Welcome to our HEX: Shards of Fate strategy guide for the Frost Arena PvE (player versus environment) mode! If you’re new to HEX, check out our review of the game here, and when you’re ready to dive in and play, our Beginner’s Guide will ease you into the game. Otherwise, grab a drink and sit tight, because it’s going to be a long one!
Hoggarth, Keeper of the Frost Ring has invited you to participate in a little challenge. Can you survive against 20 individual battles over 4 Tiers in your search for gold and other shiny things, like Stardust?
In your way is a smorgasbord of opponents all packing different ways to make your life difficult, and Hoggarth isn’t above getting involved himself by throwing extra “challenges” your way. These will make your current game harder — but should you succeed, Hoggarth will, in just about his only sporting gesture, either remove a loss from your Arena record or, if you currently have no losses, will buff you up in one of the following ways for the final boss fight of the Tier.
Sit tight, and don’t get too chilly in here… You just might freeze to death.
In descending order of usefulness, here are the buffs:
You start the game with 5 Extra Health – Ugh, not much help really…
You start the game with 2 Charges – Very useful if playing a multi-charge Champion.
You start the game with one extra resource – You can get off to some blistering starts with this buff.
You start the game with an Arena Brawler in play – Free 3/1 on turn 1? Yes please.
Here are the challenges you may face, this time in descending order of misery:
Your opponent starts the game with a Cerebral Fulmination in play – More often than not this will actually help you.
Both players have 6 Booby Traps inserted into their decks – Irrelevant the vast majority of the time.
At a random point your opponent will cast a free Oracle Song and Soothing Breeze – Can often throw off your attacking tempo but usually isn’t game breaking unless in an already difficult encounter
Your opponent starts the game with an Inferno in play – Fun if you’re an aggro deck, but a NIGHTMARE if you’re a control deck. You may just have to roll the RNG dice on this one if you’re slow.
Your opponent randomly spawns a Headless Executioner for free – Sure. Free 5/5. That’s fair right? Well at least it can’t block and it’s just a guy at the end of the day.
Your opponent starts the game with a Tunneled Troop – This could be very frightening if it’s a Reese, Monsuun or something which really benefits the opponent. Otherwise it may be weaker that the Headless Executioner.
Your opponent starts the game with a Command Tower in play – If you and your opponent are in a race this will swing the balance. Additionally any of your opponents with Construct Foreman can turn this into a 3/3 and destroy you early.
Your opponent starts the game with Shrine of Prosperity in play – Against some opponents, this is game over. Many of the Champion Charge Powers are overpowered but expensive. This makes them not expensive, buffs all their Troops AND makes their spells cheaper. The only reason this card doesn’t see more play in constructed is the investment required, and so with no investment, this card’s broken.
Your opponent casts a free Mastery of Time after your 3rd turn – What?!!! Okay, THIS is not funny. If you’re behind on the board when this triggers, cross your fingers because it’s almost certain you’re not coming back. Take control of the board and just hope this doesn’t happen.
The worst thing that can happen with these challenges is when they spawn on boss encounters. If it spawns on a normal random encounter, sometimes you’ll just suck it up and take the loss. On a boss encounter you don’t have that option — you have to beat the boss and even when facing it, after a loss the challenge will trigger again. However, any buffs you had for the initial fight will be lost. Yep — Hoggarth REALLY isn’t your friend!
I discussed in my introduction to HEX how in Frost Arena, most of the time, you’ll want to side with aggressive decks, be they Orcs or a Dwarf/Robot build, however there are some times where you can get a little creative. I’ll show off a couple of builds before I get into the encounters (as always, Equipment are in brackets).
Wild/Sapphire Combo
Champion: Running Deer
3 x Archmage Wrenlocke (Gloves of the Archmage/Wrenlocke’s Chestplate)
4 x Indigo Dreamwalker
4 x Crash of Beasts
4 x Chlorophyllia (Gardener’s Hat)
4 x Arcane Focus
4 x Peek
2 x Zodiac Divination (Shoes of Divine Foresight/Constellation Blade)
4 x Mastery of Time
4 x Sylvan Duet
3 x Chimes of the Zodiac
4 x Shard of Instinct
13 x Sapphire Shard
7 x Wild Shard
This is the deck which is responsible for the frankly irresponsible amount of Rhinos on the board in my introduction article.
