Whizbang’s Heroes is a time-limited Twist format where you play with pre-constructed decks. The format is available for two months, June and July. In June, you could choose from a pool of 19 Heroes, each unlocked by owning specific old Legendary cards, and the July season expanded the roster with nine new Heroes for a total of 28 Heroes. Six of the Heroes (Illidan Stormrage, Al’Akir the Windlord, Arch-Villain Rafaam, Leeroy Jenkins, Marin the Manager, and Lady Liadrin) are unlocked by the Core set or other free cards and available for everyone regardless of your collection. Two more (C’Thun and Kael’Thas Sunstrider) are old login rewards and are unlocked by owning a pack from their original expansions (Whispers of the Old Gods for C’Thun and Ashes of Outland for Kael’Thas).

Because the entire format is based on pre-constructed decks, the relative strength of the Heroes can be determined with a reasonable amount of data. To keep the format fresh, Blizzard promised weekly balance changes, the first of which took place already on June 4th, and more have followed steadily since. The weekly balance changes mostly affect the starting Health of the Heroes, while more extensive changes come in balance patches, of which there has been one so far, on June 27. This balance patch adjusted multiple Hero abilities and the decks of almost all Heroes. The changes have had a major effect on the format: whereas some Heroes were completely unplayable on June 1, all Heroes have something to offer now. They may not all reach a 50% win rate, but none are completely hopeless either.

In this article, we will maintain a tier list of the current Whizbang’s Heroes Twist decks. Here you can find the best Heroes to play and a quick introduction to how they win games!

(Note: Health present on Hero portraits listed below is not accurate and shows the initial values, Blizzard hasn’t updated them after changing HP values.)

Changelog

Tier 1: The Best Heroes

These are the main meta Heroes in the format. You can expect to be able to climb the ladder with these, even though there are differences in strength between them as well. The very best Heroes are listed at the top, and climbing should be the easiest with them.

Thorim, Stormlord

Starting Health: 25

Thorim is a powerful Totem Shaman. Your Hero Power costs only 1 and summons two Totems if you are overloaded, so you can rapidly populate the board. Your Hero ability gives all of your Totems +2 attack, so even basic Totems are immediately useful, even more so if you can buff them with Totemic Might or Totemic Surge. You can also buff them when they are summoned with Anchored Totem, and any Totems you summon make Thing from Below and Gigantotem cheaper, so you can just snowball out of control. You also have a good selection of Titans in your deck, which can help you retain the advantage you have gained in the early game.

Guff Runetotem

Starting Health: 30

Guff is a curious twist of Hero Power Druid. You do not have the usual Hero Power Druid staples, but you can use your Hero Power three times per turn and you have synergy cards from other classes, such as Dragonbane and Confessor Paletress, which you can proc three times each turn. Guff was buffed in the balance patch to be able to use his Hero Power three times, which propelled the Hero to significantly more success than it has seen before.

Marin the Manager

Starting Health: 30

If you enjoy playing APM decks, you will love Marin. Your Hero Power shuffles three Coins into your deck, and your Hero ability is a permanent Stargazer Luna effect: playing your right-most card immediately draws a new card. You can see where this is going. You put some Coins into your deck, you draw cheap cards and coins and keep playing them and all of a sudden there’s a huge Edwin VanCleef on the board.

Queen Azshara

Starting Health: 38

Queen Azshara is another APM deck, Naga Mage. Your Hero ability mimics Spitelash Siren (albeit weaker): when you play a Naga, you refresh one mana crystal and it switches to spell. Then, when you play a spell, you refresh one mana crystal and it switches back to Naga. Combined with a Hero power that gives you more Naga and spells and can be used whenever your ability switches, you can play long loops of spells and Naga as Azshara. Big early threats like Naga Giant or Mantle Shaper are still your best paths to victory, but you can pull off impressive turns in the late-game if the game goes on long enough.

Lady Liadrin

Starting Health: 30

Lady Liadrin lives the Paladin buff dream. You draw more cards and discount them as you cast spells on your minions, and you can also get a big swing turn by refreshing your mana crystals. Liadrin’s deck is fascinating: 50 singleton cards! You have the who is who of Paladin buffs and good buff targets, but finding the exact tool you want out of that huge pile of buffs can be tricky at times.

