Hearthstone’s League of Explorers: Temple of Orsis guide

Now that the League of Explorers has gone live, players will be assisting the Reno and company as they attempt to help retrieve the Staff of Origination. This adventure introduces a number of new cards along with the Discover mechanic. The first wing consists of three encounters with the last one being one of the more unique ones. Go ahead and give the adventures a shot on your own first but if you get stuck, check back here to the guide along with a few recommendations.

Other Wings

• Uldaman Guide
• Ruined City guide
• Hall of Explorers

Warrior and Warlock class challenges can be unlocked once you’ve cleared out normal.

Rewards from Temple of Orsis

• Explorer’s Hat
• Jeweled Scarab
• Anubisath Sentinel
• Ancient Shade
• Obsidian Destroyer
• Dark Peddler
• Sacred Trial
• Rumbling Elemental
• Summoning Stone
• Djinni of Zephyrs
• Reno Jackson

Zinaar

First up is Zinaar, a Djinn! His Hero Power is Djinn’s Intuition which allows him to draw a card while granting us wish cards. Some of these wishes put the new Discover mechanic to good use, like Wish for Valor or Wish for Glory. Aside from the hero power, there’s nothing insanely difficult about him. The wishes will eventually grant you extra minions that you can use to eventually overwhelm the board.

Rewards: Djinni of Zephyrs

Normal mode

Zinaar should be a piece of cake on normal with all the potentially free cards you get from the wishes he hands you. Your ultimate game plan is to try to delay to the late game if you’re struggling to kill him. He uses his Hero Power every turn which means he’ll run out of cards and threats eventually. Taunt up or control the board with spells. Use the Discover mechanic to select the cards that will help you maintain board control.

Heroic mode

Zinaar starts with 15 armor and 2 mana crystals when you challenge him on heroic mode. His Hero Power lets him draw a card, grants us wish cards, and gives him an extra mana crystal. I recommend playing a modified Tempo Mage or Freeze Mage deck for this one. You can modify the deck a little by removing draw spells. The wish cards you’ll receive will buff your Mana Wyrm, activate Flamewaker, and provide you with spells or minions to help you contest the board. Many of his minions have high health especially early on. You need room to stabilize. I was able to take Zinaar out on the first try, but it took me another 9 or so attempts before I could get him again. The Discover aspect can make the game either really easy or tough.

Matt’s deck: Mage

Sun Raider Phaerix

On the bright side (since he is a Sun Raider), Phaerix’s passive Hero Power grants hero immunity depending on whoever controls the Rod of the Sun. The Rod is an 0/5 minion on the board which changes sides whenever it is destroyed. Watch out for his minions like Tol’vir Hoplite.

Rewards: Summoning Stone

Normal mode

As a tip, the Rod can also be silenced to prevent it from constantly switching back and forth. It doesn’t make you invulnerable if it is silenced so you can’t use any cheesy Warlock tactics. The Hoplites can be frustrating to deal with but their low health opens them up to early removal spells or beneficial trades with your smaller minions. Once you destroy the Rod on Phaerix’ side, you can attempt to protect it with your own set of taunt minions or keep it’s health up with a variety of healing spells. It functions as a minion so feel free to buff it and use it offensively.

Matt’s deck: Warlock

Heroic mode

The Rod’s stats have changed. It’s now a 3/8 due to a buff from being on Phaerix’s side of the board. Also, controlling the rod does not grant you immunity. I had to restart the match a few times until I was able to obtain a draw that involved Shadow Word: Pain. If you don’t want to deal with the Rod, you can simply silence it out. I went for the Divine Spirit and Inner Fire strategy here. Tol’vir Hoplites come out fairly early in the game so you’ll want to draw into Shadow Word: Deaths or have some big taunt minions augmented with a Power Word: Shield or Velen’s Chosen to outlast them. Originally, I tried a Dragon Priest variant but it didn’t last as long as I’d hoped. You can sub out the Twilight Guardian for something else like a Loatheb and a Sylvanas. I like the Azure Drakes for the card draw.

Matt’s heroic deck: Priest

Temple Escape

The last encounter within Orsis isn’t actually a boss encounter. Your goal here is to “escape” by staying alive for 10 turns while you navigate through a variety of obstacles. Every so often, you’ll get choices affecting the match. There is no hero you can attack. The obstacles appear to be on a set scale. Here’s a reference of what cards I chose when given a choice:

• Wade through for the extra Mana Crystal
• Swing across and risk taking 10 damage
• Either one works although I took the restore 10 health option
• Take the Shortcut out for a quicker game

Rewards: Rumbling Elemental

Normal mode

If you haven’t learned how to strategically place your minions yet, the Rolling Boulder offers you a perfect reason on why you’ll usually want to place your minions to the right. Cards like Orsis Guard and Animated Statue will threaten your ability to escape the temple. Focus on surviving by removing minions or stalling out the turn and preventing enemy minions from attacking.

Heroic mode

On heroic mode, the minions get much bigger and much more tough. About halfway through the match, the ceiling will fall and wipe out the whole board for you. I recommend going Mage on this one due to the number of stalling cards available. Frost Nova, Cone of Cold, and Doomsayers will buy you some time as the turn timer slowly ticks downwards. Throw in a Blizzard for good measure.

Matt’s heroic deck: Mage

Some of the encounters in this wing, especially the first two, might take a few tries before you eventually knock them over. The card you get for completing the wing is Reno Jackson. When played, he’ll heal you back up. It’s important to note that you don’t need to have 30 individual cards in your deck. In order to trigger his Battlecry, your deck needs to only have individual copies of cards remaining. If you drew a Frostbolt but still have a Frostbolt inside your deck somewhere, it still counts as one copy. Aside from Reno, Jeweled Scarab and Dark Pedder are amazing and should see inclusion in future decks. Individually, they’re not much to look at, but the cheap Discover mechanics provide excellent options. Rumbling Elemental provides some neat deck ideas for Shaman with the Battlecry synergy.

What classes or decks have you used to defeat these encounters? I’m always curious to see what other players are using.