Battlegrounds is a different game mode in Hearthstone that completely changes the way you play the game. You could even say that it’s a new game built into Hearthstone. The general idea behind it was to take the popular Auto Battler genre and translate it into Hearthstone. It doesn’t play like most “Auto Chess” games, and it still feels a lot like Hearthstone, but that might be an advantage!
See a full list of minions in our Battlegrounds card database!
Players currently have access to 67 Heroes: the pool changes from time to time with some Heroes being changed, new Heroes being added, and some of the old ones being removed in balance patches. While they do not affect the minions offered, each Hero comes with a different Hero Power – a special ability that is either completely passive or an active ability that you can use once per visit to the Tavern (between combat phases). Some of them are stronger in the early game, whereas some have good late-game scaling, so you can adapt your strategy to the Hero you’ve picked. However, sometimes the right strategy is to ignore your Hero Power altogether and go with strong minions that are offered to you: use your Hero Power to your advantage when you can, but also be ready to choose a different route when you are not offered minions that have synergy with your Hero Power.
When you start a match, you get two Hero choices and pick one. No two players will ever share the same Hero – no one will be offered duplicates. The number of Heroes you can choose from goes up to four if you purchase the Battlegrounds Perks that unlock additional statistics, emotes, and Hero picks. The Battlegrounds Perks are currently available for either in-game gold or for real money.
Some Heroes are stronger than others, even significantly so. Nonetheless, it is possible to win games even on leaderboard ranks with any Hero. If you’re having fun with a specific Hero, don’t worry about its tier. That said, this tier list guide can help you choose your Hero based on how useful various Hero Powers are in general. We’ve categorized Heroes into four tiers. Click on each one of them to learn more – including how they look like, what their Hero Power is why they are put into a given tier / what kind of strategy they usually run.
Tier 1: The Best of the Best
These Heroes are extremely strong. Their Hero Powers will be a major asset to you in practically every game you play with them.
Master Nguyen
Master Nguyen is a unique Hero that is played differently in every game. Every turn, after seeing the minions available to you in the Tavern, you get to choose your Hero Power for the turn from two random Hero Powers. This means that you can take advantage of any tribe bonuses while taking your current Tavern into account.
You can get Forest Warden Omu’s Hero Power for a turn where you want to upgrade your Tavern – often with the Hero Power enabling an early upgrade. You can get Reno Jackson’s Hero Power and make one of your minions Golden. You can get Millhouse Manastorm’s Hero Power to buy cheaper minions. You can get The Great Akazamarak’s Hero Power and get yourself an Ice Block.
There is no one set path for Master Nguyen. Sometimes you follow the usual Tavern upgrade path, and sometimes you can upgrade early or delay your upgrades, depending on the Hero Powers that are offered to you. The main thing to keep in mind is to look at your Tavern before picking your Hero Power each turn to maximize potential synergies.
Fungalmancer Flurgl
The key to success with Flurgl is, unsurprisingly, Murlocs. You can add some Murlocs to your Tavern by selling minions, so forcing Murlocs is quite easy for the Hero. Note that the Murloc that is added to the Tavern by the Hero Power is from the same Tavern Tier or lower than the minion you sell.
After the Battlegrounds minion rework, Murlocs are more synergistic than ever, and Flurgl has a good time forcing Murlocs in every game.
Captain Hooktusk
Captain Hooktusk has been the target of many balance changes on the cost and exact effect of her Hero Power. In its current iteration, Hooktusk’s Hero Power is free, so you generally want to use it every turn.
When you use Hooktusk’s Hero Power on a friendly minion, you destroy it and get to choose from two minions from one Tier lower (or from Tier 1, if you target a Tier 1 minion) and you get the chosen minion into your hand. This means that you will be able to activate any Battlecry effects of the minion you choose, so at the start of the game, you try to roll for additional token generators to rapidly build a wide board.
You can also use Hooktusk’s Hero Power to look for triples, especially Tier 1 triples, and if you cannot think of any other use for it on a turn, you can always use it on any minion you plan to sell to see if anything useful comes up.
Galewing
Galewing can fly you to one of three destinations: Westfall (In 1 turn, give your left-most minion +2 Attack), Ironforge (In 3 turns, Discover a minion of your Tavern Tier), or Eastern Plaguelands (In 5 turns, upgrade your Tavern Tier). After your flight has been completed, you can choose a new one.
The main strategy with Galewing is to start with a flight to Ironforge and upgrade your Tavern Tier on turns two and three. By doing so, you get to Discover a tier-three minion when you arrive at Ironforge on turn four. Then, you fly to Eastern Plaguelands, which will end up with upgrading you to Tavern Tier six on turn nine. After that, more flights to Ironforge will give you some tier-six minions for the late game. However, if you are under a lot of pressure in the mid-game, you may need to skip the flight to Eastern Plaguelands and go more Ironforge flights every time to stay in the game.
C’Thun
C’Thun’s Hero Power gives a random friendly minion +1/+1 at the end of your turn for each time you have used it in the game. The first time you use it, it is just a +1/+1 buff, the second time it gives two +1/+1 buffs, the third time it gives three +1/+1 buffs, and so on.
When playing as C’Thun, you want to make the most out of your Hero Power, so you should not even buy a minion on turn one and opt to use the Hero Power instead, and not upgrade your Tavern on turn two and use your Hero Power there as well. Just use your Hero Power every turn. This way you will be able to get a lot of buffs on your board during the game, although you cannot control exactly which minions will get them.
C’Thun is especially good with Dragons thanks to Whelp Smuggler giving all of your Dragons tons of Health as they gain Attack from your Hero Power.
