In Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds we have seen many changes compared to the previous seasons. Just as a quick reminder, Season 3 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds featured Buddies, while Season 4 featured Quests. In Season 5 we had notorious Battlegrounds Anomalies but now those are gone as well. The latest installment, Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds features Tavern Spells. Not only that, starting from patch 28.6 until the end of Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds, Quests are back as well!
Season 7 is coming on April 16th and we will be updating this guide as soon as we test out the new meta. Duos are finally here, stay tuned!
Patch 28.2 marked the beginning of Season 6 by removing Anomalies from the game, adding over 30 new minions, bringing back several old minions, and removing 33 minions from the game. As we mentioned earlier, the biggest change in Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds is the new gameplay mechanic added to the game – Tavern Spells. We will analyze the best meta builds for every minion type (tribe), but also what kind of builds can counter it and what Tavern Spells you should go for when playing a specific build. You can check out our full Hearthstone Battlegrounds Hero guide as they will not be included in this article since variations are too vast. Without further ado, check out our Hearthstone Battlegrounds Guide and meta builds for each tribe.
Table of Contents
General Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 6 Tips and Strategies
New game mechanics for Season 6: Tavern Spells Overview
Tavern Spells are essentially one-time use abilities that you can buy from Bob’s Tavern for various gold-cost. As season 6 started, 40 Tavern Spells became available in the Tavern. With every refresh, a new Tavern Spell will appear. Only one spell will appear with each refresh unless there is a minion or hero that modifies the number of them. You can check out our full Tavern Spell guide for more details but here, for the sake of this guide, we will just go through a rough breakdown of the types of Tavern Spells that you can get. In total, there are 4 groups of Tavern Spells:
- Stat-boosting Tavern Spells: These Spells give you various stats. Most of them are cheap and low-level but there are some high ones as well. Usually, these Tavern Spells are used as gold-dump or in specific scenarios in which you need to buff up one of your minions. Examples of Stat-boosting spells are: Pointy Arrow, Them Apples, and Natural Blessing.
- Economy Tavern Spells: Spells that give you extra Gold or free Refreshes are economy ones. They are very useful and can turn the tides in your favor, especially if you acquire them early on. Examples of Economy Spells are: Careful Investment, Tavern Coin, Leaf Through the Pages.
- Utility Tavern Spells: Spells that give or remove Taunt, provide Divine Shield, and increase the number of Deathrattles, Battlecries or End of Turn effects that you get are what we call Utility Tavern Spells. They can come in handy for specific build types which we will discuss later on in the article. Examples of these spells are: Brann’s Blessing, Primal Staff
- Discovery Tavern Spells: Several spells allow you to Discover or get a free minion. We will just call them Discovery Tavern Spells as most of them do allow you to Discover a minion of a specific type. Examples of these spells are: Contracted Corpse, Planar Telescope, Hired Headhunter.
Hearthstone Battlegrounds Quests and Rewards Analysis
As we mentioned earler, patch 28.6 made many card pool changes and brought back Quests – and they will remain until the end of HS BG Season 6. Let’s take a moment to analyze what we actually got. We will analyze the types of quests that suit each build and comps individually but first of all, for those who have just joined us and are not familiar with how quests work, the explanation is simple: at the beginning of turn 4, you get to choose from three quests. Each of them requires you to fulfill a unique condition and in return, you get a reward. The general principle is that the more difficult the quest is, the better the reward that you get. Of course, Hearthstone is not the most balanced game of all time so you know, sometimes you will be able to get a better reward for a simpler quest. When it comes to rewards, we can roughly divide them into four categories:
- Stat boosting quest rewards: These rewards provide stats for your minions. Usually, these rewards require simpler quests. The best example is Smoking Gun.
- Card drawing quest rewards: Roughly speaking, these quests will allow you to acquire more cards. Whether it is simply giving you card minions or giving you more gold to buy them, these rewards will allow you to draw more cards once you complete the quest. The example for those would be is Secret Sinstone.
- Utility quest rewards: Probably the strongest, but also the trickiest ones to use, are the situational or utility quest rewards. Those are the quests that provide suppression with Divine Shield or turn your minion golden for a turn – you will need to carefully plan your strategy in order to utilize these types of rewards in the best way. Probably the most unpredictable reward like this would be Yogg-tastic Tasties.
- Spell quest rewards: The newest addition to quest rewards are the ones that revolve around Tavern Spells. There are more than 10 of those currently in the pool and they are definitely useful, especially if you are going for any kind of spellslinger build. The obvious example is Beyond the Mirage reward.
Early-game Tips
- Turn 1 (3 gold): Go for Economy minions (Such as Sellemental and Shell Collector), especially in the first and third turn. If there are none, go for the one with Deathrattle, Reborn, or Divine Shield since in the beginning most minions have low defense. If you are so unlucky that there are none of those as well, pick the one with the highest attack.
- Turn 2(4 gold): Upgrade to Tavern Tier 2. The last thing you want to do is to waste 1 gold in this turn by buying 1 minion and then waste 2 more in the next one. Freeze if there are any Economy minions in Tavern.
- Turn 3(5 gold): Whatever you do, do not refresh unless you upgrade. Three options are viable here: 1) Buy 2 minions if you managed to get an economy minion; 2) Go for a useful Battlecry minion, sell and buy one minion; 3) Upgrade to Tavern Tier 3. 4) Buy a useful spell, preferably an Economy one. There is a 5th option here – use a hero power if it grants you stats or any kind of stat boost and then upgrade to Tavern Tier 3.
- Turn 4(6 gold): Buy two minions or get an Economy Tavern Spell. If there is an economy minion in the Tavern (Freedealing Gambler or Patient Scoutwould be perfect), get one of those as most builds don’t have Tier 2 key minions meaning that you will sell them anyway. If there are no economy minions, buy the ones that you suspect you might keep for a longer time or the strongest ones with Deathrattle.
- Turn 5 (7 gold): If you haven’t upgraded to Tier 3, buy one minion and upgrade. Again, do not refresh and, again, go for Economy spells if there are any.
- Turn 6(8 gold): Based on your board, your previous opponent, and scouting your next one (scroll on the hero icon on the left side), decide if you can be greedy and upgrade to Tier 4. You will have 1 Gold remaining if you simply upgrade so it would be best if you had some economy units or saved gold before that so that you can buy an extra minion before ending the turn. Do not upgrade if you feel that you are weak and are going to take damage next turn.
- Turn 7 (9 Gold): If you haven’t upgraded to Tier 4, upgrade and buy a minion. However, if you took damage in the last turn and are facing an opponent that dealt that damage to someone else in the last turn (scout), fortify your defenses and buy at least 2 minions. You can refresh or use a Battlecry minion in this turn most of the time. It’s time to decide what build you are going for at this point.
Mid-game Tips
- First of all, during all turns from now on, use your time. Do not rush and do everything in 10 seconds, you have plenty of time to think about your strategy before the rope starts burning.
- You need to choose the desired build at this point. Look at the board and what you have in Tavern. Think about the plan here – how many more minions do you need to obtain the key ones? Do you have supporting minions for the desired build? If not, can you avoid taking damage next turn? Who is your next opponent? The reason why you need to devise a strategy is that players who end up in the lower section of the arena start to die here.
