Season 8 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds has begun on August 20th!! We have seen many changes compared to the previous seasons. Just as a quick reminder, take a look at what previous seasons of Battlegrounds looked like in order to understand better what this season is about. In chronological order, the last few Hearthstone Battlegrounds seasons looked like this:
- Season 5 (August 2023): Infamous Battlegrounds Anomalies were introduced as well as Tier 7 Minions.
- Season 6 (December 2023): Anomalies got removed, Tavern Spells were added and Quests brought back in.
- Season 7 (April 2024): Quests are removed, Tavern Spells kept and Battlegrounds Duos are introduced for the first time. A lot of minions are removed and introduced. In Mid-season Buddies have been added.
- Season 8 (August 2024): Buddies are removed, Tavern Spells are kept as a permanent mechanic, and a brand new mechanic is added: Trinkets (similar to Quests, just much more powerful and faster)
This guide is up-to-date with the latest 30.6.2 Patch (October 2024)
Added:
+Gym build (Naga Alternative)
+ Ancestral Automaton build (Mech Alternative)
+Zoo build (Beast main build)
+ links to all tribe minion guides
For Duos, check out our full HS BG Advanced Duos Guide.
Patch 30.2 marked the beginning of Season 8 by removing Buddies from the game, adding over 27 new minions, bringing back 22 old minions, and removing 41 minions from the game. Furthermore, as stated in one of the previous patches, Tavern Spells and Duos mod will now be an integral part of the game! The biggest change in Season 8 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds is the addition of a new game mechanic – Hearthstone Trinkets. We will cover the most commonly used trinkets in this guide in the build sections. Also, as we mentioned before, we have published a different guide (link above) for Battleground duos as gameplay mechanics are much different than in the regular mod, including the build types.
If you want to find partners for duos and talk with others about Battlegrounds, feel free to join our discord server.
In this guide, we will talk about overall gameplay flow, and analyze the best meta builds for every minion type (tribe), but also what kind of builds can counter it and what Tavern Spells you should go for when playing a specific build. You can check out our full Hearthstone Battlegrounds Hero guide as they will not be included in this article since variations are too vast. Without further ado, let’s dive deep into the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Guide and explore meta builds for each tribe.
General Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 8 Tips and Strategies
Even though you will find a lot of specific builds in this guide, the essence of your gameplay needs to be your understanding of tempo and when to level up. Below we put some very loose and general guidelines on how to play early and midgame, but the issue still remains – Hearthstone Battlegrounds is extremely RNG-based and there are almost infinite scenarios that can happen with minions, your hero power, spells, combos, etc.
This is why you need to actually play the game a lot in order to develop an instinct/feel for the game. When to level up the Tavern? Do I go for a greedy play? Is my army strong enough to survive the next battle? Should I refresh and try to find this specific minion or just buy these 2 random strong ones right now? All these questions are answered by your feel and in-depth game knowledge. We mention this to say the next thing – going for a specific build isn’t really straightforward, since RNG is straightforward.
There are a few floating concepts on which the game revolves around:
- Current Army Strength aka. Tempo – Going for a high-stat early army can secure your leeway to level up the Tavern a few turns in a row.
- Generating Resources – You will need to find a way to generate something after each turn – minions, spells, gold coins, etc. This will be essential for actually developing a strong build.
- The Lobby aka. Other Players – You need to keep an eye on and play a guessing game on who will be strong, who is currently strong, what are they playing (in order to counter it), and the potential of other players.
- Countering and Tweaking Builds – Since the game is very situational, it’s important to know how to counter your opponent. For example, if you’re playing Murlocs and have no Divine Shields, your last opponent has Mechs. Grabbing a Tunnel Blaster can you win the game here.
- RNG Above All – Sometimes, even though you did the “good” play, RNG can still punish you. The key thing here is to go for the play that has the highest chance of succeeding.
This kind of stuff is really hard to teach given its extremely volatile nature. The best thing you can do is play a lot and watch other high-level players and see how their brain works in certain scenarios.
Note: Keep in mind that the images of the builds that you will see are taken on a specific turn, or at the end of the game. The builds look different in early-game, mid-game, and late phases so please refer to the description of a specific build to learn more.
Tavern Spells Overview
Tavern Spells are essentially one-time-use abilities that you can buy from Bob’s Tavern for various gold costs. With every refresh, a new Tavern Spell will appear. Only one spell will appear with each refresh unless there is a minion or hero that modifies the number of them. You can check out our full Tavern Spell guide for more details but here, for the sake of this guide, we will just go through a rough breakdown of the types of Tavern Spells that you can get. In total, there are 4 groups of Tavern Spells:
- Stat-boosting Tavern Spells: These Spells give you various stats. Most of them are cheap and low-level but there are some high ones as well. Usually, these Tavern Spells are used as gold dumps or in specific scenarios in which you need to buff up one of your minions. Examples of Stat-boosting spells are: Pointy Arrow, Them Apples, and Natural Blessing.
- Economy Tavern Spells: Spells that give you extra Gold or free Refreshes are economy ones. They are very useful and can turn the tides in your favor, especially if you acquire them early on. Examples of Economy Spells are: Careful Investment, Tavern Coin.
- Utility Tavern Spells: Spells that give or remove Taunt, provide Divine Shield, and increase the number of Deathrattles, Battlecries or End of Turn effects that you get are what we call Utility Tavern Spells. They can come in handy for specific build types which we will discuss later on in the article. Example of these spells is Dreamer Embrace.
- Discovery Tavern Spells: Several spells allow you to Discover or get a free minion. We will just call them Discovery Tavern Spells as most of them do allow you to Discover a minion of a specific type. Examples of these spells are: Contracted Corpse, Planar Telescope, Hired Headhunter.
Battlegrounds Trinkets
The newest addition to HS BG are Trinkets – which can be summarized as Quests, just stronger and faster. Basically, you will get one Lesser Trinket on Turn 6 (8 gold turn) and a Greater Trinket on Turn 9. If you want a more detailed Trinket explanation, we made a Lesser Trinket Tier List and a Greater Trinket Tier List in separate guides.
Each time you will be offered 4 various Trinkets to choose from and the choices are mostly influenced by your current board (and Hero). Keep this in mind if you want to go for a specific build (e.g. you want to have several Naga units before Turn 6 on board if you want to get Zesty Shaker trinket). Most Trinkets cost between 1-7 gold so keep that in mind as well. However, this price is small to pay for the power boost (or economy boost) that you will be getting.
Hearthstone Battlegrounds Trinkets can roughly divided into four categories:
- Tribe Discovery Trinkets: These are the low-cost, low-reward trinkets that are the easiest to use. Basically, you will be getting 1 or 2 (Lesser or Greater Trinket) random minions from a specific tribe. (e.g. Azeroth Model Globe, Colorful Compass etc).
- Tribe Stat-boost Trinkets: These Trinkets are also usually low cost and they offer some kind of stat boost to the designated tribe. (e.g. Feral Talisman, Artisanal Urn, Great Boar Sticker etc.).
- Specific Unit Trinkets “Portraits“: These Trinkets work by utilizing one specific unit that usually becomes (or is) your core minion.. (e.g. Conductor Portrait, Automaton Portrait, Belcher Portrait, Bronzebeard Portrait etc..)
- Economy Trinkets: As the name suggests, these Battlegrounds Trinkets are the ones that you want to use if you need an economy boost. ( Goblin Wallet, Bobs Tip Jar.
There are some tips that we can provide in order to avoid some general mistakes that players make with Battlegrounds trinkets. Check out these tips:
- The most important tip would be NOT to overcommit with a trinket. This is the most common mistake that we have seen players making – sometimes players decide that they want, for example, to play Elementals and just pick Dalaran Cheese Wheel as their Lesser Trinket without having any kind of Elemental setup. This is extremely risky and will more often then not, lead you to loosing MMR. We have seen similar situations in which players overcommit to demons, and more specifically, to the Bat demon comp, just, without False Felbat… The reason why this is bad is the fact that you are putting all your eggs in one basket; it’s much more effective to pick an economy or spell trinket in order to boost your tempo while you get the key minions for a desired tribe and then select the Greater Trinket for the specific build that you have made setup for.
- Generally speaking, for Lesser trinket you want to use something to boost your tempo and for the Greater Trinket you want something to boost your endgame. If you are in doubt with Lesser Trinket setup, don’t take something too pricy (like Wheel of Yogg-Saron trinket), pick a spell or economy one instead.
- Sometimes, you will be able to postpone the pick of a Lesser trinket and wait 2 turns to get a Greater one or turn double the Greater one – if you see that, take it. It’s incredibly powerful just keep in mind that you need a contingency plan while you wait for your greater trinkets – try not to upgrade and focus on building defenses.
- Generally speaking, stay away from “RNG” trinkets. Getting a random tribe minion, spinning the Wheel of Yogg-Saron, getting a random Battlecry minion, those trinkets are highly risky and you don’t really get that much value from them most of the time.
Early-game Tips
- Turn 1 (3 gold): Most economy minions have been reworked and are now Tier 2. In season 8, it’s better if you can get something that gives you enough sustain for the next 3 turns (minions with Deathrattle, Reborn, or Divine Shield since in the beginning most minions have low defense). If you are so unlucky that there are none of those as well, pick the one with the highest defense because probably your opponents will have a minion with one of the aforementioned effects.
