Overview
This matchup is the quintessential matchup that it feels like Cloudspire was made for. There is a lot of play and counterplay by both sides, but a majority of the pressure is put on the Brawnen to counteract what the Grovetenders are able to do, just like most matchups against the Grovetenders. In this matchup, the overall plan is to amass a strong force on wave 4 that the Grovetenders cannot compete with or to sneak in a win before they can grow strong. This is because if wave 4 ends, the Grovetenders will almost certainly win. There are some cool forcing strategies that can happen to make the Grovetender choices less impactful, or put them in a dilemma where both normal options are significantly worse. Because of this, the matchup is navigated wave by wave and will be discussed as such.
Wave 1
In the first wave, your build order will not depend on what the Grovetenders are doing, as they really only have 2 openings, both of which do not impact the matchup enough to play around. As the Brawnen, most of your game openings will be buying Source Drill in order to extend into the wave 2 build order. This is because you need to compete with the source that the Grovetenders can produce. When taking this build order, prioritize being able to pick up a market minion for 2 source, especially the Nomad or Portal Hopper. This is because they both can be used to drive a Source Siege as well as threaten Wyvankaye if she gets too close to your fortress gate due to their high movement. The Portal Hopper can even kill a basic Wyvankaye in one shot, which can be very dangerous if you are going first in the wave.
You can deviate from this opening strategy if there are enough swamp landmarks to justify using the promoted Battleborn. These promoted units will clear all of the landmarks, scoring you lots of source, then carry on to become excellent brawlers against the relatively low health units of the Grovetenders wave 1. This strategy is rather rare to see, as it doesn’t directly help you purchase Drilling Storehouse for wave 2. Once more, this is one to consider when first seeing the placement and type of landmarks, but only use it if you are very sure you will get value from it.
The Brawnen have a unique advantage against the Grovetenders that other factions do not have. They are allowed to deploy a mercenary hero on wave 1. Oftentimes this means that if there is a hero in the market, you should be buying it in order to get them upgrades on wave 1. The list of heroes that you should be buying are ones that can contest Wyvankaye alone on wave 2. This means that they either need to have 3 movement or water/mountain terrain, as otherwise they wouldn’t be able to catch her. I would consider the following heroes to be good choices on wave 1 in the matchup, from best to worst: Carbonne, Baza, Londil, Callus, Yewsel, Roa, and Lhadnil. Other heroes either do not have the movement/terrain allowance in order to threaten Wyvankaye, or are otherwise just not strong enough heroes to consider. You will note that they are mostly ordered by movement/terrain allowance other than the exception of Carbonne. This is because Carbonne has the talent Capture, which is extremely potent versus the Grovetenders being able to grab even just one Taproot will oftentimes cripple their waves 3 and 4, allowing for a much easier victory.
Wave 2
The wave 2 strategy is to do everything possible to threaten Wyvankaye and prevent her from being deployed, or to make deploying her not beneficial in the long term. We can do that in two different ways. The first is to make sure that we have something that can threaten her if she is deployed. Oftentimes this comes in the form of a market hero, but a spire or strong minion can also suffice if there is not a hero present. Note that due to our build order strategy, you will most likely have 2 waves of market purchases before having to face off against Wyvankaye. If you do not have an answer, search for one, or at the very least, a way to portion off a section of the map so that you are safe from Wyvankaye engaging there.
In order to make deploying Wyvankaye a worse choice, we are going to set up our source production so that the Grovetenders don’t want to skip the wave. Then we deploy only Kram, the Mighty in order to threaten a wave skip if Wyvankaye is deployed. To do this, we make sure that we both make a lot of source and have a way to store it. In this case, the ideal build order is to purchase the entirety of the Source Drill fortress advancement as well as 2 Drilling Outposts. This lets us have a source income of 24 and a maximum source of 30 going into wave 3. If you have 3 additional source, it may be worth it to pick up Market Buyout at this point in the game, especially if you haven’t found a counter to Wyvankaye. There is a really important amount of source that you have to watch out for when playing against the Grovetenders. 14 source is a very nice number, as it is the amount of source it requires to fully purchase the Sharpener advancement tree. This allows them to have the Root Dice, which will destroy most if not all of your Drilling Outposts at the start of the onslaught phase. Only start building them after your opponent has gone below 14 source without any Sharpener advancements. If your opponent is spending the source to purchase the Sharpener without any of your Drilling Outposts on the battlefield, then you are up 14 source right now and possibly more later in the game. In the case that they start to purchase the Sharpener advancements, purchase advancements such as your promoted minions or Gateport advancements to carry your advantage later into the game.
In the prep phase, there is pretty much only one option. Kram is too strong in this matchup to not deploy against taproots or Ybanthe, and the threat of skipping the wave if Wyvankaye is deployed allows him to “contest” her as well. There is no better option on wave 2, so in nearly every game against the Grovetenders, Kram should be deployed. A common Grovetender deployment in the face of a completed Source Drill is to use Ybanthe and one Taproot to try and get some source. Both of these units are very bad against Kram, unless the Taproot Summons into one of the larger minions. However, the Grovetenders tend to use nearly all of their source earlier in the wave on fortress advancements, so be aware of how much source they have after passing their build phase.
Wave 3
Wave three is when the Grovetenders start to be able to Summon very strong units within the wave. As such, you should be prepared to deal with them. This is where a matchup guide starts to break down due to the variance in the game, but there are two general strategies for the wave 3 matchup. These two are either by using Architects in order to make a very strong defensive spire in the case that you don’t think Kram is enough to defend the wave, or to deploy a promoted Forsaken in order to act as a static fortress defense and hopefully extend into wave 4 to stall a Source Siege. This also allows you to have a last line of defense for any Summoned minions that Kram and your spires cannot safely kill. Lastly, if Wyvankaye is still on the battlefield a Forsaken has a lot of health and is difficult for her to send back to your barracks on her own. This means that she generally won’t flip until the end of the wave, where she won’t be able to harm any of your spires. With the Architects, they do effectively the same thing by defeating themselves, where Wyvankaye won’t have a way to flip unless she sends her own minions home. Be aware of this ability and try to kill promoted Taproots on the same turn that you kill their Summons. These minions do nearly nothing, so the Grovetenders will be trying to deny you source and get easy flips on Wyvankaye in order to deal with your spires.
Wave 4:
The final wave of the game is similar to wave 3 in regards to the Grovetender’s plan. However, the Brawnen will be finally trying to close the game out here instead of setting up. Because the Grovetenders don’t really get more powerful this wave, it is definitely the best time to secure a win against them. In the best case scenario, you have a Forsaken left over from the previous wave that can stall your Source Siege almost indefinitely. In this case, it can be relatively easy to secure a win through your best two minions. In addition, you will have the cp spare to not need a market minion underneath the Source Siege. All in all, you are very set up for wave 4 if this is the case. However, if the Forsaken has died somehow or is on very low health, the standard wave 4 build order is as follows.
The first thing is to absolutely make sure that you have a market minion. At this point, if you don’t have one, then buy ANY minion that is in the market. This is because we need 10 cp to deploy an Aegis as well as a Source Siege this wave. If you already have a market minion, then you can either save some source for Siege Towers to close out the game or buy a market option that can directly impact the current wave. This could include a hero if only Kram is in play at the moment. If you have not already purchased Source Shields and Source Bombs to promote your Aegis and Source Siege minions respectively, then these are necessary advancements for wave 4. This will cost a maximum of 14 source, so you will almost certainly be able to afford these advancements and other purchases as well. In the prep phase, deploy the Source Siege with the market minion under it, put the Aegis in front to stall the Source Siege for maximum value. As this is the last wave, make sure to use all of your market purchases. The Brawnen seek to overwhelm on this last wave, so by adding 1-3 extra minions, the wave can very quickly become unstoppable.