- Pay close attention on what kind of Tavern Spells are offered. It’s a good idea to boost your game tempo by using Tavern Spells instead of wasting gold on Refresh.
- Upgrading: If key minions for the desired build are Tier 4 or lower, there is no need to upgrade yet. Many players make mistakes at this point and, for no reason, go for the Tavern Tier 5 instead of sticking to what they have. This is especially important if you have a low-tier build such as Mech Magnetization or Deep Blue Naga. Remember, you don’t have to end up on Tavern Tier 6 in order to win the game.
- Fortune Favors The Bold – RNG does not. If you don’t have the key minions and you see that you might take damage again next turn – pull the plug on going for the first place and go with the contingency build at this point. If you are going for a contingency build, spells are a must-have as they can quickly buff up your board so that you stop losing Heatlh. Do not upgrade and try to simply boost stats and obtain as many Venomous minions as you can get (unless your next opponent is going with the Undead or Mech build). It’s all hands on board at this point – simply buy whatever is the strongest in the Tavern and what will allow you to survive the longest so that you don’t lose (too much) MMR.
End-game Tips
- Determine your main opponent – scout and see who is likely to be your final competitor for the first place. Start preparing to counter their build. Check out our counters for each build below in this article.
- Consider getting a backup minion such as Mad Matador. Sometimes, especially in lower MMR games, players focus on buffing one or two minions so you need a counter if that’s the case.
- If you have a full build at this point and are above 20hp, you can upgrade to Tier 6. It’s the logical thing to do because if your main opponent one-shots you in a duel and wins, well then you never stood a chance in the first place. It’s much more likely that you will need an additional boost from Tier 6 minions to overpower your main opponent.
- Once you are on Tavern Tier 6, you will be able to get some high-end spells such as Sacred Gift. Depending on whether your build is complete, consider spending Gold to boost your forces with these Tavern Spells.
- Pay close attention to the lineup on your board. As at this point you probably know your opponent’s build, try to predict which minion will attack where and align your own forces in accordance with that prediction. There are simply too many variations to consider at this stage of the game so we can’t give you straightforward advice. For example, if you are up against Mech Magnetization build, your weakest minion should go on the far left side as probably your opponent has Taunt and Divine Shield so you don’t want to waste any minions on hitting that. But on the other hand, if your opponent is going for any Demon build, probably he won’t have any Divine shields on his Taunt minion so you should put Venomous or highest attack minions on the left side. Check out the builds below for more info.
Naga: Gym build
Key minions: Slitherspear, Lord of Gains + Drakkari Enchanter
Supporting: Spellcraft generating Nagas
The best Hearthstone Battlegrounds Naga build is the one in which you go for the Slitherspear, Lord of Gains with a lot of different Spellcraft generating Nagas like Deep Blue Crooner and Glowscale, and of course Silivaz The Vindictive. Moreover, Drakkari Enchanter will also be very important. The idea is to have 5+ different spells at the beginning of the turn and to have 2 Slitherspear (or a golden one) with Drakkari. For example, with 5 different spells*2 Slitherspears (+2/+2 for each spells)*2 (Bristleback)=20/20+ stats on all your nagas at the end of the turn. The math is mathing for Nagas in Hearthstone Battlegrounds season 6.
So yeah, the numbers are there, and you can scale even more with Golden minions by getting more different spells each turn. The obvious issue here is the early-mid game. Getting Nagas with different Spellcrafts will be good once you get Slitherspear, but they can be weak in the mid-stages of the game because there aren’t any good synergies.
Your goal here is to get a few Nagas up and some strong cards that can either generate some money/spells or win your battles and save your precious health. Leaping to Tier 5, Goldening a card, and praying is usually how to main process goes if you want to acquire your first Slitherspearand get this build going.
Tips for Countering Naga Gym build
There isn’t really a hard counter to this build, but you will need to outscale your opponent with stats. Of course, you aren’t immune to scam builds that have Transmuted Bramblewitch, Mad Matador, or Venomous Murlocs, especially if you have Divine Shields on your big Nagas.
Tavern Spell synergies with Naga Gym build
Try to get as many different ones with as little cost (Overconfidence, Fleeting Vigor, Tavern Coin, etc) as possible each turn. Above all else, the idea is to get as much value from Slitherspear as possible. Other than that, Sacred Gift will also be crucial against high-stat and scam builds.
Quests and Rewards for Naga build
There aren’t really too many specific Quest Rewards for Naga builds, but you can usually go with Evil Twin, since you will usually have a few very buffed minions, and Secret Sinstone (good for Spellcraft that discovers a Tavern Spell). If you don’t have these in particular, then look for rewards like Pilfered Lamps that will just be an overall good utility reward. Finally, at the risk of stating the obvious, be sure to pick something a Quest that you can finish.
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: The only nerf that this Naga build got is that the Primal Staff is now Tier 5, instead of Tier 4.
Pro Tip: While we didn’t put a lot of emphasis onSilivaz, he is one of the best minions for this build. If you can get two of these in play, in combination with Slitherspear, it will be very powerful. Of course, these are all tier 6 minions so it’s easier said than done.
Beast: Cavalry build
Key Minions: Hawk, Mechanized Gift Horse, Titus Rivendare, Goldrinn the Great Wolf
Supporting Minions: Banana Slamma, Springly Scarab (only for Reborn and Taunt)
While the recent nerf to the Hawkstrider Herald (Level 5->6) is not good for the main beast build, it still is viable. You basically need to get 4-5 key cards that only work when all of them are in play – Goldrinn, the Great Wolf, Hawkstrider Herald, Mechanized Gift Horse, Titus Rivendare + Banana Slamma. These are all pretty hard to get since they are very high-level.
Right now, the only viable way to get to this build is to have a good midrange build that is generating spells, money, etc, and then transition into beasts if you Discover Hawkstrider/Titus/Goldrinn. The idea is to trigger the Goldrinn Deathrattle with Hawkstrider and Titus, and then the Gift Horse + Banana Slamma comes into play. Of course, good management of Taunts, and getting Reborn with Springhtly Scarab on Goldrinn and Gift Horse is the key to victory.
You will basically summon a lot of mech horses with a lot of stats because the Deathrattle of Goldrinn, the Great Wolf applies to all summoned units as well. Again, the main problem with this build is that there are several key minions you need to have before it starts becoming viable, but it is strong once you have it.
Tips for countering Cavalry Beast build
Anything disruptive can be scary against Beasts. Of course, anything with a cleave can also be troublesome. Other than that, there isn’t really a straightforward counter to this build, it’s more of an RNG issue mech horses, Reborn, and sniping Banana Slamma.
Tavern Spell synergies with Cavalry Beast build
Since Titus’ Tribute is now removed from the game (28.4.1 Patch), there aren’t really any powerful spells for this build. While Sacred Gift is good on Banana Slamma, you really won’t have much money once your key Beast minions are in place, most of the time it’s smarter to just re-roll the Tavern for the key golden minion that you want, rather than buying Spells. Boon of Beetles is a nice new addition to the game, but be very careful when using it in your Beast builds. It seems like it has synergy, but sometimes you won’t have room for weak Beatles and will be unable to use Reborn on your key minions because you summoned a 2/2 Beetle first.