- Turn 2(4 gold): Upgrade to Tavern Tier 2. The last thing you want to do is to waste 1 gold in this turn by buying 1 minion and then waste 2 more in the next one. Freeze if there are any Economy minions in Tavern. This is general advice, and there are exceptions to this rule if your hero power or a spell can provide higher value.
- Turn 3(5 gold): Whatever you do, do not refresh unless you upgrade. Three options are viable here: 1) Buy 2 minions if you managed to get an economy minion; 2) Go for a useful Battlecry minion, sell and buy one minion; 3) Upgrade to Tavern Tier 3. 4) Buy a useful spell, preferably an Economy one. There is a 5th option here – use a hero power if it grants you stats or any kind of stat boost and then upgrade to Tavern Tier 3.
- Turn 4(6 gold): Buy two minions or get an Economy Tavern Spell. If there is an economy minion in the Tavern (Gift Pillferer or Patient Scout would be perfect), get one of those as most builds don’t have Tier 2 key minions meaning that you will sell them anyway. If there are no economy minions, buy the ones that you suspect you might keep for a longer time or the strongest ones with Deathrattle.
- Turn 5 (7 gold): If you haven’t upgraded to Tier 3, buy one minion and upgrade. Again, do not refresh and, again, go for Economy spells if there are any.
- Turn 6(8 gold): First choose the Lesser Trinket you want to get. Based on your board, decide what you want to go for at this time. Do not overcommit (like pick a trinket that gives you one random Beast), if you don’t want to choose, it’s okey to go with an economy trinket instead.
- Turn 7 (9 Gold): If you haven’t upgraded to Tier 4, upgrade and buy a minion. However, if you took damage in the last turn and are facing an opponent that dealt that damage to someone else in the last turn (scout), fortify your defenses and buy at least 2 minions. You can refresh or use a Battlecry minion in this turn most of the time. It’s time to decide what build you are going for at this point.
Mid-game Tips
- First of all, during all turns from now on, use your time. Do not rush and do everything in 10 seconds, you have plenty of time to think about your strategy before the rope starts burning.
- You need to develop some spell/minion/gold generation at this point. The plan is to have enough resources to propel you into Tier 5/Tier 6 late-game phase. Look at the board and what you have in Tavern. Think about the plan here – how many more minions do you need to obtain the key ones? Do you have supporting minions for a specific desired build? If not, can you avoid taking damage next turn? Who is your next opponent? The reason why you need to devise a strategy is that players who end up in the lower section of the arena start to die here.
- Pay close attention to what kind of Tavern Spells are offered. It’s a good idea to boost your game tempo by using Tavern Spells instead of wasting gold on Refresh.
- Greater Trinket is your main power source, or most of the time it will be. Be sure to pick one that can work with your current comp.
- Upgrading: If key minions for the desired build are Tier 4 or lower, there is no need to upgrade yet. Many players make mistakes at this point and, for no reason, go for the Tavern Tier 5 instead of sticking to what they have. This is especially important if you have a low-tier build such as new Dragons, or “Self-inflicting” Beasts. Remember, you don’t even have to end up on Tavern Tier 6 in order to win the game.
- Fortune Favors The Bold – RNG does not. As we previously mentioned, it’s important to understand how to play around RNG. The point is to go for the highest success rate, and not rely on getting Brann Bronzebeard in the next two Refreshes for example. Moreover, if you see that you’re “screwed” and just know your gonna lose if you level up to Tier 5, settle for a low-tier Dragon/Beast/Scam build. Do not upgrade. Try to simply boost stats and try going for as many scam minions as you can get or a dedicated low-tier build like Mechs/Dragons/Beasts. It’s all hands on board at this point – simply buy whatever is the strongest in the Tavern and what will allow you to survive the longest so that you don’t lose (too much) MMR. We know this isn’t ideal, but sometimes you won’t make ideal choices plus RNG will wreck you. This is where you just settle for a 3rd/4th/5th place and try not to be last.
End-game Tips
- Determine your main opponent – scout and see who is likely to be your final competitor for the first place. Start preparing to counter their build. Check out our counters for each build below in this article.
- Consider getting a backup minion such as Transmuted Bramblewitch. Sometimes, especially in lower MMR games, players focus on buffing one or two minions so you need a counter if that’s the case.
- If you have a full build at this point and are above 20hp, you can upgrade to Tier 6. It’s the logical thing to do because if your main opponent one-shots you in a duel and wins, well then you never stood a chance in the first place. It’s much more likely that you will need an additional boost from Tier 6 minions to overpower your main opponent.
- Once you are on Tavern Tier 6, you will be able to get some high-end spells such as Azerite Empowerment. Depending on whether your build is complete, consider spending Gold to boost your forces with these Tavern Spells. This is all very situation, of course.
- Pay close attention to the lineup on your board. As at this point you probably know your opponent’s build, try to predict which minion will attack where and align your own forces in accordance with that prediction. There are simply too many variations to consider at this stage of the game so we can’t give you straightforward advice. For example, if you are up against Mech Magnetization build, your weakest minion should go on the far left side as probably your opponent has Taunt and Divine Shield so you don’t want to waste any minions on hitting that. But on the other hand, if your opponent is going for any Demon build, probably he won’t have any Divine shields on his Taunt minion so you should put Venomous or highest attack minions on the left side. Check out the builds below for more info.
Pirate Skypirate Build
Key minions: Sky Pirate Flagbearer, Titus Rivendare, Cruise Controller
Supporting minions: Scallywag, Other Pirates
* For more info on Pirates, check out our Pirate Tribe minion guide.
The Sky Pirate build is arguably one of the top three builds in the current meta and has been dominating Season 8 like no other build has. The reason for its success is that the key minions are relatively easy to acquire. Essentially, you only need 1 Titus Rivendare, 1 Sky Pirate Flagbearer, and 1 Cruise Controller to start overpowering other builds in the mid-game. To understand how this build works, where to place cards, and how to outmaneuver your opponents, we need to take a closer look at the actual underlying mechanics that are happening with this combo.
In essence, your key minion is Sky Pirate Flagbearer, he gives your other (this keyword “other is important, meaning he doesn’t get it) Pirates a Deathrattle to summon a 1/1 Pirate instantly upon death. Moreover, the Cruise Controller buffs up all these summonses by +5 attack. Finally, your Titus Rivendare triggers these effects additional times thus completing this build.
Titus effects stack, but only by addition, they do not multiply. Let’s say you have 2 Golden Titus, which gets you 2 Extra Deathrattle triggers from each one, that means the minions that have “Deathrattle: Summon 1 Pirate”, now have +4 times “Deathrattle: Summon 1/1 Pirate”, 5 in total. Now, the important thing is that if you have 2 Sky Pirate Flagbearers on the field, that means some other Pirate will get two times “Deathrattle: Summon 1 Pirate”, and each of those two will be amplified by the 2 Golden Titus, meaning +4 additional times on the first Deathrattle, and +4 additional trigger times on the second Deathrattle, so that Pirate will have 1 + 4 + 1 + 4 = 10 “Deathrattle: Summon 1/1 Pirate”. If you have 1 Golden Cruise Controller dead and 2 Golden Titus, that means that each of these summoned pirates will have 10+2*10=30 additional Attack. So to summarize, when a Pirate dies in this situation, he will then summon x10 31/1 Pirates to attack instantly……the math is there.
It’s important to know these mechanics because you won’t have a complete build at certain points in the game and you will need to know how it works to optimize the placement and know how much tempo (how strong you are) you actually have.
Your midgame build will usually consist of 1-2 Cruise Controller, 1-2 Flagbearers, 1-2 Titus, 1-3 regular pirates (preferably Scallywag because he has an innate “Deathrattle: Summon 1 Pirate” which is just perfect for this build.
(Greater Trinket is bad here, it is what it is. Sometimes it’s just bad RNG)
Another very important thing to note here is the fact that Flagbearers don’t give the Deathrattle to themselves. Moreover, it’s important to know that Rapscallion Recruiter works very awkwardly with this build because when he summons his little Pirates, he doesn’t actually trigger the instant Pirates from the Flagbearers first. It ruins the momentum of your attacks and usually leaves your Titus more vulnerable. The best lineup here is to have as many Cruise Controllers + Flagbearers as possible. 2 Controllers / 3 Flagbearers / 2 Titus seem to be a good strategy. Goldening the Flagbearer just means he will summon 2/2 and you will now only have one Deathrattle, on the other hand, that is the only way to get 3 Flagbearers on the field because 1 Golden and 2 regular can be placed. All in all, it is a very viable build that scales well and counters a lot of scam/divine shield/undead shenanigans.
Advanced Strategy: One interesting strategy with Skypirate build is to get a Persistent Poet and place it next to an All-Type like Motley Phalanx and to have the Skypirate Flagbearer give him “Deathrattle: Summon 1/1 Pirate”. This will then be “saved” permanently and then after a few turns, he will have 5+ of these. For example, if he saves these 3 turns (meaning with 2 Flagbearers on each side), he will have 6 of these Deathrattles. Now on the next battle, the Flagbearers will give him 2 more, in total 8. If you have 2 Titus in addition to this, it will summon in total 8+2*8=24 Pirates just from this minion alone. Those Deathrattles can stack indefinitely, the trick part here is to make space for all of these shenanigans on your board while maintaining some sort of tempo, but it can be pulled off!
