This is a list of bosses and tropes as they appear in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Keep in mind that this is about the characters as they are represented in the game itself; for general tropes about the characters, click here.
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Adventure Bosses
Universal Tropes
- Boss Banter: The bosses freely talk during the fights. Most bosses will also have responses to your emotes.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The bosses break the "two of each card only" rule, though it is usually restricted to their unique cards.
- Luck-Based Mission: Heroic bosses are so imbalanced that they can verge on this even with a custom-tailored deck.
- Mythology Gag: The key gimmicks of each fight (at least the ones that come from actual bosses) are largely based on their actual boss fights from World of Warcraft.
- Power Copying: Defeating the last boss of each quarter will unlock them as legendary cards for your own use.
- Purposely Overpowered: Simply put, the bosses would have been impossible if the Hearthstone AI wasn't less than stellar (at least when they were first released). Their cards and hero powers are extremely powerful when compared to what is available in the core game, but are at least beatable.
- Puzzle Boss: Virtually no deck will be able to complete adventures in their entirety, requiring players to figure out the bosses' gimmick and switch decks accordingly. The game even warns that Heroic versions of each boss will require lots and lots of deck revisions to get it right.
- SNK Boss: The Heroic versions of the bosses have increased health and vastly more powerful hero powers, with their exclusive cards receiving upgrades as well. Defeating them involves as much skill as it does luck.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: A handful of neutral cards exist specifically for them. The cards in question are unbelievably powerful, and would be completely game breaking if they were ever released to the public. For particular bosses who boast cards that even the rest don't have, read on.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: An unintentional example. Considering that the adventures obviously weren't designed to account for cards released years or more after they were came out, some newer cards can make certain bosses completely useless.
Old Tutorial Bosses
Before entering the game proper, the player must progress through a 5-stage tutorial, with each stage introducing different aspects of the game.
In Patch 27.6, which released in October 2023, the tutorial was overhauled and all of these bosses were removed.
As a card, Hogger is a Legendary 6 mana 4/4 who summons a 2/2 Gnoll with Taunt at the end of each turn. The Hogger, Doom of Elwynn card is a 7 mana 6/6 who summons a 2/2 Gnoll with Taunt when damaged.
As a card, Milhouse Manastorm is a Legendary 2 mana 4/4 with a detrimental Battlecry of giving the opponent free spells on their next turn.
He returns in Festival of Legends as DJ Manastorm with a battlecry of setting all spells in your hand to 0 and each spell you play increases the mana cost of the other discounted ones by 1.
His signature song, Infinitize the Maxitude, is a 2-mana spell that allows you to discover a spell with a Finale of returning this card to your hand.
As a minion, Lorewalker Cho is a 2 mana 0/4 Legendary. When either player casts a spell, his ability places a copy of that spell in the other player's hand.
King Mukla's card is a 3 mana 5/5 Legendary whose Battlecry puts 2 Bananas in the opponent's hand, which can be used to buff a minion by +1/+1.
Mukla's second card was in Whispers of the Old Gods. Mukla, Terror of the Vale is a 6 mana 5/5 that puts 2 Bananas in your hand.
Mukla's third card comes in Festival of Legends. Mister Mukla is a 6 mana 10/10 Hunter legendary that fills you opponent's hand with bananas. His signature song, Sranglethorn Heart, is a 10 mana tradeable spell that resurrects all friendly beasts that cost 5 or more.
Hemet Nesingwary is represented by 2 Legendary cards. The first is a 5 mana 6/3 from the Goblins vs Gnomes set, whose Battlecry destroys a Beast. His second card is Hemet, Jungle Hunter, a 6 mana 6/6 introduced in Journey to Un'Goro whose Battlecry destroys cards in his controller's deck that cost 3 mana or less.
Illidan was originally a Legendary 6 mana 7/5 that summoned a 2/1 Flame of Azzinoth each time the player played a card. However, the card was later replaced with Xavius (who is functionally identical outside of replacing the Flames of Azzinoth with Satyrs with the same stats) and Illidan became the basic hero of the new Demon Hunter class.
In Patch 27.6, which released in October 2023, the tutorial was overhauled and all of these bosses were removed.
General Tropes
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Played for laughs with Illidan, and some others have a few blatantly over-powered cards.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Designed to be pushovers, due to their status as tutorial bosses.
- Early-Bird Cameo: All six of them return in the main game as collectible Legendaries.
- Puzzle Boss: A simple puzzle, admittedly, but both the deck you are given and the behavior of the enemy funnels you into learning how to play strategically.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: A handful of cards are exclusive to each of them (except Millhouse). Unlike Adventure bosses, most of their exclusive cards are underpowered junk, given that they're tutorials and all.
- Warm-Up Boss: Part of their nature as part of the tutorial.
Hogger
The very first opponent the player will face, the scripted battle against Hogger teaches the player the basics of playing cards, attacking, damage, and mana cost.As a card, Hogger is a Legendary 6 mana 4/4 who summons a 2/2 Gnoll with Taunt at the end of each turn. The Hogger, Doom of Elwynn card is a 7 mana 6/6 who summons a 2/2 Gnoll with Taunt when damaged.
- The Corruption: Infected by the corruption of the Old Gods as Hogger, Doom of Elwynn.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The Gnoll, Massive Gnoll, Riverpaw Gnoll, and Hogger SMASH! cards.
- Warm-Up Boss: It's literally impossible to lose to Hogger, and he only has 10 health.
Milhouse Manastorm
Milhouse serves as a demonstration of mana accumulation and the value of minions versus spells, and introduces minion abilities.As a card, Milhouse Manastorm is a Legendary 2 mana 4/4 with a detrimental Battlecry of giving the opponent free spells on their next turn.
He returns in Festival of Legends as DJ Manastorm with a battlecry of setting all spells in your hand to 0 and each spell you play increases the mana cost of the other discounted ones by 1.
His signature song, Infinitize the Maxitude, is a 2-mana spell that allows you to discover a spell with a Finale of returning this card to your hand.
- Large Ham
- Squishy Wizard: Has only 20 health, and casts only spells.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Subverted, the only one among the Tutorial bosses to lack unique cards.
- Vagueness Is Coming: Throughout the duel with him he talks about an awesome card he has that he will use when he gets 10 mana, unfortunately it is impossible to stall out the game to see what it is and you will defeat him well before turn ten. It probably refers to the Alpha version of Milhouse Manastorm which gave you a 10-mana legendary spell called "MEGA-BLAST!!!" which dealt 5 damage to all enemies.
- Warm-Up Boss: You can't lose to this guy, either.
Lorewalker Cho
Lorewalker Cho is the first boss to make the player trade minions to prevent his minions from overwhelming them. This fight also introduces healing and Battlecry effects.As a minion, Lorewalker Cho is a 2 mana 0/4 Legendary. When either player casts a spell, his ability places a copy of that spell in the other player's hand.
- Big Fun: Unlike most bosses, Cho sees the battle as a fun game, something that irks Jaina.
- Cool Old Guy: Not only is he a nice guy, but he shows a lot of compassion to Jaina and seems to be aware of the fact that she just experienced the worst moment of her life. His dialogue is filled with concern that Jaina is now on a self-destructive path.
- Graceful Loser: He leaves via Smoke Out, praising Jaina as he goes.
- Nice Guy: Is quite civil and polite during his entire battle, even after losing.
- Noodle Incident: Gearmaster Mechazod has some beef with him for some reason. We still don't know why.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The Brewmaster, Pandaren Scout, Transcendence, Legacy of the Emperor, and Shado-Pan Monk cards.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Sort of. If Kel'Thuzad is to be believed, every adventurer who was defeated by Lorewalker Cho became the component parts of Patchwerk.
- Wakeup Call Boss: The first tutorial boss you can actually lose to, although you have to actually be trying to let him beat you.
- Worthy Opponent: The only one of the tutorial bosses to whom Jaina actually shows respect after the game.
King Mukla
The fight against Mukla is where the kid gloves come off. Taunt and Charge are made available, and Mukla's Big Brother will demonstrate that sometimes, it's a lot more viable to ignore the opposing minions and go for the face. It also teaches the player how to read cards.King Mukla's card is a 3 mana 5/5 Legendary whose Battlecry puts 2 Bananas in the opponent's hand, which can be used to buff a minion by +1/+1.
Mukla's second card was in Whispers of the Old Gods. Mukla, Terror of the Vale is a 6 mana 5/5 that puts 2 Bananas in your hand.
Mukla's third card comes in Festival of Legends. Mister Mukla is a 6 mana 10/10 Hunter legendary that fills you opponent's hand with bananas. His signature song, Sranglethorn Heart, is a 10 mana tradeable spell that resurrects all friendly beasts that cost 5 or more.
- A Day in the Limelight: It's his birthday during the Banana Brawl! Tavern Brawl.
- The Cameo: Raids the pantry once the banana supply runs out during the big party at Karazahn.
- The Corruption: Infected by the corruption of the Old Gods as Mukla, Terror of the Vale.
- Expy: Of King Kong, just like in World of Warcraft, but also of Donkey Kong.
- Shout-Out: To Donkey Kong, what with the barrels and all.
- Summon Bigger Fish: Mukla's Big Brother.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Mukla's Big Brother is blatantly overpowered (especially for the time), weighing in at a massive 10/10 for 6 mana. Fortunately, you have ways to stop it. Namely punching Mukla in the face.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The Bananas, Barrel, Barrel Toss, Crazy Monkey, Stomp, Will of Mukla, Hidden Gnome, and Mukla's Big Brother cards.
- Wakeup Call Boss: The first of the boss fights where they stop holding your hand through most of it.
Hemet Nesingwary
The first opponent with a hero power, and he will use it liberally. Fortunately, the player also gets access to Jaina's Fireblast to even the odds.Hemet Nesingwary is represented by 2 Legendary cards. The first is a 5 mana 6/3 from the Goblins vs Gnomes set, whose Battlecry destroys a Beast. His second card is Hemet, Jungle Hunter, a 6 mana 6/6 introduced in Journey to Un'Goro whose Battlecry destroys cards in his controller's deck that cost 3 mana or less.
- The Bus Came Back: After his card rotated out, Hemet eventually returned during the Journey to Un'Goro expansion as Hemet, Jungle Hunter.
- Egomaniac Hunter
- Great White Hunter: Well, Great DWARF Hunter, anyways.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The Crazed Hunter card and his Shotgun Blast hero power, though the latter is functionally identical to the Mage's own.
Illidan Stormrage
Illidan introduces Weapons and their usage. He also comes with an incredibly strong hero power and several powerful cards, but if the player perseveres against this daunting opponent, he will go down.Illidan was originally a Legendary 6 mana 7/5 that summoned a 2/1 Flame of Azzinoth each time the player played a card. However, the card was later replaced with Xavius (who is functionally identical outside of replacing the Flames of Azzinoth with Satyrs with the same stats) and Illidan became the basic hero of the new Demon Hunter class.
- The Cameo: Attends the big party at Karazhan.
They aren't prepared. - The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: Lampshaded and played for laughs.
- The Dreaded: Even the boss description thinks he's OP.
- Easter Egg: Attempting to Polymorph your own hero in this fight leads to a unique message.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Subverted; though the fight seems unwinnable, it is possible to beat him.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: Begins his battle by informing you that YOU ARE NOT PREPARED!
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: His Flames of Azzinoth hero power, as well as the Dual Warglaives, Flame Burst, Warglaive of Azzinoth, Flame of Azzinoth, and Naga Myrmidon cards.
Curse of Naxxramas
General
- Evil Is Hammy: Just about all of them, save for Maexxna, speak about as grandiosely as possible.
- Fortunately, Kel'Thuzad doesn't force Maexxna to be a COMPLETELY ham-less boss. "Maexxna is a GIANT SPIDER! MUWAHAHAHA!"
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Bosses and quarters are (generally) fought in ascending order of difficulty and importance. Kel'Thuzad enjoys taunting you as he sends his cronies to deal with you, but he gets increasingly more irritated as you kill them. He finally stops messing around and sics Sapphiron on you after you crush the penultimate Construct Quarter.
- Thanatos Gambit: A large portion of minions used by the bosses have Deathrattle abilities. Some even depend on their minions dying to hinder or damage you.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Many of the bosses use Deathcharger, a 1-mana 2/3 with Charge that damages its owner for 3 when it dies, and Necroknight, a 4-mana 5/6 that destroys adjacent minions when it dies. These can make the enemy Hoist by Their Own Petard. There's also Skeletal Smith, 3-mana 4/3 whose Deathrattle destroys the opposing hero's weapon.
The Arachnid Quarter
The Arachnid Quarter houses undead nerubians, an ancient race of intelligent arachnoid beings. Normally highly reclusive and suspicious of outsiders, living nerubians fought valiantly against the undead Scourge, but were overwhelmed by their numbers. While living nerubians were immune to the undead plague, nothing could prevent the Lich King from bringing back the fallen to join the Scourge in undeath.Anub'Rekhan
Aaah.. Welcome to my parlor..
One of the minions raised by the Lich King was the Crypt Lord Anub'Rekhan. In life, he was one of the nerubians’ most powerful lords. Now, he guards the doors of the Arachnid Quarter. His hero power summons a 3/1 nerubian for 2 mana, and this is bumped up to a 4/4 nerubian on heroic.Anub'rekhan returned as an 8-mana 7/7 Legendary Undead minion for Druid in the March of the Lich King expansion. His Battlecry gives 5 Armor and makes your next 3 minions played that turn cost Armor instead of mana.
- Glass Cannon: His hero power summons 3/1 minions, which means that they can trade with minions far above their cost - but the slightest breeze will kill them. This is averted by his heroic hero power though.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Locust Swarm, a 7 cost spell that deals 3 damage to all of the players minions while healing Anub'Rekhan for 3 himself.
- Warm-Up Boss: Contrasting the other bosses, Anub'Rekhan lacks a particular gimmick or element that requires a significant strategy to get around. While his hero power and Locust Swarm can cause problems, his fight is relatively straightforward, giving the player an opportunity to see some of the cards the expansion introduced in action so that they can plan out ways to fight them in the future.
- Zerg Rush: On heroic, his strategy boils down to 'Use hero power first thing each turn and then keep hitting the opponent's face' - considering the 4/4 minions said hero power spawns, this is quite effective.
Grand Widow Faerlina
My acolytes serve me without question!
Once one of the high-ranking members of the Cult of the Damned under Kel'Thuzad, in death she breeds and takes care of the seemingly endless amount of arachnids that swarm from the depths of the citadel. A master of poisons, she has a keen understanding of what makes mortals suffer. Her hero power is a 2 mana nuke that deals 1 damage randomly to any enemy for each card in the opponent's hand - on heroic, it stays the same except for halving in mana cost.- Early-Bird Boss: She's meant to teach the player that they need to play around opposing cards and hero powers in order to beat the rest of Naxxramas, as her hero power encourages a deck that can dump the hand, and that the bosses can and will use their exemption to the "two of any card" rule to their advantage, as shown by her Worshippers. However, these elements aren't particularly important until the Military Quarter during normal mode, rendering her significantly harder than the next four bosses, who can be beaten with a single deck without any changes.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Worshipper, a 3 cost 1/4 who gives Faerlina +1 attack, an effect that stacks with other Worshippers. They upgrade to 2/4's who give +3 attack in Heroic mode.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: While Anub'Rekhan can be beaten by almost any deck, Faerlina is the first boss that will severely punish certain types of decks (namely lategame decks that build up one's hand). Either tailor your decks to each boss or you're not going to have a good time.
Maexxna
*Skittering*
The poisons Grand Widow Faerlina concocts come from the spiderlings produced by Maexxna, a massive spider taken from the depths of Northrend. She feasts on those foolish enough to enter the necropolis, producing spider after spider that Kel'Thuzad uses to his own foul ends. Her hero power is the first of the bosses to break away from the standard 2-mana formula on normal; It returns a minion to your hand for 3 mana, and two minions to your hand for 'free' on heroic.Maexxna's card is a 6 mana 2/8 Poisonous Beast minion.
- Combat Pragmatist: In her efforts to win, she's willing to go against her master's own list of approved cards.
- Flunky Boss: Heroic Maexxna starts the battle with two 1/2 Haunted Creepers - which spawn more spiders when they die.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Given that Maexxna runs an entirely spider-based deck, Sea Giant comes straight out of left field. Even Kel'Thuzad is caught off-guard.
- Giant Spider: Duh.
- Logical Weakness: Here's a boss that wraps your minions and sends them back to hand - this leaves them unable to fight normally on the board unless you summon a lot. But battlecries do not care for that, and neither does charge minions! Stack your deck with any of these and go straight for the big spider - you'll be outhealing or outdamaging her spiders in short order. She also logically can't send minions back to your hand if you don't have any to begin with.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Necrotic Poison, a 2 cost spell that outright kills any minion. It acts as a failsafe just in case her hero power doesn't get rid of a powerful minion.
- Spider Swarm: Her minions are a bunch of spiders that summon more spiders when they die!
- Zerg Rush: Her strategy boils down to "summon many spiders and hope the opponent dies". When she suddenly breaks out a Sea Giant, who can work with the strategy, Kel'Thuzad is clearly annoyed at her breaking the spider theme.
The Plague Quarter
Rife with monstrosities twisted by the undead plague, the Plague Quarter produces and refines the plague into highly efficient weapons, bent on destroying all of humanity as a part of Kel’Thuzad’s undead army.Noth, The Plaguebringer
Another soul for the collection.
Once a notable wizard and alchemist of Dalaran, Noth heard the Lich King's call as Arthas and Kel'Thuzad did. He was quick to turn his back on the Light and joined the Scourge, where he believed that real power lay. During the Third War, Noth saw that many innocent lives were needed to feed the growing might of the Scourge and he came to a point where he started opposing himself. Kel'Thuzad resolved the matter by freezing his heart in his chest with his frost magic. Noth the Plaguebringer, now more undead than human is an extremely powerful necromancer with a various array of deadly spells and curses.His hero power is a passive one; Each time an enemy minion dies, it will summon a 1/1 skeleton, on heroic, this skeleton is vastly more powerful at 5/5.
- Achilles' Heel: His Hero Power summons minions whenever yours die. Having no minions to begin with can render it useless
- A Day in the Limelight: Got promoted to a playable hero for the Warlock class during the Boss Battle Royale tavern brawl.
- Animate Dead: What his hero power does to your minions in a nutshell.
- Dem Bones: What his side of the board will look like before long.
- Necromancer: His hero power is the first passive hero power to grace Naxxramas; every time one of your minions die, it will summon a 1/1 skeleton, which is bumped up to a 5/5 on heroic.
- Pre Ass Kicking One Liner: You've got your board all set up, it is all healed up, and that means no skeletons! Then Noth reaches six mana, and you hear the three words you definitely didn't want to hear.Noth, the Plaguebringer: "Breathe no more..."
- Smart Bomb: His Unique card, Plague, kills any minion on the board that is not a skeleton - considering his hero power, this can be way worse than it sounds.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Plague, a 6 mana 'kill anything that is not my hero power' card - which inevitably translates into more of the same hero-power's minions.
Heigan, The Unclean
You think you're safe here?
The mastermind behind the plague cauldrons that spread the plague through Lordaeron, corrupting not just the humans, but the flora and fauna in the area as well. The entire wilderness surrounding Lordaeron is now referred to as 'the Plaguelands'—thanks in no small part to Heigan’s handiwork. He has rigged the very walls and floors of Naxxramas itself with a vast array of traps, which he can trigger at will. - This translates into dealing 2, and on heroic 3, damage to your left-most minion for one mana and free respectively.- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Heigan's playstyle is familiar to anyone who has played against a good aggro-warlock. He removes your minions with cheap spells and goes directly for your face - but like a warlock, many of his cards have drawbacks.
- Mythology Gag: Remember dancing around to avoid eruptions? Well, no dancing here, but it's the closest thing to it - keep placing expendable minions to the left to protect your more important ones! - No, you hero power tokens/totems won't work, as they enter the field to the right!
- Tactical Suicide Boss: Eruption always hits the left-most minion on your board, making it easy to just park a beefy or Deathrattle minion there to soak the damage up.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Mindpocalypse - unlike some of the other cards, this wouldn't be imbalanced to release as it gives its benefit of 2 cards and a mana crystal to both players, but it just speeds up tempo to such an absurd degree that many rushdown decks would crumble before the beefier taunts of control decks. Heigan himself has ways around this with his hero power.
Loatheb
I see you!
A prime example of how the plague manifested in the local flora and fauna is the twisted fen creeper Loatheb. In a twisted mockery of the plant kingdom’s natural ability to regenerate, Loatheb can summon deadly spores that quickly spread a sickening miasma that turns magical healing arts against those who wield them. His hero power is a fairly straightforward 3 damage to your hero - costing two mana on normal and nothing on heroic.As a card, Loatheb is a 5 mana 5/5 whose Battlecry causes all enemy spells to cost 5 more on their next turn.
- Artificial Stupidity: Even among Naxxarams bosses Lothaeb manages to stand out in this: if he plays a Faceless Manipulator, odds are that he'll clone one of his own spores even if there's something else that's less suicidal to clone.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: Like his original incarnation, Lothaeb's spores work against him by giving your minions +8 attack when they die.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Holy hell! Even on normal difficulty, he packs 75 HP, and on Heroic it goes to an astronomical 99. Compensated for by the Spores his unique spells create, which on death give all of the player's minions present +8 attack.
- Flunky Boss: Like Heroic Maexxna, Heroic Loatheb starts out with two minions on the field; a 3/6 fen creeper and a 0/1 spore.
- Kryptonite Factor: Alexstraza, a legendary minion that sets a hero's health to 15, can be used to outstanding effect on normal mode - try to do it on heroic, however, and Kel'thuzad will have something to say about it as he nullifies the effect
- Rush Boss: Don't let Loatheb's massive health pool fool you - destroying his Spores allows your minions to kill him fairly quickly. And you'll have to, since his hero power puts you on a strict timer.
- Time-Limit Boss: Heroic Loatheb will deal minimum three damage to you each turn - even without minions on the board. This gives you at most ten turns to defeat him without a way of healing yourself. In that time, you need to deal 99 damage.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Spore Burst and Deathbloom, though this perhaps is for the best- the effects of these spells (1 damage to all enemy minions and 5 damage to a single minion, respectively) are not enough to make up for the enemy minion-buffing Spore that comes with them.