Millhouse Manastorm
Millhouse’s Hero Power changes the entire economy of the game. His refreshes cost two gold, but he can buy minions for only two gold. However, his Tavern upgrades cost one more gold. This means that if you find a token generator on turn one, you can immediately sell the token to buy another minion. Because Tavern Tiers are more expensive for Millhouse, you have to stay on Tavern Tier one for an extra turn and use your second turn for a double buy.
Millhouse can generate a lot of tempo early on, and this often carries him throughout the game. After building a strong early board, you can quickly upgrade your Tavern and catch up with others on turn five (seven Gold, upgrading to Tavern tier three), overtake them on turn six (eight Gold, upgrading to Tavern tier four), and sometimes even get further ahead on turn seven (nine Gold, upgrading to Tavern tier five).
Dancin’ Deryl
Dancin’ Deryl is one of the most difficult Heroes to play and can be almost impossible to manage on some mobile phones. It has the potential to give substantial buffs to minions, but you need to master the art of Deryl’s dance to land the buffs effectively. You can use token generators such as Alleycat and Murloc Tidehunter to give you more minions to sell (the tokens count as full minions too) and you can buy minions from the Tavern just to resell them back so that there are fewer options left to help you land the buffs on just the right minion.
Despite the wording on the Hero Power, all +1/+1 buffs can land on the same minion, so your goal is often to leave only one minion in the Tavern, and buff it up a lot in a single turn. Cave Hydra and Foe Reaper 4000 are some of the most powerful buff targets for Deryl. However, if you play with Demons, Insatiable Ur’zul and Famished Felbat can turn any buffs on minions in the Tavern to buffs on your board, so you do not always need to target specific minions with the buffs.
Forest Warden Omu
Forest Warden Omu gains additional Gold whenever you upgrade your Tavern. This means that you can adopt a much more aggressive leveling plan than most other Heroes, and this advantage just keeps growing with each early upgrade. You should upgrade your Tavern on the second turn, and you can hit Tavern Tier three a turn ahead of others on turn four, Tier four on turn six, and Tier five as early as turn seven (at nine Gold, the turn when others usually reach Tier four). Early leveling means early access to powerful minions, and that is where Omu shines.
Shudderwock
Shudderwock has been completely reworked. Its new Hero Power costs zero and gives you a 1/1 Shudderling that repeats all Battlecries you have played during the game. You can get up to two Shudderlings in a game, one per turn, and they remain in your hand ready for use after you have acquired them. Therefore, there is no reason not to grab your first one on turn one, but you might not want to grab the second one until you are ready to use it because the first one might already fill your hand, depending on what Battlecries it will repeat. Having the first one ready immediately gives you the option to play both Shudderlings on the same turn, so it increases your flexibility.
Arch-Villain Rafaam
Arch-Villain Rafaam is a master at acquiring useful minions – by copying them from other players! At one gold, these are basically free minions, because you can sell any that you don’t like for the same price. Because players tend to have useful minions on their board, the overall quality of the copies can be high: Selfless Heroes and Nadina the Reds are up for grabs, and you can sometimes even get to triples without recruiting a single copy from the Tavern. Any triples you get are automatically converted when you enter the Tavern, so keep that in mind if you ever want to keep a pair of regular minions.
When playing as Rafaam, you should usually buy a minion and Hero Power on turn two instead of upgrading your Tavern. You may even want to delay your first Tavern upgrade all the way to turn four and follow it up with rapid upgrades on the following turns. Keep an eye on your opponent though! A.F.Kay and C’Thun have no minions on turn two, so you cannot steal anything, and some powerful early-game Heroes may have too much power on the board for you to kill anything, in which case you also do not get a free minion.
Tier 2: Very Strong Heroes
These Heroes are very strong, but their Hero Powers are slightly less powerful than those of the Tier 1 Heroes. Early tempo and snowballing to victory has proven to be extremely important in Battlegrounds, and these Heroes sometimes lack the means to make the most out of those opportunities. They have major strengths, and when they can play with those, they can easily win games.
Jandice Barov
You can use Jandice’s Hero Power to send Battlecry minions back to the Tavern to rebuy them and get their effect again or you can send back any minion that you are about to sell anyway for a chance to get a minion you want for free. You can also switch your tokens for stronger minions early in the game, starting from turn one, or you can triple your tokens from a single token-generator by sending the main minion back and having it create more tokens for you.
Any minions that you send back to the Tavern retain their buffs, so you can, for example, play an Amalgadon multiple times to give it multiple buffs.
Note that you do not get the Battlecry effects of minions that are swapped in, so remember to buy any Battlecry minions you want the regular way.
You want to use Jandice’s Hero Power on most turns, there are seldom occasions where you cannot gain some advantage from using it.
The Lich King
The Lich King is a powerful early-game Hero with some great late-game moves as well. Because your Hero Power costs nothing, you should use it every turn to give one of your minions Reborn. Early in the game, try to use it on Divine Shield or Deathrattle minions for maximal effect. Note that minions are Reborn without any buffs, so you should not use the ability on minions that rely on high stats to succeed.
In the late game, Beasts are the strongest tribe for The Lich King as you can return your Goldrinn back to life for another round of buffs. Demons are strong with double Divine Shields from Selfless Hero, and Mechs with Kangor’s Apprentice can also be a formidable force.
Mutanus the Devourer
As Mutanus the Devourer, you can use your Hero Power to eat one of your minions to give their stats to another random friendly minion. You also get one Gold back, so whenever you want to sell a minion, you should consider eating it instead. Note that you can only eat one minion each turn, so try to eat the biggest minion you plan to sell that turn and avoid eating minions that have a beneficial on-sell effect, like Sellemental.
