Hearthstone Battlegrounds Strategy Guide [Season 6]

As you are probably aware, Season 6 is here and we have witnessed major changes compared to the fifth season so we have updated our Hearthstone Battlegrounds Strategy Guide. Just as a quick reminder, Season 3 featured Hearthstone Buddies, while Season 4 featured Quests. Season 5, which just finished, featured notorious Battlegrounds Anomalies but now those are gone as well. The latest installment, Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds features Tavern Spells. You can still occasionally get Buddies or Quests through specific Heroes (like Sire Denathrius) but the whole season this year will be all about Tavern Spells and how those new mechanics fit into tribe builds and current game meta.

This guide will be constantly updated as we test out the new meta builds in Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds – stay tuned!

Patch 28.2 marked the beginning of Season 6 by removing Anomalies from the game, adding over 30 new minions, bringing back several old minions, and removing 33 minions from the game. As we mentioned earlier, the biggest change in Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds is the new gameplay mechanic added to the game – Tavern Spells. We will analyze the best 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, check out our Hearthstone Battlegrounds Guide and meta builds for each tribe.

Table of Contents

General Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 6 Tips and Strategies

New game mechanics for Season 6: Tavern Spells Overview

Tavern Spells are essentially one-time use abilities that you can buy from Bob’s Tavern for various gold-cost. As season 6 started, 40 Tavern Spells became available in the Tavern. 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. We will soon be publishing our Tavern Spell Tier list but for now, 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-dump 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, Leaf Through the Pages.
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. Examples of these spells are: Brann’s Blessing, Titus’ Tribute, Primal Staff
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.

Early-game Tips

Turn 1 (3 gold): Go for Economy minions (Such as Sellemental and Shell Collector), especially in the first and third turn. If there are none, go for the one 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 attack.
Turn 2(4 gold): Upgrade to Tavern Tier 2. You 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.
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 (Freedealing Gambler 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): Based on your board, your previous opponent, and scouting your next one (scroll on the hero icon on the left side), decide if you can be greedy and upgrade to Tier 4. You will have 2 gold coins remaining if you simply upgrade so it would be best if you had some economy units or saved gold before that so that you can buy an extra minion before ending the turn. Do not upgrade if you feel that you are weak and are going to take damage next turn.
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 choose the desired build at this point. 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 the 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 on 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.
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 Mech Magnetization or Deep Blue Naga. Remember, you don’t have to end up on Tavern Tier 6 in order to win the game.
Fortune Favors The Bold – RNG does not. If you don’t have the key minions and you see that you might take damage again next turn – pull the plug on going for the first place and go with the contingency build at this point. If you are going for a contingency build, spells are a must-have as they can quickly buff up your board so that you stop losing Heatlh. Do not upgrade and try to simply boost stats and obtain as many Venomous minions as you can get (unless your next opponent is going with the Undead or Mech build). 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 (e.g. Fairy Tale Coroler).

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 Mad Matador. 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 Sacred Gift. Depending on whether your build is complete, consider spending Gold to boost your forces with these Tavern Spells.
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.

Naga: Deep Blue Build

Key minions: Zesty Shaker, Deep Blue Crooner, Lava Lurker
Supporting minions: Glowscale, Reef Riffer, Dagger Spine Trasher

There haven’t been major changes since Season 5 when it comes to Naga units and meta builds. The Glad-iator is still your main support Tier 3 unit as well as Daggerspine Trasher. The core Naga unit is still Zesty Shaker and Deep Blue Crooner followed by Lava Lurker.

Your most important units are Tavern Tier 2, 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, you don’t even need any Tier 6 units so you don’t have to upgrade at all.

However, the new Tier 6 Naga unit called Slitherspear, Lord of Gains doesn’t seem to have a lot of impact on the Naga build except for giving additional stats if you manage to get it early in the game, but still, the +1/+1 stat gain effect is not sufficient enough for this kind of minion.

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.

Strategies for countering Deep Blue Naga 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 6, 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.

