This week’s Hearthstone Tavern Brawl pits two of Azeroth’s strongest bosses against each other for the third (and maybe last) time. “Showdown At Blackrock Mountain” has you play as Ragnaros or Nefarian to settle who the strongest monster around is. This is the third time we’ve seen this Tavern Brawl and not much has changed since it originally debuted over two years ago. Every deck is full of unique and extremely powerful cards that aren’t playable anywhere else, giving players a chance to feel like they have real power at their fingertips. Rag and Naf want to purge the other from existence so nobody’s pulling their punches.
Each behemoth requires a different strategy, with Nefarian pushing ahead in the early game while Ragnaros is much stronger in the mid to late-game. There are also unique hero powers to each of them: Ragnaros starts out summoning 5/1 Magma Ragers and Nefarian adds a random spell that costs nothing to your hand. I’ve played this Brawl plenty of times and there’s nothing dirtier than a zero-mana Call Of The Wild being dropped on the board on turn one. After eight swings of his weapon, Sulfuras from The Fire Plume’s Heart Quest, Ragnaros gains the eight random fireball damage that every Hearthstone player is well acquainted with.
Nefarian starts off with four mana while Ragnaros only gets one, allowing the dragon to pull ahead of Rag if you don’t plan ahead.
If you are having trouble winning this Tavern Brawl, there are a few things you can do. First, make sure to always play on curve. You’re being given some of the most powerful cards to ever exist in Hearthstone and they cost very little mana. Getting as much board control is crucial to winning the mode. If you have three 7/6 dragons on your side of the field, it’s going to be hard for anyone to counter them. Second, try to keep Son On The Flame and Coren Direbrew in your hand to deal with serious board threats. If the enemy Ragnaros has two Molten Giants staring you down, you have to clear them before your armor is depleted.
Most importantly, remember that RNG deciphers who wins Tavern Brawls. While skill is an important tool to have, you don’t necessarily need it to win here. All you have to do is drop your hand, keep killing enemy minions and eventually the game will be over. Don’t tilt to hard if you keep losing your games – it took me four or five tries the first time I played this Brawl just to get my one pack.
Here are the decklists for each of the powerhouses in this Brawl from Hearthstone’s Gamepedia:
Ragnaros:
Baron Geddon 1
Molten Giant 2
Flamestrike 2
Fire Elemental 2
Lava Burst 2
Flame Imp 2
Flameheart 2
Core Hound Puppies 2
Coren Direbrew 1
Garr 1
Golemagg 1
High Justice Grimstone 1
Living Bomb 2
Living Lava 3
Lucifron 1
Moira Bronzebeard 1
Son of the Flame 2
Whirling Ash 2
Nefarian:
Blackwing Corruptor 2
Blackwing Technician 3
Chromaggus 1
Onyxia 1
Rend Blackhand 1
Bite 2
Dragon Consort 2
Shadowflame 2
Arcanotron 1
Electron 1
Magmatron 1
Toxitron 1
Chromatic Drake 3
Atramedes 1
Dragonkin Spellcaster 2
Drakonid Slayer 2
Open the Gates 2
Razorgore 1
Vaelastrasz 1