Generally, your first opportunity to use your Hero Power is on turn three: if you need to sell a minion to afford a double buy, you can buy a minion first, then eat your original minion to give its stats to your new minion (or vice versa), and then buy the second minion.
You cannot use your Hero Power a lot early in the game as you’re still filling up your board, but once you have a full board, you can eat a minion almost every turn to buff up your other minions.
The Great Akazamzarak
The Great Akazamzarak brings a unique Hearthstone mechanic into Battlegrounds: Secrets. Every time you use Akazamzarak’s Hero Power, you get to discover a Secret and put it in play. If the Secret is not triggered during a battle, it carries over to the next turn. Because battles tend to be back-and-forth affairs, most Secrets are triggered immediately in the next battle, but sometimes you can set things up so that you get to keep them for longer.
Notably, Akazamzarak can discover Ice Block, which only triggers when you take lethal damage, preventing the damage. This can help you buy time and go for greedier strategies if you discover it early in the game. Note that you can only Discover Ice Block once per game. Another key Secret is Competitive Spirit: it gives all your minions +1/+1 permanently after the next battle, which can result in huge tempo gains. You can also get other powerful Secrets, such as Splitting Image (creates a copy of your minion when one is attacked, only triggers if you have enough board space for an additional minion) and Autodefense Matrix (gives your minion Divine Shield when one is attacked).
Xyrella
Xyrella’s Hero Power enables her to buy a minion each turn for only two Gold, but its stats will be set to 2/2. Early in the game, this is phenomenal, as Xyrella can pick up an improved tier-one minion at a discount. Token generators, like Alleycat, are especially good early on as the main body becomes more useful and the token can be used to fuel Xyrella’s economy.
Depending on what you are offered, you can consider delaying your Tavern upgrade until turn three as Xyrella and build a Millhouse-style board on turn two. However, if you are not offered token generators, it is better to skip the Hero Power on turn two and just upgrade the Tavern as usual.
Later in the game, Xyrella’s Hero Power is less valuable, but it can still give you some Battlecry minions at a discount.
Malygos
Malygos allows you to reroll two minions each turn for free. This is especially powerful in the late game because there are fewer high-tier minions in the game, so you are more likely to find a specific minion. However, it helps you right from the start: you can look for a token generator on turn one, and when you reach Tavern Tier two you can reroll whatever tier two minion you are offered to look for an improvement. This goes on every turn: you can refresh tier-three minions to look for a Deflect-o-Bot, tier fours to find that Cave Hydra, and tier fives to seek out Lightfang Enforcer or Baron Rivendare. You have a better chance to find what you need throughout the game at no extra cost.
Malygos’s Hero Power can also be used on the minions in your army, not just the ones for sale in the Tavern. For example, you can try to turn a Battlecry minion that you just played into something more powerful when it is on the board (Menagerie Mug and Menagerie Jug are good targets in this scenario).
Al’Akir
Al’Akir’s passive Hero Power gives your left-most minion a huge buff at the start of each combat: Windfury, Divine Shield, and Taunt. This is a major advantage early in the game and also affects your late-game compositions: Al’Akir loves Insatiable Ur’zul and Glyph Guardian. The bigger your left-most minion, the better.
N’Zoth
N’Zoth starts the game with a 2/2 Fish that gains the Deathrattles of friendly minions as they die in combat for the duration of that combat round. While there are late-game applications to this in some Baron Rivendare Deathrattle compositions, the main advantage N’Zoth has is in the early game: when you only have a couple of minions on the board, duplicating a Deathrattle can be the difference between winning and losing a battle.
Sure, if you get Baron Rivendare and can set up a nice Deathrattle board for the late game, go for it, but also keep an eye out for other interesting compositions, make use of your Fish for early tempo, and be ready to sell it to make room for something like Demons.
Death Speaker Blackthorn
Death Speaker Blackthorn gives you two Blood Gems each time you upgrade your Tavern. You should upgrade to Tavern Tier two on your second turn (at four Gold) and follow it up by going to Tier three on turn five (at seven Gold) as usual. Then, you can get to Tier four already on turn six (at eight Gold) as you can gain additional tempo from your Blood Gems.
Use your Blood Gems on strong minions for tempo: Bronze Warden and Tough Tusk are excellent early-game targets for your Gems. You usually do not want to spend your first Blood Gems immediately on turn two, but instead, look for a good minion to play them on during the following turns to gain board advantage in the mid-game.
Sir Finley Mrrgglton
Sir Finley Mrrgglton does not have a Hero Power of his own: instead, you get to Discover a Hero Power at the start of the game. Think of this as a second chance to pick a Hero. There are several strong Heroes in the game, so if you’re offered one of them, go ahead and pick it, but if the options given to you originally are mediocre, choose Finley to get another chance.
As a further upside, you get to see what minions you are offered on turn one before you choose your Hero Power. This enables you to only pick Chenvaala’s Hero Power if there is a Sellemental available, for example.
Silas Darkmoon
When you play as Silas Darkmoon, some of the minions in the Tavern will glow with Darkmoon tickets. When you acquire your third ticket, you get a free spell to Discover a minion from the Tavern Tier you were on when you bought the final minion. This puts Silas players into a conundrum: every third ticket you get is essentially a free minion, but if you chase tickets too hard, you may lose tempo early on and lose the game before those minions get to help you.
Try to complete your tickets on your Tavern upgrade turns: for example, if you can buy your third ticket on turn 5 (at seven Gold), you can first upgrade to Tavern Tier 3 and then immediately get a tier-three Discover on top.
