This is a list of the playable Heroes, Bartenders, and their tropes as they appear in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Keep in mind that this is about the characters as are in Battlegrounds only. For how they are represented in other parts of Hearthstone, see the various other character pages. For general tropes about the characters, click here.
Bartenders
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General
Between combat rounds, your chosen hero hangs out at a local tavern to recuperate and hire minions for their warband. Although the tavern's bar was originally only tended by just one bartender, the friendly Bartender Bob, the ability to change who was running your tavern became available in 2021 with the United in Stormwind expansion. Bartenders
For information on Tikilord Ragnaros, Lone Ranger Reno, and Anniversary Zephrys, see the respective sections for Ragnaros, Reno Jackson, and Zephrys the Great below.
First appearing in the Great Dalaran Heist single-player adventure, Bob acts as the default bartender in Battlegrounds. Multiple alternate skins have also been made available through the shop and the premium half of various expansions' Tavern Passes, among other means.
Initially appearing as an optional boss in Wrath of the Lich King's Ulduar raid, Algalon was originally made available as part of the cosmos-themed "Cosmic Dreams" Battlegrounds cosmetic bundle.
Algalon also appears as a collectible card in Constructed. Algalon the Observer is a 4 mana 4/4 neutral Legendary from TITANS that replaces your Hero Power with Algalon's Vision, which for 1 mana reveals the top card of your opponent's deck; you may then choose whether to leave it there or put it on the bottom.
When he was a Hero, his passive Hero Power, Skilled Bartender, reduced the cost of Tavern Tiers by 1.
Chef Nomi originally appeared as a neutral Legendary from Rise of Shadows, a 7 mana 6/6 who summoned 6 Greasefire Elementals (all 6/6 Elementals) if your deck was empty. As Nomi, Kitchen Nightmare, he's also a minion in Battlegrounds, being a 4/4 from Tier 5 that permanently gives Elementals in the Tavern +1/+1 (+2/+2 if Golden) when you play an Elemental with him in your warband.
Elder Starsong was originally made available as part of a bundle celebrating the 2022 Lunar New Year.
Dungar was originally made available in November 2021 as part of a vehicle-themed cosmetic bundle.
Dungar is also a collectible card in Constructed, from the United in Stormwind set. He's a 3 mana 3/3 neutral Legendary that lets you choose one of three flightpaths, then goes Dormant for a set number of turns based on the path chosen; when he awakens, a flightpath-dependant effect triggers. The flightpaths are to Westfallnote , to Ironforgenote , and to the Eastern Plaguelandsnote
This youthful, life-of-the-party take on Medivh was initially created for the One Night in Karazhan Solo Adventure, and was originally made available as part of a limited-time Hallow's End-themed cosmetic bundle in November 2021.
For information on Medivh, see Alternate Heroes.
Greatfather Boom was initially made available in December 2021 as part of a bundle for that year's Winter's Veil event.
For information on Dr. Boom, see Hero Cards.
The de-facto face of Hearthstone, Harth Stonebrew was initially made available to players who purchased the Voyage to the Sunken City Tavern Pass.
For information on Harth, see Secondary Characters.
For information on the Headless Horseman, see Hero Cards.
This human form of Kel'thuzad, created for the Scholomance Academy expansion, was initially made available as part of the "Scholomance Ball" cosmetic bundle.
For information on Kel'thuzad, see Alternate Heroes.
For information on Kalecgos, see Dalaran Heist Bosses, in the Violet Citadel folder.
For information on Lady Deathwhisper, see Bosses, in the Knights of the Frozen Throne folder.
For information on Neptulon, see Secondary Characters, in the Zin-Azshari folder.
In Constructed, she's represented by the neutral Festival of Legends minion Paparazzi, a 3 mana 3/4 that Discovers a Legendary minion.
Malicia is also a card in Constructed, from the Scholomance Academy set. She's a 7 mana 5/5 Demon Hunter/Warlock legendary that summons a 3/3 Soul with Rush for each Soul Fragment in your deck.
Hailing from the Shadowlands expansion from World of Warcraft, Ve'nari was made available prior to the launch of United in Stormwind, both as a standalone purchase and as a bonus for pre-ordering that expansion's Mega Bundle.
Wrathion was first made available in a mega bundle featuring Fire Festival-themed hero skins in July 2022.
Bartender Bob
Hey, my favorite commander is back! Ready to get started?
The bartender everyone knows and loves, you can count on Bob to always be on your side (even if he's also rooting for your opponents). He previously tended various bars in Dalaran before it was taken over by the League of E.V.I.L., then wandered the sands of Uldum as a pop-up bar of sorts. He's currently been "freelancing", per his own words.First appearing in the Great Dalaran Heist single-player adventure, Bob acts as the default bartender in Battlegrounds. Multiple alternate skins have also been made available through the shop and the premium half of various expansions' Tavern Passes, among other means.
- Aerith and Bob: Hearthstone takes place in the Warcraft universe where all sorts of characters have wild and wacky fantasy names. Meanwhile, here's an ordinary bartender literally named "Bob."
- Gender Flip: One of the alternate bartenders is Bartender Roberta, A.KA. "Bob if she was a woman". She even shares her male counterpart's voice lines.
- Nice Guy: Bob's main distinguishing feature is being unfailingly nice and supportive to everyone in his tavern.
Algalon
- Hello, mortal. I trust you have prepared yourself for battle.
Initially appearing as an optional boss in Wrath of the Lich King's Ulduar raid, Algalon was originally made available as part of the cosmos-themed "Cosmic Dreams" Battlegrounds cosmetic bundle.
Algalon also appears as a collectible card in Constructed. Algalon the Observer is a 4 mana 4/4 neutral Legendary from TITANS that replaces your Hero Power with Algalon's Vision, which for 1 mana reveals the top card of your opponent's deck; you may then choose whether to leave it there or put it on the bottom.
Announcer Gimblo
- Tonight, we have eight brave gladiators fighting for your enjoyment.
Bartendotron
- My fav-or-ite customer! No rough-housin' now, ya hear?
When he was a Hero, his passive Hero Power, Skilled Bartender, reduced the cost of Tavern Tiers by 1.
- Gathering Steam: More so than other heroes. Bartendotron would often spend the first few rounds aggressively leveling his tavern, basically skipping turns to do so. He usually reached Tier 5 when other players are still on Tier 3. And that was when the danger happened.
- Kicked Upstairs: From being a playable character unto being a cosmetic skin Bartender.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: With the introduction of Deck Swabbie, Forest Warden Omu and Chenvaala, Bartendotron, who was never really very good, was completely overshadowed, as Omu's power encourages aggressively upgrading the tavern, too, and she gains one more gold than his Hero Power discounts. Consequently, Omu on average places one place higher than Bartendotron, which makes her a top tier hero. This ultimately spelled Bartendotron's doom, as he was eventually removed as a playable Hero, and instead of giving him a new Hero Power and putting him back in, like Gallywix or other long-dormant Heroes, Bartendotron was instead reintroduced as an alternate bartender skin.
- Reduced Mana Cost: Well, reduced Gold cost. His Hero Power gave him one of these for Tavern Tiers.
- Sequence Breaking: His Hero Power let him ramp up his tavern faster than other heroes, getting access to better minions.
Butler Dribble
- Oh, it's starting, it's starting!
Chef Nomi
- Game's on, soup's on, meal's on the way!
Chef Nomi originally appeared as a neutral Legendary from Rise of Shadows, a 7 mana 6/6 who summoned 6 Greasefire Elementals (all 6/6 Elementals) if your deck was empty. As Nomi, Kitchen Nightmare, he's also a minion in Battlegrounds, being a 4/4 from Tier 5 that permanently gives Elementals in the Tavern +1/+1 (+2/+2 if Golden) when you play an Elemental with him in your warband.
Elder Starsong
- Greetings! What a joyous occasion!
Elder Starsong was originally made available as part of a bundle celebrating the 2022 Lunar New Year.
- Ascended Extra: The Lunar Festival Elders are extremely minor NPCs that only appear as a part of the event. Why Starsong was chosen over any of the other Elders is anyone's guess.
Flightmaster Dungar
- Get your goggles on! We're clear for a take-off.
Dungar was originally made available in November 2021 as part of a vehicle-themed cosmetic bundle.
Dungar is also a collectible card in Constructed, from the United in Stormwind set. He's a 3 mana 3/3 neutral Legendary that lets you choose one of three flightpaths, then goes Dormant for a set number of turns based on the path chosen; when he awakens, a flightpath-dependant effect triggers. The flightpaths are to Westfallnote , to Ironforgenote , and to the Eastern Plaguelandsnote
Fizzy
- I'm so glad you're here! Let's get started!
Gala Medivh
- Your destiny awaits! Just remember: it's rude to keep others waiting!
This youthful, life-of-the-party take on Medivh was initially created for the One Night in Karazhan Solo Adventure, and was originally made available as part of a limited-time Hallow's End-themed cosmetic bundle in November 2021.
For information on Medivh, see Alternate Heroes.
Greatfather Boom
- New game means new things to blow up! Heheheh... Well? What're ya waiting for?
Greatfather Boom was initially made available in December 2021 as part of a bundle for that year's Winter's Veil event.
For information on Dr. Boom, see Hero Cards.
Harth Stonebrew
- The competition's fierce tonight!
The de-facto face of Hearthstone, Harth Stonebrew was initially made available to players who purchased the Voyage to the Sunken City Tavern Pass.
For information on Harth, see Secondary Characters.
Headless Horseman
- Ah, the Battlegrounds, a great martial contest. Get your head on straight, you must be at your best.
For information on the Headless Horseman, see Hero Cards.
Headmaster Kel'thuzad
- Welcome back to the Battlegrounds! Are you ready to be victorious?
This human form of Kel'thuzad, created for the Scholomance Academy expansion, was initially made available as part of the "Scholomance Ball" cosmetic bundle.
For information on Kel'thuzad, see Alternate Heroes.
Kalecgos
- Let us see how your magic fares in combat.
For information on Kalecgos, see Dalaran Heist Bosses, in the Violet Citadel folder.
Lady Deathwhisper
- Arise. Your first combat draws near.
For information on Lady Deathwhisper, see Bosses, in the Knights of the Frozen Throne folder.
Lillian Singh
- The sky is alight. Let the games begin.
- Ascended Extra: Similarly to Elder Starsong, Lillian is a very minor vendor that only appears in WoW for certain holidays. With hero and bartender versions of Ragnaros already available, however, she was probably chosen because she's the next best representative for the Fire Festival.
Macey Jinglepocket
- Happy Winter Veil, future champion.
- Ascended Extra: Yet another minor holiday-related NPC from WoW given the Bartender treatment.
- Punny Name: Her first name, like all the other Smokywood Pastures vendors, is a play on a real-life retail chain. In her case, it's Macy's.
Narrator Hartly
- Once upon a time, in a battle-scarred land...
- Narrator: It's her title. Instead of being a bartender that directly communicates to the player's hero and runs the tavern, Hartly alternates between describing the game's events as if they were a fairy tale starring the hero and talking to the player as if she's reading the "story" to them.
Neptulon
- Together, we shall cleanse the waters of the Battlegrounds!
For information on Neptulon, see Secondary Characters, in the Zin-Azshari folder.
Paparazzo Gro'kan
- Alright, all ready? Let's get this show on the road!
In Constructed, she's represented by the neutral Festival of Legends minion Paparazzi, a 3 mana 3/4 that Discovers a Legendary minion.
- Ascended Extra: Went from being a mere common neutral from Festival of Legends to a full-on bartender in Battlegrounds.
Radnar Shredaxe
- Make! Some! NOISE!
Soulciologist Malicia
- What chaos will we create today?
Malicia is also a card in Constructed, from the Scholomance Academy set. She's a 7 mana 5/5 Demon Hunter/Warlock legendary that summons a 3/3 Soul with Rush for each Soul Fragment in your deck.
- Ascended Extra: Malicia's history with Scholomance was already present when she appeared during Cataclysm, but otherwise she was just another NPC to kill for a quest. The Scholomance Academy expansion rewinds time to when she was actually working as an instructor, and gave her the title of "Soulciologist" to fit with the Soul Fragment theme.
- Berserk Button: Call her study a "soft science", and you might end up in a Soul Fragment yourself.
- Composite Character: Her Soul Fragments, which are a major Demon Hunter and Warlock theme for this set. They're Casts When Drawn spells that restore 2 health, and can be used as a resource to use certain Battlecries. They combine two mechanics from WoW: Soul Shards, which are a Warlock-specific secondary resource, and actual Soul Fragments, which are a side DH mechanic that restore health.
- Punny Name: Soulciologist.
- Soul Power: She traps souls in fragmented gems, and can use them for various spells or healing.
Sparkle
- Ready to stomp them?
Ve'nari
Voiced by: Aysha Selim (EN)
- Ah! A new commander. Let us see how long you last...
Hailing from the Shadowlands expansion from World of Warcraft, Ve'nari was made available prior to the launch of United in Stormwind, both as a standalone purchase and as a bonus for pre-ordering that expansion's Mega Bundle.
Wrathion
- The black prince welcomes you to the Battlegrounds.
Wrathion was first made available in a mega bundle featuring Fire Festival-themed hero skins in July 2022.
Battlegrounds Heroes
General
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- With the addition of Pirates in June of 2020, Battlegrounds was changed to only use five tribes at once each game instead of all of them. This helps prevent bad RNG from keeping you out of your desired build, since otherwise the pool would be too big. Additionally, heroes tied to a specific tribe are exempt from the pool if their tribe is out and The Rat King won't cycle to the excluded tribe on his Hero Power.
- As of 2023, certain heroes that rely on synergies that are more powerful in certain tribes, such token generation or Deathrattles, will no longer be available if there are no tribes in the game that support that synergy.
- Buddy generation effects such as E.T.C.'s Hero Power or Friend of A Friend cannot generate Buddies that tie to specific Hero Power (like Crazed Monkey, a Buddy who can only work with Bananas), reducing the pool of bad outcomes.
- Ascended Extra: While most of the Heroes are important characters, a great number of Battlegrounds heroes were one-off bosses from previous expansions, like Queen Wagtoggle and The Rat King.
- Familiar: From January 2022 to May 2022, Battlegrounds had a 'Buddy' system. Every hero had a special Buddy minion that synergized with their gameplay and was generated after completing hero-specific objectives. Buddies' surprisingly high power level, combined with other changes to the game mode, wound up notably warping matches to the point that they were eventually removed, though whether the change is for good remains to be seen.
- Flat Character: There are no voice lines or verbal emotes in this mode, giving each character essentially no personality. That is, except for the Legendary skins, which have voicelines that they can say during specific situations.
- Functional Magic: The late 2023 update added 'spells' to the tavern, with variable gold cost and 1 spell (of your same tavern tier or lower) being guaranteed to show up after each refresh. Unlike spellcrafts, you can stockpile them for later user if you choose to do so. The effects range from stat buffs to giving divine shield to a minion, discover a minion of your most common tribe or make a minion in the tavern golden.
- Put on a Bus: Quite a few heroes are removed from the roster, oftentimes because of being left in the dust too hard to make a comeback or having the exact opposite problem. They do sometimes come back more than often completely reworked.
A - E
A. F. Kay
Formerly one of Tirion Fordring's "Raid members" in the first Knights of the Frozen Throne encounter, she reappeared as a boss in Dungeon Run. As a Battlegrounds hero, A. F. Kay somewhat mirrors her boss encounter. Her passive Hero Power, Procrastinate, causes her to skip her first two turns. However, on her third turn she's allowed to Discover two Tier 3 minions for free.Her buddy, Snack Vendor, is a Tier 4 5/4 that gives your Tier 3 minions +1/+2 at the end of your turn, with the Golden version giving +2/+4.
- Big Eater: She's always chowing down on conjured cupcakes and donuts.
- Lethal Joke Character: She can't take any actions on her first two turns (aside from Freezing the tavern), forcing her to take whatever damage is incoming. That said, that's only going to be ~5 damage on average. The trade-off for starting with two powerful minions and some free time to cut down on the cost of upgrading your tavern is well worth it.
- Nerf: Kay's initial release version proved to be a bit too lethal for a Lethal Joke Character, so her Hero Power was changed to only give her Tier 3 minions as opposed to a Tier 3 and a Tier 4. However, this isn't necessarily seen as a nerf actually, as build-defining minions like Cobalt Guardian are both on Tier 3. Since having two Tier 3 minions on Turn 3 makes it likely for A. F. Kay to win the next rounds, she can make full use of win-more minions like Hangry Dragon as well.
- Stripperific: Her outfit isn't exactly up to par for being in the middle of Northrend on her artwork. She's wearing essentially a Chainmail Bikini with an exposed stomach for good measure.
Al'Akir the Windlord
The Elemental Lord of the Winds. His Hero Power, Swatting Insects, gives his left-most minion at the start of combat Windfury, Taunt and Divine Shield.His buddy, Spirit of Air, is a Tier 3 6/4 Elemental that gives a random friendly minion Windfury, Divine Shield, and Taunt on death, with the Golden version giving the effects to two minions.
- Blow You Away: What his Hero Power symbolizes.
Alexstrasza
The Lifebinder, Queen of Dragons and former Aspect of Life on Azeroth. Her Hero Power, Queen of Dragons, allows the player to Discover 2 Dragons after upgrading Bob's Tavern to Tier 5.Her buddy, Vaelastrasz, is a Tier 3 5/3 Dragon that has a Battlecry to add a random Dragon of your current Tavern Tier to your hand, with the Golden version adding 2 Dragons.
- Gathering Steam: Alexstrasza's Hero Power encourages the player to aggressively level up to Tier 5, which then rewards the player with 2 Dragons, most likely Tier 5 since you're very likely the only hero that gets access to them.
- Magikarp Power: Rushing Tavern Tiers to make use of her Hero Power means Alexstrasza will likely end up getting smacked around quite a bit in the early- and mid-game, but once she gets her precious tier 5, the free Dragons she gets can often be enough to return the favor later on.
- Seahorses Are Dragons: Her Seadragon skin turns her into a massive seahorse.
Ambassador Faelin
The investor for the expedition to Zin-Azshari. Faelin's hero power is Expedition Plans, which causes him to skip his first turn but lets him Discover a tier 2, 4, and 6 minion to add to his hand once he reaches that Tavern Tier.His buddy is Submersible Chef, a Tier 4 4/3 that adds a random Tier 1, 3, and 5 minion to your hand, with the Golden version adding 2 random minions.
- Crazy-Prepared: His hero power represents him taking an extra turn to prepare before setting off for his expedition.
Aranna Starseeker
The younger sister of Elise Starseeker and a demon hunter in training. Aranna's Hero Power, Demon Hunter Training, has no effect initially. After 16 friendly minions attack, it changes to Spectral Sight, a passive power that makes her first minion purchased from Bob's Tavern free each turn.Her Hero power used to activate after 5 refreshes, which changed it to Spectral Sight and made Bob's Tavern always have 7 minions.
Her buddy is Skibb, Demon Hunter, a Tier 1 4/4 that sets the cost of Refresh to 0 after you played a minion, with the Golden version setting the cost of the next 2 Refreshes to 0.
- Balance Buff:
- Her true Hero Power initially came up a bit too late, so with the July 2020 update, she now only needs to Refresh 5 instead of 7 times to unlock it.
- The reward was still a bit underwhelming, so she was buffed in August of 2022 to always have 7 minions in the tavern, instantly restocking whenever one is bought.
- Then it was completely revamped in June 2023 by giving her a free minion purchase every turn after 16 friendly minions attacked.
- Magikarp Power: She starts with no Hero Power until 16 minions attack. However, at that point she gets a massive tempo boost with a free purchase for whatever minion she wants in bob's tavern.
- Transformation Sequence: She starts the game as a normal night elf. After activating her Hero Power, she transforms into her horned demon hunter form.
Arch-Villain Rafaam
Supreme archaeologist and leader of the League of E.V.I.L., Rafaam's Hero Power, I'll Take That!, costs 1 Gold and gives him a regular copy of the first minion he kills in the next combat.His buddy, Loyal Henchman, is a tier 3 4/6 that gives him a copy of the second minion he kills each combat, with the Golden version adding 2 copies.
- Crutch Character: Downplayed. Rafaam is especially powerful in the early-game, when he gets minions for free to quickly build a full warband. While it's still possible to get useful triples from minions like Spawn of N'Zoth in the mid-game, getting a useful minion in the late-game becomes less likely, and his Hero Power becomes more of a tool to store Gold.
- Ditto Fighter: In a sense. Rafaam can steal whatever he first killed, which means a lucky turn can give you a combination of multiple powerful minions. Usually his Hero Power is just used as a way to stock up Battlecries and easy extra money.
