Quillboar were a later addition to Hearthstone Battlegrounds, although they have been in the game for a while now. Most of the minions in the Quillboar pool are focused around the Blood Gem mechanic, a spell that gives a minion 1/1 in stats.
That might not sound like much of a buff on its own, but Quillboar are capable of generating a lot of Blood Gems, and they have a variety of synergies with them, ranging from minor boosts to game-winning abilities. Here are the ten best Quillboar to look for during your next game of Battlegrounds.
10 Sun-Bacon Relaxer
Selling a minion for two Blood Gems isn’t quite as good as the extra gold you get from token generators like Sellemental and Alleycat (especially when combined with a weak statline), but Sun-Bacon Relaxer can still provide you with the extra stats you need to help you win early fights.
The health that saves you can make the difference between dying early and surviving long enough to get your build going. From there, you can afford to level faster in the late game. Sun-Bacon Relaxer can also get you extra Blood Gems later in the game, which is particularly useful for buffing important minions in non-Quillboar builds (think Titus Rivendare).
9 Bannerboar
Bannerboar provides early scaling for your Quillboar, triggering synergistic effects and giving you a stopgap before you can get to the bigger Quillboar on Tavern Tier 6. Additionally, while Quillboar have specific synergy with Blood Gems, Bannerboar can be used to scale any minion, so it’s not useless even if you aren’t planning on using Quillboar in the endgame.
All of that said, Bannerboar does get outclassed a significant amount by the higher-Tier scaling options for Quillboar, so it shouldn’t be in your final composition if all goes according to plan.
8 Bristlemane Scrapsmith
The Bristlemane Scapsmith is one of Quillboar’s midgame scaling options. It’s not a particularly fast scaling card, since it will usually only get you a couple Blood Gems per round, but that can be enough to get you through to the late game.
However, you do need to have Taunt minions in play for this strategy to work, and those taunt minions need to actually die, which can be a bit of a problem if you’ve been buffing them with Blood Gems. On the other hand, if your Taunt minions are surviving fights, that means you’re winning, so it might not actually be a problem for you.
7 Bristleback Brute
Many Quillboar scale with Blood Gems, but the Bristleback Brute scales faster than almost any other. And the way it does so is important; the extra stats it gets also count as Blood Gems, which means you can later use Necrolyte to transfer them onto a different unit that has a more beneficial effect, like Divine Shield or the ability to damage minions next to the ones it attacks.
Used in that way, Bristleback Brute becomes a powerful stat-generation engine. On the other hand, if you Triple the Brute, it can be powerful unit in its own right.
6 Tough Tusk
Quillboar are generally built around generating big stats, which makes them weak to small Poison minions trying to scam you out of a win. The addition of Divine Shield gives you some amount of protection against those strategies, and Tough Tusk is one of the few Quillboar that can get it under normal circumstances.
However, the need to continually reapply a Blood Gem to get this benefit makes Tough Tusk tricky to include in multi-type builds unless you Triple it, at which point one Blood Gem gives the Tough Tusk Divine Shield permanently.
5 Charlga
A single Charlga isn’t all that impressive. Gaining 7/7 in stats each turn isn’t bad, but you will get outscaled quickly if that’s all you’re working with. However, if you Triple into a Charlga relatively early, or you can get a bunch of them, the stats will start to build up fast.
In fact, they can build so fast that you can kill your opponents before they can get to the point where their stats will overwhelm yours. It’s not the optimal way to play Quillboar, but don’t shy away from using Charlga if he happens to fall into your lap.
4 Bristleback Knight
Bristleback Knight is arguably the best target for Blood Gems among all the Quillboar. The minion has Divine Shield, which, as mentioned with the Tough Tusk, is a great way to increase the effectiveness of your minion’s stats.
And the Bristleback Knight also has Windfury (Mega-Windfury, if it’s Golden), increasing the effectiveness further, and the unique ability to refresh its Divine Shield. Of course, that will only happen if you can grow its stats large enough, but the Knight will destroy enemy compositions if it does.
3 Necrolyte
Necrolyte is a great utility minion. Its presence in the game allows you to invest Blood Gems in the first few turns without fear, giving you extra stats to help you get through the early game even if you have no intention of playing Quillboar long-term.
Additionally, if you were playing Quillboar in the early and mid-game, but decide to switch builds later on, you can use Necrolyte to make sure your Blood Gem investment isn’t wasted. And even if you want Quillboar to be your final build, Necrolyte can shift Blood Gems onto a more useful minion, like from a Bristleback Brute onto a Bristleback Knight.
2 Dynamic Duo
Having a Dynamic Duo multiplies the scaling your Blood Gems give you by a significant amount. With the right setup, the Duo’s attack and health can get well into the hundreds, and a golden Dynamic Duo will often be the largest minion in the lobby.
However, stats aren’t everything in Battlegrounds. Quillboar can create some large minions, but the Duo will usually be your largest by far, and since it has Taunt, it is extremely vulnerable to insta-kill minions like Poisonous Murlocs or Leeroy Jenkins. If your opponent is scouting properly, they can set up a trade that swings heavily in their favor.
As a result, once you reach the endgame, it is often smart to give one of your other minions Taunt, or even intentionally not tripling your Duos if they are already large enough separately.
1 Darkgaze Elder
If your goal is to scale Quilboar into the stratosphere, Darkgaze Elder is the minion you want on your board. It turns refreshing the Tavern and buying minions into a method for gaining stats, and it gains them fast, especially if you have a few of them.
And since Darkgaze Elder only buffs four Quillboar, it can be used in hybrid builds as well as with full Quillboar. If you're feeling ambitious, you can even combine Darkgaze Elder with gold generators like Cap’n Hogger or Brann Bronzebeard, allowing you to accelerate your stat gains even further.
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