Hearthstone: Gothik the Harvester Heroic Guide for Druids

Gothik the Harvester is the second boss in Military Quarter and believe me, he is the most frustrating among all of the bosses that have been released so far. If you don't have certain decks like me (for example a Freeze Mage who could almost faceroll this), you will have to make do with cheaper, non-complete decks which makes the whole encounter even more frustrating. Gothik is actually the first boss I defeated in Curse of Naxxramas with a class other than Priest. I did try him with a Priest but it really didn't work out for me. Later on I found that my incomplete Ramp/Mill Druid to be the best counter to Gothik; however, it took me about an hour to defeat him. This is NOT an easy boss by any means so beware!

On normal mode Gothik the Harvester has 30 health and his hero power draws a card for 2 mana. Just like the Warlock hero power but without their obvious drawback. On heroic mode Gothik has 45 health, but his hero power gets a significant improvement, which I believe to be the best among all the Naxxramas bosses so far (the better their hero powers are, the worse it is for us). On heroic mode Gothik's hero power draws a card and gains him a mana crystal for only 1 mana! And Gothik is obligated to use this hero power every single turn! Imagine the worst zoo match up you can ever think of and multiply its frustration by 949884798378, that's what you will get with Gothik, endless wave of minions... Well up until he hits fatigue of course which will be the whole idea with this guide; to mill him as much as possible and possibly get him to burn a couple of cards in the process.

Gothik has a number of encounter specific minions. Just like in WoW, when you kill their humanoid versions on Gothik's side, you will summon their spectral versions on your side of the board but they will deal damage to your hero at the start of your every turn. Apart from these encounter exclusive Unrelenting minions, Gothik will also summon other minions like Deathcharger, Undertaker, Abomination and Crazed Alchemist. He also makes use of Warlock spells like Corruption and Shadow Bolt.

Here is the list of my Druid deck I used to defeat Gothik the Harvester on Heroic.

I have incomplete cards so I had to make do with what I had. For example I don't have a second Coldlight Oracle or Ancient of War, so if you have the second copies of these minions TAKE THEM! I used x2 Ironbark Protector instead as they are quite strong. Sea Giant can be a good commodity as you can summon it for free. I tried this deck with a more ramp style with Wild Growth but it was too slow so I replaced them. Deathlord, Mind Control Tech and Dancing Swords are all incredibly strong against this encounter especially for early game so no matter which class you are going for, don't forget to include them. 

The idea with this deck is to mill Gothik as much as possible and basically outlast him. If you get him to burn his strong cards like Unrelenting Raider, Abomination or Corruption; it will be a big success. Most of the time Gothik will piss you off by using Corruption on your strong minions, in this case there is nothing you can do but try to kill one of his minions. Gothik's AI is at least good enough to prevent him from trading his minions with your minion with Corruption. So if you have a big Taunt up with Corruption, Gothik will end turn without attacking it.

Naturalize is a great spell here to mill and burn his cards and to get rid of big threats like Unrelenting Rider or Abomination. Abomination is incredibly annoying as hell but you can use it to your advantage. Most of Gothik's minions don't have a lot of health so Abomination can get you a full board clear or if not at least get rid of many minions and some of your spectrals too so you won't receive extra damage from them! 

The idea with Mark of the Wild is to give your spectrals Taunt. This way while they stall Gothik, they will also get killed in the process so you will reduce damage to your hero every turn. I tried a variation of this deck with x2 Savage Roar to make extra use of spectrals but it didn't work out for me so I decided to replace them.

Mulligan: Look for Innervate, Dancing Swords, Deathlord. These minions can really help you early on in the game. If you have an Innervate and Deathlord, don't hesitate to use it on turn 1. Mind Control Tech can really decrease the pressure of your opponent by letting you take control of one of his minions. For late game you will really need your Ancient of War and Ironbark Protector. Druid of the Claw is a good mid game Taunter but in my game I had to use both of them as chargers against Abomination to wipe the board so keeping them for Abominations can be smart here (provided you still don't have your Swipes or you used them).

Strategy: Hell there is no clean strategy here. This encounter is completely based on how soon you can get your key cards to hold off the endless invasion. You will most likely need a lot of attempts before you eventually defeat him. I already explained the basics but let me explain briefly again. 

Deathlord and Dancing Swords for early game are a great way to hold off his minions AND mill him in the process. Mark of the Wild will be used on Spectrals in order to sacrifice them so we will buy ourselves more time and reduce the damage taken to our hero. Naturalize is best used on Unrelenting Raiders but sometimes can be used on Abomination too if it will ensure a good board clear. You will have to rely on your big Taunt minions like Ancient of War and Ironbark Protector in late game but if Gothik uses Corruption on them, RIP! If you have a second Ancient of War, take it! Sludge Belcher is also a great card even for late game as it withstands an attack from an Unrelenting Raider and still summons another Taunt when it dies. If you have too many Spectrals on your side, you can use Poison Seeds to turn them into 2/2 Treants. But whenever I used Poison Seeds, Gothik played an Abomination so I could never make good use of it which is why I cut 1 Poison Seeds from this deck (I initially had two). Keeper of the Grove can be used to silence a minion to prevent getting an extra spectral on your side or it can be used to finish off a minion with 2 health left. When Gothik hits Fatigue, he will keep using his hero power so he will start taking some serious damage. Isn't it funny though? AI is smart enough to not attack a minion with Corruption but at the same time it is stupid enough to draw cards even after fatigue.

This deck is all about trying to outlast Gothik, you don't worry about Gothik's health here. All you care about is successful board clear and try to get him to hit fatigue as soon as possible. As alternatives you can also try out mill Rogue decks with Shadowstep, Coldlight Oracle and Vanish, I'm sure it will be very successful but the best deck for this encounter is Freeze Mage. I'm sure any decent Freeze Mage will be able to defeat him after 2-3 attempts at the most. Unfortunately I don't have the cards to create a Freeze Mage so I had to come up with my own deck maybe that's why this took about an hour.

I am warning you, this fight will get excruciatingly painful at times but don't give up. I was this close to just quitting Heroics altogether but I ended up defeating him literally on my last try! Good luck, I really mean it, GOOD LUCK! I'd also like to say "have fun" but I don't think having fun from this boss can be possible.

PS, The Four Horsemen Heroic Guide will be uploaded later today.