- Foil: Tess Greymane's Hero Power works similar to Rafaam's in a way that she can copy her opponent. However, while Rafaam is very strong in the early-game, Tess is far stronger in the late-game, because the opponent cannot play around her Hero Power as well as against Rafaam, while she cannot make much use out of her power in the early-game , due to less synergy in early warbands and the number of minions that can show up being limited to the Tavern Tier.
- Impossible Thief: He steals your minions. Well, technically, he creates a copy of them (and sold copies will add to the minion pool), but this made him the only other hero who still potentially had access to Amalgams (if he manages to steal one from The Curator) and could even triple them until the introduction of Murozond, Amalgadon and Tess.
- To prevent his hero power from being too overpowered, Rafaam only grabs the leftmost minion if two of them are killed by a Herd-Hitting Attack (from Red Whelp, Cave Hydra or Foe Reaper 9000).
Bru'kan
A medicine man of the Darkspear tribe and the mentor of Rokara. Bru'kan's free hero power is Embrace the Elements, which lets him choose one of four elements to call upon at the start of next combat; Earth Invocation, which gives four random friendly minions a Deathrattle that summons a 1/1 Elemental; Fire Invocation, which doubles his leftmost minion's attack; Water Invocation, which gives his rightmost minion +3 Health and Taunt; and Lightning Invocation, which deals 1 damage to five random enemies.His buddy is Spirit Raptor, a Tier 3 3/2 that remembers each new Invocation you cast and repeats them on death, with the Golden version casting each of the Invocations twice.
- All Your Powers Combined: His Hero Power is suspiciously similar to the Hero Power of heroes that have been removed for being too weak: Fire is extremely similar to Putricide, Earth is the Elemental version of Giantfin and Lightning is basically a slightly less reliable version of Nefarian's Hero Power
- Elemental Powers: Each of his Invocations are one of the primary elements.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Lightning Invocation damages up to five random enemies.
Captain Eudora
A freelance vulpera pirate. Her Hero Power is Buried Treasure, which costs 1 Gold and does nothing initially. However, every 5th cast will dig up a random Golden minion from her current Tavern Tier or lower.Her buddy is Dagwik Stickytoe, a Tier 3 5/5 that gives a random Golden minion +5/+5 at the end of your turn, with the Golden version giving +10/+10.
- Luck-Based Mission: The Golden minion she gets is entirely random (though limited to Bob's current tier). While a triple reward for playing a Golden minion is guaranteed, the Golden minion she gets can either be a really good or a really bad investment.
- Nerf: Eudora could potentially get a golden Tier 3 and a Tier 4 minion by turn 4, considerably speeding up the game and giving her an edge on par with pre-nerf A. F. Kay, while still being able to build a warband, making her the hero with the highest winrate after Hooktusk was nerfed. In August 2020, Blizzard increased the number of casts to get a golden minion by 1.
- Pirate Booty: What her Hero Power represents.
Captain Hooktusk
A troll pirate captain who always fights fair. Promeeese. Her free Hero Power is Trash for Treasure, which destroys a friendly minion and allows you to Discover a minion from a lower Tavern Tier to take in exchange.Her buddy is Raging Contender, a Tier 5 5/3 that allows you to gain Gold equal to the minion removed by her Hero Power's Tavern Tier, with the Golden version allowing you to gain double the amount. The old version of her Buddy allow her hero power to offer 3 options, and 4 options in the Golden version (prior to a buff, it only had 2 options).
- Foil:
- Hooktusk's Hero Power contrasts Elise's one, which also has a Discover mechanic. However, Elise can only Discover one minion for each tier and she has to pay 2 Gold for a minion in Bob's Tavern, while Hooktusk can Discover a minion each round.
- With the July 2020 update, her Hero Power resembles Malygos' one, except he can use his on Bob's offered minions as well, and the new minion is from the same Tavern tier. However, Hooktusk gets the minion in her hand, allowing her to use potential Battlecries or buff effects from minions on the board like from Mama Bear.
- Her Hero Power is the opposite of Galakrond's. While she can only use her Hero Power on her own minions, Galakrond can only use his on Bob's offered minions. Galakrond transforms the minion into one of a higher tier, while Hooktusk can only downgrade her minions.
- Human Resources: Her Hero Power recycles a minion to get another one.
- Master of All: Hooktusk's Hero Power is universally good, no matter which kind of warband the player eventually decides to play, and no matter at what stage of the game. Since she can control the tier of the minion she gets, she is extremely versatile.
- Nerf: Hooktusk used to be able to Discover the minion she gets from her Hero Power. As this proved to be far too consistently powerful, the Discover mechanic was scrapped and added more randomness to her playstyle. In November 2020, she got her original Hero Power back, but with a Gold cost attached to it. Later, her hero power was slightly reworked, now being free, but making it so that she can only take one of two minions rather than three.
- Walk the Plank: Her Hero Power is depicted as this (specifically taking its art from the Rogue card Walk the Plank).
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Like the old version of Sylvanas, Hooktusk is based on removing a worthless or unscaling friendly minion for a buff.
Cap'n Hoggar
A gnoll pirate captain, Hoggar started life as one of the most powerful and popular pirate minions in the entire game until his removal. Since then, he made his way to the list of playable heroes instead. His Hero Power is I’m the Cap'n Now, a passive that refunds 1 gold each time he purchases a pirate minion.- Foil:His hero power could be considered one to Chenvaala. While Chenvaala's hero power discounts 3 gold off tarvern upgrades based on elementals purchased, Hoggar gives 1 gold back for each pirate minion he purchased (so a total of 3 gold if he purchase 3 pirates off the tavern).
- Character Select Forcing: You pretty much need to play pirates if you want to make use of his hero power at all.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Just like other tribal heroes, Hoggar requires a specific minion type( pirates) to make the most use out of his hero power. If the tavern is particularly unkind and doesn't offer any, he is essentially playing with no hero power.If he find pirates, his hero power synergy with them will quickly create a unstoppable board.
- Promoted to Playable: As noted above, Hoggar was originally a tier 5 legendary pirate minion that was eventually booted from the game. As a result, he was re-added as a playable hero with his hero power being the exact same one he had as a minion.
Cariel Roame
A freshly-anointed Paladin of the Silver Hand and daughter to a guard captain in Stormwind. Cariel's Hero Power, Conviction, randomly gives a set number of friendly minions +1/+1; the number of minions is dependent on her Hero Power's Rank, which upgrades with her tavern: at the start of the game, her Hero Power is Rank 1 and only buffs 2 minion, at Tavern Tier 3 it upgrades to Rank 2 and buffs 4 minions, and at Tavern Tier 5 it upgrades to Rank 3 and buffs all minions.Her buddy, Captain Fairmount, is a Tier 5 7/5 that allows you to choose whether her Hero Power gives an additional +2 Attack for the rest of the game; or +2 Health. Its old version gave five random friendly minions +1/+1 at the end of your turn and +2/+2 for the Golden version.
- Balance Buff: Her former Hero Power used to only buff 1, 3 and then 5 minions.
- Magikarp Power: Her starting hero is very weak. However, it scales throughout the game until it reaches a respectable +7/+7 across the board for 1 Gold.
Chenvaala
An ice elemental that was defeated by Madame Lazul. Her Hero Power, Avalanche, reduces the cost of upgrading the Tavern by 3 every time she plays 3 Elementals.Her buddy, Snow Elemental, is a Tier 3 4/3 Elemental that adds an extra frozen Elemental to Bob's Tavern whenever the tavern is refreshed, with the Golden version add 2 extra Elementals.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Just like Kael'thas, she has a has a unique UI element that shows how close she is to her third Elemental play.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Her Hero Power can massively decrease the cost of upgrading Bob's Tavern... provided she can find Elementals. If the player is unlucky or Elementals are too heavily contested, she basically has no Hero Power.
- Balance Buff: Chenvaala was by far one of the worst heroes when she was introduced, so her Hero Power's cost reduction was increased subsequently.
- Character Select Forcing: You need to play Elementals to see any use out of her Hero Power.
- Sequence Breaking: She can upgrade Bob's Tavern unbelievably fast if she gets multiple Elementals in a row, especially when she finds Sellementals, Gentle Djinnis or Tavern Tempest.
- Significant Anagram: Chenvaala is an anagram for "avalanche".
Cookie the Cook
A piratey Murloc chef in the service of Captain Greenskin and Edwin VanCleef. Cookie's Hero Power, Stir the Pot, costs nothing and lets him throw a minion in his pot; once three have been put into the pot, Cookie gets to Discover a minion from each of the thrown minion's tribes.His buddy is Sous Chef, a Tier 2 2/5 that lets you use your hero power an additional time each turn, with the Golden version allow you use your Hero an additional 2 times.
- Awesome, but Impractical: His hero power can be this in rare cases when Bob's tavern consists entirely of neutral minions.
- Chef of Iron: The Defias cook, who can still put up quite the fight.
- Human Resources: Cookie can throw his own minions in the "pot" as well.
C'Thun
The Old God of Madness and Chaos. His Hero Power is Saturday C’Thuns!, which costs 2 Gold and gives a random minion +1/+1 at the end of your turn, repeating for every turns that passed this game.His buddy, Tentacle of C'thun, is a Tier 3 3/3 that gains +1/+1 until your next turn each time a different friendly minion gains stats, with the Golden version gaining +2/+2.
- Combat Tentacles: His buddy is one of his tentacles, which can grow to massive size temporarily.
- Gathering Steam: His Hero Power at first is rather weak, but it stacks on top of itself the longer the game goes on.
The Curator
The guardian of Karazhan's menagerie. His Hero Power, Menagerist, causes him to start the game with a 1/1 Amalgam in play that has all minion types and Venomous.His buddy is Mishmash, a Tier 3 2/2. Every time the Amalgam gains stats, Mishmash gains the same amount, with the Golden version gaining double the amount.
- Balance Buff: The Amalgam was originally just a 1/1. It got 1 additional Health in the November 2020 patch, and later, in July 2021, its attack was also increased by 1. Unfortunately, Power Creep settled in and The Curator has been a very weak hero choice for a long time, culminating in the June 2023 update reverting his Amalgam back to a 1/1 but giving it Venomous instead to compensate.
- Poisonous Person: Since the June 2023 update, his Amalgam became this with Venomous, which insta-kills the first minion it deals damage to on each combat.
- Master of All: Thanks to his free Amalgam, The Curator can build into any minion strategy easily.
Dancin' Deryl
A dancing murloc originally found in Dalaran's sewers. His passive Hat Trick Hero Power give each minion he buys a +1/+1 Hat buff, and said buff passes to another friendly minion when sold.His hero power originally gave randomly three +1/+1 buffs to minions Bob's Tavern whenever he sold a minion.
His buddy is Asher the Haberdasher, a Tier 3 2/2 that gains +1/+1 each time you sell a minion, with the Golden version gaining +2/+2.
- Balance Buff: Between his high skill floor and the other options available, Deryl was considered weak compared to the rest of the hero pool. As such, in August 2021 his Hero Power was buffed to dole out his buff three times per sold minion instead of two. Then it was revamped in the late June 2023 update to its current version.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Playing Deryl requires careful calculation of not only which minion to leave in the Tavern in order to maximize his effectiveness, but also when to not upgrade your Tavern in order to manage the number of minions on the battlefield since you can only buy and sell so many minions with 10 Gold each turn, not to mention his playstyle will very likely lead to a few early losses in order to trigger his buff, which can land you in trouble if you don't have enough Health. However, playing right, Deryl will easily land in the top 4.
- Hat of Power: How does Deryl buff his minions? By hatting them. With lots and lots of hats.
- Luck-Based Mission: His Hero Power is very strong, but also at the mercy of RNG for which minions it buffs.
- Magic Dance: Due to his name and ability, the "rhythm" to buy and sell minions to buff the remaining minions is commonly called "dancing".
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Making full use of Deryl's Hero Power requires a very unorthodox strategy of aggressively buying and selling minions to buff one or two specific targets. It's not always easy to pull off, but getting something like Cave Hydra to double-digit attack before even buying it is no laughing matter.
- My Friends... and Zoidberg: The original trailer for Battlegrounds described the mode as having 23 heroes... and one dancing murloc.
- Willfully Weak: One of the strategies to play Deryl efficiently is to willfully stay on a lower tier, so that later on the player can buy all weak minions first to forego any randomness and massively buff the minion that is left, as the higher the tier, the more minions are offered. While it rarely lets the player win the whole round, it's entirely possible for Deryl to get a high place by staying on Tier 1 the whole game.
Death Speaker Blackthorn
The leader of the Death's Head cult, a fanatical group of quilboar that worship the Scourge. His Hero Power is Bloodbound and gives him two Blood Gems by paying 1 gold, which he can do up to two times per turn.His buddy, Death's Head Sage, is a Tier 3 3/6 Quilboar that gives you an extra Blood Gem each time you gain one, with the Golden version giving you 2 extra Blood Gems.
- Balance Buff: His power power has been very average from its inception, but Power Creep and shifting metas slowly made him even worse over time. After a long time of bad winrates and being Overshadowed by Awesome, Blackthorn had his hero power changed to give you 2 blood gems by paying 1 gold up to twice per turn instead of receiving them on a tavern upgrade.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Blackthorn is essentially locked into Quilboars. Getting nothing but two +1/+1 buffs for leveling up is pathetically weak, unless you have minions that synergize with Blood Gems. Downplayed after the late June 2023 update. While his hero power will still make the most use with Quilboar synergy, he is no longer confined to them and the 4 blood gems he can obtain once per turn can be used to boost other minions like Baron Rivendare or Banana Slamma, should Blackthorn decide to play those.
Deathwing
The former Aspect of Earth who went mad and caused the Cataclysm. His Hero Power, All Will Burn!, gives all minions +2 Attack permanently at the start of each combat.His buddy is Lady Sinestra, a Tier 3 1/6 that gives your minions +3 Attack, with the Golden version giving +6 Attack.
- Balance Buff: His hero power originally gave ALL minions +3 attack, but this was too strong as the early battlegrounds meta seasons gave him plenity of choices to abuse his hero power like Icky Imp and Rat Pack. It was nerfed to only give +2 attack, but it was eventually reverted in 2022 after enough meta shifts and Power Creep made his hero power almost completely worthless. Even this iteration just wasn't that strong anymore with the nerf reverted, so his hero power was changed again in late June 2023 to give ALL minions permanent attack on each combat but changing the amount of attack it gives +2.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: His Hero Power is this in principle, giving all minions a lot of Attack and make it incredibly hard for them to survive.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Deathwing gives all minions +2 Attack permanently, including his opponents'. While the player can build around this by heavily investing in tokens, you don't always get early token minions. Should your opponent get a Rat Pack or two and you don't, your own Hero Power can cause you to very quickly lose.
- Nerf: Deathwing was originally changed to only give +2 Attack, largely due to him instantly winning the early-game with a Rat Pack. Enough meta shifts and Power Creep had set in since then that it was reverted in 2022 however.
- Zerg Rush: His Hero Power encourages players to pick tokens since even with buffs, the +2 Attack from your opponent's side still have a high chance to kill your buffed minions while token generators allow you to go on the offensive to take advantage of the buff provided by your Hero Power. Alternatively, using minions with divine shield like Deflect-o-bot is a valid strategy to make the most out of his hero power.
Diablo
The infamous Lord of Terror himself. Diablo's passive Hero Power, Realm of Terror, causes ALL of the other players to fight your warband every four turns; Diablo himself only fights one player and may take damage if he loses, while the other players fight an invulnerable Diablo with 666 health. A special minion, Diablo, Lord of Terror, is added to Diablo's warband during these fights.note Lord of Terror starts out as a 5/5 and doubles its attack and health each time it appears. Its Deathrattle gives one of four special treasures to any player that kills it, but Diablo gets two treasures for each copy of Lord of Terror that survives.- Balance Buff:
- Lord of Terror was initially a mere 3/3, which was pathetically underpowered and just made Diablo a free loot piñata for every other player. It was buffed within a few days to a 5/5, which immensely helps its scaling since it's also now a 10/10, 20/20, 40/40 etc. on subsequent appearances.
- This still ended up not being a big enough buff, so many of his treasures were buffed at the announcement of Fractured in Alterac Valley.
- Crossover: With Blizzard's other popular fantasy series, Diablo.
- Exclusive Enemy Equipment: Diablo, Lord of Terror, the unique minion summoned by Diablo's Hero Power, can drop unique treasures if he's killed, with the treasures increasing in strength alongside Lord of Terror's. These treasures include Sigil of Hellnote , Claws of Terrornote , Magma Hornsnote , Hellfire Hoovesnote and Black Soulstonenote .
- Nerf: His temporary reintroduction in June 2022 also lowered the power of a few of his treasures, since he was quite overpowered post-buff of his initial run.
- Number of the Beast: The special boss Diablo has 666 health.
- Play as a Boss: His Hero Power in a nutshell. Every four turns, all of the other players fight the Lord of Terror and your warband, with the victors gaining loot.
- Temporary Online Content: He only appeared as a limited-time event hero. Originally, he was only intended to be available for a couple weeks as a part of 2021's Hallow's End event, but he wound up sticking around until the end of November. He's since reappeared occasionally for limited-time events.
Dinotamer Brann
A renowned explorer and dinotamer. The current iteration of his Hero Power, Battle Brand, is passive and, once per game, adds the Brann Bronzebeard minion to your hand after you buy 4 Battlecry minions.His buddy is Brann's Epic Egg, a Tier 3 0/3 Taunt that summons a random Battlecry minion on death and added a copy of it to your hand, with the Golden version summoning and adding two minions.
Initially his Hero Power was passive and gave a random friendly minion +1/+1 whenever he played a Battlecry. The second iteration of his Hero Power, meanwhile, costed 1 gold and refreshed Bob's Tavern with Battlecry minions.
- Adaptational Name Change: His name was originally Brann Bronzebeard, but was swapped for Dinotamer Brann (the artwork he uses anyway) to distinguish him from his minion counterpart.
- Balance Buff: The second iteration of Brann's Hero Power was underpowered compared to the rest of the field, so in July 2021 it was given a total rework, now being a passive that rewards you for buying Battlecry minions- something you should normally be doing anyway- by giving you a very powerful, very rare Tier 5 minion for buying five of them.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Random Battlecry minions don't make for any consistent strategy (unless you're going for multiple golden Pogo Hoppers), making the second version of his Hero Power less of a tribal synergy and more of a search with unique parameters.
Drek'thar
The leader of the Frostwolf clan and shaman mentor to Thrall. Drek'thar's passive hero power is Lead the Frostwolves, which has an Avenge 2 effect that gives his minions +1 Attack permanently.His buddy is Frostwolf Lieutenant, a Tier 3 7/4 with an Avenge 2 effect that gives minions in the Tavern +1 Attack permanently, with the Golden version giving +2 Attack.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: He favours aggresively-statted minions and could increase their attack further with his buddy.
- Balance Buff: Initially, Drek'thar's hero power let him choose a minion and made it copy the attack of his highest-attack minion until next turn. While not as bad as Vanndar, this was still a pretty lame hero power, so it was reworked to almost match his Buddy.
- Foil: Drek'thar's hero power and buddy are literally inverted versions of Vanndar's. Makes sense, considering they're leaders of opposing factions. With their simultaneous reworks in August 2022, the only difference now is that Vanndar has Avenge 2 while Drek'thar has Avenge 3. Even this difference was done away in the late June 2023 update by making Drek'thar's an avenge 2 effect.
Edwin VanCleef
Leader of the Defias Brotherhood. His Hero Power, Sharpen Blades, costs 1 Gold and gives a minion +1/+1. His hero power upgrades an extra +1/+1 for every 4 minions he buys.His buddy, SI:7 Scout, is a Tier 2 3/3 that gains +1/+1 every time you buy a minion, with the Golden version gaining +2/+2.
- Balance Buff: His hero power was overhauled in late June 2023 update, by making it so his hero power' stat buff is permanently boosted for every 4 minions bought.
- Boring, but Practical: VanCleef's Hero Power sounds simple enough, and the Attack and Health he can give each turn is limited to his purchase power, but the fact that his Hero Power isn't limited to any tribe, is cheap and can be targeted makes him a solid choice in any round and contender for a high placement.
- Foil: King Mukla's way to buff minions with Bananas is similar to VanCleef's, except Mukla's Hero Power is limited to +2/+2 each turn and has a major drawback that benefits every other player, while VanCleef can comfortably buff a minion each turn without any downsides.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: His buddy is a member of SI:7, despite them being an opposing faction to the Defias.
Elise Starseeker
The brains of the League of Explorers. Her Hero Power, Lead Explorer, lets her Discover a minion from her Tavern Tier. It starts at 1 Gold, but each use will cost 1 Gold more.Her buddy is Jr. Navigator, is a tier 2 3/3 with a Battlecry that causes her Hero Power to cost 2 less, with the Golden version cause her Hero Power to cost 4 less. An old version of it was a Tier 3 4/4 that added a Recruitment Map to your hand at the start of your turn and made your maps cost 1.
