Hearthstone Battlegrounds Strategy Guide [Season 7]

Season 7 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds has begun on April 16th! 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.

This guide focuses on regular Hearthstone Battlegrounds, and we will update it weekly. For Duos, check out our full HS BG Advanced Duos Guide.

Patch 29.2 marked the beginning of Season 7 by removing Quests from the game, adding over 50 new minions, bringing back 15 old minions, and removing 63 minions from the game. The biggest change in Season 7 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds is the addition of a new gameplay mod to the game – Battlegrounds Duos. As we mentioned before, we will publish a different guide for Battleground duos as gameplay mechanics are much different than in the regular mod, including the build types.

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.

Table of Contents

General Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 7 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 Brann’s Blessing.
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): Most economy minions have been reworked and are now Tier 2. In season 7, 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 (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 1 Gold 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 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.
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 Sacred Gift. 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.

Beast: Animal Farm build

Key minions: Iridescent Skyblazer, Trigore The Lasher
Supporting minions: Rampager, Spiked Savior, Irate Rooster, Silver Goose

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. The biggest transition you make is certainly with TIridesent 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.

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. Getting something like Untameabull is also nice, but it is not a key minion like the Skyblazer, so there isn’t as much incentive to go for Tier 6 minions as it is with some other builds like Lord of Gains Naga.

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. 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).

Strategies for countering Beast builds

These Beasts are pretty versatile. Scam builds are okay because they don’t have Divine Shields except on Untameabull, but if he summons 2//2 Gooses, it can cause big problems against Scam builds. Usually, the late-game builds like Murlocs, or Quillboars will most likely outscale these Beasts since the stat scaling isn’t really the best at the very end stages of the game, compared to other comps, plus they lack Divine Shields.

Spells to use for self-infliction Beast build

The new Eyes of the Earthmother Spell is extremely good because goldening your Skyblazer is a must. Of course, trying to get Sacred Gift is another option, but since you really don’t have much incentive to go for Tier 6, this will be an afterthought.

Pro Tip: 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.

Quillboar: Blood Gem Madness build

Key minions: Chargla, Gem Smuggler, Bongo Bopper, Drakkari Enchanter
Supporting minions: Moon-Bacon Jazzer, Snarling Conductor, Prickly Piper, Draconic Deathscale, Rylak Metalhead

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 or Draconic Deathscale is a good way to pump up Health on Blood Gems.

One new way of getting stats on Blood Gems is with Pokey Thornmantle and a Drakkari Enchanter if you happen to find one. Do note that this is really bad for tempo because you get a tier 6 that is essentially useless for a few turns. 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). 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 around Gem Smuggler with Draconic Deathscale, 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. This won’t really matter much if you’re getting those buffed-up gems with your Quillboars, but Geomagus Roogug is worth a mention since it gets you that much-needed midgame power spike. Casting a few upgraded Bloodgems on him 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.

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 (with reborn from Hateful Hag) 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. Sacred Gift is an obvious choice but consider its price. 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, Insatiable Ur’zul
Supporting minions: Slimy Felblood, Man’ari Messenger, Fiery Felblood, Malchezaar, Soul Rewinder, Bazaar Dealer (Resources)

Demons in Season 7 have a lot of interesting changes. The spotlight is on Slimy Felblood, Man’ari Messenger, Fiery Felblood, and False Implicatior. These minions change the way Demons are played. Now, you can actually somewhat commit to a Tavern stat-boosting build earlier in the game. Before, you kinda needed Famished Felbat or at least Insatiable Urzul to scale anything when we are talking about the “tavern-stat” build. Fiery Felblood just feels too powerful right now, and Slimy Felblood and Man’ari Messenger are extremely good paired with Draconic Deathscale or 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 goal is to get Felmish Bat, but also a few of Cultist S’Thara.

The problem you have here is that you need to find some Demons that will provide you extra resources. Malchezaar, Prince of Dance and Bazaar Dealer + Soul Rewinder is one way which will secure you that extra resource boost. Getting powerful free spells and 2-4 free refreshers will propel you to get Famished Felbat and reborn. 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.

Counters for Demon build

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), Eyes of the Earthmother (Golden Malchezaar or Imp), and Divineshield (You don’t have them). Moreover, Demonspell is also very good and will provide you with that extra eating power.