There is no way this opponent has a chance in an icy hell to get out of this stampede.
The main factor with this deck is that the A.I. doesn’t really know how to interact with it, and since it can “win in one turn” (although that turn is usually multiple turns which I take for myself because I’m just selfish like that) you can wait until the last minute to go nuts.
The main game-plan is usually just to resolve Chimes of the Zodiac as fast as possible (Hopefully for 0 off an Indigo Dreamwalker… They’re the best Chimes) and then use the next turn to either take 2 turns with Mastery of Time or make a ridiculous amount of Rhinos with Crash of Beasts.
The deck is a riot to play and is one I would definitely recommend if you’re looking for something other than Orcs or Dwarves.
Mono Blood Soul Cube Control
Champion: Zared Venomscorn
4 x Vampire King
1 x Killipede
2 x Argus, Herald of Doom (Doomseeker Boots)
4 x Giant Corpse Fly (Gloves of Unrelenting Pain)
4 x Murder
4 x Extinction
4 x Terrible Transfer
3 x Call the Grave
2 x Rise Again
2 x Rot Cast
2 x Pact of Pain
3 x Soul Cube (Amulet of the Cuboid)
25 x Blood Shard
This is about as control as you can get in the Frost Arena, as many of the decks are extremely hostile to control or have ridiculous endgame which you can only match with Soul Cube. What makes this deck work is Argus and his absurd equipment which lets you pay 4 resources and discard him to void any permanent in play. You can then use Call the Grave or, even more brutal, Rise Again to either put Argus into your hand or back into play. I use a 1-of Killipede but a 3rdArgus is probably a better call.
And I guess before I go further, here are your bog standard Frost Arena grind decks. They’re about as efficient as you get:
Dwarves:
Champion: Bertram Cragraven
4 x Charge Bot
4 x Electroid
4 x War Machinist (Tinkerer’s Robes)
4 x Gearsmith
4 x Pterobot
3 x VB1131
1 x Construction Guild Underboss (Prefabrication Boots)
4 x Construct Foreman
4 x Construction Plans: War Hulk (Hulk Helm)
4 x Construction Plans: Hornet Bot
4 x Burn (Conflagration Handguards)
2 x Hex Geode
9 x Ruby Shard
9 x Sapphire Shard
Orcs:
Champion: Urgnock
4 x Quash Ridge Tusker
4 x Ridge Raider (Infiltrator’s Hood)
4 x Savage Raider
4 x Deadeye Ripper
4 x Fierce Warlord
4 x Psychotic Arsonist (Combat Trailblazers)
4 x Brutal Commander (Zealot’s Skill and Bracers of Brutality)
3 x Veteran Gladiator
1 x Xocoy, High Cleric (Socketed with Ferocity and Destruction) (Xocoy’s Axe, Armour of the High Cleric)
4 x Crackling Bolt
3 x Burn
21 x Ruby Shard
The Orc deck is a slight change from last week but, to be honest, this deck’s so solid at beating Frost Arena you could probably put Zakiir in there and the deck would still crush the Arena, I just wanted another 1-drop and he’s the best we have currently.
The Frost Arena – Tier 1
If this is your first time in Frost Arena, you’ll be going through the first tier. I would not recommend you do this in subsequent runs because you’re able to skip it and for the sake of efficiency, that’s exactly what I would do.
The encounters here are mainly weaklings, they’ve had their life totals reduced from 20 to 15, and they only start with 6 cards, so this breaks you in rather easily.
Let’s just have a quick look at who you’re up against.
Spam Bot
Passive Ability: At the start of the game, 4 random Robots in your deck get one of the following at random: +1 ATK or +1 DEF
Charge Ability: 1 – Target Robot you control gets one of the following at random: +1 ATK or +1 DEF
Threat Level: Low
Cards to Look Out For: War Hulk
Has some cheap artifact creatures which, when combined with his ability, can be rather annoying, especially for aggro. Probably one of the stronger Tier 1 foes but that’s not really saying much.
