It’s been a long five weeks, but the last wing of the Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas solo adventure is finally upon us. The Frostwyrm Lair features two bosses with normal and heroic mode battles, as well as the Paladin class challenge. The first boss we’ll take a look at is Sapphiron. Overall, the final wing does seem a bit easier than some of the previous wings, but that doesn’t mean you can run in with any deck and win, especially if you haven’t been playing Hearthstone very long.
The first aspect of this battle to note is Sapphiron’s hero power, Frost Breath. It costs no mana and destroys all enemy minions that are not currently frozen. At first glance that might seem a bit overpowered, but as soon as the battle begins, a Frozen Champion minion spawns on your side of the battlefield. This 2/10 minion is permanently frozen, but any adjacent minion is immune to Frost Breath. Basically, any minions you place directly beside the Frozen Champion will not be destroyed when Sapphiron uses its hero power.
With Sapphiron’s hero power, you can’t have more than two minions survive its turn. In addition, any cards that summon another minion as a Battlecry will lose that second minion on Sapphiron’s turn. If you have a Faceless Manipulator, it’s best used on the Frozen Champion. This allows you to have two Frozen Champion minions, with four minions safe from Frost Breath each turn. One thing you do need to be careful of is damage to the Frozen Champion. It has 10 health, but it can be damaged. If you lose it, you won’t be able to keep many minions on the board.
Sapphiron does use a few attacks that freeze minions or your hero, but don’t count on that to keep your minions every turn. It will happen occasionally, but not often enough to rely on it. The big limitation here is simply the fact that you can only have two minions in play at once. Because of this, you can fill your deck with charge cards so you get damage, even if they die the following turn.
You can also use cards with good Deathrattle abilities. Place them next to the Frozen Champion initially, then on the next turn, place another minion between the Deathrattle minion and the Frozen Champion. This allows you to attack at least once with the Deathrattle minion before it dies to Frost Breath. A Nerubian Egg also works well in this situation, as you get the 4/4 Nerubian on the next turn, but you may only get to attack once with the Nerubian in this situation.
As with many of the other Naxxramas Quarters, a Zoolock Warlock deck works well in this situation as long as you’re willing to throw away some of your minions each turn. You can’t fill the board with minions, as you’ll lose most of them, but keeping a steady flow can win you this game. Sapphiron doesn’t use anything you haven’t already seen from many of the previous bosses in Naxxramas, and aside from its hero power, there aren’t any real threats here.
When you defeat Sapphiron, you earn a set of Echoing Ooze cards. This two-mana, 1/2 minion has a Battlecry that summons an exact copy of the minion at the end of the first turn. The best use of this is in combination with abilities or minions that will buff it up. Any buffs you add to the Echoing Ooze before the end of the first turn will be copied onto the duplicate. For example, if you give it taunt and +3 attack, the duplicate will also have taunt and +3 attack. It can create two very devastating minions with the right buffs in place.
Be sure to check out our Curse of Naxxramas hub with strategies to complete all five wings of the solo adventure.