Trinkets to use for Skypirate Build
There are a few trinkets that go well with this build. The first thing that comes to mind is generic resources trinkets like Goblin Wallet and Replica Cathedral or something greedy like Goldenizer Supply. Lesser and Greater Windrunner Necklace is also a nice choice, although the best Greater Trinket by far is Elementium Chest.
Strategies for countering Skypirate Build
Generally, there is one main way to counter a fully-fledged Skypirate build. It is by obtaining 1-2 Interrogator Whitemane. Put something with Windfury in the most-left and hopefully you will get one of his Titus down. This will hinder the Skypirate by a huge margin and there is nothing he can really do except somehow get up Divine Shields on his Titus. This, of course, requires space on your board and your other minions to have a good chunk of stats.
Spells to use with Skypirate Build
Remember that the only way to have 3 Flagbearers on the board is by Goldening one, so Eyes of the Earthmother comes in handy for this. Don’t buy it early on though, you want to get 2 Flagbearers, Titus, and Cruise Controllers first, and then proceed with Eyes.
Beast: Zoo Build
Key minions: Monstrous Macaw, Titus Rivendare, Goldrinn the great Wolf,
Supporting minions: Intomitable Mount, Sly Raptor
*For more info on Beasts, check out our Beast tribe minion guide.
With Season 8 of HS BG, new things are happening for Beasts in current game meta. Although the build which you see above requires several very high level minions, it is viable and one of the current meta builds. The key issue here is that pretty much all low and mid-game tier minions are useless near the end (except for Macaw) and will have to be sold. That raises the question of mid-game survivability of this build and that’s why it’s a bit tricky to win with it. Other than that, having a beast comp like you see in the image above, will pretty much handle whatever your opponent has.
The lowest minion that you need is Monstrous Macaw. This unit is even key in the other build that beasts can make, so called self-inflicting one (scroll to the bottom of the article to find out more about this). In mid-game, depending on the Trinket you have, focus more on economy and survivability, rather than collecting beasts (especially if you are playing Duos). Avoid getting Triggore the Leasher as he won’t be buffed enough. Try to upgrade to Tavern Tier 5 so that you can start looking for Titus and other triple rewards.
This Battlegrounds Beast meta build works as follows: Your Macaw will trigger a Deathrattle, preferably golden one from Goldrinn, the Great Wolf. Titus will repeat that same Deathrattle and hopefully, Macaw will die as it attacks and get reborned (it’s quiet easy to give him Reborn as you will surely get at least few Sprightly Scarabs). Your opponent will hit Goldrinn who will also be reborned and Macaw will attack again, triggering more Deathrattles to occur. The trick is to put Reborn and Macaw and both, Reborn and Taunt on your Goldrinns. You want all of them to die before the enemy starts attacking your “Deathrattle: Summon” minions. If everything goes according to plan, once all Macaw and Goldrinns are gone, it’s time for the party to start.
In this phase, there is an RNG momment as you can’t put Taunt on your summoning minions as that will nullify the Taunt on Goldrinn, which is far more important. You just have to hope that the opponent doesn’t hit your Titus at this point (odds should be in your favor as you will probably have at least 2 or 3 summoning minions left besides Titus). Anyway, whatever you have there, will summon huge stat monsters as everything is super buffed by those Deathrattles that were activated when Goldrinn died. You can go with Sly Raptor if you don’t have Indomitable Mount. You can even use Manasaber if you don’t have anything else – the buffs will come from the Deathrattles that were activated so it’s not important how strong the initial summon is, just how many of summons the unit can do. Good luck!
Trinkets for Zoo Beast build
As far as the Lesser Trinkets are conserned, you might want to choose something that offers you sustain and survivability reather than just getting a random beast each turn. The only real keeper in this aspect is Fishy Sticker as this will be very useful later on once you start triggering all those Deathrattles. When it comes to Greater Trinkets, The golden Fishy Sticker is a good option, as well as Slamma Sticker and Twin Sky Lanterns. Slamma Sticker is probably the best one that you want to get if you are going for the full Zoo Beast build in Battlegrounds Season 8.
Spells to use for Zoo Beast build
Probably the best thing that you can do is to use Eyes of the Earthmother Spell on your Monstrous Macaw, but other than that, everything else is pretty mediocre.
Strategies for countering Beast builds
These Beasts are pretty versatile. Scam builds are not a good option because all they will do is kill the initial Goldrinns and perhaps one or two summon minions, you will still have to deal with Summoned minions that are the main power source in this build. There is no true counter for the Beast build of this type as it’s impossible to scam it – the only way to beat it is to have some luck when attacking (sniping Titus is the best outcome you can hope for) and having more stats. That means that mostly Demons, Quilboars and buffed up Naga builds will have a chance to beat this beast build.
Pro Tip: Try NOT to buff up your Monstrous Macaw – especially if he has Reborn. You really want him to die in the first attack so that can trigger another Deathrattle as he will attack again next turn if that happens.
Quillboar: Blood Gem Madness build
Key minions: Chargla, Drakkari Enchanter
Supporting minions: Moon-Bacon Jazzer, Snarling Conductor, Prickly Piper, Bongo Bopper
*For more info on Quilboars, check out our Quilboar tribe minion guide.
Not much has changed with Quilboar end-game comps in Season 8 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds. The biggest change lies not in minions themselves but in Trinkets that will give the neccesery speed to Quilboars. More on that later, let’s see how you can make a meta Quilboar comp in Season 8. When playing Quillboars, you need to take into consideration a lot of things. Quillboars are slow, and enemies will punish you for your “useless” low-stat Quillboars that you need for Blood Gem boosting. The first thing you need to do is to develop a board that will boost your Blood Gems. This can be done in a few ways. Usually, Attack is boosted by Prickly Piper and two of these will go a long way. Getting Health on Blood Gems is a bit more tricky, grabbing a Moon-Bacon Jazzer and Rylak Metalhead is a good way to pump up Health on Blood Gems.
The old way of getting additional stats on Blood Gems was with Pokey Thornmantle, but not only that he has been nerfed so he doesn’t work anymore with Drakkari Enchanter but there are other options now as well. The Fearless Foodie is one of the new options – both for generating Blood Gems and buffing them. That being said, you do need Enchanter for it’s combo with Chargla. At the mid stages of the game, you will really want to find a Snarling Conductor, since two of these will give 8 Gold in exchange for 2 Blood Gems in the hand (you don’t really need Blood Gems in the mid-stage that much). There is a great Trinket that works with this unit called Conductor Portrait that you might want to use. This will propel you into finding those key Tier 5 and Tier 6 Quillboars you need for the endgame build.
Next, the most obvious one is to look for Quillboars that will actually get you those buffed-up Blood Gems on your Quillboars. There are a lot of choices here and you will need to choose the route that your Tavern “gives you”. Getting a Bristling Buffoon in the midgame is fine, but at later stages, you really want to ramp up the Blood Gem production. The two best ways are to go either “End of Turn Effect Trigger” or the Battlecry route. “End of Turn” route essentially has Chargla, Drakkari Enchanter, and Bongo Bopper, this will give you a lot of Blood Gems. Of course, you won’t get this combo all the time so a very good alternative is playing Gem Smuggler with, Brann Bronzebeard, and even Young Murk-Eye. These combos will give you a lot of Blood Gems and a huge power spike if you happen to find them, especially if you already buffed up your Blood Gems.
The final thing to do is to find some late-game Quillboars that are “worthy” of placing all your Gems on. Depending on how many gems you are getting in every turn, you might want to consider using the new unit called Hot Air Surveyor. Casting a few upgraded Bloodgems with him on board will go a long way. Again, do note that Quillboars are very versatile and situational, and you will have to work with the combos that you get. These combos are just the “patterns” to detect in order to start fully committing to the Quillboar build. Note that you can optionally go for a semi-Deathrattle build by using Titus and Three Lil Quilboar.
Trinkets to use when playing Quilboars
When it comes to Trinket options, there are quite a few of those that are Quilboar specific. Namely, one of the best ones to have is Jar-o-Gems as this trinket has a great synergy with Tough Tusk. Additionally, Quilligraphy Set is a good option for boosting your Blood Gems, even if you don’t have Quilboars on the board. In the first week of testing, by far, the best one that you can obtain is the one that we already mentioned – Conductor Portrait as it’s insanely good for your tempo. You will be getting both, economy and stat boost in mid-game and that’s the only thing that Quilboars need in order to get themselves ramped up for the late-game phase.
Strategies for countering Quillboar build
The first thing that comes to mind is going for Scam builds. Since they will probably have a few Divine Shields, going for Leeroy The Reckless, and Transmuted Bramblewitch will wreck them. But honestly, the best “counter” to Quillboars is wiping them out in the midgame. They have these 1-2 turns where they are very weak until they get their buffs and board in order, this is where they lose if they happen to encounter someone with an already “established” build. This is kinda true for every build, but Quillboars especially need this leeway.
