Battlegrounds received a huge update, with an influx of new minions and Heroes.

The seven new Battlegrounds heroes are all dragons, and potential powerhouses if their abilities are anything to go by. Let’s take a quick look at them.

Galakrond

Hero Power: Galakrond’s Greed. 1 mana, replace a minion in Bob’s Tavern with a  minion from a higher tavern tier.

While it’s perhaps a bit too similar to Toki, this is a solid all-rounder Hero Power that can give you a leg up in the early game.

Deathwing

Hero Power: ALL Will Burn! Passive, all minions have +3 attack.

From our experience so far, this one is a bit on the weak side. It can be strong if you have a good swarming strategy, but it really pigeonholes you into exactly that, making your very choice of hero be nothing but a buff for your opponents or, at best, a wash.

Ysera

Hero Power: Dream Portal. 1 mana, refresh and add a dragon Bob’s Tavern.

This is a very consistent Hero Power if you want to force dragons at any point. It’s especially great when you’re just getting nothing from the normal roles and are desperate for pretty much anything you can use.

Nozdormu

Hero Power: Clairvoyance. Passive, your first Refresh each turn costs 0.

This is a great one, especially in the early game. It means you can actually reroll turn 1 and still buy a minion, and it makes it easier to fish later. It’s not very flashy, but it will definitely be a solid one at any point in time.

Malygos

Hero Power: Arcane Alteration. 0 mana, replace a minion with a random one of the same Tavern Tier.

This ability is potentially useful when you’ve got nothing good going for you. It’s also got some potential shenanigans available with token-y builds, especially early. Turning your Murloc token into an actual minion (which at the very worst is going to break even) isn’t bad at all. It definitely falls off later on, however.

Alexstrasza

Hero Power: Queen of Dragons. Passive, when you upgrade to Tavern Tier 5, Discover two dragons.

This is a spicy one. On the one hand, it’s kind of a one-note ability: it essentially forces you to try and go for dragons early. But it’s a huge power spike and incentive for upgrading if you do. At the worst, at least it’s two free Gold when you hit Tier 5.

Reno Jackson

Hero Power: Gonna Be Rich! 4 mana, make a friendly minion Golden (once per game).

Last but not least our juvenile blue dragon buddy gets a whopper of a Hero Power. Ensuring a key Golden minion on demand, even if once per game, is kind of nuts, especially with some of the more powerful options out there.

Finally, it should be note that Professor Putricide is being removed while he undergoes a rework. Hopefully when he comes back he can stack up to these heroes, because most of them look very promising.