Curse of Naxxramas Arachnid Quarter

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our boss guides for the Arachnid Quarter of the Curse of Naxxramas.

[Guest Bullseye10500]

I found success when facing Maexxna on the heroic level using a specific strategy. It used a bit of strategy that I read in the Icy-Veins post, but I modified it to work with a cheap deck. I hope that this will help anyone who struggles against this boss.

First, you need to have a few specific cards in your Paladin deck. After adding these cards, you can add whatever you like that you feel will give you an edge. You need to have Consecration, Guardian of Kings, and a 3 cost minion with charge. The 3 cost minion should be something like Arcane Golem for max damage, but Wolf Rider will work as well. You can also add Voodoo Doctor and Earthen Ring Farseer for some early game life regaining, or Elven Archer for extra damage.

The strategy: Bide your time while Maexxna lays down her spiders, and don't kill them! Use Voodoo Doctor, Earthen Ring Farseer, or Elven Archer to heal yourself or hit Maexxna until turn 4. On turn she should have 4 Haunted Creepers and something else. If she didn't play that way, stop and restart. The strategy won't work. On turn 4, play Consecration to kill the Haunted Creepers making her fill her board with 1/1 spiders. Now she is locked out of the game.

Next, Bidenyour time until turn 7 using the same cards as before. Don't ever lay down more than 2 creatures or she could kill some of her spiders by attacking the creature that wasn't returned to your hand. On turn 7, play Guardian of Kings. Playing him each turn allows you to gain 6 life after taking 7 damage on Maexxna's turn. Now you will only lose 1 life per round.

On turn 10, you can begin to take away from that massive 45 by using a 3 cost creature with charge. Now you are dealing 3 or 4 damage every turn to her dealing 1 to you. You can also add 1 cost and 2 cost minions with charge to get that turn 8 and 9 damage as well.

Anyway, hope this helps!

Happy Hunting.

[Bob21117 15]

These are the cheapest decks I beat the Heroic Arachnid Quarter with.

 

Heroic Anub'Rekhan

Anub'Rekhan's Hero Power creates overwhelming value, if he uses it every turn, since fair trading is nearly impossible against it.
Anub'Rekhan has 3 Locust Swarm (7 mana), which will kill anything beneath 4 health. So deal with his minions as efficiently as you can and try to only have minions with at least 4 health on the board after turn 7.

F2P Mage (0 Dust)
Difficulty: medium (may take up to 10 tries)
Inspiration: http://www.hearthhead.com/deck=60532/0-dust-heroic-anub-killer

1x Arcane Missiles
2x Mirror Image
2x Frostbolt
2x Arcane Intellect
2x Frost Nova
2x Ironfur Grizzly
2x Chillwind Yeti
2x Fireball
2x Polymorph
2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
2x Water Elemental
2x Gurubashi Berserker
2x Archmage
2x Lord of the Arena
2x Flamestrike
1x Kel'Thuzad

Deal with Anub'Rekhan's minions using Frost Nova and then getting rid of them all at once: Flamestrike. This way you can clear the opponent's hand completely, so that he can only play 1-2 minions per round. Then you will finally be able to fight for the board on almost fair conditions.
Your ideal turns will look somewhat like this:
Turn 1: Mirror Image.
Turn 2: Frostbolt.
Turn 3: Ironfur Grizzly.
Turn 4-5: Sen'jin Shieldmasta, Chillwind Yeti, Water Elemental.
Turn 6: Frost Nova.
Turn 7: Flamestrike.
Following turns: Gurubashi Berserker, Lord of the Arena, Archmage.
Always kill Deathlord, never Polymorph it to use its deathrattle to your advantage.
Kill Abomination before Flamestrike to clear the board more easily. Polymorph it after Flamestrike to protect your board.
There is a bug concerning Kel'Thuzad and taunts: If they are on the board at the same time, the AI will not attack with minions or weapons, removal spells will be the only danger.


---

Heroic Grand Widow Faerlina

Play around Faerlina's Hero Power by mulliganing for cheep cards and keeping your hand clear.
Avoid minions with low health, so they will not be killed by Rain of Fire or Inner Rage.
Get rid of Faerlina's Worshipper as soon as possible.