Halveria Darkraven

Starting Health: 32

The July season added many APM decks to Twist. Halveria is an Outcast Demon Hunter with the Hero ability to make your left- and right-most cards cost one less. With a good selection of Outcast and Quickdraw cards in the deck, this can result in huge turns where you keep playing one card after another. Flint Firearm is a menace in Halveria’s hands. Kor'vas Bloodthorn is finally able to bounce back and forth. Edwin, Defias Kingpin grows into a major threat. Altruis the Outcast relives some of his glory days.

Halveria’s Hero Power is less impressive, it makes a minion take one extra damage from all sources for a turn. It still has its uses in a deck that can summon many 1/1 Rush minions though.

N’Zoth, the Corruptor

Starting Health: 28

N’Zoth has a Deathrattle deck. Every time you play a Deathrattle minion, you immediately proc its Deathrattle effect. You can also summon a 1/1 copy of the last Deathrattle minion you played with your Hero Power. With a good selection of Deathrattle minions from the early game to the late game, N’Zoth can gain a lot of value from its ability and Hero Power over the course of the game.

Summoning new 1/1 copies of Obsidian Statue, Darkmoon Tonk, or Coilfang Warlord is attractive, but those copies do not immediately proc their Deathrattle effects, and you are blocked from playing other Deathrattle minions if you want to keep them in your Hero Power. While there is some nice value on offer, it is hard to keep up with both value and tempo. At best, you can get three copies of a big minion out there: the one you play, a 1/1 copy on the same turn, and another 1/1 copy at the start of the next turn. Take the value that is up for grabs, but do not get too attached to individual minions and trust that there are more coming as the game goes on.

Tier 2: Still Good Heroes

These Heroes are a little behind the very best Heroes, but you can still expect to be able to climb most of the ladder with them.

Patches the Pirate

Starting Health: 40

Patches has an Aggro Pirate deck. Every time you summon a Pirate, it deals one damage to a random enemy, and you can also draw Pirates from your deck with your Hero Power. The deck is actually a Highlander deck, although in this case there are no Highlander synergy cards in the deck: there have just been a lot of Pirates in Hearthstone over the years, and this deck has a wide selection of them.

Because there are no duplicates, the games are somewhat different from each other, but many Pirates perform a similar role, so your overall strategy remains the same: summon lots of Pirates and hit face.

Zul’jin

Starting Health: 35

Zul’jin has a highlander Secret Hunter deck. You can Discover more Secrets with your Hero Power and you summon a 2/2 minion whenever you play a Secret. Building a Christmas tree of Secrets has not been this easy since the days of Mysterious Challenger (not included in the deck). You are playing a tempo deck: your Secrets can disrupt the opponent’s game and open up just enough space for you to get the necessary damage in.

Zul’jin has clear weaknesses, but its strengths against Death Knight, Druid, and Mage make it a good meta contender.

King Krush

Starting Health: 30

King Krush has big Beasts and small spells. Whenever you cast a spell, one of your Beasts gets a discount equal to the cost of the spell. Sometimes, the discounts land on the same minion and you can get good tempo early in the game, but if you draw too many Beasts and your discounts are all over the place, it can be difficult to survive to make good use of them. To make matters worse, your Hero Power is almost unplayable: 6 mana to gain +8 attack for a single turn. That is vanilla power level, and struggles to find a use in Twist.

Xyrella

Starting Health: 32

Xyrella is the ultimate Priest dream: you win the game if you heal enough! You need to reach your maximum Health (starts at 60, whereas your starting Health is 32) to win the game, and you also heal when you damage the enemy Hero. That may be a more foreign concept for Priest players, but the overall result is still a fantasy land for Priest mains.