Tavern Spells to use with Deep Blue build

As we discussed earlier, the major weakness of this build is dependence on a few cards. Luckily, there are Tavern Spells that can be used to overcome this – Discovery and Economy ones. To gain a bit of momentum, you can utilize The Glad-iator in combination with some low-cost and low-commitment spells like Tavern Coin in order to get the more Attack on The Gladiator. This can be good for gaining small momentum for your next step. After that, you need to get your Deep Blue Crooner + Zesty Shaker combo ASAP in order to secure the late-game build. Of course, if you can use Discovery spells to roll for one of those two minions (like with Planar Telescope), that should be your priority. Deep Blue build is highly stat-based so you don’t need any stat-boosting spells. The same thing goes for Utility Tavern spells since most of your “utility” abilities will come from your own spells that your minions provide. You just need to get them as soon as possible.

Quilboar: Tough Bristlebach build

Key minions: Prickly Piper, Tough Tusk, Bristlebach
Supporting minions: Mangled Bandit, Bongo Bopper, Snarling Conductor, Moon-Bacon Jazzer

When it comes to Quilboars, not much has changed since Season 5 – the only difference is the way in which Bloodgems are generated. The basic premise of this meta build still remains the same – Moon-Bacon Jazzer and Prickly Piper are to boost your Blood Gems so that you can increase stats on your army with them while other minions generate Blood Gems for you. Generally speaking, there are two ways to generate Blood Gems. The simplest but the slowest way is to use Chargla and Bannerboar while having Drakkari Enchanter on board. As you can see, this is pretty tricky and it requires specific, high-tier minions to work.

In Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 6, the new mechanics for Quilboar minions has been added: discarding spells in order to get Blood Gems or Gold. This can be done by using Mangled Bandit and Snarling Conductor all while Briarback Bookie and/or Bongo Bopper generate Blood Gems to be discarded. Since Blood Gems are considered as “spells”, Mangled Bandit actually gives two new Blood Gems in this way and it’s a good deal to use Snarling Conductor to boost your economy (you get 3 gold for the price of one Blood Gem). You can also discard Tavern Spells – just be sure to buy the cheap ones for that.

The biggest issue with this build is the low mid-game survivability – it will take some time for Prickly Piper and Moon-Bacon Jazzer to boost your Blood Gems so you have to provide some sustain while that happens. Utilizing Divine Shield minions such as Tough Tusk and Bristleback Knight is a good Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy when it comes to this matter. Furthermore, Transmuted Bramblewitch is a great one-shot minion that can provide additional support.

As the game progresses, should the opportunity arise, you can go with a combo Withered Spearhead with Taunt and Bristlebach as this will provide an enormous boost in combat (unless your opponent snipes Bristlebach in which case this tactic falls apart).

The idea is as follows: Move all Tough Tusks on the far left side and all Withered Spearhides and other minions with Taunt on the right while having Bristlebach on the far right (check out the image above). In this way, your Tough Tusks will break Divine Shield when they attack but it will get regenerated as soon as the opponent kills your taunt minions because Bristlebach will play a Blood Gem on everyone, renewing the shield on Tough Tusk. It sounds tricky but once you get used to it, it’s a pretty simple battlegrounds strategy.

Pro Tip: Pay close attention to discarding priority if you have only one Blood Gem and both Mangled Bandit and Snarling Conductor on board. You want Mangled Bandit to discard first so that you get three new Blood Gems after which Snarling Conductor can discard one Blood Gem and provide 3 Gold next turn. Move Mangled Bandit left from Snarling Conductor for this priority to occur.

Tips for countering Quilboar builds

The main advantage of any Quilboar build is its high stat boost combined with Divine Shield. Luckily, not all Quilboar minions have Divine Shield – and it’s usually going to be the first two minions that attack. This is where your counter lies – use Taunt if you can on minion(s) that are the weakest on your side and move them far right. If you can’t, try to use reborn minions on your second or third position from the left side, hoping to snipe Divine Shield ones.

