Patches the Pirate Battlegrounds Guide

Patches the Pirate charges from Constructed into Battlegrounds with a powerful Pirate minion synergy! Buy up Pirate minions in the early game to feed your Hero Power and use the value to propel yourself into the late game with a strong lead. Each Pirate minion bought will reduce the cost of Pirate Parrrrty by 1 gold, so if you get lucky and use the cost reduction to your advantage, Patches can be by far the strongest hero in Battlegrounds.

Patches is a unique hero not only for his Pirate synergy, but also for the fact that other compositions often finish well above pure Pirate builds. This often means that hybrid builds surrounding only Cap'n Hoggarr, Peggy Sturdybone, Salty Looter and certain menagerie pieces are incredibly strong. Set up your board with these pieces and just by the nature of the hero, you will cycle tons of minions through your hand.

Some of the menagerie minions to look for as you are playing patches include Chronormu, Magmaloc, and Greta Gold-Gun. All three of these options allow you to grow giant minions with the additional value provided by your Hero Power and Pirate synergies.

Although less viable, all-Pirate compositions are always an option for Patches to fall back on through the game. Fill out your remaining board space with Dread Admiral Eliza and Goldgrubber so that your Pirates get bigger and keep up with the compitition.

Patches, in his purest form, is a true APM hero. APM refers to your "Actions per Minute" or how fast you can play as a player in any given minute. Hearthstone has had some great examples of this throughout it's history in both constructed, with APM Priest, and Battlegrounds, with other heroes like Gallywix. Your time is very limited in BGs, almost fully determined by the battle animation, and as a result it can be very difficult for players that have not found themselves in this experience before.

With that being said, your APM as a player isn't a factor until the late game, where you at least have 10 gold and a couple of Cap'n Hoggarrs on board. If you have a golden Hoggar and a plain copy of him, you will have "infinite" gold in your turn, as each Pirate bought will in turn net you 3 gold on purchase and another 1 gold once it is sold, resulting in a net positive, and in practice removing any gold limitation in the game. Your APM really matters here because you will be looking to refresh, buy, and sell as much as possible.

One final thing to note is that as Patches, you are always looking for value out of minions to sell. It is important to note that minions like Sellemental and Patient Scout will always sell back for an additional gold after the second minion is created, allowing for an extra roll or an extra card added to hand to buff your board.

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

• Kripparian
• ItsBen123