Spent a couple of hours on this Brawl to get my dailies done and assemble a decent deck. Starting out I needed to get two Rogue wins. Initially I built a deck with a number of minions to exploit the free summons. Cards like Defias Ringleader, Haunted Creeper, and Violet Teacher. My first game scared a Priest away when coined out the Defias:
During the second game I realized I was doing it wrong. Many of the summons (Spectral Spider or Violet Apprentice) did not cost the required two mana to trigger a free card. While a little disheartened I thought my Hogger would finally shine since it summons Gnolls which "cost" two mana. Alas it appears that only "played" cards would trigger Brawl since when my Gnolls were killed they did not summon Wisps or Target Dummies.
There is a way to exploit the Brawl effect. Turns out it is like a hidden Death Rattle which means Baron Rivendare is suddenly relevant. An enterprising Hunter caught me by surprise with this. Turn six he had a Piloted Shredder on the board. He then played the Baron followed by Feign Death. Suddenly I was facing a full board:
Thankfully I was able to remove the Baron immediately and had enough board developed to stabilize. But imagine the havoc Sneed's Old Shredder could wreak! Something to consider.
While I needed to get some Druid wins in I ended up sticking with the Druid to play. The Druid's ability to ramp into large minions is especially potent with the Brawl effect. Sadly I don't have the cool trees (Ancient of Lore or Ancient of War) but there is plenty of other heft to get by with (plenty, other, heft, et cetera)
Did learn a couple of things.
The turn one Emperor Thaurissan sure seemed powerful. Yet keeping and using the two Innervates along with the coin ended up draining any hope of tempo. Naturally the Priest drew into SW: Death by turn three and nothing that I had drawn into the cost reduction helped me. The biggest lesson came with Poison Seeds. You pretty much guarantee a loss for yourself by playing it since each dying minion summons a new one to go along with a bunch of free treants.
What I ended up doing was "taunting into ramp": Decklist. Start with small taunt minions to stall early aggression. Then follow up with some more taunt in the mid-range, like Belcher and Druid of the Claw. End the curve with high-mana, high-value cards as finishers. Spells were either buffs or removal along with Nourish for the ability to choose between draw or ramp.
There's a bit more tuning to do. The deck is light on draw so each card needs to be high value or more draw should be added. There are too many spells—which don't synergize with the Brawl power. Need to go either removal or buffs. Really wish I had more giants. *sigh*
Nozdormu continues to win me games. With the focus on getting taunts out he's actually surviving and messing with people.
This ramp druid had me beat until I managed to get the roping going. He tried to use Savage Roar on me but the animations must have slowed him down. Was giggling to myself for a while after winning that game. Definitely love that about the Brawl games… being able to use cards that don't fit into "normal" constructed play.
The free pack was okay:
Destroyed all of the commons but I did need the Perdition's Blade. While I enjoy Rogue the decks I've played with never encouraged me to make it.
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