Hearthstone Tavern Brawl: 18-23 May

“Can you defeat Gearmaster Mechazod? Join forces with another player and see. It’s a cooperative Tavern Brawl!” It’s the Tavern Brawl for 18-23 May: Unite Against Mechazod!

Unite Against Mechazod is given its second outing in this week’s Tavern Brawl; the first and only Tavern Brawl that actually has two players working together to take down a 2-95 taunt minion Gearmaster Mechazod. It’s a fun ol’ Tavern Brawl this one. Both players are given pre-built decks and you are put as either a Paladin or a Priest. The goal here is not only to take down the 2-95, but to stay alive as well; Gearmaster Mechazod can easily ramp up his attack using Overclock and then use Double Zap to attack both players with his current attack damage.

The most effective way to take him down really is for the two players to work together by healing each other as well as buffing each other’s minions. Gearmaster Mechazod only has to kill one of you to win the game so there really is an element of keeping the player across the table from you alive and not just yourself. Both players have the opportunity to buff the other’s minions as each player’s decks are filled with primarily buff spells and cards that synergise off that.

In my game I was given the Paladin and judging off the cards I was given, my job was clearly to buff up one of my cards and hope the priest could help me in that endeavour. I started with a Lorewalker Cho in my hand, and although Gearmaster Mechazod can use an ability that instantly kills him, if he doesn’t for a couple of turns, you and your comrade can throw spells back and forth buffing up minions or healing each other.

Buffing up minions is precisely what my Priest comrade and I did; most notably, we buffed up Fjola Lightbane through Blessings of Kings. Not only that, we also used Lorewalker Cho to cast Kings on Lightbane three times; in the end, Fjola Lightbane was an 18-10 minion capable of keeping herself alive through her ability to cast divine shield on herself whenever she is targeted by one of my spells. It definitely got sticky towards the end of the match as the Priest and I got down pretty low on HP, so one more Double Zap and the Priest would have been dead. I’d also managed to draw an Icehowl which I played almost as soon as I could, and as Mechazod wasn’t too dangerous at that point I was able to get in a couple of hits with the 10-10 Icehowl; to make it even more of a problem to Mechazod I had cast Hand of Protection to give the Icehowl a Divine Shield for what is essentially an extra free hit. Those two cards won the Priest and I the game; not only that but the teamwork we showed allowed both of us to stay alive and buff the most powerful stuff on the board to a point where Mechazod could do little about it. I suppose we were lucky that later on Mechazod didn’t use Bomb Salvo, but that’s just a roll of a dice that all players will have to deal with.

https://youtu.be/gjtJEf0LuPU

Unite Against Mechazod is a fun Tavern Brawl that rewards players who do genuinely work together to take Mechazod down. An effective use of Lorewalker Cho -much like in my match – can win any player this Brawl. One of the great things about this Tavern Brawl is when either the Paladin or the Priest plays a very good minion both players instantly know to try their best to keep it buffed up and alive as it could be the best chance they get to do plenty of damage to Mechazod. It’s a Tavern Brawl that doesn’t necessarily warrant many replays except to try out the other class, but it’s nice to see the first co-op Tavern Brawl make its return, and I hope to see other co-op Brawls in the future. Oh, still not much in the way of Whispers of the Old Gods though.