Spells to use with Quillboar Build
Getting Gem Confiscation is a good utility spell for changing up the board, especially if you want to put gems on a Cleave minion.Top of The Beanstalk is also extremely good since getting one Chargla with buffed-up Blood Gems can literally win you the game.
Pro Tip: Playing Quillboars is all about managing your tempo in the midgame. It takes a bit of practice to figure out when to level up and how to set up the board to not get wiped out before your Blood Gems are fully buffed. Don’t try to force full Quillboar build in tier 2/tier 3, that will probably get you the last place, rather focus on Gem Buff, getting some extra Gold with something like Snarling Conductor, and then fully committing to higher tiers, Blood Gem generation, and power spiking from there. If you go to the later stages of the game with Quillboars, you will probably win, but getting there is where the tricky part lies.
Demon: False Felbat build
Key minions: Famished Felbat, False Implicator, Malchezaar, Insatiable Ur’zul
Supporting minions: Slimy Felblood, Fiery Felblood, Tichondrious, Soul Rewinder
*For more info on Demons, check out our Demon Tribe minion guide.
Demons in Season 8 have not seen many changes. The spotlight is still on Slimy Felblood, Fiery Felblood, and False Implicatior. These minions changed the way Demons are played in Season 7 and remain one of the core units in Season 8 of HS BG. Now, you can actually somewhat commit to a Tavern stat-boosting build earlier in the game. Still, you kinda need Famished Felbat or at least Insatiable Urzul to scale anything when we are talking about the “tavern-stat” build. Fiery Felblood just feels very powerful right now, and Slimy Felblood is can be good paired with Rylak Metalhead for the Tavern Stats. The False Implicatior will scale into the late-game and if you can get two of them, it will secure you the mid-game. In the later stages, things get more…chaotic. The new Pilgrimp is a great unit that works really well with this build. The goal is to get Famished Felbat, but also a few of Cultist S’Thara for the late stage of the game. You don’t need to play them right away, just keep them in your hand.
The problem you have here is that you need to find some Demons that will provide you extra resources. Malchezaar, Prince of Dance and Soul Rewinder is one way which will secure you that extra resource boost. Latest addition, Archimonde is a very good alternative to Soul Rewinder as you will also be getting cheap Tavern Spells with him on the board. This minion is an absolute must when it comes to any demon compositions. You can make an entire build (picture above) based on it if you can get your hands on Tichondrious. Either way, this will provide a great tempo and propel you to get Famished Felbat. Do note that if you have the Bat and two False Imposters, on tier 5 there are only 5 minions to eat at the end of the turn, so leveling up to tier 6 will not only increase your chances to get golden Bat and Cultist S’Thara, but also provide you an extra minion to eat.
Also getting Insatiable Urzul isn’t a bad idea, but do note that you will have to play Demons for the effect to take place, make sure you have some Spell/Gold/Minion generation, it’s still a fine minion if you don’t, but the real advantage comes by playing a lot of Demons. The best type of this build is the one in which you have all the minions like the ones in the first printscreen, keep one slot empty for playing more Demons, thus buffing your Urzul further, and slamming Cultist S’Thara (or any counter that you need) before the last couple of battles.
Trinkets to use for Demon builds
There are several options to choose from when it comes to Trinkets for Demons in Season 8 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds. By far, these three offer the biggest advantage if you are ready to commint yourself to all-demon build:
- Felbat Portrait. This Greater Trinket is the one that you are looking for if you are playing Demons – keep in mind that the Bat will eat until all the minions that need to eat are full. Note: That means that this ability will be doubled by using Drakkari Enchanter and your False Implicators will always eat a minion no matter whose ability activates first.
- Felbood Portrait. A great tempo Trinkey that will allow you to buff up your tavern stats. This trinkey is good for Mech builds as well as the magnetizations will also get buffed.
- Rewinder Portrait. Rewinder Portrait feels like playing “Footman frenzy” if anyone remembers that mod from Warcraft 3. It’s just that it’s super easy to use, great for beginners, offers great tempo, but lacks in end-game; just like building Footmans in WC3.
Counters for Demon builds
By far, the biggest counter is Transmuted Bramblewitch. This thing can ruin any Demon build that utilizes the powerful Cultist S’Thara since he will then summon the weak 3/3 Demon when Bramblewitch kills the first one, it’s probably the hardest counter in the game. This is why you need to play around Taunts a bit and be extremely careful when playing Demons. Moreover, virtually no Demon minion has Divine Shield or Reborn (most don’t have Deathrattle as well). This is your main counter – use whatever Leeroys, Venomous Murlocs, and Bramblewitches for hard counters.
Pro Tip: If you happen to know that your opponent has Transmuted Bramblewitch and you have the Cultist and powerful Demons, consider buying a non-demon Taunt minion to bait out the Bramblewitch and not ruin your combo.
Spell synergies with Demon build
The primary spells to look out for are Top of The Beanstalk (Discover Bat or Cultist) and Eyes of the Earthmother (Golden Malchezaar or Imp). Moreover, Corrupted Cupcakes is also very good and will provide you with that extra eating power. Other than that, you can use any spell that boost stats in Tavern or improves your economy.
Dragon: Hatespawn Poet Guardian build
Key Minions: Persistent Poet, Amber Guardian, Prized-Promo Drake
Support Minions: Tarecgosa, Hoarding Hatespawn
*For more info on Dragons, check out our Dragon Tribe minion guide.
Dragons have been in a weird spot in the last season and things are no different in Season 8 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds. They have been heavily reworked but it seems like it didn’t really pay off. The main advantage of this build is insane mid-game potential; however, that comes with a heavy price. Dragon late game potential is basically non-existent as pretty much all other meta-builds will easily deal with any kind of dragon line-up that you have. To make things worse, even scam builds with Tunnel Blaster will have a field day on dragons, no matter what you do.
That being said, let’s what you can do to make this build as efficient as possible. The meta-build for Dragons in season 8 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds requires a couple of minions that are easily obtainable. Low-level dragons are good and will provide enough sustain until you get to Tavern Tier 4. From there, you should get Persistent Poet paired with Amber Guardian in order to get Divine Shield up on all your Dragon units. The offensive potential is a huge problem in Season 8: The Nightbane, Ignited has been removed from the game! This means that you need to use other methods to boost your offense. The most obvious, but also kind of slow option to go for is to get Prized-Promo Drake.
Once revered Tarecgosa is no longer a must in this build but can be buffed up, at least until you get Persistent Poet. As you can see, all these units are Tier 3 and Tier 4, with the exception of Amber Guardian. You need to upgrade fast because what you really want to have is Hoarding Hatespawn. With the lack of other offensive options, this is really a must if you are trying to win in the Battlegrounds.
The problem is the lack of defenses as your Divine Shields can’t protect you forever. There are plenty of builds that will easily deal with high-attack-divine-shield build so you need to get your defenses up, at least to a point in which your units can take few hits without Divine Shield. The only way to do this is by ramping up Prized-Promo Drake but more often than not, this will not be enough. There isn’t really a reliable way to get those HP points up, but these dragons have a few good things going for them – Divine Shields, mid-game domination, and high Attack with Nightbane, Ignited. It’s an ideal safe, low-tier “comfy” build.
Trinkets to use for Dragon Builds
As we mentioned, with the removal of Nightbane, Ignited the biggest issue is the lack of offensive power for your Dragon army. These two trinkets can help you with that issue: Dragonwing Glider and Emerald Dreamcatcher. Keep in mind that when you use the Dreamcather, the best thing to do is to buff up your Tarecgose so that other dragons just copy her attack.
Counters for Poet Dragons build
Generally, late-game stat builds are hard counters. Dragons in Battlegrounds can’t really scale like some other tribes like Quillboars, Nagas, or Murlocs. Undeads give them trouble because of Reborn capabilities that destroy Dragon shields. If you somehow can’t outgun this meta-dragon build, just get a Tunnel Blaster and he will blast the Dragons into oblivion. Remember, the best “attribute” of dragons is their easy-to-get Divine Shields.
Spell synergies with Dragon build
As we mentioned earlier, the main issue with this meta Dragon build in Battlegrounds is the lack of its defensive capabilities. All the spells that boost your defenses or the ones that give you discovery potential should be your main priority.
Pro Tip: Start of Combat effects trigger from left to right side of the board. Keep this in mind when you align your Yu’lon, Fortune Granter and Amber Guardian as you want Fortune Granter’s golden effect to trigger first so that Amber Guardian casts 2 Divine Shields instead of one (if he is your lowest minion and he should be).
Murloc: Mrrrglr build
Key minions: Bream Counter, Choral Mrrrglr, Bassgill
Supporting minions: Primalfin Lookout, Young Murk-eye, Brann Bronzebeard, Rylak Metalhead
*For more info on Murlocs, check out our Murloc Tribe minion guide.
New Season – old Murlocs. Just by reading the patch notes, we can already see that Murlocs have remained pretty much unchanged in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 8. The core build remains the same: It is two-folded in a way that you get some stats through several minions to survive the mid-game and use high-stat Murlocs as well as some “scam” Venomous ones later on. For the first, part of your build, you need to get a Bream Counter as soon as you can and keep it in your hand. Before that you can use other Murlocs such as Murcules and Scourfin just note that you will probably sell them later on. Diremuck Foragershould be used only early on as you will get Bassgill soon. The problem with Diremuck Forager is the fact that it requires you to leave an empty space on your board later on so you should replace it as soon as you get Bassgill. That being said, this should provide enough tempo to keep you going through mid-game.
