Hearthpwn

Hello everyone,

on my quest for a suitable deck to defeat Heigan without spending any Arcane Dust, nothing really got me interested. I think there is really good decks out there to reliably defeat Noth with Mage on Heroic (LINK) for 0 Dust and Loatheb in my opinion can not be reliably defeated at all - it's pretty much entirely based on his and your draws - even with a good deck. So at least I haven't found a consistent way for 0 Arcane Dust, so I guess one should go with the Lightwell strategy of Priest.

Anyway, I believe with the right strategy Heigan is the easiest of the 3 bosses in the Plague Wing. Let's start with his deck:

2 x Soulfire

2 x Blood Imp

2 x Deathcharger

2 x Flame Imp

2 x Voidwalker

2 x Acidic Swamp Ooze

2 x Demonfire

2 x Mindpocalypse

2 x Felguard

2 x Bane of Doom

4 x Voidcaller

2 xDoomguard

2 x Faceless Manipulator

2 x Dread Infernal

 

From this we know 2 things. Overall it's a very rushy type of deck. But then it also is a demon-heavy deck and a battlecry-heavy deck. Warlock has the best way to deal with demons due to Sacrificial Pact.  Nerub'ar Weblord also is a must. It is not just a tempo-play to build our board but will also make him lose cards, when Doomguard is played, while it is very expensive to play, as well. The Warlock can also easily and reliably dispose of Deathcharger, Flame Imp, Acidic Swamp Ooze and Voidcaller with 4 Damage Soulfire and Shadow Bolt. If none of that is enough and it usually isn't, we still got ourselves Hellfire.

We also have Corruption for first turn delayed removal, besides possible Soulfire use.

Nerubian Egg even allows us to fight and can be regarded as a 2 Mana Shadow Bolt for the early game. Therefore our following Mulligan.

 

Mulligan:

We look for Sacrificial Pact, Corruption and Nerubian Egg. Keep 1 Soulfire (or worse, but still okay, 1 Shadow Bolt), if we have no Sacrificial Pact, Corruption or Nerubian Egg in our pre-mulligan hand.

 

We try to survive in early-game. Don't worry if we drop to 10 Health. Even just 6 Health should be fine as Heigan doesn't have much reach. We usually stabilize in midgame. It can be stated that the game should change in our favor at turn 4. Either a Hellfire clear, or a Sen'jin Shieldmasta deal with the remainder of his early minions and to some extent Chillwind Yeti. Our minions will begin to show amazing value, as Haunted Creeper is up to tank the shots of his Hero Power Eruption, as well. The spiders take 3 turns from Eruption to be killed (there is no AOE), which is better than any soulbound card for its mana, bar Stoneskin Gargoyle, but that one costs 3 Mana, while fulfilling the same function in the critical phase of early and mid-game. (If you really want Stoneskin Gargoyle you can swap them out. That's fine by me). Gurubashi Berserker also happily takes one for the team and strengthens his attack while doing so. Sludge Belcher, Boulderfist Ogre and Maexxna can also occupy that left spot on your board, as it also takes 3 hits to kill them with Eruption. Just don't ever put Stormwind Champion or Loatheb there and preferably not Chillwind Yeti or Sen'jin Shieldmasta either, although sacrifices have to be made sometimes. So within the midgame during turns 4-7 we will likely see a swing into our favor, as he will eventually run out of cards, since he can only draw extra cards with Mindpocalypse. The biggest threat could be a buffed up Felguard with Demonfire into Faceless Manipulator. But we usually drew into hard removal by then, such as Sacrificial Pact or Corruption for that. After our set-up it should go pretty easy for the later stages of the match. Always trade on the board until you have lethal and try to keep at least 1 taunt up against his Doomguard, if you are already below 10 (assuming Soulfire as well).

 

Certain noteable scenarios and questions can be imagined:

Sacrificial Pact, Soulfire or Corruption on that initial Voidcaller?

Don't use Soulfire, if we got Corruption. We value the cards more. Also don't be afraid to use Sacrificial Pact on Voidcaller on turn 1. We could wait for next turn in order to heal ourselves up again, but the chances of him getting a free Felguard, Voidcaller, Doomguard or Dread Infernal instead of a Blood Imp, Flame Imp or Voidwalker increase massively after he has played two of those minions on his turn 1 with coin.

Nerub'ar Weblord, Nerubian Egg or Haunted Creeper on turn 2/3?

Don't use Nerub'ar Weblord first, if we also got Nerubian Egg. It may tank the next shot, then. Also play Nerubian Egg over Haunted Creeper, but definitely play it on turn 3, if you can set up a Sen'jin Shieldmasta or Chillwind Yeti play. Nerub'ar Weblord will shine behind those taunts even in midgame, disabling Doomguard, Dread Infernal, along with making Blood Imp, Acidic Swamp Ooze and Felguard very pricy, as well. We don't suffer from this, as we don't run Battlecry-minions.

 Why no Dread Infernal?

It's just a 6-6 body and therefore tanks 1 less hit from Hero Power Eruption in comparison to Boulderfist Ogre. It also weakens and kills our minions with the Battlecry, but their exact health is crucial for this strategy to work. In short it hurts us more than it does hurt Heigan, so we prefer Stormwind Champion for the buffs.

 

That's all from my side. Feel free to ask any questions. Like the deck, as you please :)

Enjoy!