We’re now into the second week of Blizzard’s solo adventure expansion for Hearthstone: Curse of Naxxramas. The second week presents gamers with the ability to play through the Plague Quarter. You need to purchase the Plague Quarter for 700 gold ($6.99) or pick up all four remaining wings for $19.99. By this time, you should also have played through the Arachnid Quarter, but if not, be sure to check out our boss battle tips for Anub’Rekhan, Grand Widow Faerlina and Maexxna, the heroic mode versions of them, as well as tips for the Druid and Rogue class challenges.
The Plague Quarter kicks off with a battle against Noth the Plaguebringer. This is a relatively normal battle except for one important note, Noth’s hero power. Unlike all other hero powers before this point, Noth’s is a passive ability. That means it activates automatically whenever specific criteria are met. In this case, whenever one of your minions dies, Noth summons a 1/1 Skeleton to the battlefield. There’s no limit to this beyond the general limit of how many minions you can have in play at once. If six of your minions go down, Noth summons six Skeletons.
While a 1/1 Skeleton doesn’t pose much of a threat, when there are three or four of them, they start to become a problem. You want to avoid trading with Noth’s minions, and instead go for face damage (attack Noth directly) whenever possible. Spells and direct damage also work very well to limit the effectiveness of Noth’s hero power.
Noth is a Mage class, which means you’re going to see a lot of Mage spells. Counterspell and Duplicate seem to be favored more than the other spells, but you’ll also see Ice Block. The Mad Scientist call is a 2/2 minion with a Deathrattle that puts a secret from Noth’s deck onto the battlefield. This card, coupled with Noth’s rather large amount of spell cards means you need to be careful when a secret is in play.
Once Noth has a secret active, you need to treat it just like you would if a Mage played a secret on you in Ranked or casual play. Avoid using spells crucial to your play style, as there’s a good chance a Counterspell will stop it. If Noth’s health is low, calculate your next few attacks to get Noth as close to zero health as possible before you land the next blow to insure Noth’s health is as low as possible when Ice Block kicks in.
There are also a few minions that need to be dealt with as soon as possible. When the Duplicate spell is in play, the next time you kill one of Noth’s minions it places two copies of it into Noth’s hand. Make sure this is not a significant minion. In fact, if at all possible, you want it to be one of Noth’s 1/1 Skeletons. If you see an Undertaker (1/2 and gains +1/1 with every Deathrattle card Noth plays), finish it off quickly because Noth has a good number of Deathrattle cards to play. Noth also uses the Acolyte of Pain and the Flesheating Ghoul that should be eliminated quickly.
Finally, Noth has a few ways to clear the board or inflict damage to all of your minions at once. Plague is a spell that destroys all minions that are not Skeletons. When it’s used, expect all of your minions to be cleared. The Unstable Ghoul is a 1/3 taunt card with a Deathrattle that inflicts one damage to all minions. In addition, the Black Knight Legendary card destroys an enemy minion with taunt, so be ready for this at turn six and beyond (unless Noth has yet to Coin, in which case you need to worry about starting at turn five).
As long as you take the necessary precautions to avoid the cards detailed above, you shouldn’t have too much trouble with Noth. The hero power can be a bit of an annoyance, but it’s not all that different from a Paladin’s hero power. For the most part this is a fairly straightforward fight, with only a few adjustments that may be needed for your deck and play style. Defeat Noth and you’ll earn two Stoneskin Gargoyle cards (1/4 at the start of your turn restore this minion to full health) to add to your collection.
