Welcome, fellow achievement hunter.
Ever since the introduction of the rewards track, each expansion has always brought us a handful of achievements to complete in order to gain more rewards: while some of them are relatively easy to complete, some others may take some time or a proper set up. In case you're wondering what's the best way to gain all that sweet sweet XP locked behind Throne of the Tides' achievements, do not fret, as we have the answer you're looking for!
In this guide we'll focus our attention on the Throne of the Tides achievements and provide at least one way to complete each of them so that you'll be able to get closer to the end of your reward track.
Novelty: starting from the Voyage To The Sunken City Achievement Guides, we're introducing the Related Achievements criterion, which basically goes to show if a certain achievement has a strong relation with another one (be it from the same class or from the Neutral section), and therefore if they are beneficial for each other from the completion point of view. All in all, it says if you can hit two (or more) birds with a single stone!
Disclaimer: as always, all expansion achievements can be completed in Ranked Standard, Ranked Wild, Arena, Casual & Heroic Duels and Classic - Casual Standard, Casual Wild and Tavern Brawl will not count towards your hunt! Moreover, we'll always take Ranked Standard as the default game format for our strategies: if we happen to have some strategies or particular interactions belonging to other modes to highlight, we'll be sure to specify it.
Here are all the achievements we're going to complete together:
- Azsharan Idol - Deal 50/70 damage with a single Topple the Idol.
- Twice in a Blue Moon - Deal 30/60 damage with Moonbeam.
- You Can Pet the Dog - Summon 25/50 minions with K9-0tron.
- What? Lady Naz’jar is Evolving! - Play Lady Naz'jar in 2 different Forms/in her Fire, Frost and Arcane forms.
- Maximum Occupancy: 14 - Summon 50/100 minions with Front Lines.
- Lather, Rinse, Repeat - Increase the cost of enemy cards by 20/40 with Disarming Elemental.
- Two Pair - Add 2 cards of the same Cost to your hand with Jackpot! 1/3 time(s).
- What the Tide Brought in - Summon 20/40 2/2 copies of Murlocs with Tidelost Burrower.
- We DID Start the Fire - Incinerate 15/30 cards with Immolate.
- Release the Kraken! - Play 5/10 Colossal minions from other classes as Warrior.
- Harold Who? - Trigger the Battlecry effects of 25/50 Herald Naga.
- Killamari - Destroy 3/6 enemies at once with Ozumat’s Deathrattle effect.
Moreover, in case you're still missing some Sunken City achievements, worry not, as we have some guides (with decklists!) ready for you:
Table of Contents
How to Complete the "Azsharan Idol" Demon Hunter Achievement
- Requirement: Deal 50/70 damage with a single Topple the Idol.
- Speed Rating: 5/5
- Related Achievements:
- Neutral's Seashells by the Seafloor
- Neutral's Harold Who?
This guide starts off with a rather simple achievement, which can be completed in just one game. In order for us to get Azsharan Idol done, we need just three things:
- Topple the Idol in hand, of course.
- An expensive card to Dredge.
- A crowded board.
In particular, here's how expensive the card to Dredge has to be based on how many minions there are on the board.
MANA COST | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |
MINIONS ON BOARD | 14 | 12 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
In order for us to be sure to Dredge an expensive card, Ambassador Faelin is crucial (and it's also a free Legendary, so everyone should own it!): in fact, the cheapest Colossal costs 7 mana, which saves up a decent chunk of work by our side.
- Draw and play Ambassador Faelin.
- Have both Topple the Idol and a couple summoners in hand (Wings of Hate (Rank 1)/Illidari Strike).
- Summon enough minions so that there are at least 10 units across the entire board.
- Cast Topple the Idol and Dredge a 7+ Cost Colossal.
We can also do this in Wild, where the achievement hunting MVP Mad Summoner is going to help us. For this occasion, we are going to follow pretty much the same procedure you just read, implementing the aforementioned unit and its synergy with Raging Felscreamer.
- Draw and play Ambassador Faelin.
- Discount your Mad Summoner with either Raging Felscreamer or Skull of Gul'dan.
- Have both Topple the Idol and a Mad Summoner in hand.
- Play Mad Summoner.
- Cast Topple the Idol and Dredge a 7+ Cost Colossal.
How to Complete the "Twice in a Blue Moon" Druid Achievement
- Requirement: Deal 30/60 damage with Moonbeam.
- Speed Rating: 3/5 in Standard, 5/5 in Wild
- Related Achievements: none.
