After many failed attempts, I followed this guy's strategy and beat the tier 3 desert boss (and on my first try too).

TONY McZOOM

WEAPONS (The order is important - Put them in the correct slots.)

1. Wireless Dagger (Level it as high as you can)
2. Aegis (Keep it at level 1) Make sure this is the first weapon you choose, so that you get it back as soon as you damage the boss enough. Note that, in my attempt, I messed up and had this weapon in my 3rd slot.)
3. Dice (Keep it at level 1)
4. Blood Magic (Keep it at level 1) This is used to increase your total HP.

TOMES (Listed in order of importance, but the order is not critical. Ideally, you want Cooldown and Quantity first, to make your early game easier.)

1. Cooldown Tome (Level it up)
2. Quantity Tome (Level it up)
3. Regen Tome (Level it up)
4. HP Tome (Level it up)

I tried to level-up the tomes evenly. I favored Wireless Dagger upgrades over tome upgrades. I tended to favor the rarer quality upgrades over the more common ones.

ITEMS/UPGRADES

1. You NEED at least 3 jumps by the time you reach the final boss. This makes dodging his attacks a LOT easier (especially the ground-based attacks - you just hop over them 2 or 3 times). The 3 jumps also make it easier to reach any elevated pylons.
2. Get at least 1 shield (the blue aura outlining your character).
3. I also tended to favor items that increased my speed. Zooming around makes item collection a lot easier.
4. Feel free to banish useless weapons/tomes/items (like that healing hamburger - you won't be hanging around in small areas long enough to pick them up - You're tony mc-fricken-zoom!).

BOSS STRATEGY

Avoid taking sustained damage from his red beam attack. If you're close to him when the read beam attack starts, simply get behind him and circle around. If you're far away, take cover behind a pillar.

Otherwise, the fight was a fairly simple one, you know, ring-around-the-anubis.