Trial by Felfire Challenges Guide – Decks & Strategy – Ashes of Outland Solo Adventure

Solo adventure for Ashes of Outland is finally out, offering a real challenge to those who breezed through the story mode of Trial by Felfire. With unique encounters and bosses which weren’t seen in the normal encounters, the path to unlocking your copy of a Golden Kael’thas is riddled with pitfalls. We’re here to help though: this battle-tested decklists and tactical suggestions should get you safely through the treacherous journey and tame a shattered world. Be careful: you can only rely on your Standard collection to get past your opponents! (Though Alexstrasza is available, these opponents do a good enough job pressuring you that it’s not actually relevant to complete the challenges: weather the storm and you should be able to win without the cheese.)

Deck #1 – Doom Lord Kazzak, Gruul the Dragonkiller


Deck Import

Kazzak: 50 HP, Passive Hero Power: After an enemy minion dies, restore 5 Health to your hero.

Gruul: 50 HP, Hero Power: 2 mana Auto-Cast – Deal 3 damage randomly split among all enemies.

The first two encounters are fairly straightforward and a meta build of Tempo Demon Hunter will get you through both of them with little difficulty. If you’re having trouble against Gruul, toss in minions like Amani Berserker to leverage the boss’ own hero power against it, or swap to Warrior for cards like Frothing Berserker, though this shouldn’t be necessary.

Deck #2 – Magtheridon, Supremus, Teron Gorefiend


Deck Import

Magtheridon: 60 HP, Hero Power: 1 Mana, Auto-Cast  – Summon a Manticron Cube; if you have 3 or more, deal 10 damage to the enemy hero instead.

Supremus: 60 HP, Hero Power: 0 mana, Auto-Cast – Deal 1 damage to all enemies; for each minion that dies, summon a 6/6 Abyssal.

Teron: 60 HP, Hero Power: 2 mana, Auto-Cast – Summon a 4/4 Shadowy Construct (with “After an enemy minion dies, deal 2 damage to the enemy hero”)

This is the point where you need to go for bespoke decks dedicated to the challenge. You need something with the ability to constantly remove the 3/5 Cubes (which damage Magtheridon upon death) while also being able to take out the massively buffed Taunts it spews out in the middle of the match. The Priest built listed below ticks both boxes by resurrecting Doomsayer upon Doomsayer in the early game until completing the quest, at which point you can take over the board with Batterheads and your new hero power. Once you’ve managed to exhaust Magtheridon’s hand, dealing with the Cube summons becomes straightforward. Just be careful with potential Doomsayer resurrects from that point on!

The same deck should also get you through the Supremus and Teron Gorefiend encounters. Fatigue is the name of the game here against the former, and as long as you keep the board clear and your health total high by efficiently removing the individual large threats and locking the opponent out from the board with Reborn Doomsayers (watch out for Lava Bursts though!), the endgame should be comfortable enough. Teron Gorefiend is essentially a combination of the two previous encounters and the three free removal spells added to your hand at the start will be important parts of the puzzle. Its plethora of Lich King cards at its disposal will occasionally throw a wrench in the works (Death Grip can be a pain and Army of the Dead will require an immediate response) but the same general strategy applies: stay alive, complete the Quest, stick a strong minion, use Galakrond, the Unspeakable in case of emergency to clear.

Deck #3 – Mother Shahraz, Lady Vashj


Deck Import

Mother Shahraz: 60 HP, 3 mana crystals, Passive Hero Power: The first time you are damaged each turn, prevent it and counterattack.

Lady Vashj: 60 HP, 3 mana crystals, Hero Power: 1 mana – Deal 3 damage to an enemy minion; if it survives, draw a card.

Mother Shahraz encounter is quite tricky because of a simple reason: Mother Shahraz is essentially immune to fatigue due to her passive hero power. We’ve adjusted the Priest deck for this encounter by adding a set of weapon removal cards.

Sul’thraze is the star of the show so try to hold back your Kobold Stickyfinger for that – don’t get too greedy though or you’ll get your head bashed in. Eventually, Mother Shahraz will be stuck with a hand of nothing but removal spells, plus a passive Hero Power which will necessitate having at least two minions on the board at all times so that you can push damage with one of them. Make sure you stock up on enough of them with Galakrond, the Unspeakable or you’ll find yourself worn down in the fatigue stages of this battle!

Lady Vashj encounter is pitifully simple as long as you don’t allow her to make use of her Evolve shenanigans. Keep clearing the board and she will eventually fatigue herself if nothing else. We’ve used the same Priest deck as we have for the Shahraz encounter as a test run and it ended up being a straightforward victory.

Deck #4 – Kael’thas Sunstrider


Deck Import

Kael’thas: 60 HP, 3 mana crystals, Passive Hero Power: After you cast a spell, shuffle a Pyroblast into your deck (it costs (5) less).