- Balance Buff:
- The map's Gold cost was reduced from 3 to 2 Gold in the November 2020 update.
- Her hero power was completely reworked in August 2022. It used to add a map to her hand upon leveling the Tavern Tier. Now it gives you as many minions as you want, for an increasing price.
- Foil: Hooktusk's Hero Power contrasts Elise's one, which also has a Discover mechanic. However, Elise can only Discover one minion for each tier and she has to pay 2 Gold for the minion, while Hooktusk can Discover a minion each turn for 1 Gold.
- Mission Control: Her Hero Power plays into this aspect of her character, with the minion discovered from the map having a very high chance of being a key build-around minion like Tier 3 Cobalt Guardian or Tier 5 Baron Rivendare.
- Obvious Rule Patch: Her buddy's original effect on the 2023 redesign reduced the cost of ANY hero power when used, whenever it was Elise's or not. This led to ridiculous and broken interactions when E.T.C, Scabbs and Tess obtained her buddy, which was laughably easy to do, and the devs subsequently changed Jr. Navigator's battlecry to only discount Lead Explorer hero power as a result.
- Treasure Map: Her Recruitment Maps.
Enhance-o Mechano
A little bot that was made to enhance others. Its hero power, Enhancification, passively gives a random minion in Bob's Tavern Taunt, Windfury, Reborn, or Divine Shield each time it refreshes.Its Buddy, Enhance-o Medico, is a Tier 1 2/2 Mech that gives minions in Bob’s Tavern with Taunt, Reborn, Divine Shield, or Windfury have +2/+2 for each keyword they have.
- Ascended Extra: The first Battlegrounds minion based on a non-legendary card. Its hero power even mirrors its collectible counterpart, whose effect granted your minions random keywords.
- Luck-Based Mission: Its playstyle mainly consist of refresh the Tavern and hope the buff it provide landed on crucial targets.
E.T.C., Band Manager
Azeroth's greatest rockstar and the host of the Festival of Legends. E.T.C.'s Her Power, Sign a New Artist, lets him Discover another hero's Buddy for 3 Gold, but can't be used until Tavern Tier 2.His Buddy, Talent Scout, is a Tier 3 4/4 that makes another Buddy Gold.
F - L
Forest Warden Omu
A botani who guards the forests around Scholomance. Her passive Hero Power, Everbloom, gives the player 2 Gold for the turn if they upgrade Bob's Tavern.Her buddy, Evergreen Botani, is a Tier 5 9/7 that adds a random minion from your Tavern Tier to your hand at the end of your turn, with the Golden version adding 2 minions.
- Foil: Omu's Hero Power is similar to Bartendotron's, except instead of reducing the cost of upgrading Bob's Tavern, she gets gold afterwards.
Fungalmancer Flurgl
A murloc from the Dungeons that empowers his followers with fungus. Flurgl's passive Hero Power, Gone Fishing, puts a random Murloc into his hand after he sells five minions.His buddy is Sparkfin Soothsayer, a Tier 5 5/4 Murloc with a Battlecry that transforms all minions in Bob's Tavern into Murlocs with the same Tavern tier, with the Golden version transforming them into Murloc with a higher Tavern tier instead.
- Awesome, but Impractical: The nature of his Hero Power makes him a late-tier monster, but poor in the mid-game like Murlocs in general are. Flurgl can thus become the most powerful hero in the game, but his inconsistency leads to abysmal average winrates.
- Balance Buff:
- Flurgl's reliance on finding murlocs to sell made him fairly weak compared to the other heroes, and as such his Hero Power was significantly buffed in August 2021, making it so that selling any minion, not just Murlocs, would add a Murloc to the Tavern.
- His hero power was still a bit too slow, so he was burfed to require selling four minions instead of two but get the Murloc straight into his hand rather than into the Tavern. This was later adjusted to require 5.
- Character Select Forcing: Flurgl was pretty much designed to go Murlocs, as he can sell minions that aren't pulling their weight (such as tokens) to fish for Murlocs.
- Death or Glory Attack: Murlocs are the most high-risk/high-reward tribe in the mode. Should the player successfully transition into Tier 5 and get enough buffs and triples without losing too much health, they will very likely win against anyone. If they are too slow or take too many hits in the mid-game, they are likely one of the first to get knocked out. The inconsistencies in making it to the late-game with a weak Hero Power are reflected in the statistics, which show that on average Flurgl's winrate is terrible.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Just like Murlocs, Flurgl is extremely difficult to survive with, as his Hero Power won't help him much in the early- and mid-game. If he safely makes it to Tier 5, the probabilities are high to exchange his Murlocs for big buffing ones and triples, which in turn makes his warbands very quickly unstoppable.
- Magikarp Power: Flurgl's Murlocs from his Hero Power are tied to Bob's current Tavern Tier, meaning that he only starts to get the really good King Bagurgle and Primalfin Lookout once he reaches Tier 5. This leaves him with a very weak Hero Power at the beginning, but also one of the most powerful ones at the end.
- Nerf: Flurgl's passive was nerfed in the 23.2.2 patch - now he only gets a new murloc in the tavern after selling two minions, not one.
Galakrond
The proto-dragon that was recently awakened by the League of E.V.I.L. For 1 Gold, his Hero Power, Galakrond's Greed, lets you choose a minion in Bob's Tavern, then Discover a higher Tier minion to replace it.His buddy, Apostle of Galakrond, is a Tier 2 2/4 that replaces all minions in Bob's Tavern with ones from a higher tier, with the Golden version transforming them into minions from two Tavern Tiers higher.
The previous version of his Hero Power simply replaced a minion in Bob's Tavern with one from a higher tier for free.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Galakrond's Hero Power not only used to be a giant investment to get a decent high-tier minion eventually, it forced him to keep freezing Bob's Tavern, which means that he couldn't refresh the Tavern to find minions which complemented his warband better. The freeze effect only marginally helped with that, which is why since his release Galakrond was one of the worst heroes in the game. By removing the cost to his Hero Power, he at least can level up Bob's Tavern normally like the other heroes.
- Balance Buff: In the November 2020 patch, the freeze effect was removed, but his Hero Power is now free.
- Foil:
- His Hero Power is suspiciously similar to Toki's Hero Power, but only single target, and can stack on many turns similar to Sindragosa.
- Hooktusk's Hero Power is the opposite of Galakrond's. While she can only use her Hero Power on her own minions, Galakrond can only use his on Bob's offered minions. Galakrond transforms the minion into one of a higher tier, while Hooktusk can only downgrade her minions.
- Malygos is also similar to Galakrond, except Malygos can affect both Bob's and his own minions, and the transformed minions are of the same Tavern tier.
- Nerf: The buff to his Hero Power described above ended up making Galakrond incredibly overpowered, and he was removed from the pool of available heroes a little over a month afterwards. When he was brought back in July 2021, his Hero power was reverted back to costing 1 Gold, but also changed to allow Galakrond to pick the replacement minion through the Discover interface, akin to how Hooktusk's Hero Power was changed.
- Sequence Breaking: His Hero Power allows him to get access to higher Tavern Tier minions than his current tier would allow.
Galewing
The trusty gryphon of Dungar Longdrink, flightmaster for the city of Stormwind. Galewing's Hero Power, Dungar's Gryphon, cost nothing and lets you choose a flightpath, which grants you a reward after a set number of turns before refreshing your Hero Power but you cannot choose the same flight paths twice in a row:- Selecting the path to Westfall gives your left-most minion +2/+2 after 1 turn.
- Selecting the path to Ironforge give you 2 extra Golds after 2 turns.
- Selecting the path to the Western Plaguelands allows you to Discover a minion from your tavern tier after 3 turns
His buddy is Flight Trainer, a Tier 2 2/3 that causes your next flight path to trigger twice, with the Golden version caused your flight path to trigger three times. An old version of it was a 5/4 that progressed your flight path by one extra turn at the start of your turn, with the Golden version progressing your path by two extra turns.
- Balance Buff:
- His hero power was lightly buffed in August 2022, with Westfall now giving +1 Health as well as +2 Attack, and Eastern Plaguelands reducing it by 6 instead of 5.
- His Hero Power was completely reworked in the Buddy patch, now that he can't pick the same options twice in a row (because the Discover option was picked way too often) as well as getting a new option to gain 2 Golds after 2 turns in exchange for getting rid of the 5 turns options that allow him to discount Tavern Tier upgrade by 5 Golds.
- Nerf: The Western Plaguelands flightpath originally upgraded your Tavern for free, which wound up being too strong. It was eventually nerfed to only reduce your next upgrade's cost by 5 gold, then reworked to instead Discover a minion instead of reducing the upgrade cost.
George the Fallen
A vengeful paladin that joined the League of E.V.I.L. to seek revenge for Karl. His Hero Power is Boon of Light, which gives a minion Divine Shield at the cost of 2 Gold.His buddy is Karl the Lost, a Tier 4 3/4 that gives your Divine Shield minions +2 Attack after you used your hero power, while the Golden version gives +4 Attack.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Being able to give Divine Shield to any minion you want would be absolutely amazing if it wasn't kept in check by the high cost. You're generally better off spending your Gold on upgrades and minions until the very late-game, at which point you'll have to try and stay alive for several rounds before you can get Divine Shield across your board. This was lessened with the February 2020 patch that reduced its cost from 4 to 3 Gold.
- Balance Buff: His Hero Power's cost was reduced from 4 to 3 Gold in the February 2020 patch. In November 2020, it was further reduced to 2 Gold.
- Barrier Warrior: George can give his minions permanently Divine Shields. Ironically, this makes him a suitable hero for Demon warbands, which have big stats, but lack any defenses against Poisonous.
- Magikarp Power: He effectively has no Hero Power for most of the game, making it a struggle to keep up with his opponents. On the flipside, once his team is locked in he bar-none has the strongest Hero Power in the game.
- Stone Wall: The Divine Shield he grants is permanent, letting him very easily build a tough wall out of his team.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Nefarian's Hero Power eats Divine Shields for breakfast, completely ruining him. To a lesser extent, Ragnaros can also de-value his Hero Power significantly. The addition of Unstable Ghoul also gives all heroes a fantastic tech card against him.
Giantfin
A massive murloc from the jungles of Stranglethorn. His Hero Power is Murloc King, which costs 1 Gold to give all of his minions at the start of the next combat a Deathrattle that summons a 1/1 Murloc.- Unskilled, but Strong: His Hero Power is straightforward and tries to force him down the Murloc route. He's exceptionally good at this, but otherwise inflexible.
- Zerg Rush: Giantfin obviously has incredible synergy with Murlocs, which tend to focus on swarms over tall stacks.
The Great Akazamzarak
A goblin "magician". His 0-Gold Hero Power, Prestididgitation, lets him one of four Secrets from a specific list and puts it into play.His buddy, Street Magician, is a Tier 3 5/3 that puts a random Secret into play on death, with the Golden version putting two Secrets.
- Balance Buff: His Hero Power cost was reduced from 2 to 1 Gold in November 2020. In addition, Effigy was replaced by the more useful Competitive Spirit. His secret pool was updated again in June 2023 to remove Snake Trap and Avenge (due to their complete lack of relevance after the first 3 rounds) and replace them with Reckoningnote and Magic Black Soulstonenote .
- Last Chance Hit Point: Until the introduction of Duos, he could generate Ice Block that saved him from lethal damage.
- Nerf:
- His Hero Power used to be able to roll Hand of Salvation
, but it was removed from the pool in the Descent of Dragons patch. - Ice Block was consistently a problem, from exploits that let him drag games on indefinitely to later just being an annoying, unexciting, but still mandatory part of his gameplay. Ice Block was finally removed from his pool of Secrets in April of 2024.
- His Hero Power used to be able to roll Hand of Salvation
- Not the Intended Use: Akazamzarak was able to get Ice Block 100% of the time. This initially worked after only 7 secrets remained in the pool due to Effigy being removed in November 2020, which is why Akazamzarak was temporarily disabled, as with infinite Ice Blocks he is guaranteed to get second place or alternatively survive the 50 turn timer to force a draw against the remaining player.
- Obvious Rule Patch:
- He only uses a small list of Secrets, specifically only the ones that can actually take effect in Battlegrounds.List
- In case anyone tried to keep 5 Secrets active by not playing a single minion to get infinite Ice Blocks, Blizzard added Competitive Spirit to make this impossible to pull off forever. Later still, they removed Ice Block from his options entirely.
- Stone Wall: With cards like Autodefense Matrix, Splitting Image, Redemption, Ice Block and any big taunts, Akazamzarak can be surprisingly hard to take out.
- Trap Master: Currently the only hero capable of using Secrets. Ice Block was temporarily available as a Prize, but it was removed from battlegrounds entirely.
Greybough
An ancient of lore at the Darkmoon Faire. Her passive Hero Power, Sprout It Out!, gives minions that are summoned during combat +1/+2 and Taunt.Her buddy, Wandering Treant, is a Tier 2 3/5 that gives any Taunt minions you summon +2/+2, with the Golden version giving +4/+4.
- Zerg Rush: Her Hero Power gives a buff to token-generating minions, making her especially strong with Mechs and Beasts. Since the newly summoned minions come with Taunt, she has strong synergy with other Taunt-supporting minions like Champion of Y'Shaarj or Qiraji Harbinger.
Guff Runetotem
An ultra-pacifistic tauren druid and the grand-nephew of Hamuul Runetotem, Archdruid of Thunder Bluff. His hero power, Natural Balance, gives +2/+2 to a friendly minion of each Tavern Tier for 2 Gold.His buddy is Baby Kodo, a Tier 5 3/6 Beast that refreshes Bob's Tavern with one minion from each available Tavern Tier.
- Nerf: Similarly to the buffed version of Queen Wagtoggle, Guff's Hero Power buff was originally +2/1, which wound up being very strong in the long term. Also like Wagtoggle, his Hero Power was nerfed to only give a +1/+1 buff. It was then burfed to +3/+2 for 2 Gold, before they settled on +2/+2 for 2.
- Sequence Breaking: Baby Kodo could give him minions way above his current tavern.
Heistbaron Togwaggle
The former king of the kobolds, now Rafaam's partner-in-crime! Togwaggle's hero power is The Perfect Crime, which steals every minion in Bob's Tavern. It starts at 11 Gold, but the next use is reduced by 1 Gold every turn.His Buddy is Waxadred, the Drippy, a Tier 5 7/5 Elemental Dragon that allows him to Refresh Bob’s Tavern with the highest Tier minion from each opponent's last Warband.
- Impossible Theft: His hero power steals every minion for sale right from under Bob's nose.
- Nerf: His hero power used to start at 9 gold. This was too strong, as he could just upgrade to tier 3 in his 3rd turn then hero power on his next turn to steal a bunch of tier 1-3 minions and easily compensate any tempo loss. It was nerfed to start at 10 gold, before being nerfed again to 11.
Illidan Stormrage
The Betrayer and leader of the Illidari. Illidan's passive Hero Power is Wingmen, which, at the start of every combat, causes his left-most and right-most minions to gain +2/+1 then attack the enemy board immediately.His buddy is Eclipsion Illidari, a Tier 3 6/3 that causes your first minion that attacks to be Immune during the initial swing.
- Action Initiative: Illidan's Hero Power circumvents the rule that whoever has more minions on the board at the start of combat will attack first from left to right and if both players have the same amount, who attacks first is randomly resolved via coin flip. Illidan's left- and then right-most minions will always attack first, regardless of whether Illidan's opponent has more minions on the board or not. After their attacks, the attack sequence is resolved as always, meaning that his left-most minion may be able to attack again shortly after.
- Balance Buff: Originally, Illidan's Hero Power only caused the left-most and right-most minions to attack first, which was a very under-whelming effect. To help boost his power a little, it was updated in July 2021 to also give the minions +2 Attack. Then it was further updated in late June 2023 to give the minions +2/+1 instead.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Illidan needs to position his board differently from every other hero, since his right-most minion will attack second in sequence every round. This means Illidan should put his best attackers on the edges of the board.
- Punny Name: Illidan is a Winged Humanoid. He attacks with his wingmen.
Infinite Toki
Toki, Time-Tinker from a Bad Future. Her Hero Power is Temporal Tavern, which lets her Refresh Bob's Tavern for 1 Gold and replace the last minion with one from the next tier.Her buddy, Clockwork Assistant, is a Tier 5 3/3 Mech that Discovers a minion from a Tavern Tier higher than her current one, with the Golden version Discovering two minions.
- Balance Buff: With the addition of new stronger heroes as well as adjustments of key minions, her Hero Power was reverted back to its original version.
- Nerf: Toki's Hero Power cost 2 Gold from launch until January 14th, which severely limited her effectiveness.
- Not the Intended Use: Temporal Tavern means she never has to go up to Tier 6, since she can get Tier 6 minions at Tier 5. In fact, it's better than Tier 6, since it guarantees she'll get one of those rare minions that don't appear in every refresh.
- Sequence Breaking: Her Hero Power lets her access tiered up minions without spending the Gold to tier up, letting her get a more powerful board earlier.
- Time Master: She refreshes her way into minions from the future.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: For most heroes, you'll want to go into the Battlegrounds with a strategy in mind and then pick minions that fit the theme. When playing Toki, you'll instead want to keep your eyes open for powerful minions generated by her Hero Power, and then build around those. They might not fit your envisioned strategy or synergize with each other, but a power spike is a power spike, and you can always change your strategy on the fly in the early- to mid-game.
Ini Stormcoil
A mechagnome inventor serving as the engineer for Faelin's expedition to Zin-Azshari. Her passive Hero Power, Mech-Gyver, adds a random Mech to her hand each time 10 of her minions die.Her buddy, Sub Scrubber, is a Tier 4 4/4 that gains +2/+2 whenever you play a Mech, with the Golden version gaining +4/+4.
- Character Select Forcing: While you could just use the free Mechs Ini's Hero Power gives you purely as selling material, the tribe's token-heavy nature means that you're likely better off just playing a Mechs board to trigger her Hero Power more often and increase the odds of getting triples on your Mechs.
- Nerf:
- Sub Scrubber was initially a Tier 2 buddy, which combined with Ini's Hero Power allowed her to quickly snowball through the rest of the game. He was consequently bumped to Tier 4 to slow him down significantly.
- Ini's Hero Power initially triggered after 9 friendly minion deaths, making her extremely good in the early-to-mid-game, even after Sub Scrubber's nerf. As a result, the requirement was bumped to 12 deaths, which successfully slowed her down for good. However, This plummeted her winrate, so the nerf was partially reverted in the late June 2023 update by requiring 10 minions instead.
The Jailer
The former arbiter of the afterlife, who became the lord of the Maw for his diabolical schemes. His hero power is Runic Empowerment, which gives a minion +1/+1 for 1 Gold. Every 9 friendly minions that die increase this amount by +1/+1.His Buddy is Mawsworn Soulkeeper, a Tier 2 2/2 Undead that summon three Tier 1 minions on death, with its Golden version summoning six.
- Magikarp Power: The initial effect to grant +1/+1 is horrifically slow, but it can be built to a much, much larger buff over the course of the game.
Jandice Barov
Daughter to Lord Alexei Barov, a powerful archmage and an instructor of the Scholomance. Her 0-cost Hero Power, Swap, Lock & Shop it, allows her to swap one of her minions with a random one in Bob's Tavern.Her buddy is Jandice's Apprentice, a Tier 3 4/4. Whenever she swapped minions, both gained stats equal to Jandice's Tavern Tier, with the Golden granting double the stats whenever she swapped.
- Foil: Jandice is a hero who primarily makes use of Battlecry minions similar to Dinotamer Brann. However, instead of rolling the dice to get one she needs, she can keep reusing the ones she already found. This makes her very strong with Murlocs and absolutely overpowered with Pogo-Hoppers without needing to triple them, while at the same time comfortably leveling up to find other powerful minions like Brann Bronzebeard or Amalgadons.
Kael'thas Sunstrider
The prince and leader of the blood elves, until he joined the Burning Legion. His passive Hero Power, Verdant Spheres, gives each third played minion +2/+2.His buddy is Crimson Hand Centurion, a Tier 5 7/5 that gives all minions in your hand and board +1/+1 each time Verdant Spheres triggers, with the Golden version giving +2/+2 per each activation.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Kael has a unique UI element that shows how close he is to his third purchase, letting you easily keep track between turns.
- Balance Buff: His hero power was altered to work on every third minion you played rather than bought, giving you far greater control over what gets the buff.
- Crutch Character: His Hero Power is incredibly strong in early-game, particularly if you can line it up with something like a Rat Pack or Deflect-o-bot. In the late-game however, not only is it inconsistent with how often you want to cycle through minions, the +2/+2 buff is small potatoes by that point.
- Rule of Three: Like his collectible card, his Hero Power takes effect on every third of something.
