This month Blizzard introduced us to a new Hearthstone event known as the Fire Fest-EVIL.
This event will allow players to spend the month of July competing in unique Tavern Brawls and contributing to community challenges. You can get more information about the Fire Fest-EVIL event as a whole here.
One of the first Brawls included with the event is called the Blackrock Crash. This is a party sized solo adventure that allows you to select a member from the League of EVIL and then use their deck to take on bosses from Blackrock Mountain. Here is a look at what you can expect from each boss you face while attempting to free Dalaran from its crash site.
Highlord Omokk
Highlord Omokk spends most of his time in Azeroth smashing noobs in Lower Blackrock Spire. Omokk is the leader of the Old Horde’s Spirestone clan, a mighty stable of Ogre forces that served during Azeroth’s Second War. In WoW, if you want to gain access to upper Blackrock Spire, you’ll need to obtain a Gemstone held by Highlord Omokk.
Much like how he blocks our path in WoW’s Blackrock Spire, Omokk is the first roadblock we meet during the Blackrock Crash. Omokk has a Hero Power called ME SMASH. This Hero Power cost one mana and destroys a random damaged enemy minion.
Though ME SMASH is considerably strong, bosses in this Brawl are not presented in random order and Omokk is the first one you face. This means he will have very low health that you shouldn’t have a problem plowing through by dropping minions and rushing face.
Baron Geddon
Baron Geddon has been terrorizing Azeroth longer than most players have known it existed. Geddon is one of the oldest fire elementals within World of Warcraft lore and has served under Ragnaros for countless years.
As a boss in the Blackrock Crash, Geddon isn’t nearly as sinister as his WoW counterpart. Geddons Hero Power is called Ignite Mana. This Power cost 0 mana to use and deals five damage if your opponent has unspent mana.
This means you’ll obviously want to spend as much mana during your turn as possible, but don’t fret. Even if you can’t spend all of your mana you should have no problem dropping a few minions on the board and smashing Geddons face in a matter of turns, as he is one of the first and lowest health bosses you face in the brawl.
Omnotron Defense System
The Omnotron Defense System is a mechanical boss you face in WoW’s Blackwing Descent. When you face the Omnotron Defense System in WoW the boss fight is presented as a council encounter. This means you face numerous bosses with a shared health pool.
The Hearthstone team kept this council type encounter in mind when prepping the Omnotron squad for Hearthstone. The Omnotron’s Hero Power allows them to summon a robot and starts off with a cost of two mana. As the game progresses, the Omnotron’s Hero power will be more expensive and allow them to upgrade their robot. Just like the council encounter in WoW, there is a variety of different robots included with the Omnotron Defense System.
Toxitron deals one damage to all minions, Arcanotron gives spell damage, and Electron decreases spell cost by three mana. Though Omnotron seems powerful, he suffers from a similar issue to Omokk. Since you’ll face Omokk early in the run, you can pretty much ignore his robots and go face. If Omnotron gets lucky RNG his robots can become a tad overwhelming, but as long as you have board presence you should be able to cut him down.
Garr
Garr spends his time in Azeroth guarding the Rune of Blaz. Garr is a giant lava elemental that you’ll find in Molten Core right around the same area as Baron Geddon. Garr acted as a Lieutenant for Ragnaros and helped carry out the legendary betrayal of Lord Thunderaan.
Garr has a Hero Power that is pretty devastating at this point in the run. Garr can deal one damage to all minions in exchange for one mana. He also has the ability to amass minions on his side of the board that deal damage after death base don the amount of them that die. This means you have to be careful and try to keep his board clear before he is able to amass a widespread.
The key to winning this game will be changing your playstyle up from rush down to careful control. Try to keep control of the board as much as possible, and try not to let him force you into using full onboard clear. Trade as you can, and chip at his health when you can afford to.
Atramedes
Atramedes the Blind Dragon is a very big and very scary boss from WoW’s Blackwing Descent raid. Atramedes famously had a mechanic that would allow him to one shot a player if they allowed a sound meter involved with the encounter to reach 100.
