Tombs of Terror Reno Jackson Mage/Rogue Guide

This guide is designed to aid you in your adventures through Tombs of Terror. It goes into great detail regarding Treasure and Bucket choices when it comes to playing Reno Jackson, the Mage/Rogue Hero, to help you make optimal choices in creating a deck throughout the Tombs of Terror chapters.

Tombs of Terror Guides

1 Tombs of Terror Guide 2 Tombs of Terror Brann Bronzebeard 3 Tombs of Terror Elise Starseeker 4 Tombs of Terror Reno Jackson 5 Tombs of Terror Sir Finley

TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE

Overview

The Hero Reno Jackson represents the Mage and Rogue classes in the Tombs of Terror adventure. Upon first picking the Hero, you will begin with the Reno's Lucky Hat Signature Treasure, the Amateur Mage Hero Power, in addition to a 10-card starter deck. Once you begin using Reno Jackson in Tombs of Terror, you will begin unlocking new Hero Powers, Signature Treasures, and starter decks for your future runs.

Signature Treasures

After selecting your Hero, you will first be asked to picked 1 of 6 Signature Treasures that will be added to your deck at the start of your run.

Reno's Lucky Hat is the base Signature Treasure that must be used on your very first run with Reno Jackson and is a Bad pick. The Treasure can be used for a quick boost in minion strength or Spell Damage, but rarely has a lasting impact on the game.

Reno's Crafty Lasso is unlocked after defeating 5 Bosses with Reno Jackson in Tombs of Terror and is an Average pick. It can be used to deprive bosses of a significant amount of value, but later bosses will have enough card generation to overcome having 2 cards stolen from their hand.

Reno's Magical Torch is unlocked after dealing 50 damage to Plague Lords with Reno Jackson in Tombs of Terror and is a Good pick. While the Treasure may not seem as good initially, the Combo effect allows you to repeatedly add it your deck, which is incredibly useful if you intend to beat 300-Health Plague Lords in a single battle.

Jr. Tomb Diver is unlocked after defeating 1 Plague Lord with Reno Jackson in Tombs of Terror and is a Good pick. The Battlecry condition of the card is difficult to meet, but offers an immense amount of value, especially against Plague Lords. After completion of the first 4 Chapters, this Treasure will upgrade to Sr. Tomb Diver and becomes and Excellent pick as a result.

Lei Flamepaw is unlocked after defeating 2 Plague Lords with Reno Jackson in Tombs of Terror and is a Good pick. The card operates flexibly with spells and allows for the doubling of board clears like Flamestrike or minion-summoning spells like Power of Creation and can quickly snowball out of control if left uncontested.

The Gatling Wand is unlocked after defeating 3 Plague Lords with Reno Jackson in Tombs of Terror and is an Average pick. The card can be used as a board clear or for burst damage. However, it takes too long to become powerful enough to use and the high Health pools of Plague Lords makes the damage it inflicts insignificant.

Hero Powers

Each Hero has 3 available Hero Powers that can be chosen at the start of a run.

The Amateur Mage Hero Power is the base Hero Power for Reno Jackson and must be used on your first run. It is an Average Hero Power that can be used for light board control or burn damage.

The "Relicologist" Hero Power is unlocked by activating a total of 30 Combo effects with Reno Jackson in your Tomb of Terror runs. It is an Average Hero Power that can be used for free to empower one damage spell per turn.

The Arcane Craftiness Hero Power is unlocked after dealing 250 damage with spells in your Tomb of Terror runs. It is a Good Hero Power that can be used to control the board and deal light burn damage.

Starting Decks

After you have chosen your Hero Power, you will be able to choose from 1 of 4 10-card starting decks. Initially, you will only be able to choose from one deck, but you will unlock more in your future runs as you defeat bosses as Reno Jackson.

4.1.

Novice Spellslinger

Novice Spellslinger is the default starting deck for Reno Jackson. It is themed around spell synergies and card generation, is a Good deck choice, and consists of the following 10 cards:

Mage Cards	Rogue Cards	Neutral Cards
Babbling Book Sorcerer's Apprentice Unstable Portal Spellslinger Cosmic Anomaly	Backstab Pilfer Razorpetal Volley Stolen Steel	Mana Addict

4.2.