But the real party begins only once you start sperging out Murlocs from your Murloc factory. How do you get a Murloc factory? Well through Primalfin Lookout + Rylak Metalhead as well as Young Murk-Eye + Brann Bronzebeard. This will ensure you get enough Murlocs for your Beam Counter, and get you enough resources to find all the Murlocs you are looking for. The main one is of course Choral Mrrrglr since he will inherit all the stats from your boosted-up Bream Counters in your hand. Don’t forget, if you have Young Murk-Eye with Primalfin Lookout providing you several Murlocs at the end of your turn, Choral will inherit all those stats also.
Keep in mind that you can also make a board like this one if you are lucky enough to have golden Brann – Murkeye – Drakkari – Battlecry Murlocs combo.
The new Mrglin’ Burglar is a great addition in Season 8 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds to the hand-scam that you might want to get if you have a chance
Getting a few of these will be your bread and butter in the late-game. Moreover, having golden Bassgill’s is also one of the goals, since you can stack up Operatic Belchers in your hand for more scam potential you can. In the end, your board should consist of as many Choral Mrrrglrs as possible, and Bassgills for that scam potential from your hand using Operatic Belcher, as well as summoning the buffed-up Bream Counters.
Trinkets to use for Murloc builds
Basically, you need some lesser trinkets what will boost your economy so that you can draw specific core cards that you will be needing later on. The best ones that are for murlocs are, by far, the Nerglish Phrasebook and Kodo Leather Pouch. All kinds of murloc build will depend on what you have in your hands – and these Trinkets will help you buff that hand-scam that you need.
Strategies for countering Murloc build
The main power from this build comes from a combo of high stats and some Venomous scam potential. In order to counter this, obviously Divine Shield units are a good way to go. Alternatively, you can acquire some Deathrattle: Summon minions in order to at least neutralize some of the Venomous units – and move your Venomous minions on the right side, hoping that you get Choral Mrrrglr or Bream Counter with them.
Spells to use with Murloc Build
Generally speaking, the Murloc build should work fine on its own once it’s completed. As you can see, most cards are very high Tier so you need to have some economy boost to get them as soon as possible – that’s why you should use economy spells in the beginning. Getting the required minions through discovery spells is also a good option, as well as triggering Battlecries. The main tip for Murloc comps when it comes to spells is to use something that will provide support early on since most key minions are on higher tier and the whole “hand build” is rather slow.
Pro tip: Don’t overcommit to this build. You need several high-end minions for it and more importantly, it takes time for it to get buffed up. Basically, if you have Brann and Bream Counter, you should go for it. In all other cases, it is probably best to look at other options.
Elemental: Sleeping Azerite build
Key minions: Living Azerite, Land Lubber, Sleeping Sea Glass
Support minions: Crackling Cyclone, Wildfire Elemental
*For more info on Elementals, check out our Elemental Tribe minion guide.
Hearthstone Season 8 brings some interesting changes in the game meta when it comes to Elemental minions. In the past, most of the high builds were much more efficient than the low ones – most of the builds were focused on Rock Rock and higher minions. We moved those builds in the alternative part because, in our opinion, they are too slow and not in the current game meta, at least when we are speaking about the Elemental tribe. The only viable option is to go for the Living Azerite build. This build looks like it’s super easy to make – you just get a Living Azerite, cast spells to buff up minions in the Tavern, and throw them on the board. However, there are quite a few things to consider here, so here are our tips on how to utilize this Battlegrounds strategy the best.
First off all, before you get Living Azerite, you don’t need to play any Elementals. Whatever you had before you started buffing the Tavern minions with Azerite will be sold in couple of turns anyway, so focus on obtaining anything that can provide you with some sustain until your Azerite does the trick and buffs up the Tavern. The trick with this build is knowing if it’s too late to start with the build and knowing when to stop buffing the minions and start assembling golden ones. The general rule of the thumb is that you can go for Sleeping Azerite build if you have more than 35 HP (with armor) or if you got the Azerite Portrait trinket (because with the trinket, you will also be getting buffs on your board, meaning that you will also be getting some tempo and survivability). Take a look at the screenshot of the mid-game gameplay focusing on Living Azerite:
Once you have your Living Azerites, start buffing the board. Focus on economy spells as they will give you the most value in long term. You shouldn’t upgrade to Tier 5 at all because you need all your gold for buying cheapest spells possible in order to buff the minions in the tavern. Be sure to at least buy 1-2 buffed minions in every turn, preferably Crackling Cyclone or Wildfire Elemental (or even Recycling Wrath) because the biggest danger here is that you might lose the game before you manage to buy those minions. Once your minions are on at least 50/50 you should start assembling Sleeping Sea Glasses. These minions will be your main source of defense as just three of those can scale insanely well if they are all bought from the buffed-up tavern. The Cyclones and Wildfires should be your main offensive power on the other hand so get those ones as well.
When you see that there are just a few turns left, sell all Living Azerites. Your minions in Tavern should be well buffed by now and you really just want that extra push in the end to win the game. At this moment you can also upgrade to Tavern Tier 5 because you might want to get some scam minions as well (for example, if you are facing a Demon or Quilboar army).
Trinket synergies with Sleeping Azerite build
If you want a pure build that focuses solely on Living Azerite, the best way to do so is to get either an economy or spell generating lesser trinket and Living Azerite Portrait as a greater one. The other option would be to double the Living Azerite portrait. The thing with this build is the fact that the more spells you can, the stronger your minions will be – keep that in mind when you choose a trinket.
Strategies for countering Elemental builds
If you are facing a heavily buffed Elemental army and don’t have the stats to fight it – use one-shot minions instead. The basic combo of Leeroy The Reckless + Transmuted Bramblewitch) will be extremely dangerous for Elementals. Also, if there are Murlocs in play, you can get some poison minions as well, just be sure not to put taunt on them as Recycling Wrath is likely to be the first minion to hit you. They don’t really have much of the shenanigans like Reborn and summons that can counter these scam cards.
Tavern Spell synergies with Elemental build
Obviously, goldening Living Azerite is your number one priority, and Eyes of the Earthmother does exactly that. However, since you will be staying at Tavern Tier 4, this card might be hard to get. The best spells that you can use are the ones that boost your economy – you really want to start the turn with 15+ Gold so that you can cast many spells during it, buffing your Elementals to the max.
Pro Tip: If you already have at least two living Azerites on the board, try not to use Planar Telescope that much. It’s expensive and you don’t want to get a minion that you need without buffs (buffs are only for Tavern minions).
Mech: Utility Deflect-o-bot build
Key minions: Deflect-o-bot, Utility Drone, Drakkari Enchanter
Supporting minions: Polarizing Beatboxer, Magnetization mechs
*For more info on Mechs, check out our Mech Tribe minion guide.
In the previous seasons, the main battleground tactic for Mechs was to go with either the low-mech build focusing on Deflect-o-bot and renewing its Divine Shield or to try to get a high-mech build while having Polarizing Beatboxer on the field.
In Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 8, things are the same for meta in that way but Mechs got buffed from an unexpected ally: An undead-mech unit called Prosthetic Hand (reborn mech). So, your key minions remain magnetization ones, Lullabot and Accord-o-Tron preferably boosted by Fiery Felblood and magnetized on Deflect-o-Bot. However, in order to successfully implement this Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy, you will need Scrap Scraper as well. Since the only way to renew the Divine Shield on Deflect-o-bot is by using reborn, you need to get some Prosthethic Arms in play as well. This is by far, the easiest and the most sucesful strategy that you can go for. Deflect-o-bot is a great tempo minion, Accord-o-Tron scales very well and once you get your hands on Drakkari Enchanter as well as Utility Drone, things will get wild pretty fast.
The whole point is too keep buffing the core minions, especially Deflect-o-bot and try to find Utility Drone and Drakkari as soon as possible. This does seem like a difficult task, but if you get your hands on few Accord-o-Trones and preferably a lesser economy trinket, you should have enough gold to find all of them. Having Polarizing Beatboxer is a sure way to seal the deal, as he will scale really well with all your magnetizations and will get buffed fast.
Trinket synergies with Mech builds
In the begining of the season 8 of HS BG, Automaton Portrait was considered the best one. However, since it has been nerfed, the better option now would to go for an economy or spell generating trinkets such as Goblin Wallet. When it comes to Greater trinkets, anything that summons, returns or gives you gold is a good option. The build itself is bulletproof if done correctly so what you really need is time to get it to work – choose a trinket according to that.
Strategies for countering Mech build
The biggest strength of any mech build comes from their Divine Shields and Deflect-O-Bot. The most effective way to counter this is to simply get a Tunnel Blaster which is also known as an “anti-divine shield” minion. That being said, sometimes you can’t get this particular minion (although it will be available in all matches as it’s a neutral unit) – the alternative is to with Deathrattle: summon cards in order to take down at least a portion of Mech Divine Shields without loosing too many units. Cleave is also a viable option but you will still have a problem with Deflect-o-bot as most players won’t put their Mechs with Taunt next to it.
