Vaelastrasz
Sorry for doing these a little out of order, but the last few bosses haven’t done much to peak my interest. Even the first boss of this week, Razorgore, was nothing special. Fortunately, the rest of the wing provided some of the most interesting challenges we’ve had yet, starting with Vaelastrasz the Corrupt. He actually offers a great spin on one of my favorite deck types: the mill. In Hearthstone, you can only have a maximum of ten cards in your hand at a time. If you draw while at that maximum, any cards you draw will be discarded. Also, once your deck runs out, you’ll start taking fatigue damage with every draw. Milling is all about flooding the opponent’s hand to burn vital cards with fatigue damage as a means to finish off the enemy hero. Vaelastrasz makes both you and himself vulnerable to milling with his hero power that automatically draws cards for both players on every turn.
On normal mode, Vaelastrasz will cause both players to draw two cards at the start of each of his turns. Naturally, he runs Twilight Drake, Clockwork Giant, and Goblin Sapper to take advantage of these loaded hands. He also has the spell Naturalize that will destroy one of your minions and force you to draw even more cards. He’ll also focus down individual minions with other removal spells like Corruption, Imp-losion, and Dragon’s Breath. He’ll also fill up his own deck with Gang Up, making it more likely that you’ll hit fatigue first. Finally, Vaelastrasz’ exclusive card is Burning Adrenaline, a zero-mana spell that deals 2 damage directly to your hero. While he could easily dump these to avoid burning cards on draw, he prefers to hold onto them until he can set up for a lethal blow. If you see him casting this spell, it probably means that you’ve already lost. Without the right deck, defeating him will be extremely difficult. However, he’ll be easy prey if you simply fight fire with fire.
Your best option is to give him a taste of his own medicine with a Mill Druid. This will let you use Naturalize yourself and burn through Vaelastrasz’ deck. Another vital spell is Innervate as it will give you more mana for a turn and make it easier to dump your hand. The last must-have spell is Savage Roar which will provide you with the final punch needed to win. The rest of your deck should be composed of cheap minions that you can play quickly and flood the board with. Argent Squire, Annoy-o-Tron, Haunted Creeper, and even zero mana minions like Wisp and Target Dummy will give you the edge in this fight. Even Nerubian Egg will a great asset as Vaelastrasz will waste his own removal spells to hatch these eggs for you. This is because Vaelastrasz is actually a friendly dragon that was captured and corrupted by Nefarian and is trying to help you in this fight and isn’t the result of bad AI design in any way whatsoever. That said, you should still keep Dire Wolf Alpha and/or Sunfury Protector on hand so you can crack the eggs yourself.
The costliest minion you have in your deck is Big Game Hunter as it will give you another way to clear Clockwork Giants. Dancing Swords can be good as it’s a strong, cheap body that forces your opponent to draw, but it’s not likely to last given the amount of removal cards that you’ll be up against. Your ultimate goal is to flood the board with minions and then buff them with Savage Roar. Hang on to charge minions like Stonetusk Boar and/0r Bluegill Warrior to add to your final attack. While Rogue is also a popular class for milling, it doesn’t have way to burst the opponent from this setup. Build a deck with the principles I’ve described and the Flamewaker card will be yours in no time.
On heroic mode, Vaelastrasz’ power will draw three cards for each player at the start of his turn and he will gain a mana crystal. He’ll also start with 15 armor on top of his 30 health. Fortunately, the same tactic I listed above will work just as well in heroic mode as it did in normal mode. Even on a budget, this fight can easily be won. Vaelastrasz is one of the most interesting bosses we’ve had both mechanically and thematically, but he’s also one of the easiest. Keep checking in for more Hearthstone guides coming soon.
(Vaelastrasz art by BlackMysticA)
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