Reno Jackson
Reno Jackson is here and he wants to make you rich by giving you a Golden minion. Reno’s Hero Power can be used only once per game, so you need to carefully consider when is the best time to use it. When you use the Hero Power on a minion, that minion becomes a Golden version of itself. This only affects the minion on the board, you do not get the Discover effect that you usually get when playing a Golden minion from hand.
The main ways to use the Hero Power are to commit early to a powerful mid-game minion, usually Wrath Weaver, or to wait until you get a powerful effect-based late-game minion, such as Baron Rivendare, Monstrous Macaw, or Famished Felbat. If you are able to discover such a minion from a triple early on, the power spike from making it Golden can carry you all the way to victory.
It can be hard to find a good target for Reno’s Hero Power. Sometimes you get a suitable effect-based minion early on and just roll on with it, but sometimes your minions are more stats-based and not particularly good targets for improvement.
Greybough
Greybough’s Hero Power passively buffs all the minions that you summon during combat. This makes early-game Deathrattle and Reborn minions extremely strong for the Hero, and opening up with a Scallywag can result in several early wins.
Unfortunately, Greybough struggles with late-game transitions: buffing up your in-combat summons is not strong in most late-game compositions although it can be useful with Leapfrogger.
Tickatus
Tickatus’ Hero Power is a copy of the Darkmoon Prizes mechanic: you Discover a prize spell every four turns (at six Gold, ten Gold, and so on), and the spells get progressively more powerful as the game goes on.
While the Darkmoon Prizes include some powerful spells, such as a +1/+1 buff to all of your current minions and Ice Block, the pool is large enough that you can be left with no major improvements, which makes Tickatus inconsistent.
Ysera
Ysera’s Hero Power passively adds an additional Dragon minion from the tiers that are available to you to your Tavern every time it is refreshed. Therefore, on a Tier one Tavern, your additional minion is always either an Evolving Chromawing or a Red Whelp, Tier two adds Glyph Guardian, and so on.
Ysera’s Hero Power does not guarantee high-tier Dragons, but it increases your odds of finding good dragons and finding triples, so you should force Dragons when playing as Ysera.
Kurtrus Ashfallen
Kurtrus Ashfallen’s Hero Power mimics the Questlines from United in Stormwind expansion: it is a three-step quest that comes with intermediate rewards after each step and a big reward at the end. The first step of the quest is to buy three minions in a single turn, which gives those three minions a +2/+2 buff. The second step is to buy four minions in a single turn, which gives the minions in your hand and board a +2/+2 buff. Finally, you need to buy five minions in a single turn to give all of your minions +2/+2 permanently. This last step can only be completed once.
What all of this means is that early in the game you really want to find access to additional Gold. There are several ways to accomplish this. Token generators, like Alleycat, can help. Freedealing Gambler and Soul Devourer are other good options to be able to buy multiple minions in a single turn earlier in the game.
Once you complete the Questline, the best late-game tribes for Kurtrus are Demons and Mechs: Mechs allow you to double-dip into the buff, as each Magnetic minion also has +2/+2 stats, and those stats really pile up.
Lord Barov
As Lord Barov, you want to use your Hero Power every turn from turn two, and if you can correctly predict the winner of combat, you get a significant tempo boost. If you guess wrong, you gain nothing. If there’s a tie, you get your one Gold back. On average, you earn half a coin per turn, and good streaks can win games.
Succeeding with Lord Barov requires paying close attention to your opponents so that you can better estimate who will win their combat.
George the Fallen
George the Fallen has a strong Hero Power: it can grant minions Divine Shields at will, and Divine Shields applied in the Tavern are permanent and carry over to future turns. Improving the survivability of your key minions, such as big Demons, Dragons, or Poisonous Murlocs, and getting to do that for multiple minions can result in some very strong boards.
George’s Hero Power has been buffed multiple times, and now it costs only two Gold to use. In practice, your first opportunity to use it is on turn three (at five Gold), and your second chance is on turn six (at eight Gold). Later in the game, it can be used on almost every turn as needed.
Tess Greymane
Tess Greymane is comfortable picking a popular composition: for one Gold, you can refresh your Tavern with all the minions from your last opponent’s warband – including minions from higher tiers than you have access to!
You want to use as popular of a composition as possible so that you can pick good additions to your army after each battle. The more players are aware of what others are doing and try to avoid overlapping compositions, the weaker Tess becomes, as then you cannot piggyback off what others are using.
Tess is stronger than usual early in a new patch when people often try to force the new minions and it is easier to pick up suitable minions for your composition with your Hero Power.
Nozdormu
Nozdormu has a powerful passive Hero Power: your first Refresh each turn is free. This means that you can refresh the initial offering on the first turn to look for a token generator to get a good start. It also means that on key turns where you would usually buy a minion and upgrade your Tavern, you can upgrade the Tavern first and refresh on the new tier and then buy a minion. You are also faster at finding triples to make golden minions because you can look for them an additional time every turn. In practice, it is almost as if you had one additional gold available every single turn!
Tier 3: There Is Still Some Power Here
These Heroes have some major strengths under the right circumstances, but their overall power level cannot quite match that of the higher-tier Heroes. Either they are situational or just generally less powerful, but their Hero Powers can and do win games.
Maiev Shadowsong
Maiev Shadowsong’s Hero Power allows you to buy minions for a mere one Gold, and with a +2/+2 buff too! However, the downside of the current version of her Hero Power is tough to bear: you need to wait for three turns to actually get the minion.
As Maiev, you want to start using your Hero Power as soon as possible: if you can buy a token generator or a Sellemental on turn one, you can buy a minion and also use your Hero Power already at the start. Otherwise, start using your Hero Power on turn two and delay upgrading your Tavern until turn three or four, and then upgrade it rapidly to catch up with the other players.