Quests and Rewards for Beast Cavalry build
When it comes to Beast Build, there are so many RNG elements to the builds, but the newest Quest Rewards are leaning heavily in Beast’s favor. Stolen Gold is always a good option and an old-school Quest Reward, but the recent ones have a very good synergy with Hearthstone Battlegrounds Beast builds – Tumbling Disaster, Stable Amalgamation, and Cycle of Energy all focus on summoning a lot of minions, which this build does the best. If you have either of these 3 Quest Rewards, you will need to go for a Beast or perhaps a Mech build (less optimal).
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: Beasts have been nerfed since Hawkstrider Herald is now Tier 6 instead of Tier 5. Moreover, there is no more Titus’ Tribute, which was a very powerful spell in combination with Mechanized Gift Horse.
Pro Tip: The key thing to do in order to get the most out of this build is to manage your Taunts, board order, and when the Gift Horse is going to die. This can be pretty volatile since there is a lot of RNG involved.
Quilboar: Snarling Geomagus build
Key minions: Prickly Piper, Moon-Bacon Jazzer, Snarling Conductor, Geomagus Roogug
Supporting minions: Tough Tusk, Mangled Bandit, Bongo Bopper, Chargla
When it comes to Quilboars, not much has changed since Season 5 – the only difference is the way in which Bloodgems are generated. The basic premise of this meta build still remains the same – Moon-Bacon Jazzer and Prickly Piper are to boost your Blood Gems so that you can increase stats on your army with them while other minions generate Blood Gems for you. Generally speaking, there are two ways to generate Blood Gems. The simplest but the slowest way is to use Chargla and Bannerboar while having Drakkari Enchanter on board. As you can see, this is pretty tricky and it requires specific, high-tier minions to work.
In Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 6, the new mechanics for Quilboar minions have been added: discarding spells in order to get Blood Gems or Gold. This can be done by using Mangled Bandit and Snarling Conductorall while Briarback Bookie and/or Bongo Boppergenerate Blood Gems to be discarded. Since Blood Gems are considered as “spells”, Mangled Bandit actually gives two new Blood Gems in this way and it’s a good deal to use Snarling Conductor to boost your economy (you get 3 gold for the price of one Blood Gem). You can also discard Tavern Spells – just be sure to buy the cheap ones for that.
Since the 28.4.1 patch (February 2024), Geomagus Roogug has become the essential minion in all kinds of Quilboar builds. He is your power source and a gem-generating minion at the same time. Not only that, but Geomagus Roogug is only a Tier 4 minion which is simply OP at the moment. Sure, the downside is the fact that you don’t know where the second gem will land once you cast the first one on him, but this essentially means that he doubles the number of gems you play every turn. With Geomagus on the field, you don’t even need to rush with the Tavern Tier upgrade – providing that your gems are buffed to some degree.
The biggest issue with this build is the low mid-game survivability – it will take some time for Prickly Piper and Moon-Bacon Jazzer to boost your Blood Gems so you have to provide some sustain while that happens. Utilizing Divine Shield minions such as Tough Tusk and Bristleback Knight is a good Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy when it comes to this matter. On the other hand, Briarback Bookie feels very sluggish early on so you should avoid him until those Blood Gems that he generates for Gold mean something to you. Furthermore, Transmuted Bramblewitch is a great one-shot minion that can provide additional support.
The main two mid-game minions since the latest two patches are Geomagus Roogug and Snarling Conductor as they will provide enough sustain (Divine Shield and double gems on Roogug) and support (4 gold per turn for just 1 gem on Snarling Conductor) during this time. Once everything is buffed up nicely you will have no problems ending up in the top 3 players in Battlegrounds.
Tips for countering Quilboar Geomagus build
The main advantage of any Quilboar build is its high stat boost combined with Divine Shield. Luckily, not all Quilboar minions have Divine Shield – and it’s usually going to be the first two minions that attack. This is where your counter lies – use Taunt if you can on minion(s) that are the weakest on your side and move them far right. If you can’t, try to use reborn minions on your second or third position from the left side, hoping to snipe Divine Shield ones.
Tavern Spell synergies with Quilboar Geomagus build
Since most of your key minions are rather high-tier, you need to survive until you get them. Spells can come in handy, especially because you will have one or more Tough Tusks with Divine Shield as your main power through mid-game. Try to use stat-boosting spells to increase their stats. Using Economy spells is also a viable option – you can even buy a cheap spell and turn it into an economy one by letting Snarling Conductor discard it and giving 3 Gold in the process. Tempo is the key for this build so try not to fall behind – if you can’t get the desired minions, don’t refresh into oblivion, use spells to boost your army instead.
Quests and Rewards for Quilboar builds
Although Endless Blood Moon seems like a perfect choice as a Reward for Quilboar builds, the problem is the fact that you need to choose it on turn 4 and you usually don’t know which build you will go for on that turn. That being said, you can take a chance and go for it and hope that key Quilboar minions will appear in the Tavern. Perhaps a better option would be to just pick a reward that gives you the biggest mid-game survivability since your Quilboar army will get buffed steadily. Just keep in mind that Quilboar builds are in meta now so probably several other players will be going for this build in the Hearthstone Battlegrounds as well.
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: Quilboars have been buffed (Geomagus Roogug, Prickly Piper, Sun-Bacon Jazzer, etc), that’s a fact. They might not be the best tribe out there due to the specific cards you need to complete the build, but they are pretty strong now.
Pro Tip: Pay close attention to discarding priority if you have only one Blood Gem and both Mangled Bandit and Snarling Conductor on board. You want Mangled Bandit to discard first so that you get three new Blood Gems after which Snarling Conductor can discard one Blood Gem and provide 3 Gold next turn. Move Mangled Bandit left from Snarling Conductor for this priority to occur.
Pirate: Audacious Smuggler build
Key minions: Record Smuggler
Supporting minions: Blade Collector, Gunpowder Courier
Not much has changed when it comes to the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Pirates meta builds in Season 6 compared to Season 5. All the main minions are still the same and there are slight differences when it comes to mid-game.
The most important minions are still Tier 5 and Tier 4: Record Smuggler and Blade Collector. Record Smuggler is your number one priority and you need to obtain it in mid-game if you are hoping to achieve anything with this pirate build. Everything else you do has to be in service of just acquiring this card – once you have it, you will be able to spend double or triple amounts of gold per turn and you will easily get all the other buffs that you need. The other key card is Blade Collector as it provides massive offensive capabilities and is easily buffed by Gunpowder Courier, Bloodsail Cannoneer or Peggy Studybone.
The main issue will not be your attack – but your defense. You won’t have any Divine Shields and most of the buffs are offensive – so, once you have enough money, you will need several Lovesick Balladist in order to boost your defenses. Again, as we mentioned before, none of this will be a problem if you get a Record Smuggler early on.
In our example, we also utilized new minion in season 6, Phaerix, Wrath of the Sunbecause we needed some Divine Shield protection. Another good tip is to use Audacious Anchorand move it on a far-right position so that it snipes something that your opponent doesn’t want to die.
This build is not perfect, but it is the current meta for this Pirate Build. Note that there is another potential pirate build that we will talk about soon – the so-called Ongoing Scallywag build. Stay tuned.