Let's be honest: when Moonbeam was revealed, every single veteran player thought about Malygos Druid - the card seems to be designed exactly for such archetype. For Twice in a Blue Moon, we advise you to go to Wild, as things will be exponentially easier there.
- Draw your deck.
- Capture Coldtooth Mine will always draw Maly, acting as a useful tutor.
- Play Malygos and summon additional copies of it with Germination/Solar Eclipse shenanigans.
- Get as many copies of Moonbeam as you can.
- Moonlit Guidance and Nature Studies have a chance to help.
- Cast all the Moonbeams you have, possibly in combination with Solar Eclipse.
- Be sure to not kill your opponent before being done with all the Moonbeam casts: sometimes you may want to target minions instead of the enemy's face.
However, we are aware that not everyone owns or is willing to craft Malygos, so we tried to build a "Standard Malygos" Druid: it's less efficient, it will complete Twice in a Blue Moon at a significantly lower pace, but it won't cost a lot of dust and, more importantly, it will still get the job done.
- The combo is Guild Trader into Guild Trader into Moonbeam for a total of 10 damage per cast.
- If you add a single Talented Arcanist to the mix, the damage dealt will increase to 14.
- School Teacher's Nagalings have a chance to Discover additional copies of Moonbeam.
- Although Nagalings are not spells, they do cast them, so their Battlecry is still affected by Spell Damage buffs.
- Both School Teachers, Nagalings and Talented Arcanists have synergy with Brann Bronzebeard.
- Wildheart Guff is not necessary but highly recommended.
How to Complete the "You Can Pet the Dog" Hunter Achievement
- Requirement: Summon 25/50 minions with K9-0tron.
- Speed Rating: 1/5
- Related Achievements:
- Neutral's Seashells by the Seafloor
Remember the Gotta Catch 'Em All Hunter achievement from the Onyxia's Lair Mini-Set? Well, this is a faster version of it, although the Dredge requirement can potentially make things more frustrating.
Just like for Twice in a Blue Moon, we recommend you to go to Wild, as there are a few key tools for you to speed things up remarkably. Namely:
- Ursatron is a cheap K9-0tron tutor.
- Wild has a large variety of 1-drops to choose from, most of which are very good even when summoned from your deck.
- Stitched Tracker has a chance to give you additional doggos or something useful like a Brann Bronzebeard or a Devouring Swarm.
If you want to stick to Standard, here's a list you could run.
- Always play K9-0tron in combination with Brann Bronzebeard for a double proc.
- If played correctly, Devouring Swarm will return both K9-0tron and Brann to your hand for even more procs.
- Zola the Gorgon and Youthful Brewmaster are flexible inclusions.
- To be fair, you can include any 1-drop you want: we chose the most powerful ones, but picking others won't change much.
How to Complete the "What? Lady Naz'jar is Evolving!" Mage Achievement
- Requirement: Play Lady Naz'jar in 2 different Forms/in her Fire, Frost and Arcane forms.
- Speed Rating: 4/5
- Related Achievements:
- Neutral's Army of Azshara
- Neutral's Amalgam Aquarium - If you target a Naga, Amalgam of the Deep can give you additional copies of Lady Naz'jar.
Long story short, we need to play Lady Naz'jar in all its three forms. Fortunately for us, Crushclaw Enforcer exists, so we can build a deck with Enforcer and Naz'jar as the only Naga and use the former to tutor the latter with ease.
- Cycle through your deck until you manage to draw Lady Naz'jar.
- Play either a Fire, Frost or Arcane spell with Naz'jar in hand.
- Play Lady Naz'jar.
- Rinse and repeat for the other two Spell School.
- Returning Lady Naz'jar to your hand with, let's say, Youthful Brewmaster won't revert to its initial form, but it will stay with the last Battlecry it gained while in your hand.
- You'll need to concede and play another two games!
- Make sure to always save up a spell from the Spell School you need, so that you'll allow Lady Naz'jar to morph into the form you want.
How to Complete the "Maximum Occupancy: 14" Paladin Achievement
- Requirement: Summon 50/100 minions with Front Lines.
- Speed Rating: 2/5 in Standard, 4/5 in Wild
- Related Achievements: none.
Maximum Occupancy: 14 is annoying for the fact that Front Lines stops summoning minions once one side of the board is full: if you're behind on the board (something which is likely to happen), you'll struggle to progress the achievement remarkably.
With this being said, here are two ways to complete Maximum Occupancy: 14. The first one is for Standard and consists of playing Big Paladin: nothing particularly fancy about this.
