Template:Anub'Rekhan strategy
Normal
On Normal difficulty, the key to defeating Anub'Rekhan is to not get overrun in the early game. His 2-cost 3/1 Nerubian will trade efficiently with most of your cheap minions, and Nerub'ar Weblord will make it considerably harder to play minions like
Novice Engineer or
Elven Archer. In addition, Anub'Rekhan has spells like
Frostbolt and
Mortal Coil and minions like
Haunted Creeper to ensure he has complete control of the board in the early stages.
Thus, if you cannot play your own minions, the only way to survive is to eliminate his early minions. The best classes for this are mage and rogue. Mage's Hero Power can destroy his 3/1 Nerubian, negating Anub'Rekhan's otherwise very powerful Hero Power. The mage also should take advantage of spells like Arcane Missiles,
Arcane Explosion, and of course
Frostbolt to keep his minions off the board. Turn 3 Secrets are also a good way to prolong and secure your survival. Rogues can also use their Hero Power to eliminate Nerubians (although it will cost some Health), and should make use of
Backstab,
Deadly Poison,
Shiv,
Blade Flurry,
Fan of Knives, and
SI:7 Agent to avoid getting overrun.
If you can make it to turn 4 or 5 with either of these classes without losing much Health, then you have pretty much won. Anub'Rekhan does not have much of a late game. He may put up cards like Deathlord or
Abomination to try to stop you. Rogues should
Assassinate or
Eviscerate these cards, as they can take advantage of the positive Deathrattles. Mages can use
Fireball or
Ice Lance to kill these cards if they really want or need the Deathrattle effect, but it is often better to save those cards for the endgame and just use
Polymorph to be done with it. Anub'Rekhan may also play
Shade of Naxxramas, but you need not worry too much about it as it develops slowly and is in general easy to deal with after its Stealth is broken.
Once you get to turns 6 and 7, you begin to have access to some powerful minions, combos, and (for mages) board clears that Anub'Rekhan has no answer to. Taunt minions are especially effective, because he has to run all his puny minions into them, which will probably flip board control in your favor. The best is probably Sunwalker, which would take all 3 of his
Locust Swarm spells to destroy, and her 4 attack will crush most of his minions. Anub'Rekhan also has no hard removal in his deck, so he will likely not be able to remove late game threats with high Health, such as
Gruul,
Ragnaros the Firelord, giants, any of the dragons, and even common cards like
Boulderfist Ogre. Make sure you have some powerful minions like those in your deck to get board control and chip away at his Health. Once you get his Health low enough, finish him with
Fireball or
Leeroy Jenkins.
Hunter can be a viable class to use as well, thanks to cards like Arcane Shot,
Explosive Trap,
Eaglehorn Bow and
Unleash the Hounds being useful in staying competitive early. However, be warned that Anub'Rekhan can play
Nerubian Egg, which could punish you for an early
Explosive Trap.
Emperor Cobra,
Hunter's Mark and
Deadly Shot are strong options to deal with an early drop of
Deathlord, which can provide the hunter with a quick minion advantage.
Heroic
Please note: most of the above strategies for Normal mode also apply to Heroic mode, with minor changes. Below are some alternative strategies for Heroic mode.
One approach is to build a paladin deck with lots of Battlecry healing effects, weapons, and cards that lower minions' Attack to 1. Essentially, you want to fill the boss side with 1 Attack minions so that he cannot summon anything larger. Once Anub'Rekhan's side is full (7 minions) you can focus on self-healing and using weapons to directly attack him.
- Decklists
- Hearthpwn.com - The Arachnid Quarter Heroic Boss Deck Guides
- Hearthhead.com - Decks for Defeating Anub'Rekhan
This template contains Strategy content for these cards.
Remember that this is just an archived content of Strategy section that was supposed to be removed following the decision in Hearthstone Wiki:Project 13. It's up to you to review the content and keep them for a project in the future. Details to follow soon, once Project 13 is completed.