Galewing Battlegrounds Guide

Dungar's gryphon, Galewing, arrives in Hearthstone Battlegrounds with three locations to champion. Galewing's Hero Power allows you to choose from three different 0-cost options:

• Westfall, a 1-turn completion for permanent +2/+2 on your left-most minion,
• Ironforge, a 2-turn completion to gain 2 gold,
• Eastern Plaguelands, a 3-turn completion to discover a minion of your current Tavern Tier.

Used together, this combination hero power can be quite potent and often result in a top-4 finish.

Because of the nature of Galewing's Hero Power and usage, players of the hero will look to build around strong Tier 3 minions. According to replay statistics, Demon and Dragon tribes, along with menagerie builds, are best suited for Galewing.

Demons are viable for Galewing due to two Tier 3 minions, Legion Overseer and Soul Juggler. If you can find either of these minions early, you are free to build around the tribe. In the late-game, you will look to pick up a Famished Felbat to increase the stats of all of your minions and synergize with Overseer.

Dragons are also an impactful choice for Galewing because of the availability of four different minions in the tribe at Tier 3, including Tarecgosa, Bronze Warden, Nether Drake and Amber Guardian. Each of these can be built around and scale with the tribe late-game, where Nadina the Red will be important to provide your minions divine shield.

Oftentimes when you complete a discover with Galewing's Hero Power, it will contain 3 minions that do not fit a tribe or synergy that is currently working for you on board. In this case, a menagerie build featuring different minion types will be your best choice. Accented by your late-game build-around Tea Master Theotar, some common minions to use from Tier 3 include Crackling Cyclone, Deflect-o-Bot, and Ghoul of the Feast.

Galewing has gone through multiple changes in its time in Hearthstone Battlegrounds. Prior to patch 25.2.2, Galewing had a completely different set of options to choose from, including a 5-turn completion to reduce the cost to tier up. Because this is no longer an option, the early-leveling strategy that Galewing was known for is no longer possible. Previously the most widely accepted method was to level to 3 on Turn 3 (5 gold) to discover a Tier 3 minion, then select the 5-turn completion to have a reduced cost to level from 4 to 5 or from 5 to 6. This no longer is an option as the hero power has changed.

In Galewing's current state, the Hero Power options are as follows:

• Westfall: Passive. In 1 Turn, give your left-most minion +2/+2.
• Ironforge: Passive. In 2 turns, gain 2 gold.
• Eastern Plaguelands: In 3 turns, Discover a minion of your Tavern Tier.

Although there are many ways to successfully play Galewing, many professional players in the community suggest playing in a 3-2-3 pattern to start the game, meaning you select Eastern Plaguelands, Ironforge, and Eastern Plaguelands again. The strategy is to level to 3 on Turn 3 (5 gold) before your first Eastern Plaguelands discover goes off to guarantee you a higher-value minion. The value provided by discovering a minion at your current tavern tier as well as the extra gold to level on your Ironforge turn is incredible and can set your board up to win with ease.

Another big difference in Galewing's latest rework is that you are no longer able to select the same flightpath consecutively. For example, if Westfall is selected as your first flightpath option, it will not be available in your second. The flightpath will become available again after you have completed a different one.

One final thing to note for Galewing is that a decent amount of thinking ahead will be required to properly pilot the hero. Always check the strength of the lobby prior to committing to a particular move with your Hero Power as you maybe at risk of losing a valuable amount fo tempo too early. The video guide below from Pocky is a great resource to see how a Galewing game will be planned and played in action.

Take a look at some videos produced by popular Battlegrounds streamers to get a good idea of what playing Galewing at a high level may look like!

• Pocky
• Sway Bae