Tommy J’s Cheap Heroic Lord Slitherspear Mage

Tommy J generously allowed us to host his decks and guides using (mostly) Basic cards to take down The League of Explorers Heroic bosses. Be sure to check out his YouTube Channel.

This in my opinion one of the hardest bosses we’ve seen to date – his hero power (Endless Hunger) is crazy, and without your little Murloc buddy Sir Finley Mrrgglton there to swap it for you in heroic it can very quickly get out of hand. Unfortunately, it’s not just the hero power that makes this fight difficult – the Slithering Archer (Heroic) cards he has mean that it’s pretty much impossible to rush him down early. One thing I found however is that if for whatever reason he can’t play his hero power, the next time it’s used it will spawn what would have been next (as in, it doesn’t skip to spawning a minion with attack/hp based on the turn). For example, if you were to play a Saboteur on turn 3 and he couldn’t use his hero power, his spawn on turn 4 would be a 3/3, not a 4/4 as it would have otherwise been. Speaking of, unfortunately I did need to add the Saboteur to this deck, which is a rare and costs 100 dust to craft. I don’t think this boss would be possible without serious RNG (though I did get pretty close without it a few times!).

Anyway, the general strategy is do your best to hold board control early while hoarding certain spells such as Frost Nova or Flamestrike. The best possible plays in my opinion would be a Saboteur on turns 3 and 4 in order to prevent him playing his hero power, then a Summoning Stone on turn 5. If you can manage to achieve this it will give you the time to ramp up and I would imagine given the right spells you could win without too much trouble. Personally I didn’t see my Saboteurs until much later in the game when I managed to do it, but early on they are absolutely godly for helping you get that much needed control.

Mulligan

If you happen to get a Summoning Stone, Frost Nova or Saboteur in your opening hand, don’t throw them away as they are key cards in this strategy. You may want to also keep Elven Archers, and potentially Arcane Missiles as they are very strong early plays. I found that Mirror Image is better played late, so these are something that I would recommend you throw away unless you find they’re helping you out a lot early.

Card Additions

More cards that will help with control and have synergy with Summoning Stone, for example Cone of Cold, Ice Block, Blizzard or even Pyroblast. I seriously cannot recommend Blizzard enough, particularly if you manage to get a turn 5 Summoning Stone. If you have it, Kel'Thuzad is absolutely incredible for this fight, since once you get him behind a taunt or two he is literally unkillable. Just make that that if you add him, you add some taunts as well! Also, any 1 or 2 cost minions that are stronger than a Murloc Raider or River Crocolisk (for example Zombie Chow).

Cards to Remove

If you can replace them with something better, Murloc Raider/River Crocolisk (basic cards are seriously lacking in 1 or 2 drops that can take a 2 damage hit and live). Water Elemental can be replaced if you have a better turn 4 play, as can Elven Archer if you’re finding the early game easy due to replacing other cards.