Colossal minions are one of the new mechanics of the latest Hearthstone’s expansion Voyage to the Sunken City. Thematically, they’re representing the massive creatures lurking deep underwater. And so, Blizzard tried their best to match that mechanically.
Colossal +X means that when you play the minion from your hand or summon it through any means, it comes with all of its appendages. For example, Colossal +2 on Gaia, the Techtonic means that it will summon two Gaia's Drills. Because they come with between two and five (!) bodies on the board, they really “feel” Colossal and spreading their power between main minion and tokens makes some of them really compelling choices.
As for their power level, it’s really a mixed bag. So far, some of the Colossals are must-have in their respective classes, but other times adding them to the deck will only make it worse. Still, if you unpacked some of the Colossal minions and really want to test them out, we’ve prepared a deck for every single class running them.
Demon Hunter – Xhilag of the Abyss
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Xhilag isn’t performing that well so far – it’s hard to find it a deck. While technically it might be better in Big Demon Hunter, Big Demon Hunter is a pretty bad deck to begin with, and I honestly don’t recommend trying it out. That’s why I’ve featured a Deathrattle Demon Hunter instead. That’s also not a great deck, but it’s at least more playable.
While its snowball effect might be useful if your opponent was a training dummy, in reality, there’s no way that the main body or 1/2’s will survive long enough for it to matter. The best part about it is that it floods the board quite nicely and forces your opponent to abandon their gameplan in order to deal with it, but that’s about it.
Druid – Colaque
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Ramp Druid is one of the best performing decks from the early days, but notably, it does NOT run Druid’s Colossal minion. It means that adding it to your deck maybe won’t make it bad, but it will probably – on average – decrease its win rate. Still, if you want to play with your shiny new toys, this is your best bet. Ramp Druid will perform quite well with Colaque or without it.
Colaque has a similar problem to Demon Hunter’s Xhilag – theoretically, if given enough time, the card could snowball hard. Being immune means that it could make multiple trades without dying, but… it’s only immune as long as its Shell is alive, and that’s a tall order. With Taunt and only 8 health, it’s highly unlikely for the shell to survive until you can attack with the main body. While it gives you 8 Armor on Deathrattle, the remaining 6/5 minion is quite subpar. You should probably just run Raid Boss Onyxia instead.
Hunter – Hydralodon
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Hydralodon is quite interesting – for as long as the main body is on the board, it will spawn more and more Heads. Sincce the first two it summons come with Rush, you can instantly deal 6 damage to minions and end up with 5/5 + 4x 3/1. That seems quite powerful for 7 mana, and it is, but there’s one big problem – board control is not exactly Hunter’s play style.
Early stats conclude that Big Beast Hunter is an underwhelming deck. It’s not terrible, but it simply doesn’t have enough synergies to really work out. It’s being outpaced by other builds like Face Naga Hunter and Questline Hunter. But, truth to be told, it’s a really fun one. Pulling those big minions from your deck and then reviving them feels really refreshing and I wish the deck gets more good cards in the future to make it truly viable.
Mage – Gaia, the Techtonic
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When talking about good Colossals, Gaia is definitely #1 so far. Mech Mage is one of the most powerful early meta decks from the expansion and Gaia is one of the reasons why it works so well. This Colossal Mech makes it really scary to leave any kind of board vs Mech Mage later in the game, because they can make a massive backswing with Gaia. Just the two 2/3’s it summons can deal 2 AoE damage + 4 extra single target damage.
If you unpacked Gaia, you should be pretty happy – Mech Mage is a strong deck and it’s actually more fun than it might seem, with a lot of interesting decision-making.
Paladin – The Leviathan
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The Leviathan, Paladin’s Colossal, is quite similar to Gaia in a way. While its effect is completely different, it also goes straight into a Mech deck and works really well in there. Because it’s a Mech, it will buff Security Automaton, it will be drawn from Radar Detector, and maybe most importantly it has great synergy with Azsharan Mooncatcher (which puts Sunken Mooncatcher on the bottom of your deck).
However, unlike Gaia, The Leviathan is more flexible. While it has a Mech tag, its effect doesn’t require other Mechs in your deck to be useful. Dreding + Drawing is just a good combo no matter where you play it. That’s why The Leviathan is also playable in other Paladin builds, such as “Control Heal Paladin”, which I also linked above.
