Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas – How to Beat Maexxna

There are five wings in the Curse of Naxxramas solo adventure expansion for Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. The first wing features three bosses, concluding with Maexxna. If you’re having trouble with Anub’Rekhan or the Grand Widow Faerlina, be sure to check out our articles on those two bosses. This time around, we’re focusing on the final boss of the Arachnid Quarter.

While you can breeze through this wing with a Zoolock Warlock deck, we understand that not every Hearthstone player has access to the cards needed to build that deck, and some players simply may not want to use it at all. Because of this, we’re looking at the battle with Maexxna from a very general standpoint so can use these tips to defeat the boss with the hero of your choosing.

The first key to beating Maexxna is to know how to use her hero power against her. Maexxna’s hero power allows her to return one minion back to your hand. If you have a lot of cards that require powering up (enraging, receiving buffs from other cards, etc.) they aren’t as useful against Maexxna because she may place them back in your hand, resetting the minion to its original state. However, you can use this against her by using cards with Battlecry abilities.

Any cards that have useful Battlecry abilities can be extremely devastating to Maexxna. For example, cards with Charge as a Battlecry can attack as soon as you play them, then Maexxna sends them back to your hand to be played against the next turn (or whenever you choose to play the card again). This is effective with healing, silence and buffing Battlecry abilities, to name a few. Even low-mana cards such as the Elven Archer are great against Maexxna because she gets one damage Battlecry over and over again.

You want to inflict as much damage to Maexxna during the first four turns as possible, so make sure you stack your deck with a good number of effective, low-mana cards. Maexxna does not gain access to a taunt card until turn five, so use this to gain the upper hand early on. However, she will drop Sludge Belcher on or soon after turn five, so be ready for it. It’s a 3/5 taunt minion that has a Deathrattle summon for a 1/2 taunt. If you have a card that can remove the Deathrattle and taunt (Polymorph), this is when it’s best used.

It’s also important to be ready for Maexxna’s Sea Giants and Reincarnate. Sea Giants are 8/8, while Reincarnate destroys a minion and brings it back to life with full health. She’ll use it on a card that has a Deathrattle in order to get the Deathrattle effect, then bring the card back and be able to get the Deathrattle a second time when it eventually dies again. If she plays an effective Deathrattle card, such as Sludge Belcher, get rid of it as quickly as you can to prevent Maexxna from using Reincarnate on it.

Aside from these concerns, there isn’t much to worry about when it comes to fighting Maexxna. She does have Shade of Naxxramas (2/2 stealth card that gains +1/1 each turn), but like the other bosses in this wing, she generally uses it before it gets too buffed up. If you have an attack that hits stealth targets (any spell that hits multiple targets), it’s a good idea to use it when the Shade shows up.

Once you have defeated Maexxna, you earn the Nerubian Egg card. It’s a 0/2 minion with a Deathrattle that summons a 4/4 Nerubian. Defeating Maexxna also means you cleared the three bosses of the Arachnid Quarter, which gives you the Maexxna card. It’s a Legendary 2/8 beast that destroys any minion it damages. Both of these cards are useful in a number of deck configurations.