King Mukla
The king of the apes. His Hero Power is Bananarama, a passive that adds two Bananas to his hand at the start of each turn and one Banana to every other player. Bananas give a minion +1/+1 for free. There is also a chance to get a Big Banana, which gives a minion +2/+2.His buddy is Crazy Monkey, a Tier 2 4/4 Beast that made his Bananas give the target an additional +1/+1, with the Golden version giving +2/+2.
- Balance Buff:
- His Hero Power originally required him to sell Beasts to get Bananas, which was much slower and generally not at all useful in the late-game.
- After his "Buy one Beast, get one Banana for free" Hero Power proved ineffective, he was given two Bananas for 1 Gold with the July 2020 update, but now with an Equivalent Exchange mechanic added to it, which balances out the buffs he can get.
- With the October 2020 update, he has a 20% chance to get a Big Banana instead, which gives a minion +2/+2. This 20% chance was later buffed to 33% in February 2021, and then to an incredible 50/50 chance in July 2021.
- His hero power was revamped again in late june 2023 by making Bananarama a passive and activating at the start of every turn,
- Foil: King Mukla's way to buff minions with Bananas is similar to VanCleef's, except Mukla's Hero Power is limited to +2/+2 each turn and has a major drawback that benefits every other player, while VanCleef can comfortably buff a minion each turn without any downsides.
- You Don't Look Like You: He's the only character who was given redone art for Battlegrounds.
Kurtrus Ashfallen
A defector from the Illidari seeking to prevent the return of the Dreadlord that claimed his kinfolk to Azeroth. Kurtrus's passive Hero Power is Glaive Ricochet, which activates once-per-turn after he purchases three minions and gives him a copy of one of them at random.Prior to this, Kurtrus had a different passive Hero Power that upgraded throughout the game:
- At the start of the game, Kurtrus' Hero Power was Final Showdown. After you bought 3 minions in one turn, those minions gained +2/+2 and Kurtrus swapped to his second Hero Power.
- Kurtrus' second Hero Power is Gain Momentum. After you bought 4 minions in one turn, all minions in your hand and on your board gained +2/+2 and Kurtrus swapped to his last Hero Power.
- Kurtrus' third and final Hero Power is Close the Portal. After you bought 5 minions in one turn, ALL of your minions this game gained a permanent +2/+2 buff.
His buddy, Living Nightmare, is a Tier 2 5/3 that gave minions in Bob's Tavern +2/+1 that turn after you bought a minion.
- Balance Buff: Because of his below average winrate and hero power that didn't age well thanks to Power Creep, his hero power was completely overhauled to its current version in the late June 2023 update. This iteration, however, was somewhat polarizing: It was too slow in the early game where you can't purchase that many minions in a single turn, and it was pretty overpowered when used in late-game if Kurtrus lived long enough and found strong minion purchases to discover from. As a result, it was changed again: now he only requires 3 minion purchases to activate the passive, but the minion copy is now awarded at random instead of being allowed to discover it.
- Difficult, but Awesome: While the first two stages of Kurtrus' Hero Power were relatively easy, completing the final stage requires careful Gold management and buying minions like Alleycat, Sellemental, and Freedealing Gambler to recoup costs, and due to the various rules regarding what minions can and can't appear in Bob's Tavern, you aren't guaranteed to find them. If you did complete the final stage, though, the reward used to be well worth it: a permanent +2/+2 buff to ALL of your minions. And while it isn't immediately obvious, "ALL your minions this game" not only includes minions in your hand and on your board, but also minions for sale in Bob's Tavern, Triple rewards, and minions summoned through Deathrattles in combat, making what on the surface appears to be a fairly decent buff ridiculously powerful given the right game state.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Kurtrus's Hero Power used to be basically the Demon Hunter Questline, but predated it and all other Questlines, making this a predecessor to the mechanic as a whole.
- Gameplay and Story Integration: Kurtrus' evolving Hero Power represented his quest to prevent the Dreadlord Anetheron from returning to Azeroth and causing havoc, just like he did to his kinfolk. The first hero power represents the start of their battle, the second is Kurtrus "gaining momentum" in the fight, as the name implies, and the third and final Hero Power is Kurtrus closing the portal Anetheron used to return to Azeroth, concluding Kurtrus' quest.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: While there have been Heroes that have two-stage Hero Powers that evolve if certain conditions are met, such as Arrana and Ragnaros, Kurtrus used to take this mechanic to a new level by having a Hero Power with three stages and increasingly more powerful effects, with each stage even having its own name.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Unfortunately, while his hero power was fairly decent and could lead to some strong minions summons, it was eventually overshadowed as Power Creep caught on battlegrounds and tribes/heroes offered better scaling options in general. Even the two niches his hero power was good for were eventually overshadowed with the likes of Banana Slammanote , the revamped Millificent Manastormnote and even Uthernote . Because of this, his hero power was revamped in the late June 2023 update
Lady Vashj
The former handmaiden of Queen Azshara and the leader of Illidan's naga. Her hero power is Relics of the Deep, which lets her Discover a Spellcraft spell from her tier or lower for 1 Gold. It also passively causes the first Spellcraft she casts each turn to be permanent.Her original Hero Power was Evolving Electricity. Whenever Bob's Tavern was upgraded, the minions he offered were replaced with ones of a higher tier.
Her Buddy is Coilfang Elite, a Tier 1 3/2 Naga that activate whenever a Spellcraft minion appears in Bob’s Tavern, giving you a copy of its spell, with the Golden version giving you two copies.
- Balance Buff: Her new hero power is much stronger and more synergistic than her old one.
- Character Select Forcing: Nothing forces her to go Naga per say, but getting a free Spellcraft is better than having to throw down 1 Gold to use her hero power every turn. As such, she's out of the lobby in games without Naga.
- Luck-Based Mission: This was the main issue with her original hero power. While she would always get minions of a higher tier, the current minions Bob offers are random and might not be of the highest tier possible. Even then, there's no guarantee she'd evolve into something useful.
Lich Baz'hial
A lich haunting the tombs of Uldum. Her Hero Power is Graveyard Shift, which costs 2 gold and lets you steal a minion from Bob's Tavern, with the drawback of taking damage based on its Tavern Tier.Her original hero power was free but dealt 4 damage and gave her 2 gold for that turn only.
Her buddy is Unearthed Underling, a Tier 4 2/2 Undead that prevents your hero from taking damage twice each turn and gains +2/+2 each time damage is prevented, with the Golden version gaining +4/+4.
- Balance Buff: Baz'hial's original Hero Power used to cost 3 health, but was dropped to 2 as the risk was a bit too much for the reward. Then her Hero Power now deal 4 damage but gain you 2 Golds instead.
- Eventually, they reworked her hero power to a once-per-turn 1 gold purchase of any minion in bob's tavern, with the drawback being that it deals damage to her based on the tier level of the purchased minion. This iteration was a bit too strong, however, so it was nerfed into a 2 gold purchase of any minion that still deals damage based on tavern tier of the minion.
- Cast From Hitpoints: Her power gives her a stacking economy boost, but comes at a very hefty cost. Keep in mind that Wound That Will Not Heal is in full effect for this gamemode.
- Evil Counterpart: Her current hero power iteration is one to Xyrella. Both hero powers cost 2 gold to use, but while Xyrella sets the minion's base stats to 2/2 as a drawback, Baz'hial instead suffers damage based on the minion's tavern tier.
- Nerf: Her Hero Power was reworked to give a bigger immediate benefit at double the immediate cost, but she can no longer horde coins to use them all at once anymore. This also removes her broken synergy with Nagas, which have effects that trigger on playing spells. Her hero power was completely replaced with something else eventually, as mentioned above.
- Her hero power minion purchase was a bit too efficient so it was changed to cost 2 gold, up from 1.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Kel'Thuzad, a far more popular lich. KT does make an appearance, but only as a game mechanic to fill-in for a dead hero when necessary.
The Lich King
Arthas, the fallen prince of Lordaeron. The Lich King's Hero Power is Reborn Rites, which costs no gold to use and grants a minion Reborn for the next combat.His buddy is Arfus, a Tier 3 6/3 Undead Beast with Reborn that gives a friendly minion its Attack whenever that minion is Reborn, with the Golden version giving your Reborn minions twice the amount of Arfus's Attack. Its old version was a 4/3 that caused your other Reborn minions to summon an extra copy after dying, with the Golden version summoning two extra copies.
- Balance Buff:
- The Lich King's Hero Power formerly only worked on the right-most minion before being upgraded to let him choose which minion to use it on.
- In August 2020, The Lich King's Hero Power's Gold cost was removed, drastically increasing his power in the early- and mid-game.
- Difficult, but Awesome: His Hero Power is positional and uses an uncommon keyword with a lot of rules. Making the most out of it (such as resurrecting a Deathrattle or Taunt/Divine Shield) is key to playing him well.
- Necromancer: His Hero Power lets him bring one minion back to life.
- Series Mascot: For Battlegrounds. He's one of two characters featured on the key art (alongside Ragnaros), and is the character you take control of should you go through the tutorial.
Lord Barov
Alexei Barov is the lord of Caer Darrow, where the Scholomance is located. His Hero Power, Friendly Wager, costs 1 Gold, and has him guess between two chosen players who will win the next combat. If chosen correctly, the Barov player is given 3 Coins at the start of the next round. If the players tied, he is given 1 Coin.His buddy, Barov's Apprentice, is a Tier 4 5/4 that made Gold Coins grant an extra Gold, with the Golden version granting two extra Gold.
- Balance Buff: Draws used to count as a loss for Lord Barov. With the November 2020 patch, Lord Barov is given 1 Coin, at least giving him back his wager.
- The Gambler: Barov's Hero Power rewards players who can correctly guess the winner of the next combat. Thus Barov's Hero Power either potentially gives him 2 more Gold every turn or makes him pay 1 Gold for nothing. While it also involves analyzing the warbands of his opponents, due to the random nature of the mode, there will always be a probability to waste gold, and even in an even match the odds are often against Barov, as ties will count as an incorrect guess without any recuperation.
- Nerf: His buddy was a bit too strong on release, since it could be obtained very early (it was originally a Tier 2 buddy) and Barov could use the extra gold to upgrade the tavern several times in a single turn and hit Tier 5-6 before the other heroes could even upgrade to Tier 4, all without losing much tempo. The 15 damage cap in the early game also made it impossible for any Barov with more than 30 health to die if he hits Tier 6 while all the other opponents were alive, ensuring he has free turns to grab high-tier minions and quickly starts to decimate anyone else. His buddy was booted to tier 3, and when buddies returned in early 2023, it was further nerfed to tier 4.
- Obvious Rule Patch: He had to be removed from the pools while Diablo was active. His hero power is a complete headache when everyone is facing off against a single player.
Lord Jaraxxus
The EREDAR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGION. His 1-Gold Hero Power, Bloodfury, lets him choose a friendly Demon and makes it consume a random minion in Bob's Tavern to gain its stats. Previously, it used to give his Demons +1/+1.His buddy is Kil'rek, a Tier 3 3/6 Demon with Taunt that adds a random Demon to your hand on death, with the Golden version adding two random Demons.
- Balance Buff: His Hero Power used to cost 3 Gold initially, but left him one of the worst heroes in the game. It was reduced to 2 as a result, and in June 2020 to 1 Gold, as he was still bottom-tier. Ultimately, Blizzard gave up and reworked his hero power entirely.
- Character Select Forcing: You're pretty much required to go demons if you want to be at all effective as Jaraxxus.
- Gathering Steam: Jaraxxus has a fairly weak Hero Power on its first use (compare Millificent, who passively gives the Mechs she hires +1 Attack). However, once you have your crew locked in, casting a free Crystal Weaver every turn is pretty insane.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: While Jaraxxus has a decent Hero Power, he is outclassed by more flexible heroes who decide to play Demons.
- A. F. Kay has access to two Tier 3 minions when she gets started. If she managed to freeze a Wrath Weaver beforehand and gets at least one Floating Watcher, she already has made up for the fact that she started two rounds later than everyone else. If she gets two Floating Watchers with a Wrath Weaver, she will almost guarantee to outlast every other Demon player. This is no longer possible after the Watchers were moved to Tier 4.
- Rafaam can get more Demons and triples because of his Hero Power. Playing one more Demon gives the biggest Demon minions, Floating Watcher and Wrath Weaver, more stats than Jaraxxus could with his spread Hero Power.
- Tirion does not actually buff Demons directly, but he can buff Wrath Weaver and Soul Juggler, who are tribeless, and he can mix his warband up with buffed Selfless Heroes and/or Righteous Protectors, who protect the stacked Demon minions with Divine Shields. His Hero Power also only costs half as much as Jaraxxus'.
M - Q
Maiev Shadowsong
The warden of Illidan Stormrage and leader of the Watchers. Her Hero Power, Imprison, adds a minion to her hand for 1 gold but makes it unavailable to play until 2 turns later.Her hero power used to costs 1 Gold and put a minion in Bob's Tavern in the Dormant status. After 3 turns, the minion was given to her with +1 Attack.
Her buddy is Shadow Warden, a Tier 2 4/4 that causes the target of her next hero power to awaken one turn early and be Golden, and the Golden version causes the target to awake two turns early.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Getting a minion for only 1 Gold and even buffing it slightly sounds fair if one keeps in mind that it comes with a delay, until you learn that the Dormant minion takes up a spot in Bob's Tavern, and thus severely hinders your rerolls. As a result, it was most often better to just not use her Hero Power at all. This was the reason it was eventually changed to no longer reduce the number of available minions after each refresh.
- Balance Buff:
- Since June 2020, Maiev's Dormant minions no longer reduce the number of available minions in the tavern.
- The second of the two nerfs mentioned below wound up being too harsh, and so in August 2021 her buff was increased to +2/+2 to balance out the longer Dormant period.
- Even this buff wasn't enough to prevent Maiev from having abysmal winrates, so her hero power was changed again in early December 2023, by reverting it back to a 2 turns wait but adding the minion to the hand(albeit in locked form until 2 turns pass since the purchase).
- Difficult, but Awesome: Playing Maiev effectively requires having a plan and thinking ahead a few turns, as she can jail up to two minions, yet the player has to keep their own warband strong enough to not lose too many rounds. However, her Hero Power, combined with the freeze function, leads to more triples and can very quickly help the player achieve a powerful warband.
- The Jailer: Her Hero Power is based on her status as this in Warcraft.
- Nerf:
- Maiev was one of the top three heroes up until October 2020 (only slightly behind Jandice Barov and Ragnaros the Firelord), so the minions she gets from her Hero Power no longer gain Health.
- This nerf wasn't quite enough to keep her down, and she was removed from the Hero pool in June 2021, returning at the start of July with a nerf to the number of turns the buffed minion is Dormant, going from 2 turns to 3.
- Not the Intended Use: If Maiev's hand is full, the minion she gets from her Hero Power isn't added to her hand and actually dies. If it has a Deathrattle, the Deathrattle will trigger on Bob's side of the board, and if a minion is affected, the minion will get the effect permanently, like Selfless Hero's Divine Shield.
Malygos
The Aspect of Magic until he went insane and tried to destroy all magic users on Azeroth. Malygos's Hero Power, Arcane Alteration, can be used twice in a turn and replaces a card with a random one from the same tier for 0 Gold.His buddy, Nexus Lord, is a Tier 4 6/6 that causes his hero power to replace the minion with one from a higher Tavern Tier instead, with the Golden version causing it to replace it with a minion from two Tavern Tiers higher.
- Balance Buff: Malygos' Hero Power, while decent, wasn't quite up to snuff, and as such it was buffed in August 2021, now allowing Malygos to use it twice in one turn.
- Foil:
- With the July 2020 update, Captain Hooktusk's Hero Power resembles Malygos' one, except he can use his on Bob's offered minions as well, and the new minion is from the same Tavern tier. However, Hooktusk gets the minion in her hand, allowing her to use potential Battlecries or buff effects from minions on the board like from Mama Bear.
- Malygos is also similar to Galakrond, except Malygos can affect both Bob's and his own minions, and the transformed minions are of the same Tavern tier. His buddy made him a straight upgrade over Galakrond, at the cost needing to keep a subpar minion in play.
- Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Malygos makes it easier to get key minions without having to refresh a bunch of times, as you can simply grab any minion and then reroll it until you get something nice. It's especially good when used on tokens for something like Wrath Weaver.
Master Nguyen
One of Pandaria's Five Sorcerers- and perhaps the only one still alive. At the start of every turn, Nguyen's passive Hero Power, Power of the Storm, lets him choose one of two other Hero Powers to use for that turn.His buddy, Lei Flamepaw, is a Tier 2 3/6 that let you choose between three different hero powers instead of two, and four options with the Golden version.
- Discard and Draw: Every turn, he loses his previous hero power and gains a totally new one.
- Ditto Fighter: His Hero Power copies one of the other heroes' Hero Powers at the start of every turn.
- Foil: To Sir Finley. Finley's current Hero Power lets him choose one of three Hero Powers to use for the rest of the game, while Nguyen only picks one of two and is forced to pick again at the start of his next turn.
- Nerf: His hero power originally allowed him to choose one of three other hero powers, which was a bit too strong and consistent. He was nerfed to only be able to choose from one of two choices instead, and his pre-nerf iteration was given as a effect to his buddy instead.
- Original Generation: He's the first Battlegrounds hero to not appear in constructed or adventure mode.
- Tuckerization: Named after, and a tribute to, Dan Nguyen, one of the founding members of the Hearthstone team who sadly passed away. Also likely one of the last tributes of this kind, since he was added just before Blizzard's new no dev-naming policy following the 2021 lawsuit.
Millhouse Manastorm
A trigger-happy gnome mage/warlock of questionable morals, sanity, and competence. His passive Hero Power is Manastorm, which makes his minions cost 2 Gold. However, refreshing the Tavern also costs 2 Gold, and upgrading Bob's Tavern costs 1 Gold extra.His buddy is Magnus Manastorm, a Tier 5 4/4 that, whenever you buy a minion from Bob's Tavern, adds a minion of the same tier to the tavern for free. The Golden version adds two minions of the same Tavern Tier.
- Balance Buff: Millhouse used to start with only 2 Gold, which meant that he couldn't tier up Bob's Tavern at the same time as other heroes. In addition to his Refreshes costing more, this made him one of the worst heroes in the game, so he was given 3 Gold at the start (like everyone else), a sizeable buff that gives him effectively 8 more Gold for the round.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: The only hero that started the game with only 2 Gold before being buffed. He is also the only hero that modifies the cost of buying minions and a Refresh before the addition of Nozdormu.
- Nerf: The buff to let Millhouse start with 3 Gold like everyone else catapulted him from the worst hero to the best hero in the game, due to him being able keep up with Tavern upgrades and at the same time build a functioning warband far quicker than everyone else. To counteract this, Blizzard decided to increase the cost of his Tavern upgrades.
- Additionally, Magnus used to be Tier 3, which was a bit too strong and flexible, not to mention it gave easy access to triples very early thanks to the smaller pool in Tier 1 minion choices. He was booted to tier 4 shortly after release, and then to Tier 5 when buddies came back in early 2023.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Millhouse's Hero Power discourages the player from refreshing his Tavern while it encourages them to buy most of the minions offered. This means that he can change his warband extremely quickly if he is offered a key tribal minion.
Millificent Manastorm
The villainous wife of Millhouse Manastorm. Her passive Hero Power is Tinker, which gives all Mech you summon +2 Attack.A previous version of her Hero Power gave all Mechs in Bob's Tavern +1/+1.
Her buddy is Elementium Squirrel Bomb, a Tier 4 4/4 Mech that deals 2 damage to a random enemy minion on death and repeats for each friendly Mech that died that combat, with the Golden version dealing 4 damage.
- Balance Buff: The nerf that removed the health bonus wasn't kind on Millificent, so to compensate her Hero Power was buffed to give +2 Attack.
- Character Select Forcing: It's generally a good idea to go Mechs as Millificent, especially in the early-game. Not only does she give them a big boost, Mechs naturally scale well into the late-game.
- Nerf:
- Her Hero Power used to give Mechs in the Tavern +1/+1. Given how dominant Mechs were in their own right, the health bonus was removed to bring her into line. As the dominance of Mechs began to dwindle, the nerf was eventually reverted.
- Elementium Squirrel Bomb originally dealt 4 damage, but it was kind of ridiculous in the late game.
- Taking You with Me: Elementium Squirrel Bomb could potentially act as this.
Mr. Bigglesworth
Kel'Thuzad's beloved cat pet. His passive Hero Power Kel'Thuzad's Kitty allows Bigglesworth to Discover a minion from an opponent's warband when they die, keeping all enchantments.His buddy is Lil' KT, a Tier 3 5/4 that gives you a copy of the minion from the lowest health enemy's warband at the start of your turn, with the Golden version giving you two copies.
- Anti-Frustration Features: If another player/s abandon/take lethal damage while they have no minions in their warbands, Bigglesworth will be given 1 gold coin instead. This is done to keep Bigglesworth from being at disadvantage if he happens to be selected in a lobby where 1 or more players Rage Quit.
