InHearthstone BattlegroundsSeason 4, Pirates lost theirmain build-around minion, Cap’n Hoggarr. In a vacuum, that would be a massive problem. Fortunately, they gained quite a few new, powerful minions as well, and it turns out that they were more than capable of filling the void left by Hoggarr’s absence.
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Like Hoggarr, many of these new minions are focused on creating gold and benefiting from spending or gaining it, allowing you to win lobbies through the overwhelming power of unchecked capitalism. If you want to try your hand at being a robber baron, here are all of the Pirates from Season 4, ranked.
8Upbeat Impressionist
Upbeat Impressionist’s low ranking on this list shouldn’t be taken to imply that making a minion Golden isn’t useful. It gives you access to higher-tier minions and helps you guarantee tripled versions of key minions. However, keeping minions in your hand, especially ones that are theoretically crucial to your build, can come with serious consequences.
If you have such a powerful minion, you want them on the board so you can use their effects. However, if you can afford to wait, Upbeat Impressionist could set you up for a first-place finish.
7Southsea Busker
Southsea Busker is one of many minions that can get you extra gold in the early game. However, it is less convenient than other options at Tavern Tier 1 since you don’t get to choose when you spend the extra gold. And having five gold on turn two doesn’t usually matter, since you’ll most often be spending four on leveling up anyway.
As a result, playing a Southsea Busker on your first turn can actually be counter-productive. But in most other cases, getting extra gold will be extremely useful, especially for Pirates, who want to cycle through as many minions as they can each turn.
6Gunpowder Courier
As a general rule,you want to spend all of your gold each turn in a game of Battlegrounds. Gunpowder Courier allows you to do that while simultaneously giving your Pirates absurd amounts of attack. And with the amount of gold generation the minion type has, Gunpowder Courier can easily scale them enough that they will trade evenly with all but the biggest opponents.
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This ability is great on any minion, but it synergizes particularly well with Blade Collector, which effectively multiplies the attack Gunpowder Courier grants as it hits adjacent minions along with the ones it targets.
5Record Smuggler
Do you like gold? Do you want more of it? Well, Record Smuggler has your back. With just a couple of Pirates on board, he’ll already give you a significant gold edge over your opponents. And in a full Pirate build, you’ll be operating with almost double the gold of anyone else in the lobby.
That would be a powerful ability in any build, but especially so for Pirates, who have so much gold-related synergy. Record Smuggler may not be your most powerful gold generator, and generating gold will only go so far if you don’t find the right support minions, but it can be a powerful boost to any Pirate build.
4Lovesick Balladist
If you spend all of the gold you are automatically given in a turn, the Lovesick Balladist will already grant its target a significant amount of health. And that’s assuming you don’t have any way to generate extra gold, as many of the Pirates on this list allow you to do.
With their help, Lovesick Balladist can give more than ten health with relative ease, and its effect can also be doubled with Brann Bronzebeard, with spectacular results. Fitting Brann into a Pirate build can be tricky, but you should be generating more than enough gold to pick one up.
3Blade Collector
With the loss of Cave Hydra in Season 4, it only made sense for the Battlegrounds team to introduce a new minion with the ability to damage minions next to the ones it attacks. Sure,Foe Reaperis still around, but at Tavern Tier 6, it’s hard to incorporate into your builds. Blade Collector, on the other hand, is easily accessible and can grow extremely quickly.
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Pirates have many ways to gain attack, so Blade Collector is easy to fit into a dedicated Pirate composition, but it can also be an excellent choice as the Pirate in a Menagerie build. Such strategies are extremely focused on gaining stats, and Blade Collector wants high attack totals more than any other Pirate.
2Fleet Admiral Tethys
Fleet Admiral Tethys functions as Season 4’s replacement for Cap’n Hoggarr. Like Hoggarr, Tethys generates extra gold as you spend it. But where Hoggarr gave you gold for each Pirate you bought, making purchasing minions cheaper (and eventually giving you gold if you find enough copies of him), Tethys gives you Pirates as you spend gold.
As a result, Tethys is actually more consistent than Hoggarr. With the Cap’n, there was always a risk that you wouldn’t find Pirates in the Tavern, but you’ll never not have gold to spend. Tethys is also better at creating triples since he gives you minions from a limited pool. The only downside to Tethys is that he’s at Tavern Tier 6, which can make it difficult to find multiple copies. And like Hoggarr, Tethys generally gets more powerful the more copies of him you have.
1Underhanded Dealer
Underhanded Dealer is the main payoff minion for all the gold-generation Pirates got in Season 4. Any time you gain gold, the Dealer gains stats. That includes selling minions, gaining gold at the start of a new turn, or the various gold-gaining abilities of some other minions on this list.
And since the endgame Pirate build can infinitely cycle minions, the Underhanded Dealer can infinitely gain stats (assuming you’re able to play your minions fast enough, that is). As a result, any Underhanded Dealer that makes it to the endgame will often be the largest minion in the lobby.