Gobbleglade Witch
Passive Ability: Whenever a Troop with more than 4 health dies, gain 2 life
Charge Ability: 5 (W) – Target Troop you control battles target opposing Troop with the lowest ATK
Threat Level: Low
Cards to Look Out For: Honeycap
Nothing really to be too afraid of, it’s pretty much like playing against a bad version of the Mono-Wild deck from the Proving Grounds. They’re really letting you in easy here.
Storm Cloud
Passive Ability: None
Charge Ability: 2 (S) – Exhaust Target Troop
Threat Level: Low
Cards to Look Out For: Cloud Titan
The best this deck can do is annoy you with it stupid Happy Cloud grin. The best “trick” it can pull off is exhausting your Troops and pinging it for 1 with a Clear Sky Stormcaller… No, I’m not kidding.
Dragon Guard Stalwart
Passive Ability: Whenever you gain life a random Troop in your deck gets +1/+1.
Charge Ability: 1 (D) – Gain 1 life
Threat Level: Low
Cards to Look Out For: Incantation of Righteousness
You can almost hear the ’80s calling. This guy’s all about “Stayin’ Alive” and his rather irritating little ability does get tiring after a while. He’s rarely going to threaten you, just make it a chore for you to win.
Mentor of the Grave
Passive Ability: Whenever a Troop enters your hand from a graveyard it gains +1/+1
Charge Ability: 3 (B) – Void target Troop in your graveyard, then gain health equal to the voided Troops DEF
Threat Level: Low
Cards to Look Out For: Corrupt Harvester
A very weak mono-blood deck which should be a pretty easy pushover. There’s really nothing threatening here aside from the Harvester, just make sure it doesn’t hit you too often and you’ll see off Mentor easily enough.
Psychotic Arsonist
Passive Ability: Whenever a Troop comes into play there’s a 25% chance it gains Speed and +1 ATK
Charge Ability: 2 (R) – Deal 1 damage to target opposing Champion
Threat Level: Low
Cards to Look Out For: Ash Harpy
A fairly weak deck overall but even weak Ruby decks can be scary. If his first 2-drops trigger his passive ability you could be in for a world of trouble. If they don’t, his card quality is just too low to be any threat.
Eternal Guardian
Passive Ability: At the start of your turn, gain [1/1], then gain a random threshold of which you have the least
Charge Ability: None
Threat Level: Low
Cards to Look Out For: Arborean Rootfather, Azurefate Sorceress
Say hello to the Tier 1 boss and one of the most colorful encounters in all of Frost Arena. He has no shards in his deck at all — it’s all spells, so he’s not going to run out of action soon.
His Troops aren’t that strong, but they’re all socketed with gems and he has one of each Aura in his deck making things a little more worrying. However he doesn’t come out of the gate very quickly and you can often knock him on his backside before gets going.
If he does get going though, he isn’t going to stop, so attack fast and pin back his guys.
This is pretty much what you want to always be doing, if you can manage it!
Tier 1 Wrap Up
After the relatively cushy introduction you’ve had to the Frost Arena, you’ll probably be thinking you’ve got everything in hand. Well, here’s the bad news. You will not face Tier 1 again if you are playing Frost Arena for the rewards. After you have beaten Tier 1, in the future you’ll have the ability to skip it entirely and I suggest that you do so. The rewards are simply not worth the time invested.
Now you’ve made it to Tier 2, you will face tougher challenges and bosses. As with Tier 1, I will first go through the regulars and then do a strategy section on the bosses.
For me the regulars fall into distinct categories of threat level, so I’ll spend a bit more time concentrating on the high-threat enemies rather than the weaklings.
The Regulars
Zodiac Shaman
Passive Ability: When a Champion draws a Troop there is a 25% chance that Troops becomes quick
Charge Ability: 3 (SDW) – Coyotes in all decks gain +1/+1 and Cost -1
Threat Level: Low
Cards to Look Out For: Ozawa, Cosmic Elder, Living Totem
Say hello to the lowest of the low. Like his PvP card, Zodiac Shaman poses pretty much no threat at all. His deck is mainly based around health gain rather than any sort of attacking strategy, his resources and thresholds are all over the place, and the cards he uses, with the exception of his one Ozawa, are all completely non-threatening.
