JadeW

This week's Hearthstone Tavern Brawl is "A Less Friendly Game of Chess" and takes a unique approach to the classic game. We've seen chess before in Azeroth's card game, one of the bosses in One Night in Karazhan forced you to play with rooks, knights and queens. It was a relatively fun experience that the developers decided that they wanted to bring back.

"A Less Friendly Game of Chess" has a few unique rules. Players build a Wild deck of single copies of six cards that will appear randomly throughout your deck. Death Knight and Evolve cards are banned, meaning there's no easy way to cheese your way to victory. If you want your free pack, you'll have to play slowly and methodically, almost like a real game of chess.

Once you pick a class, build your deck and start the game, you'll get a hand of random chess pieces to tinker with. You'll either be playing as the Black or White King, with the White going first. You only have 20 health, so be careful with how you spend your resources. Your Hero Power is Castle, costs two mana and discovers a random Chess piece.

Here's the full list of Chess pieces you can find in this Tavern Brawl:

• Pawn (1 mana) 1/6- Auto Attack: Deal one damage to the enemies opposite this minion
• Bishop (3 mana) 0/6: Restore two health to adjacent minions
• Rook (3 mana) 2/6- Auto Attack: Deal two damage to the enemies opposite this minion
• Knight (4 mana) 4/3- Charge: Can't attack heroes
• Queen (7 mana) 4/6- Auto Attack: Deal four damage to enemies opposite this minion

Placement is extremely important for this Brawl. Placing a Rook across from a Pawn who's sitting next to a Bishop will be a huge waste. Minions activate from left to right, making it essential to properly place cards on the board. Games can tend to go for 15 to 20 minutes when you don't know what you're doing, which is why strategy is essential. Flooding the board with Pawns and Knights will only get you a win if you are super lucky.

Be smart in your play, using your Queens and Knights to clear pesky Bishops and Rooks and you'll be fine.

Which cards you bring severely impacts your ability to win. I've seen creative Marsh Queen decks, Rush Warriors and even a Shaman or four. Since your deck is so diluted with Chess pieces, drawing cards is incredibly important. Buffs like Blessing of Kings or Sunkeeper Tarim don't increase the damage your Pawns, Bishops Queens and Rooks deal, so don't waste your time on buffs. The best cards I've seen so far are Frothing Berserker (which can gain crazy amounts of stats very quickly) Leeroy Jenkins (He destroys Queens in one hit) and Equality (say goodbye to your board).

I've been using a Druid deck that buffs minions on the board. It might be a little slow for some people, but it's an easy way to earn your pack and never play this Tavern Brawl again.

Deck List:

1x (1) Mark of the Lotus
1x (2) Power of the Wild
1x (3) Crypt Lord
1x (4) Branching Paths
1x (4) Oaken Summons
1x (6) Spreading Plague

Deck Code:

AAEBAbSKAwb3A827AqDNApHQAp7SAoTmAgAA

What classes and decks have you enjoyed playing with in "A Less Friendly Game of Chess"? Tell us, as long as it's not Face Hunter. Nobody likes SMORC in Tavern Brawls.

Uncommon Knowledge

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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