14 DAY TRIAL // Blizzard Entertainment has just opened the first wing of the Blackrock Mountain single-player adventure for Hearthstone, the popular collectible card game set in the Warcraft universe.
The adventure consists of five different episodes, delivering a total of 17 bosses to defeat and 31 new cards for players to add to their collections. The first wing is already available, with subsequent wings opening at a rate of one per week.
The first three encounters are set in the Blackrock Depths, in the form of The Grim Guzzler, The Dark Iron Arena, and Emperor Thaurissan, guarding the entrance to Molten Core.
The first opponent is Coren Direbrew, a rather nasty Dwarf with an appetite for big minions. His hero ability is called Pile On! and puts a minion from his deck and a minion from your deck right into the battlefield.
This means that you’re best served by running a deck with a ton of minions, and minions that can overpower your opponent’s, at that. Bit hitters and minions with a powerful board presence are best, but keep in mind that Battlecry effects won’t trigger from his ability
As you descend into the Dark Iron Arena, you will meet High Justice Grimstone, an Iron Dwarf whose Hero Power, Jeering Crowd, is to summon a 1/1 Spectator minion with taunt.
Having a reliable way to dispose of the taunter in order to be able to get your minions to hit face is key during the encounter.
The grand finale
Lastly, Emperor Thaurissan has a very interesting Hero Power, called Power of the Firelord, dealing a whopping 30 damage in one strike. This means that he can pretty much one-shot you, but fortunately, this is offset by the fact that his wife, Moira Bronzebeard, is present in the game as a 1/3 minion that prevents him from using it.
This means that you have to come up with a strategy that involves keeping her alive, lest you incur the wrath of Emperor Thaurissan. Fortunately, Moira does not attack minions unless they have taunt, so if you play around that, you won’t have any problems with the encounter.
Each of the Dwarves also packs a couple of surprises that I don’t want to spoil, because half the fun is discovering them by yourself and coming up with an appropriate strategy.
The heroic version of each of the three will give you a lot more headaches than the normal version does, as the decks and hero powers start getting pretty insane. Remember, each of the encounters can be beaten by crafting a deck tailor-made to meet its challenges.
The first wing also comes with two class challenges, for Mage and Hunter, giving you a custom deck to play against the first two opponents in Blackrock Depths, and rewarding you with a class-specific card upon victory.
By going through all the challenges in the first wing of the Blackrock Mountain adventure, you get a total of six cards, which you can browse in the gallery below.