Tavern Spell synergies with Quilboar builds

Since most of your key minions are rather high-tier, you need to survive until you get them. Spells can come in handy, especially because you will have one or more Tough Tusks with Divine Shield as your main power through mid-game. Try to use stat-boosting spells to increase their stats. Using Economy spells is also a viable option – you can even buy a cheap spell and turn it into an economy one by letting Snarling Conductor discard it and giving 3 Gold in the process. Tempo is the key for this build so try not to fall behind – if you can’t get the desired minons, don’t refresh into oblivion, use spells to boost your army instead.

Pirate: Audacious Smuggler build

Key minions: Record Smuggler
Supporting minions: Blade Collector, Gunpowder Courier

Not much has changed when it comes to the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Pirates meta builds in Season 6 compared to Season 5. All the main minions are still the same and there are slight differences when it comes to mid-game.

The most important minions are still Tier 5 and Tier 4: Record Smuggler and Blade Collector. Record Smuggler is your number one priority and you need to obtain it in mid-game if you are hoping to achieve anything with this pirate build. Everything else you do has to be in service of just acquiring this card – once you have it, you will be able to spend double or triple amounts of gold per turn and you will easily get all the other buffs that you need. The other key card is Blade Collector as it provides massive offensive capabilities and is easily buffed by Gunpowder Courier, Bloodsail Cannoneer or Peggy Studybone.

The main issue will not be your attack – but your defense. You won’t have any Divine Shields and most of the buffs are offensive – so, once you have enough money, you will need several Lovesick Balladist in order to boost your defenses. Again, as we mentioned before, none of this will be a problem if you get a Record Smuggler early on.

In our example, we also utilized new minion in season 6, Phaerix, Wrath of the Sun because we needed some Divine Shield protection. Another good tip is to use Audacious Anchor and move it on a far-right position so that it snipes something that your opponent doesn’t want to die.

This build is not perfect, but it is the current meta for this Pirate Build. Note that there is another potential pirate build that we will talk about soon – the so-called Ongoing Scallywag build. Stay tuned.

Pro tip: if you can’t get Blade Collector, you can use Underhanded Dealer as your key unit since it will get massive buffs from Record Smuggler and other money-gaining units that Pirates have.

Strategy for countering Pirate Build

When it comes to countering this build, the key is, as always, to exploit the greatest weakness. As we mentioned earlier, the biggest weakness is the lack of any kind of defensive capabilities – Pirates have very low defense and almost no Reborn/Deathrattle/Divine Shields. The first thing you need to do is to neutralize the cleave attack that comes from Blade Collector – use taunt minions and move it far right, adjected to the weakest minion you have on board. The second thing you want to do is use any kind of Reborn or Deathrattle: summon minions in order to kill off pirates with low defense. The rest of the board won’t be a problem after that.

Tavern Spell synergies with Pirate builds

Unless you are super lucky, you will need to utilize Tavern Spells in order to get to first 3 places in Hearthstone Battlegrounds with this Pirate build. Early on you can go for economy minions but as soon as you enter the mid-game, you need to have a full-board at all times. Pirates are probably the weakest units in mid-game right now so you need to utilize Tavern Spells that boost their stats and try to Discover the key minions so that you don’t have to rely on spells anymore. Once you get your key minions, you won’t really need any spells as you will be too busy buying and selling minions in order to spend all the Gold that Record Smuggler is generating.

Demon: Insatiable Tichondrius build

Key minions: Soul Rewinder, Malchezaar, Prince of Dance, Tichondrius
Supporting minions: Wrath Weaver, Famished Felbat

Demons have been in Battlegrounds Meta for quite some time. Ever since the old season 3 Bat-build was replaced, the players have been utilizing Demons a lot. Your strongest minion remains Famished Felbat but other Demon minions will provide enough support and tempo in order to survive until you get him.

The desired Demon Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy starts with you getting Soul Rewinder. The most common mistake players make is trying to buff up Wrath Weaver – although it is very strong in the beginning, it really can’t keep it up and you should sell it as soon as you get your key minions later on. Sure, you can get him and use him early on and in mid-game but he should not be your key minion. What you need to think about with this strategy is the space that you have on board – it will be crowdy and you need at least one spot free in order to buy/sell demons and further buff the rest of your board. When it comes to Tier 3 minions, if you can, get Legion Overseer as you will need those Tavern buffs later. All-player favorite and Felemental is also a good option at this point.Dreadbeard is kind of an economy minion that you can use since it does have synergy with the rest of this Hearthstone Battlegrounds meta build.