Crush him at your will and move on.
Construct Foreman
Passive Ability: None
Charge Ability: 2 (R) – Create a Booby Trap for each Champion and put them into their decks. Each Champion draws a card
Threat Level: Low
Cards to Look Out For: Fiendish Cabalist, Born of the Flame, Ragefire
This is one of the more fun encounters and, if I’m honest, It’s very rare you’ll lose to him, but his early game burn combined with the fact he can produce a massive Fiendish Cabalist early is definitely something to watch out for.
He’s definitely more of a pain for the slower control decks as you won’t be able to use the extra cards he gives you, but for a speedy aggro deck he’s everything you want from an opponent as he gives you the very tools you need to kill him. A great, fun, and overall rather easy encounter.
Wild Root Dancer
Passive Ability: At the start of the game each Champion choose a target Troop in their decks and creates 4 copies of that card and puts them in their deck
Charge Ability: 5 (DW) – Look at the top 5 cards of your deck and put any revealed Plants into play and the remaining cards into your deck
Threat Level: Medium
Cards to Look Out For: Briar Legion, Verdant Wyldeboar
Wild Root Dancer is the ultimate in Briar Legion decks. This does mean that it’s slow to come online and you can rush it fairly quickly without too many issues. Your main problems are going to come when Bramble Creeper and Vine Trap combine to make one heck of a wall in your way, especially since Vine Trap has equipment that says, “When Vine Trap blocks a Troop that Troop gets -2/-0 permanently”.
Fliers or pure speed are the best way to take this deck down, but a couple of well-placed removal spells will work as well. Be careful when playing a sweeper or control deck as eventually those Wyldeboars are going to come back through Wild Root Dancer’s Charge Power, so always be ready.
Emberspire Witch
Passive Ability: Champions can’t gain health
Charge Ability: 1 (R) – Deal 1 damage to each Champion
Threat Level: Medium
Cards to Look Out For: Rampaging Tarasque, Inferno, Heroic Outlaw
Emberspire Witch is pretty much a race. She won’t put any blockers in the way for a while but she will fling a lot of burn and, like many other bosses, has the occasional Heat Wave which will make a mess of an early rush.
However she won’t do anything threatening until late in the game and, after the first couple of burn spells, she may run out of answers. Additionally she doesn’t seem to use her Champion ability much so the race becomes a bit more lob-sided in the player’s direction. Creatures with 3 or more health and fast attacks are the way to beat this lady. Brutal Commander, especially, is something Witch is ill-equipped to deal with.
Darkspire Enforcer
Passive Ability: When a Troop you control with Darkspire in its name dies, create a card with that card’s name and put it in your deck
Charge Ability: None as of current patch
Threat Level: Medium
Cards to Look Out For: Darkspire Tyrant, Gortezuma, Throat Cutter
Mono-Blood Orcs is the name of the game for Darkspire Enforcer. This match-up is mainly about seizing the initiative and keeping hold of it. Darkspire Enforcer will damage itself with its Shamed Gladiators and Fang of the Mountain Gods so a stall situation may be all you need to win, however be careful once Darkspire Tyrants start dropping, as he can produce an infinite supply of them thanks to his passive ability.
As long as he doesn’t come roaring out of the gate with Turn 1 Fang, turn 2 Gortezuma, turn 3 Murder/Throat Cutter then you should be able to keep him under control until you take over the game and run him down. If he does get that start then hold on for dear life and prioritize killing Gortezuma before he becomes invincible.
