하스스톤 전장 영웅 티어 리스트 Hearthstone Battlegrounds Heroes Tier List & Guide – Best Available Heroes – May 2021

BY: OLD GUARDIAN - MAY 15, 2021

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 59 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 VERY BEST HEROES

• C’Thun
• Maiev Shadowsong
• Captain Hooktusk
• Forest Warden Omu
• The Great Akazamzarak
• George the Fallen
• Arch-Villain Rafaam
• Millhouse Manastorm
• Al’Akir the Windlord
• Death Speaker Blackthorn
• Jandice Barov
• Ragnaros the Firelord
• The Lich King

TIER 2 – GENERALLY STRONG HEROES

• Zephrys, the Great
• Queen Wagtoggle
• Xyrella
• Silas Darkmoon
• Reno Jackson
• Vol’jin
• Patches the Pirate
• Sir Finley Mrrgglton
• Nozdormu
• Tickatus
• Lord Barov
• Greybough
• Rakanishu
• Tess Greymane
• Kael’thas Sunstrider
• Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End
• Infinite Toki

TIER 3 – HEROES WITH SOME STRENGTHS

• Overlord Saurfang
• Skycap’n Kragg
• Millificent Manastorm
• Mr. Bigglesworth
• Captain Eudora
• Patchwerk
• Y’Shaarj
• King Mukla
• Alexstrasza
• Ysera
• Deathwing
• A. F. Kay
• Dancin’ Deryl
• Aranna Starseeker
• N’Zoth
• Elise Starseeker
• The Curator

TIER 4 – THE WEAKEST HEROES

• Sindragosa
• Malygos
• The Rat King
• Lord Jaraxxus
• Edwin VanCleef
• Lich Baz’hial
• Chenvaala
• Pyramad
• Fungalmancer Flurgl
• Dinotamer Brann
• Illidan Stormrage
• Shudderwock

 

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.

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.

The best compositions for C’Thun are menagerie warbands, where you can pick strong minions from various tribes and add Charlga or Lightfang Enforcer on top for even more stat buffs.

Maiev Shadowsong

Maiev can buy minions for just one gold and with a +1 Attack buff to boot! Alas, there is a catch. When you use your Hero Power on a minion in the Tavern, it becomes dormant for two turns. After two turns, you get the minion with the +1 Attack buff. Dormant minions do not take up space in the Tavern (unless you are on Tier 6 and have two Dormant minions), so you want to buy a lot of them, starting from turn two where you should buy a minion and set aside another instead of leveling up your Tavern. Many Maiev players use the Hero Power already on turn one, and it is a strong strategy, especially if you can find a token-generator to pay for it on your first turn.

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.

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 already 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.

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).

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 Poisonous Murlocs, Dread Admiral Eliza, or Arm of the Empire, 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.

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: Spawns of N’Zoth 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 as well. 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.

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 the 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).

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 Monstrous Macaw, Scallywag (with Dread Admiral Eliza and Baron Rivendare), and Wrath Weaver. The bigger your left-most minion, the better.

Death Speaker Blackthorn

(We’ve used this image temporarily until Blizzard uploads HQ images of Patch 20.2 BG Heroes)

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, Tough Tusk, and Bristleback Brute are great 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.

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 Annihilan Battlemaster multiple times to give it multiple Health 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.

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 Divine Shield, on the left and a big Taunt on the right can carry you through the game.

The Lich King

The Lich King can help protect your key minions. You generally want to give Reborn either to an important Deathrattle minion or to a key minion that you want to protect from accidental early death. Note that minions are reborn without any buffs, but golden copies do reborn as the golden versions. Minions that best benefit from Reborn includes key pieces such as Goldrinn and Nadina the Red.

The Lich King’s Hero Power has been buffed multiple times, and now that it is completely free, The Lich King is finally a top tier Hero. You should use his Hero Power every turn: after all, it costs nothing to do so!

 

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.

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.

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.

Xyrella

(We’ve used this image temporarily until Blizzard uploads HQ images of Patch 20.2 BG Heroes)

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.

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, Lightfang Enforcer, or Kalecgos. 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.

Vol’jin

(We’ve used this image temporarily until Blizzard uploads HQ images of Patch 20.2 BG Heroes)

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!

