About Battlegrounds:
Hearthstone Battlegrounds (BGs) is a free-to-play, battle royale game type in Blizzards Hearthstone mobile game (also available on pc). In Battlegrounds, you start with nothing and build a board from a pool of shared minions to eliminate your opponents, until only one is left standing.
This however is not telling you how to play, BUT how to play better. We want you to rise from your 5-6k caps and join us in the true battlegrounds.
Where do you start?
The hardest part of learning to improve is finding what you lack. If humans were so self-aware this world would be a whole lot better to live in, but alas….
Nihilism aside you want to get better. Since I am an article and not an active coach, I will give you things to think about while you are playing and some advice.
Learn what things do
It’s self-explanatory, do you know what the minions and heroes do? Can you remember what any given minion does? Can you remember where to find it? If you had one would that impact the game? How early do you need it? Does it work with your hero? What does your hero do?
Knowing what is in the game will come to you over time, but it could be a pain in the early days.
Back when I started, I believed gold grubber was the be-all and end-all of pirates, ignoring better minions like Eliza and Hoggar behind. Only staying on tier 4 and I stayed capped at 4k for my first season.
Knowledge is power by learning all minions and heroes I could think about synergy, and while I wouldn’t be the first to come up with boards to win with, I was able to feel like a better player. In my next season where I was more comfortable with my knowledge, I easily made 7k.
And if you wish to be a little lazy, the Hearthstone deck tracker provides a free library overlay of all minions in-game while you learn yourself
https://hsreplay.net/downloads/
Learn what do good and what not do good
Not all cards are born equal, as well-designed as some minions are they are not all winners. Micro mummy is a safe option turn 1 that can provide buffs to your board gradually, Aswell as act as a summon to regain a deflector bots shield but does it have to stay on your board? Any mech with a replicating menace can provide a similar role and provide other benefits, like divine shields or taunts, or cleaves.
The game aims to maximize your board as efficiently as possible. Identifying a good minion from a bad one helps bring in the MMR. By knowing what’s a keeper and what’s a one-turn fling you can effectively buff your board making sure resources are not lost on a minion that you need to throw away in a few turns, those few stat points you save can be the difference between a top 8 and a top 4 or even first place. Battlegrounds is a game with no guarantees of victory, opponents get lucky. You can have a 99.9 percent chance to win but still lose by a single-point difference. In a game like that you need to keep everything as strong as possible (in the long run)
The better minions tend to buff, have divine shields, cleave, deathrattle, or venomous. Use your knowledge of minions from the first point to judge the pool of minions and pick out the winners.
The future of the game
Providing you’ve taken the first two points to heart you should be aware of what things do and their value.
Now we synergize.
We need to build a board of minions that build off each other to create an unstoppable force. But where to start?
The best thing to do is memorize good comps and identify the piece of the comp that acts as the key to it. The minion cannot be replaced. I recommend watching some top streamers and looking at the boards they win with. Watching them, find the moment the which they started to commit to the board. What minion did they triple into? What did they have on board already? Identifying these minions is a key skill all good players have.
And after we identify we can now find direction in our games efficiently. It’s that simple
Not specific enough
You may be wondering why my advice is non-specific.
“Absolute tell me how to win with dragons!!!”
I can’t. The meta evolves and minions come and go. What I’m doing is training the way you think to gain the results you are looking for. Sorry, but the best way isn’t always the easiest.
Timing: when is it too late?
Sometimes a winning piece falls in your lap and you think it’s time to pop off, only to realize that you aren’t getting the stats you need in the timeframe you need them in.
Sorry panda fans Nomi is not viable past turn 6 (7 at a stretch)
Sometimes it’s that simple, it’s too late and without tremendous luck and health, you won’t be able to compete with everyone else. You wanted to go dragons, but you haven’t found that second Kalegos in time. Murlocs but you can’t find a bream counter or bassgill.
When it comes to scaling comps, time is everything. A good player knows when it is too late and refuses to commit to a dead idea.
Set comps I.e., comps that scale in battle such as beasts are a lot more forgiving in this aspect but not entirely.
So, what do you do when it’s too late?
Scam the entire lobby you monster!
We cannot scale, our board is falling ever more behind…
TIME TO SCAM SOME CHUMPS
We are playing turn to turn now; we are looking for the least effort for maximum results. We are looking for one-hit killers and comp destroyers.
We want venomous minions to one-shot the stupid elementals and their triple-digit stats… I have 2 health but I’m taking you with me
We want Leroy, with Leroy we can take out divine shield minions, or sneak it next to a taunt to kill that gigantic cleave.
We want Zapp to assassinate that Rivendale.
We want a straight shot to neutralize reborn, un-taunt taunts, and knock off divine shields.
Speaking of divine shields, tunnel blaster is our best friend. Dealing 3 damage to everyone maybe we can knock off someone else’s Leroy or un buffed undead. As well as popping everyone’s divine shields. If we throw a selfless hero into the mix, we can also add divine shields to our board while getting rid of theirs.
The tricks are helpful when you’re in a pinch and want to save MMR, and can even sneak a first in rare cases where our opponents are caught slacking. And now that you know about them you can play around them too.
Knowledge is power.
General advice
These are non-specific pieces of info that may help your battlegrounds mindset.
First, you will not win them all. Losing is a forgone conclusion, as good as you get you will still lose. What’s important is to recognize when you are in a losing position. If we can do that, we can take precautions and try securing a top 4 more successfully.
Health is a resource, losing health isn’t the end of the world, losing too much is. It is okay to take some damage if doing so puts you in a better position the following turn. So don’t be afraid to lose some.
Learn your curves. When do you level? What hero levels when. This is very case by case game by game. Find out what works through watching streamers or through firsthand experience. If you’re wondering what a curve is or want to skip the long process…
RNG is always a factor, so be critical of yourself but also be aware of what you do right Aswell.
The most important advice though, is to have fun. The winner is the one having the most fun…
Now I need to go rip my hair out because I lost to a 1 percenter AGAIN!!!
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