In this guide, we will go over all the Dragon minions and explain in a bit how they work with each other, focusing on synergies and overview of each minion. You can find the full builds in our lengthy Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy guide, we will be focusing only on individual dragons here.
There is usually two main mechanics regarding dragons, “Combat stat-gaining” and Battlecry build. Just note that you will find that almost every Dragon falls into one of these categories of builds. That said, let’s dive into dragon minions and how they make the whole dragon composition work together.
Tier 1 Dragon Minions
Glim Guardian
Glim Guardian is pretty good for starting the game, and combined Thousandth Paper Drake, he can become a nice tempo unit early on. In the first few turns, the RNG factor is that if you attack first, your Glim Guardian will get buffed before the opponent attacks. Just keep in mind that you can lose first-turn battles against something like Scallywag if he attacks first.
Misfit Dragonling
The main benefit of this dragon is that he is decent in the mid-game. Getting stats from your Tavern tier is good and if you are, for example, Tier 4 and have Persistent Poet next to him, he will gain +4/+4 each turn. Overall, a somewhat weak early pick that turns decent after you level up your Tavern.
Tier 2 Dragon Minions
Blazing Skyfin
Blazing Skyfin is now a decent early-game minion with the patch buff to 2/4 stats, especially if you get a few good early-game Battlecry minions. Furthermore, if you end up playing a Murloc build, the ability will prove to be very useful once you start cycling Murlocs. The same goes for Battlecry Dragons in the mid-late game.
Thousandth Paper Drake
As we already mentioned, this minion goes perfectly with Glim Guardian. The Windfury really benefits the early game power of the combo. Other than that, the Windfury is not that useful for Dragons. Usually, Windfury is only good on Cleave minions and minions with special abilities like Glim Guardian. It’s also worth mentioning that Obsidian Ravager greatly benefits from Windfury, but that is only in niche games when you get this Tier 7 minion.
Tier 3 Dragon Minions
Doting Dracthyr
While this is a Duos-Only minion, and we mention him in our advanced Duos guide, it is in the Dragon tribe and it’s worth mentioning it. The overall consensus is that it’s not that good. The attack gain isn’t really relevant, and you are much better off picking something that grants you resources, or a key minion for a specific build.
Electric Synthesizer
Nothing much to be said here. He is good in the mid-game if you have a few Dragons, and is perfect for the late-game Battlecry Dragon build with Brann and Draconic Deathscale. Do note that you can’t really scale into late-game with this Battlecry too much because Dragons will naturally have a lot of attack from other abilities, and this Battlecry only gives you +1 Health.
Roaring Rallier
With the nerf from +2/+2 to +2/+1, the Roaring Rallier is kinda mediocre now. It pairs well with Persistent Poet, but the Health nerf really hits it hard. It’s usually good to have Thousandth Paper Drake for the Windfury, in combination with Roaring Rallier.
Tarecgosa
Tarecgosa is in a weird place right now. A while back, it was the bread and butter of Dragons, but with the Persistent Poet, the special effect of Tarecgosa is a bit diminished. Moreover, since Amber Guardian is a Tier 5 minion now, picking Tarecgosa early on is rarely a good choice. Nevertheless, it is a good minion if you have Amber Guardian, and other “combat stat-gaining” dragons.
Timecap’n Hooktail
This was a weird minion from the moment it came out. The attack gain is nice, but the randomness of spells is kinda a big factor. Nevertheless, you can get a good tempo going with Timecap’n Hooktail, and he doesn’t realize synergize that much with the whole Dragon comp. On top of that, he has been nerfed since his inception, 2/5 to 1/4, which is a big deal in the early-game tempo.
Tier 4 Dragon Minions
Nightbane, Ignited
Surely one of the best and most useful dragons that can be extremely powerful with Persistent Poet. Getting stats on Nightbane and then buffing Dragons next to Persistent Poet will give them a lot of attack. This combo, alongside Amber Guardian usually gets you a lot of attack and Divine Shields. This can be countered, but they are only tier 4 and 5 minions, so we consider this pretty powerful.
Persistent Poet
The bread and butter of the “combat stat-gaining” dragon strat. This is the key minion that will actually scale your dragons. As we already mentioned, getting Nightbane, Amber Guardian, and Prized Promo-Drake can be a very powerful mid-game build. One overlooked dragon is Hoarding Hatespawn, which saves its 10/10 stats after combat with Persistent Poet. We will explain how some other Dragons interact with Persistent Poet below.