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 benefits considerably from forcing 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.

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.

Nozdormu

Nozdormu has an extremely 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!

Tickatus

Tickatus’ Hero Power is a copy of the Darkmoon Prizes event: 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.

Lord Barov

Are you feeling lucky? 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.

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. A Mech composition or a Taunt composition with some summoning effects, such as Ghastcoiler, can make use of Greybough’s Hero Power in the late-game, but its uses are limited.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Infinite Toki

Infinite Toki can grant you a huge advantage with her Hero Power: when you refresh the Tavern with your 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 Kalecgos, 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.

 

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.

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.

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: tier two on turn two, tier three on turn five, and so on.

The most effective moment to use your Hero Power is typically on turn eight (at ten 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 can upgrade to Tavern tier four early and use your Hero Power to reach Tavern Tier five already on turn seven (at nine 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 Menagerie, if you’re not offered key Mechs such as Deflect-o-Bot.

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, Menagerie, and Quillboars 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.

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.

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 with Demons because it can afford to take more damage from Wrath Weaver. 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.

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).

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-three 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 three and use it regularly from there.

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.

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 a Dragonspawn Lieutenant or a Red Whelp, Tier two adds Glyph Guardian and Steward of Time as options, and so on. There is a rather funny meme strategy with Ysera, where you stay on Tier one and try to get as many Red Whelps as you can so that your board just shoots everything down right away. Fortunately, while it is probably impossible to finish last with that line of play, it does not guarantee a top-four finish either, so it is generally not worth it.

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 usually force Dragons when playing as Ysera.

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 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.

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 Deflect-o-Bot, Bronze Warden, or Hangry Dragon can be game-winning, and Bristleback Brute and Bannerboar can form an immensely powerful duo, but failure to roll good minions from the Discovers can set you up for a rough game.

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, both +1/+1 buffs can land on the same minion, so your goal is to leave only one minion in the Tavern, and buff it up a lot in a single turn. Cave Hydra and Bristleback Knight are some of the most powerful buff targets for Deryl.

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, Selfless Hero, Party Elemental, or the like from your extended minion selection. Elementals are generally the strongest tribe to focus on with Aranna thanks to Party Elemental and Molten Rock, but Demons can also work if you do not have luck in finding Elementals.

N’Zoth

N’Zoth starts the game with a 1/1 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 with Mechs or Beasts, 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 Quillboars.

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.

The Curator

The Curator gains an immediate advantage early in the game from having a 1/2 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 1/2 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.

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.

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. 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 almost useless, 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.

Malygos

Malygos allows you to reroll one minion 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 Mythrax or Brann. 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.

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.

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. His Hero Power has been buffed multiple times, and now at one mana, it is finally strong enough to make Jaraxxus truly competitive. 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.

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.

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, Menagerie, or Elemental army.

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.

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.

Fungalmancer Flurgl

The key to success with Flurgl is, unsurprisingly, Murlocs. If you can find Murlocs, you can cycle through them to find triples, which in turn allows you to discover even more useful minions. Note that the Murloc that is added to the Tavern by the Hero Power is from the same Tavern Tier or lower than the Murloc you sell.

Flurgl is hit or miss: forcing Murlocs is currently the only viable strategy for the Hero, so how good you are at finding them determines your fate.

Dinotamer Brann

Dinotamer Brann’s Hero Power refreshes the Tavern with Battlecry minions and that helps Brann find some compositions more easily than your average Hero: most notably, Brann is quite adept at finding Murlocs thanks to many of them having Battlecry effects. Unfortunately, Brann’s Hero Power is almost useless for most other warbands.

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. 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, Scallywag), die (Goldrinn), 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 Dragon army with Amalgadon on the left and Nadina the Red on the right can be very powerful when playing as Illidan.

Shudderwock

Shudderwock can double up powerful buff Battlecries, especially Murloc buffs and Amalgadon’s adaptation, later in the game. Because the effect costs only one gold, you can easily start weaving it into your turns already in the mid-game.

Note that the Hero Power does not stack with the effect of Brann Bronzebeard, it is the exact same effect. Therefore, every Hero has some access to Shudderwock’s ability, and Brann does not need a separate activation each time, although it takes up board space. You cannot always find Brann though, whereas Shudderwock can always activate its power on demand.