Blackrock Mountain, as promised, is now here. There are cool cards to be obtained and challenges to be conquered, only some nasty bosses stand in the way.

The first step towards conquering Blackrock Mountain is overcoming the three Dark Iron Dwarf bosses: Coren Direbrew, High Justice Grimstone and the one and only [card]Emperor Thaurissan[/card].

As it was with Naxxramas, the first wing is rather easy, even on heroic, but you won’t get by without knowing the mechanics and the intricacies of each encounter. That’s why this guide is here – to show you the right way. On to the depths of the Dwarf kingdom!

Boss Fight #1: The Grim Guzzler

This is by far the most entertaining boss fight of the first wing. Every turn, Coren Direbrew will summon minion from both his and yours decks for free. On heroic, it will be two minions for him and just one for you, but this is still a good deal, because you’re smart and he’s an AI.

The strategy is obvious – fill your deck with the fattest, biggest minions you have in your collection, even the ones you’ll never play in a million years because they suck. Yes, talking about those [card]Foe Reaper 4000[/card]’s and [card] or even the [card]Force-Tank MAX[/card]’s. You are getting them for free, so you don’t care about value necessarily, just get the biggest possible minions in.

The fight is quite easy with any class, but I found it intuitive to use Druid or Freeze Mage (Freeze Mage in particular helped me beat about 80% of Curse of Naxxramas, so I naturally bring it to every fight nowadays). I’ll provide a few decklists below.

Fight mechanics:
 

  • Every turn, Coren will summon 2 minions from his deck and 1 from your deck. This is why you want fatties
     
  • Battlecries don’t work, so avoid those [card]Dr Boom[/card]s or [card]Alexstrasza[/card]s
     
  • Some of the best minions for this fight are [card]Ysera[/card], [card]Ke'’Thuzad[/card], [card]Ragnaros the Firelord[/card], [card]Troggzor the Earthinator[/card] and [card]Sneed's Old Shredder[/card]
     
  • On the budget side, Druid has fantastic minions like [card]Ironbark Protector[/card] and [card]Mech-Bear-Cat[/card]
     
  • This is a board control fight. Only good minions won’t save you, so bring some removal spells. This is why I rocked with Freeze Mage with confidence. I could at any time cast [card]Blizzard[/card] or [card]Flamestrike[/card] or [card]Frost Nova[/card] to gain tempo/board advantage
     
  • Coren’s table-turning combo is Dark Iron Bouncer – a 4/8 minion for 6 mana which always wins Brawls – followed by, you guessed it, [card]Brawl[/card]. You can’t do much about that, only hope that he spawns the Bouncer from his hero power so you can immediately kill it.

Decks:
 

  • World 1st (?) Druid
  • Frost Mage
  • Budget Druid
  • Basic Mage

     

Boss Fight #2: Dark Iron Arena

The boss in the Dark Iron Arena is High Justice Grimstone. Like those control warrior players you sometimes see on rank 15 and hate your life, Grimston’s deck is chock full of legendary minions, to the point where he has nothing but legendary minions. 27 of them.

On Heroic, Grimstone will start with 4 mana which is honestly the toughest aspect of the fight. You’ll often see him coin out [card]Feugen[/card] or [card]Stalagg[/card] which are pretty hard to deal with if you are four turns behind.

For this fight, you’ll want to play a control deck and nothing else. Freeze Mage (again) is your best friend, but I’ve also seen full control Priests with double [card]Mindgames[/card] and even miracle [card]Gadgetzan Auctioneer[/card] druid decks to abuse the [card]Millhouse Manastorm[/card] in Grimstone’s deck. Check out this video by vvKSKvv and you’ll see what I mean.

Fight mechanics:
 

  • Grimstone will spawn legendaries each turn, you’ll want to kill them as quickly as possible
     
  • Bring control decks – you cannot outrace him with aggros since he starts with more mana and health than you do
     
  • [card]Mind Control Tech[/card] is awesome…
     
  • …and so are AoE clears. Hence, the Freeze Mage
     
  • Beware of his [card]Deathwing[/card], his biggest board swinger. If you start to lose to his end-game legendaries too much, consider double [card]Big Game Hunter[/card]
     
  • Alternatively, build a Miracle Druid and wait for his [card]Millhouse Manastorm[/card] to give you free stuff for the rest of your life
     

Decks:
 

  • Frost Mage
  • Miracle Druid
  • Basic Mage

     

Boss Fight #3: Emperor Thaurissan

Thaurissan is a rather straightforward fight and, honestly, it might be easier than the Dark Iron Arena. Thaurissan is all about aggro – he will start with a 3/1 Moira Bronzebeard that attacks your face each turn which you cannot kill because it will unlock Thaurissan’s hero power which one-shots you.

Hence, you want to build an aggressive deck of your own with just the right amount of heal. I found Paladin to be the best choice here because [card]Aldor Peacekeeper[/card] can shrink the damage from Moira. Additionally, [card]Blessing of Wisdom[/card] guarantees you +1 card draw per turn, which is priceless.

Reddit user /u/goodericdong apparently used full Zoo with no heals at all and just outraces Thaurissan straight up. The decklist is available below.

Fight mechanics:
 

  • You shouldn't kill Moira (or you’ll die) so you need to mitigate her damage through heals and debuffs
     
  • [card]Crazed Alchemist[/card] will switch her to 1/3. This will not only shrink her damage but make her more resistible to AoE’s
     
  • Thaurissan will try to use AoE cards to kill Moira so he can finish you: [card]Unstable Ghoul[/card], [card]Abomination[/card] and [card]Death's Bite[/card]. For the first two, you will need a silence. For the third, you’ll need to buff Moira’s health or divine shield her.
     
  • Even though you’re racing Thaurissan, you’ll want to establish a form of board control, because he starts at 45 HP and will always win a straight up race
     
  • If you play Paladin, [card]Blessing of Wisdom[/card] will net you an additional card each turn

Decks:
 

  • Aggro healadin
  • Zoo
  • Basic Priest

The in this guide below have been gathered from community members and/or have been modified by the author of this post. Shout outs go to Zephimir, Nosajio, vvKSKvv, /u/TommyJTheGamer and /u/Goodericdong for being among the first community members to beat the heroic wing and reveal their strategies.


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