In Hearthstone, Atramedes Hero Power is called Echolate. This allows the Blind Dragon to equip a weapon that will grow in power every time his opponent plays a card. That means each time you play a card against Atramedes, you can expect his weapon to get a bit stronger.
Though Echolate sounds strong, we had a surprisingly easy time against Atramedes when you consider how high up the ladder he is. Since Atramedes relies heavily on his weapon, you shouldn’t have any issue as long as you drop some beefy minions. You’ll want to make sure you don’t play cards willy nilly and give him an unwanted power creep, but that is the only real worry we faced with this encounter.
Nefarian
Nefarian is arguably one of the most popular Dragons from all of WoW lore. Nefarian is the son of the Legendary Deathwing. If you played WoW during the Cataclysm expansion, you’ll remember Deathwing as the Dragon who split the planet wide open and changed the landscape of Azeroth forever.
Though Nefarian isn’t quite as powerful as his Father, he is pretty darn close. He is heralded as one of the greatest threats to mortal life Azeroth has ever known and that aura follows him into Hearthstone. Nefarian has a Hero Power called Wild Magic. This cost one mana and allows you to add a random spell from your opponent’s class to your hand.
Due to Wild Magic, this match can play out very differently depending on which class you take into the Brawl. Nefarian uses a minion based deck that relies heavily on Dragons and their synergies. This is another situation where intelligent trading will be the key to victory. You’ll need to make sure you don’t run out of damage trading with Nefarian because you’ll still need to drop his health to zero.
Vaelastrasz the Corrupt
His name sounds like that of a retired UFC Champion and he probably packs as much of a punch. Vaelastrasz was a top ranking member of Alexstrasza’s Red Dragonflight. After a life of fighting against him, Vaelastrasz eventually became enslaved by Nefarian. In his last act before succumbing to Nefarian’s corruption, Vaelastrasz buffs the player character so they have a chance of defeating killing him.
In his Hearthstone form, Vaelastrasz has a Hero Power called Essence of the Red. This Power cost zero mana and causes each player to draw two cards. Since Vaelastrasz is continuously cycling cards, you’ll need to play what you can to make sure you don’t overdraw. If you ever played against a mono-blue mill deck in Magic: The Gathering, then you’ll have a decent idea of how this match might go south.
If your hand is too full, overdrawing will cause cards to vanish. Keep your hand below six or seven cards and you shouldn’t have an issue dodging his Hero Power. Vaelastrasz only wins if you don’t use the cards you play intelligently. As long as you don’t overdraw, you should be fine.
Ragnaros The Firelord
It is his mountain, after all, so you shouldn’t be surprised to find out Ragnaros is the toughest challenge you’ll face during the run. In WoW, Ragnaros is an Elemental Lord who holds power over all other Fire Elementals. Even after being defeated countless times in Azeroth, Ragnaros still lingers, plotting to burn Azeroth to ash when he makes his return.
In Hearthstone, Ragnaros is just as intimidating and just as evil. The Firelord’s Hero Power is called Molten Rage. This Power costs one mana and allows you to summon a 5/1 Magma Rager. On top of his stellar Hero Power, Ragnaros also has a whopping 40 health that you will have to chip through on your way to victory. Much like his WoW counterpart, Ragnaros starts the match wielding the weapon Sulfuras.
Ragnaros likes to clear your minions using Sulfuras so he can use his own minions to smash your face. This can actually play out to Firelord’s dismay provided you build your board correctly. You’ll want to use as many beefy taunt minions as you can afford during the early game. This will lead Ragnaros to more than likely attack your Taunts with his weapon and do damage to himself in the process.
After Sulfuras has expired, Ragnaros will earn a Hero Power that costs two mana and allows him to deal eight damage to a random enemy. When this happens, you’ll want to keep as many minions on the board as possible so you are less likely to take the damage directly. If you can maintain a board presence and trade intelligently, Ragnaros should fall before your feet.