Dragon: Ignited Poet Guardian build

Key Minions: Persistent Poet, Nightbane Ignited, Amber Guardian, Prized-Promo Drake
Support Minions: Tarecgosa, Hoarding Hatespawn

Dragons have been in a weird spot in the last season and things are no different in Season 7 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 7 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 vast in this dragon build, as new unit Nightbane, Ignited will give an enormous attack each turn, especially when paired with 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. You don’t need to upgrade to Tavern Tier 5 at all and especially not to Tavern Tier 6 as the only minion that can help you from those Tiers is Hoarding Hatespawn. Sure, if you can somehow get him early on and pair it with Persistent Poet, Hoarding Hatespawn will be buffed up but most of the time this won’t be the case.

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.

Counters for Smolderwing Dragons build

Generally, late-game stat builds are hard counters. They can’t really scale like some other tribes like Quillboars, Nagas, or Murlocs. Undeads give them trouble because of low-hp. 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 Smolderwing 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: Never put Tarecgosa next to Persistent Poet as you will be wasting the poet’s effect on Tarecgosa. She will get the buff anyway so move the Poet away from her.

Pirate: Gold Rush Build

Key minions: Record Smuggler + Fleet Admiral Tethys
Supporting minions: Peggy Sturdybone, Gunpowder Courier, Lovestick Balladist

In Season 7, the most important minion is still the Record Smuggler. Although Record Smuggler is your number one priority, Season 7 introduced a new Minion – Long John Copper, which can be your “mini Record Smuggler” earlier in the game. Also, with Pirates, the main issue will not be your attack – but your defense. The biggest trap is to start buying and accumulating a full pirate composition early on.

Going for Peggy Studybone and Gunpowder Courier is not very optimal if you don’t have Coin/Spell/Minion-generating stuff, like Long John Copper+Rampager. 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.

Strategies for Countering Pirate build

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.

Spells to use with Pirate build

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 new Eyes of the Earthmother is straight-up amazing for goldening your stat-boosting minions like Peggy. Of course, Sacred Gift is an obvious choice here, especially since gold isn’t an issue and you don’t have any Divine Shields naturally.

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 Divine Shield spell for all of your minions. You don’t need to buy every “profitable” because you are limited by time.

Murloc: Mrrrglr build

Key minions: Bream Counter, Choral Mrrrglr, Bassgill
Supporting minions: Primalfin Lookout, Young Murk-eye, Brann Bronzebeard, Rylak Metalhead, Draconic Deathscale

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 7. 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 Very Hungry Winterfinner, Scourfin, and Murgl Mk II, 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 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/Draconic Deathscale/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.

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.

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. Furthermore, having Divine Shield on a Venomous is great so if you can, try to get that as well.

Pro tip: When deciding on Murlocs, look at what Tribes are currently in the game. Since Rylak Metalhead/Draconic Deathscale are very important, having Beasts and Nagas/Dragons in the game means you can get these minions that will help Primalfin Lookout.

Naga: Gym build

Key minions: Slitherspear, Lord of Gains + Drakkari Enchanter
Supporting: Spellcraft generating Nagas

Not much has changed for Nagas in the new season, they are still high-risk-high-reward tribe. The best 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. Not 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 Silivaz The Vindictive should be your priority. 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 Enchanter)=20/20+ stats on all your nagas at the end of the turn. The math is mathing for Nagas in Hearthstone Battlegrounds season 7.

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.

Tips for Countering Naga Gym build

There isn’t really a hard counter to this comp, but you will need to outscale your opponent with stats. Of course, Naga Gym 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.

Tavern Spell synergies with Naga Gym build

Try to get as many different ones with as little cost (Overconfidence, Fleeting Vigor, Tavern Coin, etc) as possible each turn. Above all else, the idea is to get as much value from Slitherspear as possible. Other than that, Sacred Gift will also be crucial against high-stat and scam builds. Spells that give you stat-boosts in mid-game can also be a good option.

Pro Tip: New Naga minion Draconic Deathscale is an extremely versatile unit and you should get it if you can, no matter what lineup you have on the board in mid-game. There are at least 4 builds that focus on this minion and even if you don’t go for any of them, you can still use this unit as a sustain or gold-generating minion until the late stage of the game.

Undead: Kel’Thuzad, the Mummifier build

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

Another tribe that hasn’t seen many changes in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 7 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. In order to do that, first of all, we need to address the elephant in the room and that’s the The Uninvited Guest. 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: Shadows are indeed Undead units and they will keep the buffs that your other Undead minions have. This comes with a catch: Shadows will spawn before your reborns do. They will also spawn before your other summons are spawn. That means that, if you are relying on eternal summons from Eternal Knight and Eternal Summoner unless there is room available at the end of the sequence, Eternal Knights won’t summon. The same goes for your Reborn units.

