Hearthstone: How to beat Captain Shivers (Monster Hunt)

Every hero in Hearthstone’s Monster Hunt mode has a nemesis – one opponent they must face on their journey to reach Hagatha the Witch. Not only do you get a fun story encounter to conclude your run, but a unique fight that will put all the cards and treasures you’ve gathered to an ultimate test.

The Monster Hunt nemesis for the Tracker is Captain Shivers: a ghost pirate who relies heavily on minions of that type and the Kingsbane weapon. It’s a deadly combination, so we’ve put together a few words of advice to deal with the scurvy-ridden scallywags and disarm the helmsman for good.

For a comprehensive overview of Hearthstone's Monster Hunt mode, make sure you check out our enormous Monster Hunt guide, it's got strategy advice for every boss and contains a list of every treasure and reward!

Writing Credit: Thanks to James Pickard for the writeup!

Captain Shivers: Overview

• Name: Captain Shivers
• Health: 75
• Hero Power: Plunder (0 mana) – Draw a weapon from your deck.

So much of Captain Shiver’s strength lies in his Kingsbane weapon. As it can stack enchantments and is the only weapon he can draw using his hero power he’ll have it equipped throughout the majority of the fight.

Captain Shivers: Deck

These are some of the most notable cards to be aware of in Captain Shiver’s deck:

• Blade Flurry
• Captain Greenskin
• Deadly Poison
• Doomerang
• Fel Reaver
• Kingsbane
• Leeching Poison
• Southsea Squidface

Captain Shivers: Strategy

This entire fight revolves around Kingsbane. Keep this weapon under control or do your best to negate its strengths and you’ll stand a good chance against Captain Shivers. The first way you’ll want to work towards this is avoid trying to rush him down. If you have a particularly fast deck you may be able to sneak out a quick win, but if you fall even a little short it’ll be game over. With his high health pool, the myriad of weapon buffs he has in his deck, plus the eventual Leeching Poison that’ll keep him healed up, you won’t have a good opportunity to win the race.

Instead, controlling the board in the early game is often the best bet. In these opening turns he’ll be working on buffing a fairly weak Kingsbane, so you’ll have a chance to get established. You’ll want to keep Blade Flurry in mind still, as walking into that once you’ve gone too wide on the board could leave you with no follow up. However, if you remain strong in the early game and can start to get some larger minions down then that’s where you’ll be able to storm ahead.

If you have treasures such as Scepter of Summoning you can get these late game minions out much earlier to start applying the pressure. The Tracker’s card buckets are significantly lacking in healing and taunt minions, which can both be hugely beneficial in this fight to protect your hero from Kingsbane damage. Use what you have sparingly, or consider picking up Potion of Vitality during your run to give you some extra staying power.

Another interesting way you can win the game if by taking advantage of Fel Reaver. As this minion forces Captain Shivers to discard three cards from the top of his deck whenever you play a card, you can exploit it to completely remove his Kingsbane from the game. To pull this off, you’ll need to generate a lot of cheap spells from your hero power and whittle them all off at once when he drops a Fel Reaver.

Similarly, if Hearthstone A.I. plays into your favour and Captain Shivers summons Lorewalker Cho, you can fill his hand with rubbish spells and force him to mill Kingsbane that way. It’s not guaranteed to work, but is hugely satisfying when it does!

Captain Shivers: Rewards

Defeating Captain Shivers won’t grant you any rewards, but will get you one step closer to the final battle against Hagatha the Witch.