5 Decks to Take Into Hearthstone's Standard Brawliseum

Out of the blue on Wednesday, Hearthstone kicked off another round of the Brawliseum for this week's Tavern Brawl. For those unfamiliar with the Brawliseum, it's basically the Arena format, but for Standard constructed decks. That means putting together the strongest deck possible and either riding it to 12 wins or getting knocked out after three losses.

The stakes are high with card packs, Gold, and Mana on the line. And while it costs 150 Gold or $1.99 to compete, the first try is absolutely free, so that adds a lot of pressure to the prospective deckbuilder. Fortunately, Shacknews is here to help out with five decks that are worth trying.

The Cancer Cubelock

So there are some fun deck ideas that are worth trying out...

"Where's the Cubelock?"

Ahem... the new meta has created some wildly fun deck types for many of the game's classes...

"Where's the Cubelock?

Sigh... with decks varying from aggressive to control to the midrange...

"Get to the Cubelock already!"

Oh, fine! You want to play that way, be my guest. Here's your Cubelock that's still terrorizing the Hearthstone meta. I hope you hit a Shudderwock.

• 1 x Acidic Swamp Ooze
• 2 x Hellfire
• 2 x Mountain Giant
• 2 x Faceless Manipulator
• 2 x Doomsayer
• 2 x Doomguard
• 1 x Spiritsinger Umbra
• 2 x Stonehill Defender
• 2 x Defile
• 1 x Bloodreaver Gul'dan
• 2 x Carnivorous Cube
• 2 x Voidlord
• 2 x Lesser Amethyst Spellstone
• 2 x Kobold Librarian
• 1 x Skull of the Man'ari
• 2 x Possessed Lackey
• 2 x Dark Pact
• 1 x Lord Godfrey

Everyone who has played Hearthstone since Kobolds & Catacombs knows how this deck works. Skull of the Man'ari summons Doomguard or Possessed Lackey summons it from the deck with no Discard downside. Use Carnivorous Cube and Dark Pact to make more Doomguards. If they all die, simply use Bloodreaver Gul'dan to bring them all back and Charge the face. That sure is how that deck works!

Ozzie's Control Warlock

• 2 x Spellbreaker
• 1 x Acidic Swamp Ooze
• 2 x Hellfire
• 2 x Twisting Nether
• 2 x Siphon Soul
• 2 x Stonehill Defender
• 2 x Defile
• 2 x Voodoo Doll
• 1 x Bloodreaver Gul'dan
• 1 x Rin, the First Disciple
• 2 x Ratcatcher
• 2 x Voidlord
• 2 x Lesser Amethyst Spellstone
• 2 x Kobold Librarian
• 1 x Possessed Lackey
• 2 x Dark Pact
• 1 x Lord Godfrey
• 1 x Dark Possession

Hey, I have a deck, too! It's also a Warlock, but it's not that Cubelock nonsense. This is a control-based deck, one that I used to reach Legend rank in April and one that's taken me consistently past 7 wins in the Brawliseum.

The key is keeping things under control until such a point that either Bloodreaver Gul'dan can get to work with his Hero Power or Rin, the First Disciple can get Azari, the Devourer online. Ratcatcher is a great minion to trade into smaller threats on his own, but he can also activate Rin, Possessed Lackey, or Voodoo Doll to get their effects going. Defile and Lord Godfrey will keep those pesky Dude Paladins at bay while Twisting Nether can used for extreme situations.

StanCifka's Even Paladin

• 1 x Blessing of Kings
• 2 x Spellbreaker
• 2 x Avenging Wrath
• 2 x Consecration
• 2 x Mountain Giant
• 2 x Truesilver Champion
• 2 x Equality
• 2 x Loot Hoarder
• 2 x Knife Juggler
• 1 x Bloodmage Thalnos
• 1 x Sunkeeper Tarim
• 2 x Lightfused Stegodon
• 2 x Drygulch Jailor
• 2 x Call to Arms
• 2 x Crystal Lion
• 2 x Plated Beetle
• 1 x Genn Greymane

There are many odd and even Paladin decks working their way across the Hearthstone meta at the moment, but it's Stanislav "StanCifka" Cifka's Even Paladin that fascinates me the most. That's mainly because he's thinking bigger with Giants.

The idea is to produce multiple card draws, while also maintaining a large hand with Drygulch Jailor, which leads to cheap Mountain Giants. It's an idea that I can get behind, largely because it turns one of the biggest drawbacks of this deck (not having access to Divine Favor) into a strength.

Personally, I'd rather use the numbers game to my advantage and fill the board with Silver Hand Recruits and minions from Call to Arms to set up a Sea Giant play, but I would imagine that the Giant type used is ultimately a matter of preference. Either way, two Giants make this deck much deadlier and if for whatever reason they go down, the Lightfused Stegodon and Sunkeeper Tarim should still provide a sufficient win condition.

Thijs' Quest Hunter

• 1 x Abusive Sergeant
• 2 x Acherus Veteran
• 2 x Dire Mole
• 2 x Elven Archer
• 2 x Fire Fly
• 2 x Glacial Shard
• 2 x Stonetusk Boar
• 1 x The Marsh Queen
• 2 x Tracking
• 1 x Prince Keleseth
• 2 x Ravencaller
• 2 x Stitched Tracker
• 2 x Dire Frenzy
• 1 x Houndmaster Shaw
• 1 x Toxmonger
• 2 x Wing Blast
• 2 x Tol'vir Warden
• 1 x Tundra Rhino

Here's something a little more off the beaten path, but still a good deck to try out in the Brawliseum. Thijs Molendijk's Quest Hunter is about getting numbers out quickly and finishing the Hunter Quest as soon as possible. That's much easier now with Ravencaller around. Prince Keleseth can ensure those 1-drops aren't so laughable, while Houndmaster Shaw allows them to trade into most opposing minions.

Dire Frenzy is also a crazy powerful tool, especially if you can cast it on Queen Carnassa to ready up another round of 15 Raptors.

The Spiteful Summoner Druid

• 2 x Dire Mole
• 2 x Fire Fly
• 2 x Glacial Shard
• 1 x Prince Keleseth
• 2 x Gluttonous Ooze
• 2 x Greedy Sprite
• 2 x Mind Control Tech
• 2 x Tar Creeper
• 2 x Saronite Chain Gang
• 2 x Spellbreaker
• 2 x Swift Messenger
• 1 x Cobalt Scalebane
• 2 x Fungalmancer
• 2 x Spiteful Summoner
• 1 x Malfurion the Pestilent
• 1 x Grand Archivist
• 2 x Ultimate Infestation

The Druid looked to be on the ropes for a while with the loss of Jade Golems to Wild. But this class has recovered nicely, thanks to Spiteful Summoner. That's because it turns out that running a Druid deck with only the 10-Mana Ultimate Infestation can lead to some pretty lopsided Turn 6 plays.

Prince Keleseth also ensures that the Druid player can go aggressive with multiple minions in the early game and also buff them up with Cobalt Scalebane. Now I should note that the deck posted above belongs to Jeffrey "Trump" Shih, who's only running one Cobalt Scalebane. However, given that this minion can make any other minion the board look pretty imposing, maybe consider dropping one of the Gluttonous Oozes in favor of running a second one of these big bad dragons.

Those are just a few decks to trot out during this week's Brawliseum. Which deck has carried you to the 12-win promised land? Join the conversation and let us know in the comments.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?