Dr. Boom

Starting Health: 40

With Dr. Boom, Blizzard is trying to make Mech Warrior playable by giving it a Bomb Warrior special effect. Whenever a Mech of yours dies, you shuffle a Bomb to the enemy’s deck. This deck can put more Bombs into enemy decks than the actual Bomb Warrior! Blizzard also added some survivability for Dr. Boom in the balance patch, as you also gain one armor when you shuffle a Bomb. With more high-draw decks added to the format in July, Dr. Boom’s bombs are no more dangerous than they were in the June season.

C’Thun

Starting Health: 50

C’Thun has one big minion, C'Thun, as its win condition. Early on, C’Thun had a terrible time in the format, because Arfus was very popular and it had Patchwerk in its deck. Patchwerk has since been removed from Arfus in a balance patch, and now your guaranteed C'Thun in your opening hand is finally an asset and not a liability. Blizzard also buffed the scaling of your C'Thun, as it now gains +2/+2 after three friendly minions die, making it grow faster than before.

You now have a big win condition lined up and the main concern is survivability. You can still get overwhelmed before you can use your C'Thun. There are some tools that you can use to defend though. You can discover Blade of C'Thun for hard removal, and you have Plague of Flames and Swarm of Lightbugs, which can be used as a board clear during the game, or with the 1-cost version of the spell, as a combo finisher with C’Thun itself.

Arfus

Starting Health: 30

Arfus was the dominant force in the first days of Whizbang’s Heroes Twist format. It has been hit by nerfs multiple times and its deck lost a lot of power in the balance patch.

Arfus Excavates when you play cards with the right Death Knight runes on them. The cycle begins with Frost, moves to Unholy, and then to Blood before starting anew. Your goal is to play cards that allow you to Excavate to rapidly get to the Legendary Excavate rewards that can win you the game. You also have a Hero Power that discounts cards in your hand at the cost of Corpses. If you can build a reliable supply of Corpses, you can make your cards cheap, which will enable you to Excavate multiple times in a single turn or play cards like The Primus early. The nerfs hit your corpse generation and your payoff consistency, but Arfus can still Excavate its way to victory.

Kael’Thas Sunstrider

Starting Health: 35

Kael’Thas is the master resource generator. You get a temporary random spell at the start of each turn and any cards that did not start in your deck cost one less – including the random spell that you get every turn! Flint Firearm and Instructor Fireheart are incredible late-game powerhouses because every card you generate from them costs one less. Even the lowly Training Session finally feels fine to play when all the minions are one mana cheaper.

Do not get too attached to generating random cards though, remember that the goal of the game is to destroy the enemy Hero. Arcane Bolts from Arcane Wyrm and Arcsplitter can play a key role in this because they are free and can provide some of the burst damage you need to reach your goal.

Nozdormu

Starting Health: 40

If you enjoy playing with Dragons, Nozdormu is your hero of choice. Nozdormu comes with a 50-card highlander deck that has Dragons from many classes. All the fun dragons are right here! Nozdormu also starts the game with an additional mana crystal and can draw and discount his dragons, so that you will also get to play with all of your fun cards and do not have to just stare at them in your hand.

As a downside – or potentially yet another upside – Nozdormu’s turn timer is only 30 seconds long. So, if you like dragons and fast turns, it is an even better fit!

Like most Dragon decks, you can overwhelm the opponent with your mid-sized minions. You also have a number of board clears in the deck, so in some games you play control and go for big boards later on. As a 50-card highlander deck, the games will inevitably be a little different depending on which tools you happen to draw.

Tamsin Roame

Starting Health: 30

Tamsin is a unique take on Pain Warlock. She has two lives: when she dies for the first time, she comes back to life as a lich at her full starting Health. Her first Hero Power summons Demons and deals damage to herself: a 1/1 and 1 damage on turn 1, a 2/2 and 2 damage on turn 2, and so on. After she has died, the Hero Power deals damage to a freely selectable target instead: for example, on turn 8, it deals 8 damage to the target and 8 damage to Tamsin herself.

You want to take damage to enable your synergy cards and because you have a second life waiting, you are not too concerned about dying other than dying before you get to play your synergy cards and having to start all over with taking damage for a Molten Giant, for example. On the other hand, progress on Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk and Mordresh Fire Eye does not reset, and they can be used just as easily after your first demise.