The Military Quarter
Many of the humans and their loyal mounts who were once soldiers in Lordaeron’s army now find their martial talents put to use in Naxxramas' Military Quarter. Here, in service to Kel’Thuzad and the Lich King, they hone their skills far past what they could have accomplished in life. Leaders, trainers, and military coordinators—all use their talents to coordinate the Scourge into a powerful fighting force rather than a mindless horde. Many Death Knights begin their training within this quarter under the direction of its powerful lieutenants.Instructor Razuvious
You should have stayed home!
Instructor Razuvious is the trainer of the Death Knights, the fiercest and most loyal of the Lich King’s servants. His strikes are sure and deadly, and it is rumored that only students under his tutelage can withstand even a single blow of his deadly runeblade. His hero power is the most damaging of any you will likely have met up to this point: For two mana he can deal 3 damage to any one target on the board - on heroic, this increases to 4 damage for half the price.- Achilles' Heel: You'll want Acidic Swamp Oozes in your deck for this guy, trust us.note
- BFS: Gee.. I wonder what makes this Massive Runeblade so specia--
- One-Hit Kill: Razuvious has a special card called Massive Runeblade which deals 5 damage per swing (or 10 on heroic), and is good for two swings. But if he attacks your hero with it, that damage doubles! Considering you will likely be damaged by the time it comes out, it can be a one-hit kill.
- SNK Boss: Mages are reknowned for having one of the most versatile hero powers. Razuvious does triple the damage for the same cost on normal, and quadruple the damage for half the cost on heroic.
- Suspicious Video-Game Generosity: "Oh, what's this? A 1-mana Mind Control Crystal card to steal his 0/7 taunt minions? Awesome!" Good luck, you're going to need those.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Massive Runeblade, a weapon with high damage that doubles when he attacks the hero. See One-Hit Kill.
- Wake-Up Call Boss: Razuvious effectively forces the player to create a deck specifically tailored to counter his powerful weapons and hero power. The previous six bosses could be beaten with a single deck and some creative thinking, while the rest of the Military quarter require the same treatment as Razuvious.
Gothik, The Harvester
My minions never truly die.
Gothik the Harvester, master of necromancy, teaches young Death Knights the power of summoning the undead to their aid. Even the most novice Death Knight can call the lifeless from their graves, thanks to Gothik’s dark and sinister techniques. Ghosts, ghouls, skeletons —- none are safe from Gothik’s influence. On normal, his hero power draws him a card for two mana with no drawback. On heroic, it does all that and gives him another mana crystal for one mana, but he has to use it as the first thing each turn.- A Day in the Limelight: Got promoted to a playable hero for the Priest class during the Boss Battle Royale tavern brawl.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: On death, his minions turn into useless 0-attack Unrelenting minions on your side of the field that continually damage you. However, should you manage to buff these up and/or give them taunt, you can have them inflict far more harm to their former master than they can to you!
- In Heroic, he will use his Hero power every turn (draw 1 card and get 1 mana crystal for 1 mana). This means all the faster for him to exhaust his deck and start taking Fatigue damage, so try and mill him out in Heroic mode.
- Mythology Gag: Normally, a boss will only have one line of replies for when you use any of the six emotes against them - but keep on using them against Gothik and he will recite his characteristic speech from the Naxxramas raid - with one difference.Gothik: "Foolishly, you have sought your own demise."
Gothik: "Brazenly you have disregarded powers beyond your understanding."
Gothik: "You have fought hard to invade the realm of The Harvester."
Gothik: "Now, there is only one way out..."
Gothik: "...Going into the Options menu, and hitting CONCEDE." note - Our Ghosts Are Different: His Unrelenting minions come back as ghosts. They're hard to get rid of because they're re-summoned on the player's side as 0-attack minions.
- Puzzle Boss: Heroic Gothik is practically made for mill decks; his hero power is on autocast, meaning he has to use it, first thing, at the start of his turn. If he starts his turn with ten cards in hand, that means he will burn two cards before doing anything.
- Shout-Out: The Unrelenting Warrior minion will have you know that he'll be back - he will be, too.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: His Unrelenting Trainees/Warriors/Riders. When they die, they are resummoned in the player's side of the field as Spectral Trainees/Warriors/Riders. These minions have 0 attack and deal one damage to their owner each turn.
- Why Won't You Die?: Any of his Unrelenting Trainees/Warriors/Riders will reemerge as near-useless minions with no attack on your side of the board when slain, they will then proceed to damage you for one health at the start of each of your turns.
The Four Horsemen
We shall grind your bones to dust!
Kel’Thuzad’s royal guard can be found in the Four Horsemen, each with their own twisted powers at their disposal: Lady Blameaux is a master of the shadow, able to drain the essence of life from those she encounters; Thane Korth’azz controls the destructive power of fire, and can even call forth fiery meteors from the skies; Sir Zeliek was once a paladin, so powerful in life that he can still wield the Light in death; and Baron Rivendare, once a friend of Kel'Thuzad, now continues to serve his old comrade in death with his corrupting powers and skeletal Deathcharger.The Four horsemen is a unique encounter in that, aside from the titular horsemen, there is no other minions in the deck - every other card is there to harm your minions, buff the horsemen, or prevent the horsemen from dying - normally, such a deck would run out of steam fast, but their hero power in both normal and heroic draws two cards for five mana.
Baron Rivendare, the lead Horseman, is a legendary 4 mana 1/7 that causes your Deathrattles to trigger twice. The Horsemen return in the Return to Naxxramas mini-set, with Rivendare, Warrider being a collectable 6-mana 6/6 whose Deathrattle shuffles the other three Horsemen into your deck. The other Horsemen share the same stats as Rivendare but each have a different keyword (Blaumeux, Faminerider has Lifesteal; Korth'azz, Deathrider has Rush; and Zeliek, Conquestrider has Taunt), and all have the same Deathrattle to instantly kill the enemy hero once all four Horsemen have died.
- Achilles' Heel:
- Doomsayer and Equality are prime cards for taking out the horsemen and rendering the hero vulnerable. Like with Loatheb, playing these cards on heroic will cause Kel'Thuzad to intervene.
- On a lesser note, defeating the normal version unlocks the Deathlord card, a 3 cost 2/8 minion with taunt and a deathrattle which summons an opponent's minion from the deck onto the field. You'll want this one in your deck for heroic attempts as they themselves have no other minions than the horsemen they start out with - rendering the deathlord's negative deathrattle useless.
- The big danger of fighting the horsemen on Heroic is that they start with 6 damage per turn on the board and have a LOT of removal. You can make them look absolutely pathetic by casting Power Word: Glory note on one of the horsemen on your first turn. Since Power Word: Glory was released after the Naxxramas adventure, Rivendare's AI isn't coded to refrain from attacking with the buffed horseman. If you can remove another horseman with something as simple as Shadow Word: Pain, then Power Word: Glory will heal you each turn for as much damage as they can deal. Even the Runeblade will run out of durability before it can do any serious damage and you can simply outlast Rivendare with relative ease.
- Though Kel’Thuzad may stop Equality, there's absolutely nothing stopping you from using the very similar Libram of Justice, as it was released years later.
- Because the horsemen have the exact same stats, Warrior can clear the board on turn 2 with Bladestorm (2-mana spell that deals 1 damage to all minions, and repeats until a minion dies - if none of the Horsemen have taken damage, this kills all of them at once), at which point the only remaining threat is the Runeblade.
- BFS: The Runeblade card that the 'hero' horseman can equip starts out no stronger than the rest of the horsemen's attack, but if the other horsemen are removed from his side of the field, it jumps to quadruple the attack damage.
- Flunky Boss: Actually averted, Rivendare has no minions in his deck besides the three horsemen that he starts out with, which thematically count as part of the boss himself.
- Large Ham: Second only to Kel'Thuzad.Rivendare: "LAAAAAAAMBS TO THE SLAUGHTER!"
- No-Sell: While at least one horseman remains on the field, Rivendare, the hero horseman, is completely immune to any damage.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: Rivendare's immunity is granted by an ability on the other three Horsemen. Silencing all of them (with, say, Mass Dispel) will make him vulnerable without having to deal with the other Horsemen first.
- Turns Red: Slay the other three horsemen and Rivendare's Runeblade weapon will become significantly more powerful.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Runeblade, a 1/3 weapon (2/3 on Heroic) which increases in power when the other Horsemen are dead (+3 attack on normal, +6 on Heroic), and Mark of the Horsemen, a spell that gives all the Horsemen and their weapon +1/+1.
- Why Won't You Die?: You can thank Sir Zeliek for that - he's the reason they have access to paladin secrets.
- Wolfpack Boss: The Four Horsemen starts with three of the four horsemen already on the field as 1/7 minions (2/7 on heroic) each of them granting immunity to the boss while on the board, and the fourth serving as the opposing 'hero' with 7 health (14 in heroic) - there are no other minions in the deck, and the rest of their cards consist of removal spells, buffs, secrets and weapons.
The Construct Quarter
The Construct Quarter houses various nightmarish abominations stitched together from the once-living. A steady stream of toxic slime flows through this wing of Naxxramas; though it doesn’t pose a threat to the undead constructs that shamble about within, the viscous ooze is deadly to those who still enjoy doing things like breathing and having a pulse.Patchwerk
Patchwerk want to play!
Patchwerk is one of Kel'Thuzad’s most powerful abominations—his strength and speed come as a shock to those that may face him in combat. Far from a sluggish, mindless undead, Patchwerk uses his immense power to pulverize any tiny meat thing that may face him with a flurry of potent, powerful attacks. He just wants to play!Patchwerk is a unique encounter in that he starts out fatigued with no cards to draw, and only a 5/8 hook weapon in play (4/8 Windfury in heroic), the hook replenishing itself when it runs out of charges - mirroring the straightforward nature of his encounter in World of Warcraft. His hero power in both modes is a 4 mana 'destroy a minion' ability, rendering him able to remove your big taunters to continue wailing on his face.
Patchwerk was also released as a Core set Death Knight Legendary in the Year of the Hydra. He's a 7-mana 4/6 Undead that requires 2 Blood Runes, with a Battlecry that destroys a random minion from your opponent's hand, deck, and battlefield.
- Achilles' Heel: Patchwerk has multiple weaknesses because of his straightforward nature. Taunts are a good way to buy time if you can field enough of them, and the freezing mechanic will completelynote shut him down for a turn. Surprisingly, Acidic Swamp Ooze is not an effective counter since Hook's deathrattle is to put another copy into his hand- since it's 3 mana the only way this will slow him is if you coin into your ooze on turn 1. However, Kobold Stickyfinger is a very effective counter, leaving Patchwerk completely defenseless as you casually beat him to death with his own weapon.
- And Call Him "George": When Patchwerk uses his hero power to destroy one of your minions, his response is a dissapointed "No more play?"
- The Artifact: Kel'Thuzad introduces Patchwerk as being sewn together from players that couldn't beat Lorewalker Cho, referring to the Lorewalker Cho boss from the old tutorial. However, the reworked tutorial only features playable heroes and Cho does not appear as a boss anywhere else, so the line no longer fits.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: His strategy boils down to 'If my weapon is not equipped, equip it, then hit opposing hero, if I can't hit opposing hero, use hero power to remove what is in the way, if I cannot use my hero power, hit the thing that is in the way.' - it's not a complex strategy, but it works just fine.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: It is very possible for a Priest using Mind Vision to copy his Hook and use it against him.
- Hooks and Crooks: Well, he's not a crook per se, but that hook of his really hurts.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: Aside from the noted "destroy his weapon" or "freeze him" or "rush him down first" strategies, another possibility is to just mill him to death with fatigue damage (i.e. forcing him to draw cards).
- Psychopathic Manchild: Really, he just wants to play!
- Smash Mook: Much like in World of Warcraft, his attack strategy is "Hit you really hard" and "Hit someone else really really hard so he can focus on hitting you again"
- Time-Limit Boss: On normal, his hook will do 5 damage to you each turn unless you have a taunt up, after he reaches 4 mana, you'll need two taunts as he can remove one with his hero power. On heroic, his hook loses one damage, but he gains the ability to attack twice. Without taunts, weapon-removal, healing, or freezing, you're looking at a turn 6 and turn 4 kill on normal and heroic respectively.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: His Hook, of course.
- Unskilled, but Strong: The least mechanically complex Naxaramas boss yet also capable of some very fast kill times.
Grobbulus
Meat.
Grobbulus lurks deeper in the Construct Quarter, carrying the same ooze that flows through Naxxramas within its hulking form. Grobbulus is a flesh giant, the first successful one of its kind, created to build a formidable army capable of quickly spreading the undead plague. One of Grobbulus’ limbs has been replaced with a syringe, which it uses to inject the plague slime of Naxxramas into its enemies.His hero power is a fairly straightforward 'deal one damage to everything on the board' for two mana - but if anything dies to this, he will spawn a 2/2 slime to aid him. On heroic, this ability is free, on autocast, does double damage, only damages your side of the board, still spawns 2/2 slimes for each thing it kills, and also damages your hero.
- A Day in the Limelight: Got promoted to a playable hero for the Rogue class during the Boss Battle Royale tavern brawl.
- Artificial Brilliance: Yes, we're talking about the Hearthstone AI here, the same AI that is typically a class act in Artificial Stupidity - Grobbulus, however, has access to the Mutating Injection card, a 3 mana spell which gives a minion +4/+4 and taunt. He also has access to Echoing Ooze, a minion that, at the end of the turn, duplicates itself along with any buffs that might have been put onto it. Grobbulus loves nothing more than combining the two, leaving him with a very solid wall of two 5/6 minions with taunt for the low cost of 5 mana.
- Blob Monster: Slimes and oozes are Grobbulus' theme, and boy does he have plenty of them.
- Exact Words: Echoing Ooze is a 1/2 for 2 mana that produces an exact copy of itself at the end of the turn that it's played. Grobbulus will take full advantage of the "exact copy" part to give both oozes a nasty +4/+4 AND taunt when he buffs the first one.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: If a player hasn't noticed up until this point, Grobbulus makes it very blatant that the Naxxaramas bosses are not restricted to 2 copies of their unique cards.
- Playing with Syringes: Has a massive syringe for a hand, and uses it for his Mutating Injection spell.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Mutating Injection, a three mana spell that gives a minion +4+4 and Taunt.
- Time-Limit Boss: On heroic, like Loatheb, he will deal 2 damage to you and everything you own each turn at minimum.
Gluth
*Growls*
The undead plague-dog Gluth sits obediently within Naxxramas, awaiting orders from his masters. No doggie biscuit can satisfy Gluth’s ravenous hunger. It is rumored that Gluth can easily devour an army of undead on a daily basis, which Gluth uses to knit his own decaying flesh back together.Gluth's hero power reduces the health of everything on the board to 1 on normal - and on heroic, reduces the health of everything on your side of the board to 1.
- Achilles' Heel: Like all bosses with strong weapons, you really want Oozes in your deck for Gluth.
- The Computer Shall Taunt You: Kel'Thuzad is all too happy to taunt you while you fight the dog.Kel'Thuzad: "I asked the Zombies if they wanted to eat your brains and they said 'I don't eat junk food'."
Kel'Thuzad: "There is an achievement for losing to Gluth. I'm pretty sure."note - HP to One: His hero power sets minions' maximum health to 1. You may want to leave your Enrage minions and heals at home.
- Magikarp Power: Gluth's 'Jaws' weapon card starts out weak — being a 1/5 weapon on normal and a 3/5 weapon on heroic — but every time a minion with deathrattle dies, it gains two attack. He also has access to some surprising burst with his Enragenote and Bitenote spells.
- Right-Hand Attack Dog: Kel'Thuzad will gush about his good little doggy as it opens your throat with Enrage.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Enrage, which gives Gluth +6 Attack, and Jaws, a 1/5 weapon that gets +2 Attack every time a minion with Deathrattle dies.
- Xanatos Gambit: Gluth plays a LOT of deathrattle minions - and some of them even have Taunt. This means that if you want to kill Gluth, you need to go through the taunters - if you go through the taunters, you buff up his 'Jaws'. If you do not have an Ooze at hand in this situation, your loss is all but guaranteed.
Thaddius
I MUST obey!
The final hulking horror that stands within the Construct Quarter is Thaddius. Pieced together from the flesh of the innocent, this massive abomination dwells in one of Naxxramas’ experimental laboratories, flanked by two huge wights—Stalagg and Feugen. Powerful bolts of electricity arc through the laboratory, supercharging Thaddius and his wight minions.His hero power in both modes is a zero-mana autocast that swaps the health and damage of all minions on the board, it doesn't change on heroic - instead, on the first of his turns a 4/7 Feugen and a 7/4 Stalagg will spawn on his side of the board.
Thaddius himself was not a collectible minion at the time of the adventure's release; instead, the collectible Feugen and Stalagg have Deathrattle effects that spawn Thaddius as an 11/11 token after they both die. He later became a collectible minion in Return to Naxxramas as Thaddius, Monstrosity, a 10-mana 11/11 Undead that swaps every turn between making your odd-cost or even-cost cards cost 2 less (the swap happens even in your hand or deck).
- Critical Existence Failure: Averted in this fight, because of Polarity Shift constantly switching minion HP and attack, damaged minions will become less powerful than if they weren't damaged.
- Dying as Yourself: Considering he is made from the flesh and souls of innocents, he is really thankful for being slain.
- Flunky Boss: Heroic Thaddius summons a 4/7 Feugen and 7/4 Stalagg on the first turn.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Feugen and Stalagg, the tokens that spawn on Heroic Thaddius's first turn, can be turned against him by running your own Feugen and Stalagg. The collectible version of these minions spawn an 11/11 if they die after the other has been killed; Thaddius's tokens, despite being different cards, still fill the requirement. Amusingly, this means you get to beat Thaddius down with Thaddius, using cards you got by defeating Thaddius on Normal.
- Lightning Can Do Anything: His Polarity Shift hero power swaps minions' HP and attack, and his Supercharge spell buffs all his minions' health - considering his hero power, this will mean a higher damage on said minions next turn.
- Mercy Kill: It's heavily implied that his servitude is involuntary, as he genuinely thanks you for slaying him.
- Puzzle Boss: Thaddius swaps the health and attack of all minions during his turn. This means a Stone Wall becomes a Glass Cannon and the other way around. Dealing damage to, but not killing a minion, effectively lowers that minion's attack next turn.
- Shock and Awe: He has access to the 'Lightning Bolt', 'Forked Lightning' and 'Lightning Storm' Shaman spells.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Supercharge, which gives all of his minions +2 Health.
- This Means War!: After defeating Thaddeus, Kel'thuzad will remark that THIS was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Frostwyrm Lair
At the pinnacle of Naxxramas awaits Kel’Thuzad himself, who is protected by the ancient skeletal frost wyrm Sapphiron.Sapphiron
*ROOOARRR*
Once one of Malygos’ blue dragonflight, Sapphiron was slain by Arthas Menethil and raised from the dead to guard Kel'Thuzad for all of eternity. Like many of the blue dragonflight, Sapphiron had immense magical power, which was only magnified by the fact that the future Lich King personally resurrected him to serve the Scourge. The chill of frost is at his command, and he uses his magic to defend Kel'Thuzad at all costs.Sapphiron's hero power is straightforward in both normal and heroic: It kills any minions that aren't frozen. Furthermore, the player starts with a Frozen Champion minion on normal, which is immune to Sapphiron's hero power and makes adjacent minions immune as well. The Frozen Champion is removed on heroic.
- An Ice Dragon: How to sum up Sapphiron in three words.
- Breath Weapon: Its Frost Breath hero power.
- The Dragon: Literally the dragon to Kel'Thuzad's Big Bad.
- Like Cannot Cut Like: It seems this way, since hiding near a Frozen Champion (basically a block of ice) will protect against its ice breath.
- One-Hit Kill: No matter how much HP a minion has, it'll be instantly vaporized if it isn't frozen or using something frozen as cover.
- Kill It with Ice: Unless a minion is already frozen or covering behind a block of ice, it won't last a turn against him. He also has a nasty Pure Cold spell for 5 mana which freezes your hero and deals 8 damage.Kel'Thuzad: Sapphiron! Execute plan: FREEZE THE BLOOD IN THEIR VEINS.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Pure Cold, a 5-mana spell that freezes and deals 8 damage to the enemy hero.
Archlich Kel'Thuzad
We finally meet.
- "Minions, servants, soldiers of the cold dark, obey the call... of Kel'thuzad!"
The archlich known as Kel’Thuzad sits at the seat of power within Naxxramas, coordinating the normally mindless Scourge into a fighting force for the Lich King. In his mortal days, Kel’Thuzad was once a powerful human mage and high-ranking member of the Kirin Tor, working under the great Archmage Antonidas, leader of the Kirin Tor at the time. The Kirin Tor had a wealth of secrets and knowledge at their disposal, and Kel’Thuzad spent countless hours devouring every bit of knowledge he could get his hands on—even the darkest and most unthinkable of arcane arts, such as necromancy. He became increasingly more reclusive and shunned by his peers the further he delved into forbidden magic.
The Lich King sought out Azeroth’s most powerful and ambitious individuals to bend to his will, sending out a mental summons to those he thought could easily be swayed by the promise of power. Kel’Thuzad was the first to answer the Lich King’s call. He saw the power the Lich King held over the undead and desired such power for his own, so he offered his services as a mage to the Lich King in whatever manner he desired. After a long, tortured journey to the frozen wastes of Northrend, Kel’Thuzad knelt at the feet of the Lich King and offered him not just his loyalty, but his soul as well.
"As my lieutenant, you will gain knowledge and magic to surpass your most ambitious dreams. But in return, living or dead, you will serve me for the rest of your days. If you betray me, I shall make you into one of my mindless ones, and you will serve me still.”
The Lich King’s words were both a threat and a promise. Kel’Thuzad would become his lieutenant, carrying out the Lich King’s whims, but in return he would gain power beyond his wildest dreams. Kel’Thuzad accepted these terms… as if he had much of a choice in the matter.
Kel'Thuzad is advertised as not playing fair, and it shows: He starts out with armor on top of his normal healthpool, his hero power starts off as a 2 damage (on heroic 3 damage) nuke straight to the hero, but if he reaches turn 10, or has the armor removed, his hero power will change to an 8 mana one-turn random-enemy mind control - on heroic, this mind control is permanent.
Kel'Thuzad also appears as a collectible Legendary minion with 6/8 stats and a mana cost of 8. As long as he's in play, all of the player's minions that die are revived at the end of the turn.