Tavern Spell synergies with Mech builds
The biggest issue of this build is the fact that it takes time for the minions to get buffed up nicely. Tavern Spells can help you with tempo – especially the ones that provide instant stats or instant discoveries. You can see the obvious synergy between using stat-boosting spells and having several minions with Divine Shield early on. In the late phase of the game, it’s all-hands-on-deck anyway: whatever useful you can throw on your Mech army will do just fine.
Pro Tip: The new Clunker Junker is a great minion because you basically get a magnetization of your choice for only 2 gold (once you sell him). The only downside to this is the fact that you need space to use him.
Undead: Kel’Thuzad, the Mummifier build
Key Minions: Archlich Kel’Thuzad, Anub’arak, Nerubian Deathswarmer, Mummifier
Supporting Minions: Champion of the Primus
*For more info on Undeads, check out our Undead Tribe minion guide.
Another tribe that hasn’t seen many changes in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 8 is Undead. The basic premise of all sorts of Undead builds remains the same – High Attack, low Defense Undead units with refreshing Reborn are your way to go. This Undead comp that you see above is just one of the examples of how it can be done. It is not perfect by any means, but one can argue that there is no perfect Undead build as RNG element is incorporated in their essence. Let’s see how you can make this meta build.
The first thing we need to see is how Reborn and Summon mechanics work for Undead comps. First off all, you need to be aware that the Nightbane, Ignited has been removed from the card pool. This effectively means that Undead tribe has been nerfed as this was one of the key minions in that build. What you need to pay attention on is that, if you are relying on eternal summons from Eternal Knight and Eternal Summoner unless there is room available at the end of the deathrattle-reborn sequence, Reborns won’t summon.
Things get tricky when you obtain Archlich Kel’Thuzad. His ability happens at the end of your turn so pay close attention to what you want him to eat. If he eats anything with Reborn and you don’t have room on board, Reborn will have priority over Kel’Thuzad’s card text. That means that you will get a minion without Reborn and with 1 defense and no other copies will be made.
Now that you understand how the new “reborn and summon” mechanics work, let’s see the rest of the build. Same as in seasons 5 and 6, triggering Anub’arak Deathrattle along with spamming Nerubian Deathswarmer is going to buff up your forces early on. Later, you can use Champion of Primus combined with Reborn tactics that Kel’Thuzad and Mummifier provide to additionally increase attack on your minions. It looks pretty straightforward but it’s rather difficult to monitor all the synergies happening in every turn. The new unit in Season 8 of HS BG that is worth mentioning is Xylo-bones which is a great tempo and late game minion. You can use this guy as soon as you see him as he will get buffed up nicely providing that you have some reborn capabilities.
Trinkets to use for Undead builds
The main thing that you want to go for is to buff up the attack of your Undead units. You will get those Reborn units eventually, but the last thing you want to do is to get stuck with 15 Attack minions in the end-game phase. For this not to happen, take a look at these two trinkets: Buther’s Sickle and Comfy Coffin. Butcher’s Sickly is especially effective and it can scale up to enormous proportions. My personal favorite Trinket for Undead comps is Eternal Portrait. All you need to have before you take this is at least one Eternal Knight and it will work as a charm!
Strategies for Countering Undead build
The basic premise, as we described above, of the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Undead Build is for minions to have enough Reborn effects while dealing heavy damage in every clash. In order to prevent this strategy from decimating your minions, utilize Divine Shield minions and/or Cleave attack. Most Undead forces won’t have any defense so even if you can get your hands on a couple of Reborn/Deathrattle: summon that would be great. If we were to choose, any Beast build would be the best choice for countering Undead reborn strategy. We analyzed all undead minions in our Undead Tribe guide so be sure to check it out for more info.
Undead Build Synergies with Tavern Spells
Probably the one spell that is worth mentioning is Butchering. If you have a minion that is “annoying”, this is a perfect spell to get rid of it. Moreover, remember that casting this on your Deathrattle minions will trigger the Deathrattle permanently (reborn, stats, etc).
Pro Tip: Deathrattles always trigger BEFORE Reborn. Pay close attention to that when put Taunt on one of your Undead units. If there is no space for Reborn, the unit will not be reborn.
Naga: Deep Blue Tidemistress build
Key minions: Zesty Shaker, Deep Blue Crooner, Tidemistress Athisa
Supporting minions: Glowscale, Reef Riffer, Dagger Spine Trasher
*For more info on Nagas, check out our Naga Tribe minion guide.
There have been major changes since Season 8 when it comes to Naga units and meta builds. Low level nagas are not neccesery for this build and you can completely ignore them if you have something else that’s more useful. The first thing you need to know is that Shellemental is no longer in game so the whole build focusing on him is no longer viable meaning that Naga tribe has been heavily nerfed as that was the meta build for them. Naga comps are in a weird spot right now but, especially in low-rank games, you can still make a pretty decent build. First things first – once you get to Tier 3 and especially Tier 4, you can start assembling this build. Before that, focus getting Lava Lurker and on economy as Nagas don’t have any good economy boosting minions. The core Naga unit is still Zesty Shaker and Deep Blue Crooner followed by Lava Lurker for early game. Later on, you will get Tidemistress Athisa and all your minions will start getting buffs.
Your most important units are Tavern Tier 3 and 4 so you need to upgrade fast. The only unit from Tier 5 that you need is Glowscale but you can survive the mid-game without it easily. Try to get Deep Blue Crooner and Zesty Shaker as fast as you can – this simple combo will buff up your Lava Lurker in just a few turns. Optionally, you can also use Reef Riffer to provide support before you manage to get your hands on the key units. Once you do, be sure to cast Deep Blues on Zesty Shaker first and then on Lava Lurker. If you can get this combo early on, should try to get some defenses up and progress to Tier 6 so that you can get your Tidemistress.
Once you get your hands on Tidemistress and your Deep Blues are nicely buffed, the party is set to begin. Whatever spells you have in the end of your turn, cast them on any divine shield minion that you have and leave the strongest deep blues for your Lava Lurker.
Trinket Synergies for Deep Blue Tidemistress build
You will need Trinket support if you want to go with this build. The core Naga units are just not strong enough to survive without the help of trinkets: luckily, there are a few options. The best one to go for is Rusty Trident as you will be getting a lot of spells each turn with this one. Glowscale portrait is fine although you will need something else to scale the stats of your Nagas (like an early Tidemistress). Furthermore, if you have several Naga casting units you can always go for Lorewalker Scroll as this will give you a nice tempo boost.
Strategies for countering Deep Blue Tidemistress build
Deep Blue build has two major weaknesses: it’s slow and it’s heavily stat-based on just a few minions. Sure, you can get some Divine Shield with Glowscale later on but during most of the game, you will be playing with 5-6 Naga minions on board that don’t have any sustain except the one provided by stat boost from spells. With the changes in season 8, the best way to counter this build is to utilize Venomous minions as well as one-shot cards. Lava Lurker is by far the strongest Naga minion so if you can deal with it, the rest of the board won’t be a problem. If you don’t have access to any Venomous cards, try the Deathrattle ones to disrupt a few Divine Shields that this build might have.
There isn’t really a hard counter to this comp, but you will need to outscale your opponent with stats. Of course, Naga build is not immune to scam builds that have Transmuted Bramblewitch, Leeroy the Reckless, or Venomous Murlocs. Most of the time, there will be 2-3 big Nagas, especially Corrupted Myrmidon. Divine Shields on big Nagas can be a problem, but more often than not, you would beat this build before it gets too ramped up. Analysis of all Naga minions is available in our Naga HS BG Tribe guide.
Tavern Spell synergies with Naga Deep Blue build
First off all, focus on economy spells early on. You don’t need to spend gold on stats since you will have more than enough stats once you complete your build – but you do need to survive mid-game. Once you have your build assembeled, you can use Eyes of the Earthmother on both, Zesty Shaker and Deep Blue Crooner to further buff your stats and potential.
Pro tip: Deep Blues can be cast on minions in Bob Tavern as well so if you can’t get Zesty Shaker on the field, you can also freeze it and cast it twice while he is in the tavern.
Pro Tip: Be sure to cast Deep Blue on Zesty Shaker before you use Eyes of the Earthmother because in that way you will be able to cast the spell again and get two more in return.
Alternative Builds and Compositions for Season 8
In this section, you will see some alternatives to meta builds in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 8. The reason why they are not considered meta-builds is not their strength; all of them are strong enough to carry you to the first place. The problem is either in their low-tempo or high requirements, meaning that you can’t really go for these builds unless you get very specific minions in on a specific turn (usually early on). Nonetheless, it’s important to keep these kinds of builds in mind in order to utilize them when you have the chance.
Menagerie (all-type) Build
Key minions: Lightfang Enforcer, Amalgam (from Menagerist Hero Power)
Support minions: Mixed
The all-type build is always fun to play with and in this season it is no different. The main reason you should go for this build is because it has a good early to mid-game tempo. You will usually have a turning point in the game in which you have a few different types of minions on your board and you’re presented with an Enforcer Portrait or potentially Exquisite Dishware Trinkets. This will ramp up your stats and make sure you don’t take much damage. The main problem here is that you will probably start getting outscaled really fast by some of your opponents.