The other way is much faster and consists of building a Wild deck featuring as many cheap drops as possible, some card draw in the form of minions, two copies of Front Lines and two copies of Prismatic Lens.
- Once casted, Prismatic Lens will always draw the other Lens or Front Lines, which are going to be heavily discounted.
- Play Front Lines.
- In this way, you should be able to get around 10 progression points for each cast, making the achievement's completion rather fast.
How to Complete the "Lather, Rinse, Repeat" Priest Achievement
- Requirement: Increase the cost of enemy cards by 20/40 with Disarming Elemental.
- Speed Rating: 4/5
- Related Achievements:
- Neutral's Seashells by the Seafloor
Another quite easy achievement, as all you need to do is playing Disarming Elemental a bunch of times and always Dredge the cheapest card for your opponent.
- This deck's only minions are Brann Bronzebeard and Disarming Elemental, so that Switcheroo will always draw them.
- Stall the game until you get to turn 7 (or 6 plus coin).
- Play Brann Bronzebeard into Disarming Elemental for double Dredges into double progression procs.
- If you're a fan of Seek Guidance Questline Priest, you may want to jam Disarming Elemental in there and have fun with it.
- It's not going to be the fastest way to complete Lather, Rinse, Repeat, but nobody says you cannot have some fun along the way!
How to Complete the "Two Pair" Rogue Achievement
- Requirement: Add 2 cards of the same Cost to your hand with Jackpot! 1/3 time(s).
- Speed Rating: 3/5
- Related Achievements: none.
As you can imagine, Two Pair is luck dependent, but we've seen way worse RNG achievements, so we'll gladly take this. To put it simple, all you need to do is keep playing Jackpot! until you're lucky enough to hit... jackpot for three times. If you want to do so while winning games, then Vicious Syndicate recently posted a cute list that suits your needs perfectly.
- Disclaimer: this list was created before the nerf to Wildpaw Gnoll - while such change does not impact how Jackpot! works, the deck is not as strong as it was in the past.
- We still think this is the most efficient, funniest and strongest way to get Two Pair done.
On the other hand, we recognize that the Burgle Rogue list you see above is quite expensive and that not everyone may own all those Legendaries. For this reason, if you just want to play Jackpot! and get the job done, you may want to go to Wild and use Swindle to tutor Jackpot!.
- Mulligan for either Jackpot! or Swindle, which will draw the former.
- Cast Jackpot!.
- Rinse and repeat until you get two spells that cost the same three times.
How to Complete the "What the Tide Brought In" Shaman Achievement
- Requirement: Summon 20/40 2/2 copies of Murlocs with Tidelost Burrower.
- Speed Rating: 2/5
- Related Achievements:
- Neutral's Seashells by the Seafloor
One of the slowest achievements of the Throne of the Tides Mini-Set, as you're basically forced to play a 4-drop that makes sense only in Murloc Shaman; moreover, playing Tidelost Burrower alone won't progress What the Tide Brought In, since you'll have to find a Murloc to Dredge, which isn't granted by any means.
Although it will turn out rather boring, we suggest you run a Murloc-intensive list with some card draw and the usual Brann-Zola-Brewmaster package for additional procs - we hope you'll get the job done as soon as possible!
- Although Brann Bronzebeard is superior by a mile, Bolner Hammerbeak can help a bit.
- If you own it, consider including it in your achievement hunt deck!
On the other hand, I personally reached Legend in June with the Murloc Shaman list you see below, which also granted me What the Tide Brought In achievement - two birds with one stone!
How to Complete the "We DID Start the Fire" Warlock Achievement
- Requirement: Incinerate 15/30 cards with Immolate.
- Speed Rating: 3/5
- Related Achievements: none.
Although 30 cards aren't that many, the 3 turns of waiting make We DID Start the Fire a bit annoying, as you might bump into situations where you put a lot of effort into setting up Immolate only for your opponent to play Sir Finley, Sea Guide one turn before the cards will burn or to just kill you in the meantime.
Even with this to keep in mind, we want you to focus on the fact that 30 cards are an acceptable goal, so you should be able to complete We DID Start the Fire without losing your mind over it.
We think that a trick to make your opponents discard more cards is to hinder them as much as possible: make them draw additional cards, add stuff to their hands, make their cards more expensive! Both Standard and Wild have the means to do so: therefore, we'll provide a deck for each format. The Standard list is focused on Abyssal Curses.
As for Wild, there are many more disruption tool over there, so your life will be a tad easier.