However, your main goal is to get Malchezaar, Prince of Dance, and Tichondrius which is an insanely strong combo. You will be getting buffs every turn on all your demon minions plus 2 or 4 free refreshes every turn. This will allow you to provide more than enough sustain until you get the Famished Felbat although one might argue that you don’t actually need it in order to win. Once you and the Demons in Tavern are buffed up nicely, you can sell Tichondrious and Wrath Weaver so that you can buff additional Demons in the end stage of the game.

New Tier 4 Demon minion, Bazaar Dealer, looks really cool – it is not a crucial part of your build but if you can get it early on, it will make a huge difference as it will provide massive boosts to Tavern minions.

Pro tip: Peckish Felldrake is basically an at least 10/10 minion that will provide you with enough tempo to push through the critical mid-game phase.

Strategies for countering Demon build

To be frank, although Demon builds are powerful stat-vise, they are also vulnerable to everything else – especially the Venomous effect. Virtually no Demon minion has Divine Shield or Reborn (most don’t have Deathrattle as well). Obviously, this is your main counter – use whatever venomous minions that you can find against any Demon build. Also, Mechs work great against Demons if the stat difference is not insanely high.

Tavern Spells for Tichondrious Build

Since this is a heavy stat-based build, you don’t need those spells. What you do need are economy spells early on (before you get Malchezaar) and Utility ones later on. Demons suffer from the lack of Divine Shield so if you can try to obtain it through spells (you can also replace hero power through spells in order to do so). If you can’t get any good Utility spells, go with the discovery ones or trigger Battlecries from discovery demon units such as Mecha-Jaraxxus in order to trigger Insatiable Ur’zul’s effect. What you can also do is add Taunt to your weakest minion as your opponent will probably assume that Insatiable Ur’zul is your only minion with Taunt and try to take it down.

Murloc: Mrrrglr Scam build

Key minions: Bream Counter, Bassgill
Supporting minions: Choral Mrrrglr

Just by reading the patch notes, we can already see that Murlocs have remained pretty much unchanged in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 6. The core build remains the same: It is two-folded in a way that you get some stats through several minions in order to survive the mid-game and use high-end venomous minions later on.

For the first, stat-based 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 just note that you will probably sell them later on. Diremuck Forager should be used only early on as you will get Bassgill soon. The problem with Diremuck Forager is the fact that it doesn’t work well with Murcules and Scourfin since it summons the minion immediately. That being said, this should provide enough tempo to keep you going through mid-game. But the real party begins once you get Choral Mrrrglr and as many Wayward Grimscales and Operatic Belchers as you can. This combo will provide you the upper hand in the Battlegrounds Arena providing that you can live long enough to buff the Bream Counter and obtain all the Venomous minions. The main problem with the build is the fact that it’s slow and you need many cards in order to complete it. Obviously, this build is very high as it requires Tier 4, 6, and 7 minions but the potential is just astonishing.

Pro tip: Unless you somehow acquired Brann very early, go with the Deathrattle Murloc build instead of Battlecry one. The thing with the other build is that it just doesn’t provide enough stat boost to win. Sure, you can use those minions but don’t rely on them too much.

Strategies for countering Murloc build

The main power from this build comes from a combo of Venomous units and stat-boosted ones. 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 own Venomous minions on the right side, hoping that you get Choral Mrrrglr or Bream Counter with them.

Spells to use with Murloc Scam Build

Generally speaking, the Murloc scam 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 in order 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 on Primalfin Lookout. Furthermore, having Divine Shield on a Venomous is great so if you can, try to get that as well.