Keep using your Hero Power for the first six or seven turns, after which it becomes far less important because of the long wait time. You can still pick up something every now and then, but your main focus will be on playing without the Hero Power in the late game.
Vol’jin
Vol’jin is one of the most flexible Heroes in the game. His Hero Power swaps the stats of two minions on the board. Those minions can be part of your warband or in the Tavern, anywhere on the board is fine.
Early in the game, Vol’jin can buy a minion for its effect and just grab the biggest available stats from the Tavern for it. In the early turns, Vol’jin can continuously improve the stats on his board by swapping any low stats with higher stats from the Tavern. As the game goes on, new opportunities arise: you can swap stats from a scaling minion to a more powerful minion, for example, to boost a Divine Shield minion or a cleave minion (Cave Hydra, Foe Reaper 4000) to a big stat line instantly. You can also give away stats from a minion on your board to a minion in the Tavern before you buy it, the possibilities are endless!
Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End
Yogg-Saron can recruit a minion for a mere two gold: sure, it is a random minion from the line in front of you, but it comes with a buff, which is a big deal in the early game.
With Yogg, you can refresh your Tavern on turn one to look for more powerful minions because you will almost always grab one with your Hero Power. Then, you can grab two minions on turn three when you have access to five gold. Other Heroes need a token to sell or waste gold on refreshing the Tavern or using their Hero Power on that turn, while you can always get more bodies on the board. These powerful turns often secure an extremely strong early game for Yogg-Saron.
Galakrond
Galakrond’s Hero Power allows you to choose a minion in the Tavern and Discover a higher-tier minion to replace it. This gives Galakrond access to high-tier minions early in the game, and because the effect is a Discover, you have a wonderful opportunity to find something great from it.
There are two main ways to play as Galakrond, both of them viable:
First, you can play a regular game, go through the tiers, and start picking up some minions that are more powerful than you would otherwise have.
Alternatively, you can start using Galakrond’s Hero Power right from the start, freeze the Tavern, and delay your Tavern upgrade a little in order to get access to an individual tier-five or tier-six minion early in the game. An early Kalecgos, Famished Felbat, or Mama Bear can swing the game in your favor even though you take some damage early on.
In the mid-game, you can also sometimes upgrade a minion in your Tavern and freeze it so that you can upgrade it for another rank next round.
Edwin VanCleef
Edwin VanCleef provides you with a cheap buff. The more minions you buy in a turn, the bigger the buff becomes. Edwin’s Hero Power is a targeted ability, and that makes it especially useful because you can buff any minions, including ones that are usually difficult to improve. This can be used to protect your key assets, such as Baron Rivendare, or buff up a cleave minion (Foe Reaper 4000 or Cave Hydra). The buff is permanent, so you can build up your key minions to some big numbers over time.
Trade Prince Gallywix
Trade Prince Gallywix’s passive Hero Power gives you one extra Gold for each minion that you sell for the turn after you sold them. As Gallywix, you can start turns with more than ten Gold – and the gold does not come in the form of Coins that take up hand space, it is immediately available as currency. Gallywix is at his best in the late game, where you can have turns with as much as fifteen or nineteen Gold. This enables you to upgrade your Tavern and buy multiple minions on the same turn.
Gallywix is extremely effective with Demons, Dragons, and Elementals, where buying and selling minions in the late game keeps buffing up your board and generating more Gold.
Millificent Manastorm
Millificent’s Hero Power adds +1/+1 to your Mechs. You often want to Magnetize to buff up your Mechs, and Millificent adds another +1/+1 on each Magnetization as well. While Millificent works best with Mechs, you can also use your buffed-up Mechs as your early-game army and transition into another late-game composition, especially Demons, if you’re not offered key Mechs such as Deflect-o-Bot.
Ragnaros the Firelord
Ragnaros’ Hero Power does nothing until you have killed 25 minions. After that, your left-most and right-most minions gain a permanent +3/+3 buff every turn.
Just try to buy the strongest minions you can early in the game to get kills on the opponents’ minions so that you complete Sulfuras as quickly as possible and start getting that +3/+3 buff on your left- and right-most minions every turn. Then start growing your minions: a damage-dealer, maybe with cleave or Divine Shield, on the left and a big Taunt on the right can carry you through the game.
Illidan Stormrage
Illidan’s Hero Power changes the attack order at the start of a battle: your left-most minion will attack first followed by your right-most minion, and they will also have a +2 Attack buff for the duration of the combat. These attacks will always take place before the opponent can do anything. The regular attacks will start after that with your left-most minion attacking again as your first minion if it survived the bonus attack (and possibly the opponent’s first attack, if they got to go “first”).
Illidan enjoys minions that want to attack (Monstrous Macaw), die (Goldrinn, Omega Buster), or have Divine Shield (Crackling Cyclone, Amalgadon). In the late game, a Deathrattle Beast army with Illidan would typically include Monstrous Macaw as the left-most minion to activate Goldrinn early and Goldrinn or another Monstrous Macaw as the right-most minion to activate Goldrinn again right at the start of the battle. Alternatively, a Mech army with Omega Busters and Baron Rivendare can be very powerful when playing as Illidan.
King Mukla
King Mukla can buff up his minions, but you also donate buffs to all of your opponents. For one Gold, you can generate two Bananas (zero-cost cards that give a +1/+1 buff to a minion) for yourself and one for all of your opponents. However, you get to use your Bananas immediately, whereas your opponents can use theirs only on the following turn, which gives you a tempo advantage, and you also have a one-in-two chance to get a Big Banana that gives a +2/+2 buff to a minion instead of a regular one.