Spell Seeker

Spell Seeker is the second starting deck for Reno Jackson and can be unlocked after defeating 8 bosses with Reno Jackson. It is a Good starting deck that is also themed around card generation and spell synergies and consists of the following 10 cards:

Mage Cards	Rogue Cards	Neutral Cards
Astral Rift Mana Wyrm Forgotten Torch	Serrated Tooth Clever Disguise Eviscerate Whirlkick Master SI:7 Agent Tomb Pillager	Arcane Anomaly

4.3.

Secret Traps

Secret Traps is the third starting deck for Reno Jackson and can be unlocked after defeating 16 bosses with Reno Jackson. The deck is themed around Secrets and copying minions and is an Average starting choice, however, it is an Excellent choice when paired with the Jr. Tomb Diver or Sr. Tomb Diver Signature Treasures. The deck consists of the following 10 cards:

Mage Cards	Rogue Cards	Neutral Cards
Kabal Lackey Magic Trick Arcane Flakmage Duplicate Ice Barrier Messenger Raven	Pharaoh Cat Cheat Death Hooked Scimitar Fal'dorei Strider

4.4.

Random Reno Deck

The option to have a Random 10-card Deck to begin with can be unlocked after defeating 24 bosses with Reno Jackson. The cards chosen are completely random and will be a mix of Mage, Rogue, and Neutral cards that offer little to no synergy. The starting deck is a Bad choice and should only be chosen if you want a challenge.

Treasures

After defeating the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th boss in a Tombs of Terror run, you will get to choose 1 of 3 random powerful Treasure cards that you can add to your deck. The Treasures after the 1st and 5th boss will offer passive effects and the Treasures offered after the 3rd and 7th bosses will be powerful playable cards that you can add to your deck.

The tables below contain a list of all the possible Treasures and Passive effects available and give them a general rating as to how good they are when playing as Reno Jackson. The comments give further details as to how and why the Treasures are good in addition to some of the Card Buckets that they have good synergies with.

5.1.

