Hearthstone’s Battlegrounds on my phone is my go-to game when I’m watching something on TV that my ADHD brain doesn’t want to get involved with. I love the mode so much that I consider myself a Battlegrounds rather than a standard main these days, and I look forward to new content breaking out almost as much as full map expansions. Today Blizzard kicked off details on what to expect from Season 3 of Battlegrounds, and I’m happy to say we’re getting some new followers – 32 in all – because that always seems to shake up the meta the most.
Of those new minions, 16 will have the new Undead tribe tag that launched as part of the March of the Lich King expansion. Another 11 of the new minions will have dual tribal tags, meaning they can leverage the synergies and buffs of minions from two tribes. That should boost menagerie-style warband compositions, which generate their power by leading as many different tribes as possible. As we’ve seen with Amalgams, running minions with multiple tribal tags makes it easier to collect buffs from cards like Lightfang Enforcer and Menagerie Jug. Check out the first four minions revealed in the gallery.
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According to the Announcement (opens in new tab), undead minions will “orbit around death effects like Reborn and Deathrattle”. Until we see the full deck of cards, it’s tricky to predict exactly what kind of comp will be optimal when playing Undead. Blizzard will be announcing the changes in Season 3 in the coming days in collaboration with several creators, starting with RDU, who has embedded all of the Undead henchmen in its video above. Sister Deathwhisper looks like one all strong tier-six minion if you can make a board full of Undead and Reborn minions.
Blizzard also showcased the reworked Professor Putricide, who returns to the hero pool when Season 3 kicks off on January 17. He now has a completely different hero power that costs 4 gold and reads “Craft a custom Undead, (3 Creations left )”. Again, there’s a video to explain what that actually entails, this time hosted by Kripparian.
The gist is that it works a bit like Deathstalker Rexxar, the hero map from Knights of the Frozen throne, except in this case you’re combining Undead instead of Beasts. (Note that the Undead you can craft is limited to your current Tavern Tier or lower, with one of the options guaranteed to be your current Tier.)
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Simultaneously with the start of the new season, the current one Scavenger hunt mechanic will be removed (which is a shame, because I enjoyed it, but not unexpectedly), and the reward track will be refreshed. Blizzard also made its first Twitch Drop for Hearthstone Battlegrounds. To earn the Lightkeeper Xyrella skin, you must tune into a channel that has Drops enabled and watch for at least an hour. You also have to Twitch and Battle.net accounts linked (opens in new tab).
The period when the Drop is available is between January 17th at 10am PT and January 23rd at 11:59pm PT. And for the love of the merciful Millhouse Manastrom, please don’t type !drop over and over in the chat as it does absolutely nothing.