Heartbreaker Hedanis

Starting Health: 50

Hearthbreaker Hedanis is a Silence Priest. You have minions that have downsides, usually the inability to attack, and therefore you Silence your own minions to allow them to attack. You can also buff your minions with your Hero Power, and get to draw cards when you buff Silenced minions. As a downside, all your minions start with less Attack than usual, which is a rough penalty for an aggressive deck, but you can get rid of that penalty too by silencing them.

Get minions on the board, Silence them individually or in groups, and time your Hero Power buffs so that you get to draw cards and that you will not lose too many buffs from the Hero Power to silencing the buffed minions again.

Al’Akir the Windlord

Starting Health: 35

Al’Akir is Elemental Shaman with a bit of Rogue and Mage mixed in. You follow the general Elemental Shaman gameplan and try to play an Elemental on every turn if possible because the Elemental synergies are based on playing Elementals on previous turns – mostly just the turn before, like for Kalimos, Primal Lord, but sometimes also in a row, like for Skarr, the Catastrophe.

Whenever you play a Legendary Elemental, you proc the Battlecry of the old Shaman Hero card, Bru'kan of the Elements, and get to choose one of four effects: Summon two 2/3 Elementals with Taunt, deal 6 damage to the enemy hero, deal 2 damage to all enemy minions, or restore 6 Health to all friendly characters. Because you have a lot of Legendary Elementals in your deck, this can add a lot of reach as you deal damage to the enemy hero turn after turn.

Tier 3: Climbing Can Be a Challenge

If you choose to play one of these Heroes, you should not expect to be able to climb the ladder. But there are other reasons to play than just winning, right?

Forest Warden Omu

Starting Health: 45

Forest Warden Omu is a fun Treant Spell Druid. Your deck has no minions in it, and it has synergy cards that benefit from having no minions from multiple classes, such as Malfunction, Deal with a Devil, To My Side!, and Rhok'delar. Your Druidic side is focused on Treants and Treant synergies: your Hero Power gives you a 1-cost 2/2 Treant into your hand, and your special effect randomly Adapts any Treants that you summon. As a result, you are constantly building boards even though you have no minions in the deck. In the grand Treant Druid tradition, you can also buff your board with Arbor Up, Drum Circle, and Cultivation.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton

Starting Health: 40

Finley brings an archetypal Murloc deck. With a mix of Paladin and Shaman Murloc themes, this is the ultimate Murloc experience, from Murloc Knight to Unite the Murlocs. You live by the board and you die by the board with this deck. Finley’s special effect gives all of your Murlocs Rush, which can help you maintain board control.

Combine Rush with Toxfin, and you have some comeback potential. The key word being some. You can keep building new boards to an extent, but your resources are not endless, so remember to be aggressive.

Elite Tauren Champion

Starting Health: 50

Elite Tauren Champion is a Taunt Warrior. There always has to be a Taunt Warrior, right? Elite Tauren Champion’s Hero ability also gives passive handbuffs for Taunt minions and it has a Hero Power that summons more Taunt minions. Because your Hero ability buffs a random Taunt minion in your hand, it is important to try to control the minions you have available as targets. Nerubian Swarmguard is an excellent target, so if you manage to pick that up, you want to try to empty your hand of other Taunt minions and avoid drawing more to get the buffs on the best possible target. On the other hand, some of the buffs improve all minions in your hand, and you would want to have as many minions as possible in your hand for those. This is the tightrope that you walk as Elite Tauren Champion, and it determines your success.

The Lich King

Starting Health: 45

The Lich King’s playstyle resembles a regular Unholy Death Knight, but he has some sweet tricks up his sleeve. His Hero Power summons a Ghoul with Charge and Reborn, so you generate two corpses from it and can attack two targets. He also summons Risen Skeletons whenever you spend corpses with stats equal to corpses spent. It is all about generating and spending corpses, and summoning board after board of minions while doing so. Note that the Risen Skeletons themselves do not generate additional corpses.

The usual Unholy Death Knight tricks with card draw from Acolyte of Death and Poisonous from Sickly Grimewalker work even better with The Lich King. Not to mention summoning two huge minions at once with Corpse Farm!