Elemental: Refreshing Brainstormer build

Key minions: Recycling Wrath
Supporting minions: Dancing Brainstormer, Rock Rock, Elemental of Surprise

Elementals have been underdogs in Seasons 4 and 5 and it seems like this trend will continue throughout Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds. The main issue with any Elemental build is the fact that it’s heavily stat-based – there is very little room for any kind of sustain in terms of Divine Shield, Reborn, or Venomous minions (at least not until the very late-game phase). Be it as it may, one thing is certain – you need Recycling Wrath and you need it fast. It would be perfect if you could acquire Dancing Brainstormer early on as you will need his buffs later on. Don’t forget, Nomi the Kitchen Nightmare is removed from the Hearthstone Battlegrounds so Dancing Brainstormer is your main way of buffing Tavern Stats along with Spells.

Furthermore, Party Elemental can offer a certain level of protection and sustain while in mid-game but he can’t be the only unit you rely on. After you get Recycling Wraith and Dancing Brainstormer it’s all about survival and upgrading to Tavern Tier 6. There are no straightforward tactics here as the whole point is just to survive so it depends on how strong your opponents are. You will be able to refresh and aquire golden minions so try to get as many Flourishing Frostlings as you possibly can since they will probably be your main stat source.

Once you get to turn 6, you should just keep getting as many Elemental minions as you possibly can, focusing on economy ones since Rock Rock will buff up your army pretty well. Be careful how you use Elemental of Surprise because you want him to merge with one of your strongest units – preferably Wildfire Element.

Pro Tip: Don’t use Emergent Flame unless you Refresh at least 5 times. It’s better to stack them and use them once you know which Elemental will get the Divine Shield (from Elemental of Surprise)

Strategies for countering Elemental builds

All kinds of Elemental builds in Season 6 have one thing in common – they are all stat-based besides Elemental of Surprise. This is why we say that Elementals are nerfed – it is very easy to counter them, especially with so many Venomous and one-shot minions. If you are facing a heavily buffed Elemental army don’t try to counter them with stats – use one-shot minions instead. Move anything with venom or one-shot ability to the left side to counter strong Taunt Elementals. Get at least one Taunt minion and move it far right in order to counter potential Divine Shield or Transmuted Bramblewitch. The rest of the Elemental army should be easy enough to take care of – any kind of Beast, Murloc, Undead, or Mech build should have no problems dealing with Elementals unless the stat difference is insanely high.

Tavern Spell synergies with Refreshing Brainstormer build

Elementals are probably one of the weakest tribes early on. They don’t have any kind of utility support and their stats are pretty horrible before they get buffed up. Luckily, Land Lubber can help you out with that issue. This minion will basically double the number of Tavern Spells making spell casting much easier for Elementals. You will have a choice of various spells and you should go for Economy and Stat-based spells early on. You need to boost your board as much as you can in order to survive the mid-game. Using spells for this build is not optional, it’s absolutely crucial in most matches. Unless you are super lucky, you will need to boost your army before you get all the required minions for the Refreshing Brainstormer build (and before the stat boosts actually kick in).

Dragon: Drakkaris build

Key minions: Drakkari Enchanter, Razorgore the Untamed, Emerald Proto-Whelp, Amber Guardian
Supporting minions: Upbeat Frontdrake, Bronze Sandspewer

We just have to say it – the new Dragons look pretty strong. We know that Dragon builds have been changing a lot ever since the (infamous) removal of Tarecgosa in Season 5. Now, it looks like there are too many potential builds floating around: Battlecry and end-of-turn build. Battlecry one looks very situational and highly unreliable so we will deal with it separately, in the bonus build section. When it comes to Dragon build meta that’s for sure end-of-turn build “Drakkaris Build”.

The basic premise goes like this: you will get several Dragon minions with the end-of-turn abilities and boost those abilities with Drakkari Enchanter as soon as you can. The offensive power of this Hearthstone Battlegrounds meta build will be boosted by Amber Guardian providing Divine Shields. That’s about it – but it’s easier said than done. Early on, you should get your hands on Upbeat Frontdrake and Emerald Proto-Whelp if you can since they will provide a base ground for what comes next. You need Bronze Sandspewer as well during mid-game since you want to start buffing him as soon as you can. Getting Razorgore the Untamed is your main task and finishing the build with (preferably golden) Drakkari Enchanter.