How to Complete the "Release the Kraken!" Warrior Achievement
- Requirement: Play 5/10 Colossal minions from other classes as Warrior.
- Speed Rating: 4/5
- Related Achievements:
- Hunter's Should Have Gone for the Head
- Priest's Catfished
- Warlock's 75 Course Meal
- Neutral's What Lurks Below
- Neutral's Killamari
Another really simple achievement, that can be completed while having fun too! For this occasion, we picked a Control Warrior list, took out some good cards and included some... less good cards.
- As you understand, Clash of the Colossals and Ambassador Faelin (possibly in combination with Brann Bronzebeard) are the only things you need.
- In case you're on budget, consider cutting all the other expensive cards, as they are not strictly necessary for you to complete Release the Kraken!
- School Teacher's Nagalings have a chance to Discover Clash of the Colossals and many other good spells, so they're more than worth running.
How to Complete the "Harold Who?" Neutral Achievement
- Requirement: Trigger the Battlecry effects of 25/50 Herald Naga.
- Speed Rating: 3/5
- Related Achievements:
- Neutral's Army of Azshara.
Disclaimer: at the moment, the achievement is partially bugged: in particular, Herald of Shadows won't count towards Harold Who?. However, Herald of Chaos, Nature and Light will progress the achievement.
There are currently 4 Herald units that work towards Harold Who?:
- Demon Hunter's Herald of Chaos
- Druid's Herald of Nature
- Priest's Herald of Light
- Warlock's Herald of Shadows (see disclaimer above).
You don't need to just play them, but also trigger their Battlecry.
Since we don't have an Ambassador Faelin type of card for Heralds, we suggest you to include them in a list that revolves around the respective Spell School: 50 Battlecry triggers aren't that many, so you should get there sooner than you think. Since the relevant part is the Battlecry trigger, Brann Bronzebeard will double your progression points.
I personally completed Harold Who? with the Wild Priest list you see below, and it took me way less than I originally thought when I started the grind.
How to Complete the "Killamari" Neutral Achievement
- Requirement: Destroy 3/6 enemies at once with Ozumat’s Deathrattle effect.
- Speed Rating: 5/5
- Related Achievements:
- Neutral's What Lurks Below
In order for us to complete Killamari, we need to play Ozumat on a board with no other friendly units and kill it while our opponent controls at least 6 minions. This Colossal costs 8 mana, so unless you have some ways to reduce its cost (Anka, the Buried, From the Depths) you'll need to stall for some turns without forcing your opponent to concede.
- Pretty much like Release the Kraken!, we suggest a modified Control Warrior list.
- Play Ozumat with the aforementioned board state.
- Cast Shield Slam on it while having at least 5 Armor.
- If you don't own Ozumat, you can try and generate it with Clash of the Colossals and Ambassador Faelin.
Other Resources
In case you're still deep in your achievement hunt, worry not: we prepared a guide for each class (and neutrals!) for you to take inspiration from, so that you'll be able to complete them in no time for those sweet sweet XP points.
We have added an #achievements channel on our Discord server if you want to talk with others in real-time. If you need an assist, you can also respond to this guide and we'll do our best to help you out; the comments are also a great way to share your own decks that you've used to complete the achievements above.
Good luck tackling any of these achievements for your experience boost or just for the sake of satisfying completion!
Comments
Excellent work!!!! Thanks!
You're welcome!
I think Finley should be included in Wild Paladin list. So when you draw both Front Lines before your Prisms, you can re-shuffle your deck.
As always, thanks for the work, Avalon.
I tend to create achievement lists without too many expensive cards in order for our F2P folks out there to not feel "excluded" from the hunt. Often times, there are Legendaries and Epics that can improve the deck's performance by a mile.
For Maximum Occupancy: 14, Sir Finley, Sea Guide is a clear example: I didn't include it for the aforementioned reason, but if you own it you should definitely switch a card for it!
Reaching legend while collecting achievement XP? Well played, indeed.
As I mentioned, I was really surprised I was able to win games with Murloc Shaman, and it's not like my internal MMR is that low that I queue up against meme decks.
A similar thing happened to me, actually! I usually don't climb to Legend, I get to D5 and call it a month. I started running Mur-lock for achievement purposes, accidentally found myself at Diamond 2, and say, "Well, gosh, I guess I'll do the thing".
remember that the Warlock Herald Naga is bugged and doesn't help for Harold Who? completion
We are aware it doesn't work, but I forgot to mention it: I will add a line - thanks!
The article I was looking for :)
Last days of the month are dedicated to achievements