Brann Bronzebeard

Starting Health: 35

Brann does exactly what you would expect: he has a Hero Power that makes your next Battlecry effect proc twice. As an added bonus, Brann transforms all the Battlecry minions you play into Beasts of the same cost. Because Battlecry minions are usually weak, this transformation can potentially make them a lot stronger. On average, it does, although sometimes they become even weaker than they were.

Play your Battlecry minions and try to gain tempo from Brann’s special effect. Weave in the Hero Power, especially in the mid-game. There are some good power plays with Night Elf Huntress and Abyssal Summoner, but overall the effects are a little lacking.

Leeroy Jenkins

Starting Health: 40

Leeroy is reckless and can be a ton of fun to play. When you are Leeroy, all cards from both players cost one less. You also have a Hero Power that allows you to spend Health instead of mana to play your next minion. Luckily, you have plenty of Health to start with, so you can really up the tempo early on. Leeroy is the quick format of Hearthstone: everything happens faster and turns just fly by. Fortune favors the brave, and you need to make good use of your Hero Power to build a strong board early in the game to succeed.

Sargeras, the Destroyer

Starting Health: 40

Sargeras is a Big Demon Warlock. You try to survive the early game with your removal tools and get to a position where you can cheat out your big Demons. Voidcaller is your first opportunity and later you get to Sigil of Reckoning and Archwitch Willow. If your big Demons fail to end the game, you still have your special card that is shuffled to the deck at the start of the game that deals 30 damage for 10 mana.

Sargeras also has a special Hero Power: Twisting Nether. It destroys all minions on the board for 3 mana, but it can only be used once per game. If your other defenses start to crumble, you have this as a last resort to make it through the early game unscathed. You can also combine it with cards like Sigil of Reckoning to ensure that you survive and start to get your own power cards on the board. Sargeras has a lot of late-game power, but early survivability can be a problem.

Arch-Villain Rafaam

Starting Health: 45

Have you ever wanted to play with an all-Legendary deck? They are no longer only in the realm of YouTube because Rafaam brings an all-Legendary deck to Whizbang’s Heroes! Furthermore, your Legendary cards cost one less mana, so you can actually play them, at least sometimes. When you manage to Discover good spell to survive the early game with your Hero Power and maybe hit Emperor Thaurissan to land some discounts on your big Legendary cards, you can win games with this. Alas, too many things need to go right for you to succeed, so the deck lacks consistency.

Illidan Stormrage

Starting Health: 40

Illidan is a spell-based Fel Demon Hunter. Whenever a friendly character attacks, a Fel spell in your hand is discounted. In addition to your Hero, attacks from cards such as Coordinated Strike or Impfestation can rack up a bunch of discounts for you. Your Hero Power is also an upgraded version of the regular Demon Hunter Hero Power in that it provides Lifesteal for your Hero. In combination with attack buffs and Multi-Strike, you can hit multiple targets and heal up while doing so, not to mention picking up even more discounts for your Fel spells!

You also have some nice tricks to play even more spells thanks to Archmage Vargoth, Jotun, the Eternal, and the main finisher in the deck, Jace Darkweaver.

Changelog

Show Changelog

July 4, 2024

Updated for the new Heroes for the new season and July 2 Health updates

June 14, 2024

Updated for the June 7 and June 11 Health updates
- Arfus: 25 -> 20 -> 18
- Al’Akir the Windlord: 30 -> 27 -> 25
- The Lich King: 30 -> 27 -> 25
- Kael’Thas Sunstrider: 35 -> 30
- Xyrella: 30 -> 33 -> 32
- Dr. Boom: 50 -> 60
- Guff Runetotem: 40 -> 50
- King Krush: 40 -> 45 -> 50
- N’Zoth, the Corruptor: 40 -> 45
- Nozdormu: 35 -> 32
- C’Thun: 45 -> 80
- Arch-Villain Rafaam: 40 -> 45
- Brann Bronzebeard: 35 -> 38

June 7, 2024

The first version of the tier list.

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