Priest – Blackwater Behemoth
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- 1Call of the Grave2
- 1Flash Heal2
- 1Gift of the Naaru2
- 1Shard of the Naaru2
- 2Condemn (Rank 1)2
- 2Thrive in the Shadows2
- 3Devouring Plague2
- 4Drakonid Operative2
- 4Lightmaw Netherdrake2
- 4Xyrella1
- 5Spirit Guide1
- 5Switcheroo2
- 6Lightshower Elemental1
- 6Mi’da, Pure Light1
- 6Undying Disciple1
- 7Blackwater Behemoth1
- 8Murozond the Infinite1
- 8Xyrella, the Devout1
Let’s just say that Priest is not doing very well in Standard this expansion, and Blackwater Behemoth doesn’t help. The only seemingly popular deck is a cheesy Switcheroo build which definitely does not want to run the Colossal minion. Silence Priest is also okay-ish, but same story – no Colossal needed.
And truth to be told, I don’t think that any deck really “needs” this Colossal. It just feels a bit underwhelming for 8 mana. Sure, it clears a random minion and heals for 8, but that just doesn’t seem enough for how much it costs. If the main body had Rush, at least, then it might be a different story. The only deck that might run Behemoth and feel okay about it is Control Priest – but even Control Priest is probably better off without it. Still, if you want to test it out, that’s your best bet.
Rogue – Crabatoa
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Crabatoa is one of the better Colossal minions and it goes straight into Pirate Rogue. The deck is quite aggressive and Crabatoa fits right in. Summoning two 4/1’s with Rush means that you can easily clear some minions or go through a Taunt, and then you equip 4/1 weapons – of course only for a long as the main body is on the board, but still. The best play is rushing something for 4, then attacking with weapon (e.g. hitting face for 4), then rushing with the second minion to get the second weapon. That’s 12 damage across three hits, and you still have a 4/1 (or 2/1) weapon equipped with a 6/5 on the board.
While Pirate Rogue is the way to play it right now, I think that Crabatoa is flexible enough to be playable in most of the aggressive Rogue decks that will come in the upcoming sets (unless, of course, it gets powercreeped by something else).
Shaman – Glugg the Gulper
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Glugg is an interesting one. Unless the whole minion is cleared at once, the three 2/2 Taunts you summon will “feed” the main body and make it a 9/11 minion. That’s quite a threat, and combined with the fact that Taunts give you some protection, it’s certainly an interesting choice. However, the main body’s effect still feels a bit underwhelming – unless you have minions ready to trade or ones with Rush, it will be hard to trigger it and it just add stats without doing anything else on the board.
However, Glugg is actually playable, but maybe not because of the reason it was designed for. In current Burn Shaman variants running Bioluminescence, flooding the board is actually quite amazing. Glugg adds FOUR targets for it and while yes – you can’t play it on your burn turn – if some of its parts actually survive, this single minion can give you tons of Spell Damage.
Warlock – Gigafin
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Murloc Warlock is not performing amazingly well so far, but it’s honestly still better than I’ve expected. The deck hasn’t been viable since Classic (back when it had no Class synergies and the only reason it was good was Warlock’s Hero Power) and I’m not sure if we’ll see much of it this expansion. Still, it’s – obviously – a perfect build for Gigafin.
The main strength of the card is that it lets you go through a wall of Taunts with your board full of Murlocs. One of the biggest downsides of Murloc decks is that they’re board-based – you can’t really deal much damage from hand, so if your opponent puts some big minions in your way, you might be out of luck. Unless… you drop Gigafin and just hit face. Of course, if your opponent clears the 7/4 first, they will just get their minions back. But honestly – from my experience, it’s not always a given. If they have no direct damage, it might be out of reach and they will HAVE to through the Taunt, making it a onesides Twisting Nether with a couple of bodies. Which is amazing.
Interestingly, Gigafin also sees some play in slower Warlock decks like Curse Warlock, but while it’s an auto-include in Murloc build, it’s a more “controversial” choice in other builds. We’ll see how things develop!
Warrior – Nellie, the Great Thresher
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And finally, Nellie. Questline Pirate Warrior is by far the #1 deck from the first few days of the expansion. It was already pretty solid before rotation, it didn’t lose much and it gained some new tools, making it a king of the early meta. And Warrior’s Colossal – Nellie – works very well in that deck. While some players argue that it’s too slow for Pirate Warrior, I don’t think so, as it can set up some really easy lethals.
No matter if you manage to pick Mr. Smite from the Nellie or have him in the hand, getting three 1 mana Pirates is just crazy good. If you play Smite + the rest of cheap Pirates + give Charge to whatever you summon from your Questline + attack with your weapon… while I can’t give you an estimate, I’ve seen Pirate Warriors dealing 20+ damage out of nowhere, and that’s usually more than enough to kill an unprepared opponent.
Nellie could also be used in slower, Control decks – while those won’t have any innate Pirate synergies, just having three 1 mana minions, one of which might be Mr. Smite himself, is definitely a good thing. So if you aren’t a big fan of aggressive decks, I’ve also linked a Control Warrior build as an alternative.