Kel'Thuzad is also an alternate Mage hero. Information on his general personality can be found in the Heroes section.
- Arc Villain: Of Naxxramas.
- Big "NO!": Screams out one of these when his Heroic version is slain. His Normal version will exclaim that he's not finished, since there's still Heroic mode to beat.
- Blatant Lies: Kel'Thuzad will occasionally give horrible advice to the player or just outright tell silly lies.Kel'Thuzad: "Just being nearby Loatheb causes your flesh to rot. So I recommend a melee class."note
Kel'Thuzad: "Heigan sent me a message telling me that he promises not to kill you if you don't play any cards against him."
Kel'Thuzad: "''There is an achievement for losing to Gluth. I'm pretty sure." - …But He Sounds Handsome: "This next fight will not be easy. I hear the boss is ALL POWERFUL... and very handsome."
- Deadpan Snarker: Despite otherwise being extremely silly, he has a propensity to make snide remarks at the player. He gets some good ones in if the player happens to do an action on Heroic difficulty that upsets him.
- Not to mention each of his opening remarks in the battle against him.
Valeera: "Watch. Your. Back."
Kel'Thuzad: "Okay. I. Will."Uther: "I will fight with honor!"
Kel'Thuzad: "...and I will fight with huge minions and devastating spells. Good luck!"Thrall: "For Doomhammer!"
Kel'Thuzad: "You're fighting for a hammer? Ok then."Garrosh: "Victory or Death!"
Kel'Thuzad: "Really? Death it is, then." - Easter Egg: Playing Animal Companion as a Hunter summons the unique minion Mr. Bigglesworth, a 1/1 kitty with no other effects. Trying to give it taunt will not work, as Kel'Thuzad and his minions will not attack it and just bypass it- something that
Word of God states is "very much intended". If you play Call of the Wild, which summons all three Animal Companions, it summons Mr. Bigglesworth on top of its usual effect. - Final Boss: Acts as the final opponent of the Naxxramas adventure. Impressively for a card game, he even follows a couple of final boss tropes, such as multiple phases and having more health than a typical boss.
- Joke Character: Kel'Thuzad's kitty Mr. Bigglesworth is a 0-cost minion with 1/1 stats. Killing his beloved kitty will make him very angry.
- Kill It with Ice: He will FREEZE the blood in your veins!
- Lampshade Hanging: He notices some of the particularly bizarre elements about the game, such as:
- Questioning why Maexxna has a Sea Giant
- Why Gothik doesn't come back as a Spectral himself.
- Why Malfurion is fighting for the wild in Naxxramas.
- Why Jaina claims 'He asked for it' when it was she who came barging into his home without permission.
- Asking if you have a habit of greeting people who are about to kill you if you try to use the "Greetings" emote.
- Large Ham: In the World of Ham that is Naxxramas, he stands out as particularly over the top.Kel'Thuzad: "Give me a K! Give me a T! What's that spell?!"
Kel'Thuzad: "I just completed a quest to destroy an interloper! 40 gold, yes!" - Medium Awareness: He's entirely aware that he's a boss in a video game, since most of the lampshade hangings and meta-humor of Naxxaramas comes from him.
- Now It's My Turn: If you break his 10 initial armor, he will invoke this by immediately going into his second form and ending the player's turn prematurely.Kel'Thuzed: "NO! Your turn is over! My turn now!"
- Oh, Crap!: If you use the "thank you" emote, Kel'Thuzad's hesitant "You're... welcome?" Sounds somewhere between confused and really worried.
- Pun: He's not above throwing these at you either.Kel'Thuzad (Before the fight with Noth the Plaguebringer): "NOTH ing can defeat Noth!"
(After he's defeated): I guess it was just NOTH his day! - Turns Red: When you break his armor or reach turn 11, he will stop screwing around and pull out his real hero power.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Guardian of Icecrown, automatically summoned when Kel'Thuzad enters his second phase. These minions have Taunt and are 3/3 on normal and 5/5 on Heroic.
- Villainous Breakdown: Suffers a minor one every time the player defeats one of his underlings.
Blackrock Mountain
General
- Enemy Civil War: The mountain is contested by Ragnaros and Nefarian. The player initially helps Nefarian (in his Victor Nefarius persona) before turning against him once Ragnaros is defeated. Ragnaros even yells at Nefarian at one point.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Many bosses use Flameheart, a 3-mana spell that draws two cards and gives its player 4 Armor.
- The last wing has bosses that use Magmaw, a Legendary 10/2 minion with Taunt that costs five mana.
The Blackrock Depths
Descriptions taken from here
The sooty stone halls of Blackrock Depths form a dim, sprawling city whose subterranean streets are filled with Dark Iron dwarves. The Dark Irons are enslaved to the will of Ragnaros the Firelord, and that’s a pretty time-consuming job. When they’re not slaving away, however, they make time for fun! Brawls in the Grim Guzzler, brawls in the Ring of Law… really just brawling everywhere they feel like brawling.
The Grim Guzzler (Coren Direbrew)
Welcome.. to the Grim Guzzler
The Grim Guzzler is home to all sorts of eccentric characters, and Coren Direbrew is no exception. He and his totally reasonable and not rambunctious friends will require you to throw down if you want to journey deeper into the Mountain!The special mechanic here summons a random minion from each deck for each player. The heroic mode version summons two minions for the boss, one for the player.
- A Day in the Limelight: Got promoted to a playable hero for the Warrior class during the Boss Battle Royale tavern brawl.
- The Artifact: Coren had a Succubus in his deck, in reference to Mistress Nagmara, the Grim Guzzler's barmaid. He even had unique dialogue when summoning her. Now that Succubus has been replaced with Felstalker, the reference is lost entirely and he doesn't say the quote anymore.
- Bad Guy Bar: The Grim Guzzler in a nutshell, where constant Bar Brawls going on and eventually everyone gets dragged into them!
- Bar Brawl: Implied to be what is going on. Appropriately enough, Brawl is also a card in this boss's deck. The card you get from defeating him also simulates the random bystanders piling into the brawl.Coren Direbrew: Ahahah! DOG PILE!!!
- Everyone Join the Party: Invoked by his Hero Power and the Grim Guzzler minion you get from him.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: The playable Coren card in the Tavern Brawl mode gives you a Brawl when played, and he always wins it. Now imagine a full board of dragons, elemental lords, all these legendary powerful creatures... They all got into a tussle with this dwarf, and the dwarf knocked them all out.
- Luck-Based Mission: Coren's hero power pulls a random minion out from both decks. Depending on your deck and your luck, you might find yourself at a severe advantage or disadvantage by turn 3.
- Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Dark Iron Bouncer defeats the randomness of the Brawl spell by default. On the player's end, it is possible to (literally) stack one's deck so that Coren's hero power works in their favor.
- Puzzle Boss: Battlecry minions are right out, since they can be pulled straight from your deck without a chance to use their effects. Magikarp Power minions are unfavorable, since they're unlikely to get the time to snowball their power. It's better to just load up on high-power, high-cost minions that are more practical in this fight.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Dark Iron Bouncer, a minion that always wins Brawl (which normally chooses its survivor at random). There's also Get 'em!, a spell that summons four 1/1 Dwarves with Taunt.
Dark Iron Arena (High Justice Grimstone)
A new challenger!
You’d never think it, but the Dark Iron Dwarves have some pretty strong ideas about their version of Blackrock justice. Uther might not agree with them, but hey, this isn’t Uther-rock Depths!In game, this boss summons a 1/1 minion with taunt each turn (costs 1 mana on Normal, free on Heroic). In addition, his deck is full of legendary minions.
- Artificial Stupidity: Hoo boy, does the arena have this. It will often play minions which actually do it more harm than good (Such as Lorewalker Cho, which allows you to bounce spell cards back and forth between the arena endlessly (Not to mention filling up his hand with potentially useless spells), Millhouse Manastorm, which makes all your spells free for the next turn, or Deathwing when you have a Sylvanas Windrunner on the board), in short, expect some interesting and hilarious wins from the arena.
- The Mage hero challenge seems to be made to exploit this by giving you a deck full of nothing but unstable portals (2 cost spell that randomly summons another card)... and since Milhouse is a potential draw, it goes from a 2 cost to a 0.
- The Artifact: When playing Xavius, Grimstone still ues the same dialogue from when the card was Illidan Stormrage.
- Ascended Meme: From a gimmick 30-legendaries deck into an actual boss encounter.
- Early-Bird Cameo: "Coming to you all the way from the mission after this one, it's Emperor Thaurissan!"
- Elite Army: The boss's deck only contains legendaries. However, this also means he has no real strategy whatsoever.
- Hammy Herald: Uniquely and amusingly, High Justice Grimstone has an introductory speech for each and every card he plays.
- Kangaroo Court: The Dark Iron Dwarves' idea of "justice" is gladitorial combat in an arena, complete with a "judge" that's essentially a sports announcer hyping the whole thing up.
- Large Ham: Grimstone is clearly having a good time hamming up his intro speeches. It makes the fight on the whole fairly funny.
- Practical Taunt: To offset how impractical some of his legendaries are, Grimstone can keep churning out 1/1 cannon fodder minions with taunt so his heavy hitters at least have a chance to stay alive.
Emperor Thaurissan
The Dark Iron Dwarves will never fall!
Emperor Thaurissan rules in title alone. He, like the other Dark Iron Dwarves, serves at the whim of the Firelord. That’s unfortunate because the benefits are just awful— no vacation time whatsoever. Thaurissan’s glad you’re stopping by for a visit; fighting you will let him take his mind off a lifetime of servitude.In game, has a hero power that can kill players instantly. However, he starts with Moira Bronzebeard, his wife, as a minion, and while she is alive, his hero power cannot be used. The challenge, as a result, is to kill the boss without getting Moira killed, and absorbing her damage (Taunts and AoE are generally out as a result).
As a card, Emperor Thaurissan is a 5 mana 4/4 that reduces the cost of all of the cards in your hand by 1 at the end of your turn.
- Artificial Brilliance: Yes, we're talking about the Hearthstone AI who needs overpowered cards and hero abilities to be a challenge, but long story short, do not play any cards that give your opponent a Spare Part when you're fighting Emperor Thaurissan. If he gets the Time Rewinder, he'll use it on his wife... and use his hero power on you.
- Easter Egg: He has special dialogue if the player plays a Ragnaros minion. In addition, Nefarian's after-battle message changes depending on whether Moira is still alive.
- Escort Mission: Whatever you do, you must keep Moira alive, or else Thaurissan will kill you in very short order, so AoEs and Taunts are no-no (unless your Taunt has low attack, and you can heal her, or better yet, no attack at all.). In Heroic, she's a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
- I Have Your Wife: Using one of several "steal an enemy minion" cards allows one to take control of Moira, doing this literally. This is not necessarily recommended, since there is nothing stopping Thaurissan from simply killing her with his minions then using his hero power. Disappointingly, there is no special dialogue from Thaurissan if one actually takes his wife hostage.
- Power Limiter: As long Moira is alive, Thaurissan can't use his Hero Power. Keep her alive at all costs.
- One-Hit Kill: What Thaurissan can do if Moira is killed. It actually deals just 30 damage, so a player can survive with enough armor, or with a source of immunity (Ice Barrier; Mal'Ganis). Then he'll use it again next turn...
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Implied by the hero power setup.
- However, Heroic Thaurissan is not above rather hypocritically trying to kill Moira himself, with cards in his deck such as Unstable Ghoul, Abomination and Death's Bite. While he won't directly try and off her (with Fire Elemental, for example), he makes no effort to prevent collateral damage from taking her out, meaning players hoping to beat Heroic Thaurissan will often have to go to extreme lengths to protect Moira.
The Molten Core
Descriptions taken from hereThe Molten Core is the heart of Blackrock Mountain, and its blood is piping-hot magma. This is the domain of Ragnaros the Firelord, summoned to Azeroth long ago by the Dark Iron dwarves in a bid to gain power over their enemies. That didn’t work out too well for them...
Garr
I will rock you.
One of Ragnaros’s lieutenants, Garr is a hulking elemental made of pure obsidian. With the help of his little Firesworn buddies, he can’t wait to rock your world.Garr begins the match with several 0/5 Firesworn on the field, and his hero power is on autocast to damage all minions for 1 point on each of his turns. When Firesworn are killed, they will deal 1 (3 on Heroic) damage to the player for each Firesworn that has died this turn.
- Achilles' Heel: The Mass Dispel card from Priest will silence all his minions, and you don't have to worry about their Deathrattles any further. As added bonus, they will continue to clog the board and prevent Garr from playing other minion unless Garr buffs their attack or finally clear the board with his hero power. Even then, Priest has the Circle of Healing to continue clogging his board...
- Additionally, Garr is extraordinarily vulnerable to cards which benefit from taking small, regular amounts of damage, such as Frothing Berserker and Grim Patron. The Berkserkers in particular, which gain +1 attack every time a minion takes damage (on either side of the board, from any source) can utterly dismember Garr with contemptuous ease, making him almost a Breather Boss.
- Additionally, Garr is extraordinarily vulnerable to cards which benefit from taking small, regular amounts of damage, such as Frothing Berserker and Grim Patron. The Berkserkers in particular, which gain +1 attack every time a minion takes damage (on either side of the board, from any source) can utterly dismember Garr with contemptuous ease, making him almost a
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Garr's hero power hits all minions for one damage. While this would normally be an impediment to a player trying to build up a board, one can take advantage of this by playing cards that want to be damaged like Enrage minions, Acolyte of Pain, Armorsmith, etc.
- Poor, Predictable Rock: Emote to him, and his response is "Rock beats everything." It sure doesn't beat your minions that get stronger after taking partial damage.
- Rush Boss: Firesworn have 5 health each, meaning you have 5 turns to either kill Garr or silence/kill as many of his minions as possible. Note that you should take care to only eliminate 2 or 3 at once, as blowing them all up will basically instantly kill you regardless of what turn it is.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Rock Out, which summons three more Firesworn.
Baron Geddon
You will BURN!
Baron Geddon used to be Ragnaros’s second-in-command, until Majordomo Executus snaked into his spot. Now Baron Geddon is ready to unleash his fiery temper on any foolish heroes who trespass into the Molten Core.Baron Geddon's hero power will deal significant damage to the player after turns where the player's mana was not fully spent. Aggressive decks are very successful on Normal... and are somewhat complicated by Geddon's 50 health and 50 armor on Heroic.
Baron Geddon is also a collectible Legendary from the Classic set. He's a 7 mana 7/7 that deals 2 damage to all other characters at the end of your turn.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Heroic Baron Geddon has an extremely high health total and several removal options, and unlike Loatheb there is no way to boost the damage he takes.
- Kill It with Fire: The only card he has without a fiery element to it is a pair of imps.
- Resources Management Gameplay: If there's any unspent mana, Geddon gets to use his hero power, which deals 5 damage to your face. To confound the problem further, he has the Living Bomb spell, where if an enemy minion survives until his next turn, it deals 5 damage to all of its allies. On Heroic, both deal 10 damage.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The Living Bomb spell.
- Why Am I Ticking?: As a throwback to his World of Warcraft days, he will target a minion on your board with the spell Living Bomb - if this minion remains unsilenced on the board and survives your following turn, you're in for a very bad time.
Majordomo Executus & Ragnaros the Firelord
None may challenge the living flame!
An elemental lord’s most trusted lieutenant can rise to become their majordomo, responsible for taking care of their master’s affairs while they are otherwise indisposed. We’re not naming any names, but some of those majordomos are more than willing to throw their boss into the waiting arms of brave adventurers.Executus' hero power is to summon a 1/3 (3/3 heroic) Flamewaker Acolyte to the field. When defeated, he is immediately replaced by Ragnaros, whose hero power will deal 8 damage to a random enemy (this triggers twice on heroic).
As a card, Majordomo Executus is a 9 mana 9/7 who's Deathrattle replaces your hero with Ragnaros. All tropes applying to Ragnaros should go under his own entry in the Alternate Heroes folder.
- The Cameo: Arrives for the big party at Karazhan. But he arrives too soon.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Executus' deck contains a whopping TEN Molten Giants (8/8 which originally cost 20, but reduce the cost by each point of damage taken). His primary strategy was to wait until you whittle him down to ten life then fill the board with giants, guaranteeing a one turn kill. However, the downside to this is that a third of his deck is unusable till the late phase of the game. And if you manage to kill him in one shot, then Ragnaros won't be able to play the giants either (Since his Max HP is 8, he won't be able to reduce the cost of the giants enough to play them). The nerf to Molten Giant at the start of Whispers of the Old Gods, which increased their cost to 25, basically turned this up to eleven, making it almost impossible to lose to him on normal.
- Glass Cannon: Ragnaros has only 8 health/8 armor on normal, but deals a lot of damage with his hero power. Averted on Heroic.
- Marathon Boss: In Heroic mode, you have to dismantle Executus's 30 health and 15 armor first. Then Executus goes down, and Ragnaros comes in... with 30 health and 30 armor. That's a combined 105 health, the most hp of any boss prior to Karazhan's Heroic Malchezzar (prologue).
- Sequential Boss: Ragnaros takes over after you defeat Executus.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: After summoning Ragnaros, Executus just kind of disappears, as Ragnaros firing him wasn't included in this version of their encounter.
Blackrock Spire
Descriptions taken from hereBlackrock Spire honeycombs the heights of Blackrock Mountain, and serves as the first line of defense against those who would dare intrude on Blackwing’s domain. Nefarian’s forces now occupy the former Dark Iron dwarf citadel, with the likes of ogres, orcs, and dragonspawn patrolling its halls.
Highlord Omokk
I'll crush you.
Omokk didn’t rise to Highlord by being sharp. Quite the opposite—he’s the very definition of a blunt instrument, and he’ll be ogre-joyed to pound you and your minions into dust.Omokk's hero power causes him to destroy a random damaged enemy minion for one mana. On Heroic, this becomes a no mana auto-casted ability that randomly destroys one minion regardless of damage.
- Body Armor As Hitpoints: His boss card TIME FOR SMASH deals five damage to a random enemy, and gives Omokk five armor.
- Hulk Speak: "Me smash!"
- Luck-Based Mission: His Ogres do high damage, but many of them attack the wrong target 50% of the time. (His Mogor the Ogre gives this effect to every minion.) This is not necessarily a good thing; if the ability triggers it will ignore the effects of Taunt. Furthermore, his hero power targets a minion at random; it could very well miss the minion you need alive.
- One-Hit Kill: His hero power, but it only works on damaged minions...unless he's on Heroic.
- Our Ogres Are Hungrier: Most of his monsters are Ogres.
- This Cannot Be!: Nefarian's quote when Omokk is defeated is "This does not make any sense!"
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: TIME FOR SMASH. See Body Armor As Hitpoints.
General Drakkisath
Are you here to help me destroy the mortals of this world?
This dragonkin general leads Nefarian’s armies within Blackrock to inflict corporal punishment on the minions of Ragnaros. Ragnaros might also be a bad guy, but sometimes it turns out that the enemy of your enemy is still kind of a jerk. Don’t listen to that kernel of doubt: Drakkisath might be anti-Firelord, but in private he’s still pro-evil.Drakkisath's continuously active hero power completely changes how the game is played. It makes all cards cost one mana and limits players to having only one mana crystal. This means that only one card can be played each turn. On Heroic, the player is still limited to one mana crystal, but Darkkisath can have two mana crystals. This lets him play two cards when the player is still limited to one.
- Body Armor As Hitpoints/One-Hit Kill: The boss card Drakkisath's Command, which destroys one minion and gives Drakkisath 10 Armor.
- Breather Boss: Beating his normal self is fairly easy, just fill your deck with high-value late-game cards and eventually overwhelm him. He's seen as probably the easiest boss in an adventure so far. However, his Heroic is the hardest adventure challenge yet, managing to beat Paladin's Class Challenge from Naxxramas.
- Friendly Enemy: He seems to be under the impression that the Hero was a friend. His response to the player's emotes is "Why?! Tell me why! Please, I liked you."
- Luck-Based Mission: Since you're only playing one card a turn, victory largely depends on getting good cards before Drakkisath does. It's more pronounced on Heroic, where Drakkisath has an unfair advantage of two cards per turn to the player's one.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Explicitly the case on Heroic.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Drakkisath's Command. See above.
Rend Blackhand
We are the TRUE horde!
Rend is the leader of the Dark Horde, which is allied with Nefarian because he needs the dragon’s help to overthrow Thrall and seize control. His management style is classic villain—spend a lot of time hanging back, being crazy, and ordering minions around. Give him points for unpredictability: you never know what he’ll throw at you next.Rend's hero power is unusual because it changes each time he uses it. It summons either three 1/1 Whelps, two 1/1 Orcs with Taunt, a 3/1 Dragonkin, or Rend's drake mount Gyth, an 8/4 Legendary Dragon. Mana costs for the hero power vary depending on the minion summoned. On Heroic, these summoned minions have improved stats: the Whelps and Orcs are 2/2, the Dragonkin is 5/4, and Gyth is 8/8.
Rend Blackhand is also a Legendary minion, an 8/4 for 8 that destroys a Legendary minion of your choice as long as you're holding a Dragon.
- Confusion Fu: His Hero Power changes every turn, so you need to be flexible in handling it. And pray he doesn't get that 8/8 dragon minion from his Hero Power.
- Dragon Rider: Evoked when he summons Gyth; the hero power that summons him is called Dismount.
- One-Hit Kill: His boss card The True Warchief destroys a Legendary minion.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Most of his minions are dragons, or have additional effects when a dragon minion is in Rend's hand.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The True Warchief. See One-Hit Kill. Also might be still unusable, even if you manage to steal it from him.
- Zerg Rush: Due to his hero power. He can quickly summon a horde of minions to overwhelm the opponent. He even tells his summoned minions to ignore the player's minions and attack the hero directly.
Blackwing Lair
Descriptions taken from hereBlackwing Lair is Lord Victor Nefarius’ seat of power within Blackrock Mountain. There, he tinkers with blood of the various dragonflights in an effort to create a perfect, unstoppable draconic army. It’s not an exact science, but hey, it’s still SCIENCE!
Razorgore
Behold. The corrupted eggs of our new dragonflight.