The good thing is that this build is not so high-end since the highest minion is Tier 5. The bad thing is that you can’t waste much gold on constant refreshing to get Razorgore so be sure to always have a full board so that you don’t lose too much Health until you complete the build. Remember, even once the build is complete, it will take several turns for the buffs to settle in so surviving mid-game is a must.

Pro Tip: Note that the new unit Ignition Specialist is really useful with Drakarris build since its ability is also end-of-turn. The synergy between him and Tavern Spell called Primal Staff can go back-and-forth.

Dragon Drakkaris Build counters

Since it relies on Divine Shield and heavy offensive power, the obvious solution would be to go with any kind of Murloc, Undead, or Beast build (of course, you can also just buy a Tunnel Blaster and be done with it). Be sure to use Taunt on your weakest minion (or get a minion with taunt) and move it far to the right since you don’t want to waste anything on Divine Shield attacks. Once you deal with their Divine Shields, the rest of the army will just break as the defensive capabilities of Dragons are very limited.

Tavern Spells to use for Drakkaris build

Economy. That’s what you need with Dragons – they are quite an “expensive” build since no units are economy units in this build. Besides the economy tavern spells, you can also use stat-boosting ones, especially early on, in order to survive the mid-game. Your Dragon units will be gaining stats later on, once the build is complete, but during mid-game this can be a problem. Having additional support from spells is a logical thing to do at this point.

Mech: Copter Magnetization build

Key minions: Deflect-o-bot, Cogworth Coopter
Supporting minions: Polarizing Beatboxer, Accord-o-Tron, Cogworth Copter

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 Season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds, your key minions remain magnetization ones, Lullabot and Accord-o-Tron preferably boosted by Cogwork Copter and magnetized on Deflect-o-Bot. However, in order to successfully implement this Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy, you will need Scrap Scraper first. The main idea of this build is to always have one magnetization minion in your hand that will continuously get boosted by Cogwork Copter. If you have a Scrap Scraper on the field this shouldn’t be a problem as that means that you need to buy one magnetization minion every second turn in order not to fall behind this power boost. The potential of this build is just insane as you will be getting huge amounts of gold every turn, stat boost as well as Divine Shields on all your units if you get all the magnetization that is needed.

Another good support minion that you can use is Adaptable Baricade. If you can, you should try to buff it up because the potential of this minion is high, especially compared to other minions of the same Tavern Tier. If you can get it and buff it early on, it is capable of dealing with several enemies all by itself.

Pro Tip: In order to survive mid-game, you should focus on Deflect-o-bot as this unit will provide enough suppressive firepower in order to get the other units that you need to complete the build.

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 Copter Magnetization build

The biggest issue of this build is the fact that it takes time for the minions to get buffed up nicely. Furthermore, you will be crippled because you need to keep one minion in hand for several turns before using it so that Copter’s effect can take place. Tavern Spells can help you with this – 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.

Undead: Kel’Thuzad, the Mummifier build

Key Minions: Archlich Kel’Thuzad, Anub’arak, Nerubian King, Mummifier
Supporting Minions: Champion of the Primus

The tribe build that has seen most changes in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 6 is the Undead one. The whole meta has changed when it comes to Undead and several new key units are in place. The basic premise of the build still remains the same: high-attack minions with refreshing Reborn abilities. However, the way in which this is done has completely changed and this is probably the most difficult build in Hearthstone Battlegrounds to understand.

First of all, we need to address the elephant in the room and that’s the Grave Gobler. Its unique ability to destroy the left Undead minion at the start of your turn is actually a new Hearthstone Battlegrounds mechanic. You need to be aware of several facts about this: Grave Gobler’s ability will trigger a Deathrattle if a minion has one. This can be a good thing if you use it for example on Harmless Bonehead as you will get two 1/1 Skeletons instead of him. Furthermore, if you sacrifice another Harmless Bonehead you will get the triple plus one more regular Skeleton. The same thing will happen if you have two same Reborn units and Grave Gobler eats one of them – you will get a triple. However, if he eats a random Reborn unit, that units Reborn will activate and you will be left with a unit without Reborn and with 1 Defense point.

