Russell the Bard

Russell the Bard is a boss that can be encountered during the Dungeon Run.

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

Strategy
His Hero Power makes it difficult to establish a board early on, and will be especially difficult if you don't have any big late-game minions in your deck. He also has a good set of early-game single-target removal to make this harder as well.

The best way to deal with him is to either last long enough to play your big minions or flood the board. His strongest minion is a Shado-Pan Rider, so he will have a difficult time taking out big minions, unless he has an Onyx Spellstone. Flooding the board works well because he lacks AoE removal and even if you let him steal a minion, he can only steal one at a time.

Dialogue
Before match
 * King Togwaggle
 * This guy's songs make the whole world go face!

Introduction
 * Russell the Bard
 * ''Stay a while, and listen!

Emote Response
 * Russell the Bard
 * Oh, a heckler, eh?

Hero Power
 * Russell the Bard
 * General
 * ''Get over here!
 * ''Come here!
 * ''It's time to party!
 * Doomsayer
 * ''Worst. Roadie. Ever!
 * Elven Minstrel
 * ''Time for a duet!

Play Dr. Boom's Boombox
 * Russell the Bard
 * ''Oh hey! Turn that thing down!

Death
 * Russell the Bard
 * ''*guitar smashing* Goodnight Azeroth!

Defeat
 * Russell the Bard
 * Thanks for your minions, friend!

Lore
Russell is a regular patron of the inn. He was the one who told the story of Marin the Fox. He is also a bard.


 * The Bard was revealed as the second World of Warcraft'' hero class on April 1, 2008 — it was a Blizzard April Fools' Day hoax, and was never implemented as a real playable class.

Trivia

 * Russell the Bard's opening remark quote is a reference to the Diablo character Deckard Cain, the scholar and lorekeeper from the Diablo series.
 * After the player becomes idle, Russell the Bard will sing the Kobolds and Catacombs song from the Expansion trailer.
 * Russell is likely a reference to (or the same character as) Russell Brower, a dwarven bard NPC located in the Twilight Highlands who himself is named after a Blizzard musical contributor of the same name.

Patch changes

 * Added.