Watching eggs is a full-time responsibility. It doesn’t leave poor Razorgore much time to do important things like get a degree, socialize, or do fun, destructive dragon stuff. This unfortunate situation has only worsened his historically poor temperament. Razorgore’s glad you’re stopping by to help him work off some stress!Razorgore's gameplay revolves around his unique Corrupted Egg minion. He play with one on the table, and his one mana, auto-casted hero power gives all the Corrupted Eggs one health before summoning a new one. Once an Egg gains enough health, it hatches into a powerful Chromatic Drake. On Heroic, Razorgore's hero power costs no mana, his Eggs start with more health and take less time to hatch, and the Chromatic Drakes are more powerful.
- A Day in the Limelight: Got promoted to a playable hero for the Druid class during the Boss Battle Royale tavern brawl.
- Crippling Overspecialization: The only threat he really has going for him is his Corrupted Egg gimmick, making him relatively simple to neutralize if you can contain that threat.
- Dummied Out Unusable Enemy Equipment: Razorgore's Claws, a 1/5 weapon with +1 Attack for each Corrupted Egg. This weapon is found in the game's files but is unused.
- Egg Sitting: This is his job. He takes it very seriously, to the point where he yells at the player for destroying his eggs.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: It's possible to silence or otherwise neutralize his Eggs. Once his board is full he can't play any more minions and the player can destroy him at their leisure.
- Incredibly Lame Pun: His emote response.I will scramble you!
- Magikarp Power: Those eggs start off with no attack and low health, but they turn into 7/3 Chromatic Dragons should they hatch. Prevent that from happening at all costs!
- Mook Maker: Expect to see a lot of eggs.
- Rush Boss: If you don't start maiming those eggs, you will be swarmed by huge dragons in short order. As with Garr, you don't have to kill them, just do anything to make sure they don't hatch.
- This Is Unforgivable!: Lashes out at the player if they keep destroying Corrupted Eggs.
Vaelastrasz
Flee! Before I lose control...
We’ve touched upon the fact that Victor Nefarius is a bad dude, and here’s the proof. Vaelastrasz was once one of the good guys - a happy-go-lucky red dragon. Victor Nefarius used dark magic to corrupt him, forcing the ferocious red dragon to serve the Lord of Blackwing Lair against his will.In-game, his free, auto-casted hero power makes both players draw two cards. The catch is he's playing a mill deck, using cards such as Naturalize to further clog up a player's hand, or cards like Clockwork Giant which benefit from the number of cards in the opposing player's hand. On Heroic, his hero power causes both players to draw three cards, and it gives Vaelastrasz an extra mana crystal when used.
- Apologetic Attacker: He really doesn't want to fight, and even apologizes to the player if they lose.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Indicated by some of his attack quotes.
- Easter Egg: Playing Alexstrasza against him makes him more than a little distraught:
- Vaelastrasz: Help me! Lifebinder! Help!
- Hoist by His Own Petard: In Normal, because his hero power also makes him draw two cards per turn, he can easily clog up his hand and get himself into trouble when he can't draw his more useful cards. His heroic version slightly mitigates this by giving him an additional mana crystal each activation, thus he has more mana and more chances to play more cards.
- His playstyle tries to do this to the player. Explanation
- I Die Free: Expresses his gratitude when the player kills him.
- Knight of Cerebus: The fight is surprisingly somber compared to the rest of Blackrock Mountain, and the only jokes actually present do little else but point out he's a good guy. Even his Easter Egg isn't a joke; it just drives the mood home.
- Rush Boss: Like his original incarnation, Vael needs to be defeated quickly before his Milling reaches lethal threshold.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Burning Adrenaline, a free spell that does 2 damage to the enemy hero.
Chromaggus
*Roar!*
What’s worse than a horrible mutant dragon monstrosity that uses magic? A horrible mutant dragon monstrosity that uses five types of magic, obviously! Chromaggus unleashes abilities ripped from the flesh of all five dragonflights. Don’t ask how he got those powers. Viscera are involved. Hey, we told you not to ask! You’ll have to battle the chromatic horror before you can take on Lord Victor Nefarius.In game, his free, auto-casted hero power puts a Brood Affliction card into the player's hand at the end of Chromaggus's turn. These cards cost one mana and hurt the player or benefit Chromaggus as long as they remain in the hand. On Heroic, the Brood Affliction cards cost three mana to play, and their effects are more powerful.
As a card, Chromaggus is a 6/8 Dragon for 8 that creates a copy of any cards you draw.
- All Animals Are Dogs: Well, Nefarian seems to treat Chromaggus as one.Good job, Chromaggus. Good boy.
Hand getting a bit clogged? Good doggie. - All Your Powers Combined: Has aspects of all five chromatic dragonflights, though in the dark form of this trope, as he is something of a Frankenstein monster.
- Artificial Stupidity: Even for Hearthstone AI, Chromaggus stands out in particular. It seems like he's set up to use Savagery (1 mana spell, deal damage equal to your attack power) after using Claw or Bite to first get attack power, yet he will frequently use the spells in the wrong order. Sometimes he'll just use one (or both) Savagery spells and never have any attack power at all that turn!
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: The Brood Affliction cards, which are based on the five kinds of dragons.
- Red: Deals one damage to its holder at the start of their turn. On Heroic, this does three damage instead.
- Green: At the start of the holder's turn, this card heals two damage to their opponent. On Heroic, this restore six health instead.
- Blue: While in a hand, this reduces the cost of Chromaggus's spells by one. On Heroic, the cost of spells is instead reduced by three.
- Black: While in a hand, this causes Chromaggus to get an additional copy of any card he draws.
- Bronze: Whine in a hand, this reduces the cost of Chromaggus's minions by one. On Heroic, the cost of minions is instead reduced by three.
- Dummied Out: The Chromatic Mutation spell, which would have turned a random minion into a 2/2 Chromatic Dragonkin. An even bigger one is the Chromatic Dragonkin hero. According to this article, an early version of the Chromaggus fight would have the player's hero be turned into a Chromatic Dragonkin, with the useless hero power of discarding a card.
- Exact Words/Hoist by His Own Petard: Pay attention to the card text. If the player can get Brood Affliction: Red or Brood Affliction: Green into Chromaggus' hand, then these cards will damage Chromaggus or heal the player, respectively. The other cards benefit Chromaggus regardless of who holds them.
- Brood Affliction: Black can fill up Chromaggus's hand, forcing him to discard cards he draws.
- Resources Management Gameplay: Much of the point of the fight is decision making; the player has to decide whether giving Chromaggus an advantage is worth it to develop their board/remove his own, or to pay up the mana cost and hope Chromggus doesn't get too far ahead.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: For the first time in the game's run, discarding cards using Deathwing, Succubus, Soulfire, or Doomguard actually becomes helpful, as it gets rid of the Brood Afflictions without paying their mana cost.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Chromatic Dragonkin: A 2/3 minion for two mana that gains +2/+2 when the owner's opponent casts a spell. This penalizes the player when they cast Brood Afflictions in order to remove them from their hand.
Lord Victor Nefarius/Nefarian
Welcome to my personal sanctum, hero.End Turn
Behold! The true power of NEFARIAN!- "Let the games... begin!"
The master of Blackwing Lair and the primary antagonist of the adventure, Nefarian is the son of Deathwing and creator of the Chromatic Dragonflight. He initially recruits the player in a bid to conquer the lower layers of Blackrock under the guise of a human named Lord Victor Nefarius. His rule becomes complicated after the defeat of Ragnaros, where the player begins to quest up the mountain, and it all goes downhill from there.
The battle with Nefarian is the largest in scale in the entire game. On his very first turn, Nefarian will automatically turn into his dragon form, gaining 30 armor (50 on Heroic), 10 mana crystals, two extra cards, and a 1 mana auto-cast hero power that gives him a random spell from the player's class. To compensate, Ragnaros reveals himself to be alive and grants the player his power to defeat Nefarian, giving the player absurdly powerful cards at the start of their turn. On Heroic, Ragnaros will only be able to help once.
Nefarian's card is a 9 mana 8/8 Dragon that adds two spells to your hand from your opponent's class.
- Blatant Lies: With shades of I Meant to Do That. At the start of the Chromaggus battle, he triumphantly announces that Chromaggus is his greatest achievement. When the player wins...Actually, Chromaggus was my weakest minion. Were you impressed with yourself?
- When the Omnotron Defense System is beaten, Nefarian thanks the player for saving him a repair bill. This is after he called it "the most powerful defense system imaginable!"
- Big Bad: The main villain of the expansion, with Ragnaros acting as a secondary major villain.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: After the fight against Omokk, Nefarian, clearly distressed, tells the player to hit the back button, or play ranked mode instead.
- During the Heroic mode battle, Nefarian will tell Ragnaros that he can no longer help the player in Heroic mode.
- The Bus Came Back: Returned to square off with Morgl and Anduin in his own co-op Tavern Brawl, Nefarian Rises!
- The Cameo: Shows up to party at Karazhan.
- Didn't See That Coming: He certainly did not expect the player to return to Blackrock Mountain after defeating Ragnaros and then going after him.
- Disc-One Final Boss: Those unfamiliar with the lore probably find it odd that Nefarian gets defeated at the end of Wing 4 when there's an entire Hidden Laboratory that's yet to be explored.
- Easter Egg: Playing Deathwing during his boss fight gets this reaction out of him:
- Nefarian: D-Daddy?
- Et Tu, Brute?: As you start taking out the Blackrock Spire bosses, Nefarian angrier and angrier at what he assumes is a betrayal, as you previously slew his arch-nemesis for him.
- Faux Affably Evil: His politeness towards the player is an act to get them to take out Ragnaros, and even then it's offset by his snide remarks. Understandably, he immediately drops it the second they come after him.
- Guest-Star Party Member: While Nefarian is stuck with player cards, the player is given absurdly powerful Ragnaros cards, all of which cost 0 mana:
- DIE INSECT!, a spell which deals 8 damage to a random enemy.
- Living Lava, a 6/6 with taunt.
- Son of the Flame, a 6/3 with a battlecry of dealing 6 damage.
- Whirling Ash, a 4/5 with windfury.
- Unfortunately, Ragnaros will only give one of these cards on Heroic.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His hero power, and his effect as a minion, attempts to do this by supplying him with random spells from the player's class to make the player taste their own medicine.
- Hypocrite: When Ragnaros shows up to assist the player with overpowered cards, Nefarian will rage that this is cheating. Says the boss who just gave himself 30 armor (50 on heroic), 9 more mana crystals, several cards from his deck and a new hero power that allows him to blatantly cheat. All on turn one.
- Interface Spoiler: The portrait for his first fight is that of Lord Victor Nefarius, but his hero power (costing 1 mana) shows that he will assume his true form as soon as the battle begins...
- Jerkass: He's hypocritical, insane, violent, condescending, a terrible person to work for, and a cheater at card games.
- Leeroy Jenkins: No wait, keep reading. The key to beating Nefarian on Heroic is exploiting the fact that he'll try to play as many minions as possible. Once the player survives his initial onslaught of minions (which aren't as powerful as you might expect) Nefarian will be stuck with whatever he gets from topdecking and his hero power.
- Mad Scientist: He's the creator of the Chromatic Dragonflight, a species of dragons created by splicing together the genes of all five Dragonflights, and the corrupter of Vaelastrasz. He's also quite proud of what he does, if his reaction towards Chromaggus is any indication.
- Mean Boss: He has very little, if any, faith in his minions, and if Maloriak's dialogue is any indication he threatens them too.
- Mission Control Is Off Its Meds: Starting with the battle against Omokk, Nefarian (still in his Victor Nefarius persona) asks the player to turn back and stop fighting. He seems both surprised at and confused by the player continuing to poke around inside Blackrock Spire.
- Most Definitely Not a Villain/Suspiciously Specific Denial: This message, given to players who pre-ordered the adventure.
- My Nayme Is: Lord Victor Nefarius couldn't possible be connected to that dragon Nefarian, could he?
- Not So Above It All: For the first two wings he's jarringly serious and takes the time to mock his defeated adversaries in a condescending tone. After those two wings, he jumps into a stark raving Mad Scientist who wants the player dead and drops anything resembling sophistication.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: His bickering with Ragnaros in the Blackrock Mountain adventure plays them up as this.
- Smug Snake: He comes off at this in the fourth wing, mocking the player for defeating Vaelastrasz and insisting on the weakness of Chromaggus. This continues in the fifth wing, which is more of the same.
- This Means War!: After defeating Rend, Nefarian announces that the player is messing with the wrong dragon.
- Treacherous Quest Giver: He's the one who recruits the player to start their Blackrock Mountain adventure, and happens to be the main villain and Final Boss.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Funny though he may be, Nefarian is jarringly evil considering how silly the adventure is.
- Villainous Breakdown: He freaks out during the events of wing 3, saying what he can to get the player to leave.
- You Bastard!: He tries to guilt the player when they defeat Vaelastrasz and later Atramedes.
The Hidden Laboratory
Descriptions taken from hereThe Hidden Laboratory festers deep within Blackrock Mountain. It is Nefarian’s inner sanctum, and its chambers full of strange equipment and the best (worst?) of his mad experiments. Harden your heart against the horrors lurking within and watch your step.
Omnotron Defense System
The Omnotron Defense System was once a plaything of the Dark Iron dwarves left forgotten in Blackrock’s depths. Nefarian has taken to tinkering with them, and he’s adjusted his pet project’s “Murder” setting to 11.The Defense System has an unusual hero power that it will auto-cast, if possible. First it costs two mana and summons Arcanotron, a 2/2 which gives both player +2 spell damage. Next it costs four mana and summons Toxitron, a 3/3 that damages all other monster's at the start of its owner's turn. Then for six mana the hero power summons Electron, a 5/5 which reduces the cost of all spells by three. After that the power's cost goes to eight mana and it summons Magmatron, a 7/7 that deals two damage to anyone that plays a card. After that, the Defense System's hero power goes down to four mana and it summons one of the four minions randomly. On Heroic mode, the mana costs for all forms of the hero power are reduced by two, and the summoned minions are stronger.
- Achilles' Heel: Back before Echo copies were nerfed to cost a minimum of 1 mana, Sound the Bells!note became an easy one-turn-kill once Electron hit the board by letting you give a minion arbitrarily high Attack, ideally when paired with a Charge minion.
- Easter Egg: Continually using emotes causes it to update its OS, which results in...
- Omnotron Defense System: Hello! Hello! Hello!
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His 'trons can benefit the player.
- Mecha-Mooks: The theme of his deck.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Recharge, a free spell that refills the Defense System's mana crystals.
Maloriak
Poor Maloriak. Turns out that Nefarian’s attempt to fuse the power of a dragonkin with the brilliant mind of an alchemist resulted in a stupid, incompetent, and disappointing minion. Despite his deficiencies (by admittedly unrealistic dragon standards), Maloriak’s crazed alchemical concoctions make him a most noxious foe.Maloriak's hero power is continuously active. It causes all minions to have their Attack and Health swapped when summoned. On Heroic, his hero power also gives Maloriak's minions +2/+2.
- Call-Back: After defeating Maloriak, Nefarian bestows upon you the title of "Slayer of Stupid, Incompetent and Disappointing Minions", which is exactly the title received from defeating Maloriak in World of Warcraft. This title actually replaces your user name in the next match you play.
- Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: Even Nefarian thinks of him as a joke.
- Not So Harmless: He is portrayed as bumbling and incompetent, but he can still grind you into the ground if you're not prepared for him. It's worse on Heroic, where all his minions will get boosted for no cost.
- The Igor: Is this to Nefarian.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Release the Aberrations!, a two-mana spell that summons three 1/1 Aberrations with Charge.
Atramedes
Atramedes was once a hapless Black Dragonwhelp, and Nefarian had him blinded with a toxic salve in a failed bid to give the dragon super-sight. Don’t feel too bad though, because he’s still super evil.Atramedes's hero power gives him Dragonteeth, a 0/6 weapon that gets +1 Attack every time its owner's opponent plays a card. On normal this power costs one mana, while its free on Heroic. In addition, the player gets three Reverberating Gong's on normal, which automatically destroy Atramedes's weapon.
- Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are: His dialogue is some variation of this.
- Handicapped Badass: This is simulated by his weapon. Playing cards alerts Atramedes to the player's "location", making his weapon more powerful.
- Magikarp Power: Dragonteeth can get out of control if a player doesn't do something about it, and it highly limits how many cards they can play per turn. You get a lifeline on Normal, but on Heroic, you'll want to bring some Oozes.
- Make Me Wanna Shout: His unique boss card Sonic Breath. Can be used against him with Reverberating Gong.
- Too Dumb to Live: Emotes don't do anything, but if one is used Atramedes's response is to thank the player for making noise.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Sonic Breath, a four mana spell that deals three damage to a minion and increases the Attack of the user's weapon by three.
Nefarian (again) and Onyxia
Nefarian challenges the player again in the very final battle of the adventure, this time as an undead dragon. However, he does not fight alone...This battle has three phases. First, Nefarian will will use his two mana hero power to summon two 2/1 Bone Constructs (4/2 on Heroic). Once his armor is depleted, Nefarian will replace himself with his reanimated sister Onyxia. Onyxia starts with a 2/6 weapon named Onyxiclaw, and her free hero power has Nefarian shoot fireballs at the player every turn*. Once Onyxia is defeated, Nefarian will destroy all the player's minions and return to play.
Onyxia is also a collectible card from the Classic set, a 9 mana 8/8 Dragon who comes into play with up to six 1/1 Whelps.
- Ax-Crazy: Coming back from the dead made him a little nutty.
- Back from the Dead: Though how it happened seems to be different from Warcraft lore, where his father Deathwing resurrected him. Here, it seems like he kinda just did it.
- Dummied Out: Chromatic Prototype, a 2-mana 1/4 minion with Taunt.
- Easter Egg: Unfortunately, averted. You'd expect the devs include some remark if you manage to tank his 20-hits fireballs.
- Final Boss: The last battle of Blackrock Mountain.
- Loophole Abuse: Nefarian will only switch over to Onyxia once you deplete his armor; if you remove the last of his armor and all 30 of his health in one hit, you get to skip the next two phases.
- Marathon Boss: Between Nefarian's hero power with requires constant attention, the trinity of phases, and the minion annihilating fire at the start of phase 3, this battle can take a long time, especially on Heroic mode.
- Running Gag: "From above!"
- Sequential Boss: Manages to top both Kel'Thuzad and Ragnaros with three.
- The Unintelligible: Onyxia doesn't have any real dialogue; just roars and grunts.
- Time-Limit Boss: The Onyxia phase effectively has a time limit of seven turns. At turn eight and every turn afterward, Nefarian will fire twenty fireballs. This is all but guaranteed to kill the player.
- Troll: Once Onyxia is summoned, Nefarian's hero power to randomly drop a fireball that ramps up, you think it would move in logical increments, right? Nope, While it does go up to three for the first three turns, Nefarian arbitrarily decides to only shoot one or not at all, all while throwing out hilarious quotes. And if you take seven or more turns to kill Onyxia, he just gets angry and blitzes you with 20, most likely ending the fight.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: LAVA!, a two mana spell that deals two damage to all minions.
The League of Explorers
General
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Many bosses use Looming Presence in Heroic Mode, a 3-mana spell that draws three cards and gives its player 6 Armor.
Temple of Orsis
Help Reno Jackson track down the first piece of the artifact by uncovering the mysteries of the time-lost Temple of Orsis. These ruins have lain undisturbed for centuries, but that doesn’t mean they don’t hold their fair share of danger. Getting in may turn out to be much easier than getting out alive!Zinaar
A djinni unwittingly released from his lamp by Reno Jackson, every turn Zinaar will draw a card and give the player a random Wish card, which can be as follows: Discover a minion, Discover a spell, Discover an Animal Companion (Hunter only) or Wishing for More Wishes. On Heroic, he also gains an extra mana crystal each turn, and "more wishes" is no longer an option.- Benevolent Genie: Despite trying to kill you, he'll still grant your wishes.
- Easter Egg: Hunters get an exclusive Wish that allows them to pick out an Animal Companion of their choice. It can be Huffer every time!
- Original Generation
- Rush Boss: Zinaar's massive card draw (and ramping on Heroic) allow him to easily put out tons of pressure, but it also means he runs out of cards very easily. If you can weather his onslaught (with or without the help of his wishes), he'll quickly run out of steam.
- Unwanted Assistance: Sure, his wishes can definitely be helpful and are easily abusable with spell synergy, but unless the wishes give you things you can actually play, they're also going to clog your hand quite a bit if you didn't bring a lot of cheap cards.
- Wishing for More Wishes: This actually works, much to the surprise of Reno.
Sun Raider Phaerix
The guardian of the rod for the Staff of Origination. In battle, he starts off with control of the Rod of the Sun, a 0/5 which shifts control to the other hero when destroyed. Whoever controls the rod is Immune... in Normal mode. In Heroic mode, only Phaerix benefits from holding the rod, and it gains +3/+3 when under his control.- Easter Egg: The Tolvir Hoplite, mentioned below, has special dialogue if you gain control of it.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The Rod of the Sun grants Immune to the one holding it. If you hold it, you are immune and cannot be damaged (averted in Heroic Mode). In addition, it is possible for the Tolvir Hoplite to kill him with his deathrattle. And he's not smart enough to check whether he's holding the rod before crashing the Hoplite.
- No-Sell: As long as he has the Rod, he is immune to all damage.
- Original Generation
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: Silencing the Rod of the Sun and destroying it. Not recommended on Normal since the player benefits from its effect, but a perfectly reasonable strategy on Heroic.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Tolvir Hoplite, a 3 mana 5/2 (5/5 on Heroic) that does 5 damage to both heroes when it dies.
The Collapsing Temple Escape
Not a singular enemy per se so much as a gauntlet of obstacles the player (accompanied by Reno Jackson) must survive to win, numerous enemies and traps along the way lead to choices, in the form of Discover cards, that must be made in order to reach safety.- Big Creepy-Crawlies: You get attacked by a pair of Giant Insects near the exit.
- Collapsing Ceiling Boss: This is one of the events. It destroys everything on the board.
- Easter Egg: Getting control of the Orsis Guard or Anubisath Temple Guard and then attacking with them leads to some funny dialogue, such as the former voicing his desire to be in Heroes of the Storm someday.
- Hold the Line: The player needs to survive for 9 to 10 turns to win.
- Indy Escape: The entire sequence, complete with the classic giant rolling boulder.
- Punch-Clock Villain: The Anubisath Temple Guard, who if you gain control of him, will beg you to take him with you since they apparently don't pay him.