Treasure Cards

Treasure	Rating	Comments
Map of Uldum	Excellent	Map of Uldum should be picked with later bosses in mind. It provides the perfect mix of tempo and value and will often single-handedly defeat bosses when played early in the game.
Mystical Mirage	Excellent	Mystical Mirage is an invaluable tempo tool that can be used to access a temporary hand of cards and refresh your Mana Crystals twice, effectively providing you with 2 additional turns with free cards to use each turn.
Runaway Gyrocopter	Excellent	Runaway Gyrocopter provides a repeatable board clear effect that will also help you avoid fatigue against Plague Lords due to its shuffle effect.
Stone Fox Statue	Excellent	Stone Fox Statue is an excellent source of tempo that provide two free copies of a powerful minions. It is best to save the card for powerful Legendary minions like Ragnaros the Firelord, The Lich King, and N'Zoth, the Corruptor.
Tracking Device	Excellent	Tracking Device is a powerful early game tool that adds consistency to your deck. Due to it always being playable on turn 1, it guarantees you plays for your first 5 turns and allows you to focus heavily on building your deck for the late game.
Advanced Targeting Monocle	Good	Advanced Targeting Monocle provides a somewhat-predictable burst of spells from your deck. When used in a well-rounded deck it will often clear the board and populate your board with minions afterward, activating any other Treasure cards in your deck in the process.
Ancient Reflections	Good	Ancient Reflections provides a great way to fill the board with weak copies of a minion on the board. It is best to use it on minions with powerful Deathrattle effects like Sneed's Old Shredder and Sylvanas Windrunner or strong end of turn effects like Ragnaros the Firelord or The Lich King.
Blade of the Burning Sun	Good	Blade of the Burning Sun is a consistent removal tool that will continually buff your deck with usage, providing more value the longer the game goes.
Canopic Jars	Good	Canopic Jars is a niche card that is excellent at turning a wide board of minions into a range of powerful Legendaries.
Crawling Claw	Good	Crawling Claw is a solid removal tool that can shift card advantage into your favor in the process.
Crusty the Crustacean	Good	Crusty the Crustacean functions as a powerful removal tool and a large threat by itself, making it a great card for almost any situation.
Hearthstone	Good	Hearthstone is a cantrip that can be used to escape from any boss that you feel you may lose against. After using the card you must face the same boss again, with Plague Lords retaining any damage that was previously dealt to them.
Kodo Hide Whip	Good	Kodo Hide Whip is a consistent removal tool that guarantees it can remove 3 minions. If a minion is not immediately killed by your weapon, it will be removed from the board and put into your hand, providing an easy way to deal with Deathrattle minions and adding resources to your hand in the process.
LOCUUUUSTS!!!	Good	LOCUUUUSTS!!! is a flexible tool that can simultaneously be used to remove a threat and populate the board and can be used again due to its Twinspell effect.
Murky's Battle Horn	Good	Murky's Battle Horn is a good tempo tool that can be used to populate the board twice. Due to the card automatically casting on following turn, it should be used when you expect your board to get cleared to maximise the value of the card.
Stolen Titan Secrets	Good	Stolen Titan Secrets is a niche card can be used to copy the Hero power of a boss for the remainder of the run. Most bosses have Hero Powers that are very reasonable to steal, with some having extremely powerful effects when used by a capable player.
Zephrys's Lamp	Good	Zephrys's Lamp Discovers a wish in the same manner as Zephrys the Great. Due to the nature of the Discover effect, this Treasure is very flexible and can be used in any situation.
Aegis of Death	Average	Aegis of Death effectively provides an Immune effects similar to Ice Block or Time Out! that lasts 10 turns, with the drawback that you will die at the end. While this may generally be strong, you should be mindful of bosses that can force you to equip weapons with cards like Plague of Madness, destroying your weapon and killing you in the process.
Amakir the Light	Average	Amakir the Light is a source of consistent value each turn. However, it is very vulnerable to being removed and is unlikely to survive for multiple turns.
Bauble of Beetles	Average	While resurrecting 4 minions and giving them Reborn has the potential to be very strong. The Treasure is limited to your first 4 minions that died, which are likely to be quite weak.
Book of the Dead	Average	Book of the Dead is a board clear that gets stronger as the game goes on.
Flex-plosion	Average	Flex-plosion will destroy half, rounded up, of the cards on your opponent's board, in their hand, and in their deck. While this may seem strong, Plague Lords specifically receive a new hand and deck of cards for each of their 3 phases, greatly diminishing the value of this card. Because of this, the Treasure is slightly weaker than other board-clear Treasures like Book of the Dead.
"Gnomebliterator"	Average	Gnomebliterator is a reasonable single-target removal spell you can add to your deck. However, the additional 10 damage it allows you to deal to Plague Lords is insignificant relative to their massive 300 Health points.
Phaoris' Blade	Average	Phaoris Blade is a weapon that continually gets stronger as it kills minions in a game. However, it is very difficult to get value out of and will often force your Hero to take far too much damage in the process.
Staff of Ammunae	Average	Staff of Ammunae is a "win more" card that allows you to use your minions to deal significant damage and not die in the process. However, it is very situtational and often only strong in situations where it is not necessary.
Staff of Scales	Average	Staff of Scales effectively provides 6 Poison Rush minions that allows it to function as an additional board clear for your deck.
Bob's Bouncer	Bad	Bob's Bouncer is effectively a copy of Brawl. Although there is chance the target minion wins the Brawl and fills your board, it is statistically unlikely and you should therefore not base a strategy around it.

5.2.