Strategy for countering Pirate build
When it comes to countering this build, the key is, as always, to exploit the greatest weakness. As we mentioned earlier, the biggest weakness is the lack of any kind of defensive capabilities – Pirates have very low defense and almost no Reborn/Deathrattle/Divine Shields. The first thing you need to do is to neutralize the cleave attack that comes from Blade Collector – use taunt minions and move it far right, adjected to the weakest minion you have on board. The second thing you want to do is use any kind of Reborn or Deathrattle: summon minions in order to kill off pirates with low defense. The rest of the board won’t be a problem after that.
Tavern Spell synergies with Pirate builds
Unless you are super lucky, you will need to utilize Tavern Spells in order to get to first 3 places in Hearthstone Battlegrounds with this Pirate build. Early on you can go for economy minions but as soon as you enter the mid-game, you need to have a full-board at all times. Pirates are probably the weakest units in mid-game right now so you need to utilize Tavern Spells that boost their stats and try to Discover the key minions so that you don’t have to rely on spells anymore. Once you get your key minions, you won’t really need any spells as you will be too busy buying and selling minions in order to spend all the Gold that Record Smuggler is generating.
Quests and Rewards for Pirate builds
When it comes to Pirate builds, your main weakness will be your defensive capabilities – Pirates almost have non. In order to solve this problem, you need to take a quest that offers you fast defensive options that you can use mid-game. In other words, you need to pick a quest that you can solve very fast so that your opponents don’t overwhelm you before you get your key minions. Similar to the Demon army, adding Divine Shield to your Pirate build will do wonders in the Arena. If you can’t get that one, any kind of early-on buff is better than some end-game quest reward.
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: No changes have been made to Pirate minions in this patch.
Pro tip: If you can’t get Blade Collector, you can use Underhanded Dealer as your key unit since it will get massive buffs from Record Smuggler and other money-gaining units that Pirates have.
Demon: Insatiable Tichondrius build
Key minions: Soul Rewinder, Malchezaar, Prince of Dance, Tichondrius
Supporting minions: Wrath Weaver, Famished Felbat
Demons have been in Battlegrounds Meta for quite some time. Ever since the old season 3 Bat-build was replaced, the players have been utilizing Demons a lot. Your strongest minion remains Famished Felbat but other Demon minions will provide enough support and tempo in order to survive until you get him.
The desired Demon Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy starts with you getting Soul Rewinder. The most common mistake players make is trying to buff up Wrath Weaver – although it is very strong in the beginning, it really can’t keep it up and you should sell it as soon as you get your key minions later on. Sure, you can get him and use him early on and in mid-game but he should not be your key minion. What you need to think about with this strategy is the space that you have on board – it will be crowdy and you need at least one spot free in order to buy/sell demons and further buff the rest of your board. When it comes to Tier 3 minions, if you can, get Legion Overseer as you will need those Tavern buffs later. All-player favorite and Felemental is also a good option at this point. Dreadbeard is kind of an economy minion that you can use since it does have synergy with the rest of this Hearthstone Battlegrounds meta build.
However, your main goal is to get Malchezaar, Prince of Dance, and Tichondrius which is an insanely strong combo. You will be getting buffs every turn on all your demon minions plus 2 or 4 free refreshes every turn. This will allow you to provide more than enough sustain until you get the Famished Felbat although one might argue that you don’t actually need it in order to win. Once you and the Demons in Tavern are buffed up nicely, you can sell Tichondrious and Wrath Weaver so that you can buff additional Demons in the end stage of the game.
New Tier 4 Demon minion, Bazaar Dealer, looks really cool – it is not a crucial part of your build but if you can get it early on, it will make a huge difference as it will provide massive boosts to Tavern minions.
Strategies for countering Demon build
To be frank, although Demon builds are powerful stat-vise, they are also vulnerable to everything else – especially the Venomous effect. Virtually no Demon minion has Divine Shield or Reborn (most don’t have Deathrattle as well). Obviously, this is your main counter – use whatever venomous minions that you can find against any Demon build. Also, Mechs works great against Demons if the stat difference is not insanely high.
Tavern Spells for Tichondrious build
Since this is a heavy stat-based build, you don’t need those spells. What you do need are economy spells early on (before you get Malchezaar) and Utility ones later on. Demons suffer from the lack of Divine Shield so if you can try to obtain it through spells (you can also replace hero power through spells in order to do so). What you can also do is add Taunt to your weakest minion as your opponent will probably assume that Insatiable Urzul is your only minion with Taunt and try to take it down.
Quests and Rewards for Demon builds
In the current Hearthstone Battlegrounds meta, Demons are In a weird spot in regards to the economy of the game. This is why any reward that gives you an extra boost towards finding your key cards is good. That being said, the best Quest Rewards are usually Alter Ego (significant Tavern stat boost), or Yogg-tastic Tasties (Tavern consume RNG chance).
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: No changes to the Demon minions are made, but Staff of Enrichment got a buff (3 Gold->2 Gold cost) so the “Consume” build is more viable.
Pro tip: Peckish Felldrake is basically an at least 10/10 minion that will provide you with enough tempo to push through the critical mid-game phase.
Murloc: Mrrrglr Scam build
Key minions: Bream Counter, Bassgill
Supporting minions: Choral Mrrrglr
Just by reading the patch notes, we can already see that Murlocs have remained pretty much unchanged in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 6. The core build remains the same: It is two-folded in a way that you get some stats through several minions in order to survive the mid-game and use high-end venomous minions later on.
For the first, stat-based part of your build, you need to get a Bream Counter as soon as you can and keep it in your hand. Before that you can use other Murlocs just note that you will probably sell them later on. Diremuck Foragershould be used only early on as you will get Bassgill soon. The problem with Diremuck Forager is the fact that it doesn’t work well with Murculessince it summons the minion immediately. That being said, this should provide enough tempo to keep you going through mid-game. But the real party begins once you get Choral Mrrrglr and as many Wayward Grimscales and Operatic Belchers as you can. This combo will provide you the upper hand in the Battlegrounds Arena providing that you can live long enough to buff the Bream Counter and obtain all the Venomous minions. The main problem with the build is the fact that it’s slow and you need many cards in order to complete it. Obviously, this build is very high as it requires Tier 4, 6, and 7 minions but the potential is just astonishing.
Strategies for countering Murloc build
The main power from this build comes from a combo of Venomous units and stat-boosted ones. In order to counter this, obviously Divine Shield units are a good way to go. Alternatively, you can acquire some Deathrattle: Summon minions in order to at least neutralize some of the Venomous units – and move your own Venomous minions on the right side, hoping that you get Choral Mrrrglr or Bream Counter with them.
Spells to use with Murloc Scam Build
Generally speaking, the Murloc scam build should work fine on its own once it’s completed. As you can see, most cards are very high Tier so you need to have some economy boost in order to get them as soon as possible – that’s why you should use economy spells in the beginning. Getting the required minions through discovery spells is also a good option, as well as triggering Battlecries on Primalfin Lookout. Furthermore, having Divine Shield on a Venomous is great so if you can, try to get that as well.