Eldritch Dreamer
Passive Ability: Troops without Flight have -1 ATK
Charge Ability: 3 (S) – Target Troop gets “When this deals damage to an opposing Champion, draw a card”
Threat Level: Medium
Cards to Look Out For: Thunderbird, Menacing Gralk, Storm Colossus
The name of the game is grind for this guy. Using his Ancestor’s Chosen and fliers to try and knock your life total down all the while using annoying cards like Time Ripple and Buccaneer to peg you back that little bit further every turn
That said, most of the aggressive decks you want to play in Frost Arena will either have a lot of fliers or will be packing Rage or another Attack buff, so in the end his ability ends up being non-symmetrical and costing him damage to the point where his Storm Colossus or an unanswered Thunderbird are his only real threats. An encounter only made a little more difficult by the fact that it’s slower than the others.
Avalanche Giant
Passive Ability: When a Troop deals damage to a Champion it gets +1/+1
Charge Ability: 2 (RW) – Target Troop you control gets +2/+2 this turn
Threat Level: Medium (Aggro) / High (Control)
Cards to Look Out For: Gas Troll, Gore Feast of Kog’Tepetl
This guy can be very difficult to deal with if you come out of the traps slowly. His best start will often have you taking 6 on turn 2 and facing 2 3/3’s (Gas Troll into powered-up Gem Snatchers).
Like all things Gas Troll based, however, if he doesn’t get that start, or you can kill the Gas Troll early then his ability works for you as much as it does against you and, in fact, cards like Arena Regular, War Machinist and Fang of the Mountain God can get huge buffs off Giant’s passive ability, none of which he plays.
If you’re an aggro deck, you’ll be thanking Avalanche Giant for his passive and accepting the win. If you’re a slower deck and he come flying out of the traps, you’re in for a world of pain.
Malice Demon
Passive Ability: Troops in All Zones have Rage 1
Charge Ability: BR (2) – Put Target Troop in your graveyard into play. It gains Speed and “At the end of your turn, Sacrifice this”
Threat Level: Medium (Aggro) / Very High (Control)
Cards to Look Out For: Jags the Blademaster, Mazat Spearman, Ruby Aura
This guy can be extremely scary. As he gives all Troops Rage 1 and this is cumulative with already existing Rage this means that a card like Mazat Spearman becomes 0/1 with Rage 2 for 1 which is extremely scary. Add into the fact he’s packing Ruby Aura and ways to dig up his Spearman once it’s died, you can see that he can produce a lot of power very quickly and be surprisingly resilient.
The best strategies I’ve come up with are to either out-aggro him or give his Troops permanent de-buffs. For example Crackling Rot gives -2/-2 to a Troop permanently meaning that his Charge Power is no longer a way of getting the Troop back. Voiding Troops with cards like Solitary Exile is also very good vs Malice Demon. Overall this guy can be very frightening if he begins to outrace you but in return once you get the upper hand he’s not got many ways to come back.
Regretting that ability yet, Malice Demon?
Sniper of Gawaine
Passive Ability: None
Charge Ability: 4 (DR) – Troops you control that entered play this turn gain +1/+1 and Speed
Threat Level: Medium
Cards to Look Out For: Royal Falconer, Royal Den Mother
Mr. Inspire here is a “snowball” strategy. If you get him curve his inspire Troops out you’ll be looking at an uncontrollable situation involving Royal Falconer very quickly.
Fortunately if you pin back his first couple of Inspire Troops, he doesn’t pose much of a threat unless he chains together a couple of Royal Den Mothers. Just be wary that all you really have to do against Royal Falconer is kill it and leave the 0/1 Falcons to fend for themselves. Beware, however, that since the Falcons cost 3 they will be inspired by pretty much everything in Sniper’s deck so make sure you stop that from happening.
Moon’ariu Sensei
Passive Ability: When a Troop goes underground it gets one of the following at random: +1/+1, Lethal, Rage 2 or “When this enters play, draw a card”
Charge Ability: 3 (BW) – Put a random Troop from your deck with Tunneling underground
Threat Level: Medium
Cards to Look Out For: Bucktooth Roshi, Wakizashi Ambusher, Monsuun
Instead of wombles going underground, it’s bunnies! The Shin’hare are being let loose and will jump up right under your feet… eventually.
