Hearthstone Death Knight Guide: How to Steal Raid Boss Onyxia with Reska

To steal Raid Boss Onyxia using Reska, the Pit Boss in Hearthstone, you must clear all opposing Onyxian Whelps before triggering Reska's Deathrattle. Reska steals a random enemy minion when she dies; eliminating the whelps first removes the low-value targets and isolates the 8/8 body for a guaranteed steal.

Step-by-Step Sequence to Isolate and Steal Onyxia

Raid Boss Onyxia enters the board alongside up to six 2/1 Onyxian Whelps. Playing Reska into this full board leaves you with less than a fifteen percent chance to steal Onyxia. Execute your turn in this order to guarantee the result:

1. Sweep the whelps: Cast an area-of-effect spell such as Threads of Despair or Blood Boil to eliminate the 1-health and 2-health whelps. Threads of Despair chains through Deathrattles, clearing waves of tokens while simultaneously reducing Reska's mana cost.
2. Check attack values: Identify an enemy minion that has at least 4 attack. Because Reska has 4 health, she must take lethal combat damage on your active turn to trigger her Deathrattle immediately.
3. Attack to trigger the Deathrattle: Attack the high-attack target with Reska using her Rush keyword. With all whelps removed and only Onyxia remaining, the Deathrattle has a 100 percent chance to take control of the 8/8 dragon.

Why Reska Beats Conventional Hard Removal

Raid Boss Onyxia possesses an Immune keyword that lasts as long as a friendly Onyxian Whelp remains alive. Targeted direct removal spells such as Obliterate or Asphyxiate cannot target her through the Immune effect. Even against non-immune targets, standard hard removal destroys the enemy minion but leaves your side of the board empty.

Stealing the minion completely flips the board state:

When control of an aura minion like Onyxia transfers to your side, any remaining friendly whelps grant the Immune keyword to your newly acquired Onyxia. The opponent must then spend resources answering the exact threat they spent 10 mana to summon.

Managing Reska's Mana Discount

Reska, the Pit Boss begins at 20 mana and decreases in cost by 1 mana whenever any minion dies, regardless of whether it is friendly or hostile. To have Reska ready for late-game threats, build her discount across turns 1 through 5:

• Generate disposable minions using cards like Crop Rotation and Mining Casualties.
• Summon 1/1 Ghouls using the Death Knight Hero Power to trade into enemy units.
• Avoid deploying Reska prematurely at 0 mana against low-impact mid-game Taunt minions when facing decks known to run heavy late-game win conditions.

Synergies and Recovery Mechanics

You can expand Reska's theft effect beyond a single target by pairing her with Death Knight Deathrattle tools:

• Death Growl: Target Reska with Death Growl to spread her Deathrattle to adjacent friendly minions. Trading those smaller minions into enemy units creates multiple theft triggers in a single turn.
• Reborn Mechanics: Applying Reborn to Reska returns her to the board as a 4/1 Rush minion after her first death and steal. If the opponent plays another large minion on the following turn, the revived Reska can trade again to steal a second threat.

Critical Mistakes to Avoid

The most common failure point is leaving Reska alive on the board at the end of your turn. If Reska attacks a minion with 3 or less attack, she survives combat. Passing the turn gives the opponent an opportunity to bypass her Deathrattle using Silence, Transform cards like Hex and Polymorph, or board clears like Reno, Lone Ranger. Always ensure Reska takes lethal combat damage during your turn.

Additionally, do not take fatal damage while waiting for the perfect steal target. If your health drops below 15 against aggressive or burst-heavy decks, spend your area-of-effect spells and Reska to survive rather than holding them for an opponent's late-game drop.