PlayingHearthstone Battlegroundsis a lot of fun, providing hours of potential joy, but there are days when it’s just too much work. Sometimes, you’re in a lazy mood and want to watch while your board grows by itself, without you needing to lift a finger.
Fortunately, some minions are specifically designed to enable your inertia by having effects that trigger automatically at the end of your turn. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, so let’s look and see which of them truly stand out from the crowd.
Every minion on this list will benefit from the presence of Drakkari Enchanter, which makes it so your end of turn effects trigger twice.
10The Walking Fort
In theory, the 16/16 in stats The Walking Fort provides feels like it would make a substantial difference. Unfortunately, it can actually be somewhat underwhelming if you compare it to the power provided by more fully-synergistic builds in the latest stages of the game.
Since it only scales four minions at a time (and sometimes not even that many), it’s tough for The Walking Fort to compete. On the other hand, it does provide an immediate boost of power if you pick it up early enough, potentially allowing you to out-tempo other players before they can really get going.
9Scrap Scraper
That’s “Scraper” Not “Scrapper”
The fact that Scrap Scraper’s ability triggers every two turns means it is slower than you would probably like. However, having a consistent source of Magnetic minions is exceptionally valuable in a Mech build.
Naturally, these Magnetic Mechs provide a stat boost to anything they are equipped on, but they also often come with ongoing effects of their own, like gaining Gold or Divine Shield. Additionally, minions like Utility Drone and Polarizing Beatboxer have extra synergies that benefit from having more Magnetic effects in play.
8Charlga
She Got A Serious Glow-Up From Her WoW Counterpart
In its original state, Charlga would play a Blood Gem on itself, which would have caused it to rank significantly higher on this list. However, in the right circumstances, it can still be a powerful force.
It’s true that a total of 6/6 in stats isn’t all that strong by the time Charlga is normally available to you. However, if you’ve been increasing the strength of your Blood Gems throughout the game, that number can be substantially higher, potentially climbing into the triple digits for both attack and health.
7Utility Drone
You Might Say This Drone Has Utility
Utility Drone is one of the best ways to buff your Mechs. Magnetic is basically the minion type’s core mechanic, so if you are playing a Mech build, you’ll probably already have a bunch of them Magnetized when you find a Utility Drone, letting it get to buffing right away.
It can also buff itself relatively easily if you can spare a few Magnetic minions to throw on it. As a result, you can keep it around to scale your board until the very end of the game.
6Bongo Bopper
He Sure Does Love Bopping That Bongo
Bongo Bopper has the ability to buff itself while also generating value for your other minions. Even without any support effects around it, gaining a total of 4/4 in stats is not bad, but with some help, Bongo Bopper can be far more effective than that.
With minions like Prickly Piper and Moon-Bacon Jazzer, you can increase the effectiveness of your Blood Gems so they give far more than the initial 1/1 in stats. Alternatively, you can use Mangled Bandit and/or Snarling Conductor to take Blood Gems in your hand and turn them into either more Blood Gems or Gold.
5Famished Felbat
Hunger Can Make You Do Ridiculous Things
Famished Felbat is the capstone minion for a Demon consumption build. Once it’s on the board, it will steadily grow both itself and any other Demons you have in play.
If you triple into it early, Famished Felbat can decide the direction of your game, but it can also be a nice way to continue boosting the Demons you already had invested in.
Additionally, if you’ve been buffing the minions in Bob’s Tavern throughout the game (as you probably should have been when playing a Demon build) the speed at which your Felbat scales will be dramatically increased.
4Young Murk-Eye
It’s Not Actually Clear How Old Murlocs Get
MurlocBattlecries are exceptionally strong, containing both minion-generators and powerful buffs, so Young Murk-Eye fits easily into a build based around its own type. However, since its ability can work with any sort of Battlecry, there are a lot of other places for Young Murk-Eye to thrive.
You could increase the effectiveness of your Blood Gems with Moon-Bacon Jazzer, get Magnetic Minions with Mecha-Jaraxxus, or any number of other options. As a result, Young Murk-Eye can be a powerful engine in a variety of builds, although you’ll need to include some way to buff Murk-Eye itself if you want to keep it around permanently.
3Archlich Kel’Thuzad
He’s Like A Regular Lich, But Arch-ier
Archlich Kel’Thuzad is one of the newer minions on this list, and has arguably the most unusual effect. In many circumstances, killing and re-summoningan Undeaddoesn’t do much of anything, but when used on certain minions it can be highly beneficial.
In Undead builds, you can use it with Moroes, Steward of Death, which gives a massive 2/6 buff to all your Undead when it dies (one of the few ways to actually give your Undead health). The Archlich can also synergize with Motley Phalanx, which buffs a friendly minion of each type by 5/5 when it dies.
Archlich Kel’Thuzad’s ability will effectively remove Reborn from the minion it resurrects.
2Slitherspear, Lord Of Gains
Don’t Get Him Started On Protein Powder
Slitherspear, Lord of Gains is the perfect minion fora Naga build. Most Naga builds will have at least a few minions that create Spellcraft spells on the board, so they already have ways to trigger Slitherspear’s effect.
However, there are several other ways to activate it as well. The Quilboar Blood Gems are spells, allowing you to create a Naga/Quilboar hybrid build, and the introduction of Tavern spells and the minions associated with them give you a consistent source of spells.
1Ignition Specialist
Sometimes You Have To Call In An Expert
The power level of Tavern spells varies dramatically, even within each Tier, ranging from fairly minor stat boosts to giving a minion Divine Shield. But getting two for free continuously is exceptionally powerful.
As a result, Ignition Specialist makes for a strong temporary inclusion in any build, and is one of the better Dragons to use in builds based around that type. It is also arguably the best minion for a Tavern spell build, giving you multiple guaranteed triggers for their synergies every turn.
