We’re now in the third week of the Curse of Naxxramas release schedule for Blizzard’s Hearthstone. By this time, you should have already cleared the Arachnid and Plague Quarters. For many, the newly released Military Quarter is considerably harder than the previous two wings in Naxxramas. You start things off in a battle against Instructor Razuvious.
The first thing you’ll notice about Instructor Razuvious is that he has 40 health instead of the normal 30. With the exception of Loatheb in the Plague Quarter, all normal mode bosses have the standard 30 health. It isn’t until you fight against the heroic variants of each boss that their health increases. Right off the bat you should understand that the Military Quarter bosses do not play around.
In addition to the increased health, Instructor Razuvious starts the match with two Understudy minions on the board. The Understudy minions are 0/7 taunt cards that can get in the way of your initial plans. However, the first card you pull from your deck will be a Mind Control Crystal, which allows you to take the two Understudy minions and pull them to your side of the board. This card costs one mana and should generally be used as your first play.
If you have cards or minions that will buff the Understudy minions so they can attack, try to get them when you mulligan in order to take full advantage of the two minions. If you have nothing of the sort, the minions will give you some much-needed defense against Instructor Razuvious. Make sure to have your own taunts at the ready as soon as these two go down because you’re going to need them early on in the fight against Razuvious.
One of the big concerns against the Instructor are his two Massive Runeblade cards. These weapons cost three mana and allow Razuvious to attack twice. However, if Razuvious hits your hero instead of a minion, the damage of the Runeblade is doubled. That’s not all, Instructor Razuvious has cards that will increase the damage of the Runeblade. This is why it’s important to have taunt cards ready to go so you avoid taking 20 or more damage from the Runeblade.
Instructor Razuvious has a few taunt cards himself, and he also has The Black Knight, which will take out one of your taunts. He also uses two Brawl cards, which destroy all but one minion (selected at random). Keep these things in mind as you play your turns. If Instructor Razuvious has not used his Runeblade cards yet, you need to have a taunt in play or ready to put down as soon as you see it. However, Razuvious has multiple ways to clear the board or destroy at least one taunt card directly, so you need to be ready with another if this happens when a Runeblade is in play.
Finally, you need to be ready to heal yourself or use an aggro deck because Instructor Razuvious’ hero power inflicts three damage. He can use it on minions or your hero, but either way, the damage begins to add up. If he connects with a Runeblade, he can easily cut you down to less than half health in one or two turns.
If you draw taunt cards of your own before your first turn, or have the ability to deal direct damage to Instructor Razuvious, you can hold off on using the Mind Control Crystal. This gives you two taunt cards for one mana, which can help out after your initial taunt card is taken out, or after you’ve used up your direct damage cards. An aggro deck is also useful to damage Instructor Razuvious as quickly as possible before he can use both of his Runeblades or get too many uses out of his hero power. Defeat Razuvious to obtain two Dancing Sword cards, which cost three mana for a 4/4 minion with a Deathrattle that draws a card for your opponent.
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