Xatma, Plague Lord of Death

Xatma, Plague Lord of Death is the final boss in Chapter 3 of Tombs of Terror.

Decks
This boss has 30 cards for each of three phases. During the phase change, Xatma's deck is replaced by a new one and he draws three extra cards before his main deck. But if the battle continues after defeat in the second or third phase, Xatma won't have extra cards in the second or third phase respectively.

Strategy
Xatma is the strongest of the first four Plague Lords. This is due not only to his decks, but also to the hero powers, which exert the most pressure on all three phases compared to the other three Plague Lords. Xatma tries to activate as many Deathrattles as possible and then begins to resurrect them. A huge quantity of Taunts, removals (including Deathrattle minions) and Lifesteal make face-rush tactics useless regardless of the phase - this will not only give the boss an easy opportunity to take the board, but also to restore the damage received. Therefore, during walkthrough of Chapter 3, focus on building a swarm deck and looking for cards that generate resources rather than having big stats. This will allow to deal much more damage to the boss than with aggressive play. This is also due to the fact that most of the player's minions will be dying quickly from enemies' Deathrattles or Plague of Death.

Despite the twist of Chapter 3 is synergistic with Deathrattles, Eternal Tomb will not cause much trouble in this battle. At first, in most cases random generated minions will be much weaker than most of the minions in Xatma's decks. At second, they significantly spoil the graveyard for the future Hadronox, N'Zoth, the Corruptor, Catrina Muerte, Twilight's Call, and Nine Lives. The most desirable random Deathrattle is Lucentbark. If this minion appears, kill it as many times as possible to fill Xatma's table with dormant minions that will be almost impossible to awaken, as well as to reduce the effect of resurrecting cards (this can be most easily done during the second phase). The more sleeping Lucentbarks there are on the Xatma's board, the more boss will be limited in playing minions, which will allow to easily control the board. Currently the only exception with Eternal Tomb tactics is Rattlegore - if it appears on the board, remove it from play without killing it as quickly as possible. Otherwise it will cause the need for much more same tools after Xatma will strat to resurrect an army of sticky 9/9s minions.

Note that Xatma will not be holding Plague of Death in hand even if he has 2 or more minions in play against the player's strong full board. Also while playing in Normal mode during Phase 3 the player can safely forget about boss' N'Zoth, the Corruptor and Hakkar, the Soulflayer because of auto-cast of third hero power that cost (1).

The most useful passives and treasures in this encounter:

1) Glyph of Warding blocks such dangerous cards as Hakkar, the Soulflayer and N'Zoth, the Corruptor. Furthermore, it rather slows Xatma's tempo which is very important not only at the very beginning of battle.

2) Rocket Backpacks give a huge value in all three phases, not only countering hero powers (eliminating the targets for Deathrattle activation, killing the weakest minions and adjusting to AoE respectively), but also protecting from damage to the hero.

3) Band of Bees provide an easy trades throught the battle.

4) Lucky Spade (powerful with Bubble Blower) / Elixir of Vigor (preferably combined with Elixir of Vim). Xatma will easily outlast most of the player's resources so it's very important to be able to generate them as much as possible not hoping for the deck only.

5) Phaoris' Blade (preferably with First Aid Kit or other decent healing) / Truesilver Lance. Xatma does not have weapon removals and most of his minions have a low attack so an infinite weapon allows to kill the enemy minions relatively safely before playing your owns.

6) Runaway Gyrocopter / Addarah / Scales of Justice. Xatma has several N'Zoth, the Corruptors and Hardonoxs to refill his board, so consistently having a card that can help to deal with it can be a useful asset. Addarah will reduce the graveyard for resurrecting cards and Scales of Justice not only that but also win a little time and fill a graveyard for Catrina Muerte. Both signature treasures are preferable to use in the most dangerous moments.

His first hero power is the strongest as it allows him to trigger any his Deathrattles multiple times for 0 mana. The most unpleasant minions during this phase are Sylvanas Windrunner and Stalagg with Feugen. The best way to play around Sylvana is to save the most valuable minions for later play and make sure that by turn 4-6 the player has a removal in hand to get rid of Sylvana immediately. In general, it does not matter what kind of Deathrattle minion Xatma is playing, kill it as quickly as possible, otherwise it will easily snowball with constant and free getting value from Deathrattles no matter how strong they are. Also, this hero power is very good target for copying with Stolen Titan Secrets treasure.

In the second phase the player has to slightly change the tactics. During this phase the boss tries to trade rather than kill the player's minions without losing his owns. Destroy the weakest minions first to make it easier to kill the rest. Since the hero power is an aura (like effect of Frost Lich Jaina or Crystal Core), giving Silence on a minion before the first death will not affect the activation of Reborn. Thus the player needs to play carefully to do not constantly lose the minions from semi-infinite Deathrattles or Plague of Death, and thus make sure that not only the boss benefits from his hero power. For example, try to firstly kill a minion with Battlecry, such as N'Zoth or Da Undatakah, or weak Deathrattle minions (Bloodmage Thalnos, Dead Ringer, Dark Cultist). Such minion as Octosari is preferable to kill no more than once per turn at all for huge milling of Xatma.

