elementals (mage or shaman) seem to be a natural fit for this brawl this time, but i do not see any ways to really abuse the brawl mechanic like it was possible with vanndar, watchpost or bibliomite

now that Mystery Egg got BUFFED, the deck will certainly be much stronger.

i am so glad that i did not craft this, because blizzard not giving refunds for essentially killing a deck just does not seem really fair

the wild bundle is a cruel joke.

we just had 20 standard packs and 2 legends for 20 euro.

charging 30 euro for 30 wild packs and 2 wild legends puts wild cards at a higher price, while at the same time the card strength is much lower due to the ongoing power creep over the years.

once i thought i could assemble a complete hearthstone card collection at some point in the future, but after i opened some “reprinted legends” from caverns of time, which still leave the spot of the original card as missing (so i would have to get them twice to complete the collection) i lost my interest in that quest

# 2x (2) Distressed Kvaldir
# 2x (2) Down with the Ship
# 1x (3) Floppy Hydra
# 1x (4) Helya
# 1x (5) Steamcleaner
#
AAEBAfHhBAP/4QST+wWXuAYC9fcFgvgFAAA=

Steamcleaner has even more potential:
Helya gives your opponent an unending stream of Plagues.
Destroy their deck before with Steamcleaner, then watch them get hit by multiple plagues every turn. Kvaldir and Down with the Ship buy you time before you reach Steamcleaner mana (unfortunately no ramp here), and after Steamcleaner hits Helya plagues their deck pile, and any leftover Kvaldirs and DwtS bury your oppenent even deeper.
The Hydra can be replaced with anything, depending on what you want to protect against.

The Plague deck is also a great counter against opposing Steamcleaner decks.

# 2x (1) Biology Project
# 2x (1) Naturalize
# 1x (3) Floppy Hydra
# 1x (5) Steamcleaner
# 1x (9) Yogg-Saron, Unleashed
#
AAEBAZICA//hBKmVBpe4BgLpAY/2AgAA

Automaton Priest was a bad fit for this brawl, so i tried something else.
With 2 Biology Projects, Steamcleaner can be played on turn 2 even without the coin. Naturalize and the 5/5 body of Steamcleaner buys you time until Yogg-Saron takes over. To protect you against fatigue, you can choose between Jade Idol and Floppy Hydra. Most games are won by fatigue, of course.

I admit that I do not own Mecha’thun, which would maybe allow much easier wins (there is a deck posted by JennIsCool below)

I was cutting the Creation protocols for Power Word: Synchronize for exactly this reason.
You want to mulligan both Automatons into your starting hand. Then creation protocol becomes useless. (went 2-1, won against plague death knight and rogue, lost against evolve shaman)

However, there are better strategies in this brawl anway.
i liked the evolve shaman deck that beat me, it makes perfect use of unstable portal.
compare that to the automaton strartegy, which has actually negative synergy with unstable portal.

i don’t get it

there are so many cool tavern brawls available (like the one from last week e.g.), but they keep giving us those pure rng brawls every other week that no one bothers to play after the first win.

the kill count is bugged:

at the end of every match, the game gives exactly the same number for “mini-rag kills” and “total”, so i can never complete any achievements

some things that could be added to the general information:
– healing totem resurrects minions that were killed by ragnaros
– if you still have 7 minions after the Ragnaros trigger, ragnaros will remove your right-most minion and replace it
– mass dispell (and presumably shard of the naaru too) silences ragnaros
– soul mirror copies ragnaros

grim patron is by far the best card in this format.
if you want to go for a less common strategy, you can go for quest warlock.
ragnaros proceeds your quest, and after you played tamsin, ragnaros fires at your opponent on both player’s turns

The most common strategy is enrage warrior with eggs.
ravenous kraken triggers eggs well.

# 2x (1) Dragon Egg
# 2x (1) Eternium Rover
# 2x (1) Foul Egg
# 2x (1) Garrosh’s Gift
# 2x (2) Anima Extractor
# 2x (2) Armorsmith
# 2x (2) Nerubian Egg
# 2x (2) Serpent Egg
# 2x (3) Acolyte of Pain
# 2x (3) Bomb Wrangler
# 2x (3) Devilsaur Egg
# 1x (3) Prince Renathal
# 2x (3) Ravenous Kraken
# 2x (3) Val’kyr Soulclaimer
# 2x (4) Axe Flinger
# 2x (4) Gruntled Patron
# 2x (4) Kodohide Drumkit
# 2x (5) Grim Patron
# 2x (6) Security Rover
# 1x (7) Hogger, Doom of Elwynn
# 2x (7) Underbelly Ooze
#
AAEBAQcCoLACl+8EE9QE+wzmEecR+RGrwgKvzQLk9wKz/ALBmQO9pgOrtgPV6APRoAS+4gSgmQX3wQX4ggbsqQYAAA==

funny how I wrote about the tavern brawl last week (Shiftcon West) that “it is definitely a brawl where rng is a dominant factor” …

