Tavern Brawl this week is… “The Dark Wanderer” (June 7th, 2023) – June 7, 2023 at 01:25PM

Description: “A hooded stranger sits to play holding a grim deck in his hands. Can you unravel the secrets surrounding this dark wanderer?”

Chalkboard

Format: Wild Constructed against The Dark Wanderer, an AI opponent. Please note, your opponent begins with 50 Health (!) and custom Secrets in place. Also, both sides begin with 3 mana. Also also, it seems that cards that destroy Secrets — such as Flare, Kezan Mystic and Eater of Secrets — are banned from our decks.

Apparently this is a two-stage opponent? At least in my first game, after I defeated OtherGuy when it was The Dark Wanderer, the game didn’t stop — instead he was replaced with Diablo, who starts with 150 Health (!!!) and he also got to draw several new cards right away. You DO NOT get rewards for only beating the first stage.

IMPORTANT: As u/grahamca noticed, if you lose against the Diablo form, next time he’ll start with the same Health that you left him at. So you can just grind him down via attrition across multiple games, especially if you have direct-damage spells and/or Hero Powers (e.g. DH, DK, Hunter, Mage etc)

Reward: one Standard pack for your first win. Also a new Legendary quest has been added for the next 14 days, which awards a very spiffy card back to your collection when you win one TB match. The Gamepedia article about this format indicates that this week’s format will repeat next week too, so we’ll each have ample time to notch that win.

History: This is the second time we’ve seen this format, though newer players could be forgiven for thinking this was brand-new. The first time this format showed up was waaaaaaaaay back in January 2017, when it appeared as part of a Blizzard-wide celebration of “Diablo” hitting its 20th anniversary. That time, the Brawl awarded the “Secret Level” card back instead of a pack.

Good luck and have fun!