Shadow Towers

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

"Who lurks in the shadow towers? You do! Skulking behind the Towers' sturdy walls, your minions have stealth their first turn."

Shadow Towers is a Tavern Brawl. It debuted on May 25, 2016.

History

Tavern Brawl	Start	End
50	May 25, 2016	May 30, 2016

Overview

This Tavern Brawl sees players doing battle with custom decks of any class. Whenever a minion is played, it gains Stealth, lasting until the start of the player's next turn. Each hero starts with 10 Armor, in addition to the usual 30 Health.

Notes

• This Brawl's Stealth effect is granted through a special enchantment, which automatically removes itself at the start of the controlling player's turn. This means that if a minion with the enchantment is stolen by the other player, it will not lose Stealth until the start of that player's next turn, rather than that of the player who summoned it. With enough mind control effects, this could theoretically keep a minion in Stealth indefinitely.
• The Brawl only applies Stealth to minions played from the hand. Minions put into play by other means will not be affected.
  • This even applies to the token generated by Echoing Ooze, even though it is supposed to spawn as an exact copy of its original (which is granted stealth). This may be a bug.
• Mass Dispel can silence the Brawl applied Stealth off.
• Flare does not remove the Brawl applied Stealth from enemy minions.
• Attacking with a Brawl applied Stealth minion removes the Stealth, but dealing damage with it otherwise (such as Knife Juggler or Ragnaros) does not.
• Self-transforming Choose One minions affected by Fandral Staghelm will not have Stealth.

Strategy

• The rules of this Brawl considerably strengthen "soft taunt" minions with powerful card text.
• There are too many minions that profit from this Brawl to list them here. Generally speaking, any minion that favors abilities over stats shines here. Abilities that trigger multiple times like Questing Adventurer, Summoning Stone or any card with Inspire can quickly snowball out of control.
• Notable mentions:
  • Doomsayer is nearly guaranteed to trigger, as is Validated Doomsayer.
  • Murloc Knight and other Inspire minions can easily be triggered once or twice before the opponent is able to remove them.
  • Kel'Thuzad's power can easily trigger three times without reprisal.
  • Alarm-o-Bot is a good minion to base a strategy around in this Brawl. Thanks to Stealth, it can help summon powerful minions from your hand at a sharply reduced Cost, and do so multiple times since it's returned to your hand every time and will regain Stealth when subsequently played. Note that minions summoned in this way will not be given Stealth by the Brawl.
  • Millhouse Manastorm is known to be one of the worst cards ever made, but this brawl may be his time to shine. Assuming that players mulligan for early removal cards, the Stealth granted by the Brawl may render your opponent's free spells useless.
    • However, if your opponent has spells that draw cards or simply uses them to damage your hero, Millhouse will still backfire. He still is a high risk / high reward card, but in this Brawl, the risk does not outweigh the reward as greatly as it usually does.
• Remember that Taunt does not work while in stealth. This significantly weakens traditional Druid decks, but strengthens the aforementioned Alarm-o-Bot-strategy.
• Broadly speaking, Mages are well equipped to deal with this brawl's challenges:
  • Their minions almost always favor abilities over stats. And some of them, like Flamewaker and Archmage Antonidas, only need to survive one turn to unfold their full potential (i.e. one turn to refill your Mana Crystals to start casting spells.)
  • They have access to Flamecannon, Arcane Missiles and the aforementioned Flamewaker that can remove minions without having to target them.
  • Animated Armor more or less evaporates enemy damage potential, providing a strong matchup against aggressive strategies.
• The board will usually have minions on it, giving constant targets for cards like Blessing of Kings and Argent Protector.
• Your opponent's minions may be stealthed, so removal spells like Fireball will not as frequently have a target.
• Area of effect spells are valuable to break through the Stealth, but don't neglect to develop your own minions.
• An aggressive strategy is possible, particularly with Windfury minions like Whirling Zap-o-matic or even Dust Devil delivering an almost guaranteed 6 damage to face. The extra 10 armor on each hero hampers this somewhat, and makes midrange decks more viable.