The Arachid Quarter is the first wing in the Hearthstone expansion Curse of Naxxramas.  In it you will find the first three bosses to fight in Naxxramas. This guide walks your through each bosses basic abilities, what to expect, and what your reward will be for defeating them.

The bosses are as follows:

• Anub’Rekhan
• Grand Widow Faerlina
• Maexxna

Anub’Rekhan

Anub’Rekhan is the first boss in the wing and the fights do not start out easy. This boss has access to several minions with deathrattle that bring out other minions when they die.  His hero power also helps out a lot as it allows him to summon even more minions.

In addition to having to deal with the various Naxxramas cards and minions, Anub'Rekhan also uses cards from several classes, not just one. He has cards from the Mage and Warlock classes in his deck for dealing damage.  These cards include Frostbolt, Shadowbolt, Mortal Coil, and Shadowflame.

When you manage to Anub'Rekhan you will earn 2 copies of the Haunted Creeper card as shown above.

Anub'Rekhan Strategy

Since Anub'Rekhan can summon many minions over the course of the fight with his hero power and the various cards in his deck that can spawn more minions through deathrattle abilities when they die, it is important to have a deck that can deal AOE damage as well as having several taunt minions in it.

Any deck that can deal out AOE several times throughout the course of the fight will do fairly well.  Warriors with cleave, whirlwind, and shield slam can keep things clear, as can Druids with swipe, Paladins with consecration, Mages with blizzard, cone of cold, flamestrike, and more.  If you don't have great class AOE abilities then minions with taunt such as Senjin Shieldmasta can really help out.

Heroic Mode - When attempting this fight in heroic mode the Skitter hero power creates 4/4 Nerubians for 2 mana instead!  This makes the fight much more difficult.

Grand Widow Faerlina

The second boss in the Arachnid Quarter is the Grand Widow Faerlina. This boss is even nastier than the first, with a hero power that really aims to punish you for keeping cards in your hand.  In addition she has multiple copies of the Worshiper card (more than the normally allowed 2 per deck) that are 1/4 minions that each give her 1 attack power during her turn.  This allows her to deal damage directly and gets more powerful for everyone on the board.

The Grand Widow Faerlina's hero power is the real issue in the fight though, unless you come prepared for it.  It allows her to deal 1 damage per card you have in your hand, for 2 mana.  This allows her to pick of multiple minions as well as damage you, if you keep too many cards in your hand.

When you manage to the Grand Widow Faerlina you will gain 2 copies of the Nerub'ar Weblord card as shown above.

Grand Widow Faerlina Strategy

Since Grand Widow Faerlina can deal more damage to you when you have multiple cards in your hand, she becomes much less dangerous if you can keep a low card count.  This means rush decks like Zoo, Murloc, Shockadin, or any other aggro or tempo deck works well.  Slower control based decks are asking for trouble.

When you start a match against Faerlina it is important to mulligan any card that is more than 3 mana so that you can try to get additional cheaper cards so that you can empty your hand quickly.

Heroic Mode - When attempting this fight in heroic mode Grand Widow Faerlina's hero power is reduced to 1 mana cost, meaning she can start using it earlier, and more often.  Keeping your card count low becomes even more important.

Maexxna

The last boss in the Arachnid Quarter is fittingly a giant spider called Maexxna.  This fight really depends on you being able to deal with enemy minions in a single turn while being able to get multiple minions onto the board per turn.  This is partially to do with Maexxna's many minions that either heal to full health at the end of each turn (Stoneskin Gargoyle) or that get stronger over time (Shade of Naxxramas).  It is also to do with her hero power.

Maexxna's hero power is a pretty powerful one.  For 3 mana she can return a minion to your hand.  This means that in the late game if you want to summon a powerful minion that costs 8+ mana, chances are you will never get to use it as it bounces back to your hand each turn.

When you defeat Maexxna you will get two different cards from her.  You will get two copies of Nerubian Egg for defeating her, as well as a single legendary card version of Maexxna for defeating the Arachnid Quarter.

Maexxna Strategy

Maexxna's hero power can be really obnoxious if you are not prepared for it.  However you can actually use it to your advantage.  In most cases if there are minions on the board Maexxna will send one of them back to your hand.  If you create a deck made up completely of minions with battlecry abilities you can get the bonuses several times over.  Minions that provide card draw, healing, damage, or buffs to other minions all work extremely well against Maexxna.

Heroic Mode - When attempting this fight in heroic mode Maexxna's hero power becomes even worse.  Firstly it drops to 0 casting cost, and secondly it returns 2 minions to your hand instead of 1.  However, Maexxna appears to always use this first before anything else.  This means that exploiting minions with battlecry becomes even more important.