F2P Warlock (0 Dust)
Difficulty: medium (may take up to 10 tries)
Inspiration:

2x Mortal Coil
2x Soulfire
2x Voidwalker
2x River Crocolisk
2x Succubus
2x Dalaran Mage
2x Drain Life
2x Ironfur Grizzly
2x Shadowbolt
2x Shattered Sun Cleric
2x Wolfrider
2x Chillwind Yeti
2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
2x Darkscale Healer
2x Gurubashi Berserker

Mulligan for Voidwalker, River Crocolisk and Succubus.
The discarding effects of Soulfire and Succubus are not bad in this match because of Faerlina's Hero Power.
Use Soulfire, Succubus, Shadowbolt and Wolfrider to kill Worshippers as soon as possible.
Use Shattered Hand Cleric to buff Ironfur Grizzly, Wolfrider or Sen'jin Shieldmasta to kill Worshippers.


F2P Druid (0 Dust)
Difficulty: medium (may take up to 10 tries)
Source: http://www.hearthhead.com/deck=60458/basic-heroic-faerlina-killer

2x Innervate
2x Moonfire
2x Claw
2x Mark of the Wild
2x Wild Growth
2x Healing Touch
2x Ironfur Grizzly
2x Wolfrider
2x Savage Roar
2x Chillwind Yeti
2x Sen'jin Shieldmasta
2x Stormwind Knight
2x Swipe
2x Starfire
2x Ironbark Protector

Mulligan for Innervate and Wild Growth.
Use Moonfire, Claw, Wolfrider, Stormwind Knight and Swipe to kill Worshippers as soon as possible.
Use Mark of the Wild to buff Stormwind Knight, Chillwind Yeti and Wolfrider.
Use Starfire to kill Necroknight.
Play Ironbark Protector and you will likely have won the match.


---

Heroic Maexxna

Maexxna sends back two of your minions on the start of her turn. Exploit this by only playing two minions at once, which have healing or damaging battlecries or charge.
Maexxna has a lot of low damage minions. Let her fill her board with 1-attack minions and ignore them, while you take advantage of her Hero Power.
Useful in this fight are weapons, healing and damage spells as well as means of dealing with high damage minions.
Easy mode: This fight becomes almost ridiculously easy, if you put Antique Healbot in your deck.

F2P Paladin (0 Dust)
Difficulty: easy (may take up to 5 tries)
Inspiration: http://www.hearthhead.com/deck=58993/no-dust-paladin-heroic-maexxna

2x Blessing of Might
2x Elven Archer
2x Humility
2x Light's Justice
2x Stonetusk Boar
2x Voodoo Doctor
2x Bluegill Warrior
2x Holy Light
2x Novice Engineer
2x Wolfrider
2x Consecration
2x Hammer of Wrath
2x Truesilver Champion
2x Reckless Rocketeer
2x Guardian of Kings

Mulligan for Stonetusk Boar, Elven Archer, Light's Justice and Voodoo Doctor.
Kill Dire Wolf Alpha on sight as well as anything else with more than 1 attack.
You can use Humilty to pacify the last minions Maexxna plays.
Only equip Truesilver Champion, if Maexxna's board is full, to be safe from Acidic Swamp Ooze.
Turn 4: Consecration. Kill 3-4 Haunted Creepers and fill the enemy board with 1-attack-minions. If there is a Nerubian Egg, have Humility ready.
Turn 7: Guardian of Kings. Combine it with Bluegill Warrior/Wolfrider and Voodoo Doctor from then on to heal yourself and slowly kill Maexxna.
As soon as Maexxna has filled her board, it may be necessary to clear your hand and draw some more damage cards. Flood the board with cheap cards like Stonetusk Boar, Elven Archer, Bluegill Warrior and Novice Engineer to empty your hand and hopefully fill it with more valueable cards.
 

Cheerio,

Bob

[Guest Pomus]

Kill her spiders and fill her board with 1dmg minions.

At turn 5 use harvest golem for 8 hp heal

Use a charge or a spell to damge boss with the rest of your mana

Repeat

Win

[Guest Tom]

Just wanted to say thank you!  This strategy was perfect using battlecry and charge.

[Guest neur0]

Used most of these decks (with slight modifications because I didn't have the rares) and found 100% success rates. 

[Durude 2]

This is probably irrelevant to most out there but for those looking for a shortcut to beating Maexxna on heroic i've found a strategy that works with any deck. Hunters technically you can do this with 1 card almost 100% (With a little luck) However for other decks its still very simple and nearly a guaranteed win.

Ok so the magic card here if you are lucky enough to have found in a pack or the arena or forked over the 1,600 dust is Reno Jackson which Iève seen mention of in a god deck. Same principal applies here only were going to take advantage of the bosses hero ability to his disadvantage, turn your enemies strength against him. If you haven't figured it out yet, at the start of each turn without fail Maexxna will return 2 of your minions to your hand and where in the magic lies for if you can survive to round 6 and play Reno every turn for the rest of the game you almost have to try to fail. Now for the rest of your deck fill it with 1-4 cost minions WITH CHARGE and spells, take special note not to have more than 1 of any card (Renos Battlecry).