- Schmuck Bait:
- The event prior to the Collapsing Ceiling Boss above. No matter what you do, it summons a 10/10 to the field.
- Near the end, you can choose whether or not to take a shortcut (with Elise trying her best to convince you not to). If you do, you reach the exit one turn sooner... but you also have to deal with a 7/7 War Golem.
- Zero-Effort Boss: Unintentionally; later updates to the game broke the Temple's AI and made it never use its Hero Power. As such, the only threats you encounter are the 10/10 statue and, if you chose the shortcut, the War Golem, which will only do a combined total of 24 damage even if left unchecked (the statue is destroyed when the ceiling collapses 1 turn later and the War Golem only gets 2 turns to attack), making it basically impossible to lose except by conceding.
Uldaman
The second piece of the artifact lies deep within the halls of Uldaman, a key location of immense importance to dwarf history. Lucky for you, Brann Bronzebeard himself will help you probe the depths of this dangerous dig site. With such an experienced treasure hunter at your side, surely nothing will go wrong. Say, do these ancient statues look… evil?Chieftain Scarvash
The leader of the Uldaman trogg tribe. His hero power swaps every turn between increasing the cost of either spells or minions by 2. On Heroic, he switches between making enemy spells and enemy minions cost eleven mana, making them near-unplayable.- Gonk: As a trogg, it's a given. According to Brann, he's even uglier than when he was younger.
- Lame Comeback: Brann also says he's gotten stupider since Brann's last time there. Scarvash's rebuttal?"Trogg no stupid! Trogg make you stupid!"
- Original Generation
- Puzzle Boss: A notable one that requires your deck to specifically designed to curve out between spells and minions on alternating turns.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Three minions which also appear in the Mine Cart Rush: Chasing Trogg, a 4-mana 2/6, Earthen Pursuer a 5 mana 4/6, and Lumbering Golem, a 6 mana 6/6.
Mine Cart Rush
The player and Brann must take a mine cart to get to the center of Uldaman, but along the way are attacked by a horde of Troggs, likely sent by Scarvash. The player must work together with Brann to keep the cart functional until they can escape, repairing the cart on the fly, siccing Brann's mechanical parrot, Ginny, on the Troggs, leaving decoys, and hurling rocks, bouncing bombs, and even dynamite at the Troggs to survive.- Hold the Line: Like with the Temple Escape, the player needs to survive for 8-10 turns to win.
- Mad Bomber: Not the troggs, but the player. They can use bouncing bombs and dynamite during the escape.
- Puzzle Boss: You only get to play up to 2 cards each turn, and using your Hero Power to deal 3 damage to a random enemy counts as one. Managing your cards carefully to keep the Troggs under control is a must if you want to survive.
- Zerg Rush: The Troggs pour onto the field each turn and if not dealt with expediently will quickly overwhelm the cart.
Archaedas
A stone giant crafted by the Titans to protect the headpiece of the Staff. His hero power spawns a 0/2 Earthen Statue for both players and pilots a deck specifically designed to exploit it as much as possible. On Heroic, his hero power still summons a 0/2 Earthen Statue for the player, but he gets a 0/5 statue.- Developer's Foresight: He is preprogrammed to always draw Shattering Spree if the amount of statues on the board reaches a certain threshold, to prevent the board from becoming too crowded to play anything.
- Mook Maker: His hero power spawns a limitless amount of statues for both players, in a similar vein to the Paladin's hero power. He also has the ability to convert all statues into a point of damage each with Shattering Spree.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Animate Earthen, a 2 mana spell that gives his minions +1/+1 and Taunt, and Shattering Spree, a 2 mana spell that destroys all statues on both sides of the field and deals 1 damage to a target for each one destroyed. On Heroic, these spells instead give +3/+3 and Taunt, and deal 3 damage per destroyed statue.
Stranglethorn Jungle
Face hordes of Naga and Murlocs and worse to reach the third piece of the artifact. To aid you in your struggle against the scaly and slippery terrors of the ruined city, refined gentleman and scholar Sir Finley Mrrgglton joins your quest. Brave the challenges of this ruined city, and you will be one step closer to claiming your prize.Lord Slitherspear
A naga general who has held Sir Finley captive and prepped for dinner. Right when the battle begins he has Sir Finley captured on his side of the field, who when freed will add himself to the player's hand. Slitherspear starts off with a free hero power that summons increasingly powerful Hungry Nagas, which switches to a power that gives him +2 attack for the turn once Finley is saved. On Heroic, Sir Finley is absent.- Easter Egg: His Slithering Archer minion has unique dialogue if you control it.
- Original Generation
- Sequential Boss: A minor case, as the fight will switch gears soon after Sir Finley is rescued. Averted on Heroic.
- Snake Talk: A given, considering he's a naga.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The Cauldron is technically this, a 0/5 with Taunt that changes Slitherspear's Hero Power and gives you Sir Finley. In addition, there is Slithering Archer, a 2/2 for 2 mana that deals one damage on Normal and two damage to all enemy minions on Heroic. He also has Slithering Guard, a 5 mana 3/6 (5/7 on Heroic) with Taunt.
Giantfin
A titanic murloc blocking the path to the pearl of the Staff of Origination. He possesses a deck composed entirely of murlocs and murloc support cards. Normally such a deck would be susceptible to area of effect damage, but his hero power allows him to draw as many cards as the player holds, meaning he will rarely run out of steam. On Heroic he draws a flat two cards per turn... and has a deck of 50 cards.- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: His Heroic version breaks the rules to a ridiculous extent even by adventure boss standards, with a 50-card deck and way more than two copies of most of his cards (including a whopping 13 Murloc Tinyfins and 10 Murloc Raiders).
- Dummied Out: There is apparently some dialogue meant to be played when Giantfin plays a Tidehunter, but no-one has been able to trigger it.
- Easter Egg: Playing Old Murk-eye against him causes him to ask why "Middlefin" is here.
- Jerkass: The player doesn't actually know what he's saying, but according to Sir Finley he's acting quite rude during the battle.
- Original Generation
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Mrgl Mrgl Nyah Nyah, a 5 (3 on Heroic) mana spell that summons 3 (or 5) Murlocs that died in game.
- Zerg Rush: Spews a seemingly neverending supply of cheap murlocs, and thanks to his hero power he can do it for as long as he wants.
Lady Naz'jar
A servant of Queen Azshara who guards the pearl. Her hero power causes her to use the power of the pearl to replace all minions on the board with minions that cost 1 more. In Heroic, only her minions cost one more; your minions retain the same cost.Naz'jar reappeared in the Throne of the Tides mini-set as a 5 mana 5/5 Mage Legendary Naga that gains an effect after you cast either an Arcane, Frost, or Fire spell while she's in your hand. For Arcane, she reduces the cost of all spells in your hand by 1. For Frost, she grants 8 Armor. For Fire, she deals 5 damage to a minion and 2 to adjacent minions.
- A Day in the Limelight: Got promoted to a playable hero for the Shaman class during the Boss Battle Royale tavern brawl.
- Variant Power Copying: As a card, she gains an effect based on the type of spell you first cast while she's in your hand.
- Zerg Rush: She spams the board with loads of weakass minions and tokens, only to upgrade them next turn with her hero power. Notably, while the player can do this too, Naz'jar's power doesn't activate until the end of her turn, so she gets the chance to destroy your tokens before they get upgraded.
The Hall of Explorers
Skelesaurus Hex
A huge dinosaur skeleton Rafaam animates and sics on you and the League to buy time while he loots the museum. It's Hero Power gives each player a random card that can be played for free. In Heroic, only he gets the card.As a card, Fossilized Devilsaur is an 8 mana 8/8 that gains Taunt if you control a Beast.
- A Day in the Limelight: Got promoted to a playable hero for the Hunter class during the Boss Battle Royale tavern brawl.
- Degraded Boss: A variation; beating the boss unlocks the Fossilized Devilsaur card, a minion version of this enemy.
- Dem Bones: An animated fossil dinosaur.
The Steel Sentinel
An animated suit of armor that Rafaam puts in your way after you deal with Skelesaurus Hex. Its Hero Power prevents it from taking more than one damage at time. On Heroic, this effect applies to its minions also.The Steel Sentinel shares its art with a collectible card - Animated Armor, a 4 mana 4/4 Mage minion that reduces all damage your hero takes to 1.
- Animated Armor: Duh.
- Continuity Nod: Is the animated armor of Anduin Lothar, and Brann mentions obtaining it from Blackrock Mountain.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: To infamously irritating degrees.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: Its hero power forces you to deal only one damage at a time to it, making its entire defeat this by default.
- Degraded Boss: A variation; beating the boss in the Mage class challenge unlocks the Animated Armor card, a minion version of this enemy.
Arch-Thief Rafaam
The supreme archaeologist and a master thief, Rafaam is the main villain of the adventure seeking to seize the Staff of Origination for himself. He later reappeared in Rise of Shadows leading a Villain Team-Up; for more information on that version and his general personality, see Secondary Characters.Rafaam is fought twice. In the first match, he steals your deck, forcing the player to use a preconstructed one. In this match, his Hero Power is Unstable Portal, which functions like the card of the same name. On Heroic, this power is free. In the second match, Rafaam uses his own deck. His Hero Power is the Staff of Origination, which charges for three turns and renders Rafaam immune while it does so. After it summons a minion version of one of the adventure's bosses (possessing various effects based on their encounters and statted at 5/5 on Normal and 10/10 on Heroic), Rafaam can be attacked until the staff begins charging again.
As a card, Rafaam is a 7/8 costing 9 mana. His Battlecry allows the player to discover one of three powerful artifacts: Timepiece of Horrornote , Mirror of Doomnote and Lantern of Power.note
- Animate Inanimate Object: When he invades the Hall of Explorers he just starts animating everything. The player fights a statue and a dinosaur skeleton, while the League of Explorers deal with other animated objects offscreen.
- Artificial Stupidity: Potentially one of the worst cases in the entire game. If he steals a warlock deck that has both Jaraxxus and Sacrificial Pact, it's entirely possible for him to play Jaraxxus and then use the spell on him, instantly killing himself.
- Boss Rush: In the final battle against him, he summons the various bosses of the adventure using his hero power.
- The Cameo: Shows up to Karazhan to pilfer things while everyone else is partying.
- Collector of the Strange: "Oooh, is this really Arthas’ signet ring? And in mint condition."
- Developer's Foresight: He actually muses on the player's deck choices depending on what they included before the first battle with him. If every card in the deck is golden, an impressed Rafaam will compare your collection to his own. Inversely, if you included Magma Rager in your deck, he'll be utterly stupefied as to why it's in the deck in the first place.
- Hostile Show Takeover: He doesn't steal the show, but in the final battle he steals the Innkeeper's introduction.Inkeeper: <Player Name> versus...
Rafaam: RAFAAAAAM, THE SUPREME ARCHAEOLOGIST! - Impossible Thief: He somehow steals the player's deck before the first battle with him.
- Logical Weakness: Since he steals your deck in his first fight, the best thing to do is fill it with useless cards that do nothing. The only threat in the fight will be his Unstable Portal Hero Power.
- Each of his Artifacts can be nullified in some way - The Mirror's effect can be nullified by Flamestrike or any board clear doing at least 3 damage. In the final boss fight, it can be negated by the artifact Lothar's Left Greavenote . The Lantern can be negated by Silencing the minion, removal or Poisonous etc. All can be negated by Counterspell, since the artifacts are spells.
- MacGuffin Delivery Service: A variation. Apparently, the Staff of Origination was actually his staff. By assembling it, the League of Explorers allow him to penetrate the Hall of Explorers' wards, giving him the opportunity to steal everything... erm, the good things.
- Never My Fault: After his first loss in which he uses the player's stolen deck, he complains over that the deck held him back even if it's his own stupidity that caused him to lose.
- Nigh-Invulnerable: During the final battle with him, Rafaam is Immune and only drops his shield every 3 turns to summon a very powerful minion.
- Puzzle Boss: Since he fights his first encounter with the deck he steals from you, the natural thing to do is to engage him with the worst deck you can build, which can be complicated if you have a habit of disenchanting useless cards.
- Sore Loser: If you win the first battle with him, he complains about how the deck he stole from you sucked. Even if it was your top-tier deck.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: Rafaam is Immune for most of his second fight, but every third turn he'll summon a minion version of one of the previous bosses. This also removes his immunity for one turn, so if you can handle the token he spawns, you get an opportunity to smack him in the face.
- Useless Useful Spell: The Timepiece is considered to be the worst spell, being an Avenging Wrath but with 2 extra damage and 4 extra cost. Despite this, its still a useful potential board clear and works best against the Animated Armor card or boss. Alternatively, if your opponent has no minions, it can be as useful as a Pyroblast.
- Wham Line: The fight with Rafaam begins normally enough, but just before you get to draw your opening hand...Rafaam: I like your deck. I think I will TAKE IT!
One Night in Karazhan
Prologue
Prince Malchezaar
A high-ranking member of the Burning Legion and an Eredar prince, Malchezaar was barred from Medivh's parties in Karazhan for expensive reasons. In the prologue for One Night in Karazhan, Malchezaar returns to Karazhan angry that he wasn't invited, and challenges Medivh to battle. The Prince is defeated, but as he is banished back to his home he takes the guardian with him, setting up the events of the adventure.In the prologue battle, Malchezaar is Lord Jaraxxus on steroids, boasting the "Summon a 6/6'" hero power right out of the box along with 30 HP and 30 armor, 6 mana crystals, and a variety of warrior weapons, including Gorehowl. He is also the final battle of the adventure, though now he lacks armor and the extra mana crystals. On Heroic, he gets his 30 armor back and his Hero Power summons two 6/6 Demons.
As a card, Prince Malchezaar is a Legendary 5 mana 5/6 that automatically adds 5 random Legendary minions to the player's deck at the beginning of the game.
- Always Someone Better: He outranks Lord Jaraxxus, who he calls a weakling, has the same Hero Power as him, twice as much health, plus armor and six mana crystals.
- Big Bad: Of One Night in Karazhan, albeit he lacks the screentime of the other major villains.
- Contractual Boss Immunity: In the second battle, unlike with Jaraxxus, Sacrifical Pact doesn't work on him. However, this is only if Sacrificial Pact is targeted on him directly - if he gets randomly targeted by Sacrificial Pact (such as by Yogg-Saron or Mayor Noggenfogger), he'll still die.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Subverted in the Normal prologue fight, where 60 HP turns out not to be a whole lot against Medivh. Played straight in Heroic mode, where his 120 HP is the highest of any boss battle so far and takes a suitable amount of time to wear down, although it's still not a whole lot against Medivh overall.
- Disproportionate Retribution: His entire motivation in the adventure is that he's pissed because he didn't get an invite. Taken up a level once Medivh defeats him, pulling a Taking You with Me and potentially ruining the entire party.
- Dynamic Entry: He enters the final boss fight with 8 mana, and will immediately spend it all on Twisting Nether."Out of my way, fool!"
- Easily Forgiven: He's allowed to join the party anyway as a DJ.
- Easter Egg: Playing Lord Jaraxxus against Malchezaar will result in a brief exchange between the two Eredar. After that Jaraxxus sings some "karaoke", using the only way he knows
- Elite Mook: His Legion summons 6/6 Abyssals, which are basically the same as Jaraxxus's Infernals.
- Mythology Gag:
- As an eredar, he possesses the exact same hero power as Lord Jaraxxus and has an army of demons as his deck.
- His use of Gorehowl as a weapon and in his flavor text are references to that fact one of the items among his loot pool in the original Karazhan raid is none other than Gorehowl, with no explanation as to why he has it instead of the weapon being in Mannoroth's skull.
- Noodle Incident: Considering that Medivh is willing to welcome Lord Jaraxxus and Nefarian to his party, Malchezaar must have seriously wrecked the place in his last visit.
- RevengeSVP: He angrily storms into Karazhan after being snubbed by Medivh, but Medivh cites the massive property damage Malchezaar incurred the last time as justification.Medivh: After the last time? We're still fixing a hole in the roof!Moroes: *ahem* And [Jaraxxus] didn't torch the library.
- Skill Gate Characters: The random legendaries given by Prince Malchezaar are generally far better than what a player with a limited collection has in their deck, but once you expand your collection, they're instead more likely to simply make your deck less consistent due to simply not synergizing with the rest of it.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: In the second battle he uses Shadow Bolt Volley, which does 4 damage to three random enemies, and Demonic Presence, which draws 2 cards and gives him 10 armor.(3 cards on Heroic.)
- Taking You with Me: Word for word his response when Medivh tries to banish him.
The Parlor
Silverware Golem
The Silverware Golem uses a hyper-powered version of an aggressive face deck, swarming the board with 1/1 Plates. On top of summoning Plates each turn for free, it possesses multiple cards that buff the Plates in various ways. The regular version summons one plate a turn, while the heroic summons two, and features more powerful minions.As a minion, the Silverware Golem is a 3 mana 3/3 Warlock minion that automatically summons itself when discarded from the player's hand.
- Achilles' Heel: While the golem is quick to fill up its board with minions, all of its minions have only 1 Health which makes the boss' board criminally weak to all forms of AOE. Averted hard on Heroic, where its non-Plate minions all have health matching their attack; this also makes most of them criminally overstatted for their costs.
- Animate Inanimate Object: The golem itself is an amalgamation of all manners of cutlery, and it fights you with living plates, spoons, forks, knives, teacups...
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Plays like a zoo deck on speed, with an upgraded version of the Paladin hero power and lots of cards that buff his plates up.
- Pungeon Master: Not the Golem itself, but almost all of its minions say a pun based on what kind of silverware they are. They're even worse if you manage to take control of one.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Basically its entire deck, which is completely built around the Plates summoned by its hero power.
- Zerg Rush: Its hero power is to automatically summon a 1/1 plate for free, or two of them in Heroic. And it also have a spell that brings out five plates immediately.
Magic Mirror
Whenever a minion is played in the Magic Mirror encounter, a 1/1 copy of it is created. In Heroic mode, the copies are always summoned on the Mirror's side of the board.- Goddamned Boss: Between its constant taunting, an overabundance of Spell Damage minions - further heightened by its Hero Power - and cheap spells taking advantage of that (i.e Arcane Missiles) it can take a surprisingly long while to wear it down, assuming your nerves won't.
- I Shall Taunt You: Without Medivh around, the mirror decides to Trash Talk.
- Jerkass: Darn straight. The Mirror spends the entire fight flinging petty insults at the player.
- Magic Mirror: What's his name again?
- Sore Loser: On defeat, he accuses the player of cheating and angrily demands a rematch.
Chess (The White and Black Kings)
The Chess encounter has the player taking control of the White King and using special chess pieces to defeat the Black King. Instead of attacking directly, chess pieces deal damage to whatever is across from them on the board (except the Knight, which has Charge but can't attack the enemy Hero). On normal mode, The White King's hero power Discovers a chess piece. On Heroic, it instead moves a friendly chess piece on the board, and additionally, his deck only has 15 cards. In both modes, The Black King cheats, destroying your leftmost chess piece with his Hero Power.- A Day in the Limelight: Their encounter got an entire tavern brawl version, and the White King also acts as the Paladin class hero for Boss Battle Royale.
- Dual Wielding: The Queen wields two swords.
- Puzzle Boss: The Heroic version of this boss has you start with the white king and a deck of only fifteen cards, representing a regular set of chess pieces, and your hero power is only good for repositioning your pieces. To even the playing field, the Black King's Heroic deck also has the same pieces, with the addition of 15 Pawns at the bottom of his deck to prevent players from simply winning through fatigue.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The Black King's hero power is literally called Cheat, whereupon he instantly kills any minion on your left side of the field. Additionally, in Heroic mode you are saddled with only fifteen cards in your deck but the Black King still has 30; however he still gets the same cards as the player (8 Pawns, 1 Queen, and 2 of every other piece), with the bottom half of his deck being composed entirely of Pawns for staving off fatigue.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: Unlike normal games, all pieces except the Knight cannot be ordered to attack specific targets, but instead automatically attacks whatever is facing them at the end of turn, even on the same turn they are summoned as though they had charge. The Knight also cannot be used to attack the kings, so dealing damage to the opposing king can only be done by clearing the board to allow the pieces to push in damage.
The Opera
Julliane (And Romulo)
Julliane comes into play with Romulo (a 4/2) on the board. Julliane only has 15 health, but as long as Romulo is alive, she's immune to damage. If Romulo is killed, her hero power resummons him for 4 mana (or for free on heroic).- Easter Egg: If you play Feign Death against her, she says "And then awake, as from a pleasant sleep." Playing Deadly Poison whilst Romulo is on the board causes him to say "Ah, a dram of poison." Finally, if you gain control of Romulo and attack with him, he'll gripe that he wanted to play Peter Pan.
- Outside-the-Box Tactic: Silencing Romulo removes Julianne's protection and prevents her from resummoning him.
- The Power of Love: Unless Romulo is killed, Julliane remains immune to all damage. He can be resummoned for 4 mana (for free on Heroic) thanks to her hero power. To compensate, she has only 15 HP as opposed to the usual 30.
- Stone Wall: Julianne's deck is loaded with Taunts to protect herself and Romulo.
Big Bad Wolf
Big Bad Wolf causes your minions to become 1 mana 1/1s, and protects his 20 health with many Taunts. On Heroic mode, his minions also cost 1, but don't have reduced stats.As a card, he is represented as a Hunter-exclusive 2 mana 1/1 Kindly Grandmother, whose Deathrattle summons the 3/2 Big Bad Wolf. The Heroic Big Bad Wolf fight starts with three of these on his board.
- Bait-and-Switch: Sort of; the selection screen shows the Kindly Grandmother card instead of the boss you actually fight.
- The Big Bad Wolf
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Uses the 3 Mana(2 on Heroic) Big Bad Claws, which has two uses and does four damage.
The Crone
The Crone's fight begins with the 0/10 Dorothee on your field, and it's your job to protect her from the Crone's onslaught. And you'll want to, since she's the only thing preventing the Crone from instantly killing you with her hero power. Fortunately, Dorothee isn't dead weight, as she empowers the minions to her left with Charge and the ones to her right with Taunt. On Heroic mode, the Crone starts with more health, armor, and will begin casting Twisting Nether every turn from turn 8 onwards to wipe out Dorothee, your minions, your health, and your little dog too.- Achilles' Heel: Because you start the game with a 0/10 Dorothee, Priest's Inner Firenote easily turns Dorothee from a useful escortee into a lethal damsel against The Crone herself.