… and now we get this

well, they do pay us with one pack for the first win.

it is definitely a brawl where rng is a dominant factor

The Arfus deck is full of board control, lifesteal and acceleration.
Cutting some health points did nothing to really weaken the deck, because most preconstructed decks do not have the means to “rush down” the Arfus deck.
It is still on top by a margin

I think it is a step into the right direction to reward players for playing games, not winning them.
Because if the reward is only for winning, you a loss is doubly frustrating for falling down one step of the ladder and also not advancing your quest. When playing is rewarded, a lost game at least gives you some progress on your quest as a consolation price.
What’s even more important: If a quest requires you to win, you are pushed to play the most efficient (net-)decks to complete that quest. This punishes “experimental” decks with lower win rates by denying them quest completion and also pitting them against a higher rate of decks people copy from the net to get the wins for their own quests.
So hopefully this new style of quests will lead to a wider variety of decks on the ladder.

As for monetarization in general:
The basic dilemma imho is, that the company wants the players to spend more money on the game, while the players understandably would like to keep their money and go on playing the game for (almost) free.

just a typo here:
… Sock Puppet Slitherspear now properly gains ATTACK

There are only limited ways to improve your chances of winning.
– you have to try to try to keep a wide board to deflect bomb salvos (Violet Teacher can be helpful here). do not attack unless you want to create board space or you are going for the kill during your opponent’s next turn (usually this involves one or two savage roars)
– use your healing on the player with lower health, but preferrably on Druid, because Mage has Animated Armor. You should protect Animated Armor from Prioritize by keping a larger attack minion on the board (also protect Troggzor, Violet Teacher, Brann and Moonkin this way if possible).
– choose carefully with which creature you trigger Mirror Entity. Arnassus Aspirant is the worst, but there are many good options (mostly anything without battlecry, sometimes even Zombie Chow)
– mana ramp is the best way to start the game. Arcane Golem is valuable here, but Darnassus Aspirant less so because it dies easily, taking the mana crystal away again.
– to finally win the game, there are some combos, like setting up your opponent with Troggzor+Millhouse / Moonkin+Millhouse / Troggzor+Cho
– you might want to stockpile some (cheap) spells in case your opponent drops Troggzor or Moonkin
– keep in mind that Lorewalker is always killed at the second occasion (after both players had 1 turn with it), so you know what Mechazod is doing, i.e. not killing your largest creature
– turn 1 Zombie Chow is often not a good play in this brawl, because you will probably waste the 5 healing for your team, and you give Mechazod a target for Bomb Salvo and Prioritize which would otherwise just fizzle on the board. (Zombie Chow only survives only if Overclock never triggered).

That being said, RNG plays a huge role in this brawl. If mechazod starts with some overclocks, follows with bomb salvos against your board and finishes you with double zap there is almost nothing you can do. On the other hand, in the late game overclock feels like a free turn for you, and prioritize sometimes even comes against an empty board in the early game, making Mechazod waste its turn.

At least we get 2 legends again with the 20packs bundles.

Last time they offered only one, and I declined

I found it very hard to win any games at all with Splendiferous Whizbang.

I thought at Bronze 10 (at the start of the month) I cold collect some wins with splendiferous at lower levels, but 80-90% are Reno Warrior, Aggro Hunter and Excavate Death Knight.
None of the decks had any chance against those decks. They were defenselsess against Hunter, and against the control decks they got the board cleared so often until the ressources ran out every time.

you missed multiple elemental invocations being played, each discounting thunderbringer by 2.

actually a good strategy, because the thunderbringers have taunt and spawn more thunderbringers when they die

what did you add after cutting drain soul and endgame?
i think Finley definitely can save you some games in which you drew doomguards (or in which you failed to draw crane game).

It would be interesting to watch some games in spectator mode. but for the time being this tavern brawl is over, and we have to see if crane game will be viable next time “blood magic” comes around

buffed Treasure Distributor looks quite imba at first glance