- Magikarp Power: Bigglesworth effectively has no Hero Power in the first turns, because it only activates once someone dies, which will only happen in the later stages of the game.
- Victor Gains Loser's Powers: This is Bigglesworth's Hero Power basically. He doesn't have to kill his opponents, though, he gets one of their minions regardless of who killed them.
- Victory by Endurance: The longer Bigglesworth survives, the stronger he can become by potentially taking powerful minions. He also gets a triple reward, if the stolen minion is golden.
Murloc Holmes
Azeroth's greatest detective. His hero power is Detective for Hire, which for 0 Gold lets him look at two minions. If he guesses the one that his next opponent had during their previous combat, he gets a Coin.His Buddy is Watfin, a tier 3 2/6 Beast that gives you a copy of the minion you guessed correctly with your Hero Power, with the Golden version giving you two copies.
- Great Detective: If you can deduce which minion is the one your opponent was most likely to have had, you get a free Coin every turn.
- Sherlock Homage: In case it wasn't obvious by his name.
Mutanus the Devourer
A colossal, monstrous albino murloc borne from the nightmares of the sleeping Archdruid Naralex. His free hero power, Devour, removes a friendly minion, spits its stats onto another (chosen at random), and gives you 1 gold.His buddy is Nightmare Ectoplasm, a Tier 3 5/4. When Mutanus devours it, its stats are spit onto an extra minion, with the Golden version spit onto two extra minions.
- Cannibalism Superpower: He eats minions then spits their stats onto other minions.
- Nerf: His buddy originally spit its own stats into 2 extra minions(4 if golden) when devoured. This was a bit too strong when used on Divine shield or Cleave minions, so it was changed to only spit it into a single extra minion instead.
Nefarian
The son of Deathwing. Nefarian's Hero Power, Nefarious Fire, costs 1 Gold and deals 1 damage to all enemy minions at the start of the next combat.- Magikarp Power: Zigzagged. Dealing a measly 1 damage across the board for a full 1 Gold sounds pretty lame compared to other Hero Powers, and it definitely is in the early-game and especially the mid-game. However, since Battlegrounds will eventually become a slugfest between humongous minions, Divine Shield is disproportionately valuable in later rounds, by which point you'll also be sinking most of your Gold into refreshes that may or may not actually give anything useful. By that point, spending a mere 1 Gold to instantly delete all of your opponent's Divine Shields can easily turn an otherwise even fight into a complete slaughter, making Nefarian very dangerous in the late-game. However, his Hero Power is still pretty useful during the very early game when minions aren't buffed and players haven't solidified their strategy yet.
- Weak, but Skilled: 1 damage to all minions is basically nothing by the late-game. But then you realize most late-game comps have a lot of Divine Shields...
Nozdormu
The Lord of Time and former Aspect of Time. His Hero Power, Clairvoyant, passively causes his first Refresh each turn to cost 0 Gold.His buddy is Chromie, a Tier 4 6/6 that gives all minions in Bob's Tavern +1/+1 for each time the Tavern was refreshed that turn, with the Golden version giving the minions +2/+2.
- Boring, but Practical: His Hero Power isn't as flashy as his fellow Aspects', but the Gold reduction allows you to fish for more quality minions, which helps with builds that require a lot of refreshes to fish for key minions.
N'Zoth
The corruptor of Deathwing and the weakest of the four Old Gods. His Hero Power is Avatar of N’Zoth which summons a 2/2 Fish at the start of the game. Whenever a friendly minion with Deathrattle dies, the fish will copy the Deathrattle.His buddy, Baby N'Zoth, is a Tier 4 8/4 that makes a friendly Deathrattle minion Golden, with the Golden version making all friendly Deathrattle minions Golden.
- Balance Buff: The fish N'zoth's Hero Power summons was originally a flimsy 1/1, which was eventually buffed to be a 2/2 in July 2021 to help him catch up with other Heroes.
- Power Copying: The fish that he summons copies the Deathrattles of dead friendly minions.
Onyxia
The daughter of Deathwing and broodmother of the Black Dragonflight. Her passive Hero Power, Broodmother, has an Avenge 3 effect that summons a 3/1 Whelp that attacks a random enemy.Her buddy is Many Whelps, a tier 2 4/2 Dragon that gains +2/+2 each time a whelp is summoned, with the Golden version gaining +4/+4.
- Ascended Meme: Her buddy Many Whelps is a reference to the famous "Onyxia Raid Wipe" video.
- Balance Buff: Her effect originally summoned a 2/1 instead of a 3/1. Additionally, the effect used to be an avenge 4 effect but was reduced to Avenge 3 on late July 2023.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: Represented by her hero power. Her buddy is also literally a swarm of many whelps.
Overlord Saurfang
High Overlord Varok Saurfang is a legendary orc warrior, brother of Broxigar the Red and leader of the Kor'kron. His hero power is For the Horde!, which give a minion in the Tavern +2/+1. for 1 Gold. Every 3 turns, the stats given by his hero power doubles.His buddy is Dranosh Saurfang, a tier 4 9/5 that causes For the Horde! to also grant +2 Health, with the Golden version granting +4.
- Balance Buff: Saurfang's Hero Power wasn't quite up to snuff compared to the rest of the field, so in July 2021 the rate at which his buff ramps was slightly increased by making the initial buff +2 Attack instead of only +1. It was further buffed in late June 2023 to buff a minion +2/+1, with the hero power effect upgrading every 3 turns now.
- Gathering Steam: +2/+1 for 1 gold is decent, but early on there are better uses for your Gold. However, later in the game that targeted attack buff could give, say, a Foe Reaper a massive +16/+8.
Ozumat
The patriarch of the krakens. Ozumat's hero power, Tentacular, passively summons a 2/2 Tentacle with Taunt at the start of each combat. Each time he sells a minion, the tentacle becomes +1/+1 larger.His Buddy is Tamuzo, a Tier 2 Beast that has an Avenge 2 effect that gives your Tentacle +1/+1, with the Golden version giving the Tentacle +2/+2.
- Combat Tentacles: He starts each combat with a tentacle in play, the size of which increases as he sells minions.
- Giant Squid: He's a colossal octopus.
Patches the Pirate
An Observer pirate (unfortunately no longer in charge). His Hero Power is Pirate Parrrty, which adds a random Pirate to his hand for 3 Gold, and has the next uses' cost reduced by 1 each time he buys a Pirate.His buddy is Tuskarr Raider, a Tier 4 4/4 Pirate that gives a minion +1/+1 for each Pirate you played that game, with the Golden version giving double that amount.
His old Hero Power was Fire the Cannons!, which cost 1 Gold and dealt 4 damage to 2 random enemy minions.
- Balance Buff: His old Hero Power was just a worse version of Ragnaros's Hero Power. As such, it was replaced with a more useful Pirate synergy.
- To help Patches catch up with other heroes, the cost of Pirate Parrrty was reduced from 4 to 3, allowing it to be used much more often.
- Character Select Forcing: Patches is encouraged to buy and use Pirates to lower the cost of his Hero Power. This was especially true when it costed 4 Gold, which was otherwise too expensive to use.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Compared to Ragnaros, Patches's old Hero Power was much weaker even with the lower cost since it stopped doing significant damage even in the early mid-game, and it's not quite as good at removing Divine Shields as Nefarian. By the late-game, he and Ragnaros were on roughly even footing since even Ragnaros's 8 damage will stop being significant, making them both only good for removing Divine Shields most of the time, but even then Ragnaros can snipe minions like unbuffed Junkbots and Mama Bears while Patches cannot.
Patchwerk
A hulking abomination from the depths of Naxxramas. Patchwerk starts with 60 health instead of the usual 40 thanks to his passive All Patched Up Hero Power.His buddy is Weebomination, a Tier 4 6/6 Undead that gives a minion +1 Health for each health your hero was missing, with the Golden version giving +2 Health.
- Boring, but Practical: The only thing his Hero Power does is give him a bit of extra wiggle room. However, the buffer it gives him lets him play far more aggressively early on and get Tavern Upgrades that would be risky for other heroes.
- Crutch Character: Towards the late-game, the extra health is basically nothing, or in the best case lets him survive a single extra loss.
- Dead Weight: The reason he's so tanky.
- Nerf: His health bonus was reduced from 20 to 10 just before the Descent of Dragons release, making it more risky for him to facetank damage in order to grab faster tiers. With the introduction of new and strong heroes, as well as games ending much faster, this nerf was partially reverted in October 2020. It was fully reverted in August of 2022.
Professor Putricide
Icecrown's resident Mad Scientist. His hero power is Build-an-Undead, which costs 4 Gold and lets him Discover two Undead minions from an exclusive pool and stitch them together into one minion. He has access to more powerful options while at higher Tavern Tiers, and he can only use this effect three times per game.Previously, his Hero Power was Rage Potion, which gave a minion of his choice +10 Attack in the next combat.
His Buddy is Festergut, a Tier 3 4/2 Undead that summons a Creation when it dies, with the Golden version summoning two Creations.
- Balance Buff:
- After he was accidentally re-introduced into the game due to a bug, his Hero Power now reads +20 Attack. After being removed and reintroduced, it now gives only +10 Attack once more, but he can now choose which minion to use it on and gets the effect for free.
- After another extended hiatus, Putricide returned with a new, very powerful hero power that's more useful and more in-flavour with a Mad Scientist.
- Frankenstein's Monster: His hero power lets him fuse two different Undead minions together, making a Purposefully Overpowered minion three times per game.
- Nerf: Before the beta was released, Putricide's Hero Power used to give his left-most minion Poisonous, which in conjunction with Cleave attacks turned out to be too powerful. This also led Unstable Ghoul to be initially cut from the Battlegrounds lineup for obvious reasons.
- His release version of Build-an-undead was especially broken, because putricide had access to several undead with obscene effects that could win the game on their own. Some undead mixes could result in a undead with poisonous, divine shield and reborn, which allowed Putricide to easly go 4-to-1 against opposing boards, or a undead with stealth(no need to being protected by taunt), high attack(Zippy can't snipe it) and the same effect as N'zoth's fish, which ensued a endless tide of Eternal Knights if Eternal Summoner's deathrattle was copied. This resulted in his undead pool being nerfed by removing the most overpowered undead from the hero power choices.
- Weaksauce Weakness: His attack buff is completely wasted if his buffed minion attacks into a Divine Shield, which isn't exactly hard to come across in Battlegrounds. In the late-game, the +20 Attack also were just tanked by buffed up minions. It became less weaksauce after his rework allows him to choose which minion to buff; with good positioning, he can wait until the opponent's Divine Shields and Taunts are removed before going in. This led to him receiving a total rework for his March of the Lich King reintroduction.
Pyramad
A golem made of sandstone. His Hero Power is Brick by Brick, which costs 0 Gold and gives a friendly minion +1 health. Each turn the Hero Power isn't used, the health given increases by 1.His buddy is Titanic Guardian, a Tier 4 5/2 that gains health whenever another friendly minion does, with the Golden version gaining double the Health.
- Balance Buff: Multiple times. His Hero Power previously gave a random friendly minion +2 Health, before being buffed to +3 Health and then +4 Health. When this effect clearly wasn't working, it was reworked to its current version.
- Nerf:His current iteration of his hero power initially gave a friendly minion +2 health, increased by 1 per turn where the hero power isn't used. This was very strong in the early game game by making high-attack minions harder to kill, and in the late-game, it was too powerful when used on Poisonous minions like Mantid Queen. As a result, the initial health of his current hero power was reduced to 1.
- Sentient Sands: He's somewhere between this and a Rock Monster. He's made of a combination of pyramid bricks and sand.
Queen Azshara
The queen of the Highborne who made a deal with N'Zoth, turning her people into naga. Her passive hero power, Azshara's Ambition, initially does nothing. Upon reaching 25 attack across her warband, it transforms her into Naga Queen Azshara, whose hero power Naga Conquest allows her to Discover a Naga for 1 Gold.Her Buddy is Imperial Defender, a tier 4 2/4 Naga that casts a Spellcraft spell on itself whenever you cast a Spellcraft spell on a different minion, with the Golden version casting the spell twice.
- Balance Buff: Her hero power had the attack requisite reduced to 25(down from 30) in the late June 2023 update.
- Foil: She's similar to Aranna Starseeker, another hero whose hero power is a mini-quest to unlock extra value on future turns. Azshara differs because she's encouraged to build the biggest board she can as fast as possible where Aranna is encouraged to cycle through minions as efficiently as possible, and Azshara also suffers from Character Select Forcing into a Naga warband.
- Gathering Steam: She initially starts with no special benefits. Once she gets enough Attack to transform, she becomes a Naga-value machine.
- Power-Upgrading Deformation: In order to achieve her full strength, she needs to become a terrifying multi-eyed and multi-armed fish monster.
- We Have Reserves: She commands an endless army of naga, represented by her upgraded hero power generating a new one every turn.
Queen Wagtoggle
The kobold queen and a rival of Togwaggle. Her Hero Power, Wax Warband gives a friendly minion of each type stats equal to their Tavern Tiers at the start of combat.Her old Hero Power gave a friendly friendly minion of each type +1/+1 for 1 Gold.
Her buddy is Elder Taggawag, a Tier 2 3/2 that gives you 1 Gold for each minion type you control, with the Golden version giving you 2 Gold. Its previous version was a tier 3 5/4 that activated your hero power for free (twice each turn) whenever you played a minion of type you didn't currently control.
- Balance Buff: Her Hero Power previously gave +1 Health. In November 2020, the Health bonus was given back in addition to the Attack buff. Then it was overhauled to give 3 friendly minions stats equal to their tavern tiers, and then it was changed to its current version.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Her Hero Power isn't the easiest thing to build around, especially after the removal of Nightmare Amalgam from the minion pool, but with a bit of luck and careful team building, you basically have a passive Lightfang Enforcer that doesn't take up a board space.
- Nerf: The above buff to her Hero Power wound up being too strong, and Wagtoggle was temporarily removed from Battlegrounds as a result. When she returned, the buff her hero power provided was reduced to a more balanced +1/+1.
R - Z
Ragnaros the Firelord
The infamous Elemental Lord of Fire. His Hero Power is DIE, INSECTS! which does nothing until he kills 25 minions. After he crosses this threshold, his hero power becomes Sulfuras, which passively gives his left and right-most minions +3/+3 at the end of each turn.His buddy, Lucifron, is a Tier 5 6/5 that causes your end of turn effects to trigger an additional time. The Golden version causes your end of turn effect to trigger two additional times.
His original Hero Power, also dubbed DIE, INSECTS!, dealt 8 damage to two random enemy minions for 2 Gold.
An alternate version of Ragnaros, known as Tikilord Ragnaros, can also be used as an alternate bartender. He was made available as a part of a special Battlegrounds cosmetic bundle from July 27, 2021, through August 16, 2021.
- The Artifact: He was removed from the line up from March 17th until September 18th. The Battleground promotional art still prominently featured him.
- Exact Words: Lucifron triggered all end-of-turn effects twice, sometimes including even Bob's encouraging phrases at the end of turn.
- Gathering Steam: It is only after killing enough minions that he equips Sulfuras, at which point his minions will get a massive power boost every turn.
- Magikarp Power: Ragnaros' Hero Power initially does nothing. He unlocks his true power after killing enough minions.
- Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Like Aranna Starseeker, his second iteration's Hero Power is passive and initially does nothing. The condition to unlock his true Hero Power works vastly differently though and is one of the few Hero Powers that require killing minions.
- Nerf: The reworked Ragnaros had the highest winrate in the game up to that point with a record average placement of 2.9. After only one month, the number of minions he has to kill and the buff Sulfuras gives were nerfed by 25% each.
- Playing with Fire: He's the Firelord, duh. His old Hero Power made him fire two huge balls of fire at the start of the battle.
- Random Number God: Because his first Hero Power targeted random minions, it was completely up to chance whether it sniped a key minion or removed an important minion's Divine Shield or if it just scratched a beefy powerhouse.
- Series Mascot: One of two for the game mode, whose splash art shows him facing off against the Lich King.
- Signature Move: Dealing 8 damage to a random enemy has been Ragnaros' signature move since Vanilla Hearthstone. His reworked hero power gave his board a total of +8/+8 in stats every turn until it was nerfed.
Rakanishu
A fire elemental who lives in King Togwaggle's "Magic Candle". His Tavern Lighting Hero Power gives a chosen minion stats equal to Rakanishu's Tavern Tier for 1 gold.His buddy, Lantern Tender, is a Tier 4 3/5 that gives a random friendly minion stats equal to your Tavern Tier at the end of each turn, with the Golden version giving stats twice the amount of your Tavern Tier.
- Balance Buff:
- With the November 2020 patch, his Hero Power no longer gives the buff randomly but can be targeted.
- In August 2022, it was lowered from 2 to 1 Gold.
- In late June 2023, his hero power now gives a minion stats equals to Rakanishu's own tavern tier instead of the minion's.
- Foil: Rakanishu's Hero Power bears similarities to both Pyramad's and Edwin VanCleef's Hero Powers. The randomness that was similar to Pyramad's Hero Power was eventually removed.
- Magikarp Power: At Tavern Tier 1 and 2, he's a much worse Pyramad, but he really starts going at higher tiers.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Rakanishu came out at the same time as Ragnaros' reworked Hero Power, which painfully shows how underwhelming he is. Once Ragnaros has finished his quest, he can give two minions +4/+4 per turn without paying any gold, while Rakanishu's Hero Power is random, costs 2 gold and is tied to his Tavern Tier, meaning that at most he could give a minion +6/+6. Even after Rag was nerfed, he still gives the same amount of bonus stats to his minions for free that Rakanishu needs to spend 2 coins on.
The Rat King
A massive rat that lives in Dalaran's Underbelly. The Rat King's Hero Power is A Tale of Kings. Every turn, for 2 Gold he can Discover a minion from a randomly selected type.His Hero Power previous gave minions from a certain tribe he bought +2/+2. The favored tribe swapped every turn.
His buddy is Pigeon Lord, a Tier 1 3/4 that causes Refresh to cost 0 while Bob's Tavern contained no minions that matched your current hero power.
- Anti-Frustration Features: Whatever minion tribe is out of the pool will also be excluded from his lineup of Hero Powers.
- Balance Buff: Starting in November 2020, his Hero Power gives bought minions +2/+2 instead of +1/+2.
- Luck-Based Mission: His Hero Power is one of the strongest, but is very inconsistent. Even in the best possible case, The Rat King can't make full use of his ability each turn since it can't hit the same power twice in a row.
- Nerf: His Hero Power used to give +1/+2, which caused him to snowball a bit too easily. The nerf to +1/+1 was eventually reverted, though.
- Power at a Price: His Hero Power is stronger than nearly every other stat buffer, giving his minions buffs for free. It's however balanced by the inherent unreliability.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Early-game for The Rat King involves going with the flow of his Hero Powers to get the biggest minions possible and try to assemble some kind of synergy. This mellows by the late game, where his Hero Power is usually ignored in favour of whatever final build Rat King went for (except when it happens to line up).
Reno Jackson
The bumbling but lovable Big Guy of the League of Explorers. His Hero Power, Gonna Be Rich, transforms a friendly minion into its Golden version for free, but can only be used once per game.His buddy is Sr. Tomb Diver, a Tier 1 4/1 with Taunt that makes the rightmost minion Golden for the current combat on death. The Golden version makes the two rightmost minions Golden.
An alternate version of Reno, Lone Ranger Reno, can also be used as an alternate Bartender. He was made available to those who paid to upgrade their Battlegrounds Track during Season 6 and reached level 20.
- Balance Buff: Reno's Hero Power initially cost 4 Gold, then 3, then 2, and then became free.
- It Only Works Once: His Hero Power is one of the few Hero Powers that is only activated once per game. Reno's was also the first one which is activated at the player's discretion rather than triggered by the game.
- Sequence Breaking: His Hero Power is extremely powerful since it gives you 6 Gold discount (since you'd otherwise have to buy two more copies of the desired minion for 6 Gold, and that's not mentioning the gold you'd need to spend digging for them) to enhance a friendly minion to its Golden version.
- Saved for the Sequel: He was planned to be added with his fellow Explorers in the first patch, but animation problems forced the developers to push him back. He was finally added along with the Dragon Aspects on February 26th.
- Too Awesome to Use: You'll often be waiting a long time for the perfect target (ideally a strong on-board effect like Mama Bear, Baron Rivendare, or Brann Bronzebeard) before deploying Reno's Hero Power, as it does not put the target minion in your hand (which means no Battlecries or triple reward) and many minions aren't worth blowing the Hero Power on tripling.
Rokara
A Frostwolf warrior and one of the ten mercenaries. Rokara's Hero Power is Glory of Combat, which permanently gives her minions +1 Attack each time they kill an enemy.Her buddy is Icesnarl the Mighty, a tier 4 5/2 Beast that gains +1 Health each time a friendly minion killed an enemy, with the Golden version gaining +2 Health.