Also, as mentioned above, the other most desirable enemy minion in the second phase is Lucentbark, which can appear from the Eternal Tomb. The only difficulty in his repeated destroing is rare free space on Xatma's board for summoning the second Lucentbark, so filling the boss' table with dormant minions would not be quick.

The third phase is the easiest in this battle. The hero power can help to control the board again, giving a choice of either not giving the boss AoE at all or bringing Xatma's minions closer to removing. Since Xatma always gets only one copy of Untimely Demise regardless of the number of minions killed, it does not make sense to constantly spending the resources (playing a lot of cards from hand or to keep the minions on the board as long as possible) to prevent a not too dangerous AoE. Excessive board control can hurt here more than help.

Introduction

 * Reno Jackson
 * ''A plague of... DEATH!? Aren't you kinda skipping a few steps?
 * Sir Finley
 * ''You seem the unpleasant type. Death, I presume?
 * Elise Starseeker
 * ''The League of Explorers has faced death before - I do not fear you!
 * Brann Bronzebeard
 * ''So yer the Plague Lord of Death? Not. Impressed.


 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * ''Death's embrace awaits...
 * ''Nothing can stop death...
 * Treasures will not save you. (vs. Reno Jackson)
 * The Light cannot drown out death. (vs. Sir Finley)
 * All of your knowledge… wasted. (vs. Elise Starseeker)
 * The titans cannot hear you, dwarf. (vs. Brann Bronzebeard)

Player's returning after defeat
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * Phase 1
 * ''The shadow of your demise looms.
 * ''Its pursuit will never cease.
 * Phase 2
 * ''You will find no salvation.
 * ''You cannot escape.
 * Phase 3
 * ''The end awaits.
 * ''Your time is running out.
 * ''Death itself cannot be stopped. You shall see.

Battle
Emote Response
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * ''Keep talking...

Hero Power
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * Foreboding Fate
 * ''Death and rebirth are one.
 * ''Let it pour over you.
 * ''Life is a fickle thing.
 * ''Rise from your grave!
 * ''Your extermination is imminent.
 * Death's Embrace triggers
 * ''It is coming for you.
 * ''So it shall be.
 * ''The end is inevitable.
 * ''Unrelenting. All consuming.
 * Death's Gaze
 * ''Do you feel the chill of death?
 * ''It will not be avoided.
 * ''The cold darkness consumes all.
 * ''The end of times. How quaint.
 * ''This tomb will not contain me.

Idle
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * ''Death waits... this time.
 * ''Do you know how hard it is to make friends?
 * ''Don't fall asleep...
 * ''I suppose you have a little bit of time...
 * ''It does get tiresome being so. non-corporeal.
 * ''It is getting darker in here, it's not just you.

Phase changing
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * Transition to Phase 2
 * ''This will be your downfall.
 * Transition to Phase 3
 * ''Your extinction is forthcoming.

Twist - Plague of Death triggers
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * ''Death is unstoppable...
 * ''Nothing living escapes this tomb...
 * ''Come deeper into the darkness...

Boss cards
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * Untimely Demise
 * ''This will be YOUR tomb!
 * Forbidden Words
 * ''Death comes for the strong, too.
 * Shadow Word: Pain
 * ''The meek will fall.
 * Shadow Word: Death
 * ''Simple and direct.
 * Psychopomp
 * ''Worshippers of death itself… they will do nicely.
 * Shadow of Death
 * ''Into the shadows of death itself...
 * Plague of Death
 * ''The darkness overtakes.
 * ''This charade ends now.
 * DOOM!
 * ''It is time.

Player's cards
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * Burgle
 * ''Stealing from death - how poetic!
 * Shadow Word: Death
 * ''Is that your favorite word too?
 * Sylvanas Windrunner
 * ''This one has seen a LOT of death... very interesting.
 * The Lich King
 * ''The Lich King sought mastery over death… but could not escape.
 * Plague of Death
 * ''Oooh, you're coming around on it.

Death
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * ''Curious...

Defeat
 * Xatma, Plague Lord of Death
 * ''It is your nature to fight death. And lose.
 * ''You challenge death itself and hope to prevail?
 * ''Your light is expiring...

Lore
Xatma is unique to Hearthstone. It is one of the five sources of plagues that Rafaam has unleashed into Uldum. Xatma is the embodiment of the Plague of Death.

Patch changes

 * Saviors of Uldum logo.png Hotfix (2019-09-21): Fixed the issue causing Plague Lord presistent health fail to save.
 * Added.