of 2147483648 a.k.a. 2^31, an integer overflow killed your minion, so 2 billion was the limit. Now you are only one Inner Fire away from the hardest strike you will ever hit in your hearthstone career.

However, there are certain pitfalls:
1.) Another rumor says that the engine concedes if you have a minion with very high attack. So we will pile up health first and do not increase the attack value of our minion until the final attack.
2.) One pitfall comes in the form of the cards in the engine’s decks. Most of them are harmless, but there is Execute, which for a single mana can undo all the work of creating a multi-digit-minion. Enter the Coliseum is another nuisance, which can be partly mitigated by playing Kel’thuzad. As long as Kel’thuzad is your highest power creature, he will bring back your other minions, most notably Lorewalker Cho after Enter the Coliseum rears its ugly head. Dark Bargain also can be a problem if it hits the wrong minions. Rally can revive your Cho if something goes wrong
3.) Another pitfall: after the health-doubling-fun starts, you will probably not see any more cards from your deck. It will be all Divine Spirit until the final stage. This also means, that if you do not have Inner Fire already in your hand, it will probably explode as soon as you want to draw it. So just make sure you have your Inner Fire in hand in time. If you are cautious with card draw and hand space you could maybe keep your hand space low enough to draw some new cards, but keeping the opponent’s hand full is important, so he will also keep your hand full too.

What you want to achieve is a “pin” against the AI opponent:
1.) a full board of silenced/0 power minions on his side, so he cannot add new minions any more
2.) a taunt minion with high health and zero power on your side, so he cannot get rid of his silenced minions
2.) a full hand on his side that destroys any card that is drawn from the deck.
Once the opponent is pinned, keep his hand full with Divine Spirits and build that immense minion. Just don’t forget the Inner Fire that is needed to deliver the big blow. Maybe you will also need a Shard of the Naaru to switch off enemy taunt minions when you finally strike, but that card should understandably never land in the opposition’s hand.

Do not bother to destroy the enemy’s weapon, it respawns next turn and he never attacks with it anyway.

All in all the new cards available in 2024 make this whole endavour much easier compared to 2016.
The list below is in no means optimal, but it works and shows the concepts that I described above.

2x (1) Crimson Clergy
2x (1) Funnel Cake
2x (1) Inner Fire
1x (1) Northshire Cleric
2x (1) Power Word: Shield
2x (1) Shard of the Naaru
2x (1) Shieldbearer
2x (2) Creation Protocol
2x (2) Divine Hymn
2x (2) Divine Spirit
1x (2) Lorewalker Cho
2x (2) Shadow Word: Death
2x (2) Tidepool Pupil
2x (3) Anchorite
1x (4) Rally!
2x (4) Unpowered Steambot
1x (8) Kel’Thuzad

AAEBAZ/HAgTvCPIMgg774wMN+ALlBOIG0QrTCr3zApf2AqLoA4f3A6LpBe33BcK+BvjhBgAA

maybe the solution would be:
“destroy the top card of your deck, then draw a card and deal damage equal to its cost”

this would destroy the ceaseless expanse and then deal 25 from shirvallah, while still keping the giants active in case you draw shirvallah and/or expanse.

personally i think the “draw a paladin card from your deck and deal damage equal to its cost” is the more elegant solution, but you would need ways to shuffle shirvallah back into your deck or else the deck would fizzle upon drawing it

I think they wanted starships to matter, so they needed a slower environment.

death knight – deathrattle
demon hunter – crewmates
druid – ramp
hunter – discover
mage – elementals/fire spells
paladin – librams
priest – dranei
rogue – burgle
shaman – asteroids/elementals
warlock – ?
warrior – dranei

“Each player has got one free entry”

well, i have never played the pre-release brawl and still have to pay 2 tavern tickets for my first game.

what has gone wrong?

[Progression] Corrected the wording on the KEEP OUT: BEWARE OF DOGS Achievement.
[Progression] Fixed a bug where the Valedictorian’s Honor Achievement couldn’t be completed.

I am glad to read that at least one bugged achievement was repaired (i have not verified it yet).
That gives at least some hope that other bugged achievements will also be fixed in the future.

another patch goes by, but the “all you can eat” achievement (gameplay – year of the hydra: draw 100 cards with feast of souls) still cannot be advanced in any way.

apparently achievements cannot be advanced by uncraftable cards like the ones you get form core set. maybe this is a bug, maybe this is on purpose to extract money/gold/dust from achievement hunters.

however, feast of souls is from the “demon hunter initiate” set which consists only of uncraftable cards !!
even if i was willing to pay money/gold/dust just to be able to unlock the achievement i would never have a chance, because there is no craftable version of feast of souls in all of hearthstone.

this time it’s just “put all the most expensive cards into your deck”

i played first turn travelmaster dungar into aman’thul and factorybot + one more creature, copied the factorybot and earned the concession from my opponent before my second turn.

that’s what titans did to this game

some nice opposing strategies that i ran across recently:
Chaotic Tendril (surprisingly effective, because you can level up to high cost spells very quickly)
Flight of thr Bronze (can be a lot of fun, provided you hit Nozdormu the Timeless quickly so you ramp everyone to 10 mana, activating manathirst and giving you the mana to cast the discovered dragons)

still pogo conquers all, and should therefore be banned in this brawl

I would like to see a twist season designed as follows:

it starts as all star squad tavern brawl, but after 24 hours, the card with the most wins is banned.
in addition, the matchmaking forbids mirror matches.

This way you can crown the “king of all star squad tavern brawl” on the first day, and then you get a 30-steps-stairway down with each card a little bit less effective/powerful than the last.

The meta would automatically change every day

i liked especially Spectral Trainee and Cult Neophyte from your deck.

you might want to replace Vicious Slitherspear with Mana Wyrm.