This year, the Hearthstone Midsummer Fire Festival had new theme. It included some of the characters from the League of E.V.I.L. Thus, this year’s event was called the Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. The event ran from July 10 through July 31, 2019.
The 2018 Midsummer Fire Festival focused on a Tavern Brawl featuring Ragnaros. To me, it felt like this year’s version had a whole lot more to offer.
I earned the “Welcome to the Fire Festival!” quest by playing 3 games in Ranked Standard while trying to earn the July 2019 Card Back. It was nice to get 200 gold for doing something I intended to do anyway.
Ragnaros appears and yells “REJOICE” every time he gives the player a new Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. quest. I took this screenshot a little too soon, so it is hard to see that the first quest is called “Happy Fire Festival”.
This quest required the player to play 30 cards. It doesn’t matter what the cards were. I also finished this quest while playing in Ranked Standard and trying to earn the July 2019 Card Back.
The reward was a Witchwood Card Pack.
This pack gave me:
- Walnut Sprite: Echo
- Darkmire Moonkin: Spell Damage +2
- Fiendish Circle: Summon four 1/1 Imps. – Warlock
- Spellshifter: Spell Damage +1 Each turn this is in your hand, swap its Attack and Health.
- Cursed Castaway: Rush, Deathrattle: Draw a Combo card from your deck. – Rogue
Ragnaros: REJOICE!
The next “Happy Fire Festival” quest requires the player to play the Tavern Brawl 3 Times. It doesn’t require the player to win, just to play 3 times.
The Tavern Brawl is called Blackrock Crash. It ties into the story line of the Fire Fest-E.V.I.L.
Dalaran crashed into Blackrock Mountain! Take control of an E.V.I.L. boss and dungeon crawl your way out! How fast can you beat Blackrock Mountain!?
Dr. Boom: Steal a city they said. It’ll be fun they said.
I selected Dr. Boom because I thought would be fun to play with the bomb cards that I assumed this E.V.I.L. boss would have in his deck.
The first challenge was against Highlord Omokk. His description says: He’ll show you a smashing time! Both the player and the opponent start with 15 cards in their decks.
Players are given a deck to start with, and can add three additional cards to it after beating a boss.
This was when I learned that Dr. Boom uses a Warrior deck. It makes sense. He uses a lot of bombs and would probably need a strong shield. The opponents in this Tavern Brawl do not give clues about what kind of deck they are using.
Arch-Villiam Rafaam: How did we crash into A MOUNTAIN? Seriously?
Dr. Boom: Hey! Runnin’ into a mountain isn’t an art. It’s a SCIENCE!
I was happy to see that the Dr. Boom deck does include bomb cards that multiply and cause a whole lot of damage!
Highlord Omokk: *groan*
Victory! One Tavern Brawl match down – two more to go to finish the quest.
The second boss in this Tavern Brawl was Baron Geddon. His description says: Whatever you do, never arm a Geddon.
For this match, both the player and the boss have 20 card decks.
Dr. Boom vs Baron Geddon
Barron Geddon: You will BURN!
Barron Geddon: One final service…
Victory! Two down, one more to go to finish the quest.
The third boss is the Omnotron Defense system. It is described as: Programmed to delete all intruders!The player and the boss both have a 25 card deck.
Omnotron Defense System: Intruding city detected. Defenses activated.
Omnotron Defense System: Defense systems obliterated. Powering down.
Victory against Omnotron! That’s three victories, which is all I needed to complete the quest. There are a total of 8 bosses to beat in this Tavern Brawl, so I decided to keep going.
The next boss was Garr. His description says: It’s gonna be a rocky road with no chance of marshmallows. This time, both the player and the boss are using a 30 card deck.
Dr. Boom vs Garr
Garr: I will rock you.
Garr starts out with a board full of monsters. At the end of his turn, all of them make an explosion and lose one health point. This means there is no good reason for the player to put low level minions on the board. They are going to die before they can be used!
I was unable to beat Garr.
Garr: Rock beats everything.
That defeat ended my run through this Tavern Brawl. The NPC’s had amusing things to say, and I enjoyed the “how many bosses can you beat” format. The whole thing felt like a solo player experience, which is what I enjoy the most in Hearthstone.
Just for fun, I gave this Tavern Brawl another try. It went exactly as well as my first attempt did. I hope Hearthstone brings back this type of Tavern Brawl again sometime.
I earned a Rise of Shadows cards pack.
What is inside this card pack?
