One of the biggest changes in Season Five of Hearthstone Battlegrounds was the introduction of Tavern Tier 7, which came with a host of powerful new minions. They only appear in certain lobbies, or if you encounter the Hero introduced alongside them, so you won’t see them every game.
Acquiring a Tier 7 minion can take a great deal of effort, though. As a result, you don’t want to choose anything too slow to make a real impact in the relatively short time you’ll have access to it. Here are the strongest minions at the highest level of the Battlegrounds.
14 Sanguine Champion
Calling Sanguine Champion “slow” is being generous. Increasing the effectiveness of your Blood Gems is nice, but minions that can do so can be found on Tavern Tier three; that’s a much more sensible place to put them since it’s early enough in the game for the buffs to increase by enough to be relevant.
By the time Tier 7 rolls around, you won’t be getting much use out of those effects. And while Sanguine Champion did get its stats buffed, that wasn’t the core problem with the minion.
13 Papa Bear
Papa Bear is so underwhelming that it wouldn’t even be that great at Tier 6. Unlike its Tier 5 counterpart, Mama Bear, it doesn’t have a constant effect. Sure, it creates a lot of stats when it dies, with each Mama Bear summoned being buffed by the previous ones, but a lot of the time, you won’t have room on your board to summon three anyway.
As a result, even in builds focused around summoning Beasts, Papa Bear may not be your best option, which really isn’t what you want from a Tier 7 minion.
12 Granite Guardian
Since Tavern Tier 7 minions were first introduced, Granite Guardian has been buffed, increasing its Health by eleven. Unlike Sanguine Champion, Granite Guardian does benefit significantly from that increase, but not enough to save it.
By the time you have access to the Guardian, most of your opponent’s minions should be big enough to kill it in one go. At best, that means it trades one-for-one in the same way lower-Tier Venomous minions would. Like those minions, if the Minion attacking your guardian has Divine Shield, they won’t even die.
11 Moira Bronzebeard
Individually, doubling the effects of your Battlecries and Deathrattles are strong abilities. Brann Bronzebeard and Titus Rivendare, who have them separately, are highly sought after for a reason.
However, most builds don’t actually need both abilities and if you only want one of them, Brann and Titus are substantially easier to find than Moira. Additionally, getting those abilities early is important if you want to get full use out of them, especially since you’ll often get rid of them in the late game anyway to maximize your combat power for the last few fights.
10 Sea Witch Zar’jira
Sea Witch Zar’jira is a value-generating machine. Her Spellcraft Spell makes it far easier for you to get Golden versions of your crucial minions. Alternatively, she simply provides a way to acquire extra minions so you can fuel whatever synergy you happen to be running.
And while Zar’jira does suffer from the same problems as some of the other slow value-generators you saw earlier on this list, unlike them, her ability to churn out Golden minions is something no other minion in the game can match. As a result, she can enable some uniquely powerful builds you couldn’t make otherwise.
9 Recurring Nightmare
As its name suggests, Recurring Nightmare has the ability to re-summon itself over and over (assuming you have board space). It also has Undead, with all their persistent attack buffs, like nothing better than summoning infinitely more Undead.
It helps that Recurring Nightmare’s stats were buffed in a patch, making its base form stronger, even if you haven’t built up an absurd number of attack buffs yet. It’s far from the most impactful Tier 7 minion, but it can be a solid upgrade for an Undead build.
8 Obsidian Ravager
Even after getting its base stats increased in a patch, Obsidian Ravager starts relatively small. However, if you can buff it, it grows in power extremely quickly since every buff has double the effectiveness as it would on a normal minion.
The Ravager is also better than the cleave effects you’ll find on a minion like Foe Reaper 4,000 since it can avoid taking damage if its effect kills the minion it is attacking. Obsidian Ravager is also one of the better minions to get as Thorim, Stormlord if Murlocs are available, since you can use them to buff it while it’s trapped in your hand.
7 The Boommobile
The main function of The Boommobile is to magnetize it onto your Mechs. Windfury can actually be a disadvantage on certain Mechs that can refresh their Divine Shields (although giving a Mech Reborn can actually refresh the Shields instead).
However, there is a notable exception: Foe Reaper 4,000, which has a cleave effect. As a result, allowing it to attack twice immediately can be extremely powerful. Worst case, the Boommobile is an extra way to give you Mechs Divine Shield, which is arguably the best keyword in the Battlegrounds. The extra stats it provides are nothing to sniff at, either.
6 Captain Sanders
There’s not a lot to say about Captain Sanders, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t worth getting. He can make another minion Golden, an ability that is good even to someone who only knows the basic rules of the Battlegrounds.
If you are missing a Golden copy of a minion to complete your build, Captain Sanders will provide exactly what you need and can make the difference between placing top four and winning the lobby. And if not, he will at least improve a minion’s stats.
5 King Varian
In many circumstances, finding the right Tier 6 minion can be better than the effects Tier 7 minions can provide, especially if you get more than one. And King Varian gives you multiple extra chances to find the Tier 6 minions you need.
He can be especially powerful if you Discover a Tavern Tier 7 minion before actually reaching the Tavern Tier. Many of the other options might not suit your build, making them useless, but you’ll almost never be sad to see King Varian.
4 Tide Oracle Morgl
Tide Oracle Morgl can provide a staggering amount of stats for a single minion. And while those stats would normally be locked in your hand, a Murloc build (or anyone running Bassgill) allows you to take advantage of them in combat. Notably, if you summon Morgl with a Bassgill, the summoned version will buff the version of itself that’s in your hand.
Even if you don’t get too much value out of the handbuff effect, Morgl has Poisonous, which is persistent, making it much better than the weaker Venomous you see on most current Battlegrounds minions.
3 Argent Braggart
If you already have a strong board and triple into a Tier 7 minion, Argent Braggart will often be the one you want. Assuming all of your minions aren’t already massive, Argent Braggart will immediately increase your combat strength dramatically.
If you think the game will last for a while after getting your Tier 7 minion, some of the other options might be better, suiting a particular synergy you’re going for. However, few can match the immediate impact of the Braggart.
2 Champion Of Sargeras
Champion of Sargeras doesn’t provide any direct value in combat, but it can scale your board extremely quickly. If you are playing a Demon build focused around consuming minions from the Tavern or are looking for Magnetic Mechs to buff your board, the Champion’s effect can be invaluable.
Of course, if you get the Champion quickly enough, having the increased stats alone might be enough to win you the game. While there are many ways to succeed in Battlegrounds, having bigger minions than your opponents will do most of the time.
1 Amalgadon
It’s back! Once the bane of Battlegrounds, Amalgadon has been out of the game for a while. While it was still around, lobbies often came down to whichever player had more of them.
It turns out that getting a minion with Divine Shield and Poisonous is strong, even if your Amalgadon doesn’t end up with the massive stat totals they can reach in ideal scenarios. Fortunately, putting this minion at Tier 7 should make it significantly less likely for you to wind up facing down entire boards of golden Amalgadons, but the potential remains.