Turn 3 Kill in Hearthstone's Tavern Brawl

If you haven't stopped by The Inn recently to play Hearthstone, there is a new game mode out that perfectly blends a fresh challenge every week with the fun of casual spell slinging mixed in with a dash of Blizzard zaniness. Tavern Brawl is a 1v1 match that adopts new and unusual rules each week, making for constantly fresh gameplay while the hardcore player base waits for a fresh expansion. And thus far, your first win each week earns you a Classic card pack, which also makes it a great way for newer players to build their collection.

Welcome to my Inn!

The first of the crazy rulesets have allowed us to play as Nefarian and Ragnaros, starting with 60 life and including non-collectible cards in our preconstructed decks that were from the Blackrock Mountain adventure. Since then, we've had fully random decks, a free Mukla-style banana every time a minion dies, a Webspinner challenge, and a free random minion on the board every time you cast a spell. Sometimes you get to pick your entire deck, sometimes just the class, and sometimes you get whatever the game gives you


This week's challenge, for a limited time only is a standard Hearthstone match with but one twist: both players start with 10 mana on turn 1! Other than that, it is a regular game with a deck you build, but it turns out that this slight tweak really opens up the opportunities for new decks.

All that serves to bring me to the not so humble reason for this post: I totally dropped a turn three kill on some poor helpless opponent!

The first direction most players went this week was to jam their deck full of the largest minions and spells they could find. I admit, I followed this level 1 thinking as well for my first win, taking Warlock for the guaranteed card draw and just dropping fatties over and over until one player won.

But then I decided to head in a different direction and jam a shaman deck with minions that would flood the board, whether by being super sticky or bringing a friend along, hopefully allowing for a quick devastating Bloodlust. But I never imagined exactly how fast that scenario would actually turn up.

In the first match I played (I promise!), I mulligan on the play into Sunwalker, Jeeves, and Bloodlust in my opening hand. That is pretty much perfect, with the finisher in hand and a very efficient turn 1 that will put a sticky minion taunt on the board, plus draw a bonus card (Dr. Boom) right off the bat.

Our Villain is playing the standard big boom-boom Warlock, and life taps plus Force-Tank MAX on turn 1.

On turn 2, I draw Feral Spirit (super lucky, right?) and fill the board with Sunwalker, Jeeves, Boom Bot, Dr. Boom, Boom Bot, Spirit Wolf and Spirit Wolf. Attack for 5 and draw another (irrelevant) card from Jeeves.

Villian's turn 2 seems pretty good, with a Rend Blackhand that takes down my good Dr., followed up by a super-cheap Sea Giant, but for attacks, all he can manage is to trade divine shields.

Gee! Gee!

Bloodlust buffs six minions and our Villian takes 29 after playing for only two turns. Sorry duder, but that was pretty sweet from my side of the table. And just how I drew it up when deckbuilding, which makes the feat super-gratifying.

Even if you don't get a scenario this epic, be sure to log in once each week starting on Tuesdays to earn your bonus card pack. And if you see a friend online, you can challenge him or her so you can share your zany game experiences directly.