There is no way you can play this safe. As you can see on the print screen above, I did have Uninvited Guest at the end of that match. Luckily I won, but I gambled on how the summons would appear. Generally speaking, The Uninvited Guest is a good unit just keep in mind that it can throw your game completely off if RNG is not in your favor.

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.

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

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.

Mech: Fiery Beatboxer build

Key minions: Deflect-o-bot, Polarizing Beatboxer
Supporting minions: Magnetization mechs, Fiery Felblood, Scrap Scraper

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 7, things are the same for meta in that way but Mechs got buffed from an unexpected ally: A demon-elemental unit called Fiery Felblood. 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. The newest mech minion Zilliax is really good, not because of its effect or stats (although they are pretty strong), but because it’s easy to make a triple out of it. Furthermore, if you can choose, the best Zilliax triple for this mech comp would be Zilliax: Defense Module + Zilliax: Crystal Module + Zilliax Claw Module. Assembling Zilliax modules like that will give you a golden, Divine Shield, Reborn, Taunt minion (and a triple reward).

Another good support minion that you can use is Whirling Lass-o-Matic. If you can, you should try to buff it up because the potential of this minion is high. If you can get it and buff it early on, it is capable of dealing with several enemies all by itself all while providing support with spell-generating ability that he has.

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 Untameabull is an okay minion to have in this build but he is not a must. If you can, get him early on, but other than that, there are better options.

Elemental: Spell, Cycle, Recycle build

Key minions: Recycling Wrath
Supporting minions: Marine Matriarch, Living Azerite, Fiery Felblood (Tavern Stats), Rock Rock + Magmaloc (Cycling Elementals)

Elementals are in a weird place right now. There seems to be a lot of stuff going on and it’s safe to say that the old Rock Rock + Recycling Wraith combo is still fine, especially with the newly added Magmaloc. The issue here is that you have a lot of things that will force you to go for Tavern Stats too. Combining these two “builds” is where elementals are right now. Fiery Felblood just seems OP and should be picked up regardless of anything. Moreover, Recycling Wrath is still the key minion that Elementals can’t work without, although the newly added Fiesty Freshwater is very good for the free refreshes.

Again, the key thing to note in Season 7 is that there seems to be a lot of stuff going on here and the most powerful minions to build upon are Recycling Wraith and Fiery Felblood. The key here is to get some Tavern stats going with Fiery Felblood and pick up Shellemental or Marine Matriarch (free spells with Living Azerite) in the later stages. This will give you enough Tavern stats to make your board powerful and provide you enough refreshers to pick up buffed-up Elementals like Wildfire Elemental and Crackling Cyclone. In the later stages, Rock Rock is still a nice pick-up, and utilizing your many refreshes to find triples (with the help of Elemental of Suprise) and combine those Tavern stats into one minion seems to be the essence of the current Elemental meta. Another powerful combo is with Recycle Wraith + Rock Rock + Greymane’s Champion. The best elemental for recycle – Sellemental and he is even-tier, so getting a lot of refreshes and playing a lot of Sellementals will boost your even-tier minions significantly. Do note that Magmaloc is not even-tier so he can’t go well with this combo.

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 new combo of Leeroy The Reckless + Hateful Hag) will be extremely dangerous for Elementals. They don’t really have much of the shenanigans like Reborn and summons that can counter Leeroy.

Tavern Spell synergies with Elemental build

Obviously, goldening Recycling Wraith is your number one priority, and Eyes of the Earthmother does exactly that. Moreover, Channel The Devourer is also good if you have an “annoying” high-stat Elemental that you want to replace badly. If you are lucky, Marine Matriarch can get you these, but we wouldn’t count on it.

Pro Tip: Don’t commit to Elementals unless you have Recycling Wraith, it is very risky.

Taunt: Draconic Assistant build

Key Minions: Assistant Guard, Draconic Deathscale, Brann Bronzebeard
Support Minions: Any minion with Divine Shield or Cleave

Ladies and gents, the moment we’ve been waiting for is finally here. Taunt builds and comps were huge underdogs in previous seasons and were heavily dependent on the tribe that you were aligning Taunt units with. However, in Season 7 of Hearthstone Battlegrounds, Taunt finally gets its place in meta build section. The build is super easy to make if you are lucky enough and it’s bound to get you in the first 3 spots if you can get it early on.

