I could use some help here. I have the task of taking down Normal (ha!) Rend with a party that includes Vanessa and Eudora. That combination basically wrecks the more “standard” comps I see winning that fight. Any suggestions? Help? TIA
This is what I would probably use:
Party for Rend (normal).
### Rend Normal Task
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# Balinda Stonehearth
# - Lesser Water Elemental 4
# Varden Dawngrasp
# - Band of Frost 4
# Lokholar the Ice Lord
# - Frigid Winds 4
# Vanessa VanCleef
# - Dreadblades 4
# Edwin, Defias Kingpin
# - Black Flag 4
# Eudora
# - Primed Armaments 4
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# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
In fact, I think I might have done it recently, albeit with a different bench (don’t remember which, but probably a weaker one).
The first three can do more or less everything, including the boss (give him some Frost weakness with Balinda, ramp up that frost damage and just destroy him), although you’ll probably lose at least one merc against Rend. On the bench, there are all Pirates as an alternative — and of colours mostly advantageous against dragonkin sorcerers and Gyth, that’s why I’ve chosen Edwin, but you could add anyone instead, even Cookie.
If you’d like to know more about how the Frost trio works, feel free to ask.
If you want some more budget options, I suppose you could take a look at Old Guardian’s [1] ‘Bainegore’ or even other budget guides by him. Generally, Lokholar should be quite strong against that boss, even if you don’t have a full-cost Frost party, and you could probably improvise (how about Lokholar and Trigore? Haven’t tried it, though). One more thing: a good merc to have on the bench, especially for budget parties, is Tavish (with Rigged Wiring), since on normal difficulty, he can finish off all remaining sorcerers with one Explosive Trap if its level is high enough — you can consider him, instead of Edwin, for the party I suggested, too. Good luck!
[1] https://www.youtube.com/c/OldGuardian/videos
PS You could also experiment with a full roster of Pirates, since Sneed can do massive damage against that boss, but I haven’t personally tested it… yet.
PPS Alright, plunderrred this boss with a full ship of pirates (gar!) 
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Summary
### Yarr!
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# Patches the Pirate
# - Arms Locker 4
# Mr. Smite
# - Sharpened Scabbard 4
# Edwin, Defias Kingpin
# - Black Flag 4
# Vanessa VanCleef
# - Extra Pockets 4
# Sneed
# - Extra Blades 4
# Eudora
# - Primed Armaments 4
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# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone
Although previously I wouldn’t take Vanessa, this time, pretending to do this task (that’s why I like them, by the way — sometimes they are so fun and stimulating), I’ve given her a try, especially with her abilities and equipment reworked in patch 24.0, which I haven’t play-tested. Although I picked up a couple of Treasure Chests (level 3 and 5) for my party, despite generally trying to avoid good treasures when trying a new composition, so this run might not be the most representative of the worst-case scenario with unlucky drops, I think the boss is quite doable with these. I’ve started with Sneed, Vanessa, playing her opposite Rend (notice the equipment) and Edwin, and in a couple of turns, the enemies were gone. Maybe instead of attacking with Vanessa on turn 1, I should have used her second skill, though…
[UPD]
Alright, tested it without meaningful treasures. Heroic Rend appears a bit too much, as for normal, though… The second time around they survived, taking out my red mercs, and on the third turn I brought out Mr Smite and Patches, then activated the combo: Overboard, Eye Cap’n and Assassin’s Blade. Mr Smite went completely ham and stomped most of them… So yeah, you could do it with bad treasures with Pirates, to, if you’d like to. Garr!
And? Any updates? Have you managed to do it?