Hearthstone 'One Night in Karazhan' Heroic Guide: The Menagerie

Hearthstone's "One Night in Karazhan" party is going late into the night, as you look for Medivh in his enchanted tower. Completing the regular adventure will net you all the cards, but the real bragging rights come with showing off your Heroic card back. That can only be gained by beating every single boss in Karazhan on the ultra-tough Heroic mode, meant to be taken on by the toughest challengers with the most powerful decks. 

Even if you've got a solid collection of Legendaries, it will probably take some clever deck editing to take down the bosses. We've battled our way through each of the bosses on Heroic, so check out our strategies below, and share your own in Chatty. Remember to set your decks as Wild when you're in the Collection Manager, since Wild decks can be used in Adventure and it opens up your options!

This week, the Menagerie: The Curator, Nightbane, and Terestian Illhoof.

The Curator 

Gallery Protection (Passive): Your hero has Taunt.

The Curator is the toughest boss of this wing, because his passive hero power means that he can throw minions at you that are hard to remove. In this case, your best defense is a good offense, because you need to throw damage at him faster than he can take you down. You simply won't be able to pack enough removal to play a real board control game, so focus instead on maximizing damage.

For this, we recommend an aggressive Zoo-style Warlock deck. That gives you lots of small, sticky minions that will be hard for him to remove. Be sure to pack in Defender of Argus to slow him down, and a Shadowflame for emergency board clears. Other than that, focus on getting lots of Imps on the board with cards like Imp Gang Boss and Implosion, and take advantage of your numbers with Darkshire Councilman.

Recommended Class: Warlock
Recommended Cards: Defender of Argus, Shadowflame, Imp Gang Boss

Nightbane 

Manastorm (Passive): Players start with 10 Mana Crystals.

Nightbane certainly looks intimidating, but he's actually a pushover. Since the Manastorm effect goes for both players, you can easily formulate a deck around big minions, since you're guaranteed to have enough mana to afford them right from the start. Consider packing Y'Shaarj for extra value, and bring Sylvanas Windrunner to steal anything big he might break out. Really, any standard Control deck should be able to handle him just fine. We used our regular N'Zoth Paladin deck, without any edits, and defeated him easily. 

Recommended Class: Paladin
Recommended Cards: Y'Shaarj Rage Unbound, Sylvanas Windrunner, Tirion Fordring

Terestian Illhoof 

Dark Pact (Passive): Only Icky Imps can damage Illhoof!

Terestian Illhoof can be pretty tough, since on Heroic mode his Icky Imps get upgraded to 2/2s. That makes them much less vulnerable to area-of-effect spells from classes like Mage and Warrior, and since they constantly regenerate like Dreadsteeds, you can never really clear them. It's easy to get overwhelmed by a board full of Icky Imps that can hit you for up to 14 damage per turn.

So instead of fighting them, bring them over to your side. Cards like Shadow Madness and Cabal Shadow Priest will make them work for you. Since the Deathrattles trigger on your board, you'll get the regenerated Imp from then on. At that point, anytime you use an Icky Imp to beat another Icky Imp, you're doing 4 damage to Illhoof. 

The only problem with this strategy is surviving until you can get it rolling. For that, we recommend packing Deathlords, Power Word: Shields, Flash Heals, and your healing MVP, Priest of the Feast. Plus, bring some mass removal like Holy Nova to do huge damage all at once.

Recommended Class: Priest
Recommended Cards: Shadow Madness, Cabal Shadow Priest, Priest of the Feast