- Canine Companion: Her buddy Icesnarl is an adorable puppy.
Scabbs Cutterbutter
A gnome agent of SI:7, formerly one of Azeroth's best chefs. His Hero Power, I Spy, costs 2 Gold and lets him Discover a plain copy of a minion from his next opponent's warband.His buddy is Warden Thelwater, a Tier 4 2/6 that adds a copy of your next opponent's buddy to your hand at the start of your turn, with the Golden version giving you two copies.
- Ditto Fighter: Scabbs copies minions from his upcoming foe.
- Foil: He's similar to an inverted Tess Greymane, taking from future opponents instead of past opponents. The main difference is that Scabbs trades versatility for extra information. Emphasizing this, their buddies are literally inverted versions of each other.
- Nerf: His buddy used to be Tier 2, but this was a bit too strong(some early buddy steals like Submersible Chef could win the game for Scabbs) so his buddy was bumped to Tier 3, then eventually tier 4.
Skycap'n Kragg
The parrot-riding orcish pirate of the skies. Kragg's Hero Power is Piggy Bank, which gives him 1 Gold that turn and can only be used once per game. However, the Gold it gives grows by 1 each turn.His buddy is Sharkbait, a Tier 5 4/2 Beast that lets him use his hero power an additional time.
- Balance Buff: He received a very minor buff in August 2022 that let his Piggy Bank scale beyond 10 Gold.
- It Only Works Once: Like Reno, Kragg can only use his Hero Power once. Unlike Reno, his Hero Power is far less reliant on RNG, just patience and a test of value vs. tempo.
Silas Darkmoon
The creator and proprietor of the Darkmoon Faire. His Hero Power, Come One, Come All!, gives random minions in Bob's Tavern tickets to the Darkmoon Faire. After Silas collects three of them, he can discover to a minion from his tavern tier.His buddy is Burth, a Tier 4 5/6 that gives a minion you Discover +4/+4 then upgrades this effect by +1/+1, with the Golden version upgrading the effect by +2/+2. Its previous version refreshed 1 Gold whenever a minion with a Darkmoon Ticket was bought.
- Foil: His Hero Power mirrors Elise Starseeker's. While Elise can get 5 guaranteed minions (as long as she can survive to upgrade her tavern), Silas can potentially get more than that if he's lucky.
- Rule of Three: After getting three tickets, he can discover to a minion from his tavern tier.
Sindragosa
Once a blue dragon, Sindragosa is one of The Lich King's most powerful champions. Her free Hero Power, Stay Frosty, Freezes a minion in Bob's Tavern. In addition, any Frozen minions gain a +2/+1 buff each turn.Her buddy, Thawed Champion, is a Tier 3 5/7 that added a random Frozen minion from Bob's Tavern to your hand at the end of your turn. The Golden version added two random Frozen minions.
- Balance Buff: Sindragosa was considered fairly decent, but not quite strong enough compared to other available heroes, and as such in July 2021 her Hero Power was tweaked in a rather unique way: while she can still freeze all of Bob's Tavern like normal, once per turn she can instead opt to freeze a specific minion she wants to buff and buy later.
- Early-Bird Cameo: She was visible in the tutorial from the very first inception of the mode, and was actually intended to be one of the launch heroes.
- An Ice Person: The only hero whose Hero Power specifically makes use of the Freeze function.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: She's the first character to interact with Frozen minions.
Mike Donais specifically cited this as a reason why she was held back from release: her Hero Power requires an understanding of the Freeze mechanic and strategies therein, and didn't make for a good introductory experience.
Sir Finley Mrrgglton
A perfect gentlefish and scholar. Finley's Hero Power, Adventure!, lets him Discover a Hero Power at the beginning of the game.His buddy is Maxwell, Mighty Steed, a Tier 4 1/1 Beast that added the buddy that matched your hero power to your hand. The Golden version add two Buddies.
His old Hero Power was Power Up!, which gave a random minion +1/+1 for 1 Gold and refreshed whenever he sold a minion.
- Boring, but Practical: Picking Finley is basically just a reroll on the hero you're playing. Alleviated slightly by the Buddy system, since Maxwell could synergize with Brann Bronzebeard for extra buddies, carving a small niche above the hero Finley's copying.
- Ditto Fighter: Finley copies a Hero Power from one of the other available Battlegrounds heroes when locked in.
- Mystery Box: His hero power is effectively a chance at playing any random hero. You won't know your options when picking him, but it can be helpful if you didn't like any of the other heroes presented.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: His old Hero Power was overshadowed by Edwin's and old Sylvanas' Hero Powers immediately after release (and Sylvanas isn't that good of a hero) due to its randomness nature.
- Xanatos Speed Chess: Finley's old Hero Power encouraged him to constantly sell minions to get the most use. Since the buff is random, he needed to adapt what he's selling to be his weakest minions, especially early on. In his current incarnation, Finley gets a choice of 3 Hero Powers out of the ones available in Battlegrounds, meaning he'll need to come up with a game plan based on that Hero Power on the fly. He can also choose a Hero Power to counter specific enemies he's facing, if the RNG gives him such an option (such as grabbing Nefarious Fire to counter George if you're worried about him).
Sire Denathrius
The Master of Revendreth and lord of Castle Nathria. Denathrius' passive hero power is Whodunnit?, which lets him choose between one of two different Quests at the start of the game, which can be completed for a reward.His Buddy is Shady Aristocrat, a Tier 2 2/2 that Discovers a Quest for him to complete in exchange for a Pouch that gives you 8 Gold, with the Golden version giving you 16 Gold.
- Ascended Extra: The Quest system. Similar to Tickatus and the Darkmoon Prizes, the Quests were added as a limited-time event available for every character. While the event is active, Denathrius gets two Quests. Otherwise, the system becomes his own unique gimmick.
- Magickarp Power: Quests initially do nothing, however if you can complete the requirements you get a huge power boost.
- Nerf: The quests offered by his buddy were much easier to complete, which gave Sire a very strong early and mid game by getting 8 extra gold fast, which wasn't helped with how his buddy synergized with Brann for extra quests and gold. The quests offered by his buddy were changed to take much longer to complete as a result.
Shudderwock
The horror of the Witchwood, with snatching claws and biting jaws. His Hero Power, Snicker-Snack, allows you to trigger a friendly minion's Battlecry effect.His buddy is Muckslinger, a Tier 3 5/5 that adds a random Battlecry minion to Bob's Tavern whenever you play a minion and gives it +2/+2, with the Golden version giving it +4/+4.
His old Hero Power was Burbling, which, for 1 Gold, doubled his next Battlecry that turn. A previous version of Snicker-Snack added a Shudderling to your hand, a 1/1 minion that repeated all Battlecries you've played.
- Balance Buff:
- From beta until January 14th, his Hero Power cost 2 Gold, which just made it a worse version of the Brann Bronzebeard minion.
- Shudderwock's original Hero Power was always one of the more difficult ones to use, and as such it was outright replaced with his current Hero Power in August 2021.
- Shout-Out: Like a lot of things related to Shudderwock, his Hero Powers are a reference to Jabberwocky. Both Burbling and Snicker-snack were two of the many nonsense words featured in it.
Sneed
A goblin lumbermaster in the service to the Defias Brotherhood. Sneed's Hero Power, Sneed's Replicator, costs 1 Gold and gives a friendly minion a Deathrattle that summons a random minion of one tavern tier lower.His buddy is Piloted Whirl-o-Tron, a Tier 2 4/3 Mech that copies a friendly minion's Deathrattles when played.
- Not Quite Dead: Often he can pull these off. Since Sneed's hero power can be stacked multiple times on one minion, it's possible for it to look like he's about to lose only for his last minion to burst open with a full board. It can be especially devastating if it was a particularly high-tier minion.
- Tank Goodness: He normally rides around in a goblin shredder, but he's been upgraded to a crazy tank/pirate ship combo vehicle called Goliath.
- Nerf: The deathrattles given by his hero power originally allowed that minion to summon another random one of the same tavern tier. This was particularly broken in the mid and late-game with how easy it was to vomit tons of stats and tier 5-6 minions(particularly Poisonous Spore and Foe Reaver) that could clear opposing boards and dealt lethal damage(to say nothing of the Synergy it had with minions like Baron Rivendare. His hero power was changed to 2 gold which made it much worse, then eventually returned to cost 1 but now the minion summoned is one tavern tier lower.
Sylvanas Windrunner
The Banshee Queen of the Forsaken. Her Hero Power is Reclaimed Soul, cost 1 Gold and gives +2/+1 to all friendly minions that died last combat.Her old Hero Power was Banshee's Blessing, which was free to use and sacrificed a minion to give adjacent minions +1/+1.
Her Buddy is Nathanos Brightcaller, a tier 6 3/6 Undead that removes a friendly minion and gives its stats to its neighbors. The Golden version gives the neighbors minions twice the stats of the removed minion.
- Awesome, but Impractical: While her old Hero Power doesn't directly cost Gold, it indirectly doesn't give her Gold back when it's sold back. This means that effectively, Sylvanas would have to sacrifice 3 Gold to get +1/+1 for two minions, which is painfully weak, especially compared to other heroes like VanCleef. She therefore was discouraged to use her Hero Power at all, which led to terrible winrates.
- Boring, but Practical: Her new Hero Power might be less flashy than her old one, but it give very good stat ratio for cost and allow her to catch up when she power level with her early units.
- Evil Counterpart: Her new Hero Power is this compare against Cariel Roame - giving stats for minions that died in combat and encourage Sylvanas to buy minions with low stats and Deathrattles or Reborn synergy, while Cariel is encouraged to buy minios with good on field effects.
- Human Resources: Her old Hero Power encourages her to use unwanted units for quick buffs.
- Nerf: Nathanos used to be tier 4, then 5 on release. This was a bit too strong, as Sylvanas could secure some Cavern Hydras early on then use Nathanos to create a pretty fat cleave and/or divine shield board with little investment. As a result, Nathanos was bumped to Tier 6, the highest one for a buddy.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Her old Hero Power allow her to rather than selling minions back, Sylvanas can destroy them to give her best units a buff.
Tamsin Roame
Cariel's evil Forsaken warlock sister. Her free hero power is Fragrant Phylactery, which destroys her lowest-health minion at the start of the next combat and gives its stats to her other minions.Her buddy, Monstrosity, is a Tier 4 0/14 Undead that gains the Attack of any friendly minion that died. The Golden version gains twice the amount of Attack.
- Balance Buff: Fragrant Phylactery went through this no less than 4 different times. Her first hero power version used to cost 0 gold but would only buff her warband's hp based on that of the minion destroyed by her hero power. This was deemed too weak, so her hero power was changed to cost 1 gold but buff her minions based on the stats of the destroyed minion. Even this wasn't good enough, so another change came around that made her hero power cost 0 again and buff the stats of her minions, but only 4 of them.After that, Fragrant Phylactery was changed to buff 5 minions instead of 4.Eventually, the devs just returned the hero power to its second iteration (all her minions are buffed) but made free of cost. Additionally, her buddy used to be tribeless and received a minor buff when it was changed to undead type when buddies returned in early 2023, allowing him to Synergize with other undead minions.
- Flesh Golem: Her buddy is one, stitched together from all of her dead minions.
- Human Resources: She turns her weakest minion into a potentially hefty board buff.
- Nerf: Her hero power was nerfed in March of 2022 to only buff up to four minions instead of all of them.Zig-zagged, however, since her hero power used to cost 1 gold and was made free, which allows her to use it much more efficiently in the early-to-mid game. Eventually, this was Inverted in the late June 2023 update, with her hero power buffing all her minions once again and now free of cost.
- Her buddy was also bumped from Tier 3 to Tier 4, slowing down how quickly it comes out.
Tavish Stormpike
A former member of the Stormpikes now turned mercenary. Tavish's free hero power is Deadeye, which lets him target either the opponent's leftmost, rightmost, highest-health, or lowest-health minion and deal 2 damage to it at the start of combat. The damage doubles every 3 turns.His buddy is Crabby, a Tier 5 2/3 Beast that gives adjacent minions stats equal to the damage dealt by his hero power each time it fired. The Golden version gives twice the amount of stats.
- Balance Buff: His hero power used to deal 1 damage and upgrade +1 damage every turn. It was eventually revamped to deal 2 damage from the get-go and double his hero power attack every 3 turns instead.
- Gathering Steam: His hero power starts at a mere 2 damage, but increases in power every 3 rounds.
- Giant Enemy Crab: His pet and buddy, Crabby.
- Weak, but Skilled: Dealing damage to a single minion isn't a very impactful effect. However, the fact that you can snipe things like Baron Rivendare or Avenge minions or just pop Divine Shields if you know what you're up against gives it a much-needed edge.
Teron Gorefiend
A fallen orcish warlock who was resurrected into the body of a slain human knight, becoming the first Death Knight. Teron's Hero Power is Rapid Reanimation, which costs no Gold and lets him choose a friendly minion. At the start of next combat, that minion is destroyed and a copy of it is summoned when his board had enough room.His Buddy is Shadowy Construct, a tier 3 3/4 Undead that activates whenever a friendly minion dies, giving its neighbors +1/+1. The Golden version gives the neighbors +2/+2.
- Anti-Frustration Features: The resummon on his hero power won't trigger unless there's an open spot on the board, letting you create a token without losing the minion.
- Back from the Dead: His hero power kills a minion then immediately resurrects it. This lets you trigger a Deathrattle on demand before combat even begins.
Tess Greymane
The princess of Gilneas and a Shadow of the Uncrowned. Tess' Hero Power, Bob's Burgles, costs 1 Gold and refreshes the Tavern with her last opponent's warband.Her buddy, Hunter of Old, is a Tier 4 5/3 that added a copy of her last opponent's buddy to her hand at the start of her turn. The Golden version adds two copies.
- Balance Buff: Tess' Hero Power used to only offer as many minions from her opponent's warband as her Tavern Tier allowed. After the November 2020 patch, she now is offered the entire warband of her opponent's warband regardless of the Tavern Tier.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Despite Tess' Hero Power having a Murozond-like effect, her average winrate is actually one of the lowest in the game. Good Tess players need to survive and predict which builds will win and stay in the late-game, and build towards these builds themselves to strengthen their own warbands by stealing their opponents' minions. That makes her especially potent with Murlocs, but this requires a lobby that is willing to play them. She will often fall too far behind against other tribes.
- Ditto Fighter: Tess can scavenge for minions her last opponent used, allowing her to basically copy them and building her own strong warband off of other players' warbands. Uniquely, her buddy also granted access to her opponents' buddies, some of which were literally worthless but others were potentially busted.
- Foil: Her Hero Power works similar to Rafaam's in a way that she can copy her opponent. However, Tess is far stronger in the late-game, because the opponent cannot play around her Hero Power as well as against Rafaam, while in the early-game, she cannot make much use out of her power, due to less synergy in early warbands and the number of minions that can show up being limited to the Tavern Tier.
- Nerf: Her buddy used to be tier 2 then tier 3. As it was obtainable fairly early, Tess could simply snowball her way to victory with several early minions obtained for free, along some like Submersible Chef or Snow Elemental giving her insane mid and late-game tempo. It was far too strong, and as a result it was bumped to Tier 4.
- Magikarp Power: Zigzagged. While Tess can grab some decent minions off of her opponents in the mid-game, she can get triples far quicker than the opponents she faces in the late-game. The longer she manages to survive, the easier it gets for her on the next turn to get a better warband off of someone who already established a strong warband.
- Shout-Out: Her Hero Power is a pun on Bob's Burgers.
Tickatus
A ticket-obsessed abyssal. His passive Hero Power, Prize Wall, lets him Discover a Darkmoon Prize every 4 turns. Darkmoon Prizes are a set of exclusive, incredibly powerful cards with one-time use effects.His buddy is Ticket Collector, a Tier 5 6/6 that let him Discover a prize from the upcoming prize turn when sold. The Golden version gives him two prizes.
- Ascended Extra: Darkmoon Prizes were originally available to all players as part of a limited-time event. They proved to be so popular that the devs wanted to keep them in the game forever to some capacity, and designed Tickatus to be just that.
- Balance Buff: His buddy initially let him Discover a prize from the previous turn, but that ended up being a little inconsistent. It was buffed to instead pull from the upcoming prize turn, offering a selection of more powerful cards.
- Gathering Steam: His hero power only takes effect once every four turns. Once it activates, it gives Tickatus access to some increasingly OP prize cards.
- Obvious Rule Patch: A hotfix in 22.4 prevented his Ticket Collector from getting Raise the Stakes, preventing him from getting a potentially endless loop of prizes, especially once Brann Bronzebeard gets involved.
- Nerf: Speaking of Brann, Ticket Collector gave simply too much tempo when Brann was involved, since it was originally a Battlecry. When buddies returned in early 2023, His buddy effect was changed to only activate when sold.
Tirion Fordring
Highlord of the Argent Crusade and bearer of the Ashbringer. Tirion's Hero Power is Honorable Warband, which gives all of his tribeless minions +1/+1 for 1 Gold.- Barrier Warrior: Tirion is encouraged to pick the two tribeless minions Righteous Protector and Selfless Hero right from Tier 1 so he can immediately buff them. Both of these minions either have Divine Shield themselves (Righteous Protector) or grant Divine Shield to friendly minions. Since they are picked early, it is very likely by the mid- and late-game Tirion has poured an enormous amount of buffs into them, allowing them to potentially overrun much higher tier minions, and that is not counting the possibility that he is also most likely to pick up Divine Shield synergetic minions like Drakonid Enforcer and Bolvar, Fireblood.
- Character Select Forcing: Inverted. His Hero Power allows you to buff non-tribal minions, which are usually used as support units in other builds.
- Lethal Joke Character: Tribeless minions tend to be passed up in Battlegrounds because most buffs available are tribe-related. In Tirion's hands, however, they can be quite powerful in their own right. Furthermore, since no one but him wants to keep them around for long, Tirion usually has no problems grabbing good minions to buff and even getting triples.
- Simple, yet Awesome: Tirion gives a simple buff to all tribeless minions, which have next to no synergy with each other, but since tribeless minions are less contested and since Tirion can buff early ones right from the beginning, he is extremely powerful in the mid-game, making him meta-wise The Reliable One to get to the top 4 and only losing to high-rolled late-tier warbands like Murlocs or Golden Baron Rivendare Deathrattles. In fact, his winrate was so consistently high* that Blizzard had no other choice but to remove him until they could rework his Hero Power.
Trade Prince Gallywix
The morally corrupt leader of the Bilgewater Cartel goblins. Gallywix's Hero Power, Smart Savings, is passive and gives you 1 Gold on your next turn for every minion you sell. This Gold stockpile can exceed 10 Gold.His buddy, Bilgewater Mogul, is a Tier 4 6/3 that gives a minion +1 Attack or +1 Health for each Gold you've spent this turn. The Golden version gives +2 Attack or +2 Health.
Previously, his Hero Power costed 1 Gold and added a Gold Coin to his hand.
- Balance Buff: Gallywix took a long period of absence from Battlegrounds before re-emerging in July 2021 with a new, incredibly strong Hero Power, as described above.
- Equivalent Exchange: The original version of his Hero Power in a nutshell: pay one Gold, get one Gold. Lose a little money now, extend your money on a future turn.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: In his original form, Gallywix compared quite poorly to Baz'hial and Rafaam:
- Baz'hial has the same money-generating ability, but has the flexibility of getting a free Gold Coin on demand that turn. It also has synergies with cards like Floating Watcher and Annilihan Battlemaster to take advantage of the self-damage, and Mal'Ganis to negate the damage entirely.
- Rafaam pays the same amount, and gets to outright steal a copy of a minion. He can use this to extend his money on a big turn just like Gallywix, but can also cycle through useful Battlecries in the process. He also gets a huge boost in the early-game and has insane highroll potential.
Vanndar Stormpike
The leader of the Stormpike Expedition. Vanndar's passive hero power is Lead the Stormpikes, which has an Avenge 2 effect that gives his minions +1 Health permanently.His buddy is Stormpike Lieutenant, a Tier 3 4/7 with an Avenge 2 effect that gives his minions in the Tavern +1 Health permanently. The Golden version gives +2 Health.
- Balance Buff: Initially, Vanndar's hero power let him choose a minion and made it copy the health of his highest-health minion until next turn. This was one of the least impactful hero powers in the game, so it was reworked to match the old effect of his Buddy instead.
- Foil: Vanndar's hero power and buddy are literally inverted versions of Drek'thar's. Makes sense, considering they're leaders of opposing factions. With their simultaneous reworks in August 2022, the only difference now is that Vanndar has Avenge 2 while Drek'thar has Avenge 3.
