Hearthstone’s patch 19.2 was released on Tuesday and it included major changes to the Battlegrounds game mode. If you have not had a chance to give the new patch a try yet, it is a lot of fun and Battlegrounds feels really good and fresh now.
In this article, I will take a look at the new additions to Battlegrounds and what has been working well in the first few days of the new meta!
Darkmoon Prizes – Spells in Battlegrounds!
Blizzard’s first foray into spells in Battlegrounds comes in the form of Darkmoon Prizes: you Discover a spell from a specific pool of Battlegrounds spells every four turns, so you get the first one on turn four (at six Gold), another one on turn eight (your first turn at ten Gold), another one on turn 12, and one more on turn 16, if the game actually goes that long.
Each time you’re offered a spell, it comes from a stronger pool, and some of them are quite powerful indeed, so I initially thought spells would completely redefine Battlegrounds. That has not happened though, as the natural power of good minions in Battlegrounds can overcome spells better than I expected. Instead, spells just add another potential way to gain an advantage, and sometimes they are game-deciding, but they do not break the game by any means, so they seem like a solid addition to the game mode so far.
As a general rule, you want to prioritize tempo over value. It works in constructed Hearthstone, and it also works in Battlegrounds!
On your first prize turn, for example, you generally want to find Might of Stormwind to buff up your board to win the next couple of rounds so that you can more easily build towards a late-game composition, instead of going for something like New Recruit (Add a minion to Bob’s Tavern for the rest of the game) that offer tons of value over time but no immediate benefits.
Free refreshes from Rocking and Rolling and Gold Coins from Pocket Change are also strong as they allow you to build up your board and level up your Tavern more quickly.
The big winner of the second prize turn is On the House that allows you to discover a minion from your current Tavern Tier. If you are not already on tier five when you get it, the card is a fast-track to immediately leveling up your Tavern and getting a big minion at no extra cost. Gruul Rules is another favorite of mine, as it turns one of your minions into a growing threat that scales nicely towards the late-game.
On the other hand, Evolving Tavern has been disappointing, as you may not have many high-tier minions in your Tavern at once and it can be hard to get decent value from the spell.
Games are quite fast right now, so you do not even make it to the third prize turn all the time. When you do, there are some great buffs available. I have been especially impressed by Buy the Holy Light that gives you an additional Divine Shield: this spell alone can make a difference for compositions such as Demons and Pirates that have a hard time getting Divine Shield naturally.
If you find yourself struggling and likely to go out in the next battle, grabbing an Ice Block can keep you around for one more turn to secure that top-four finish.
I must admit that I have only seen the fourth prize turn a few times. When I did, a +10/+10 buff with Divine Shield and Windfury on top seemed pretty good.
Old Gods Turned Out to Be a Little Soft
Three new Heroes arrived at Battlegrounds: C’Thun, N’Zoth, and Y’Shaarj finally joined Yogg-Saron, who has been here from the beginning, and now all four Old Gods are playable Heroes, for players who bought the Battlegrounds Perks, anyway. The trio of new Old Gods will be available to all players on December 29th, but in a world-first for Battlegrounds, none of the new Heroes are overpowered, so you don’t have to worry about missing out.
In fact, the good old Yogg-Saron is better than any of the new contenders!
C’Thun is playable, just start Hero Powering on your second turn at the latest and delay your Tavern upgrade a little so that you can get those buffs rolling. The major upside of C’Thun is that it is playable regardless of the available tribes, as you can always find something good to buff.
N’Zoth’s fish can be useful in a Beast or Mech Deathrattle composition, but offers very little if you cannot get some of that Baron Rivendare goodness going.
Y’Shaarj is just weak. Adding a minion to your warband at the start of combat simply isn’t that strong. In some late-game scenarios where you’re using Battlecry minions every turn and have one flex spot on the board, getting a random tier-five or tier-six minion can be OK, but the overall effect on the game remains low even in the best scenarios.
In addition to the introduction of the Old Gods, Sir Finley Mrrgglton and The Great Akazamzarak made a comeback, Galakrond went on temporary leave, and Silas Darkmoon, Zephrys the Great, and Patches the Pirate received minor buffs. The Great Akazamzarak now has Competitive Spirit in his Secret pool to prevent infinite Ice Blocks, but even without that almost exploitative strategy, Akazamzarak seems to be doing fairly well right now.
The very best Heroes are still mostly the same: look for Elise Starseeker, Forest Warden Omu, Ragnaros the Firelord, and Millhouse Manastorm for the best power moves, but there are many other Heroes in the game right now who also have a good chance to succeed.
Several New Strong Minions Bring About a New Meta
While spells are all fine and good, the main meta changes have been caused by the new minions.
Lots of Taunt support minions were added to the game, but their effect has actually been rather limited: Taunt has not become a mainstream army composition, and Taunt synergies are unreliable at best.
However, there are also some real superstars in the mix and they have greatly affected what the best tribes are. In particular, Big Demons and Pirates are now actually good! Sure, Dragons are still great when you find an early Kalecgos and Beasts never go out of style, but it is nice to see some of the previously weaker tribes get back into the mainstream game.
Elistra the Immortal is the most game-defining minion added in the new patch. It enables you to redirect attacks, and this has made an enormous difference for compositions such as Big Demons and Pirates: For example, the biggest weakness for Pirates has always been going second, as you desperately need attacks to get your in-combat buffs up, and Elistra soaks at least four attacks and thereby gives your minions time to get buffed before they need to take a hit.
There is also a new mechanic that allows specific minions to retain some of the buffs that they gain during combat: previously, only buffs acquired in the Tavern were permanent whereas buffs acquired during combat were temporary. The best of these minions is Bigfernal, which fits in nicely to just about all Demon compositions, even ones that do not summon any minions during combat as you typically want to play a lot of Demons for your Wrath Weavers anyway.
Menagerie builds also received a buff in the form of Mythrax the Unraveler, which gives them a fast-growing major threat in addition to the board-wide buffs from Lightfang Enforcer.
Finally, Faceless Taverngoer opens up new opportunities for any army, as you can use it to turn the second copy of a minion that you find into a triple.
The other new minions are less impressive, but these four are solid additions to the game.
Overall, this has been a good patch for Battlegrounds and the new meta feels fresh and interesting. Of course, all things will be figured out in time, but right now it’s a good time to play some Battlegrounds!