- Escort Mission: In a similar vein with the fight against Emperor Thaurissan, there is Dorothee on your side of the board whom you need to protect at all cost. Failing to do that will result in The Crone ending you with her hero power. At least unlike Moira, Dorothee helps you in the fight by giving your minions to her left Charge and your minions to her right Taunt.
- Evil Laugh: This is how The Crone greets you.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Crone upstages Emperor Thaurissan by having a hero power that deals 100 damage once she kills Dorothee.
- Time-Limit Boss: In Heroic mode, The Crone ALWAYS draws Twisting Nether by turn eight, guaranteeing she can kill Dorothee and kill you by then. If you manage to keep Dorothee alive (either by countering the spell with counterspell or by using the shaman spell Ancestral Spirit), or you keep her from using her hero power via the minion saboteur (which increases the cost of your hero enemies hero power by 7), she will keep drawing a new twisting nether each turn, to the point that her deck actually begins to increase in size, giving her more Twisting Nethers until she wins.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Can play a 3-mana 4/2 Flying Monkey with Charge (5/2 on Heroic).
The Menagerie
The Curator
The enormous, mild-mannered arcane golem tasked with the upkeep of Karazahn's menagerie. With Medivh missing, his programming has gone haywire, and as a result he begins releasing the menagerie's creatures. He serves as the first boss of the wing and must be defeated and repaired, before requesting your help recapturing Nightbane and Terestian Illhoof. His passive Hero Power grants him Taunt, and he abuses this by protecting many otherwise high-priority minions.As a card, The Curator is a 7 mana 4/6 Taunt that draws a Beast, Murloc, and Dragon from your deck. He returned in Return to Naxrammas as the Paladin card The Purator, which retains the same stat line (though costing 5 mana), but draws a minion of each minion type as a Battlecry if your deck has no Neutral cards.
- A Day in the Limelight: Got promoted to a playable hero for the Mage class during the Boss Battle Royale tavern brawl.
- Berserk Button: Does not like it if you bring Harrison Jones or Reno Jackson along, and will actually deal a free 3 damage to them if they get played against him. He will also take objection throughout the wing at the presence of any of the four Old Gods.
- Defeat Equals Friendship: Is the first boss of the menagerie, then helps you clear the rest of the menagerie out, before finally being the wing's Legendary reward.
- Loophole Abuse: Rush minions make his fight a lot more straightforward, as the "can't attack heroes" clause of the Rush keyword overrides the Curator's Taunt and lets that minion trade normally on the turn it's summoned.
- Percussive Maintenance: Smacking him brings him back to his senses, whereupon he then helps the adventurers corral the escaped beasts back to the Menagerie.
- Punny Name: The Purator is The Curator who's effect supports Pure decks.
- Rush Boss: You are unable to control the board by attacking his minions (but you can clear them with spells). Burst him down before he overruns you.
- Skewed Priorities: Cares much more about the menagerie than rescuing Medivh. Justfied in that that's what he is programmed to do, and stopping Terestian Illhoof may be slightly more important in the short-term.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Has five exclusive Spells that each summon a random minion of a certain tribe: Murlocs Escaping! summons a Murloc for 1 mana, Stampeding Beast! summons a Beast for 3 mana, Haywire Mech! summons a Mech for 3 mana, Demons Loose! summons a Demon for 4 mana, and Dragons Free! summons a Dragon for 6 mana. On Heroic, Haywire Mech! is unchanged, Murlocs Escaping! summons two Murlocs, and the others cost 1 mana less.
Nightbane
Both heroes start with 10 mana in the Nightbane encounter on both normal and heroic. In the latter, he starts with 15 armor and a more powerful deck.- Phlebotinum-Induced Stupidity: He was once an ordinary blue dragon named Arcanagos, but exposure to uncontrolled magic drove him into his current feral state. The Curator even chides the player for using Unstable Portal, since Nightbane is scared of it.
- Rush Boss: Both you and Nightbane start at 10 mana, allowing heavy hitters from both sides to come into play right off the bat. This generally results in a fairly short fight.
- Spared by the Adaptation: In World of Warcraft proper, Arcanagos only became Nightbane after being incinerated from the inside out by Medivh and his bones raised as a Dracolich for adventurers to fight. Because this adventure is a Lighter and Softer take on Karazhan and the younger Medivh in this game isn't one for burning enemies alive, Nightbane is instead still living, but driven into a feral state by unstable magic and made into part of Medivh's menagerie.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Has Looming Presence on Heroic.
Terestian Illhoof
Terestian can only be damaged by Icky Imps; 1/1 minions (2/2 on Heroic) that resummon themselves on death but deal damage to Terestian in doing so.- Achilles' Heel:
- Given that his Icky Imps are 1/1 minions that immediately resummon themselves when they die, the Warlock's Defile spellnote makes the fight comically easy. On Heroic mode, you'll either need to deal 1 damage to one of the Imps to start the chain with Defile, or endure until you can play Lord Godfreynote ; either way, have fun laughing til you burst.
- As of Rastakhan's Rumble, Druids can get in on the fun with Gonk, the Raptor. This card gives your hero an extra attack every time your hero attacks and kills a minion, allowing you to attack the Imps over and over until Illhoof drops dead.
- Adding onto this, ever since Wailing Caverns came out, Shaman can do a very similar trick with Perpetual Flame (a 1 mana spell that deals 3 damage to a random enemy minion and Overloads 1, recasting itself if it kills the minion it damages).
- Nigh-Invulnerable: He can only be damaged via his Icky Imps, whose Deathrattle deals 2 damage to Terestian Illhoof but also revives them immediately like Dreadsteed.
- Rush Boss: The Icky Imps' ability to respawn instantly is a double-edged sword for the player. On one hand, it makes Illhoof easier to damage as the fight goes on; on the other hand, it's an endlessly respawning bunch of 1/1 (or 2/2 on Heroic) minions that can quickly wear the player down.
- Summoning Ritual: Is trying to complete one when the player fights him, apparently to summon Sargeras.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: Considering that Icky Imps are the only way to hurt Illhoof, he runs way more of them in his deck than he probably should.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: His Icky Imps of course, but also the spell Summon Kil'rek, summoning a 2/6(4/8 on Heroic) Kil'rek with Taunt, Shadow Volley, which does 3 damage to all non-demons, Steal Life, which does 5 damage and heals him for 5 health, and Many Imps!, which summons 2 Icky Imps.
- Why Won't You Die?: Like Dreadsteed, his 1/1 Icky Imps will immediately resummon themselves whenever they get killed.
The Spire
Shade of Aran
Shade of Aran has Ley Lines as his hero power, passively giving both heroes +3 Spell Damage (+5 on heroic).- Berserk Button: Seems angry at just about everyone but Medivh, but Annoy-o-Tron especially bothers him.
- Grumpy Old Man: A ghostly one, no less. He even complains if you use Crackle that it always did six damage back in his day.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Given that most of his deck is based on fending off minions, one of the easier ways to beat him is to simply load your deck with damaging spells and then burn his face off with the free spell damage from his hero power.
- Squishy Wizard: His deck is very heavy on spells to take advantage of his hero power, but has virtually no minions.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Flame Wreath, a Secret that deals 5 (10 on Heroic) damage to all enemies except the attacking enemy.
Netherspite
Netherspite's auto-cast hero power grants him +3 attack for 2 mana (+8 for 1 mana on heroic). In addition, he's inside two portals; the blue one reduces all damage he takes to 1, while the red grants Windfury. Thankfully, you can block the portals off by placing minions in the way, instead granting the blocking minion the power.- A.I. Breaker: If you put a Taunt minion with 1 or more attack in the blue portal, Netherspite will not attack it unless it's at 1 health. That won't stop him from trying to remove it with spells, though.
- Easter Egg: The Raid Leader minion has unique lines for this fight, making this the only time that a minion was given entirely different responses for an encounter."Stand in the beam! No, the other beam!"
- Hoist by His Own Petard: The portals on your side of the board grant Netherspite Windfury and reduces the damage he takes to one, but if a minion blocks one of the portals, they get the benefit instead.
- One-Man Army: Nightbane's deck has no minions; instead, he opts to attack you himself using his hero power. His cards are all spells that either remove your minions or help him kill you faster.
- Someone Else's Problem: He is far more interested in researching portals than being the slightest bit concerned that Medivh has gone missing, In fact, given that he tells the adventurers to just go back to the party and leave him alone, it is as if he is not even aware that Medivh has disappeared.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: He's basically Patchwerk from Naxxramas except with actual cards to use, given that both follow the formula of "remove whatever is in the way and personally smack the opponent in the face".
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Nether Breath, which reduces all of your minions' health to one, and Terrifying Roar, which sends one of your minions back to your hand.
Nazra Wildaxe
Nazra is the prelude to the Malchezaar fight. She has 15 health, and her hero power summons a 3/2 orc (3/3 orc with Charge on heroic). She and Malchezaar are part of the same encounter and both need to be defeated on the same run.- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: She has nothing to do with the adventure, she just pops out of a portal to fight you.
- Mini-Boss: She's basically here as a prelude to the fight with Prince Malchezaar.
- Noodle Incident: Apparently has... history with Grom Hellscream.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: She has Power of The Horde, which is normally only usable if you play Elite Tauren Chieftain. She also has Looming Presence on Heroic.
Knights of the Frozen Throne
General
- Easter Egg: Each boss has a unique response to you playing a Death Knight hero card or a Lich King minion. Including when you play the Lich King against the Lich King.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Several bosses use Skeletal Knight, a 1 mana 2/3 whose Deathrattle gives the opponent a card from the Knights of the Frozen Throne set.
Prologue
Arthas Menethil, the Lich King
I am the beginning and the end - I AM THE NEW META.
- "Warriors of the frozen wastes, rise!"
The prologue opens with a hopeless fight against The Lich King, with Tirion coming to the rescue. However, Tirion arrives too late, and The Lich King resurrects you as a Death Knight. The actual prologue fight is instead against Tirion.
When confronted at the top of Icecrown, the Lich King less blatantly overpowered, though he still does begin with 30 armor and health, and opens with a unique spell based on the player's class to give them a hard timenote :
- Druids get Purge the Weak, which destroys all of their minions (wherever they are) that cost 3 or less.
- Hunters get The Hunted, which deals 2 damage for each minion in their deck.
- Mages deal with The True Lich, which sets their current health to 1.
- Paladins have to deal with Fallen Champions, which means that each time one of the player's minions dies, the Lich King summons a copy of it.
- Priests are hit by Shut Up, Priest which makes them unable to emote.
- Rogues receive The Price of Power, which destroys every spell in their hand or deck.
- Shamans get Necrotic Plague, which sets the stats of every minion in their hand and deck to 1/1.
- Warlocks are hit by Soul Reaper, which deals 2 damage for each duplicate in their deck.
- Warriors have to contend with The True King, which gives the Lich King an extra 100 Armor.
His initial Hero Power summons a 2/2 Ghoul. Once he hits 7 mana, he equips Frostmourne, swapping his board for six 2/6 Trapped Souls. His Hero Power for this phase becomes Soul Harvest, making him and Frostmourne immune while he controls a Trapped Soul. Once the Trapped Souls are destroyed, his final Hero Power is Remorseless Winter, which is free and deals 1 damage to the player, while increasing in strength each time he uses it.
For information on the Lich King's card from Knights of the Frozen Throne, as well as additonal tropes regarding him, see Heroes.
- Big Bad: Of Knights of the Frozen Throne.
- Breather Level: Invoked Trope. While his opening spell can outright destroy certain decks and force the player to build a deck specifically to work around it, challenging him with the Priest has him open with a joke spell that simply muffles emotes and has little gameplay impact. This, at least, allows players with a limited collection to beat him for the pack reward.
- The Comically Serious: His entire personality, basically. He has a perpetual air of menace to him and a very deep voice, and all things considered he'd be a pretty scary villain if he wasn't constantly talking about how great he is at Hearthstone. Word of God is that the original draft for him was a much more straightforward, Laughably Evil villain, but they felt it wasn't in the spirit of the character, so they took to this trope to strike a balance between serious and silly.
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: The most obvious cheater in the game. After the mulligan, he will blatantly swap one of the cards in his hand for his cheat card, and is deliberately programmed to always draw Frostmourne as soon as he hits 7 mana. Even if his hand is full, in which case it replaces a card in his hand.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: The Lich King is the only major villain to be completely identical to his canon counterpart, albeit with some Medium Awareness thrown into the mix.
- The Corrupter: Responsible for the characters' Death Knight selves. Beating him will cause the chosen class to revert to their Death Knight form, declaring "There must always be a Lich King!"
- Cuteness Proximity: Even he can't resist Snowflipper Penguin's cuteness.I... I love him...
- Developer's Foresight: His "cheat card" against Priest will muffle the player's emotes. If you steal it with Mind Vision and use it against him, he'll also be forced to mumble for the rest of the game.
- Mages can use Kabal Lackey with Counterspell to negate his cheat card or steal it and use it on him with Mana Bind; Druid can also do the latter with Innervate into Lorewalker Cho. In both cases, the Lich King will complain about the QA and testers.
- Easter Egg: The Lich King has special responses to a lot of different cards. Notably, this includes Archmage Antonidas and Illidan Stormrage, in a Call-Back to the events of Warcraft III (unfortunately, he does not have a line for Mal'Ganis).
- Kel'Thuzad has a special entry line if summoned against the Lich King.
Kel'Thuzad: Glory to the Lich King!
The Lich King: Kel'Thuzad! You're in the wrong adventure!- If you go back and challenge him with Prince Arthas after beating him with all classes, you get a unique intro line.
- Fourth-Wall Observer: He's completely aware of the fact that he's a video game character and talks to the player as if he's a player himself.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: His first boss fight during the prologue is COMPLETELY one sided. Your cards all cost more than 3, and Arthas begins his turn summoning 7 3/3 minions on his side. Oh and if that wasn't bad enough, the game gives you a glimmer of hope with Tirion trying to come to your rescue, but arriving one turn late.
- HP to One: When challenging him as the Mage, he opens with The True Lich, putting you to 1 health from the get-go.
- Jerkass: Hilariously so. For example, when fighting him as a Priest, instead of imposing any gameplay limitations, he simply forces you to shut up and muffles your emotes.
- Loophole Abuse: Defied on two fronts.
- Paladins may catch onto the fact that his cheat card allows you to easily turn him into Ragnaros by letting him kill Majordomo Executus, at which point you can kill the Executus on his board at your leisure. However, the Lich King is smart enough to Obliterate his own Majordomo and then kill you with Ragnaros's hero power, so that might not be the best idea.
- Attempting to make him overdraw Frostmourne on turn 7 doesn't work; the card doesn't start in his deck and is instead added to the top of his deck at the start of his turn. If his hand is full when this happens, it instead replaces the right-most card in his hand (and due to a programming oversight, you'll have to do this phase again since the trigger doesn't deactivate itself if it transforms a card in his hand).
- One-Hit Kill: Hunters see him open the battle with The Hunted, that deals 2 damage for each minion in their deck. The typical aggressive Hunter deck would have only about 6 non-minion cards in their deck, which results in them easily taking over 40 damage from the get-go if they don't expect it. Warlocks instead see him use Soul Reaper, which deals 2 damage for each duplicate card in their deck, instantly killing an unaware player.
- Marathon Boss: Warriors will see him begin the fight with The True King, which grants him 100 additional armor, making him the tankiest boss to date.
- Medium Awareness: Pretty much every other line he speaks is talking about how powerful his decks are, and the other half are insulting how bad the player's deck is. He treats his minions like how the player treats their cards, talking about crafting and disenchanting them.
- Puzzle Boss: You'll have to build decks specifically to get around his cheat cards, and even then, it's far from an easy fight.
- Rush Boss: Once he reaches his final phase, it becomes a race to defeat him before his Hero Power overwhelms the player. Some strategies to beat him exaggerate this trope in attempting to defeat him before he enters his Frostmourne phase.
- Sequential Boss: The fight starts fairly normally (aside from him dropping a single overpowered spell from the get-go) with the Lich King sporting a power that lets him summon 2/2 Ghouls. Once he hits turn 7, though, he equips Frostmourne and summons several minions, and his hero power changes to make him immune to damage until they're all killed. He then enters his third and final phase, where his hero power will change again to deal damage for free... and the damage increases every time he uses it.
- Serious Business: He treats Hearthstone as seriously as his canon self treats world domination.
- SNK Boss: He stands out even among other bosses in the game by blatantly cheating with his opening spells. So as if his 30 armor on top of 30 health wasn't enough, you'll have to try and beat him with only 1 health. Or with all your minions neutered to 1/1. Or with no spells at all.
- Sore Loser: Upon beating him with your first hero, he'll exclaim. "Impossible! This Cannot Be!... What do you say.. Best of nine?"
- This Cannot Be!: He begins shouting "IMPOSSIBLE!" as you bring him down.
- This Loser Is You: He's a Jerkass power-gamer that never stops making puns based on the game's mechanics.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: His overpowered opening spells, of course. He also has Val'kyr Shadowguard, a 3 mana 0/5 that kills itself and a random enemy minion at the start of its controller's turn, Looming Presence, and his signature Frostmourne, a 5-damage weapon that can only be destroyed by taking out the six 2/6 Trapped Souls that spawn when he equips it. Finally, he has Anti-Magic Shell and Obliterate in his deck; these cards are only accessible to players via the Lich King's (or Arfus's) card effect.
- In the prologue battle, he uses Blood Tap, a 1 mana spell that makes the next spell cost 0 mana, and a unique version of Army of the Dead, a 10 mana spell (reduced to 0 by the aforementioned Blood Tap) that summons seven 3/3 Ghouls with Taunt.
- Villain Forgot to Level Grind: Because Demon Hunter and Death Knight were added after the adventure itself, the Lich King does not have cheat cards against them, but will still shuffle a card back into his deck to make room for one, effectively making him start with one less card. As a result, Demon Hunter simply cannot be picked for the fight (although Maestra of the Masquerade can make a Rogue start as a Demon Hunter and thus dodge the cheat card); no such provisions were made for Death Knight, though, giving players a second easy class to beat him with in addition to Priest.
The Lower Citadel
Lord Marrowgar
None may enter the master's sanctum.
A hideous bone amalgamation reportedly made from the remnants of The Lich King's duplicate cards. Marrowgar's hero power allows him to fully heal himself for no mana. In addition, he summons Bone Spikes, 0/8 minions that deal 15 damage to the player at the start of Marrowgar's turn.Lord Marrowgar is also a Legendary 8-mana 9/7 Death Knight minion that requires 3 Unholy Runes. His Battlecry consumes all of the player's Corpses, raising a 1/1 Risen Golem with Rush for each one until the board is full, then using the remaining Corpses to give random Risen Golems +2/+2 per Corpse.
- Calling Your Attacks: "BONESTORM!" As he uses this more often he even changes his tone.
- Healing Factor: His free Hero Power completely heals him, forcing the player to burst him down or suppress this healing.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: One of the ways to defeat Marrowgar is to take control of two Bone Spikes, instantly killing him.
- Another way, albeit more luck based, is for Marrowgar to be given Auchenai Soulpriest through a random effect. As Marrowgar will ALWAYS use his hero power once a turn, having a Soulpriest on board guarantees that he'll kill himself, a fate he's all too aware of.
"Hah hah, now I have your soulpriest. Wait. NO! Go away! Shoo!" - I Regret Nothing: If the player manages to summon The Ancient One, which can kill him in one hit, Marrowgar quotes the trope name verbatim.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment:
- He uses Deathcharger from the Naxxramas adventure.
- His signature attack Bonestorm, a 2-mana spell that deals 1 damage to all enemies and lets him draw a card.
- Bone Spike, a 4-mana 0/8 minion that deals 15 damage to the opposing hero at the start of the turn.
- His unique weapon, Bryn'Troll the Bone Arbiter, a 6-mana 3/6 weapon with Windfury.
Deathbringer Saurfang
Come and face the might of the Scourge!
Saurfang is The Lich King's favourite Legendary, according to him. He only has 20 health, but his hero power protects him from all damage except damage from weapons.Deathbringer Saurfang is also a Legendary 5-mana 3/6 Death Knight minion with Taunt that requires 2 Blood Runes. When killed, his Deathrattle returns him to the player's hand, and makes him cost health instead of mana to play again.
- I Die Free: He thanks the player for killing him.
- Kung Fu-Proof Mook: You'll have to put a few weapons in your deck to beat this guy - he's not gonna go down otherwise. (Or you could use Uther of the Ebon Blade to insta-kill him.)
- No-Sell: Takes no damage from anything that isn't a weapon. Note that this includes fatigue damage.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Blood Beast, a 3-mana 2/4 that restores 3 health to its controller at the start of their turn.
Lady Deathwhisper
What is this disturbance? My work here is not complete.
Deathwhisper's hero power damages your minions until they have 1 health. She begins with 90 armour over her 30 health, but you begin with Valithria Dreamwalker on your board, a 30/5 dragon that cannot attack or be attacked while she's injured.Lady Deathwhisper was released in the Path of Arthas mini-set as a Legendary 4-mana 4/3 Death Knight Undead minion that requires 3 Frost Runes. Her Deathrattle gives you a copy of each Frost spell in your hand.
- Achilles' Heel: Baku the Mooneater makes the fight almost trivial by letting a Priest effortlessly heal Valithria to full. Throw in a Flash Heal or Binding Heal on your first turn, and Deathwhisper dies on turn 4.
- Composite Character: In World of Warcraft, Valithria was a separate boss encounter where the goal was to heal her to full HP. Here, the two fights are combined into one.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Has a whopping 90 armor and 30 health. Fortunately, you are accompanied by Valithria Dreamwalker, who has a whopping 30 attack but needs to be kept at full health to attack, which is still not a problem considering that a Priest can easily silence Valithria on first round and immediately start attacking Lady Deathwhisper. Or maybe that's not such a good idea...
- HP to One: Her free Hero Power performs this on the player's minions.
- Loophole Abuse: Subverted. You may think you're being clever by silencing Valithria to remove the text preventing her from attacking unless she's on full HP. However, Valithria's text also protects her from being attacked, and silencing her removes that protection. If you silence Valithria, she'll be able to attack once, but she subsequently becomes exposed to attacks and Deathwhisper will immediately kill her. If you didn't do it just to deliver the final blow, you've just screwed yourself.
- Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: For a death cultist, Lady Deathwhisper doesn't directly do a lot of killing, though her Hero Power makes it ridiculously easy for her minions to do so. The Lich King is exasperated that she lacks Arcane Explosion to finish off the player's minions.note
The Upper Reaches
Blood Queen Lana'thel
You have made an... unwise... decision.
Lana'thel starts the battle with two 0/10 Sleeping Acolytes. Her Hero Power is much like that of Death Knight Gul'dan, dealing 3 damage for 2 mana with lifesteal. At the start of the game, she bites your hero, transforming you into a vampire. As a vampire, your Hero Power gives any minion +2/+2 but can only be used on each minion once. You must use your hero power every turn.As a playable card, Lana'thel is a 5 mana 1/6 Warlock Legendary with Lifesteal who gains an extra attack for each card the player has discarded through the course of the current game.
- Developer's Foresight: If you play Coldarra Drake (which allows you to play your Hero Power an unlimited number of times each turn), your Hero Power can't become rested. Thankfully, the game still lets you end your turn as long as you've bitten every minion on the board. Similarly, setting the hero power's cost to 1 with Raza the Chained or Maiden of the Lake and then spending all your mana allows you to end your turn without using it.
- If you manage to steal Lana'thel's vampire spell with Mind Vision and try to remove her hero power with it, she'll No-Sell it, laughing and saying she was turned long ago.
- Horror Hunger: She bestows this on the player with Bite of the Blood Queen, turning their Hero Power into a free buff to any minion, but each minion can only receive this buff once. This is compulsory, so they are forced to use it on her minions if no other options are available.
- Loophole Abuse: Subverted. Players can catch on to the fact that if they spam cheap minions, they will always have something to bite and won't need to bite the acolytes. However, her deck contains Blood Essence, a spell that transforms minions in hand into random spells, quickly depleting their options. May be Double Subverted if the player gets spells that put minions on the board.
- At the start of the fight, Lana'thel uses a spell to change your hero power. If you try to get around it by changing to a different hero power (e.g. by playing a hero card or Sir Finley), she automatically gets another copy to change your hero power back.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Blood Essence, a 1-mana spell that turns 2 random minions in the opponent's hand into random spells. She also has Looming Presence and starts with two 0/10 Sleeping Acolytes on the board as targets for the player to bite.
- Vampiric Draining: Her Hero Power is very similar to that of Death Knight Gul'dan.
- Zerg Rush: Like an aggressive Warlock deck, she plays a lot of cheap minions, almost always ensuring there's something for the player to bite.
Professor Putricide
Good news, everyone! I've fixed the poison slime pipes!
Professor Putricide's fight proceeds in stages. He begins with 15 additional armor and a passive Hero Power making all Secrets free. Once that first layer is depleted, he gets another 15 armor, summons Festergut, and shifts to a second Hero Power making all weapons cost 1 mana. Once this last layer of armor is depleted, he summons Rotface and shifts to his final form, with a Hero Power that makes all cards cost 5.Professor Putricide also appears as two Legendary minions. His initial card, from Knights of the Frozen Throne, is a 4 mana 5/4 Hunter Undead that sets a random Hunter Secret in play whenever the player plays a Secret. His second incarnation from March of the Lich King is Potionmaster Putricide, a 2-mana 1/4 Rogue Undead that adds a random Concoction to your hand when a minion dies. The Concoctions are a set of 3-mana spells with various effectsnote and when you have two Concoctions in your hand, they mix together into a single 3-mana Mixed Concoction with their combined effects.
- Achilles' Heel: You really want Eater of Secrets or Chief Inspector for his first phase to get rid of his Secrets, while Oozes help remove his Tentacles during the second phase.Putricide: (when Eater of Secrets is played) No! My secrets! My life's work!
- Combat Tentacles: His main attack, which manifests as a 6 mana 3/6 weapon that usually is played in his second phase, where it costs 1. He also expresses interest when the player uses other tentacle-related cards like Tentacles for Arms.
- Et Tu, Brute?: When you play Rotface against him:Professor Putricide: Rotface! How could you?
Rotface: Rotface have NEEDS. - For Science!: When his Armor is broken twice, he changes to his final Hero Power, this time making all cards cost 5. Why? "Because science!"
- Mad Scientist: His three Hero Powers are named "Mad Science", "Madder Science", and "Maddest Science". He even uses the Mad Scientist minion in his deck.
- One-Winged Angel: Professor Putricide's three hero portraits depict him downing his own concoctions and taking on a more grotesque form when he gets serious.
- Sequential Boss: His health doesn't regenerate and his deck doesn't change, but the fight proceeds in a much different direction each time his armor is depleted.
- Shout-Out: To Professor Farnsworth of Futurama, down to the "Good news, everyone!"
- Trap Master: Just like his card, he specializes in setting down Secrets. Both players get free Secrets during the first third of the fight.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment:
- Growing Ooze, a 1-mana 1/1 that gets +1/+1 at the start of his turn.
- Festergut, a 4-mana 3/5 summoned in his second phase that deals 3 damage to all enemy minions at the end of the turn.
- Tentacles, a 6-mana 3/6 weapon.
Sindragosa
You are a FOOL to come to this place!
Sindragosa's battle starts with 4 blocks of ice on the player's side of the battlefield. They serve to clog the field, and there is no way to remove them. Once she reaches 20 and 10 health, her Hero Power triggers, freezing over the player's minions, leaving them without any space on the battlefield if they are not careful. Once she reaches 10 or lower health, her Hero Power changes to Ice Claw, doing 2 damage to any target.As a playable card, Sindragosa is a 8 mana 8/8 Mage Legendary that summons 2 Frozen Champions - 0/1 tokens that add a random Legendary minion to the player's hand when they die. She returned in March of the Lich King as Frost Queen Sindragosa, a 7-mana 6/6 Death Knight Legendary with 1 Frost Rune requirement and Colossal +2, and whenever an enemy minion is Frozen, she immediately destroys it. She enters play with two 2/1 Wings with Rush that Freeze anything they damage.
- An Ice Person: Freezing over the player's minions is her specialty.
- Boss Arena Urgency: You start the battle with 4 less minion zones, and your board will become even more limited if she freezes over your minions. Play too carelessly, and you might end up with no room for minions at all.
- Loophole Abuse: Subverted. One would think a spell-heavy deck would be best to use against her, circumventing the board space restriction. That is the most unwise thing to do, as Sindragosa carries Unchained Magic, a 1-mana spell which deals 3 damage to the player for each spell in their hand. But would you have expected your pathetic magic not to betray you?
- Puzzle Boss: An entirely spell-based deck is right out since Unchained Magic will straight-up kill you, which means you'll have to use minions carefully to avoid Sindragosa clogging up your board even further. Alternatively, you can try and buff a minion's attack up to 21 or more and kill her in one hit.
- Turns Red: When she's on the final third of her health total, she gets a Hero Power that lets her proactively damage the player and their minions.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Her signature spell Unchained Magic, described above. She also borrows Chromatic Dragonkin from Chromaggus to carry on the "your pathetic magic will betray you" theme.
Galakrond's Awakening
- Branch-and-Bottleneck Plot Structure: The adventure lets you pick between E.V.I.L. and Explorers paths. It doesn't really matter since you'll need to do both to get the full story and all the cards anyway, but it is a fun bit of dressing.
- Dueling Player Characters: Given that all of the major figures in both the League of Explorers and the League of E.V.I.L have been playable at some point, you're gonna be seeing a lot of player character duels.
- Multiple Endings: The story is mostly linear, but the final chapter splits into two versions of the scenario - one where The Bad Guy Wins and the other where the Explorers win. Given that Rafaam's ending involves Stormwind and Orgrimmar being crushed to rubble, it's probably a case of No Canon for the Wicked.
- Story Difficulty Setting: Normal mode has the player take control of a story character and receive a pre-built (and sometimes very OP) deck as well as a custom hero power. Heroic mode has the player instead build their own deck as usual, but skips all the story dialogue.
Battle of the Frozen Coast
E.V.I.L. Side
Sir Finley Mrrgglton
The first line of defense on the Explorer's side, faced with Lazul's lackey Kriziki. Sir Finley plays a midrange murloc deck, utilizing the Shaman quest Unite the Murlocs on Heroic mode. His hero power, Lead the Charge, gives a friendly minion Rush and Divine Shield. On heroic, it only costs 1.- Unusable Enemy Equipment:
- Relaxing Murloc, a 1 mana 0/1 that gains +1/+1 every turn.
- Bubblehearth, a joke/story Secret he plays that saves him from lethal damage and teleports him away when the battle ends.
- Zerg Rush: Sir Finley is fairly good at spamming the board with Murlocs and Silver Hand Recruits. Though in Normal mode, you get to play as Kriziki, who has several ways of dealing with them.
Chenvaala
An ice elemental holding a powerful creature in ice. Lazul must defeat her to free this ally. Her hero power, Snowstorm, summons a 4/4 elemental that enters play Frozen. On normal it costs 3, while on Heroic it costs 1.As a collectible card, Chenvaala is a 3 mana 2/5 Mage Legendary from Descent of Dragons that summons a 5/5 Elemental after you cast 3 spells in one turn.
- An Ice Person: Naturally. Her deck is filled with cards that Freeze or interact with Frozen targets.
- Mighty Glacier: Puns aside, Chenvaala's hero power is this. The elementals are slow since they take an extra turn to attack, but are very powerful for their cost.
The Amazing Reno
A very overconfident explorer that finds himself surrounded and confronted by Dr. Boom. Reno's passive hero power, Gatling Magic, activates whenever he casts a spell, casting another random spell of the same cost.- Distressed Dude: He ends up captured by Dr. Boom and taken hostage in Dalaran.
- Leeroy Jenkins: Reno runs ahead of the other explorers, ready to take on the whole League of EVIL with his gatling wand.
- Oh, Crap!: When he realises he's not going to beat Dr. Boom.Reno: OKAY OKAY OKAY! It's NOT fine! This guy's tough!
- Random Number God: His hero power is exceptionally random, with a propensity to blow up his own board. It is lessened by the fact that he plays mostly small spells, but if he grabs a bigger spell from a generator he can suddenly be quite nasty.
Explorers Side
Dr. Boom
The first line of E.V.I.L.'s defense, with Brann being charged to take him down. His hero power is SUMMON THE BOTS!, which adds a random Boomlabs Mech to his hand.- Buffy Speak: He and Brann do this to each other at the start of the game.Brann: It's over, Boom! Puts yer hands up and drop the... giant head!
Dr. Boom: Bah! On my moment of triumph? Arm the... grapplie... thingies! - Faceship: This version of Boom is piloting a shredder modeled after his own mug.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: His Boomlabs mechs.
- Piloted Whirl-o-Tron, a 5 mana 5/3 that summons a random 3 drop, bridging the gap between Shredder and Sky Golem.
- Recyclebot, a 3 mana 4/3 that destroys a Mech in exchange for 3 Spare Parts.
- F.U.S.E., a 4 mana 7/7 that deals 5 damage to Dr. Boom on death.
- Lighterbot, a 2 mana 2/2 whose Battlecry deals 2 damage to all minions.
Avalanchan
A mighty elemental the League of E.V.I.L. unleashed, and Archmage Khadgar must step up to stop him. His hero power, Sculpted Ice, creates a Silenced copy of a minion.Its card equivalent is Avalanche Elemental, a 7 mana 7/6 Mage minion that summons a copy of itself if you played an Elemental on the previous turn.
- Achilles' Heel: Unlike in the Loatheb fight from Naxx, Avalanchan is not immune to Alexstrasza. This ends up being the best way to kill him, since otherwise his deck is absolutely crammed full of Molten Giants that very quickly become 0 mana.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The normal mode encounter gives the player control of Khadgar, with both his OP hero power as the final boss of Rise of Shadows and a deck based on Medivh's from the Karazhan prologue. Needless to say, the fight is an absolute one-sided joke.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Avalanchan has an astounding 150 health, meaning it can be difficult to wear him down the old-fashioned way. Subverted in normal mode, since 150 health means very little against Khadgar.
Kriziki the Winged
Kriziki has returned, empowered with wings just as Lazul promised. In order to rescue Reno, Elise must beat his whereabouts out of her. Kriziki's hero power is Wings of Rebirth, which gives a minion Reborn and 'Can't be targeted by spells or hero powers'. It costs 2 mana on normal mode and 1 on Heroic.- Distracted by My Own Sexy: She's constantly infatuated with her new wings. Makes sense, considering her entire motivation in the Dalaran Heist was getting them back.
- Wind from Beneath My Wings: Her exclusive card Diamond Winds, which blows all minions back into your hand but halves their cost.
Clash at Wyrmrest
E.V.I.L. Side
Dragoncaster Askaara
One of the guardians of Wyrmrest Temple. Togwaggle is sent to defeat her and claim the secret to summoning dragons. Her passive Hero Power is Dragon Affinity, which reduces the cost of her dragons by 1. After playing a dragon, it switches to Flame Affinity, which has the same effect for spells and switches back again upon playing one.Her card equivalent is Dragoncaster, a 6 mana 4/4 Mage minion that reduces the cost of the next spell played that turn to 0 if you're holding a Dragon.
- Artificial Stupidity: Askaara overvalues her hero power, and will frequently play spells before dragons or vice versa when the other order would've been better - even on turns where she ends up floating mana.
- Overly Long Gag: The initial back-and-forth dialogue between Askaara and Togwaggle lasts for six turns, just because Togwaggle's wording is so strange.
- You No Take Candle: Togwaggle speaks like this as per usual, but exaggerates it for the aforementioned gag. His interrogation involves a rambling Metaphorgotten series of questions comparing dragons to big candles. It takes Askaara several turns to figure out what he's even trying to say.
United Sr. Explorers
The four explorers from Uldum have ventured to stop the League of E.V.I.L. However, Kronx Dragonhoof has stepped in to crush them. Their hero power, Teamwork!, shuffles in two Signature Treasures from Tombs of Terror into their deck. On normal it costs 1, while on Heroic it costs 0.- All Your Powers Combined: They use all the Signature Treasures of the four playable heroes from Saviors of Uldum.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Sr. Camel, a 2/5 for 6 with the Battlecry and Deathrattle of adding a random Uldum treasure to their hand.
Nithogg
A mighty Storm Dragon. Hagatha seeks to defeat it to claim a weapon it hides for her own. Nithogg's hero power is Stormrage, which costs 3 mana (1 mana on Heroic), deals 2 damage to a random enemy minion, and summons a 0/3 Storm Egg if that kills it. If the egg survives a turn, it hatches into a 4/4 Dragon with Rush.As a collectible card, Nithogg is a 6 mana 5/5 Shaman Legendary from Descent of Dragons that summons two Storm Eggs.
- Animal Gender-Bender: His Battlecry is laying eggs, despite the fact that Nithogg is very explicitly a he.
- Ascended Extra: From a no-name quest miniboss to the Shaman dragon.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Hagatha is trying to take the Fist of Ra-den, which is unlocked by beating this boss. That would be fine, if the Fist of Ra-den wasn't already in her deck.
- Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The justification for fighting this guy is... pretty flimsy. It's implied Hagatha was trying to take the Fist of Ra-den, but that's about it. Rafaam even berates her for bothering the dragon for no reason in the introduction.
Explorers Side
Puppetmaster Lazul
Finley has to face off against the League of EVIL's mysterious fortune, but it feels like she's planning something... Lazul's hero power, Fortune, Discovers a card from her opponent's deck. She uses a C'thun deck. Upon being killed, she becomes Go'rath, an ancient creature of the Old Gods. Go'rath's hero power summons a random tentacle and is repeatable.- Combat Tentacles: Go'rath employs them through its hero power, and also begins with a board full of them in play.
- Eldritch Abomination: Go'rath is a mass of tentacles surrounding a colossal maw.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: She says this upon being killed the first time.
- Sequential Boss: First you need to power through Lazul, then the real fight begins.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment:
- From Lazul: Puppeteer, a 3 mana spell which takes control of a minion for one turn, and Old God Experiments, a 6 mana spell that copies a minion and gives it +3/+3 if C'thun has at least 10 attack.
- From Go'rath: Eye of Go'rath, a 1/4 that deals 2 damage to a random enemy at the end of the turn, and Claw of Go'rath, a 3/1 that summons another Claw of Go'rath at the end of the turn. Those are both created by its hero power.
Cultist Dawnshatter
A priestess of Galakrond. Dragonrider Talritha has been sent to stop her. Her hero power is Dragonbone Rites, which passively causes dragons she plays to go dormant when killed, awakening after 3 turns.Her card equivalent is Cleric of Scales, a 1 mana 1/1 Priest minion that Discovers and draws a spell from your deck if you're holding a dragon.
- Animate Dead: Her hero power causes her dragons to return shortly after being killed. Fortunately it only counts dragons played, so they only resurrect once.
Hagatha the Vengeful
The final showdown with Hagatha, and it's up to Alexstrasza the Lifebinder to defeat her. Hagatha's hero power, Swampqueen's Touch, transforms one of her minions into a random minion that costs 1-3 more.- Evilutionary Biologist: Like many other shaman effects, Hagatha's power amplifies a minion by bumping its mana cost.
- Foreshadowing: Alexstrasza not-so-subtly foreshadows how Reno Jackson is actually a blue dragon.
- Pelts of the Barbarian: Hagatha's winter outfit is a bearskin, replacing her usual crocolisk skin. It gives her a very barbarian-esque appearance.
- Punny Name: She has a spell called Wormhole. The minions summoned by it are called Whole Worms.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment:
- Wail of the Shudderwock, a 3 mana spell that replays all cards she played last turn.
- Wormhole, a 5 mana spell that summons a 5/5 Worm and repeats for each other spell she cast that turn.
- You Are Too Late: Hagatha's response to dying.
Air Battle Over Dragonblight
E.V.I.L. Side
Dragonrider Talritha
A dragonrider fighting for the Dragonflights against the League, seeking to interrupt Rafaam's rituals. Togwaggle's waxen monstrosity Waxadred stands against her. Talritha's hero power, Dragonblood, passively gives all minions +1/+1 when one of her Dragons dies.Her card counterpart is a 3 mana 3/3 Paladin Legendary whose Deathrattle gives a Dragon in your hand +3/+3 along with a copy of her Deathrattle.
The Wanderer
The airborne flagship of the League trades fire with Captain Eudora's airship, The Slipstream, in the skies around Dalaran. Both ships have the hero power Prepare the Cannons! which adds a random cannon to the hand for 2 mana. On Heroic, it costs 1 mana.This fight is similar to the Chess encounter from One Night in Karazhan, utilizing Auto-attack minions that fight based on board position, although mixing in normal minions as well.Cannons
- Call-Back: This fight is based heavily around minions that auto-attack at the end of the turn to deal damage and unleash various other effects, much like the Chess game in One Night at Karazhan.
- Perspective Flip: This fight appears in both the Explorers' and E.V.I.L's campaigns, with the only difference being which ship you control.
- Puzzle Boss: Winning this fight involves careful board positioning and manipulating your minions to hit maximum enemies. This is downplayed compared to Chess however, since the minions are considerably more powerful, you have regular minions in your deck, and the boss' hero power is less destructive. Foregone entirely in Heroic, which pits a regular deck against the cannons.
- Ray Gun: The aptly-named Death Ray MK II, which starts at only 1 damage but increases by 1 each turn it survives.
The Dragonflights
The united dragonflights mount one final assault on Dalaran to try and defeat Rafaam, and only Eudora and the Slipstream stand against them. Unlike other encounters, this mission requires the player to hold out for a set number of turns against the enemy. The opponent's hero power, Dragonbreath, costs 2 mana and either deals 2 damage to an enemy or restores 2 health to an ally (3 damage/healing for 1 mana on Heroic).- Call-Back: Like the minecart ride and collapsing temple in League of Explorers, the objective of this battle is to survive a certain number of turns.
- Hold the Line: Instead of defeating the enemy hero, the victory condition is to hold out for 10 turns.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Like Tekahn before her, Eudora is basically left by Rafaam to die at the claws of the Dragonflights. Unlike Tekahn, she ultimately decides to cut her losses and bail.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During the later turns of the fight, Eudora will decide that it's not worth staying and becoming dragon chow for the sake of Rafaam's master plan.
Explorers Side
Rotwing
A decaying draconic abomination assaulting the Explorers' air forces. Brann nonetheless thinks it can be tamed. Rotwing's hero power, Rot Aura, is auto-cast for 1 mana and triggers the Deathrattles of all minions.His card equivalent is Rotnest Drake, a Hunter 6/5 Dragon for 5 with the Battlecry of destroying a random enemy minion if you're holding a dragon.
- Acid Attack: Not used by Rotwing in the encounter, but it is sprayed by Rotnest Drakes and the related Hunter spell Corrosive Breath.
- Admiring the Abomination: Rotwing is an undead proto-drake dripping with acidic ichor. Brann makes it his new mount.
- Fluffy Tamer: Brann is looking to tame Rotwing for his own. Your reward for beating the fight is Rotnest Drake, implying Brann succeeded and took his whole brood.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: His hero power benefits all Deathrattles, including the player's. This means you can use his own hero power to amass quite the board and prevent Rotwing from landing any minions of his own.
Dragonslayer Skruk
A ferocious gronn released by Lazul to wreak havoc on the Dragonflights' ranks, and Chromie has taken on the duty of ending his rampage. Skruk's hero power, Gronnic Strength, is auto-cast for free (1 mana on Heroic) and gives all of his minions +1/+1, wherever they are.- Achievements in Ignorance: If YouTube comments are to be believed, some players just kept conceding and retrying until they succeeded in beating Skruk as Chromie, not knowing that the Fission Mailed trope awaited them (see below).
- Call-Back: If defeated in her first form, Chromie resets the entire fight barring the opponent's health, just like Infinite Toki did in Monster Hunt with Alternate Timeline.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: He one-ups even Avalanchan with a colossal 200 health to wear down and drops minions with ever-increasing stats. Fortunately, Chromie's Purposely Overpowered hero power lets her board scale to match his minions and deal huge chunks of damage each turn and if she gets pushed into a corner, she can break out her Dragon form to completely rip him to shreds.
- Fission Mailed: While grueling and brutal, Chromie's deck does have the tools to beat Skruk in conjunction with her hero power, but if you can't draw some good buffs in a hurry, she can quickly be overrun. At which point Chromie resets the entire fight (barring Skruk's health), returning in Dragon form with more health, a new deck, and an even more powerful hero power.