Passive Treasures

Treasure	Rating	Comments
Alchemist's Stone	Excellent	Alchemist's Stone is a powerful tempo tool if used correctly. By playing cards with sequential Mana Costs, starting at 1 Mana, you can rapidly decrease the cost of the cards in your hand. To complement this, you should try to draft card draw and card generation effects to ensure you always have cards to play.
Crook and Flail	Excellent	Crook and Flail is another strong tempo tool that allows you to rapidly populate the board. After you have picked up this Treasure, you should do your best to build around it by focusing on high-Cost minions and low-Cost spells. This Treasure works especially well alongside Elixir of Vigor to ensure you do not run out of resources.
VIP Membership	Excellent	VIP Membership is a passive Treasure that dramatically improves your Tavern Encounters. In Tavern Encounters it will provide you with a hand full of cards, 7 minions on each side of the board, and 6 Gold to spend. It is important to pick this Treasure up as your first Passive Treasure to ensure you can use it to benefit from 2 Tavern Encounters.
Band of Scarabs	Good	Band of Scarabs is a useful Treasure that will consistently weaken enemy minions and make it significantly easier to control the board.
Cloak of Invisibility	Good	Cloak of Invisibility allows a great deal of flexibility for your minions, allowing you to dictate all trades that are made and extract additional value from heavily-injured minions.
Elixir of Vigor	Good	Elixir of Vigor provides you with an endless supply of minions by shuffling 2 copies of each minion you play back into your deck. This ability is invaluable against 300-Health Plague Lords where you can expect to draw through your entire deck. This Treasure naturally pairs excellently with Elixir of Vim.
Ever-Changing Elixir	Good	Ever-Changing Elixir provides a consistent supply of value by Evolving one of your minions randomly at the end of your turn. This not only provides you with a stronger minions on average, but also removes any damage the minion has taken previously.
Lucky Spade	Good	Lucky Spade is a solid Treasure that provides a good amount of value that make it incredibly useful against Plague Lords at the end of a Chapter. If you draft this Treasure, try to prioritise picking cards with Discover effects to maximise its value.
Resourcefulness	Good	While the value of the Treasure can vary a lot, any early-game weapon serves as an excellent tool for controlling the board to dictate the pace of the game. The high base Health of your Hero against the later bosses gives you a lot of breathing room to trade with your weapon.
Rocket Backpacks	Good	Rocket Backpacks is a welcome addition to any deck, providing initiative when playing minions onto the board to provide more control over the game.
Scepter of Summoning	Good	Scepter of Summoning is a good Treasure that can function similarly to Alchemist's Stone. It allows big minions to be played cheaply, but offers no benefit for smaller minions, making it essential to pick up many card buckets containing big minions once you have picked it up.
Band of Bees	Average	Band of Bees adds significant value to cheaper minions in your deck, which becomes increasingly useful against later bosses. However, you should aim to have higher Cost cards in your deck, which greatly limited the number of minions this Treasure will affect.
Battle Totem	Average	Battle Totem can be a great way to boost the value of a Battlecry-oriented deck. However, the Mage and Rogue class combo does not have access to a strong supply of Battlecry minions for the Treasure to target.
Book of Wonders	Average	Book of Wonders is very much a Treasure to pick if none of the other options look appealing. While there is the potential for random spells to have a negative effect, most spells will either have a positive effect or do nothing at all.
