Heart of the Sunwell

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

"In the Sunwell lies unlimited power, and that power is yours! Start each game with 10 mana and see what you can do with it!"

Heart of the Sunwell is a Tavern Brawl. It debuted on July 22, 2015. For exact times, see the schedule.

History

Tavern Brawl	Start	End
6	July 22, 2015	July 27, 2015
53	June 15, 2016	June 20, 2016
234	December 4, 2019	December 11, 2019

Overview

The unique quality of this Brawl is that each player starts with 10 mana. Players are able to choose any class, but cannot use their standard decks; they must create a custom deck for the Brawl.

Strategy

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Clearly this Brawl provides ample opportunity to include high cost cards, with players able to make use of them from turn 1. Starting at 10 mana removes the "ramping up" phase, and makes it possible to build extremely high mana decks which would otherwise be almost unplayable.

As well as individual high cost cards, this Brawl can also allow multiple card combos from the very start of the game. Be aware that playing several lower cost cards in one turn without adequate card draw could leave you starved of cards, a problem more commonly encountered in the late game.

Strong picks

Alexstrasza is arguably the strongest starting card of all, stealing 15 Health from the opponent on turn 1. This can often be combined with any burst of damage such as Gorehowl, Windfury or Wolfrider + Savage Roar to immediately win the game on turn 2. Taunts and Sap can be useful for staving off a rush defeat, but there is no true counter to a turn 1 Alexstrasza.

Ragnaros the Firelord is also a good start, getting an immediate 8 to the enemy hero if you go first. Nefarian is also a powerful and fun option.

With many high-cost minions on the board, cards like Betrayal, Mindgames, Polymorph, Sap, Brawl, Mind Control and Vanish can be effective. Many medium-cost removal effects become more efficient when the target minion is generally high-cost. Conversely, cards like Deathlord became far less advisable.

While it may be tempting to choose as many high-cost cards as possible, the 10 mana limit each turn means in practice a deck full of 7, 8 and 9 cost minions will see mana wasted most turns. Including lower-cost cards can allow you to make full use of your mana each turn.

Priest was seen to be a very effective class for this Tavern Brawl, with a prevalence of priests by the end of the Brawl.

Rogue can make a 1 mana cost deck with Edwin VanCleef and other Combo cards.

Gallery

This Brawl saw a high number of turn 2 victories, mostly involving Alexstrasza

Matches often saw an unlikely assortment of high-cost legendary minions