- Stone Wall: The type of minion Vanndar favours. He can use his hero power to give its high health to a key minion. His buddy also helped him build a board full of these.
Varden Dawngrasp
A mage from Silvermoon and one of the mercenaries. Varden's Hero Power is Twice as Nice. Every time Bob's Tavern is refreshed, the highest tier minion is Frozen and a second copy of it is created.Their buddy is Varden's Aquarrior, a tier 4 3/6 Elemental that causes Twice as Nice to also grant both the original and copied minions stats equal to your tavern tier. The Golden version grants twice the amount of stats.
- Balance Buff: Initially, Varden's hero power copied a random minion on the tavern . This was too unreliable and blatantly weak, so the hero power was buffed later by copying the highest tier minion in the tavern instead.
Vol'jin
The leader of the Darkspear trolls and a former warchief of the Horde. His free hero power, Spirit Swap, lets him pick two minions to swap stats between.His buddy is Master Gadrin, a Tier 4 6/5 that causes the minion to his left to copy his Attack at the end of your turn. The Golden version gives both adjacent minions his Attack.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Vol'jin is one of the most difficult heroes to play well because he hinge on the player knowing about all the Loophole Abuse interactions (see below) as well as knowing when to swap and give up the old minions for better ones. But if piloted well he can singlehandedly take over the game.
- Loophole Abuse: Vol'jin's Hero Power synergize exceptionally well with Quilboar and Naga.
- Quilboar's Necrolyte allow the target minion to steal all Blood Gem from other friendly minions. If Vol'jin use his Hero Power between the two intended targets before using the Battlecry of Necrolyte, he effectively doubled the stats of the original minion and transfered those doubled stats into a new one with much better late game effect like cleave, Taunt, Frenzy or Divine Shield.
- Naga's gimmick is that the spell and buffs they generated will go away by the end of the turn unless getting very specific minions. Vol'jin completely remove this limitation since the swap stats will be permanent, allowing him to skip hunting for low tier Nagas like Lava Lurker and keep the spell generation minions as part of his warband. Unfortunately, this led to..
- Nerf: Because His hero power was simply too strong in a lobby with Nagas, Vol'jin was eventually changed so he can never show up as a hero choice in a lobby with Nagas.
Xyrella
A draenei priest who followed a vision sent by a shattered naaru, leading her to the Barrens on a quest to save her daughter. Xyrella's hero power, See the Light adds a minion from Bob's Tavern to her hand for 2 Gold, but sets its stats to 2/2.Her buddy is Baby Elekk, a Tier 3 2/2 that gains +2/+2 each time you play a minion with attack equal to its health.
- Numerological Motif: Obviously, number 2. Her Hero Power cost 2 Gold, set the minion it bought to 2/2. Her Buddy is a 2/2 that gain +2/+2 (+4/+4 when Golden) that was originally acquired by Tier 2 whenever she played minions with the same Attack and Health.
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End
One of the four Old Gods of Azeroth. Yogg-Saron's Hero Power is Puzzle Box, which hires a random minion from Bob's Tavern for 2 Gold and gives it +1/+1.His buddy, Acolyte of Yogg-Saron, is a Tier 3 5/4 Murloc that spins the Wheel of Yogg-Saron when it is sold. The wheel randomly either causes your hero power to trigger an extra time for the rest of the game, grants 3 random Darkmoon Prizes, gives your minions +3/+3 then shuffles their stats, consumes all minions in Bob's Tavern to gain their stats, or casted Pyrobuff at random targets to give them +4/+4 until your hero is hit. The Golden version spins the wheel twice.
- Breakout Character: It isn't hard to speculate that his immense popularity during Whispers of the Old Gods play a reason for him being the first Old God available for Battlegrounds.
- Crutch Character: Early on, Yogg's Hero Power is a crazy money cheat that gives buffs. Later in the game however, most minions aren't worth hiring since your board has become specialized and +1/+1 is a negligible bonus. A discount of 1 isn't worth rolling into something completely useless.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: He's the only Old God that goes by his full title rather than just his name. He also uses his WotOG era artwork unlike the other three, since Madness at the Darkmoon Faire wouldn't be out for another year when Battlegrounds launched.
- Random Number God:
- Sure, you could luck out and get some really broken stuff at a discount... or you could just end up not hitting anything useful, in which case you'd better hope that +1/+1 buff will keep you alive until you can grab a good minion.
- His buddy came equipped with a set of game-breaking powers, but you had no idea which one you'd actually get.
Ysera
Former Aspect of Dreams of Azeroth, and queen of the green dragonflight. Her Hero Power, Dream Portal, adds a random Dragon to the Tavern lineup at the start of each turn. In addition to that, Bob will always offer one extra Dragon whenever the Tavern is refreshed.Her buddy is Valithria Dreamwalker, a Tier 4 6/4 Dragon that passively gives all Dragons in Bob's Tavern +3/+3. The Golden version gives them +6/+6.
- Balance Buff: Her Hero Power formerly worked like Infinite Toki, in that it refreshed the Tavern and replaced a minion with a Dragon and used to cost 1 Gold. Now, she gets the Dragon for free. Starting with the November 2020 patch, Ysera is always given an additional Dragon whenever Bob's Tavern is refreshed.
- Character Select Forcing: You don't have to play Dragons as Ysera, of course, but when you're getting them for free with her Hero Power, you might as well go for the easy synergies.
Y'Shaarj
The Old God of Seven Heads and most powerful of the Old Gods. His Hero Power is Embrace your Rage, which costs 2 Gold and summons a random minion from your Tavern Tier at the start of combat, also adding it to your hand afterwards.His buddy, Baby Y'Shaarj, is a Tier 4 6/6. Whenever you summon a minion of your current Tavern Tier, it gives it +4/+4. The Golden version gives them +8/+8.
- Balance Buff: When he was first released, his Hero Power only let you keep the minion on the battlefield. That mean he is punished hard for minions with Battlecry since a majority of them are understatted. The buff to allow him to keep the minion on your hand removed this problem.
Zephrys, the Great
The rather intelligent Benevolent Genie from Uldum. His Hero Power, Three Wishes costs four gold and gives you a third copy of a minion that you have two of, but can only be used three times per game.His buddy, Phyresz, is a Tier 4 3/3 Elemental that Discovers a copy of a minion that you already had exactly one of.
An alternate version of Zephrys, Anniversary Zephrys, can also be used as an alternate Bartender. He was made available in the shop in February 2024 as part of the game's 10th anniversary celebration.
- Foil: His Hero Power brings to mind Reno Jackson's. While Reno makes a single minion golden, but keeps it on the field without need for duplicates for free, Zephyrs can use it three times, but it costs more and needs a duplicate.
- Milestone Celebration: Anniversary Zephrys acts as the bartender cosmetic for Battlegrounds' celebration of the game's 10th anniversary (though none of his lines specifically refer to it).
- Numerological Motif: His Hero Power is called Three Wishes, it gives you a third copy of a minion you have, and you can only use it three times.
- Significant Name Overlap: One of Anniversary Zephrys' idle lines addresses a similarly-named djinn from League of Explorers:So, that other guy is called Djinni of Zephyrs. I am Zeph-rys, okay?
- Three Wishes: Literally the name of his hero power, and exactly what it represents. You can wish for a Golden minion three times with it.
Duos Heroes
The following heroes are only available in the multiplayer Battlegrounds Duos mode and take unique advantage of having a teammate.
Cho'gall
The powerful Ogre magi that leads the Twilight's Hammer. Cho'gall is a two-player hero where one teammate plays as Cho and the other Gall. Both Cho and Gall share the passive Hero Power Double Trouble, which for the first three times either of them play a Golden minion, causes both Cho and Gall to receive a Triple Reward.- Multiple Head Case: Each of Cho'gall's two heads are controlled by a different player and have their own Warband.
- Mythology Gag: Cho'gall is a two-player hero where each player is one of the ogre's two heads. This is exactly how Cho'gall works in Heroes of the Storm.
Flobiddinous Floop
A slime scientist working at Boom Labs. His Hero Power, Glorious Gloop, costs 0 Gold and turns one of his minions into a copy of his teammate's highest-tier minion at the start of combat until next turn.- Ditto Fighter: He turns one of his minions into a copy of his teammate's most powerful minion.
Madam Goya
A black market auctioneer with ties to the Jade Lotus. Her Hero Power, Efficient Exchange, costs 2 Gold and allows her to pass a non-Gold minion to her teammate, either from her Warband or the Tavern.The Nameless One
A mysterious guest at the Darkmoon Faire. His passive Hero Power has no name and becomes a copy of his teammate's Hero Power at the start of the game.- No Name Given: Like its owner, his hero power is nameless, with its name simply rendered as a blank space.
- Power Copying: He allows you to double-up on any hero power in the game by copying whatever your teammate picked.
Retired Heroes
All Games
- Bartendotron
- Diablo
- E.T.C., Band Manager
- Giantfin
- Nefarian
- Sire Denathrius
- Tirion Fordring
Duos
- Murloc Holmes
- Professor Putricide
Battlegrounds Warbands and Tribes
General
- Put on a Bus: Like with the Heroes, minions are occasionally removed from the pool for much the same reasons, although most of the time a new minion will take the place of the removed one. One of the largest instances of this happened in August 2021 as a part of a large refresh of the mode, which saw the replacement of a whopping 37 minions.
- Revenge: Symbolized through the Battlegrounds-exclusive Avenge keyword, added with the August 2021 refresh. Minions with Avenge have an effect that triggers upon a set number of friendly minions dying, indicated by the number in parentheses next to the keyword.
- Nerf: The Poisonous keyboard overall. A keyboard with a insta-kill mechanic as soon as it hits anything unprotected was simply too strong in battlegrounds, and was the bane of any build that relied on stats to fight( far too many examples to list), made worse if the player found a way to slap divine shield to any poisonous minion. As a result, the May 2023 refresh removed poisonous and replaced it with Venomous, which is identical but is only good for one use(each minion can only benefit of the keyword once per combat, if they have it).
Beasts
One of the 4 initial tribes that were introduced in the game. Beast warbands largely focus on Deathrattles to generate tokens and give in-combat buffs.
- Can't Catch Up: Beasts' biggest weakness are their reliance on in-combat buffs, which only last for 1 round and restrict their scaling to the amount of stats they can put on their tokens. They have only Rabid Saurolisk that scales out of combat and only two Battlecry buffs, meaning that they risk being out-muscled by tribes like Murlocs, Dragons and Demons if the game goes too late.
- Gathering Steam: Scavenging Hyena has low stats, but gets stronger the more friendly Beasts die in combat.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: The only tribe, besides Mechs, which have access to cleaving attacks. Compared to Mechs though, the player can get Cave Hydra much earlier at Tier 4.
- Jack of All Stats: Beasts don't come with the highest stats (which Demon, Dragon or Murloc warbands generally achieve), but they can still easily buff their warband with tons of Attack and Health with cards like Pack Leader, Mama Bear, Monstrous Macaw and Goldrinn, the Great Wolf. Couple that with Cave Hydras and leaving behind lots of beefy tokens, and they can quickly overwhelm their opposition - so long as their support units are left alive.
- Keystone Army: Beast armies are extremely reliant on their key minions not being killed off early in battle.
- A Mama Bear or Pack Leader dodging Zapp Slywick can mean the difference between overwhelming the opponent with hugely buffed rats and spawning a bunch of 1/1 weenies that get harmlessly mopped up.
- With the Pirates update in June 2020, Goldrinn, who players usually want to let die first to trigger his Deathrattle, has become a new target to kill early, when the Beast Player has Monstrous Macaw on the field (which triggers a random minion's Deathrattle). Combined with Baron Rivendare, and if Goldrinn is the only Deathrattle minion on the board, Beast warbands can rapidly and more reliably buff their minions to gain massive amounts of stats.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: Goldrinn, the Great Wolf usually wants to die first to buff all other Beasts on the field. This is no longer the case when Goldrinn is coupled with Monstrous Macaw, as Goldrinn can then get his Deathrattle effect triggered even when he's still alive.
- A similar case happens to beasts with reborn in a board with Banana Slamma. Slamma will double the stats of any beast summoned in combat (which becomes exponental the more Slammas a beast board has), and thus any beast killed in combat will return much stronger than before.
- Poisonous Person: Formely, Beasts had access to Maexxna, a Giant Spider on Tier 6, is the only minion in the mode that inherently has the Poisonous ability.
- Support Party Member: Pack Leader and Mama Bear are capable of buffing other beasts as soon as they enter the battlefield. While this can also be used outside of combat, should a Deathrattle leave behind other beasts, Mama Bear and Pack Leader can give these minions enough Attack to become a threat.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Ironhide Direhorn was the first minion with the Overkill mechanic, which will spawn another minion if it overkills.
- The Reliable One:
- Rabid Saurolisk was a Tier 1 minion, that had Undertaker's old effect attached to it. Since Tier 1 and 2 are rife with Deathrattle minions, and since it was Tier 1, it was remarkably easy and consistent to triple Saurolisks and buff them accordingly, as it's not necessary to spend gold for Tavern upgrades. They were a bit too consistent, as Saurolisk builds had extremely high win rates, so Blizzard switched the Tavern tier of Rabid Saurolisk with Scavenging Hyena's one.
- Monstrous Macaw is a minion that avoids the problem of randomness of Deathrattles triggering too late, and that their effects only trigger once. It changes the gameplay around minions like Spawn of N'zoth, Selfless Hero and Goldrinn, to keep them alive and not let them die first, making Macaw a highly contested minion. As a result of Macaw-Deathrattle builds being a bit too consistent, Blizzard increased the Tavern tier when it's available.
- Zerg Rush: Most Beast Deathrattles leave more than just one token behind, which often results in wins in the early-game. In the late-game, they can still be deadly, provided the player's Mama Bear and/or Pack Leader are still alive.
Demons
One of the 4 initial tribes that were introduced in the game. Demon warbands focus on either the generation of tokens or gigantic stats in exchange for health.
- Achilles' Heel: Poisonous minions can render their huge stats moot by unconditionally destroying them on contact.
- Cannibalism Superpower: Insatiable Ur'zul and Famished Felbat, introduced with the August 2021 refresh, have this. The former, a Tier 5 minion, consumes a minion in the Tavern to gain its stats (double if it's Golden), and the latter, a Tier 6 minion, makes all of your Demons consume a minion in the Tavern for the same effect. This effect received even more support in August 2022, with Picky Eater and Mind Muck also eating minions in the Tavern and Legion Overseer buffing the minions in the Tavern so they eat for more stats.
- Cast from Hit Points: Warbands involving Demon minions, specifically Wrath Weaver and Floating Watcher, have usually tons of stats, but the player runs the risk of dying after a single unlucky game, as they have to constantly lower their own health to power up.
- Extreme Omnivore: Insatiable Ur'zul and Famished Felbat, as mentioned previously. It doesn't matter what's in the Tavern, they'll gobble it up all the same.
- Magikarp Power: Floating Watcher and Wrath Weaver start with terrible stats, but will quickly get stronger to the point that no one can realistically match them in stats, as long as the player has enough Health and can find more Demons in the Tavern to play them. This makes Demon warbands extremely potent in the mid-game, with their most dangerous threat, Divine Shield-Poisonous-Murlocs, often being too slow to stabilize.
- More Dakka: With a few Golden Soul Jugglers and more Demon-spawning minions like Imp Mama or Void Lord, some Demon warbands focus on winning by pinging the opposition dozens of times.
- Mother of a Thousand Young: Imp Mama plays to this trope extensively. Being the only explicitly female Demon, her ability makes her spawn a lot of Demons with Taunt if she was given enough buffs and/or is lucky enough to survive hits after hits.
- One Bad Mother: Imp Mama is the highest Tavern Tier minion Demons have, which spawns more Demons whenever it takes damage.
- Overshadowed by Awesome: Demons used to be the tribe that a player would go for if they wanted big stats without going for Murlocs. With Wrath Weaver and Floating Watcher, all the warband needs is to keep playing Demons in exchange for health, though a single loss could spell an early death. With the introduction of more Poison/Divine Shield interactions, as well as Dragons and Elementals, Demons have largely become irrelevant, as Poison neutralizes their big stats, while Dragons and Elementals can scale up without having to sacrifice anything.
- Random Number God: Soul Juggler deals 3 damage (two times when Golden) whenever a friendly Demon dies, which in the best case can lead to them hitting a crucial support minion or remove Divine Shields. Or they hit a beefed-up minion and thus can be totally ineffective.
- Stone Wall: Annihilan Battlemaster comes with little Attack, but a lot of Health. This is subverted when players also buff their Attack.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Demon warbands involving Wrath Weaver and Floating Watcher largely win because they have extremely high stats. These warbands don't have access to any keyword other than Taunt and a few meager Deathrattles, meaning they have to muscle through opponents.
- Willfully Weak: Demon players are encouraged to stay at lower Tavern Tiers, as most useful Demons and Soul Juggler are found in the first three Tiers. Staying low thus makes it easier for the player to buff and/or triple their minions. Due to their superior mid-game, Blizzard eventually moved Floating Watcher up one Tavern Tier, making it much harder for Demon warbands to gain massive stats on their minions.
- Zerg Rush: With the addition of Dragons, Demons got a new Tier 6 minion, Imp Mama, which can spawn more Demons whenever it takes damage. Coupled with minions like Mal'Ganis, Void Lord and Imp Gang Boss, there are some Demon warbands that specialize in wearing the opponent down with sheer numbers of minions.
Dragons
The first new tribe, added on February 26th, 2020. Dragons focus on having other Dragons in play, gaining greater benefits the more Dragons you control.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Dragons in constructed focus on gaining effects if you're holding another Dragon in your hand. In Battlegrounds, they instead focus on keeping lots of dragons on the board to power up their abilities.
- Barrier Warrior: One of their potential Tier 6 units, Nadina the Red, grants all friendly Dragons Divine Shield as her Deathrattle. This makes them a sturdy force that can actually withstand Nefarian's Hero Power.
- Crutch Character: Dragons have some of the strongest base stats, but have terrible Tavern scaling. For the longest time, their only non-generic scaling cards were in Tier 5 and 6, and all three are fairly slow. The August 2021 refresh did add Evolving Chromawing to Tier 1, but they're still pretty slow and reliant on finding them as soon as possible, since their scaling relies on you having them on board when you upgrade your Tavern.
- Gathering Steam: They have a few cards like this.
- Evolving Chromawing is a Tier 1 1/3 whose attack doubles (triples if it's Golden) whenever your Tavern upgrades. This makes Chromawing easy and reliable in terms of scaling early on, but upon reaching Tier 6, this scaling effect is totally useless.
- Waxrider Togwaggle is a Tier 2 1/2 that gains +2/+2 each time a Dragon kills an enemy. He's the lowest Tier in-combat scaler, but also the weakest at the lowest base stats and most conditional effect.
- Hangry Dragon is a 4/4 on Tier 3 that gains +2/+2 each time you win the round. It's the definition of a "win-more" card, but can potentially get huge if you secure the midgame.
- Razorgore the Untamed starts at a very small 2/4 for Tier 5. However, he gains +1/+1 at the end of each Recruit Phase, and gains an additional +1/+1 for each Dragon you have. With a full board, he can gain +7/+7 each round, and that's not getting into his Golden version potentially gaining +14/+14.
- Jack of All Trades: They get access to high stats minions, Divine Shield, as well as removal, but aren't the best at any of them compared to the other tribes.
- Magikarp Power: Dragons have a similar power curve to Murlocs: they start out very strong with cards like Red Whelp and Waxrider Togwaggle, but have an awful mid-game due to their lack of buffs, meaning that most opponents can catch up in stats and destroy them. Once they reach tier 5 and 6, they can pick up powerhouses like Razorgore and Kalecgos, giving them insane scaling in the late game, but even then it takes numerous turns for them to pick up steam; even Murlocs can come online faster since they scale with board-wide Battlecries, which can be accelerated by Brann, and a single good Gentle Megasaur can be enough for them to start killing things. A Dragon warband that picks up their key cards can boast stats to dwarf even Demons, but if you can't grab those key minions quickly enough, expect to get trampled.
- Odd Name Out: Hangry Dragon's name is a portmanteau of hungry and angry, which is modern slang that looks out of place in the fantasy world the game takes place in. Alongside Nadina the Red, it's a tribute to former Blizzard community manager Christina Mikkonen.
- One-Hit Polykill: Herald of Flame has the Overkill effect of dealing 3 damage to the left-most enemy minion. The Overkill can trigger itself, making Herald an excellent token cleaner.
- Saved for the Sequel: Dragons were always planned (as evidenced by the myriad of dragon-buffing menagerie cards in the original set), but were held back due to restrictive mechanics in the actual game.
Elementals
The third new tribe, added on September 28th, 2020. Elementals are based on generating more Elementals in either your hand or the tavern, as well as triggering effects whenever an Elemental is played.