Captured Flag	Average	Captured Flag is a well-rounded Treasure that gives a flat boost to your minions throughout the game. However, Mage and Rogue class cards are not strong at flooding the board to fully utilise this Treasure.
Darklight Torch	Average	Darklight Torch provides your even-Cost cards with some additional value, but is significantly weaker and less consistent than the similar effect of Alchemist's Stone. This Treasure works best alongside a starting Hero Power that benefits from being used as frequently as possible.
Disks of Legend	Average	Disks of Legend allow you to greatly increase the value of Legendary minions and is especially powerful on cards like Ragnaros the Firelord. However, it is heavily reliant on being paired with another Treasure that helps you play Legendary minions quickly, such as Scepter of Summoning or Alchemist's Stone.
Elixir of Vim	Average	Elixir of Vim is a great tempo tool that allows you to rapidly draw through your deck. However, it must be paired with a method to replenish your deck, such as Elixir of Vigor, or you will not have the necessary amount of cards to defeat Plague Lord bosses at the end of your run.
First Aid Kit	Average	First Aid Kid provides a consistent supply of healing for your minions, greatly increasing the benefit of value trading. However, most encounters will be too fast for the Treasure to offer significant value.
Mummy Magic	Average	Mummy Magic is a strong Treasure that aims to empower Deathrattle minions. However, it can be difficult to draft a large enough number of Deathrattle minions to truly allow this Tresure to shine.
Mysterious Tome	Average	Mysterious Tome is a treasure that provides a small amount of tempo at the start of each encounter. It is a reasonable choice in any situation if there is no other appealing option.
Primordial Bulwark	Average	Primordial Bulwark provides a great defence against being defeated by bosses and will do a lot of the work toward defeating the first 7 bosses in your run if you are struggling. However, it has minimal effect on the 300-Health Plague Lords at the end of a chapter.
Robes of Diminishing	Average	Robes of Diminishing allow you to immediately play spells that are drawn. However, as most spells are best saved for the perfect time, this Treasure is best when paired with Crook and Flail or Elixir of Vim.
Scroll of Nonsense	Average	Scroll of Nonsense is a powerful early-game tool that gives access to a diminishing supply of Spell Damage. While it is excellent for rushing down earlier bosses, later encounters will last significantly longer than the Spell Damage this Treasure gives.
Titanic Ring	Average	Titanic Ring adds extra value to your deck by providing your minions with Taunt and additional Health. This Treasure is most useful for its Taunt effect to provide you with additional survivability for greedy strategies.
Disks of Swiftness	Bad	Disks of Swiftness guarantees early-game board control by forcing bosses to skip their early turns. However, as bosses will still gain a Mana Crystal each turn, they can quickly regain tempo with mid-game cards.
Glyph of Warding	Bad	Glyph of Warding is unimpactful compared to most Treasures and will often just be a minor inconvenience for most bosses.
Khadgar's Scrying Orb	Bad	Khadgar's Scrying Orb provides a small increase in tempo for the use of spells. However, as minions are more important for controlling this board, this Treasure is often very lacklustre.
Recycling	Bad	Most decks will never play enough minions for Recycling to have a significant impact in a game. Even in decks built around the Treasure, it is still unlikely to provide as much healing as First Aid Kit.
Unlocked Potential	Bad	Unlocked Potential is a very niche Treasure and unless you are fortunate enough to build your deck fully around it, it will likely lower the Attack of as many minions as it increases the Attack of.