Oooh boy this is a nasty encounter. Kael’thas will never fatigue and will always pose a threat by killing you from hand. To stack up on hit points beyond thirty, we went for Warrior with this one. Though you can’t exhaust Kael’thas’ deck, you can certainly do so with his hand: in the ultra-late game, he essentially topdecks a hard removal each turn, which you can push past with a strong enough board.

So how do you get there? We’ve used a hugely underappreciated card to get the job done: Bulwark of Azzinoth is the only weapon in this deck, and we try to replay it as often as possible in the early stages of the game. Dr. Boom's Scheme can also save your life in this encounter. As for minions, the plan is to bring back the weapon with Hoard Pillagers, extend your deck with Body Wrapper, generate some additional resources with Grand Lackey Erkh (enabled by EVIL Quartermaster) and to pop off with Dragonqueen Alexstrasza at the tail end of the game. Untargetable minions work fantastically in this challenge, hence the inclusion of Evasive Wyrm and Evasive Drakonid. You’ll have to carefully plan out using these resources over the course of the game, replaying them with Youthful Brewmaster, Ancient Brewmaster and Barista Lynchen to generate additional resources. Kael’thas’ quasi-Freezing Trap spell can actually help you out with this gameplan, too. Al'ar and Pyros will be the main minion threats to keep an eye out on in this fight.

Deck #5 – Illidan Stormrage


Deck Import

Illidan: 60 HP + 20 Armor, 3 mana crystals, Passive Hero Power: After your Hero attacks, deal 1 damage to all enemies.

Oh look, it’s the encounter from the end of the story mode, with the slight difference that friendship won’t save you this time. With Illidan’s slate of powerful weapons and strong removal options, you need something special to take over the board. A minion with Lifesteal which… sort of… regenerates itself. Impossible, you say?

Well, a variation on an oddball Libram Paladin build with Replicat-o-tron got the job done for us, with added weapon removal buying us enough time to stick a large copy of the aforementioned minion with copious free Libram of Wisdoms and a Lightforged Blessing attached to it. All you need is a Silver Hand Recruit next to it at the end of your turn to keep the chain alive, and once the minions get big enough, they will immediately boost your health back up to 30, eventually pushing past everything Lord Illidan can wield.

Yellorambo

Luci Kelemen is an avid strategy gamer and writer who has been following Hearthstone ever since its inception. His content has previously appeared on HearthstonePlayers and Tempo/Storm's site.

Check out Yellorambo on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

11 Comments

  1. Khryistina
    April 1, 2021 at 8:14 AM

    None of the above decks work anymore now that the Barrens expansion has released I’m so sad ????

  2. Precizionhunting
    July 27, 2020 at 10:01 PM

    That first Doomlord deck is terrible… you literally give Doomlord so many small minions to wipe out that he is constantly gaining health back.

  3. Chansford
    June 28, 2020 at 10:58 AM

    Illidan is tough, few ways to beat with control but takes a while.

    The utter garbage Paladin deck in the article isn’t one of them though.

    • Chi.Spurger
      July 2, 2020 at 5:14 AM

      Indeed, that paladin deck was crap. 10+ tries without getting close…
      Also, while deck#3 works for sharaz, remove all weapon removal for vashj, those cards have no place there.

      I would have apreciated if cheaper decks were posted, lots of the epics recommended you could do without.

    • Selby01
      July 3, 2020 at 9:44 AM

      Beat Illidan first try with the Libram Pally, didnt have Replicatotron but replaced with Underbelly Ooze and was able to fill my board with them on Turn 9 comboing with Wild Pyromancer.

  4. Anggadaz
    June 26, 2020 at 1:51 AM

    i got golden kael,
    i mostly use ressurect/galak priest.
    i edit from this deck to my budget deck.

    1st deck, i replace with normal budget aggro DH.

    i add depth charge for 2nd/3rd deck (i exploit quest to heal depth charge, as long as it survive, i can make it like snow ball damage), i just add ooze for Mother Shahraz

    i add all dragon that cant target by spell for 4th deck (kael will not use pyroblast if my life still much, n he cant target my minion. he just do nothing. beware if play other minion he can play meteor or rolling to kill the dragon).

    i use more big minions n some small minion with ressurect priest for 5th deck, use paladin is hard to play. mostly i face dead end in early turn. priest is good cz has many area removal n big removal.

  5. MilesTegF
    June 25, 2020 at 2:58 PM

    Ive only done the first 4 so far, but they all went at first try using:
    1 and 2: Highlander Shaman (Control)
    3: Highlander Mage
    4: Highlander Hunter
    Note: All three decks i used without any alteration as how i use them in ladder.
    Magherithon was a close call tho…

  6. Sonriks6
    June 25, 2020 at 10:05 AM

    You can beat most of them with Alex, Ooze, Freeze spells and minions, and the 5 mana tech that destroys the armor. Quest Malylock and Gala Priest worked fine for me.