It’s not important what you do at the beginning until you get your Draconic Deathscale. From there, you should be able to have some sustain as your Battlecries can be activated with Draconic’s spell. Once you get him, try to obtain Oozeling Gladiator as well but don’t use Taunt just yet. Furthermore, getting anything any minion with Divine Shield or Cleave at this point would be advisable, not just for mid-game survivability but because of late-game comp as well. As you can see in the images above, it’s not important what other units are – disregard the Passenger that we used since he is not available in regular Hearthstone Battlegrounds, you can use literally any other minion. If we used something with Divine Shield, this build would be even better.

The key minion for this build is Assistant Guard. This Blood Elf is the main thing you are looking for. He will grant Taunt and buff at the same turn and, since you have Draconic Deathscale as well, you will be able to do this in every turn. Use Taunt spells that you got from Oozeling and Assistant will do the rest. Once you get him, you need to advance to Tavern Tier 5 unless you are lucky enough to get Brann Bronzebeard before that. If you can, you don’t need to go for a higher Tier. This battlegrounds tactic is pretty straightforward – Assistant Guard will buff your minions in every turn and all you need to do is watch and cast spells to improve stats even more.

Tips for countering Taunt builds

To be frank, if this build is done right, there are no counters for it. Facing units that with ramped-up stats and protected with Divine Shield is not something that you can counter easily. The best bet would be to go with scam build paired with Tunnel Blaster. Even doing so probably won’t stop your opponent from defeating you but at least you will have a fighting chance. Using Venomous minions, Transmuted Bramblewitch and/or Leeroy the Reckless paired with new minion Hateful Hag is the way to at least try to counter this meta build in Battlegrounds.

Spells to use for Taunt builds

When it comes to Spells, basically there are two spells that are best for this build: Brann’s Blessing and Eyes of the Earthmother. The synergy between Assistant Guard and Brann’s blessing is obvious; Eyes of the Earthmother on other hand can be either used on Assistant Guard himself or Draconic Deathscale, depending on your board lineup at the moment of usage. Besides those, you can always use Sacred Gift as you probably won’t have Divine Shield on all your minions.

Pro Tip: Keep in mind that Assistant Guard will randomly cast Taunt on either board or Tavern minions once his Battlecry is triggered by Draconic Deathscale’s spellcraft.

Alternative Builds and Compositions for Season 7

In this section, you will see some alternatives to meta builds in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Season 7. 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.

Naga Alternative Build: Deep Blue

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 7 when it comes to Naga units and meta builds. The Glad-iator is still your main support Tier 3 unit as well as Soft-hearted Siren. 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.

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 7, 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.

Note: This build is more or less obsolete since it is too slow and is generally considered not that effective in the current meta. Nevertheless, if you happen to get the key minions in the mid-game, it can be somewhat decent, especially if you can get your hands on Eyes of the Earthmother and cast it on Zesty Shaker and/or Deep Blue Crooner.

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.

Pirate Alternative Build: Ongoing Scallywag

Key minions: Scalallywag(s), Rapscallion Recruiter, Admiral Eliza Goreblade
Support minions: Blade Collector

This build is more of a meme-type than a real build but it is fun to go for. By no chance is this a meta-build, on the contrary; but let’s see how this battlegrounds comp works anyway. As you know, with Pirates it’s always the issue of survival before your minions get buffed up. In our example above, we played as King Mukla so that was not a problem due to his hero power. The other issue is getting the right set of minions: in this case, you need both Blade Collector as he is your man offensive minion, and a combo of Admiral Eliza Goreblade and Rapscallion Recruiter. Ripsnarl Captain is also a good minion to go for if you are going for this build.

Blade Collector should always be on the far left side – unless you are positive that your opponent will counter that play with Divine Shield minions or something else. Usually, if that’s the case, we play Blade Collector in the second leftmost position. In this particular situation in our example above, we went against the full Divine Shield Mech build so we took a bit of a risky move by moving Blade Collector almost all the way to the rightmost position.

A tricky minion to play is Rapscallion Recruiter since the main issue is the fact that you need space for his effect to take place. As you can see in our example above, we solved that by using Taunt spells on the first three minions. Admiral will buff up the rest of your army when Scallywags start dying. Hopefully, the offensive power that this build has will be enough to take down the opponent.

Final Thoughts on the Hearthstone Battlegrounds Strategy for Season 7

Hopefully, this article helped you or at least gave you some new ideas when it comes to Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy for Season 7. 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 7. Good Luck!