- Achilles' Heel: Similar to Demons, Elementals can be quickly overwhelmed with Poison, as they have almost no token generators or Divine Shield.
- Foil: With Party Elemental, Majordomo Executus, Nomi, Kitchen Nightmare and Lil' Rag, Elemental players are encouraged to play as many Elementals as possible to increase their minions' stats. This is very similar to Demons, except the player doesn't have to sacrifice health in exchange.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Crackling Cyclone has Windfury, allowing it to attack twice. A golden Crackling Cyclone has Mega-Windfury, allowing it to attack four times.
- Nerf: Elemental players could build a strong build with only Nomi, Kitchen Nightmare or Lil' Rag on Tier 5, making it a bit too easy to dominate with either of them, so Lil' Rag was made a Tier 6 minion, switching with Gentle Djinni. As Djinni on Tier 5 proved to be too powerful, it was moved back to Tier 6.
- One-Hit Polykill: When Wildfire Elemental attacks and kills a minion, any excess damage is dealt to a random adjacent minion, potentially killing a second minion. A golden Wildfire Elemental attacks both adjacent minions.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Unlike many other tribes, Elementals were given a decently faithful version of their constructed gimmick, reworked to fit this game mode. Instead of having effects that trigger if you played an Elemental last turn, many of them have effects that put minions into your hand or the Tavern. One of their big buffers, Nomi, Kitchen Nightmare, even permanently buffs minions in the Tavern. Just like constructed, they're based around tempo and setting up for your future turns.
- Punny Name:
- Sellemental exists to be sold, giving the player not only one gold, but also a 2/2 token back in their hand.
- Lieutenant Garr is a minion with Taunt, which quickly gains health whenever another Elemental is played. Its buff's name? Garrdian.
- Stone Wall: Molten Rock and Lieutenant Garr are Taunt minions, which increase their health when an Elemental is played, allowing them to take many hits, though their Attack is somewhat lacking. However, this is subverted if their Attack gets buffed through other means, at which point they can kill the entire warband by simply tanking all hits.
- Unskilled, but Strong: Outside Crackling Cyclone's Windfury and Divine Shield, and Wildfire Elemental's pseudo-Overkill mechanic, Elementals largely focus on gigantic Attack and Health with the help of Party Elemental, Dazzling Lightspawn, Nomi, Kitchen Nightmare and Lil' Rag by constantly cycling Elementals. Molten Rock and Lieutenant Garr also gain health whenever an Elemental is played, and Master of Realities gains attack and health whenever an Elemental gains stats.
Mechs
One of the 4 initial tribes that were introduced in the game. Pure mech builds focus on token generation and minion sacrifice, gaining effects when friendly mechs die. However, their utility cards and access to the Magnetic ability also make them ideal for splashing into other tribes.
- Barrier Warrior: While Mechs don't have many ways to gain much health for all their minions, many have inherent Divine Shields or can give shields to other Mechs by magnetizing an Annoy-o-Module. However, this can be countered by tokens, cleaving and ping attacks. As of the August 2021 refresh, however, even losing Divine Shields can be beneficial thanks to the Tier 4 minion Grease Bot, who permanently buffs minions that have lost a Divine Shield.
- Combining Mecha: Mechs have access to the Magnetic mechanic with Annoy-o-Module and Replicating Menace, allowing them to quickly gain stats as well as other properties like Divine Shield and Taunt.
- Expy: The August 2021 refresh added the Tier 5 minion Holy Mecherel, which as the name implies, is a robotic version of the infamous and long-since-removed Murloc minion Holy Mackerel, complete with the same statlines for its standard and Golden variants, as well as its ability to gain Divine Shield when another friendly minion loses it. Compared to its fleshy counterpart, however, Mecherel's effect is much more synergistic with its own tribe, since getting Mackerel's effect to trigger on an all-Murlocs board required Gentle Megasaur, while a number of Mechs already have access to Divine Shields, and those who don't can gain it thanks to Annoy-o-Module.
- Gathering Steam: Junkbot starts with meager stats and relies on other friendly Mechs to die, picking up the scraps to get stronger. Fortunately, Mechs also have a good number of token generators.
- Glass Cannon: Outside of their Single Use Shields, Mechs generally lack the Health to compete with the likes of Demons and Beasts. The best way to play them is to have minions that leave behind more Mechs, so they can refresh Cobalt Guardian's Divine Shield and/or buff their Junkbot.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: The only tribe, besides Beasts, which have access to cleaving attacks, though Foe Reaper 9000 is only available at Tier 6.
- Lethal Joke Character: Pogo-Hopper warbands are more of a meme than a serious build, as one needs to find lots of them to make them threatening in the late-game and/or use Brann Bronzebeard to double the amount of battlecries. However, Brann is a Tier 5 minion, and getting to higher tiers dilutes the minion pool, making it even more unlikely to get enough Pogo-Hoppers. However, in the hands of Shudderwock, Aranna Starseeker, Jandice Barov or Dinotamer Brann, their Hero Powers allow Pogo-Hoppers to get big enough to win the lobby, especially when Poisonous Murlocs are banned. Due to their uselessness outside of the aforementioned heroes (especially Jandice Barov), they were removed in October 2020.
- Nerf: With Illidan's introduction on March 26, 2020, Blizzard decided to remove Cobalt Guardian, which has been, since the launch of the game mode, the strongest Mech and one of the strongest minions in the entire mode (and it was available at Tier 3). It was replaced with a Suspiciously Similar Substitute Deflect-o-Bot, a 3/2 minion with Divine Shield and a similar effect.
- Taking You with Me: The Kaboom Bot has a Deathrattle that will throw a bomb (two when Golden) at a random enemy when it dies, which early on will almost guarantee to take down a minion. Couple that with Baron Rivendare, who doubles/triples Deathrattles and Kangor's Apprentice, who summons the first friendly Mechs that died in combat, and you are going to have a blast in the late-game.
- Zerg Rush: A huge number of Mechs have Deathrattles that summon more minions, from the three Shredders to Replicating Menace. As such, a well-built Mech warband will often field over twice their initial number in tokens over the course of combat, which in turn can fuel Cobalt Guardian when they spawn and buff Junkbot when they die. As of the August 2021 refresh, there's even benefits to not having enough room for your tokens thanks to Omega Buster, a Tier 6 Mech that normally summons six microbots on death, but will also give your mechs a +1/+1 (+2/+2 if it's Golden) buff for each microbot that doesn't fit.
Murlocs
One of the 4 initial tribes that were introduced in the game. Murlocs are characterized by a strong early game and an incredible lategame, with a very poor mid game to compensate.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Zig-zagged. Murlocs are a pure aggro archetype in Constructed, known for either winning in a few turns or petering out and losing. While they retain both the strong early-game and all-or-nothing game plan, in Battlegrounds they are the de facto late-game comp of all things. A fully-established Murloc board is all but unbeatable.
- Awesome, but Impractical: Enforced. Murlocs are not given enough strong minions on Tier 3 and 4, which means the player has to survive the mid-game by whatever means. All other tribes can more consistently get one of the top 4 places.
- Death or Glory Attack: Murlocs are the most high-risk/high-reward tribe in the mode. They lack the power to sustain in the mid-game and rely heavily on luck to discover the crucial pieces, unless one plays a hero like Shudderwock, Infinite Toki or Elise Starseeker, who can bridge missing pieces. Should the player successfully transition into Tier 5 and get enough buffs and triples without losing too much health, they will very likely win against anyone. If they are too slow or take too many hits in the mid-game, they are likely one of the first to get knocked out. With the removal of Gentle Megasaur in August 2020 and no replacement on Tier 6 until Young Murk-eye 2 whole years later, they have become an early to mid-game tribe.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Murlocs are considered to be one of the most difficult warbands to coordinate and execute, but also used to be known as nigh-unbeatable once they reached the late-game. However, due to the nature of the mode, they are even more reliant on luck than other tribes, meaning even a skilled player will often just end up losing in the mid-game before ever getting off.
- Keystone Army: Early on, Murlocs mostly get the Attack they need to kill minions with Murloc Warleader, which increases the Murlocs' Attack so long as it's alive. If a minion manages to kill the Warleader first, most Murlocs are unable to kill anything, although the player can somewhat guide the attacks with Taunt minions. This is at least the case until the Murlocs get buffed by King Bagurgle or are given Poisonous.
- Magikarp Power: Murlocs are decently strong in the early-game, but are quickly overwhelmed in the mid-game, losing out to the other tribes because there are next to no decent Murlocs and buffs to be found around Tier 3 and 4. However, should the player manage to get to Tier 5, they have access to Brann Bronzebeard, King Bagurgle and Primalfin Lookout, with triples giving them the chance to get Gentle Megasaur, Young Murk-Eye or SI:Sefin to adapt all Murlocs, at which point they become the most powerful tribe in the late-game.
- Master of All: In the late-game, Murloc warbands can get massive stats as well as Divine Shield, Poisonous, Taunt, Windfury and leave tokens behind when they die. The only thing they are lacking are cleaving attacks, but they still can potentially attack twice with Windfury. With the removal of Gentle Megasaur in August 2020, they lost access to Divine Shields, Windfury and tokens, with George being the exception for the former.
- Nerf: In August 2020, Blizzard decided to remove Gentle Megasaur, taking away the option to immediately give all Murlocs tokens, Divine Shield, Poisonous or Windfury. While Primalfin Lookout has become available a tier earlier, it can no longer Discover Murlocs above the current Tavern tier, removing the late-game power of them with.
- While the August 2021 refresh removed a number of minions to make way for new ones, Murlocs arguably suffered the biggest loss with the removal of Toxfin. While its function of giving Murlocs Poisonous was given to SI:Sefin, Sefin relies on having other minions die, while Toxfin could simply give Poisonous with its Battlecry, making this a huge nerf to the tribe's late-game effectiveness, and making matchups against Demons and Elementals less favorable. This nerf was eventually reverted, and with new additions like Young Murk-eye, it returned Murlocs back to top tier status. This was a major reason for the retirement of Poisonous in favor of Venomous, and Toxfin was also replaced with a nerfed counterpart: Operatic Belcher, a venomous murloc whose effect is a deathrattle that gives venomous to another murloc.
- Poisonous Person: With Operatic Belcher (formerly Toxfin and SI:Sefin before they were removed along Poisonous), they are the only minions (besides Mantid Queen and Pufferquil) that have access to Venemous(formely poisonous) and thus have basically infinite attack the first time they fight. However, this only works once per turn and without the necessary Health, this merely turns them into Glass Cannons.
- Zerg Rush: Downplayed. Murlocs are early on very useful, as the player can swarm the field quickly and get some wins, but quickly drop in power in the mid-game. While swarming the board helps you stabilize early on, they need their powerful late-game buffs to actually win.
Quilboars
The fourth new tribe, added on May 4th, 2021. Quilboars are focused on generating and empowering Blood Gems, spells that give any minion +1/+1.
- Ascended Extra: Quilboar and their Blood Gems is the only tribal synergy that is specifically designed for Battlegrounds. In the main game mode, they have the minion type tag but do not have any synergy with each other beside being a type that can be resurrected by N'Zoth.
- Blood Magic: They solidify blood into Blood Gems, which are 0 Gold spells that give a minion +1/+1.
- Canon Foreigner: Quilboars are the first new tribe designed for Battlegrounds that wasn't featured as a tribe in Hearthstone proper, though they were (functionlessly) added in every game mode to retain consistency.
- Mechanically Unusual Class: Their scaling is based entirely on Blood Gems, either scaling through giving themselves Blood Gems or having effects when a Blood Gem is played on them or another Quilboar. This makes them the only tribe to scale almost entirely to the player's choice, as well as the only tribe to scale neutral or menagerie cards since Blood Gems can be played anywhere. Blood Gems being spells put into your hand also means they're the only tribe that actually has to regularly worry about the hand limit of 10 cards.
- Non-Human Humanoid Hybrid: With the introduction of dual-tribe minions in March of the Lich King, Battlegrounds got Pufferquil, a bizarre quilboar/naga hybrid. She gains Poisonous for the turn when you cast a spell on her, synergizing with the main gimmick of both tribes.
- Pig Man: A race of spiked boar-people.
- Poisonous Person: Pufferquil, being the only Quillboar with the distinction of being able to obtain Venomous( formely posionous) if you play a blood gem or a spellcraft on it. Notably, the minion also counts as a Naga.
- Timed Power-Up: A number of their effects only last for the next combat, meaning you'll need to repay the Blood Gem price each turn if you want to use them at full power.
Naga
The fifth new tribe, added on May 10th, 2022. Naga are based around their exclusive keyword, Spellcraft, which causes the minion to add a spell to your hand when they're bought and at the start of every turn that gives any target minion the stated effect for the next combat.
- Anti-Frustration Features: If your hand is full, Spellcraft will not activate until you have an available slot. This means you can't lose out on your active effects.
- Power Limiter: Spellcraft spells are discarded at the end of the turn if you didn't cast them, so you can't stockpile a whole bunch to use in a single combat.
- Pragmatic Adaptation: Constructed Naga gain benefits if you cast a spell while holding a naga, or vice-versa for their synergy spells. Their Battlegrounds implementation still keeps their spell synergy intact while adapting it in a way that makes sense for the game mode.
- Poisonous Person: Pufferquil, being the only naga with the distinction of being able to obtain Venomous( formely posionous) if you play a blood gem or a spellcraft on it. Notably, the minion also counts as a Quillboar.
- Snake People: A serpentine race with some major Fish People influnces as well.
- Timed Power-Up: Spellcraft spells only last until the end of combat. This means that they provide a much bigger immediate bonus than other buffs, but don't scale continously.
Pirates
The second new tribe, added June 9th, 2020. Pirates are based on gold manipulation, scaling by cycling through the tavern with far greater effciency than other tribes. They also gain synergy from attacking.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Constructed pirates are a tempo archetype typically focused on weapon buffs and other weapon effects. In Battlegrounds, they're based on manipulating attack order and Gold prices.
- Attack! Attack! Attack!: Dread Admiral Eliza, Seabreaker Goliath, Nat Pagle and Ripsnarl Captain only trigger their effects if the player's Pirates get to attack. They are therefore a very aggressive type and thus fall quickly to anyone with Herd-Hitting Attacks before they can get their buffs.
- Boring, but Practical: In combat. Many of their effects aren't as flashy as other tribes, but they make up for it with solid raw stats and excellent tribe-wide scaling, as well as unique gold manipulation effects.
- Counter-Attack:
- Scallywag's Deathrattle spawns a Pirate, which will immediately attack and attempt to avenge its fallen comrade.
- Yo-ho Ogre, a 2/8 Taunt whose effect makes it attack immediately after it gets attacked. Paired with an Arcane Cannon, it can swing multiple times and fire missiles all the while.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Pirates are the 'economy' tribe, and playing late-game Pirates correctly on the Tavern Phase involves cheating tonnes of free money through Hogarrr and Freedealing Gambler. With two Hoggarrrs in play, every Pirate you buy becomes free (and with four, you actually get paid for every Pirate you buy and sell, letting you cycle through Battlecries and buff Salty Looter infinitely. The limiting factor is the timer on each turn. Doing this requires great APM.
- With the addition of Peggy Brittlebone, this tactic can also buff your entire table - she gives +1/+1 (+2/+2 if golden) to a random pirate for every card that gets put into your hand (including Triple Rewards, the cards you get from said Triple Rewards, Coins, Blood Gems and Naga Spellcraft).
- Elites Are More Glamorous: Some of their cards synergize with Golden minions, either gaining buffs from them, summoning them to the field, or adding them to your hand.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Unlike most other tribes that consist of single species (Demons, Dragons, Elementals, Murlocs, Naga, Quilboars), Pirates feature very diverse races in their lineup.
- Herd-Hitting Attack: Seabreaker Goliath has Windfury and will thus attack twice.
- Keystone Army:
- Early on, Southsea Captain's buff is very important to give the player's Pirates enough stats to win, making it an important target to take down first.
- Dread Admiral Eliza and Ripsnarl Captain buff everyone in-combat, and only if one's own Pirates get to attack. If they fall first, the warband will likely not keep up with the stats of the other tribes.
- Magikarp Power: Pirate is typically a midgame economy tribe, but they have an extremely potent late game combo composition: A combo using Baron Riverdare, Khadgar, Admiral Eliza and the most crucial and important piece... the tier 1 Scallywag. Scallywag's Deathrattle will spawn a pirate that can attack the enemy immediately, which then Eliza will buff the rest of your warband. Riverdare and Khadgar combined will spawn even more Pirate to trigger Eliza buff. The combo even fit this trope on the basis that the base stats of all its piece when they hit the field is very low (something which this composition abuse since the dead Scallywag will spawn more small Pirates to buff Eliza, Rivendare and Khadgar), with even the occasional tech choice again Zapp is the very low base stats Unstable Ghoul.
- Reduced Mana Cost: Gold cost, rather. The generic tier 1 Deck Swabbie reduces the cost of the next Tavern Tier by 1 with its Battlecry. Likewise, Freedealing Gambler sells for 3 Gold rather than 1, making it a "free" minion and potential major gold bank. Briny Bootlegger (tier 3) gives you a Gold Coin if you control another Pirate at the end of the turn. The big tier 5 Cap'n Hogarrr refunds 1 Gold whenever you buy a Pirate.
- There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Seabreaker Goliath came with the Overkill mechanic. If its effect is triggered, all other Pirates will get a stat boost.
- Utility Party Member: Pirates have four cards that are useful even in mixed or non-pirate decks. Deck Swabbie decreases the tavern upgrade cost, Goldgrubber is buffed by any golden minion on the table, the reworked Nat Pagle could get you free minions, and Dread Admiral Eliza buffs everyone when a pirate gets to attack.
Undead
The sixth new tribe, added January 17th, 2023. Undead focus on synergies with minion death as well as the Reborn keyword.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: They include several nerubians in their ranks, Warcraft's most famous bug-people.
- Floating Limbs: Handless Forsaken is a Forsaken mage with no arms, and hands floating beside her. She spawns a 2/2 hand with Reborn when she dies.
- Magikarp Power: They have a minion called Eternal Knight, which starts at a measly 3/1 but has +1/+1 permanently for each friendly Eternal Knight that has died this game. If you get a couple Eternal Knights early, you can snowball them into gigantic minions by the end game.
- Pulling Themselves Together: They make heavy use of Reborn, a keyword that causes the minion to come back to life with 1 health the first time it's destroyed. This lets Undead minions double-dip on Deathrattles and Avenge effects, or just being sticky on the board.
Tribeless
- Achilles' Heel: Baron Rivendare is a powerful in-combat minion for Deathrattle warbands. However, since he has only 1 Attack and 7 Health, he is a prime target for Zapp Slywick, who will attack the weakest enemy minion (regardless of Taunts) on the board and he incidentally has exactly 7 Attack. Even a Golden Baron Rivendare won't be save from Zapp because Zapp has Windfury and thus attacks twice. The player thus has to get around this by either buffing Baron Rivendare somehow and/or place a minion with as much or less Attack on the board.
- Breakout Character: Fans have been asking the developers to make tribeless minions (which include fan-favorites like Bolvar, Fireblood and the Boogeymonster) more useful. This led to the addition of Tirion Fordring, a hero that encourages players to pick tribeless minions.
- More Dakka: Arcane Cannon was like a tribeless version of Soul Juggler, but available a tier earlier.
- Nerf: When Elementals dropped in September 2020, big minions started to dominate the meta. A new Poisonous meta had arisen as a reaction, which was easily achievable with the new Poisonous Spore combined with Selfless Hero. Blizzard subsequently nerfed both by putting them each in a higher Tavern tier.
- Poisonous Person: With the introduction of Elementals, Poisonous Spore became the first neutral poisonous minion.
- Taking You with Me: Leeroy Jenkins kills the enemy that dealt deadly damage to him, even through Divine Shield or if killed via Herd-Hitting Attack.
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Almost all of the tech cards are tribeless minions. The most prominent example of this is Sin'dorei Straight Shot, which is pretty much a hate card against Undead warbands.
- Utility Party Member: Many minions with no tribe offer a lot of utility which makes it worth adding them to a warband. For instance, Spawn of N'zoth buffs all other friendly minions when it dies (making it very powerful in the early-game), Brann Bronzebeard doubles Battlecries, Baron Rivendare doubles Deathrattles, Selfless Hero can give other minions Divine Shield and Zapp Slywick can forego taunts and attacks twice the weakest minion, which is often an important support unit, like Baron Rivendare or Mama Bear, Sin'dorei Straight shot remove Taunt and Reborn to the minion it attack.
- Weak, but Skilled: Since they have no tribe, they cannot be further buffed outside of combat with a few exceptions like Defender of Argus or Hero Powers. However, most tribeless units which don't have any particular synergy with other tribes bring utility to the warband that benefits all. Notable exceptions to this trope are warbands that can reach high stats with the help of Hero Powers like Deryl's or Tirion's ones.
