Aye, hello! Though my articles on Highlander Paladin and Druid are a wee bit overdue, today I felt it was important to address the most recent addition to the Highlander crew: Warrior. Deepminer Brann is without a doubt a powerhouse, so let's talk about what this card does, how best to use it, and whether it is in need of a nerf already. For other Standard decks utilizing Reno, Lone Ranger, check out my articles on Priest, Demon Hunter, Hunter, and Shaman.
Reno and Brann Fighting Side-By-Side Once Again
You just can't keep these guys apart! What is it, the great hats? The magnificent facial hair? Whatever the case, these two Explorers make for an incredibly powerful team. Reno, Lone Ranger has already proven his worth in numerous decks, but Deepminer Brann just arrived with the Delve into Deepholm mini-set, and boy is he making waves. Meet the no-duplicates condition, and he doubles all of your Battlecries for the rest of the game, even after he leaves the board. This sets you up to gain tons of armor, draw tons of cards, deal tons of damage, and of course, Excavate tons of treasures! Assembling an Excavate deck with Highlander conditions may seem counter-intuitive, but playing Brann early can make up for those missing doubles. Plus, even with just a single copy of each Excavate card, you still have enough to generate The Azerite Ox once, even without Brann's help. And doubling the Ox's Battlecry is also pretty strong!
Priority #1: Play Brann
I've encountered a lot of Warriors running Deepminer Brann recently, and they use quite a variety of other cards. The list I'm including here is one that I think has been really consistent (in beating me, that is).
This deck functions well due to Taelan Fordring, who doubles your chances of playing Brann on curve since you have no minions that cost more than him. I can't tell you how many games I've lost to turn 5 Taelan Fordring, Turn 6 Deepminer Brann, and it all spirals downward from there.
Astalor Bloodsworn is the primary win condition. If you play your cards right, you will end up with 4 copies of Astalor, the Flamebringer, each of which will throw 28 damage. Not too many decks will survive that.
Frightened Flunky and School Teacher can help generate answers to enemy plays, especially if Brann's effect is already active.
The rest of the deck is mostly removal, card draw, and armor gain.
There Can Be Only ... Lots?
The above deck is just one version, and probably not the strongest. By using Taelan Fordring to tutor out Brann, you are skipping some really great Battlecry minions like Boomboss Tho'grun, Odyn, Prime Designate, and Tidal Revenant.
I also spectacularly lost one game to Decimator Olgra, who attacked and killed all my minions, but they did not die before her Battlecry went off the second time, and she grew even more, counting the "dead" minions as damaged ones. I was at full health.
A little searching reveals that there are lots of Deepminer Brann decklists with quite some variety among them. The power of this card is undeniable, which brings me to my next point.
Does It Need a Nerf?
Effects that remain in play for the rest of a game (like Alexandros Mograine and Odyn, Prime Designate) are really powerful, and maybe not in a good way. We often complain when decks are perceived as reducing interaction, and nothing is less interactive than "for the rest of the game" effects. Once your opponent achieves this bonus, there is often little you can do (assuming it's a control match-up; aggro decks may still have a chance). This is why Quests and Hero cards have been so polarizing. I remember when Frost Lich Jaina was in Standard, and playing her was so often just an auto-win due to all the Lifesteal. I don't have any stats for you today, but I can tell you that I've faced quite a lot of Warriors since Deepholm came out, and I've lost many of those games, especially when they manage to draw and play Deepminer Brann.
I'd love to hear what you all think! What cards work best with Deepminer Brann's effect? What strategies do you use to defeat Brann Warriors? Should this card get nerfed? Let us know in the comments!
Comments
This article and comments are so biased and not backed up by data lmao. Brann warrior isn't even tier 1 on any tier list. In fact it's closer to tier 3 than tier 1. The strategy is just too slow and completely annihilated by plague death knight. And it's not like plague dk thrashes every highlander deck. The good ol' control warrior performs better than brann.
I think this card will become problematic once the meta slows down, but sludge warlock is still untouched so we might have to wait for such a meta. Brann will get nerfed eventually but right now it's nowhere near problematic. It's a typical control deck destroyer and people always find a way to complain how those decks destroy their home brewed unoptimized pile of cards. Just like people were still complaining about control priest even tho it was at the bottom of tier 3.
I think the most simple answer is that the card is too new to get nerfed, especially being the poster boy of the Mini set. Somehow they always seem to deliver something broken with those... If it ends up truely warping the meta, we'll get a nerf before the next expansion drops for sure.
That said, I'm not sure if it's needed. As you've said yourself, aggro is able to get underneath a deck that depends on playing a 6 Mana do nothing card that needs to be found in a singleton deck and most importantly, Plague DK is still viable. I'm surprised your list doesn't run Steamcleaner to be honest since if you can't trigger Brann's battlecry, you will have a very hard time winning your game.
Please take the above as the single opinion of the Wild player I am ;-) Maybe I'm just disappointed because I haven't been able to make use of Brann in my mode so far...
I can't believe they didn't even consider nerfing this ridiculous card. "Rest of the game" cards need a much more difficult condition than just building a singleton deck.
Maybe they DID consider it ... of course, that's even worse, if they considered it and didn't nerf it. I agree that "rest of the game" effects need to be harder to achieve. The other 2 I mention above (Mograine and Odyn) don't require anything but drawing and playing them. At least Brann makes you go singleton, but that's not even very limiting. This is why I actually liked the 3-part Questlines: you really had to work to get those big rewards.