The second wing of Blizzard’s Curse of Naxxramas Hearthstone expansion released this week. As you play through the Plague Quarter, you must defeat the three bosses, Noth the Plaguebringer, Heigan the Unclean and Loatheb to gain access to the Hunter and Mage class challenges. Both class challenges feature a pre-made deck as you battle against one of the bosses in the quarter. The Mage class challenge has you battling against Heigan.
For the Mage class challenge you will use the following deck:
| Card | Mana | Attack/Health | Stats | Quantity |
| Bloodmage Thalnos | 2 | 1/1 | Spell damage +1, Deathrattle: Draw a card. | 1 |
| Cairne Bloodhoof | 6 | 5/5 | Deathrattle: Summon a 4/5 Baine Bloodhoof. | 1 |
| Counterspell | 3 | N/A | Secret: When your opponent casts a spell, counter it. | 1 |
| Duplicate | 3 | N/A | Secret: When a friendly minion dies, put two copies of it into your hand. | 1 |
| Ethereal Arcanist | 4 | 3/3 | If you control a secret at the end of your turn, gain +2/2. | 2 |
| Ice Barrier | 3 | N/A | Secret: When your hero is attacked, gain eight armor. | 1 |
| Ice Block | 3 | N/A | Secret: When your hero takes fatal damage, prevent it and become immune this turn. | 1 |
| Kirin Tor Mage | 3 | 4/3 | Battlecry: The next secret you play this turn costs zero. | 2 |
| Loot Hoarder | 2 | 2/1 | Deathrattle: Draw a card. | 2 |
| Mad Scientist | 2 | 2/2 | Deathrattle: Put a secret from your deck into the battlefield. | 4 |
| Mirror Entity | 3 | N/A | Secret: When your opponent plays a minion, summon a copy of it. | 1 |
| Nerubian Egg | 2 | 0/2 | Deathrattle: Summon a 4/4 Nerubian. | 2 |
| Secretkeeper | 1 | 1/2 | Whenever a secret is played, gain +1/1. | 1 |
| Sludge Belcher | 5 | 3/5 | Taunt. Deathrattle: Summon a 1/2 Slime with taunt. | 2 |
| Spellbender | 3 | N/A | Secret: When an enemy casts a spell on a minion, summon a 1/3 as the new target. | 1 |
| Sylvanas Windrunner | 6 | 5/5 | Deathrattle: Take control of a random enemy minio. | 1 |
| Undertaker | 1 | 1/2 | Whenever you summon a minion with Deathrattle, gain +1/1. | 2 |
| Vaporize | 3 | N/A | Secret: When a minion attacks your hero, destroy it. | 1 |
Heigan is a Warlock class, so you should expect all of the typical Warlock cards, including but not limited to Voidcaller, Voidwalker, Demonfire and Soulfire. He also has a couple Faceless Manipulator cards, so be careful of that when you’re playing Legendary cards or your more damaging minions. The game moves pretty quickly because of Heigan’s Mindpocalypse card. It makes both players draw two cads and gain a single Mana Crystal.
You only have two taunt cards in this Mage deck, while Heigan has several. However, you have other ways to prevent face damage (damage directly to your hero) such as Vaporize, Ice Barrier and Ice Block. The main strategy behind your deck is to use all of your secrets to great effect. In addition to the traditional Mage secrets, you have two Ethereal Arcanists and Kirin the Mage minions, as well as one Secretkeeper, four Mad Scientists and Duplicate.
All of these minions go hand-in-hand with spell usage, and the Duplicate card gives you two copies of a minion upon death. When used with proper timing and a bit of luck, that could give you additional taunt cards, quite a few more secrets, or even two more Legendary cards. You basically want to hold your secrets to buff most of your minions, while also waiting for Heigan to play his more potent cards so you can use Vaporize and other spells to counter them.
Keep in mind, Heigan’s hero power deals two damage to the left-most minion on the battlefield. This is a great benefit if you have a Nerubian Egg there. However, you want to avoid leaving something like a Secretkeeper or Undertaker there. These are both minions that can be buffed as you play other cards, and will die with a single use of Heigan’s hero power if they end up on the far left. Remember that even if you place one of these cards in the middle, with perhaps a Nerubian Egg to the left, once the Egg is down, the card in the middle is now the card on the left and may be vulnerable next turn if you don’t drop another card to the left of it.
This isn’t an overly difficult match, especially if you’re careful about which minions fall to the left and buff your minions with the appropriate cards. Once you’ve defeated Heigan, you gain two Duplicate cards for your trouble. Duplicate works well in many Mage decks and is a worthwhile reward for your efforts against Heigan.
Stay tuned to Prima Games as we’ll have more on Curse of Naxxramas as each wing releases.
