Battlegrounds
On November 12th, 2019, Blizzard released a new game mode for Hearthstone called Battlegrounds. The new autobattler mode gave players a new way to play the same game that has been a mainstay here at South and around the world for the past five years. The game can seem complicated, but it is very simple and the Optimist has some tips on how to win.
Top Heroes
1.Tirion
Strengths: Easy, Scales Fast, Unique
Weakness: One Build
Tirion is by far the most powerful hero in Battlegrounds. Tirion is the only Hero that utilizes neutral minions, and its hero power is cheap and extremely powerful. The combination of an underused pool of minions and quick scaling makes Tirion the best pick for every game.
2.Yogg-Saron
Strengths: Versatile, Early Game Strength, Stays Relevant
Weakness: No Obvious Build, Random
Yogg-Saron requires slightly more skill and familiarity with the game, yet it is still an extremely powerful hero for every build. The early game power lets Yogg get out to an early lead and then cruise for most of the game. While it may not get first, it can use its advantage to get top four.
3.Rafa’am
Strength: Efficient, Stays Strong,
Weakness: Luck Based
Rafa’am uses his hero power to steal the first minion that you kill in the next combat. This allows players to stockpile minions in the early game then transitions into stealing high impact cards that are played at the start.
Worst Heroes
1.Pyramad
Strengths: Health is Important
Weakness: Random
Pyramad buffs a random minion +3 health for one gold. This is extremely weak and virtually unplayable. If it was targetable it would be slightly stronger but still weak. With how it currently is, Pyramad is unplayable
2.Sylvanis
Strength: Controlled Buffs, Free Hero Power
Weakness: Lose Gold
Battlegrounds as a game is based on gold efficiency which makes heroes such as Yogg and Rafa’am very powerful and heroes such as Sylvanis very weak. Sylvanis spends zero gold to remove a minion and gives the adjacent minions +1/1. While this seems good, a free hero power that gives a controlled buff, it is extremely weak to remove minions and not get the onegold bonus that is associated with the selling of a minion.
- Professor Putricide
Strength: One minion can make a huge difference
Weakness: hard to scale
He gives the leftmost minion +20 attack for the next combat. While this does seem strong and can make a big cleave minion or divine shield, the problem with Putricide is that there is no other benefit. It is hard to get a solid build with no help in the recruit stage.
Best Build
- Cobalt Mechs
Cobalt Guardian is the best tier four card in the game and it is a tier three card. Mech strategies that are based around having a big Cobalt which continuously refreshes is largely unchallenged as the best build in the game.
2.Big Juggler Demons
While Floating Watcher was nerfed to tier four. Demons still are very powerful, a golden soul juggler combined with a big wreath weaver has the potential to win games as long as you can get out of the early game with a high health total.
3.Exodia Murlocs
The hardest but most rewarding build to make work in Battlegrounds, Murlocs are relatively strong in the early game. However, there is almost no mid game murlocs leading to many builds losing before they can get to the late game. Once they do get the late game, the combination of Megasaur and King Bagurgle make them the best build if they can complete it.
Note: On Wednesday February 26th, a new update was released for Battlegrounds introducing dragons which according to early observations have changed the whole game and are extremely overpowered.