This pack gave me:
- Violet Warden: Taunt, Spell Damage +1
- Evil Miscreant: Combo: Add two random Lackeys to your hand. – Rogue
- Dalaran Librarian: Battlecry: Silence adjacent minions.
- Eager Underling: Give two random friendly minions +2/+3
- Hench-Clan Burglar: Battlecry: Discover a spell from another class.
The next Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. quest required the player to play 5 Mechs. I completed this quest while trying to make progress through the Tavern Brawl again.
I earned a card pack from The Boomsday Project expansion.
This card pack gave me:
- Skaterbot: Magnetic, Rush
- Shooting Star: Deal 1 damage to a minion and the minions next to it – Mage
- Cloning Device: Discover a copy of a minion in your opponent’s deck. – Priest
- Security Rover: Whenever this minion takes damage, summon a 2/3 Mech with Taunt. – Warrior
- Weapons Project: Each player equips a 2/3 Weapon and gains 6 Armor – Warrior
The next Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. quest required the player to draw 50 cards. The play did not necessarily have to play 50 cards – just draw them. I was able to complete this quest by playing through the Tavern Brawl again.
One of the two card packs players earn from completing this quest is a Rastakhan’s Rumble card pack. This card pack gave me:
- Emberscale Drake: Battlecry: If you’re holding a Dragon, gain 5 Armor – Warrior
- Regeneratin’ Thug: At the start of your turn, restore 2 Health to this minion.
- Predatory Instincts: Draw a Beat from your deck. Double its Health. – Druid
- Warbringer: Battlecry: If you played 2 spells this turn, deal 2 damage. – Shaman
- Dozing Marksman: Has +4 Attack while damaged.
The second pack was a Rise of the Shadows card pack. Here is what this pack gave me:
- Spellbook Binder: Battlecry: If you have Spell Damage, draw a card.
- Forbidden Words: Spend all your Mana. Destroy a minion with that much Attack or less – Priest
- Soldier of Fortune: Whenever this minion attacks, give your opponents a Coin.
- Messenger Raven: Battlecry: Discover a Mage minion. – Mage
- Hench-Clan Sneak: Stealth
The next Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. quest was to take 25 turns. Players who completed this quest got two card packs from two different expansions. I finished this quest by playing through a Tavern Brawl that appeared after the previous one ended.
One pack was from The Boomsday Project expansion. Here are the cards it gave me:
- Cybertech Chip: Give your minions “Deathrattle: Add a random Mech to your hand”
- Beakered Lightning: Deal 1 damage to all minions: Overload (2) – Druid
- Cloning Device: Discover a copy of a minion in your opponent’s deck – Priest
- Eternium Rover: Whenever this minion takes damage, gain 2 Armor – Warrior
- Gloop Sprayer: Battlecry: Summon a copy of each adjacent minion. – Druid
The second card pack is a Rise of the Shadows expansion. Here is what this card pack gave me:
- Burly Shovelfist: Rush
- Underbelly Angler: After you play a Murloc, ad a random Murloc to your hand. – Shaman
- Heroic Innkeeper: Taunt. Battlecry: Gain +2/+2 for each other friendly minion.
- Messenger Raven: Battlecry: Discover a Mage Minion – Mage
- EVIL Genius: Battlecry: Destroy a friendly minion to add 2 random Lackeys to your hand. – Warlock
The next Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. quest was to play 3 games. The previous Tavern Brawl had ended and a new one took its place. I decided to give it a try while completing this quest.
The Burndown! Ragnaros is looking for the strongest deck! Take control of a random deck. If you lose you’ll get a copy of your opponent’s deck! How long can your deck survive THE BURNDOWN!?
I was not a fan of this particular Tavern Brawl. First, it required me to play against another human, instead of the AI. I prefer the solo play in Hearthstone to the playing against real players.
Second, it did not allow people to create their own decks. Instead, the player started with a random deck and played against someone else. When you lose, you get the deck that your opponent uses in the next match.
Eventually, it becomes Mercenaries vs Mercenaries. I did not find this fun, and I was entirely unable to win a match in this Tavern Brawl. The only good thing was I stuck with it through three matches so I could finish the quest.
This time, the reward was 200 gold.
Somewhere along the way, I earned a couple of the fancy-wrapped card packs. I wasn’t able to open it while the Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. was live. It is August now, so I’ll be opening these packs whenever I play Hearthstone again.
#Blaugust2019
Hearthstone Fire Fest-E.V.I.L. is a post written by Jen Thorpe on Book of Jen and is not allowed to be copied to other sites.
If you enjoyed this blog post please consider supporting me on Ko-fi. Thank you!