This is one of those bills that need to have a specific scenario in order to work to its fullest potential. What do we mean by this? Well, there are certain things like tribes and hero powers that can influence this build a lot. Let’s go over some of the scenarios where Menagerie all-type build with Lightfang Portrait/Exquisite Dishware seems to thrive (in the order of importance):
1. You are The Curator – Having Menagerist is the biggest factor, especially if there are Undead in the game, see below why.
2. There are Mechs in the game – It’s pretty obvious. You can attach everything to your all-types.
3. If you are The Curator and there are Undead in the game – Prostethic Hand works extremely well with Amalgam. You can put it on him and then use Disguised Graverobber to essentially duplicate your Amalgam. This is extremely powerful since you can do it indefinitely provided you have enough resources.
4. There are Dragons in the game – Persistent Poet can get a lot of permanent stuff on your all types – Divine Shield from Amber Guardian, Goldened from Yu’lon, Fortune Granter, Venomous from Operatic Belcher, Reborn from Mummifier, etc.
5. There are Murlocs in the game – Operatic Belcher is good and can give the all-types its Venomous.
6. There are either Nagas or Quillboars in the game – Just for the fact that Transmuted Bramblewitch is extremely disruptive and a two-type.
All in all, these are all the things that make Menagerie more powerful. This is why Menagerie is one of those builds that have a very strict prerequisite even before the game begins. To summarize, it’s these two factors: Are you The Curator, and what Tribes are in the game?
No-type Ironforge Anvil Build
Key minions: None, the key is getting double Ironforge Anvil
Support minions: /
One of the most interesting builds in the current meta is probably the “Anvil Build”. Basically, there are two main variations of this build. The first one is that you can get a lesser trinket that provides you either gold (Goblin Wallet) additional minions or spells (The Eye of Dalaran), basically as many resources as possible. After that, you get the Ironforge Anvil greater Trinket. The second variation of this build is to get the Souvenir Stand and then get Ironforge Anvil afterward, this is the ideal scenario, and a gigantic power spike. This will make your no-type minions have x9 times (!!!) the stats at the start of combat because the Anvil effect multiplies. At the risk of stating the obvious, this build is only possible if you happen to get the mentioned Anvil Trinket.
Generally, you will have to play around Brann Bronzebeard/Rodeo Performer/Ensorcelled Fungus/Assistant Guard. Brann is good for getting extra resources, Rodeo Performer is good for getting Spells, Spells are generally good for gaining stats/more Gold, Fungus gets stats just by casting Spells, and Taunt just gets you a lot of stats while maintaining your no-type board. Finally, throwing in Phaerix, Wrath of the Sun is also a good no-type addition.
For example, just by having a 20/20 Fungus your double Anvil will make it 180/180 at the start of the combat. That is just overpowered plain and simple. This build scales very well because of the nature of stat multiplication. The main downside is that if you’re going with double Anvil, you won’t have many resources. That is why Brann and Rodeo Performer are crucial for the extra stuff you will get from Spells. Nevertheless, just remember that this build depends only on getting that greater Trinket, especially if you manage to get double with doubletrinket.
Undead Alternative: Catacomb Caretaker
Key minions: Cadaver Caretaker, Catacomb Crasher, Titus Rivendare
Support minions: Eternal Summoner, Eternal Knight
This is a very niche build and probably too slow for any kind of high MMR game. That being said, you might have noticed several new units and trinkets in Season 8 that have a text saying “when you would summon a minion that doesn’t fit … get +x/+x“. This build focuses on that strategy – so, instead of buffing up all your minions, you will simply try to buff the ones that are in your warband. Obviously, this strategy doesn’t have the same synergy with Reborn mechanics as the meta one that we described above does; but hey, you can try this and you might end up in the first three spots in Battlegrounds. Here is how this Undead alternative comp for HS BG works.
First you need to gain some tempo. The best way to do that is to pick (if you can) Eternal Knight trinket and focus your build around them. Get as many Eternal Knights as you can and build your comp until you hit Tavern Tier 5. There, try to find your key minions: Catacomb Crasher, Cadaver Caretaker and Titus Rivendare. Surely, by now you will have some “Deathrattle:Summon” minions, preferably the Caretaker and/or Eternal Summoner as he will provide the most stat boosts if he dies early on. If not, having a Harmless Bonehead is also fine.
As with any build of this type, the more complete combo you have, the more exponential the stat growth, meaning that if you only have Caretaker + Catacomb Crasher, you will get +3/3, but if you also have a golden Monstrous Macaw and Titus, well now you will get +12/+12 or more when your Macaw attacks. In short, this build starts off slow but really pops off once you get a few more key minions to complete the combo. Your board through the middle of this build should look like this: Macaw-Caretaker-Caretaker-Crasher-Crasher-Abomination-Titus
Now, this is just a random variation, but you see where it needs to go. Just keep getting as many spillover summons to happen in order for those ghouls to do their thing. As far as Trinkets go, the best one for this build is by far Mug of the Sire, it is just made for this build. Golden (Greater) Fishy Sticker is also decent here, but you need RNG from the enemy attacks…it’s risky. All in all, it’s a very viable build that doest really require too much to get it going.
This build is a bit counterintuitive as you need to line up your forces so that the most summons don’t actually occur – you just want those buffs from the summons. Try to use Devour spell as much as you can to get rid of obsolete units and keep the buffs that they had. Keep in mind that the new minion Thundering Abomination looks like it has a synergy with this strategy, but in reality, this minion is just too slow and you really need space on your board for those summons and the units that you want to buff with the summons (that don’t occur). Titus is an obvious boost for this comp so be sure to get him as well. Good luck!
Naga Alternative: Gym Build
Key minions: Slitherspear, Lord of Gains
Supporting: Spellcraft generating Nagas
Not much has changed for Nagas in the new season, but since the latest patch, old Gym build is back! Nagas are still high-risk-high-reward tribe. The alternative Hearthstone Battlegrounds Naga build is the one in which you go for the Slitherspear, Lord of Gains with a lot of different Spellcraft generating Nagas like Glowscale, Reef Riffer and new Soft-hardened Siren. Note that these minions are used solely for gaining spells, you can use alternative ones as well if they can do the same. Later on, of course new unit Slippery Slider should be your priority as you want the cheap tavern spells as well. The idea is to have a lot of different spells at the beginning of the turn and to have 2 Slitherspear (or a golden one).
Moreover, Drakkari Enchanter will also be very important. The idea is to have 5+ different spells at the beginning of the turn and to have 2 Slitherspear (or a golden one) with Drakkari. For example, with 5 different spells*2 Slitherspears (+2/+2 for each spells)*2 (Drakkari)=20/20+ stats on all your nagas at the end of the turn. The math is mathing.
So yeah, the numbers are there, and you can scale even more with Golden minions by getting more different spells each turn. The obvious issue here is the early-mid game. Getting Nagas with different Spellcrafts will be good once you get Slitherspear, but they can be weak in the mid-stages of the game because there aren’t any good synergies. The only way to bypass this issue is actually not to play Nagas until you get Slitherspear. When we say, not to play, we mean not to focus solely on getting just Nagas. There are plenty of other options to go for – Dragons for example are pretty good in mid-game if you can buff them up. Neutral minions can be helpful as well. Just don’t waste gold on Nagas that don’t synergize with anything on your board.
Just try to get up a few Nagas up and some strong cards that can either generate some money/spells or win your battles and save your precious health. Leaping to Tier 5, getting a triple, and praying is usually how to main process goes if you want to acquire your first Slitherspear and get this build going.
Dragon Alternative: Old-School Battlecry Build
Key minions: Brann Bronzebeard
Support minions: Hunter of Gatherer, Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect
While this build isn’t really viable in the current meta, it can be good if you happen to find Brann early on. Moreover, in the recent 4.3 Patch, Hunter Gatherer got a pretty decent buff from +1 Health to +2. This is a nice little bump that can make a difference. Still, the main thing you should be looking for is Brann Bronzebeard, then Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect, and Hunter Gatherer. Brann works well with General Drakkisath and even Young Murk-Eye if you can get one. Generally, the biggest power spike in this build is, of course, getting a Triple Brann, which is much easier said than done. One Bran is okay but it’s not enough if you don’t have at least Kalecgos for commitment to this build.
After that, focus on finding a few Warpwing because you don’t want to be stuck with low-level useless Dragons when you start popping off and scaling. Finally, getting a few Taunts that keep the “attention” away from your Warpwings is also a good idea. All in all, it’s a nice “old school” Dragon build, but it is still only somewhat viable and you need to get Brann and a few other Dragons in order to actually commit. As far as Trinkets go, going for something simple early like Goblin Wallet is good, but also look for Shaman Prayer Beads, then Bronzebeard Portrait is ideal. Also, remember you can (if RNG allows it) go for Souvenir Stand and double Bronzebeard Portrait in order to be close to that precious triple Brann.
