Tommy J’s Cheap Heroic Rafaam Unleashed Priest

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.

Artifacts actually made this really fun. I would imagine as a non-priest class I would have hated it, but I found that there was an awesomeness to the fight since you had to not only plan around the cards in his deck, but also that super buffed legendary that appears every few turns. Unfortunately, when I was playing this fight I was just misplaying over and over, but did still manage to get it down despite that. So yeah, awesome fight, but there was that degree of RNG since both Artifacts and the Legendary minions come out in random orders every match.

As far as strategy for this fight goes, the main thing you need to keep in mind is that Rafaam has a lot of board clear such as Twisting Nether and Flamestrike, so make sure you don’t play your entire hand because you can lose it all in an instant. Try to always have something planned in reserve in case you do lose your board on the next turn.

If you get Lothar's Left Greave, try your best to hold it for when he summons a board full of mummies, as they can be difficult to deal with. Obviously if you need to use it to live do so, but keep that in mind.

Also, Lady Naz'jar (Heroic) has an interesting interaction with the other heroes – when her ability activates, it won’t change any of the other legendaries (even if they’re on your side of the board).

Just a note: Burgle (gives 2 of the opponents class cards) will give you 2 coins if you play it. One card to look out for is the Naga Sea Witch – if it’s played all of his 10 cost Artifacts will only cost 5 and you can lose pretty quickly if he gets a few off (for example Lantern of Power, give a minion +10/+10).

With respect to the actual boss Legendaries, there are two specific things to look out for. Firstly, since you have Entomb/Mind Control, you can obviously get some of those Legendaries for yourself. However, in my opinion you shouldn’t use either of those on Giantfin (Heroic). You will have plenty of cards due to your hero power and will end up milling yourself (obviously if you have no other answer it’s probably better than taking multiple 10 hits to the face). Secondly, you can’t mind control Chieftain Scarvash (Heroic) since there is no way to get 12 mana, so you’ll need to hold a different card as an answer to him. It’s also worth noting that if you play a spell when Scarvash is out and have a Summoning Stone, it will increase its cost to what you actually pay, not the original (i.e. 3 mana Shadow Word: Death would cost 5, so you get a 5 cost minion).

Mulligan

So in order of things you’re looking for, I’d want Shadow Word: Death, 2 Cost Minions (Discover > Murloc Tidehunter), Summoning Portal, Shadow Word: Pain.

Card Additions

Lightbomb is a good one if you find yourself lacking removal late. Faceless Manipulator is amazing, particularly if used on an Archaedas (Heroic) (as your Archaedas will turn his into a statue if it’s the only thing on the board) or used on any of the others before you remove them via other means.

Cards to Remove

Northshire Cleric is pretty much useless in this deck, so would be the first thing to remove. Voodoo Doctor and Murloc Tidehunter would be the next two sets of cards to take out.