 

Now the strategy is very simple stay alive till round 6 and play Reno, after that its just rinse and repeat. With any luck and some intent depending on the charge minions yo picked you can start doing damage as early as round 1. What you want to do is only attack Maexxna, ignore any minions unless they have a high attack in which case your going to sacrifice a few of your charge minions to kill them. The goal pre round 6 is to let Maexxna fill the board with low attack minions and minimize damage until you can play your saving grace. The first time I did it Maexxna was doing 21 damage a round and I hadnt put enough charge minions in the deck. The game actually went till we burnt both decks and taking damage, just rinse and repeat Reno and hunter hero ability. 

 

A very important note to keep in mind is that in order for this to work you must make sure that you never have more than 2 minions alive when your turn ends (One being Reno Jackson) because theres a chance Reno wont be returned to your hand. Maexxna usually kills any leftover minions after its ability is used. The only exception would be if you managed to keep her with all 1 or 2 attack minions then you can only toss Reno out every 2 or 3 rounds to free up room for 2 charge minions to help speed things along.    

 

Not sure if you get anything special for defeating all the heroic bosses or if this is more or less pointless but a great shortcut if you happen to have the right card. Hopefully this is considered a legitimate and intended counter to the boss and not an exploit in any way. 

 

Hope this helps someone and happy HearthStoning

[Bob21117 15]

Reno Jackson is actually a very good idea for the Maexxna fight, although it would definitly require some dust to put 29 useful cards in your deck (a path I usually like to avoid).

Also: The addition of 2 Antique Healbots will allow a similar repetitive healing – without the need of several subpar 1-ofs.

One additional remark: Reno Jackson is part of the adventure League of Explorers, so there is no luck or dust required to get him, only 700 gold to buy the first wing.

Edited November 25, 2015 by Bob21117

[KingMe 289]

For starters the decks work well, good job, but they all have 29 cards. I'm assuming the missing card for the decks would be Coldlight Oracle? 

[positiv2 953]

On ‎25‎.‎11‎.‎2015 at 9:17 AM, Bob21117 said:

Reno Jackson is actually a very good idea for the Maexxna fight, although it would definitly require some dust to put 29 useful cards in your deck (a path I usually like to avoid).

Also: The addition of 2 Antique Healbots will allow a similar repetitive healing – without the need of several subpar 1-ofs.

One additional remark: Reno Jackson is part of the adventure League of Explorers, so there is no luck or dust required to get him, only 700 gold to buy the first wing.

I recently played Heroic Naxxramas on my alt account, and heroic Maexxna was one of the encounters I played. Just like for you, Reno Jackson was among the first cards to cross my mind. I decided to go with mage. The amount of removal and burn spells allowed me to kill Maexxna about 2 turns into Fatigue. Another strong cards to consider are Manic Soulcaster and Forgotten Torch (and to some extent Elise Starseeker), as they can give you some extra time without Fatigue damage. So, all you really need is Reno Jackson in a basic deck, though some cards do help.

Antique Healbots can be insufficient. Against at least one Sea Giant, you will either be losing health, or you will need to spend all 10 mana to heal everything back up.

League of Explorers is no longer available for purchase, making Reno Jackson effectively a 1600-dust card.

[Guest Revolution]

Defeated Anub’Rekhan heroic mode very easily with this poisonous beast hunter.  Landing Dire Frenzy on Vilebrood Skitterer gives you lots of removal   

 ### Custom Hunter
# Class: Hunter
# Format: Wild
#
# 2x (1) Candleshot
# 2x (1) Hunter's Mark
# 2x (1) Jeweled Macaw
# 2x (1) Webspinner
# 2x (2) Crackling Razormaw
# 2x (2) Explosive Trap
# 2x (2) Freezing Trap
# 2x (2) Scavenging Hyena
# 2x (2) Stubborn Gastropod
# 2x (2) Venomizer
# 2x (3) Giant Wasp
# 2x (3) Stoneskin Basilisk
# 2x (4) Dire Frenzy
# 2x (5) Carrion Drake
# 2x (5) Vilebrood Skitterer
# 
AAEBAR8AD40BhwTJBIEKxA7mwgLwwgKJwwKOwwLS0wLh4wLm7wLi9QLJ+AKG/gIA
# 
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone