Banana Brawl strategy guide

The latest Tavern Brawl for Hearthstone has just gone live in the EU, with a release in the other territories due in the next few hours. As always, we're currently putting together our guide-in-progress, with updated hints and tips for beating the encounter in the hours ahead.

What is this week's Tavern Brawl?

This week's Tavern Brawl goes by the name of Banana Brawl, and is hosted by none other than King Mukla himself. As the flavour text explains:

"Mukla is a year older, and he LOVES bananas! Whenever one of your minions dies, he gives you a Banana to celebrate!"

Don't be fooled by the intro text of this week's Tavern Brawl. You won't be fighting Mukla himself, rather you'll be fighting other players, just like last week's showdown where plays were randomly chosen to take the role of either Nefarian or Ragnaros.

You can play with any Hero and any deck, but the twist this week is that whenever a player loses one of their minions in battle, they'll automatically receive one of Mukla's bananas. There are four different flavours of the fruit - you'll randomly receive one of the following:

• Bananas - Give a Minion +1/+1
• Big Banana - Give a Minion +2/+2
• Deviate Banana - Swap a Minion's Attack and Health
• Rotten Banana - Deal 1 Damage

What are the rewards for beating Banana Brawl?

When Tavern Brawls were released least week, players received a single Classic card pack for beating the encounter. The good news is that the same reward is on offer this week, but once you've received your pack you won't get another. Will there be more freebies with next week's Brawl? We'll have to wait and see.

- Head back to our Tavern Brawl guide hub page for help with the latest special event!

Banana Brawl tips and tricks

We're still in the process of working out the best possible decks and strategies for beating Banana Brawl, so check back here later on today. We'll be updating this section throughout the evening, as the community figures out the most effective strategies for exploiting this week's unique twist.

If you want something to get started with right now, we reckon the Paladin's Muster for Battle card could be outrageously good value. Take a look at our recent guides to the latest Midrange and Aggro versions for inspiration.

Let us know what you're finding particularly effective in the comments below, and we'll add your best tips to this article too.

The best Banana Brawl decks

As suspected, the concensus is that aggressive decks with plenty of minions on the board is the way to go this week. Take a look through our most recent guides for the following aggro deck archetypes:

• Face Hunter - it's no surprise to see our old friend at the top of the pile.
• Aggro Paladin - why not let Muster for Battle do the hard work this week?
• Imp Gang Boss Zoo - good old Zoo should help you push through to a few wins.

If you want to keep playing after you've bagged your free card pack, it might be worth switching to something more control-orientated - expect a flood of Face Hunters in the days ahead.