Quests and Rewards for Murloc builds
In it’s essence, this kind of Hearthstone Murloc build is a scam type. The real power behind this comes not from the cards of the field, but from the cards in your hand. With that in mind, you need to get quest rewards that can enhance your card-drawing capabilities – so anything that gives you extra gold or minions is a good choice. Of course, the best choice is to get Red Handearly on and buff the minions in your hand. The great thing about this quest reward is that it doesn’t require a difficult quest to fulfill in order to get it.
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: The most notable change is that Dreamer’s Embrace is now tier 4 instead of 5, which can impact your midgame more positively.
Pro tip: Unless you somehow acquired Brann very early, go with the Deathrattle Murloc build instead of Battlecry one. The thing with the other build is that it just doesn’t provide enough stat boost to win. Sure, you can use those minions but don’t rely on them too much.
Elemental: Refreshing Brainstormer build
Key minions: Recycling Wrath
Supporting minions: Dancing Brainstormer, Rock Rock, Elemental of Surprise
Elementals have been underdogs in Seasons 4 and 5 and it seems like this trend will continue throughout Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds. The main issue with any Elemental build is the fact that it’s heavily stat-based – there is very little room for any kind of sustain in terms of Divine Shield, Reborn, or Venomous minions (at least not until the very late-game phase). Be it as it may, one thing is certain – you need Recycling Wrath and you need it fast. It would be perfect if you could acquire Dancing Brainstormer early on as you will need his buffs later on. Don’t forget, Nomi the Kitchen Nightmareis removed from the Hearthstone Battlegrounds so Dancing Brainstormer is your main way of buffing Tavern Stats along with Spells.
Furthermore, Party Elemental can offer a certain level of protection and sustain while in mid-game but he can’t be the only unit you rely on. After you get Recycling Wraith and Dancing Brainstormer it’s all about survival and upgrading to Tavern Tier 6. There are no straightforward tactics here as the whole point is just to survive so it depends on how strong your opponents are. You will be able to refresh and aquire golden minions so try to get as many Flourishing Frostlingsas you possibly can since they will probably be your main stat source.
Once you get to turn 6, you should just keep getting as many Elemental minions as you possibly can, focusing on economy ones since Rock Rock will buff up your army pretty well. Be careful how you use Elemental of Surprise because you want him to merge with one of your strongest units – preferably Wildfire Element.
Strategies for countering Elemental builds
All kinds of Elemental builds and comps in Season 6 have one thing in common – they are all stat-based besides Elemental of Surprise. This is why we say that Elementals are nerfed – it is very easy to counter them, especially with so many Venomous and one-shot minions. If you are facing a heavily buffed Elemental army don’t try to counter them with stats – use one-shot minions instead. Move anything with venom or one-shot ability to the left side to counter strong Taunt Elementals. Get at least one Taunt minion and move it far right in order to counter potential Divine Shield or Transmuted Bramblewitch. The rest of the Elemental army should be easy enough to take care of – any kind of Beast, Murloc, Undead, or Mech build should have no problems dealing with Elementals unless the stat difference is insanely high.
Tavern Spell synergies with Refreshing Brainstormer build
Elementals are probably one of the weakest tribes early on. They don’t have any kind of utility support and their stats are pretty horrible before they get buffed up. Luckily, Land Lubber can help you out with that issue. This minion will basically double the number of Tavern Spells making spell casting much easier for Elementals. You will have a choice of various spells and you should go for Economy and Stat-based spells early on. You need to boost your board as much as you can in order to survive the mid-game. Using spells for this build is not optional, it’s absolutely crucial in most matches. Unless you are super lucky, you will need to boost your army before you get all the required minions for the Refreshing Brainstormer build (and before the stat boosts actually kick in).
Quests and Rewards for Elemental build
There are a few Quest Rewards that come to mind when looking at this Hearthstone Battlegrounds Elemental build. Sinfall Medallion is nice since you will shuffle a lot of minions, Anima Bribe can also enable you to do some tricks and maybe sell a few high-stat minions for something with Cleave, finally Bloodsoaked Tome seems like an OP Quest Reward for this build because the only downside of this build is it’s economy and inability to buy a ton of minions in the endgame.
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: There were no notable changes that affected Elementals in this patch.
Pro Tip: Don’t use Emergent Flameunless you Refresh at least 5 times. It’s better to stack them and use them once you know which Elemental will get the Divine Shield (from Elemental of Surprise)
Dragon: Arcane Smolderwing
Key Minions: Outback Smolderer, Brann Bronzebeard, Kalecgos Arcane Aspect
Support Minions: Amber Guardian
Dragons have been in a weird spot in the last couple of months, but they can work really well with the newest Outback Smolderer that will generate Smolderwing. This can ramp up your build since you can get three of them and make a Golden minion essentially every or so. The key here is to balance the mid-to-late-game transition and (of course) be lucky enough to get a few Outback Smolderers in the early-mid game. Make sure to give the attack to the minion that needs it the most, that means splitting the stat gain a bit to get every dragon to a decent attack with a good kill potential.
It’s important to note that Amber Guardian and maybe Razorgore, the Untamed can help you with the mid-game tempo, but Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect, Brann Bronzebeard, and Outback Smolderer need to be your scaling Dragons and top priority. Your main focus is the Smolderwing combo, the other dragons are supplemental to the build. This is a pretty specific build so it’s essential to get these minions in order to pull this off. While we do put a lot of emphasis on late-game in this Hearthstone Battlegrounds guide, it’s important to develop your board first. Of course, getting a Warpwing is also good since you can buff him very quickly with Smolderwing that you get.
Counters for Smolderwing Dragons build
Since your strongest weapon in this build will usually be a high attack, low defense Warpwing, anything that can snipe this card can be a big issue. Try to get your Taunts up on all other dragons except Warpwing.
Spell Synergies with Smolderwing build
Since your build revolves around Brann Bronzebeard the best spells would be Battlecry-related – triggerbc, and Hired Headhunter. Of course, getting Sacred Gift on your Warpwing is extremely powerful and should be at the top priority.
Quest and Rewards for Dragon Arcane build
When it comes to this build, you will have to decide on it only once you get your key minions in place, low-level dragons are useless here. So either go for an early Quest Reward that gains momentum and then decide if you can go for this build or if you get Gilean War Horn, that is a good sign you should lean towards this build. Secret Sinstone can also be very good since you will Discover a lot of Smolderwings, also Ghastly Mask does a similar job since your Outback Smolderer gives you a lot of Smolderwings too.
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: Just like with Murlocs, themost notable change is that Dreamer’s Embrace is now tier 4 instead of 5, which is much better when your Tavern is Tier 4/5.
Pro Tip: Focus on getting at least 1, if not 2 Warpwings before you start buffing up your Dragons with Kalecgos. They are your strongest minions and should be the top priority.
Mech: Copter Magnetization build
Key minions: Deflect-o-bot, Cogworth Coopter
Supporting minions: Polarizing Beatboxer, Accord-o-Tron, Cogworth Copter
In the previous seasons, the main battleground tactic for Mechs was to go with either the low-mech build focusing on Deflect-o-bot and renewing its Divine Shield or to try to get a high-mech build while having Polarizing Beatboxer on the field.
In Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds, your key minions remain magnetization ones, Lullabot and Accord-o-Tron preferably boosted by Cogwork Copter and magnetized on Deflect-o-Bot. However, in order to successfully implement this Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy, you will need Scrap Scraper first. Note that he has been reworked in 28.6.1 Patch and now gives only “magnetic minions”. The main idea of this build is to always have one magnetization minion in your hand that will continuously get boosted by Cogwork Copter. If you have a Scrap Scraper on the field this shouldn’t be a problem as that means that you need to buy one magnetization minion every second turn in order not to fall behind this power boost. The potential of this build is just insane as you will be getting huge amounts of gold every turn, stat boost as well as Divine Shields on all your units if you get all the magnetization that is needed.
Another good support minion that you can use is Whirling Lass-o-Matic. If you can, you should try to buff it up because the potential of this minion is high. If you can get it and buff it early on, it is capable of dealing with several enemies all by itself all while providing support with spell-generating ability that he has.
Strategies for countering Mech build
The biggest strength of any mech build comes from their Divine Shields and Deflect-O-Bot. The most effective way to counter this is to simply get a Tunnel Blaster which is also known as an “anti-divine shield” minion. That being said, sometimes you can’t get this particular minion (although it will be available in all matches as it’s a neutral unit) – the alternative is to with Deathrattle: summon cards in order to take down at least a portion of Mech Divine Shields without loosing too many units. Cleave is also a viable option but you will still have a problem with Deflect-o-bot as most players won’t put their Mechs with Taunt next to it.
Tavern Spell synergies with Copter Magnetization build
The biggest issue of this build is the fact that it takes time for the minions to get buffed up nicely. Furthermore, you will be crippled because you need to keep one minion in hand for several turns before using it so that Copter’s effect can take place. Tavern Spells can help you with this – especially the ones that provide instant stats or instant discoveries. You can see the obvious synergy between using stat-boosting spells and having several minions with Divine Shield early on. In the late phase of the game, it’s all-hands-on-deck anyway: whatever useful you can throw on your Mech army will do just fine.
Quests and Rewards for Mech builds
Mech builds are probably the riskiest ones to go for, but also the most interesting ones. The main issue is the lack of offensive capabilities, so our advice is to pick a quest reward that can buff the stats of your minions. Ritual Dagger is a good choice if you can get it, especially because of all the magnetization before you know it, all of your minions will have a Deathrattle effect. Basically, any kind of buff that you can get early on will do wonders and keep you safe until you get your key minions.
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: Nothing has changed when it comes to this particular Mech build.
Pro Tip: In order to survive mid-game, you should focus on Deflect-o-bot as this unit will provide enough suppressive firepower to get the other units that you need to complete the build.
Undead: Kel’Thuzad, the Mummifier build
Key Minions: Archlich Kel’Thuzad, Anub’arak, Nerubian King, Mummifier
Supporting Minions: Champion of the Primus
The tribe build that has seen the most changes in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 6 is the Undead one. The whole meta has changed when it comes to Undead and several new key units are in place. The basic premise of the build still remains the same: high-attack minions with refreshing Reborn abilities. However, the way in which this is done has completely changed and this is probably the most difficult build in Hearthstone Battlegrounds to understand.
First of all, we need to address the elephant in the room and that’s the Grave Gobler. Its unique ability to destroy the left Undead minion at the start of your turn is actually a new Hearthstone Battlegrounds mechanic. You need to be aware of several facts about this: Grave Gobler’s ability will trigger a Deathrattle if a minion has one. This can be a good thing if you use it for example on Harmless Bonehead as you will get two 1/1 Skeletons instead of him. Furthermore, if you sacrifice another Harmless Bonehead you will get the triple plus one more regular Skeleton. The same thing will happen if you have two same Reborn units and Grave Gobler eats one of them – you will get a triple. However, if he eats a random Reborn unit, that unit’s Reborn will activate and you will be left with a unit without Reborn and with 1 Defense point.
Things get tricky when you obtain Archlich Kel’Thuzad. His ability happens at the end of your turn so pay close attention to what you want him to eat. If he eats anything with Reborn and you don’t have room on board, Reborn will have priority over Kel’Thuzad’s card text. That means that you will get a minion without Reborn and with 1 defense and no other copies will be made. If you look at the build above, you will see that Kel’thuz destroyed Moroes, Stewart of Death and since we had no room on board, no additional copies were made. However, Kel’thuzad also destroyed Mummifierso the Reborn effect was restored on Moroes.
Now that you understand how the new “destroy” mechanics work, let’s see the rest of the build. Same as in season 5, triggering Anub’arakDeathrattle along with spamming Nerubian Deathswarmeris going to buff up your forces early on. Later, you can use Champion of Primuscombined with Reborn tactics that Kel’Thuzad and Mummifier provide to additionally increase attack on your minions. It looks pretty straightforward but it’s rather difficult to monitor all the synergies happening in every turn.
Strategies for Countering Undead build
The basic premise, as we described above, of the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Undead Build is for minions to have enough Reborn effects while dealing heavy damage in every clash. In order to prevent this strategy from decimating your minions, utilize Divine Shield minions and/or Cleave attack. Most Undead forces won’t have any defense so even if you can get your hands on a couple of Reborn/Deathrattle: summon that would be great. If we were to choose, any Beast build would be the best choice for countering Undead Reborn Strategy.
Undead Build Synergies with Tavern Spells
As you can see, this build is pretty high-end. Your key minion is on Tavern Tier 6 so you need some sustain until you get there. By Utilizing Discovery spells and various Utility ones you will be able to survive mid-game. Once your build is complete, you can just focus on getting new spells and increasing stats on your minions. Undead minions will keep buffing as long as you are triggering their Deathrattle effects so you can focus on providing additional support to your army once the build is complete.
Quests and Rewards for Quilboar builds
To summaries, your main weapon with Undead builds is high offensive power combined with Reborn mechanics. When it comes to quest rewards you need to take this into account – your minions won’t be strong enough to deal with your opponents unless you give them time to grow. Most of your Undead key units are high level so, similar to Nagas, survivability is the key here. A fun choice is Theotar’s Parasol by which you won’t have to worry about the enemy sniping your main units that need to survive until the end of the round. Quests that make your minions golden are also a good option for Undeads because of all the Deathrattle capabilities that you will be using.
Notes for Patch 28.4.1: Besides the text change on Archlich and the slight change on Moroes (Tier 5 instead of Tier 6 but gives +1/+5 instead of +2/+6 on Deathrattle) nothing else has been changed in the latest patch and the Undead tribe remains the same.
Pro Tip: New unit Steadfast Spiritis simply not strong enough considering the fact that it’s Tier 4 so you should stay away from it. It’s better to spend Gold on useful spells than on this. We are sure it will get reworked in one of the next patches.
Bonus Builds:
Metalhead Alternatives
Key minion: Rylak Metalhead
Support minions: Undead/Dragon/Quilboar Battlecry minions
The following builds focus on one unit: Rylak Metalhead and its synergy with Battlecry minions. Basically, any kind of minion with Battlecry can be put to good use if you have Rylak on board. The first example of this build is what you see above – Quilboar Metalheads. This is probably the easiest one to make – your key minions will remain Prickly Piper and Moon Bacon Jazzer. The main issue with the regular build is its lack of defensive power as you need many Moon Bacon Jazzers in order too boost your defenses. This is circumvented with Rylak as he will activate Battlecries as a part of his Deathrattle effect. Furthermore, the synergy is further increased when Baron Rivendare gets on the field as he will boost both, your offensive power (through Prickly Piper Deathrattle) and defensive (through the Battlecry effect triggered by Deathrattle from Rylak).