You generally want to start using your Hero Power on turn two and delay your first Tavern upgrade to turn three to get the buffs rolling.
Cariel Roame
Cariel Roame’s Hero Power initially gives one random friendly minion a permanent +1/+1 buff for one Gold. On Tavern tier three, it upgrades to give the +1/+1 buff to three friendly minions, and it reaches its final form on Tavern tier five, where it will give five friendly minions +1/+1. Cariel’s Hero Power is reset when it upgrades, so if you time your Tavern upgrade right, you can get two uses of her Hero Power on your Tavern upgrade turn.
Unfortunately, a +1/+1 buff is a little weak in the current meta, so there is no reason to aggressively pursue the upgraded Hero Power. Just play a regular game and use the Hero Power as a minor bonus on top.
Zephrys, the Great
Zephrys never has to worry about finding the third piece to fill a triple: his Hero Power turns a pair of minions into a Golden minion that comes into your hand so you can play it and get the Discover effect as usual.
You follow the regular Tavern tier progression and usually use your Hero Power when you reach Tavern tier four or five (turn seven, eight, or nine) for your first triple.
A. F. Kay
A. F. Kay cannot buy any minions on the first two turns and has to just passively wait and take the damage without a board of her own. The only thing you can do is to freeze the minions offered to you in the Tavern, which you should do if any token generators are being offered because then you can buy a minion, sell the token, and upgrade your Tavern on turn three.
Turn three is a power spike for the Hero because she gets to Discover two minions for free, and those minions are from Tavern Tier 3. Being the first Hero to find Impatient Doomsayer can be game-winning, but failure to roll good minions from the Discovers can set you up for a rough game.
Dinotamer Brann
Dinotamer Brann’s Hero Power gives you a free Brann Bronzebeard once per game after you have bought five Battlecry minions. Brann is by far the best when combined with Murlocs: there are quite a few Battlecry Murlocs in the game, and many of them are already on the low tiers, with Murloc Tidehunter being the perfect minion to start the game with as a token generator. If you are able to go with Murlocs, you can get your Brann early and get some serious buffs rolling.
Y’Shaarj
The Hero Power of Y’Shaarj summons a minion from your Tavern tier to your warband at the start of combat (that goes away at the end of the round) and you get a copy of it to your hand. As an upside, this is a guaranteed way to get high-tier minions: once your Tavern is on tier six, you can roll for a random tier-six minion every round. As a downside, you need to leave board space for the minion if you want to use your Hero Power, and then your opponent will always get to attack first, as they have more minions on the board at the start of combat.
As Y’Shaarj, you want to pursue an aggressive leveling strategy to start rolling for those sweet tier-five minions with your Hero Power: ideally, you upgrade to Tavern Tier 3 on turn four (six Gold), Tier 4 on turn six (eight Gold), and Tier 5 on turn seven (nine Gold).
Skycap’n Kragg
Skycap’n Kragg’s Hero Power can be used only once per game, and the longer you wait, the bigger swing you can get from it. This means that Kragg is a weak Hero early in the game and will struggle to answer the boards of other Heroes who are more tuned for early aggression. Try to buy effective minions and upgrade your Tavern along with the usual progression at the start, reaching tier two on turn two and tier three on turn five. However, look for opportunities to go to Tavern Tier four on turn six (at eight gold) to prepare for a major swing turn on turn seven.
The most effective moment to use your Hero Power is typically on turn seven (at nine Gold): you can upgrade your Tavern to tier five, use your Hero Power, and get some fresh minions on the same turn, and this power spike can carry you to victory. Sometimes you cannot upgrade your Tavern this aggressively and can only use your Hero Power to reach Tavern Tier five on turn eight (at ten Gold), and this is fine as well.
Mr. Bigglesworth
Mr. Bigglesworth is a great late-game Hero. As other players start dying, Mr. Bigglesworth receives a major power boost from discovering their old minions. The problem is getting to the late game without any early-game abilities. You need to play good, basic Battlegrounds and bide your time. Go for popular, buff-based compositions to maximize your odds of finding a suitable improvement to your army: Dragons, Demons, and Beasts are often good alternatives. Mr. Bigglesworth is at his best early in new patches when people often try to force the newly-added minions and you can more consistently get upgrades as they fall.
Deathwing
Deathwing wreaks havoc and brings destruction wherever it goes. Its passive Hero Power gives +2 Attack to all minions, including your opponent’s minions. The key to succeeding with Deathwing is to have more bodies on the board than your opponent: a single Rat Pack early in the game can be devastating because it starts out as a 4/2 minion and summons four 3/1 tokens when it is killed. There are very few armies that can survive such an onslaught. Conversely, if your opponent uses a Rat Pack against you when you are Deathwing, you will have a hard time.
Of course, you cannot always find a Rat Pack. In that case, any Divine Shield minions or Deathrattle minions that summon tokens will do, just make sure to get a bunch of bodies on the board. Deathwing works especially well with Beasts, Demons, and Divine Shield Mechs in the late game. Those are also the best strategies against it because the attack buff applies to both armies: it is a rare Hero that you can actually build against when you see one in your lobby. Even so, the Deathwing player will always build an army that takes advantage of the Hero Power, whereas the opponents cannot always do the same.
Kael’thas Sunstrider
Kael’thas has a passive Hero Power that buffs every third minion you buy. Usually, Kael’thas follows the standard tier progression and upgrades the Tavern on turns two and five in the early game. What you need to pay attention to are your spheres and which minions end up with a buff. With Kael’thas, you almost always sell your initial minion on turn three to buy two minions, the latter of which will get a +2/+2 buff. This is Kael’thas’s power turn and should help you to win the battles on subsequent turns.
