Rehgar Earthfury (Rogue boss)

Rehgar Earthfury is the first boss in Rogue's Book of Heroes adventure.

Decks
The below classes are listed purely for reference, and have no effect on the boss' use of the cards during the battle.

Strategy
Although it is tempting to transform Broll Bearmantle via Spellburst (using 0-mana Backstab against Training Totem) to upgrade his attack from 1 to 3, given that Broll's transformation actually has a healing effect, it could be valuable to trade a couple times with the totem and get him down to 1 health before using his Spellburst. Since his transformed state has Rush, this allows him to attack twice during that turn of transition for a total of 4 damage: using his Spellburst prior to him attacking effectively wastes the trade he's capable of.

Damaging the totem prevents targeting it with Backstab, but the spell can still be used against some of the lower-health minions which Rehgar plays later. This also allows it to trigger Combo effects, which you'll lack the Mana to do in the first turn.

Eviscerate, similarly, might be tempting to play early against the totem, but it can have a more beneficial effect in finishing off minions. By using your minions to defeat minions you'll whittle them down and take them out of play, and even risk them dying at the hands of the totem which will increase it's attack.

Cards which boost the weapon, rather than being used on the Rogue weapon, could be conserved until later to use on the higher-damage weapon cards Valeera has access to, which can lower the cost of a card-drawing card. Plus the weapon-boosting spells can be conserved for triggering the Spellburst, timing it for ideal Life conservation of Broll.

It's tempting to keep Stealth minions in reserve to quickly kill minions Rehgar summons, but he has Lightning Storm which target all minions which are able to kill stealth minions since it's not individually targeted. Lightning Storm is also a reason that it can be good to try and cycle Broll and Lo'Gash so that one of them is dormant while the other isn't: that way the Lightning Storm only hits one of them at a time instead of both, as Dormant minions aren't damaged.

Reghar regularly plays the sequence of Diligent Notetaker > Totemic Might, returning Totemic Might to his hand to extend the lifespan of his training totem. At 2 attack the Notetaker does more damage initially than the Training Totem, and the 3 Health they have make them perfect targets for trades with the stealthed Spymistress, allowing your main minions to focus on the totem and only taking 1 per turn.

This strategy differs when they only have 2 Health left though: in this case it's better to have them die attacking a minion, because if they're left with just 1 Health, the Training Totem can kill them and boost it's attack. If there's no minion to suicide against then it can be better just to not attack at all: let the Training Totem reduce them to 1 Health and then trade, since if it kills you during your own turn, this doesn't trigger it's attack-boosting text.

This threshold changes later when the Training Totem reaches 2 attack. Even if the player avoids letting it kill any minions, Rehgar will play Storm's Wrath to give it +1. At that point, one should not attack the totem with only 3 or 4 Health left (as that allows the Totem to counter next turn and get +1) instead opting to trade with other minions. If the totem attacks and reduces to 1 or 2 though, it's okay to die against it.

Using Dagger Mastery can allow drawing cards using Lo'Gash's inspire, though that's more useful later in the game when Mana is available and there's less in the hand. Early on it can be better to use Hasty Blade, since by the time it's used up, the random Charge it imparts (which is effectively like Rush in this battle since the enemy hero can't be damaged) can allow an instant attack via non-Rush minions like Vulpera Toxinblade. This is ideally done when Broll and Lo'Gash are either dormant or just awoke in which case they would also benefit from having Charge to get an extra turn of attack against the Training Totem: but being able to quickly kill the Notetakers using Toxinblade is generally better to avoid taking damage to Valeera/Broll/Lo'Gash who are the most important three.

Fantastic Firebird should be killed ASAP since it's Windfury doubles it's 3 attack to an output of 6 attack per turn. This can be hard with 5 Health, but it makes an ideal target for a 3-attack minion like Arcane Wraith to soften so that the Battlecry of Burrowing Scorpid can finish it off an impart Scorpid Stealth to protect it's 2 Health from the Training Totem which will be at 2 attack by that point due to Storm's Wrath.

Totem Goliath is a threat Rehgar plays later in the battle, and the basic totems summoned by his deathrattle can reverse your progress against the Training Totem as the Healing Totem will recover it's life, while the taunting totem will protect that. Killing Goliath is important to prevent it's 5 attack coming into play (Burrowing Scorpid's 5 attack is great for this, best not to waste it on a Training Totem trade) but it can be good to stockpile attack capacity so that some of the totems can be finished off in the same turn.

Dialogue
Before match
 * Valeera (present)
 * ''How would you define yourself? Would you look to your people, your country, your faction...? What if you'd lost all of them?
 * ''My parents died when I was young. When I left my homeland, I was captured and imprisoned.
 * ''Later, I learned I was headed for the arenas of Kalimdor...

Introduction
 * Rehgar Earthfury
 * ''You three do not look like much, but soon you will be gladiators. Training begins now! You win or you die.
 * Valeera
 * ''That's encouraging.

Emote Response
 * Rehgar Earthfury
 * ''I am training you for battle, not prattle.

Hero Power
 * Rehgar Earthfury
 * ''Be prepared for anything!
 * ''Expect the unexpected.
 * ''Try to improvise...

Idle
 * Rehgar Earthfury
 * ''Broll is here of his own free will. It seems he has no other outlet for his anger.
 * ''Dark magic lingers on that human. I wonder what happened to him?
 * ''Even if you lose, you will still taste the glory of the arena!

Turn 2
 * Broll Bearmantle
 * ''Rehgar, you cannot ask me to fight alongside a blood elf!
 * Valeera
 * ''We could just duel each other, old man.
 * Broll Bearmantle
 * ''Don't tempt me.

Turn 4
 * Valeera
 * ''And who's the amnesiac?
 * Lo'Gosh
 * ''I... don't know.
 * Valeera
 * ''At least you're pretty good.

Turn 6
 * Rehgar Earthfury
 * ''You must work together if you want to see another day.
 * Broll Bearmantle
 * ''Rehgar is right. We balance each other well.
 * Valeera
 * ''Broll can't be serious, can he?
 * Lo'Gosh
 * ''I think he is.

Death
 * Rehgar Earthfury
 * ''I knew it. You are the ideal team - powerful, strategic, and unrestrained. Now your real battle begins.
 * Valeera
 * ''I can't wait.

Defeat
 * Rehgar Earthfury
 * ''Maybe I should have stuck with training orcs...

Lore

 * '' is a shaman and one of Thrall's advisers. Before becoming Thrall's adviser, Rehgar was a successful slave master who "owned" Varian Wrynn while he was suffering from amnesia.


 * ''Following slaves' escape at Dire Maul, Rehgar realized that since his "heart was with them instead of the profit he could have made from their service", that he has had his fill of battle and the Crimson Ring. He has thus retired as a gladiatorial master and offering his services to Thrall, has been made the Warchief's trusted advisor. Rehgar and Garrosh Hellscream used to be in disagreement with each other: while Garrosh wanted to destroy the Alliance, who he considers the Horde's enemies, and take Azeroth for their own, Rehgar wanted to remain open to diplomacy with the Alliance and conserve their treaty of non-agression with.

Trivia

 * The artwork for this boss comes from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game "Blood of Gladiators" series, for the card Rehgar Earthfury.

Patch changes

 * Fixed a visual bug where Rehgar Earthfury would appear unable to attack despite being able to attack.
 * Added.