Things get tricky when you obtain Archlich Kel’Thuzad. His ability happens at the end of your turn so pay close attention on 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. If you look at the build above, you will see that Kel’thuz destroyed Moroes, Stewart of Death and since we had no room on board, no additional copies were made. However, Kel’thuzad also destroyed Mummifier so the Reborn effect was restored on Moroes.

Now that you understand how the new “destroy” mechanics work, let’s see the rest of the build. Same as in season 5, 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.

Pro Tip: New unit Steadfast Spirit is simply not strong enough considering the fact that it’s Tier 4 so you should stay away from it. It’s better to spend Gold on useful spells than on this. We are sure it will get reworked in one of the next patches.

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.

Undead Build Synergies with Tavern Spells

As you can see, this build is pretty high-end. Your key minion is on Tavern Tier 6 so you need some sustain until you get there. By Utilizing Discovery spells and various Utility ones (especially the ones that trigger Deathrattle effects) you will be able to survive mid-game. Once your build is complete, you can just focus on getting new spells and increasing stats on your minions. Undead minions will keep buffing as long as you are triggering their Deathrattle effects so you can focus on providing additional support to your army once the build is complete.

Beast: Banana Bear build

Key minions: Banana Slamma, Mama Bear
Supporting minions: Octosari, Wrap God

Note: We are still testing the meta build for Beasts. For now, you can use a rework of a previous build that has been nerfed in season 6 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds.

Battleground tactics revolving around Beasts have always been heavily dependent on the RNG element of the game. In the past, it was not so rare to see a complete beast-build miserably failing just because opponents unit have sniped their main minion. Most players choose to go with the Hearthstone battlegrounds strategy that revolves around Banana Slamma. This unit can be so broken, especially combined with Octosari, Wrap God and Mama Bear as the effects can stack and provide a massive stat bonus. The problem comes as we mentioned if one of your key units gets killed early on, so you need to do is provide enough cover with taunt and Reborn in order to avoid this. Another problem is that both of these units, Mama Bear and Banana Slamma have been heavily nerfed in previous patches. The build mechanics are the same it’s just that it’s weaker now as Banana Slamma is on Tier 5 instead of Tier 4 and Mama Bear gives +3/+3 instead of +4/+4 when you summon a Beast.

Another unit that you can use here is Free Flying Featherman as it doesn’t disrupt the main board lineup since it’s summoned from hand during the combat so you should definitely get it. On another hand, Tier 5 unit Niuzao is a very situational unit and if not acquired very early, it doesn’t provide much sustain. That being said, since Tavern Spells are here, you can use Niuzao as the means of survival during mid-game if you can’t buff it later on.

Strategies for countering Beast build

As we mentioned earlier, Beast Build heavily focuses on key units like Banana Slamma and Mama Bear – so you need to take those down if you plan on winning the combat. Sometimes it’s just not possible and completely up to RNG element for sure but there are things you can do to increase your chances of sniping those two minions. Try to use cleave minions if there are any available – chances are beast key minions won’t have a high initial defense. If you can, use Windfury on your second minion from the left side as probably there is a Taunt and a Reborn Taunt minion in the beast build so you are hoping that on your third strike, you might take down a key unit. Avoid venomous builds against Beast – and if you have some put them on your right side.

Tavern Spells for Beast Build

There are many problems with this build, including the fact that you need several high-tier minions in a specific order for this to work. Spells can somewhat help if you use them to discover new minions and try to obtain the ones that you need. Besides that, you can try to buff-up your forces early on as you will probably have the same lineup of minions later in the game so stats won’t go to waste.

Final Thoughts on the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Strategy for Season 6

Hopefully, this article helped you or at least gave you some new ideas when it comes to Hearthstone battlegrounds strategy for Season 6. 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 they are so chaotic that entire gameplay can be changed. 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 season 6. Good Luck!