Try to buy important minions with the buff and temporary minions and possible Battlecry effect minions when you do not have the buff available.
Patchwerk
Patchwerk has a larger Health pool than other Heroes, and this allows you to play a more greedy game early on and develop towards your late-game win condition faster. Patchwerk is especially good at going greedy with Demons or Beasts because it can afford to take more damage than other Heroes. However, damage scales up very high in Battlegrounds, so if you’re weaker than others in the late game, your 15 Health advantage barely buys you a single extra turn.
Sindragosa
Sindragosa is at its strongest in the early game. For the first few turns, you should simply stay frosty. Sure, you buy a minion on the first turn, but you also want to freeze the others. Note that your Hero Power’s passive buff works on all frozen minions, not just the one you freeze with the Hero Power itself. If you keep freezing the minions you are offered, you can buy the two that have been there since the beginning with a +4/+2 buff on both on the third turn, and you can buy even more buffed minions on the fourth turn.
After those turns, Sindragosa’s Hero Power becomes weaker, but minion stats are important early in the game, and Sindragosa has a small window of opportunity to rule the battles and work on a late-game transition. You can still buff specific minions with your Hero Power later in the game instead of freezing all the minions in the Tavern, but for the most part, you want to get power on the board immediately at that point.
Elise Starseeker
The Recruitment Map created by Elise’s Hero Power is a three-gold spell to Discover a minion from the Tavern Tier you just upgraded to: when you upgrade to Tier 2, you get a spell to Discover a Tier 2 minion, Tier 3 gives a spell to Discover a Tier 3 minion, and so on.
Elise has proven to be difficult to balance. The Recruitment Map used to cost two gold, at which time Elise was able to progress through the Tavern Tiers faster, which made her the best Hero in the game, but a three-cost Recruitment Map means that Elise is now stuck with the usual progression and is far weaker.
Tier 4: Life Could Be Better
These Heroes have some glaring weaknesses or lack of power. Even they can win high-MMR games in the right circumstances, but you need to work hard for it, and sometimes simply ignore their Hero Power altogether.
The Curator
The Curator gains an immediate advantage early in the game from having a 2/2 Amalgam as a starting minion. This means that it can often win early turns by virtue of having that extra body on the board. However, its advantage is not limited to early turns, because the Amalgam has all minion types and can be buffed by anything.
The Curator’s Amalgam is the only minion in addition to the tier-six Amalgadon that can reliably be buffed into a huge Poisonous (with Murlocs in the game) minion with Taunt and Divine Shield (with Mechs in the game), even if it only starts with 2/2 stats.
The Curator’s success largely depends on how well it can take advantage of its free Amalgam: if it finds a buff-based composition, it can run away with the game. If buffs are scarce, the Amalgam quickly becomes useless and you can expect a mediocre game.
Alexstrasza
Alexstrasza’s Hero Power allows you to discover two Dragons the moment you hit Tavern tier 5. These Dragons can come from any tier, so sometimes you are offered low-tier minions only, and sometimes you pick up Razorgore and Kalecgos. You get the minions for free, so upgrading to Tavern tier 5 is a major priority for Alexstrasza: you do not need to have any leftover gold to upgrade your board on that turn, because you will get two minions anyway. Alexstrasza aims to upgrade to Tavern tier 4 on turn six (at eight Gold) at the latest and immediately follow that up by going to Tier 5 on turn seven (at nine Gold).
Alexstrasza is, unfortunately, inconsistent. At worst, the two Dragons you get are useless for your army and only worth the two gold you get from selling them. At best, the two Dragons win you the game. You should usually force Dragons as Alexstrasza because it improves your odds to find a triple from the Discovered Dragons even if you cannot pick up Kalecgos directly.
Lord Jaraxxus
Lord Jaraxxus’ Bloodfury is a powerful effect: you can buff your board by up to +7/+7 overall, and that is no joke for one mana. Its main limitation is that it only applies to Demons, and that is a minor issue because you have to force Demons as Jaraxxus. However, the ease at which Jaraxxus turns even weak Demons into powerhouses means that you can safely go for it.
If you find Demons or a Wrath Weaver and a Demon on turn one and turn two, you should buy them and use your Hero Power on turn two instead of upgrading your Tavern to get a major board advantage. Sometimes you can delay your first Tavern upgrade all the way to turn four (six Gold) to get your Demon army and buffs rolling.
Captain Eudora
Captain Eudora’s Hero Power gives you a shortcut to golden minions. After you have used your Hero Power five times, you receive a random golden minion from your Tavern Tier or lower. The golden minion is added to your hand, so when you play it, you get the usual higher-tier discover as you do with regular golden minions. The Hero Power is then set back to five digs, so you can find even more golden minions later in the game.
With Eudora, you want to use your Hero Power every turn starting from turn two. If you are offered Deck Swabbie or a token generator (Alleycat, Murloc Tidehunter) on turn one, you want to buy them because they allow you to both upgrade your Tavern and use your Hero Power on turn two. Try to get your Tavern Tiers up while using your Hero Power to get the best possible discovers from your golden minions.
Infinite Toki
When you refresh the Tavern with Infinite Toki’s Hero Power, one of the minions you are offered is guaranteed to be from the next tier.Late in the game, you can get guaranteed Tavern Tier 6 minions on Tavern Tier 5. This is especially significant because you are usually not guaranteed to see any minions from your highest available tier! Even a tier 6 Tavern does not guarantee that you see any tier 6 minions.