Prized Promo-Drake
In order to get the full potential out of Prized Promo-Drake, you really do have to have a decent Dragon comp already in place. Obviously, he works the best with multiple Persistent Poets and Tarecgosas because you really want the stat gain to be permanent, otherwise, there is not much of a point in picking him up.
Tier 5 Dragon Minions
Amber Guardian
The biggest change to Amber Guardian was in patch 29.4.2, now he is a tier 5 Dragon which changes the whole “powerful early dragons” meta. He works well with Tarecgosa and Persistent Poet, but he is a high-tier minion, so that’s a minus. Of course, even if you playing the “Battlecry build”, just by having Amber Guardian and Persistent Poet, you can get Divine Shield on all your Dragons, and some decent stats as well.
Draconic Deathscale
Draconic Deathscale is the perfect minion for any Battlecry build. By itself, it’s very powerful to have a Spellcraft that triggers a Battlecry. It works amazingly with Brann and getting a General Drakkisath or Murozond will let you scale a lot in a matter of few turns, stat, and gold-wise. As we already mentioned, this Naga-Dragon minion is not limited to a Dragon build, rather it serves as an excellent Spellcraft ability in general, because there are a lot of Battecries that are powerful, like Primalfin Lookout or Lovestick Balladist.
General Drakkisath
General Drakkisath is essential to the Battlecry build and goes well with Brann, and Draconic Deathscale. Moreover, it’s a money-printing machine and will give a lot of stats once you acquire Kalecgos. It’s usually optimal to get a Triple from this Battlecry in order to find a good Tier 6 minion. Don’t forget that Young Murk-Eye also works extremely well with General Drakkisath.
Murozond
To state the obvious, this Murozond works very well with all the previously mentioned Battlecry builds. The twist here is that it works especially well if you fight an opponent that has minions that you need. If you can trigger Murozond a few times, you can get a lot of stuff from your previous opponent’s board and skyrocket your build.
Yu’lon, Fortune Granter
Yu’lon is kind of weird minion in a lot of ways. He works very well if you need specific Dragons “Goldened”, but you need Persistent Poet in order to keep the Golden status permanent (or Tarecgosa). Moreover, it targets the lowest tier Dragon, so having something low-tier that has little benefit being Goldened will waste your “permanent Goldening” ability for one turn. It works well on Minions like Tarecgosa, and Persistent Poets (you will need 2 Persistent Poets to Golden the other one obviously).
There are other hurdles as well. If you want Golden Kalecgos for example, you will need to have Persistent Poet in order to keep the enchantment permanent, but Persistent Poet is lower tier so he will get the enchantment first, and logically you will need 2 Persistent Poets in order to grant the permanent status Golden Status to each other…simply put, it can get be difficult Goldening high-tier Dragons, it’s mostly beneficial to Golden Tarecgosas and Persistent Poets for the x2 stat gain.
Tier 6 Dragon Minions
Hoarding Hatespawn
This is an interesting Dragon. It serves as an excellent tempo minion, as well as a decent scaling one if you have Persistent Poet, granting him permanent +10/+10 each turn. The special ability is pretty powerful since in a lot of cases, the stat draining is proven very useful for tempo. Moreover, this effect introduces a quirky mechanic – if the minion that Hoarding Hatespawn drains has 10 Health or less, it will instantly die before the battle starts.
This is rare because it targets the highest Health minion, but it’s sometimes good for countering full board scam builds -killing Leeroy the Reckless with this ability doesn’t trigger Leeroy’s, it just removes him from play and keeps Hoarding Hatespawn alive, which is a cool mechanic.
Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect
Finally, we have the old-school Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect. This Dragon is the main stat scaling minion for the Battlecry build and he works very well with Brann + Draconic Deathscale + General Drakkisath + other Dragons board. You will be able to have stats/minions/resources from your Battlecry’s as well as additional stats (from Kalecgos) from triggering them. This is the essence of Dragon Battlecry comp.
Tier 7 Dragon Minions
Obsidian Ravager
While it is rare to see this Dragon (only through Thorim, Stormlord’s ability), we have to mention him as he is a part of the Dragon tribe. The unique ability is one of the strongest mechanics in the game, which basically allows Obsidian Ravager to deal damage to 2 units before he takes any damage himself. This can be extremely powerful if your Ravager is high-stat and can destroy minions before they can deal damage to them (by having more Attack than the enemy’s Defense). Putting a Divine Shield on him will make it even more powerful, it’s just a shame we don’t see him more.
Photo Credits: Blizzard Entertainment