Rylak Metalhead can be used in several other builds as well, although less effectively. Battlecry Dragons are probably one of the weakest builds in mid-game but with Rylak, he can really boost up their power. The same can be said about Undead minions as Rylak has a pretty good synergy with Nerubian Deathswarmer. The main issue here is the fact that you can’t keep this up forever as you will need to boost your defenses in the late mid-game phase. That being said, you can still get a really decent buff before you decide to replace Rylak with some more effective Undead minion.
When it comes to spell usage, things get fun here. Both Bran’s Blessing and Titus’ Tribute work equally well due to the nature of Rylak’s ability. Besides those two, depending on the build you are going for, you can also stat-boosting spells as your main concern will be to survive long enough for Rylak to do his magic.
Tough Bristlebach build
Key minions: Prickly Piper, Tough Tusk, Bristlebach
Supporting minions: Mangled Bandit, Bongo Bopper, Snarling Conductor, Moon-Bacon Jazzer
In the past, this was the meta build when it came to Quilboars in Battlegrounds. However, since the patch 28.2.3. and the nerf that Bristlebach got (Avenge(2) instead of Avenge(1)), the build has fallen out of meta and that’s why we are putting it in the extra builds section. The build can still work – it’s just not as strong as it used to be. Unlike the Quilboar build described above, for this one you do need tier 6 minion – as the name suggests, the whole thing resolves around the synergy between Bristlebach and Divine Shield renewal on Thought Tusk.
The premise of the build and comp remains the same as with other Quilboar builds, you still need Prickly Piper and Moon-Bacon Jazzer to buff up your gems. What is different is the end game – should the opportunity arise, you can go with a combo of any unit with Taunt (perhaps even an Undead one) and Bristlebach as this will provide an enormous boost in combat (unless your opponent snipes Bristlebach in which case this tactic falls apart).
The idea is as follows: Move all Tough Tusks on the far left side and other minions with Taunt on the right while having Bristlebach on the far right (check out the image above). In this way, your Tough Tusks will break Divine Shield when they attack but it will get regenerated as soon as the opponent kills your taunt minions because Bristlebach will play a Blood Gem on everyone, renewing the shield on Tough Tusk. It sounds tricky but once you get used to it, it’s a pretty simple Battlegrounds strategy.
Drakkaris build
Key minions: Drakkari Enchanter, Razorgore the Untamed, Emerald Proto-Whelp, Amber Guardian
Supporting minions: Upbeat Frontdrake, Bronze Sandspewer
We just have to say it – the new Dragons look pretty strong. We know that Dragon builds have been changing a lot ever since the (infamous) removal of Tarecgosain Season 5. Now, it looks like there are too many potential builds floating around: Battlecry and end-of-turn build. Battlecry one looks very situational and highly unreliable so we will deal with it separately, in the bonus build section. When it comes to Dragon build meta that’s for sure end-of-turn build “Drakkaris Build”.
The basic premise goes like this: you will get several Dragon minions with the end-of-turn abilities and boost those abilities with Drakkari Enchanter as soon as you can. The offensive power of this Hearthstone Battlegrounds meta build will be boosted by Amber Guardian providing Divine Shields. That’s about it – but it’s easier said than done. Early on, you should get your hands on Upbeat Frontdrake and Emerald Proto-Whelp if you can since they will provide a base ground for what comes next. You need Bronze Sandspewer as well during mid-game since you want to start buffing him as soon as you can. Getting Razorgore the Untamedis your main task and finishing the build with (preferably golden) Drakkari Enchanter.
The good thing is that this build is not so high-end since the highest minion is Tier 5. The bad thing is that you can’t waste much gold on constant refreshing to get Razorgore so be sure to always have a full board so that you don’t lose too much Health until you complete the build. Remember, even once the build is complete, it will take several turns for the buffs to settle in so surviving mid-game is a must.
Notes for Patch 28.2.3: Bronze Sandspewer being nerfed to 1/1 instead of 2/2 isn’t a big deal for this type of build – but Ignition Specialist becoming a Tier 6 minion instead of Tier 5 is a big nerf. The build is still pretty strong and it can work, you just need to upgrade faster in order to get Ignition Specialist as well.
Pro Tip: Note that the new unit Ignition Specialist is really useful with Drakarris build since its ability is also end-of-turn. The synergy between him and Tavern Spell called Primal Staff can go back-and-forth.
In regards to countering this build, since it relies on Divine Shield and heavy offensive power, the obvious solution would be to go with any kind of Murloc, Undead, or Beast build (of course, you can also just buy a Tunnel Blaster and be done with it). Be sure to use Taunt on your weakest minion (or get a minion with taunt) and move it far to the right since you don’t want to waste anything on Divine Shield attacks. Once you deal with their Divine Shields, the rest of the army will just break as the defensive capabilities of Dragons are very limited.
Banana Bear build
Key minions: Banana Slamma, Mama Bear
Supporting minions: Sly Raptor
Note: This build has been heavily nerfed in previous patches but it is still feasible (if you are lucky enough).
Battleground tactics revolving around Beasts have always been heavily dependent on the RNG element of the game. In the past, it was not so rare to see a complete beast-build miserably failing just because opponents unit have sniped their main minion. Most players choose to go with the Hearthstone battlegrounds strategy that revolves around Banana Slamma. This unit can be so broken, especially combined with Sly Raptor and Mama Bear as the effects can stack and provide a massive stat bonus. Note that this build was much stronger before Octosari, Wrap God was removed from the game (patch 28.6.). The problem comes as we mentioned if one of your key units gets killed early on, so you need to do is provide enough cover with taunt and Reborn in order to avoid this. Another problem is that both of these units, Mama Bear and Banana Slamma have been heavily nerfed in previous patches. The build mechanics are the same it’s just that it’s weaker now as Banana Slamma is on Tier 5 instead of Tier 4 and Mama Bear gives +3/+3 instead of +4/+4 when you summon a Beast.
Another unit that you can use here is Free Flying Featherman as it doesn’t disrupt the main board lineup since it’s summoned from hand during the combat so you should definitely get it.
As we mentioned earlier, Beast Build heavily focuses on key units like Banana Slamma and Mama Bear – so you need to take those down if you plan on winning the combat. Sometimes it’s just not possible and completely up to RNG element for sure but there are things you can do to increase your chances of sniping those two minions. Try to use cleave minions if there are any available – chances are beast key minions won’t have a high initial defense. If you can, use Windfury on your second minion from the left side as probably there is a Taunt and a Reborn Taunt minion in the beast build so you are hoping that on your third strike, you might take down a key unit. Avoid venomous builds against Beast – and if you have some put them on your right side.
There are many problems with this build, including the fact that you need several high-tier minions in a specific order for this to work. Spells can somewhat help if you use them to discover new minions and try to obtain the ones that you need. Besides that, you can try to buff-up your forces early on as you will probably have the same lineup of minions later in the game so stats won’t go to waste.