Nonetheless, Toki is not a guaranteed success. If you make it to the late game and get to start rolling those tier 6 minions, there is a good chance that you can find Amalgadon or Famished Felbat, for example. However, in the early game, there are lots of minions that are not worth buying even if they are from a higher tier, so you may not gain any advantage from the Hero Power. When stars align just right, Toki can be unstoppable, but she is weak in the early game, and that can prove to be fatal.
Rakanishu
Rakanishu’s Hero Power can buff up your minions, but you need to get your Tavern upgraded to fully benefit from the effect.
The first opportunity you have to use Rakanishu’s Hero Power is on turn three (at five Gold), where it can smoothen your curve instead of a sell into double buy. Your next opportunity to use it is usually on turn six (at eight Gold). From there, you can use it on most turns.
The Rat King
The Rat King offers some of the most powerful passive stat bonuses available in the game. However, there is a catch: the tribe that gets the bonus swaps randomly each turn.
Even the very first turn can go multiple ways: because you cannot afford to refresh the minions offered on turn one, you either get a +2/+2 buffed minion for a strong early game, or you get no benefit whatsoever. There is a lot of strategy involved with optimizing your gains from The Rat King, but there is also plenty of variance.
Patches the Pirate
Patches’ Hero Power generates additional Pirates for you, and it gets cheaper the more Pirates you buy from the Tavern. Because you can generate Pirates out of thin air, Patches can easily force Pirates. As Patches, you want to follow the usual tier progression (upgrade on turn two and then on turn five) and use your Hero Power on most turns starting from turn three (five Gold).
If you manage to find a Pirate on both turn one and turn two, you can also Hero Power on turn two to add a third Pirate to your board and delay upgrading your Tavern to turn three.
Right now, Pirates are weaker than ever, so you may also consider just ignoring Patches’ Hero Power and going for another tribe. Demons, Dragons, Elementals, and Mechs should all work.
Chenvaala
In theory, Chenvaala can advance through Tavern tiers fast because its Hero Power reduces the cost of the upgrade for every three Elementals played. With an early Sellemental, you can activate the Hero Power early and sometimes get to Tavern Tier 3 already on turn four (at six Gold). However, you need to force Elementals to benefit from the Hero Power, and that can sometimes be difficult.
Guff Runetotem
Guff Runetotem’s Hero Power buffs a random friendly minion of each Tavern Tier by +1/+1 for one Gold. This means that you want to build a board with minions from multiple tiers as quickly as possible and buff them up throughout the game: as Guff, you want to use your Hero Power on almost every turn starting from turn three.
Upgrade your Tavern to tier two on turn two as usual, and go for tier three already on turn four (at six Gold), so that you can buy a tier-three minion on turn five. Your buffs make up for a smaller board, so you are not too disadvantaged from leveling up early.
Guff’s Hero Power is unique as it is tied to the Tavern Tiers and not tribes: you can build a board with any tribe like Demons, Dragons, or Mechs.
You will replace many of the minions that you have buffed along the way, but some early minions may stay with you all the way to the end, especially minions like Wrath Weaver and Evolving Chromawing.
Queen Wagtoggle
Playing with Queen Wagtoggle is almost like having paid access to a Lightfang Enforcer: you want to build a menagerie board with multiple minion types and use her Hero Power on almost every turn to buff them up. Because you are not tied to any specific minion type like Lord Jaraxxus is to Demons, you have a lot of flexibility in building your composition and can get them to high stat totals over time.
At the start of the game, you can stay on Tavern Tier one until turn three or four if you are offered good minions from multiple tribes because then you can use your Hero Power every turn to buff them up early. This enables you to rapidly level up on turns four to six thanks to the power of your buffed-up board.
Overlord Saurfang
Overlord Saurfang’s Hero Power increases the Attack of the next minion you buy this turn, and it gets stronger as the game goes on. It is not an early-game Hero Power: your earliest practical turn to use it is turn three (at five Gold), but you’re more likely to find a real use for it starting from turn six (eight Gold). You especially want to find cleave minions, Cave Hydra or Foe Reaper 4000, which greatly benefit from increased Attack. Divine Shield minions, such as Deflect-o-Bot and Bronze Warden, are also useful targets for the Hero Power.
Lich Baz’hial
Lich Baz’hial’s Hero Power gives you Coins in hand and allows you to store your gold for future use. Baz’hial’s Hero Power does not cost any gold itself but instead deals two points of damage to you upon use. You want to grab a Coin every turn for the first five or six turns and use them quickly to gain a tempo advantage.
Baz’hial is a high-risk, high-reward Hero. Just a few uses of the Hero Power drain a significant portion of your Health, so you need to find good minions quickly as you cannot afford to lose battles in the mid-game. On the other hand, a strong board that wins battles can put you far ahead of the opposition. As Baz’hial, you usually want to rush up the Tavern Tiers to build a strong Dragon, Demon, or Beast army.
Aranna Starseeker
Aranna Starseeker can get a wide selection of minions to choose from, but only after refreshing her Tavern five times. To make good use of her Hero Power, you need to stay on Tavern tier two longer than usual and build up Golden Wrath Weaver, Party Elemental, or the like from your extended minion selection. Demons are generally the strongest tribe to focus on with Aranna, but Elementals with Party Elemental and Molten Rock can also work.
Pyramad
Pyramad’s +4 Health buff to a random minion can increase the survivability of your minions dramatically, and you can start using it immediately on turn two and delay your Tavern upgrade by a turn or even two turns. This early tempo can then help you transition to your late-game army with plenty of health to spare. Sadly, the extra health buffs have very minimal impact past the first few turns since they can’t be targeted and can land on a minion you plan to sell soon.
Changelog
Show Changelog