How to survive the Frostwyrm Lair - Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas tips and guide

After five weeks of waiting, we've finally arrived at the last stage of Naxxramas: the Frostwyrm's Lair.

It's a bit unfortunate, then, that after all that fanfare and the dangerous-sounding name, the Lair is a damp squib. It's only got two bosses and one class challenge, so it's a lot shorter than previous iterations.

On the up side, you can win some excellent cards here. The Echoing Slime that so annoyed us in the Construct Quarter is up for grabs. And the legendary, Kel'Thuzad himself, has the amazing battlecry of re-summoning everything that died that turn.

But while it's not too difficult to capture those treasures, beating the bosses on heroic is super-tough. So here's a rundown on how to get your card back and strike fear into your opponents.

This is the titular Frostwyrm, and he's a doozy.

Every turn he activates his hero power which destroys all non-frozen minions on your side of the board. Yes, you read that right: all of them, destroyed, every turn.

On normal mode, however, you're given a bit of a break in the shape of a free, permanently frozen minion you can hide behind. Cards adjacent to it are immune from Sapphiroth's frosty breath. So you can keep two minions in play.

While effortlessly decimating your own ranks, Sapphiroth busily fills his side of the board with powerful summons. You'll need to find a way to take care of those, too.

The solution is Mage-shaped. With a cap on the number of effective minions, direct damage is what's needed here and that's where Jaina excels.

Bulk up on every direct damage spells you've got access to, and be grateful that most are basic cards. Then up the pain quotient with some throwaway charge cards like Reckless Rocketeer and Wolfrider. If you've got Nerubian Egg from a previous Naxxramas Quarter, that's a solid addition. Leave it unprotected for a free 4/4 minion the following turn.

Finally, pad your deck with some Taunt minions to take the chill off your health total.

You could run a Druid to do this as well - especially if you've got some of their expert direct damage spells.

You'll still need a little bit of luck to slay this dragon. But if that's true of the normal version, it's true ten times over for heroic mode. Here you have no protection and all you're guaranteed to watch all your minions die the turn after summoning.

You'll need a good selection of Mage cards to have a chance in this fight. The principle is the same as on normal, except that Taunt minions become useless.

Instead replace them with freeze control cards like Blizzard and Cone of Cold. These will help stall the minions on the opposite side of the board. Finish up with protective secrets like Ice Barrier and Ice Block to give you a bit more staying power.

Without minions, it's the only way to roll. But you'll still be in the hands of fate as to whether your respective draws are kind enough to hand you a win.

Before you take on the final boss, you're showered with dire threats and warnings. "Kel'Thuzad doesn't play fair," the game intones.

Indeed he doesn't. He starts with ten armour and a free to use hero power that does two damage to your character every turn. Eat through that armour and he'll cut your turn short, instantly get two 3/3 Taunt minions, and a new power that lets him take control of your creatures.

So with all that build-up, it's a massive anti-climax to discover that he's easy to beat with an easily built deck.

That two damage each turn doesn't take long to snowball into serious pain. Plus, the lich has some powerful high-mana cards in his deck. So speed is of the essence.

Putting out lots of damage as fast as possible is the purview of rush decks and zoo decks. The Warlock zoo is a popular build, but many classes can manage a deck in this style. And pretty much all of them are capable of taking down Kel'Thuzad without any trouble at all.

Another feature of these sorts of decks is a reliance on lots of weak, cheap minions. In heroic mode, Kel'Thuzad does three damage each turn, which then transforms into the ability to permanently take control of one creature. Of course, if you're just piling up lots of feeble servitors to defeat him with sheer weight of numbers, that's not a lot of help. So the zoo deck is also pretty effective on heroic.

The other route is to build a classic Preist deck, with lots of healing to keep your life up while Kel'Thuzad slowly drains it. Getting a Lightwell out early is very helpful. Giving it Inner Fire is just frosting on the very cold cake.

It's likely to be a long fight, so keep your cards up with standard "Doctor Draw" combos while whittling down his minions with Power Words. But if you go with a Priest watch his minion stealing ability late game.

The final challenge in Naxxramas sees Uther facing down the master lich. But while the latter is a sucker for rush decks, your pre-built selection doesn't lend itself to this style at all.

Instead you're given a selection of useful cards, but ones that don't tend to synergise particularly well. With one notable exception: you've got a lot of buffs, and a lot of Echoing Oozes.

If you've played through previous quarters, you'll have seen this combo before. Echoing Ooze makes a copy of itself at the end of the turn. So summon one, buff it 'til it shines, then watch your super-powered minion duplicate itself.

That's the key to winning this deck. Save oozes until you can build their stats then smash them into the opposition. Meanwhile use your other cards to support your play.

It's not a guaranteed win. You need to stop that two damage each turn early, otherwise you won't have enough life to see out the game. The solution is an early play of Echoing Ooze and Blessing of Might to net two 4/2 minions on turn three.

So mulligan for those cards if you can, otherwise hope the draw is kind. And once you're done, you're done: a disappointing end to a fun series of challenges.