Menagerie Redeemer
Key minions: Nalaa the Redeemer, Land Lubber
Support minions: Spell-generating minions
Menagerie builds are pretty hard to pull off because of the mid-late game transition. There is no clear-cut way of doing it and the build depends on the current tribes in the game. In the example above, we have a relatively weak endgame build, but we made it work with only one Nalaa the Redeemer because of the fast game pace, and bad luck for getting spell-generating minions (There where pretty substantial nerfs for the spell-generating minions in 28.2.3).The key minion to look for is of course Nalaa the Redeemer. This minion works very well with spell-generating minions and heroes. The build can work somewhat okay without too much spell generation, but the more the better. Once you get Naala, you will then just need to spam tavern spells as much as possible. This is a very fun and unique way of playing, but getting to this point of the game is rough.
With the recent nerfs of spell builds in 28.2.3 patch, this build can be a bit more difficult to pull off. You will need a good midgame economy, solid tempo build, and a bit of luck. Your transition starts with snatching a few spell-generating minions in Tier 4 and 5, like Mystic Sporebat and Spellbound Seafarer. Then you will have to pray to RNG gods to get the key Tier 6 card (Redeemer). Also, Land Lubber is very good for this build, since he is strong throughout the game, has two tribes (Elemental/Pirate), and offers more tavern spells which you will need once you get Naala.
The best synergies for Nalaa the Redeemer as the key minion are: Silivaz The Vindictive, Ignition Specialist, Land Lubber, Mystic Sporebat, Spellbound Seafarer.Note: These minions have been nerfed in 28.2.3 battlegrounds patch and Trembling Trolley has been removed in 28.6.1. patch.
Of course, minions with good Keywords like Divine Shield, Cleave, Windfury, and other useful special abilities are also a good “building” block for your mixed minion army. Also, the Misplaced Tea Set can be a good supplement to aid you in the mid-game. The +3/+3 stats are very nice, just be sure to have mixed minions at this point. Finally, Bazaar Dealer can work, but it is not ideal because of the health cost.
Ongoing Scallywag
Key minions: Scalallywag(s), Rapscallion Recruiter, Admiral Eliza Goreblade
Support minions: Blade Collector
This build is more of a meme-type than a real build but it is fun to go for. By no chance is this a meta-build, on the contrary; but let’s see how it works anyway. As you know, with Pirates it’s always the issue of survival before your minions get buffed up. In our example above, we played as King Mukla so that was not a problem due to his hero power. The other issue is getting the right set of minions: in this case, you need both Blade Collector as he is your man offensive minion, and a combo of Admiral Eliza Goreblade and Rapscallion Recruiter. Ripsnarl Captain is also a good minion to go for if you are going for this build.
Blade Collector should always be on the far left side – unless you are positive that your opponent will counter that play with Divine Shield minions or something else. Usually, if that’s the case, we play Blade Collector in the second leftmost position. In this particular situation in our example above, we went against the full Divine Shield Mech build so we took a bit of a risky move by moving Blade Collector almost all the way to the rightmost position.
A tricky minion to play is Rapscallion Recruiter since the main issue is the fact that you need space for his effect to take place. As you can see in our example above, we solved that by using Taunt spells on the first three minions. Admiral will buff up the rest of your army when Scallywags start dying. Hopefully, the offensive power that this build has will be enough to take down the opponent.
Naga Deep Blue build
Key minions: Zesty Shaker, Deep Blue Crooner, Lava Lurker
Supporting minions: Glowscale, Reef Riffer, Dagger Spine Trasher
There haven’t been major changes since Season 5 when it comes to Naga units and meta builds. The Glad-iator is still your main support Tier 3 unit as well as Daggerspine Trasher. The core Naga unit is still Zesty Shaker and Deep Blue Crooner followed by Lava Lurker.
Your most important units are Tavern Tier 2, 3, and 4 so you need to upgrade fast. The only unit from Tier 5 that you need is Glowscale but you can survive the mid-game without it easily. Try to get Deep Blue Crooner and Zesty Shaker as fast as you can – this simple combo will buff up your Lava Lurker in just a few turns. Optionally, you can also use Reef Riffer to provide support before you manage to get your hands on the key units. Once you do, be sure to cast Deep Blues on Zesty Shaker first and then on Lava Lurker. If you can get this combo early on, you don’t even need any Tier 6 units so you don’t have to upgrade at all.
Deep Blue build has two major weaknesses: it’s slow and it’s heavily stat-based on just a few minions. Sure, you can get some Divine Shield with Glowscale later on but during most of the game, you will be playing with 5-6 Naga minions on board that don’t have any sustain except the one provided by stat boost from spells. With the changes in season 6, the best way to counter this build is to utilize Venomous minions as well as one-shot cards. Lava Lurker is by far the strongest Naga minion so if you can deal with it, the rest of the board won’t be a problem. If you don’t have access to any Venomous cards, try the Deathrattle ones to disrupt a few Divine Shields that this build might have.
Note: This build is more or less obsolete since it is too slow and is generally considered not that effective in the current meta. Nevertheless, if you happen to get the key minions in the mid-game, it can be somewhat decent.
Pro tip: Deep Blues can be cast on minions in Bob Tavern as well so if you can’t get Zesty Shaker on the field, you can also freeze it and cast it twice while he is in the tavern.
Kaboom Menagerie Build
Key minions: Lighter Fighter, Titus Rivendare, Hawkstrider Herald
Support minions: Motley Phalanx
This is another type of meme build that’s difficult to achieve but super fun to play with. The build above is a bit more to the Deathrattle side than a full mixed build, but this can vary depending on what cards you get, you will usually have 2-3 more slots, instead of the double slot of Hawkstrider and Lighter Fighter in the picture (this is where you put more mixed minions). The most important part of this build is that you have a stable mid-game, good economy, and solid mixed minions in order to transition to the mentioned key tier 6 minions.
The synergy between the three main key minions is obvious – Lighter Fighter will bombard your opponent into oblivion as his Deathrattle will first be triggered by Hawkstrider Herald and then multiplied with the Titus Rivendare effect. Four damage does seem low (Lighter Fighter was nerfed in patch 28.2.3) but it can scale up once all these effects are triggered.
The main issue is the fact that you need very high-tier minions and the right combo of them. If you have a chance, you can grab Motley Phalanx and assemble a menagerie build in order to survive and have at least some stats on your minions. Another advice would be to take Titus’s Tribute spell whenever you can because this tavern spell will pretty much wreck your opponent and buff up your army at the same time.
There are other variations of this build available. Keep in mind that the best synergies for Motley Phalanx as the key minion would be: Titus Rivendare, Ligher Fighter, Hawkstrider Herald, Springhtly Scarab (cast the Reborn on Phalanx), and Goldrinn, the Great Wolf.
Final Thoughts on the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Strategy for Season 6
Hopefully, this article helped you or at least gave you some new ideas when it comes to Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy for Season 6. Before we finish we want to give you a final piece of advice – these strategies are not bulletproof and there are ways to counter each of them. Don’t forget that Tavern Spells are also in the Battlegrounds as well as Quests – and they are so chaotic that entire gameplay can be changed. Feel free to change some elements of the builds in order to emerge victorious. Also, stay tuned for future updates as we test out new strategies in HS Battlegrounds Season 6. Good Luck!