Pirate: Gold Rush Build
Key minions: Record Smuggler + Fleet Admiral Tethys, Lovestick Balladist (+Trinket)
Supporting minions: Peggy Sturdybone, Gunpowder Courier (mid-game)
The only reason why this build is here is because, technically speaking, Pirates are one of the tribes in Battlegrounds. By no chance is this a meta build – Pirates are by far the worst tribe that you can play with. They lack tempo, their end-game phase is just awful as they don’t have any reborn/divine shield capabilities, and their stat-boosting options are very questionable. Anyway, in Season 8, the most important minion is still the Record Smuggler although he has been nerfed heavily. Generally speaking, Pirates suffer from the same weakness as Dragons do: the main issue will not be your attack – but your defenses. The biggest trap is to start buying and accumulating a full pirate composition early on. There is one thing you should know – generally, there are two strategies to go for with pirates: you can either boost your basic board or you can make a build that focuses on summon/attack mechanics.
Going for Peggy Studybone and Gunpowder Courier is not very optimal if you don’t have Coin/Spell/Minion-generating stuff, like spell boosts or economy minions. Pirates like Peggy and Gunpowder Courier only work when you have a lot of Gold, which you will get only if you have Record Smuggler + Fleet Admiral Tethys. Once you have this setup, and have 20+ Gold each turn, you can start leveraging your Peggy/Gunpowder Courier, since they will actually get you a lot of stats with your buying potential.
Now, the goal is to golden your Tethys and find triples for other key pirates. On top of this, because you have a lot of Gold, buying spells like Sacred Gift will solidify your composition even further. The key to this build is not to get baited for buying early pirates (Peggy/Gunpowder Courier) that don’t give you momentum or generating capabilities, rather you need to play strong units and level up your Tavern to at least Tier 4, try to get triples and Discover Record Smuggler, you can’t really “play Pirates” unless you have a lot of Gold generation. You won’t have any Divine Shields and most of the buffs are offensive – so, once you have enough money, you will need several Lovestick Balladists to boost your defenses. The new minion called Ice Fisher is the one that can help you with tempo because of his recent changes to Tavern Tier. If you are interested in more info on Pirate minions, check out our full guide for Pirate tribe in HS BG.
This is all midgame survival. The real core of this build is if you are lucky enough to get the Balladist Portrait Trinket. When it comes to Lesser ones, a good option is to take anything that will increase either your economy or survivability. Again, the best trinket with the “Gold Rush” Balladist Portrait. It will give A LOT of stats if you have the Gold to follow it up. Now your Balladists will also grant attack, and you can see that if you have Brann and some extra gold, you can literally give 30/30 to the Cleave pirate in one turn, which is crazy. Important note: In the picture above above, the Murloc will trigger the Balladist and the can also give stats to Pirates in the Tavern!!! That’s why it’s important to end your turn without All-minion type or Pirates in the Tavern…well at least when you have that specific setup above. When it comes to Greater Pirate trinkets, these are your other two options:
- Designer Eyepatch. Generally, this trinket is really good because you will be able to get your core minions very quickly with it. Not only that, but you can also try some menagerie build if you manage to get some fun Tier 6 rewards.
- Booty Bay Brew. This trinket is pretty straighforward – it will give you a nice stat boost and hopefully, this will be enough to end up in the upper bracket of Battlegrounds.
There aren’t really too many counters once pirates reach that “infinity stage”, but there are a couple of things to keep in mind. In the not-so-late stages of the game, they probably won’t have Divine Shields, so scams with Venomous do work. Also, put a Taunt minion to the right and a weak one next to it if you play against Pirates, chances are they have Cleave. In all honesty, you probably won’t have to do anything special to counter Pirate builds.
Early/Mid game spells are kinda of sub-optimal for Pirates, except for one spell – Plunder Seeker, just make sure you have a good amount of Pirates before committing to this spell. Once you reach the point of having a lot of money, that’s where spells can win you the game. Buying the Eyes of the Earthmother is straight-up amazing for goldening your stat-boosting minions like Peggy.
Pro Tip: If you reach the late game “infinity” resources point, meaning you have more Gold than you have time, try to focus on buying and selling as fast as possible, finding Pirates that will give you stats (Peggy, Gunpowder Courier, Lovestick Balladist), tripling every Pirate on the board, and finding stat-boosting spells for all of your minions. You don’t need to buy every “profitable” because you are limited by time.
Mech Alternative: Ancestral Automaton build
This one is really simple to use once you get the hang of it. This build only requires two units (and possibly one out of three trinkets that can work with this). Of course, you need Ancestral Automaton to begin with. Furthermore, you want to buff your Automaton with two things – Divine Shield and even more importantly, reborn. You can do that with Annoy-o-module and Prosthetic Hand. Try to get as many Automatons as you can, and preferably make at least one of them golden. Luckily, you don’t need more than one if you get the right trinkets.
Now, the three main trinkets that you can use for this build are:
- Lesser Trinket: Automaton Portrait – although heavily nerfed, this trinket will keep you alive during the mid-game phase. Later on, it’s not going to be that useful as you really want the original Automaton to summon, not the stock version.
- Greater Trinket: Boom Controller – one of the two best trinkets for this build; however, you need to make sure that your Automaton dies first if you have any other mech units on the board. Keep that in mind when you align you board.
- Greater Trinket: Karazhan Chess Set – Similar to Boom Controller, you need to pay attention on your board with this one. It is rather simple though – just put Automaton on your far left side and leave one space empty for it’s plain copy to summon.
Keep in mind that you can also take Souvenir Stand or Trip Vouchers in order to double your greater trinket (hopefully Boom Controller or Karazhan Chess set).
In mid-game, try to play it as safe as possible as you won’t be needing any high level units, just buy whatever works best for your tempo. You can buff up your Tavern but it’s not crucial to do that – you really just want to survive and you want your Automaton to be re-borned several times possibly in every clash.
Once you advance to Tavern Tier 5, look for Kangor’s Apprentice. This is your second key minion as you want your Automatons to be summoned by trinkets first, then re-borned and finally reviewed by Kangor’s Apprentice. Suffice to say, you don’t want any other mech units and you especially don’t want any other mech units to die before your first two Automatons do. Keep in mind that you Kangor’s ability is Deathrattle so you can also use Titus (but it is a bit risky as you can’t cast Taunt on Kangor). Your other units on board should be scam ones – Leeroy, Bramblewitch, anything with Poison will work fine. Have fun 🙂
Beast Alternative: Animal Farm build
Key minions: Iridescent Skyblazer, Spiked Savior, Trigore The Lasher
Supporting minions: Titus Rivendare, Monstrous Macaw, Rampager
Due to recent changes in the meta, Self-inflcting build is now in optional builds section. It works exectly the same like during the last season it’s just that other builds have been buffed up so it’s not in current game meta in season 8 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds. Playing Beasts requires a bit of finesse and knowledge of the exact synergies between the minions. The upside of Beasts is that they gain strong momentum in the early game with synergies between Rampager, Irate Rooster, and Silver Goose. It can be pretty annoying to deal with the constant 2/2 hatchlings spawning. Early on, these minions as will be your key ones – but you will replace them later on if you seek a more high-end beast build.
The biggest transition you make is certainly with Iridesent Skyblazer, as it is the key minion in this composition. By utilizing the vast number of “1 damage to all your minions” effects from your minions, you can pump up a lot of stats pretty quickly with Skyblazer. Spiked Savior is also very powerful for providing even more stat-boosting momentum, Titus Rivendare works well with Spiked Savior (although this is a bit niche) if you already have Skyblazers in place. Furthermore, you can exploit this HS BG strategy by adding Monstrous Macaw to your beast comp. Keep in mind that Spiked Savior has Reborn which means that, unless your opponent has Windfury and attacks first, your Macaw will activate the Deathrattle (and Titus will trigger it an additional time). Just keep in mind that Deathrattle occurs before Reborn which means that you don’t want to have Silver Goose or any other Deathrattle minion on board except for Spiked Savior.
Another powerful minion in this combo is Trigore The Lasher, as it synergizes very well with this self-inflicting damage composition. This minion gains a massive amount of Health with this build and will probably get 50+ Health each battle, just make sure you “hide” him on the right side of your board. That said, the emphasis here is mostly on Iridescent Skyblazer, as it just works extremely well with all these Beasts and it dishes out a lot of stats.
Again, the whole point of this build is to gain momentum early on and go for the tier 4 Skyblazer, tier 5 Trigore The Lasher, and Spiked Savior possibly supported by Macaw and Titus. The pitfall here is that you kinda have to get rid of the Silver Goose, and those early game wolfs, chickens, and cats since they are not that good compared to something like 2 Spiked Saviors. A good board would consist of Spiked Saviors, Skyblazers, Lashers, and Rampagers, and getting reborn on the Spiked Saviors ASAP. Chickens, gooses, and wolves are fine and will get you a good tempo, but you really have to transition at some point (Gooses can still be utilized to counter scam Builds in some scenarios). Chances are you won’t have any Divine Shields, and if you’re up against a Scam builds, Divine Shield builds, or Undeads, Tunnel Blaster will be extremely beneficial, especially considering he only helps you even more with the self-inflicting damage.
Final Thoughts on the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Strategy for Season 8
Hopefully, this article helped you or at least gave you some new ideas when it comes to Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy for Season 8. Before we finish we want to give you a final piece of advice – these strategies are not bulletproof and there are ways to counter each of them. Don’t forget that Tavern Spells are also in the Battlegrounds and will remain an integral part of it for the time being. Feel free to change some elements of the builds in order to emerge victorious. Also, stay tuned for future updates as we test out new strategies in HS Battlegrounds Season 8. Good Luck!
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