Orc-estra Removed From Hearthstone Battlegrounds Duos

Vuk Radulovic
Orc-estra Conductor removed from Hearthstone Duos cover photo

As we might have guessed, there was no time to wait since the game was pretty much broken with her in play – on April 22nd, Orc-estra Conductor has been removed from the minion pool in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Arena. This news came from official Hearthstone Twiter stating that “Orc-estra Conductor has been temporarily removed from Battlegrounds Duos Mode until our next balance patch.” Let’s see what happened and why this has been done. 

How did Orc-estra Conductor Work? 

Orc-estra Conductor had a card text stating “Battlecry: Give a minion +2/+2. Improve your future Orc-estra Conductors”. This meant that every time you trigger her Battlecry effect, the stat would increase by that amount. Now, this doesn’t seem like it was too strong on paper – during the first two days of testing Duos, we noticed that pretty much no one was using her. However, players soon realized that she can be paired with Brann Bronzebeared and Draconic Deathscale, as well as Young Murk-Eye and Rylak Metalhead. The amount of Battlecries in that would skyrocket, buffing up Orc-estra battlecry to hundreds of stats each turn. 

The problem was that her Battlecry, once triggered by a spell or any other minion, was random – she could even buff up the enemy minion if the effect was triggered by Rylak. However, this was a small price to pay as you will see in example build bellow. 

Orce-estra broken builds 

Orc-estra build shown in Hearthstone Battlegrounds Duos

This is just one of the examples of how broken Orc-estra was. You can see the build above which I played in Duos just today. Basically, the whole Duos strategy of each player was one big race of who will get the Orc-estra first. Since this is duos mode, players just supported their teammate (the one who gets her first) and waited for Orc-estra to buff up the Tavern enough. Once that happens, simply by passing the buffed up minion, the other player would became insanely strong and the game would be won. 

Furthermore, Orc-estra was Tavern Tier 3 which means that she could easily become golden by the simple use of Eyes of the Earthmother. Other spells worked in her benefit as well, leading players to pretty much just focusing every resource they had on her. Previous to patch, literally every team in duos, in the matches that I played, was either looking or using her. 

Reactions on removal of Orc-estra

orc-estra conductor removed hearthstone twitter/x post

Just day before the removal, several reddit users complained about her broken mechanics. As you can see in this Reddit post regarding Orc-estra, this was a huge problem so the removal is really nicely timed. Once the removal was done, users were praising the decision that Blizzard made, commenting that it was “Much needed. Especially for Duos, this was entirely warping the meta, especially with any passing heroes, Brann, or Shudder.” 

On Twiter, on other hand, most netizens joked about it asking “How am I going to give my minions +200/+200 now?“, and stating things like “I can’t imagine why“. 

Will she come back in the next patch? 

Most certainly, in my opinion she will be back. However, her Battlecry effect needs to be severely restricted. Perhaps she will be back as a Tier 4 or even Tier 5 card because nerfing the effect to +1/+1 won’t change much. We will just have to wait and see what happens in the next balance patch which is due in upcoming weeks. In the meantime, if you are up for regular HS BG, you can check out our full Hearthstone Battlegrounds strategy guide. Good luck! 

  • SMGs in Helldivers 2 [Detailed Guide]

    SMGs in Helldivers 2 [Detailed Guide]

    In this guide, we look to see what the SMGs in Helldivers 2 have to offer. Unsurprisingly, not all weapons are created equal, and nowhere is this more apparent than in Helldivers 2. Basically, if the question is “Can this gun carry me through Helldive”, here we try to provide the answer. This article is…

  • Secondary Weapons in Helldivers 2 [Detailed Guide]

    Secondary Weapons in Helldivers 2 [Detailed Guide]

    This weapon guide for the game will provide deep insight into the secondary weapons in Helldivers 2. The thing is, not all of them are equally balanced and there is quiet a few differences between secondary weapons; we will show those in this guide. This article is up-to-date as of the Viper Commandos premium war…

  • 15 Games Like Life is Strange With Even Better Story

    15 Games Like Life is Strange With Even Better Story

    Back in 2015, Life is Strange, an episodic adventure game, was developed by Dontnod Entertainment and published by Square Enix. As a fan of Life is Strange, I can’t find many games nowadays with similar gameplay and a great story.  There have been recent attempts by Dontnod Entertainment, but most of them didn’t work out.…

  • Helldivers 2: Explosive Weapons Guide [Summer 2024]

    Helldivers 2: Explosive Weapons Guide [Summer 2024]

    This weapon guide for the game will provide an overview of the explosive weapons in Helldivers 2. Not all weapons are equal in the game – and this guide will aim to show you the differences. Furthermore, we will try to answer the question “Can this gun carry me through Helldive?”. This article is up-to-date…

  • Hearthstone Battlegrounds Tavern Spells Guide

    Hearthstone Battlegrounds Tavern Spells Guide

    In this Hearthstone Battlegrounds Tavern Spell guide, we will explore all the spells and shortly describe their use cases and overall usefulness. The list is in the order of Tavern Tiers and is made as an intro into the new Tavern spells that fundamentally change how Hearthstone Battlegrounds is played. If you want to learn…

  • Hearthstone Battlegrounds Heroes Tier List [Summer 2024]

    Hearthstone Battlegrounds Heroes Tier List [Summer 2024]

    Welcome to the Ultimate Hearthstone Battlegrounds Heroes Tier list – ranked from S to D Tier. As of summer 2024, there are 104 heroes available in Hearthstone Battlegrounds. The Tier placements of Heroes are done with only one question in mind – how probable is it that you will win or end up in the…

  • 13 Best Card Games Like Magic The Gathering [2024 Update]

    13 Best Card Games Like Magic The Gathering [2024 Update]

    There are many games like Magic The Gathering, but only a few of them offer a variety of different playstyles while maintaining a good balance in other aspects of a card game. While Magic The Gathering is the most popular card game, there are that are more accessible and easier on the wallet. One of…

  • 15 TV Shows and Movies Like Legend of The Seeker [2024]

    15 TV Shows and Movies Like Legend of The Seeker [2024]

    If you enjoyed Legend of The Seeker and still can’t deal with the fact that the show was canceled before season 3 was released – you have come to the right spot. We prepared a short list of 15 TV shows and movies that are similar to our beloved Seeker, ranked from the least to…

  • Ultimate Stellaris DLC Tier List [Machine Age Update]

    Ultimate Stellaris DLC Tier List [Machine Age Update]

    If you’re wondering which Stellaris DLC to buy, there is a lot to choose from, depending on your taste. We know that the base game is very barebones without the DLCs, so if you want to cash out on a few of them, start with some in the S Tier and A Tier categories and…

  • Best 15 TV Shows About Time Travel [Summer 2024]

    Best 15 TV Shows About Time Travel [Summer 2024]

    There have been numerous TV shows about time travel in the past. Although some shows did have time travel included in part of their plot (like Marvel Agents of Shield), in this list we focused on series that have time travel as a basic premise of the show. With that in mind, we narrowed down…