Fortunately Moon’ariu here leaves himself a bit open in the early game and that’s where to hit him. His mid-game is extremely powerful and so you’d rather have him on his last legs by then. If his Troops start surfacing and you’re at life and board parity, things can swing his way extremely quickly, especially if he gets a well-timed Monsuun or Grave Nibbler off. Don’t let that happen — hit him hard and fast early and you’ll have the momentum necessary to finish him off.
‘Goin’ Underground’ is obviously Sensei’s favourite song.
Blood Sphinx
Passive Ability: At the start of the game each Champion chooses an action card in their hand. It gets “When you play this, copy it”
Charge Ability: 4 (SSBB) – Put target action from your graveyard into your hand
Threat Level: Medium
Cards to Look Out For: Archmage Wrenlocke, High Tomb Lord, Relentless Corruption
Out of all the decks you’ll face in the Frost Arena, Blood Sphinx feels like the deck which would most likely end up in the hands of a human opponent.
It’s basically a Sapphire/Blood control deck with a few neat twists. Bit of bounce here, creature removal there, discard over here, and a couple of big, fat finishers.
The problem is that the A.I. doesn’t really know how to use it’s resources to the fullest and it’s deck doesn’t really feel like it knows what it wants to do, so it really just feels like you’re playing against a weak Sapphire/Blood control deck, with less than 4 Extinction, so if you’re used to facing decks like that then just run straight through him.
If it gets to the late game and he starts drawing masses of cards and casting Relentless Corruption a million times then you’ll be in trouble but, like most Arena fights, take him down hard and fast and you’ll wonder what you had to worry about.
Avenging Angel
Passive Ability: At the start of the game random 4 Troops in each Champions deck gain “When you draw this card play it for free”
Charge Ability: 5 (DD) – Create an Angel and put it into your hand
Threat Level: Medium
Cards to Look Out For: Angel of Dawn, Guardian Angel, Spearcliff Cavalier
Angel’s deck is very solid but his ability can be absolutely devastating. If you’re playing your standard aggro deck you can maybe get a 2/2 or 3/3 for free out of his ability. I’ve seen Avenging Angel hit Spearcliff Cavalier on Turn 1 and then for laughs hit an Angel of Dawn on the next turn and that’s all she wrote. Occasionally you’ll also face down a Protectorate Defender paired with a Highland Shinobi or a Living Totem and find yourself in a bit of a race but, more often than not, his deck is a bit too high-end to put any real pressure on.
Of course this can work the other way as the picture below shows and can be completely hilarious which is why I don’t put Avenging Angel among the top tiers. Angel’s annoying and potentially very brutal but its cards are on the table, it’s really not got many surprises for you, and most of the time you’ll avoid the worst.
I believe that’s what is called “When good abilities go wrong” Mr. Angel.
Ruby Enchantress
Passive Ability: None
Charge Ability: 2 (R) – Create a random Ruby Action and put it into your hand
Threat Level: Medium
Cards to Look Out For: Archmage Wrenlocke, Kindling Skarn
This is the Wrenlocke/Skarn type of deck many have been trying to make work in PvP for so long but can’t quite make it.
Ruby Enchantress’s version is worse than the normal standard except for one minor detail… THAT Charge power. This can get out of hand very quickly, and Kismet help you if she gets a Power of Zakiir off the ability because bad things will happen quickly should that be around.
Your best bet against Ruby is to have Troops with higher than 2 health and to attempt to out-midrange her. As long as you can pin back her Troops, and none of them are that scary, she won’t be able to finish you off but it’s not going to be easy, she can get some insane things off that ability… Then again, she can also get rubbish like Crazed Rummaging. Cross your fingers.
Ballistics Expert
Passive Ability: Non-Combat Damage dealt by Dwarves and artifacts you control is increased by 1
Charge Ability: 4 (SR) – Target Troop gets “Exhaust -> This deals 1 damage to target Champion or Troop”
Threat Level: High (Aggro) / Medium (Control)
Cards to Look Out For: War Machinist, Flak Scrapper
Overall this deck is a nicely-built Dwarves deck with a very severe underside. In addition, Ballistics Expert will only target high defense Troops with his ability. This lowers your ability to deal with them and makes everything a nightmare for small Troops, as anything he targets will be a Dwarf or Robot and thus deal 2 damage with the exhaust ability.
