Blizzard’s online card game, Hearthstone, has come out with a brand new solo adventure for players to test his/her strength against a variety of bosses.
The newest journey, Blackrock Mountain, features 5 different wings with 3-4 bosses each. Each boss can be beaten on normal or heroic mode, with card rewards, class challenges and more.
Here we explore the first wing of the series, Blackrock Depths, as we explore the first 3 bosses and the best classes, cards, and strategies to beat them.
Grim Guzzler – Coren Direbrew
Coren Direbrew is a warrior class hero who benefits by using large creatures together with his hero power and brawl to eliminate yours.
Health: 30
Health (Heroic): 30
Armor (Heroic): 15
Hero Power – Pile On! Put a minion from each deck into the battlefield. (0 mana)
Hero Power (Heroic) – Pile On! Put two minions from your deck and one from your opponent’s into the battlefield. (0 mana)
Special Cards
General Strategy
This boss summons large minions for himself, and therefore you’ll want to build a deck full of large creatures to stand a fighting chance. Since he summons minions for you, filling a deck with 6+ creatures and spells is the best way to beat him.
Attacking at his face constantly while using your mana for removal is the perfect way to defeat the Grim Guzzler.
Recommended Classes
Druid – Capitalizing on Druid’s massive creatures will prove the perfect solution for this foe. Stack your deck with Ironbark Protectors, Stormwind Champions, and other huge minions, and you’ll be good to go.
Combine this with spells like Naturalize/Starfire for removal and Mark of the Wild/Mark of Nature to buff your already huge creatures and you’ll defeat this boss in no time.
Hunter – The Savannah Highmane is another great big creature for this matchup, along with plenty of Hunter removal spells such as Deadly Shot.
Shaman – Another class with big minions, buffs, and removal is Shaman. Using the Fire Elemental for beef, Flametongue Totem and Rockbiter Weapon to buff your big creatures, and Crackle and Lava Burst for removal, there’s no way to lose.
Reward
Dark Iron Arena – High Justice Grimstone
The Dark Iron Arena is the second boss in Blackrock Depths. He is a rogue who uses his hero power to prevent you from dealing damage easily.
Health: 30
Health (Heroic): 30
Hero Power – Summon a 1/1 Spectator with Taunt (1 mana)
Hero Power (Heroic) – Summon a 1/1 Spectator with Taunt (0 mana)
Special Cards
General Strategy
An aggressive deck works the best in this situation, as he has no direct damage of his own to stop you. He relies heavily on legendary and heavy creatures with the help of his 1/1 taunts he gets from his hero power.
A deck with a lot of minions at very low mana costs will wipe the floor with this boss, especially when combined with coinciding hero powers of your own.
Recommended Classes
Mage – The Mage’s hero power completely negates the Dark Iron Arena’s making his defense useless for a general aggro deck. I recommend spamming low-cost minions such as Leper Gnome, Annoy-O-Tron, etc. as well as Arcane Explosion to get rid of all those pesky taunts.
Rogue – The Rogue’s hero power is another perfect defense to the 1/1 taunts. Combining that with Fan of Knives, his health will be yours for the taking when paired with another aggro deck of your choice.
Reward
Emperor Thaurissan 
Emporer Thaurissan is the 3rd and final boss of the Blackrock Depths wing and is a Priest.
Health – 30
Health (Heroic) – 30
Hero Power – Power of the Firelord – Deal 30 Damage. (2 mana)
Special Cards *Heroic Moira is a 3/1
(Heroic)
General Strategy
Obviously if Emporer Thuarissan uses his hero power the game will be over, so a general rule of thumb is to make sure that his wife, Moira Bronzebeard, never dies.
Using buff cards on Moira is a good idea in Heroic mode since she only has 1 health, but otherwise keeping her healed with Priest hero power is the perfect way to get around it.
His deck is very aggro, so an aggro deck of your own is a great counter, especially using Priest to keep healing Moira. His deck includes Flame Imps and weapons which will deal damage to him, so beating him to the rush isn’t all that hard. He does use Unstable Ghouls, which deal damage to Moira, so buffing her in some way is highly recommended.
Recommended Classes
Priest – Like I mentioned previously, the Priest’s heal is a great insurance policy to making sure Emperor Thaurissan’s wife doesn’t die. A few removal spells for his taunts will come in handy, such as Shadow Word: Pain.
Mage – Keeping the aggro aspect in mind, a secret deck or a freeze deck is the perfect counter to this boss. However, without a heal it’ll be hard to keep Moira alive for an extensive amount of time, so using a Mage deck will be a race against the clock.
Reward
Wing Completion
Completing the entire wing will grant you the legendary card, Emperor Thaurissan.
Head back to our Blackrock Mountain Landing Page for other guides.
Published: Apr 2, 2015 11:31 am