Battle of the Bans

The subject of this article is only available in Tavern Brawls.

"Pick four cards. Your opponent will BAN one of them, then we'll make you a deck full of the cards remaining."

Battle of the Bans is a Tavern Brawl. It debuted on March 20, 2019. For exact times, see the schedule.

History

Tavern Brawl	Start	End
197	March 20, 2019	March 25, 2019
257	May 13, 2020	May 20, 2020
287	December 9, 2020	December 16, 2020
314	June 16, 2021	June 23, 2021
330	October 6, 2021	October 13, 2021
392	December 14, 2022	December 21, 2022
454	February 21, 2024	February 28, 2024

Overview

This Tavern Brawl sees players doing battle with custom decks composed solely of four cards. When the game starts, the opponent choose one card to ban (the opponent will see only three cards of your deck, the fourth one will be a hidden card) and a deck with 10 copies of the other three cards will be made. Banned cards in your hand will be replaced with one of the three unbanned cards.

Special cards

Notes

• Whizbang the Wonderful, Zayle, Shadow Cloak, Prince Malchezaar, C'Thun, the Shattered, Patches the Pirate, Jade Idol, Time Out! and Ice Block are banned from deck-building.
• Start of Game effects will trigger before your opponent has a chance to ban cards, and will retain their effects even if banned.
• The banned card will be replaced at random by other cards from your deck. Because of this, they don't count as having started in your deck, synergizing with Leyline Manipulator and Princess Talanji.

Strategy

You want to build a deck where all the cards synergize with each other, but it each one is interchangeable. One easy way to do this is to use two sets of cards that both accomplish similar things. Here are a few examples:

• Galvanizer + Mechwarper + two other Mechs. No matter what gets banned, you'll be able to play out a large board of Mechs quickly and cheaply. Metaltooth Leaper is a strong pick, although it will usually get banned.
• Arcane Missiles + Ice Lance + Bloodmage Thalnos + Frostbolt. A high damage, high-pressure combo. Can be left at the mercy of draw RNG if your opponent bans Thalnos, so be careful.
  • Arcane Missiles + Ice Lance + Black Cat + Forgotten Torch. A variation of the above that trades speed for more overall power.
• Silverware Golem + Fist of Jaraxxus + two discard cards. An extremely aggressive combination that provides constant face and board pressure. The other two cards are very flexible. You can use Darkshire Librarian for easy refueling, Felstalker for the best board presence, or Soulfire for more direct damage. You can also use Malchezaar's Imp in place of any card.
• Springpaw + Crackling Razormaw + Scavenging Hyena + Animal Companion. Control the board with Springpaw or Animal Companion and use Razormaw or Hyena as your main win condition. If Springpaw is banned, Razormaw and Hyena still synergize with each other, albeit far slower.
• Omega Assembly + Reckless Flurry + Dyn-o-matic + Baku the Mooneater. Survive through Tank Up! and keep the board clear with either Reckless Flurry or Dyn-o-matic. Win the lategame using either Discovered Mechs or dropping Bakus as much as possible. Notably weak against Mech decks.
• Counterfeit Coin + Shadowstep + Pogo-Hopper + Edwin VanCleef. Use cheap spells to power out one of the two big minions. Pogo-Hopper grows slowly but consistently while Edwin guarantees a large impact but will leave your hand empty.
• Twin Slice + Battlefiend + Crimson Sigil Runner + Aldrachi Warblades. Pressure face with high damage, either with constantly growing minions or cheap card cycling. If neither Aldrachi Warblades or Twin Slice is banned, you have a powerful recovery tool that can also deal lots of fast damage.