- Gathering Steam: One of the most ruthless examples of this in the game so far. His hero power buffs all his minions on his board, hand, and deck, for free, every single turn. Combined with his gargantuan health, he'll quickly be dropping minions with ludicrous stat totals as the fight goes on.
- Hulk Speak: Skruk speak only like this! Skruk want to smash DRAGON!
- Let's Get Dangerous!: While Chromie's initial hero power (summon a 0/6 that copies on itself any spells you cast on your other minions) is plenty strong and has great synergy with her deck, it's absolutely nothing compared to her second form, which straight-up lets her take two turns in a row, turning the fight into an absolute massacre. Her opening remarks in her second phase, while spoken in her usual cheerful and airy tone, make it abundantly clear that Skruk is a dead Gronn walking.
- Purposely Overpowered: Unlike the majority of bosses, Skruk's hero power and unique cards are weaker in Heroic mode than in Story mode because his story opponent, Chromie, is just that good.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment:
- Dragonslayer's Greatbow, a 5-mana 12/2 weapon (6/2 on Heroic) that renders the user Immune while attacking but (mercifully) can't attack heroes.
- Heartseeker, a 7-mana Hunter spell that deals 25 damage (15 damage on Heroic) to the enemy hero.
The Slipstream
Captain Eudora's airship stands against the Explorers' ship, the Wanderer, as they prepare to assault Dalaran. Both ships have the hero power Prepare the Cannons! which adds a random cannon to the hand for 2 mana. In Heroic mode, her hero power costs 1 mana.This fight is identical to The Wanderer. Gameplay tropes which apply to The Wanderer also apply here.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's not clear where on the timeline this encounter falls. Eudora officially quits the League of EVIL during the last fight in this EVIL chapter, but she's still the boss you fight on the Slipstream. It's possible this represents an alternate version of the events where The Wanderer wins the initial fight, or possibly that a repaired Wanderer catches Eudora as she's trying to flee. If it's the former, it's strange since the story has otherwise been linear. If it's the latter, that's kind of randomly mean.
Showdown in Dalaran
E.V.I.L. Side
George and Karl
The two paladins have finally been reunited, and they're here to take revenge on Rafaam for his lies. However, Rakanishu is there to put a stop to them (and burn Dalaran to the ground). Like their Dungeon Run encounter, George and Karl have separate hero powers and health bars, and periodically switch between them. George's hero power gives his weapon +1 Attack, while Karl's gives a minion Divine Shield.- Anachronic Order: This fight takes place after the first Explorers fight of the chapter, yet this is the one most players will do first.
- One-Winged Angel: Rakanishu's first hero power does nothing but burn a random cart off the board, freeing up board space for both players over time. Once he's out of carts (and Dalaran is burnt down in flavour), he becomes a Draconic Abomination made of fire with a hero power that Flamestrikes the enemy board for 2 mana.
- Switch-Out Move: Their special switch card. In addition to swapping bosses, the cards also have other effects this time around - granting a permanent buff to all minions when going from George to Karl, then granting their in-play minions Taunt and Divine Shield when switching vice versa.
- Take That, Scrappy!: In-universe. The first phase of the fight uses the carts from the Streets of Dalaran chapter of Dalaran Heist, which Rakanishu slowly burn down. Rakanishu, Rafaam, and even George comment on how much they hated those things.
- Tag Team: George and Karl switch with each other by playing a special card. Both bosses need to be defeated to win.
Rafaampage!
With the Dragonflights, treacherous minions, and explorers out of the way, all that stands between Rafaam and victory is Reno Jackson. Reno's mechanics are identical to his first encounter, but with a much better deck. The main challenge in story mode is completing the Ritual - Rafaam must Invoke 5 times to summon Galakrond and rule Azeroth.Once Reno is out of the way, the player will have to overrun Anduin Wrynn and Sylvanas Windrunner with Galakrond at their side.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Completing this fight has Rafaam not only resurrect Galakrond, but successfully defeat both the Horde and Alliance and conquer all of Azeroth.
- Boss Rush: You have to go through Reno Jackson, Anduin Wrynn, and Sylvanas Windrunner. Once you get Galakrond though, that's not particularly challenging.
- Luck-Based Mission: Reno can easily prove to be this even on normal; particularly if he manages to play Lei Flamepaw, his Medivh cards early and/or gets particularly good rolls on his random spells. Unlucky players have complained that they lasted only one turn against him.
- Purposefully Overpowered: Once the ritual is complete, you resurrect Galakrond. He is represented by a 5/300 minion with Mega-Windfury and a cleave effect. He will obliterate anything in his path. Anduin and Sylvanas have pretty ridiculous hero powers that summon 5 minions from their deck for free, and grant them +3 Health and Taunt or +3 Attack and Rush respectively. Both are no threat to Galakrond... unless he is silenced, hexed, polymorphed, executed, frozen and shattered, sapped or hit by a poisonous minion. However, given the decks Anduin and Sylvanas have, it is highly unlikely. Even if that happens, Galakrond would just refresh himself the next phase.
- Victory Is Boring: After flattening Stormwind, Rafaam starts having doubts about his plan. Rafaam realises that no enemies to fight and no master schemes to hatch is incredibly boring, and nothing can challenge the invincible god at his beck and call. He outright decides to dial it back before crushing Orgrimmar, but Galakrond has different plans.
Galakrond
Fed up with easy victories, Rafaam decides to do what no one else could and end Galakrond. Galakrond's hero power is Annihilation, a 2 mana ability that destroys a minion and all copies of it (wherever they are.) Unlike the heroes’ version of the Galakrond encounter, his Invocation “only“ summons an 8/8 Dragon with Taunt.- Evil Is Not a Toy: Subverted. Rafaam unleashes an apocalyptically powerful Sealed Evil in a Can who turns on him... only for Rafaam to prove that he's more than a match for Galakrond.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: Rafaam vs. Galakrond - Pragmatic Villain Protagonist against Omnicidal Maniac.
- Purposefully Overpowered: As in the Hero fight, you get a special means of defeating Galakrond’s 150 HP. Instead of Reno involuntarily showing his true heritage as a Blue Dragon as a result of the pure magic in the area, however, Rafaam pulls out the stock of treasures he’s been stealing for the past year — and he can cast some VERY strong ones of his choice by sacrificing his allies.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: Delivered by Rafaam in the midst of Galakrond's Badass Boast.Galakrond: I am the beginning. I am the ur-dragon. You are nothing.
Rafaam: I am RAFAAM!- Especially satisfying if it triggers either on the turn your board starts to stabilize or the turn you win.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Galakrond effectively says this to Rafaam, since there's nothing Rafaam can offer to his destructive rampage. The feeling is mutual, since Rafaam doesn't want this victory anymore.
- Rafaam’s hero power in this fight also resembles this trope: he can sacrifice an ally to Discover and cast one of various Dalaran Heist and Tombs of Terror Treasures for 1 mana. His deck includes the minion versions of his Rise of Shadows allies Togwaggle, Boom, Hagatha, and Lazul.
Explorers Side
George the Fallen
Separated in the Catacombs, Karl and George meet once again on the streets of Dalaran, this time as enemies. George has the hero power Golden Sword, which gives his weapon +1 Attack for 2 mana.- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: This fight is basically Karl trying to knock some sense into George and get his friend back.
- Something Only They Would Say: Not vocal, but otherwise this trope is used. George is eventually convinced that Karl is real because of the way he swings his weapon.
- This Cannot Be!: George, believing that Karl had died a long time ago, refuses to believe that his friend is now facing him down, thinking it's some sort of trick. Karl does eventually get through to him, though.
Waxrider Togwaggle
Elise raids the Violet Hold, held by King Togwaggle, to break Reno out. Togwaggle starts with The Amazing Reno imprisoned on his board as a permanent, but Reno breaks out in 5 turns to join the fight as a 4/12 that gains Spell Damage +1 for each spell the player casts. Togwaggle's hero power costs 2 mana and summons a 1/1 Living Candle. On death, it becomes a 1/1 Wax Lance equipped to Togwaggle, or gives an existing Wax Lance +1/+1. When a Wax Lance breaks, it resummons a number of Living Candles equal to its Attack.Rafaam, Prime Evil
Reno finally confronts Rafaam, who is on the verge of reviving Galakrond. If the ritual completes, Galakrond will be loose once more... but Reno is not without his own tricks.Rafaam starts with a unique Invoke effect that summons two Imps. Their stats start at 1/1, but each pair gets +1/+1 over the last. Once Rafaam has Invoked 5 times, Galakrond awakens and replaces him as the boss, sporting an Invoke that summons an 8/8 dragon with Taunt and unleashes a Devastation.
- Big Damn Heroes: The other League members show up as minions in Reno's deck to help him out against Rafaam and Galakrond. This will likely first be seen in the form of Sir Finley leading a horde of Murlocs against Rafaam's army of imps, and later Brann taking down up to three of Galakrond's dragon flunkies.
- Cuteness Proximity: Throughout the fight, Rafaam gushes hilariously over Galakrond as though he were an adorable puppy instead of a world-ending zombie dragon.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: The immense magic Rafaam uses to resurrect Galakrond causes Reno to shift into his true form, a powerful blue dragon capable of going toe-to-toe with Galakrond much more effectively than his human self.
- One-Winged Angel:
- Unlike in the EVIL version of the encounter, Rafaam is replaced by a 150-health Galakrond with the same overpowered hero power Rafaam had in the penultimate chapter as the enemy hero once the summoning is complete.
- When Galakrond is summoned, Reno gets a unique quest that, once completed, transforms him into his dragon form, receiving more health and a much stronger hero power - instead of casting spells at random, he now gets a permanent Spell Damage +2 and double-casts all his spells on the same target.
- This Explains So Much: Elise's response to learning that Reno is a blue dragon - a juvenile blue dragon, at that - is to quip that it explains everything about the guy's behavior.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment:
- Galakrond's Claw, a 2-mana 5/4 weapon that has Mega-Windfury but can't attack heroes.
- Galakrond uses a unique version of the Annihilation Devastation effect that only damages enemy minions; the player-usable version cast by Kronx Dragonhoof hits both sides.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One: If you manage to kill Rafaam before he summons Galakrond, he's going to ignore that by turning immune on the last hit before summoning Galakrond anyway. The same thing will also happen even if you manage to replace his Hero Power before killing him.
Trial by Felfire
General
- The Narrator: Illidan narrates the story.
- Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The first chapter is about Aranna assembling a team of these. These are the naga Shal'ja, the sporeling Sklibb, the orc Karnuk, and the broken Baduu. All except Baduu eventually become demon hunters.
- Rhymes on a Dime: The story dips in and out of rhyming, usually rhyming during plot scenes and using regular dialogue for everything else. Rhyming parts are differentiated with italicized text. Aranna, Illidan, the outcasts, and even Mecha-Jaraxxus all engage in this.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: A few. Rusted Voidwalker, Deteriorate, Rusted Basilisk, Rusted Gan'arg, Endless Legion, Rusted Fungal Giant, Rustedsworn Champion, and a few old classics like Looming Presence.
A World In Ruin
Inquisitor Dakrel
A demonic inquisitor looking to spread the word of the Rusted Legion. His hero power is Spread the Word, which destroys a Deathrattle minion and triggers its Deathrattle an additional two times.Dakrel's card equivalent is Disguised Wanderer, a 4 mana 3/3 that becomes a 9/1 Rustsworn Inquisitor on death.
Xur'goth
A darkglare whose attacking a lone naga, which Aranna arrives just in time to stop. Her 1 mana hero power is Rusted Gaze, which corrupts a random card in her opponent's hand, discarding it if it isn't played next turn.Her card equivalent is Darkglare, a 3/4 Warlock minion for 3 mana that refreshes 2 Mana Crystals whenever the Warlock takes damage.
- Flunky Boss: You need to kill four of Xur'goth's demons, after which Shalja is freed and can assist you properly.
Zixor, Apex Predator
A powerful warp stalker whose hunting a sporeling. Aranna and Shalja intervene. His 0 mana hero power, Ravenous Omnivore, grants Zixor +4 attack for 0 mana.As a collectible card, Zixor is a 2/4 Hunter Legendary with Rush. On death he shuffles Zixor Prime into your deck, which is an 8 mana 4/4 that summons three copies of itself.
- Hold the Line: With ten extra health and a zero-cost hero ability that gives him four attack every turn, he'll try to tear through your minions to kill Sklibb, and then Aranna. Sklibb's ability gives any minion to either side of him Taunt, meaning that you need to keep Sklibb alive to maintain a barrier and slowly deplete Zixor's health.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Since Sklibb is his primary concern before the Outcasts show up, Zixor will attempt to attack him as soon as possible, with a pair of 0/4 mushrooms being all that stands between the sporeling and the warp stalker by the time the player intervenes.
Baltharak
A dreadlord whose in the process of "enhancing" the orc Karnuk. His hero power is All Shall Serve, which restores 10 health to him and draws a card whenever a demon dies.- Blade Below the Shoulder: He's a dreadlord with a chainsaw for a hand.
- Puzzle Boss: Due to his hero power, killing his minions - nearly all of which are demons - isn't going to do you any favors for damaging him directly. Instead, the goal is to force him to burn through his deck as fast as possible, freeing Karnuk from within it when he's drawn, and adding the increasing damage from Fatigue to your attacks to make the hits he takes more costly than what All Shall Serve can recover.
To the Black Temple
Kanrethad Prime
Kanrethad Ebonlocke is a human warlock who came to the Black Temple, seeking to learn the secrets of the demon hunters and their ability to become demons. Now upgraded by the Rusted Legion, he stands between Aranna and the Black Temple. His 10 mana hero power, Rebuilt from Scrap, summons three friendly demons that died that game but destroys 4 Mana Crystals.As a collectible card, Kanrethad Ebonlocke is a 2 mana 3/2 Warlock Legendary that reduces the cost of your Demons by 1. Kanrethad Prime is an 8 mana 7/6 Demon that summons four friendly Demons that died this game.
- Mythology Gag: He's the lore reason Warlocks were able to use Metamorphosis until Legion (when it became a Demon Hunter core ability). It makes sense that he uses the Warlock version of Metamorphosis as his Prime.
- One-Winged Angel: Like Solarian, his Prime form has him become a demon. Unlike Solarian, he still has cybernetic parts on his body even in that form.
Burgrak Cruelchain
Burgrak's Hero Power is Grease Monkey, which gives both players a Spare Part when a mech dies. Unlike other bosses, Burgrak has a special condition you need to fulfill instead of defeating him, in this case you need to play 12 Spare Parts in order to fix and steal his Demolisher.- Puzzle Boss: Instead of defeating him, you need to scrap his mechs and play 12 Spare Parts in order to win this encounter.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: If you play Burrowing Scorpid, he screams that you should get it away from him.
Felstorm Run
After succeeding in stealing Burgrak's Demolisher, the Outcasts travel across Outland in order to get to the Black Temple. Unfortunately, a Felstorm starts up, with members of the Rusted Legion falling out of it. Fortunately, the Demolisher has quite a few ways of dealing with it, like frying them with the exhaust, repairing itself, and shooting the cannons, which deals damage to one enemy and takes control of another.- It's Raining Men: How the minions spawn.
- Hold the Line: You need to survive 10 turns in order to escape the Felstorm.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Very similar to the Mine Cart Rush from the League of Explorers adventure, with the player running from a swarm of minions using exclusive cards.
Mother Shahraz
To be a Demon Hunter
Shalja, Outcast
Karnuk, Outcast
Jek'haz
Magtheridon Prime
A pit lord who conquered Outland some time between the second and third war. He was the master of the Black Temple until Illidan and his forces disposed of him. Illidan then trapped him in Hellfire Citadel, using his blood to fuel his fel orc soldiers. He was then rebuilt by the Rusted Legion, and is now seeking to reclaim his throne. Magtheridon Prime's hero power is From My Oil Comes Rust, which passively summons a 2/2 Fel Orc whenever he takes damage on his turn. Rusted Fel Orcs give all other Fel Orcs +1 Attack after attacking.Magtheridon also appears in his non-Prime form as the third Challenge boss. His hero power is Blast Nova, which summons a Manticron Cube. If he has three Manticron Cubes, he deals 10 damage to the enemy hero. Manticron Cubes are 3/5 minions that can't attack and deal 3 damage to Magtheridon on death.
Magtheridon has also been made into two collectible cards. In Ashes of Outland, he's a 4 mana 12/12 neutral Legendary that begins Dormant, and summons three 1/3 Hellfire Warders for the opponent. Once all three Warders are killed, Magtheridon awakens and destroys all other minions. In Whizbang's Workshop, Magtheridon, Unreleased is an 8 mana 12/12 Legendary Demon Hunter Mech/Demon that begins Dormant for 2 turns. While Magtheridon, Unreleased is Dormant, he deals 3 damage to all enemies at the end of your turn.
Battle for Outland
Gok'amok
Flikk
"This should be easy, right?"
An Imp modified by the Rusted Legion that the Outcasts encounter while on the way to Mecha-Jaraxxus. His Hero Power is Unlikely Challenger, summoning a 1/1 Worthless Imp. After four turns, Flikk gets Squashed Flat by a Rusted Fel Reaver, who is your real opponent. It's Hero Power is Hulking Monstrosity, which passively gives it's minions +2 attack, with Fel Reavers getting +10 instead.- Bait-and-Switch Boss: After four turns battling Flikk and his band of Imps, Flikk gets offed by a Rusted Fel Reaver.
- One-Steve Limit: Flikk shares his name with Flik Skyshiv, a Rogue legendary from Descent of Dragons.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Flikk gets only two lines of dialogue before getting fatally Squashed Flat.
Baduu Prime
Mecha-Jaraxxus
"Demon hunters? Come take me on! Your doom awaits... OBLIVION!"
The leader of the Rusted Legion, the Eredar Lord has returned with a body rebuilt using pieces of a Fel Reaver. Enlightened by his new form, he seeks to convert everyone in Outland into members of his new legion of fel-powered cyborgs.He starts with a Fel Reactor, which gives him Spell Damage +1, and a Hatred Reactor, which gives minions he summons +1/+1, on his side of the field, both of which go Dormant for 3 turn when destroyed. His Hero Power, Of Fel and Hatred, improves both reactors ar the start of his turn.- Painful Rhyme: Rhymes "on" with "oblivion".
- Hijacked by Ganon: Indirectly; though the main villain for most of the campaign, he has the position of final boss usurped from him by Illidan.
The Final Test
Illidan Stormrage
Challenges
A series of seven boss fights. This portion is non-narrative, and players must construct their own deck. Beating it awards a Golden Kael'thas Sunstrider.The Big and the Bad
Doom Lord Kazak
A battle-hardened doomlord and high-ranking commander of the Burning Legion. Kazzak's passive hero power, Twisted Reflection, restores 5 health to himself whenever an enemy minion dies.- Field Promotion: This is the reason he gives for his Constantly Changing Name in WoW.Kazzak: Lord Kazzak was getting stale. I think "Doom Lord" adds a bit of... flair.
- Mythology Gag: If you play a Paladin, he'll remark that he knows your tricks don't work anymore. This is in response to a short-lived exploit in vanilla WoW where a Paladin could infinitely stack Reckoning (stacked on hit and caused your next auto-attack to strike an extra time) by dueling a low level player for hours then one-shot a boss. This was used on the original Lord Kazzak in the now infamous "Reckoning bomb" video.
Gruul the Dragonkiller
The lord of the Gronn, and one of the few mortal beings who could challenge Deathwing. He's known as the Dragonkiller for good reason, after all. Gruul's hero power is Shatter, which deals 3 damage randomly split among all enemies.Gruul is also a collectible card from the Classic set. He's an 8 mana 7/7 that gains +1/+1 at the start of every turn.
- Continuity Nod:
- One of his idle quotes has him wish he was there to kill the "big, BIG dragon", referencing Galakrond.
- If you play Deathwing, Gruul will challenge him to a rematch.
- Crippling Overspecialization: His special Slayer of the Mighty spell, which deals 4 damage and has Lifesteal, but deals triple damage to a Dragon. As you might imagine, all you have to do to avoid the benefit is not play a Dragon deck into Gruul. Then again, it's not that crippling considering it's still 2 mana for an 8 health swing.
- You Don't Look Like You: Parodied if you play Gruul's card version. It reuses TCG art of a purple gronn, and the real Gruul is red.Gruul: Purple Gruul… not Gruul! I am Gruul!
Supremus
Teron Gorefiend
Once an orcish warlock of the Shadow Council named Teron'gor, Teron was slain in battle and had his soul bound to a fallen human soldier, becoming the first Death Knight.As a collectible card, Teron Gorefiend is a 3 mana 3/4 neutral Legendary that destroys all your other minions. On death, he resummons them all with +1/+1.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Stealing Teron Gorefiend and killing him off is one of the most devastating things you can do, particularly with Shadow Madness. This not only has Teron kill off the entire opponent's board, but it resummons them all on your side with +1/+1.
The Slithery and the Surly
Lady Vashj
Kael'thas Sunstrider
Roguelike Bosses
Tropes that apply to the roguelike adventures, which debuted with the launch of Kobolds and Catacombs. Due to the sheer number of bosses available, they have been sorted into their respective subpages.Universal Tropes
- Artificial Brilliance: It's redundant to mention Artificial Stupidity here, but it's clear that the AI for the Dungeon Bosses have been improved. For example, you'll notice they will combo their cards properly, or not play any minion when you have Doomsayer on board.
- Cosmetic Award: You get a card back for completing the run with every class.
- Final Death Mode: Losing to a boss deletes your deck and all acquired loot, forcing you to start from square one.
- Luck-Based Mission: There's no telling if the next boss will outright trounce your deck, or if they are an easy win. You only see your next opponent after you pick your next batch of cards, so you cannot make your choices to specifically counter them.
- Mythology Gag: Many of the treasures are references to well-known cards, such as Wax Rager, Justicar's Ring, or Dr. Boom's Boombox. Some bosses are this as well.
- Nintendo Hard: The first bosses are always Warmup Bosses with low HP and crappy hero powers. The later ones? Let's just say you'll need those overpowered treasures you gather on the way.
- Random Drop: Each win awards you with packets of themed cards. You can choose from three, but the three choices are random. You also get really strong treasures after beating every odd-numbered level, which are selected in the same way.
- Roguelike: The main inspiration for this mode. You face a set of randomly-selected bosses from a large pool, using a weak deck and hero that grows stronger as you collect random cards and powerful artifacts.
