Hearthpwn

Hello!

I've recently got around to completing BRM Heroic and so want to share some decks that I used - especially considering some of the ones used at the time of release have either been nerfed, ai patched or there are better alternatives with newer cards. I don't own that many cards so I had to go with what I had - mostly adventure stuff in terms of legendaries, so if you also need relatively cheap decks that work using mostly adventure cards look no further!

Just wanted to save the deck that I used to defeat Nefarian with. It seems to work pretty well however after testing I can see that there are a few improvements that can be made, though the general concept is solid. I had tried other decks but the standard otk priest wasn't working for me (it seems Blizzard may have patched the Kel'Thuzad + taunt bug 'cause the ai just attacked through it!). Fortunately the old gods have come to our rescue in the shape of C'Thun!

C'Thun is the powerhouse of the deck and really makes the end game super easy. The idea is to buff C'Thun and then drop him either at the end of the first phase or at the start of the second - his battlecry is really useful for clearing the board especially considering the prevalence of 2 health minions that Nefarian likes to spawn.

 

-- Flow of the game --

First Phase

In the first phase you want to mulligan for early game minions - Dark Peddler / Beckoner of Evil and so on, as well as a board clear such as Hellfire. You can hold onto Reno Jackson as his heal will be important however only if you already have other early game plays.

Tempo is crucial in this fight and so playing out minions and keeping some board presence is key. Honestly, this is where the fight is won or lost with this deck - if you make it to the late game (second phase) with enough health, you will win. This is why cards like Infested Tauren are really good - they stick to the board. Try to use spells and board clears to deal with his minions and push as much face damage as possible. The sooner you can push into second phase the better - you want to time it for when you have the mana for C'Thun though so not too soon!

Second Phase

Hopefully you have enough health here - Reno Jackson and Antique Healbot help out with this. The other thing you need is C'Thun; if you haven't dropped him yet now is the time. I tended to find in my games that C'Thun was used for the end of the first phase pushing into the second so you can bear that in mind for the timing. C'Thun also clears the board so by using it to push phase you can enter phase 2 with an empty enemy board - big bonus!

On entering the second phase, if you have mana, you want to drop Acidic Swamp Ooze now to blow up the weapon, if you had to use it earlier it's not game ending but you'll have to move quickly.

At this point control his board - basically remove anything he plays, and try to increase your board to about 5 minions keep some free space. DO NOT KILL ONYXIA UNTIL YOU HAVE KEL'THUZAD IN HAND!! This is absolutely key so tap tap tap until you get Kel'Thuzad. Once you've got him then push into the final phase with at least 8 mana, all your minions will get killed (his won't that's why it's important to control his board) and after that drop Kel'Thuzad. All your minions back to life! 

Final Phase

Hopefully at this point you have enough stuff to oneshot the final phase, especially considering one of your minions is C'Thun. When you revive make sure there is free space - remember that deathrattle minions create another minion when they die so don't have a too full board otherwise you could risk not respawning C'Thun.

Either way if you make it this far you should win!

 

-- Thoughts and Potential Improvements --

I was able to beat the encounter in a couple tries with this deck so I didn't modify it a whole lot though I think there are definitely some improvements - some cards under-performed others worked wonders. I'll include some cards I tried out as well for reference.

Doomsayer - honestly pretty terrible for me! It's so important for us to have tempo in the first phase to survive and push transition on time. Stalling the game doesn't do much good, we have plenty of board clear and removal as is so I recommend swapping this for an early game tempo minion. Maybe Harvest Golem for its sticky factor.

Doomcaller - another under-performer! By having the Kel'Thuzad combo into final phase there is no need to resurrect C'Thun with Doomcaller. Again I suggest replacing this with another early game or midrange tempo minion. Something like Piloted Shredder might work or you could try another heal like Refreshment Vendor.

Twisting Nether - I'm not sure on this one, not as clear cut as the other two but still I don't think it's great. If you have to Twisting Nether you might have already lost also however it does potentially set up for a nice C'Thun the following turn especially if you can kill something like Drakonid Crusher with the Twisting Nether your C'Thun is more likely to clear. If you don't have it it's definitely not essential so you can replace with any tempo minion, or perhaps Crazed Worshipper - this should be good with the taunt as well, the only reason I didn't include it is because I don't have it.

Imp-losion - surprisingly good! Can easily help clear the more annoying 5 health minions and if the 1/1's survive they can take out some of the other 4/2's. Only weak to lava really but so are Nefarian's minions so I think this is a win win. 

Explosive Sheep - another good board clear, pretty much the same as the lava card but attached to a minion. A lot of our minions survive 2 damage anyway and the board clear usually includes a 1 damage poke - this one worked for me.

 

That's most things for now, if you have any questions let me know and I'll try and answer to the best of my ability. I'll also hopefully edit this when I remember some of the other things I wanted to say. The decklist is likely to remain the same however as I want to preserve the list I actually used even if it isn't optimal - if anyone desires it I can create a more optimal list using my discoveries of the fight and including potentially great cards that I don't have.