Card Buckets

After you defeat each boss, you will be offered a choice of 3 different card buckets that you can add to your deck. Each bucket contains 3 cards that fit a certain theme and will help shape your deck in different ways.

The table below contains a list of all the possible card buckets for Reno Jackson and gives a general rating as to how good each card bucket is on average. The comments section contains further details of each bucket and when to choose them.

Bucket	Rating	Comments
Combo	Excellent	Combo contains all Rogue cards with Combo effects. As all cards are guaranteed to be class cards, this bucket is very strong and you should look out for minions like Vilespine Slayer and SI:7 Agent in particular.
Spell Lovers	Excellent	Spell Lovers contains minions that synergise with spells such as Sorcerer's Apprentice and Flamewaker. These minions naturally synergise with the multitude of Rogue and Mage spells available, making this bucket an excellent choice.
Spell Searching	Excellent	Spell Searching contains a range of cards that focus on adding spells to your hand. The cards offered are naturally high in value, especially those which are minions.
Battlecry	Good	Battlecry contains a mix of naturally high-value minions. You should look out for well-rounded minions like Azure Drake and Babbling Book that can offer a good mix of tempo and value for later bosses.
Deathrattle	Good	Deathrattle is another bucket that contains a lot of high-value minions. You should look out for powerful Rogue cards in addition to neutral Legendaries like N'Zoth, the Corruptor, Sylvanas Windrunner, and Sneed's Old Shredder.
Honor Among Thieves	Good	The Honor Among Thieves bucket is themed entirely around stealing cards from your opponent. This bucket offers many strong cards like Hench-Clan Burglar and Clever Disguise, making it an excellent source of value to use against later bosses.
Mighty Minions	Good	Mighty Minions contains a range of Legendary minions and picking up the bucket at least once is a good idea to round out your deck. Look out for strong minions like Ragnaros the Firelord, The Lich King, and Archmage Antonidas
Multiple Enemies	Good	The Multiple Enemies Bucket contains cards designed to deal with wide boards of enemy minions. Picking up this bucket at least once can help round out your deck and you should keep an eye out for powerful spell like Flamestrike and Meteor.
Shuffle and Draw	Good	As the name suggest, Shuffle and Draw is a bucket built around drawing cards and shuffling cards into your deck. Most of the cards draw options in the bucket are very strong and shuffle effects like Academic Espionage and Togwaggle's Scheme can be excellent in the long end of Chapter battles against Plague Lords.
Slinging Spells	Good	Slinging Spells is a bucket designed to help you play many spells in a single turn. The bucket has natural synergy with many of the minions from the Spell Damage Buckets.
Big Spells	Average	Big Spells contains many high-Cost spells and cards that have synergies with them. You should avoid synergy cards like Dragoncaller Alanna and Spiteful Summoner, but look to pick up powerful spells like Flamestrike and Meteor if possible.
Discover	Average	Discover offers a range of Discover effects and is often a reasonable choice. However, it can often be outclassed by the Shuffle and Draw, Honor Among Thieves, and Spell Searching card buckets.
Elements	Average	Elements is a bucket that contains cards themed around Elemental synergies. While it is inadvisable to build a deck around these synergies, you can sometimes pick up strong standalone Elementals like Ragnaros the Firelord from it.
Heroically Empowered	Average	The Heroically Empowered card bucket contains cards that synergies with using your Hero Power. This bucket can be very strong if you have the Darklight Torch Treasure and either the Amateur Mage or "Relicologist" Hero Powers. Otherwise it should only be picked for strong standalone cards like Nexus-Champion Saraad.
Safety Measures	Average	The Safety Measures bucket is themed around defensive tools, such as Taunt minions and Healing. The cards in this bucket are generally quite weak, but it can offer a select few standalone cards like The Lich King and Sludge Belcher.
Secrets	Average	The Secrets bucket is very weak in general. However, it is an essential pick up if you choose Jr. Tomb Diver or Sr. Tomb Diver as your Signature Treasure. If this is the case, try to pick it up with reasonable cards like Duplicate, Effigy, and Cloud Prince.
Spell Damage	Average	The Spell Damage bucket contains minions and spells themed around Spell Damage. This bucket can offer a few reasonable cards but is generally much weaker than the Spell Lovers bucket.
Summoning Frenzy	Average	The Summoning Frenzy bucket contains cards that summon multiple minions. Most of the cards in this bucket are quite weak, but a few strong options like Power of Creation will occasionally be offered.
Kingsbane	Bad	The Kingsbane bucket contains the Kingsbane weapon and spells designed to buff weapons. As your deck will become far too large for you to consistently use Kingsbane, this bucket should be completely avoided.
Mechs	Bad	The Mech card bucket contains all Mech minions available for Rogue and Mage. Mechs generally offer too little value for later bosses and this bucket should be avoided with the exception of a few strong Mechs like Zilliax, Sneed's Old Shredder, and Piloted Sky Golem.
Old God	Bad	The Old God card bucket is themed around C'Thun and his minions. As even a fully powered up C'Thun will only put a small dent into 300-Health Plague Lords, this bucket should be completely avoided.
Pirates	Bad	The Pirates bucket contains all Pirates and Pirate synergies available for Mages and Rogues. As nearly all Pirates offer very little value, this bucket should be avoided unless you are offered multiple copies of Hench-Clan Burglar.

Changelog

19 Sep. 2019: Secrets card bucket added.
18 Sep. 2019: Guide added.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

This guide is presented to you by Kat, a professional Hearthstone player competing at the highest level since closed beta. She is a consistent legend player in both Wild and Standard with multiple high-rank finishes.

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