Add the fact that his War Machinists are powered-up with Tinkerer’s Robes, meaning they deal 2 damage to you and 2 to a creature you control for each artifact he plays, and this can be a mess. Wait — there’s more. Have I mentioned that he has a problem where he doesn’t have to pay Forge of Cadoc’s cost of returning a Dwarf to his deck and thus can explode out of the gates for no cost?
Just be happy that Tinkerer’s Robes no longer causes him to Heat Wave your entire board when he plays an artifact.
Like all Dwarf and Robot decks, he’s very weak to sweepers, but if you’ve followed my guide and are playing aggro, this guy will be one of your hardest match-ups as he can gum up the ground quickly and will OWN you mid-late game. Three defense is your friend here.
Turn 2, and he’s got all of that on the board already??
Hero of Adamanth
Passive Ability: When a card leaves play there is a 25% chance that its controller creates a card with that card’s name and puts it into play
Charge Ability: 3 (DS) – Void target card you control, the put the voided card into play
Threat Level: Medium to High, depending on RNG
Cards to Look Out For: Town Crier, Royal Den Mother, Noble Citizenry
This guy is either an easy breeze or your worst nightmare. If you get unlucky he can effectively cast 3 Buccaneers on turn 3 and take you completely out of the game. He’ll do this by casting one, then using his ability to void it and return it to play and having his passive trigger so he ends the game with 2 Buccaneers in play and your entire board back in your hand. He can also do the same with Solitary Exile or, even worse, Royal Den Mother (hello 10 power of guys, turn 3) so this guy gets out of control extremely quickly if RNG doesn’t roll in your favor.
This can be another “cross your fingers” fight and really the only real advice I have is to keep him under pressure and save your removal for when he tries to use his Charge ability. Alternatively this is an encounter you can win through decking as he will keep casting Town Criers even in a board stall and can eventually deck himself out with them.
Paladin of Naagaan
Passive Ability: None
Charge Ability: 3 (BD) – Target Troop you control gets +X/+X where X is the amount of health you have in excess of your opponent
Threat Level: High
Cards to Look Out For: Vampire King, Righteous Paladin, Incantation of Righteousness
This guy can be the stuff of nightmares. That ability of his is SUPER scary when you combine it with the fact he starts gaining life on turn 1 if he has an Adamanthian Scrivener.
He can also gain some life, land a Paladin of the Necropolis and make it a 5/8 or so with Lifedrain, which is going to be pretty rough to beat. Add the fact that all his Giant Mosquitos are equipped with Lethal equipment and you can see how this guy can get way out of hand.
The secret to beating Paladin is to reduce his life total as fast as possible. At that point he can’t use his Charge ability and you just end up winning. Beware if you’re playing a slower deck he has Pact of Pain and a lot of life to use so mid-game he can simply blow you away with card advantage. Always be wary when facing the dark Paladin.
Seaweed Behemoth
Passive Ability: When a Champion gains a charge it has a 25% chance to gain an additional charge
Charge Ability: 10 (SW) – Draw 5 Cards
Threat Level: High
Cards to Look Out For: Bellow of Briggadon, Reactor Bot, Eternal Drifter
This deck is about pure, unmitigated power, and don’t be fooled — that Charge Power isn’t going to wait until turn 10 to go off. Almost everything in Seaweed’s deck is designed to buff his charges which, when combined with his cards and ability, make one scary individual.
His main endgame is to activate his ability with Bellow of Briggadon out and spam 10/10s but he’s also perfectly capable of just dropping a turn 2 Reactor Bot and killing you with it if you don’t react fast enough to it.
Speed will be your ally here, hope he doesn’t get an early Pulse Reactor to slow you down too much, because in the end-game you can’t go toe to toe with him without an absurdly-powerful endgame of your own designed to stop him (i.e. the Argus/Soul Cube deck I showed off at the top of the article).
If he’s gotten off his ability twice, it’s very hard to see how you’ll beat this encounter, so don’t let it happen.
Nelebrin Scout
Passive Ability: When a Champion plays a resour