LogFAQs > #926385999

So this tavern brawl is a thing.

I kind of like it actually, but I tend to like the degenerate ones.

Most people are basically playing crab warfare; Hungry Crab, Golakka Crawler, Dragonslayer, Sacrificial Pact.

There's some 2 drops with pretty impactful aruas. Mechwarper, Underbelly Angler, Ship's Cannon.

3 drops are a little underwhelming mostly--I don't feel like games are won or lost due to Murloc Warleader. Zoobot is probably the best of them; buffs itself so it's like a 4/4 that hands out two +1/+1s.

Shaman has a bunch of strong stuff going on with totem synergy (0 mana savage roar, Thing From Below) and Murloc synergies (Everyfin is Awesome, Underbelly Angler).

But I think of the zooish tempo decks, Warlock has the strongest one. More crabs thanks to sac pact. More ways to draw crabs thanks to the hero power, kobold librarian, and warlock stuff in general.

---

However, there are definitely control/combo decks. The one I've played runs almost entirely spells, and then uses Ice Fishing and draw a minion effects to pull out Scargill, Mechwarper, Al'Akir, and SN1P SN4P for the OTK.

This works because Shaman has a ton of cheap board clears. Lightning Storm, Elemental Destruction, Hagatha's Scheme, Volcano, Earthquake. I also added in singletarget removal (lightning bolt, crackle, Likkim, Earth Shock).

I've also heard reports of people doing well with control warlock, presumably leveraging a similarly wide pool of board clears (defile, hellfire, etc) until they can drop Skull of the M'Nari.

---

Meanwhile, some people on reddit are hyping up Odd Paladin. I....have tried it, and don't get the hype actually. You have one less crab, no ship's cannon, no mechwarper, so you can fall way behind on turn 2-3, and Paladin really doesn't have odd board clears, so like...you'd better draw a crab to kill that ship's cannon/mechwarper (and you can't even run golakka crawler so you have fewer crabs, although Crystology helps you draw hungry crab). If you can survive a few turns, sure, the hero power will out-value most decks, but Odd Paladin doesn't really feel like it has the tools to come back when way behind on board. (Maybe Odd Pally counters the Scargill control/combo deck, cause they need to spend board clears on your 1/1s? But that matchup is so rare that I've never played against it)
---

Cats land on their feet. Toast lands peanut butter side down. A cat with toast strapped to its back will hover above the ground in a state of quantum indecision