History GameBreaker / HearthstoneHeroesOfWarcraft

** Land Lubber was a Tier 2 3/4 pirate-elemental minion with the simple effect of adding another tavern spell[[labelnote:explanation]]A new mechanic that adds spells to the battleground tavern[[/labelnote]] to your tavern each time you refresh. What was a fairly simple effect ended up being one of the most impactful additions to the battlegrounds: Many Tavern spells have strong synergy with tier 2-3 minions(Bejeweled Duelist, a minion that gains +1 health each time you refresh, for example, has synergy with Leaf Through the Pages, a spell that costs 2 gold and gives you 3 free tavern refreshes. The Glad-iator has divine shield and gains +1 attack each time you cast a spell), meaning the players had ''no reason'' to actually upgrade past tier 2 or 3. In the span of a few turns, players could amass over ''forty'' gold in a consistent fashion and create fat boards that allowed them to at very least hit top 4 without needing anything beyond tier 2-3. The end result was Land Lubber being banned from Battlegrounds only a few weeks after it debuted, and the devs making it clear the minion will only return after being reworked.

** Land Lubber was a Tier 2 3/4 pirate-elemental minion with the simple effect of adding another tavern spell[[labelnote:explanation]]A new mechanic that adds spells to the battleground tavern[[/labelnote]] to your tavern each time you refresh. What was a fairly simple effect ended up being one of the most impactful additions to the battlegrounds: Many Tavern spells have strong synergy with tier 2-3 minions(Bejeweled Duelist, a minion that gains +1 health each time you refresh, for example, has synergy with Leaf Through the Pages, a spell that costs 2 gold and gives you 3 free tavern refreshes. The Glad-iator has divine shield and gains +1 attack each time you cast a spell), meaning the players had ''no reason'' to actually upgrade past tier 2 or 3. In the span of a few turns, players could amass over ''forty'' gold in a consistent fashion and create fat boards that allowed them to at very least hit top 4 without needing anything beyond tier 2-3. The end result was Land Lubber being banned from showing up at all in Battlegrounds only a few weeks after it's debut, and the devs making it clear the minion will only return after being reworked.

* The crown for the worst offender and game-breaker of the Alterac Valley expansion in Duels goes to one of the two new neutral heroes, [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Vanndar_Stormpike_(Duels_hero) Vanndar Stormpike]]. One of his hero powers, '''Battle Tactics''', reduced the cost of neutral minions in your hand by 2 if they costed 4 or more. Vanndar hit the jackpot with potentially one of the most overpowered duel heroes power ever created. All you had to do is slap a deck of high-cost neutral minions like Alextrasza, Y'Shaarj, The Lich King and more and you were good to go. It was so bad, that about nobody else could compete with Vanndar as he was casually dropping 8+ mana minions as early as turn 4. A ridiculous amount of matches in 8-11 wins range consisted of nothing but Vanndar because of how broken he was, and barely a month later he got nerfed by changing Battle Tactics to only decrease the cost of 2 random neutral minions in your hand instead of all of them.

** One of [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Reno_Jackson_(Duels_hero) Reno Jackson's]] hero powers, '''Arcane Craftiness''', fires two missiles that each deal 1 damage to a random enemy, and is recast for free each time it gets a kill. Far and away the best hero power available to him in Tombs of Terror, it became even more broken thanks to [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Wildfire Wildfire]], a spell that permanently increases your hero power's damage by 1. Because of the way Reno's hero power is worded, this would increase the damage of ''each missile'' by 1, making each Wildfire +2 damage and also making it way easier to get kills, allowing him to deal chip face damage and wipe entire boards for only 2 mana. In response, Wildfire was banned. When the hero power was still overperforming, it was nerfed to 3 mana.
** [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Elise_Starseeker_(Duels_hero) Elise's]] hero power '''Starseeker''' has a passive effect to add a Moonfire to your hand after you cast three spells in one turn, Moonfire being a 0-mana spell that deals 1 damage to any target. It was already nerfed from its single-player version requiring only two spells, but this didn't stop it from being an absurd OTK generator. It's possible to play a lot of cheap spells, letting you quickly stockpile a large number of Moonfires throughout the game. Then, all you do is drop Malygos for +5 Spell Damage and nuke your opponent from orbit. This was especially easy since Moonfires also trigger Starseeker, meaning that every 3 Moonfires saved was another free 6 damage. Like Wildfire, this resulted in Malygos getting banned.
** On launch, it quickly became clear that [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Sir_Finley_(Duels_hero) Sir Finley]] was becoming a gross aggro class. The plethora of strong Murlocs in Paladin and Shaman combined with his hero power '''Power Up!''' made him able to win games long before the opponent had a chance to mount a defense. Power Up! has the very strong effect to permanently give a minion Divine Shield and Windfury, turning any minion on his board into a huge threat, either before it attacks or preemptively. As such, Power Up! now Overloads for 2, making its use hurt your tempo.
** [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Brann_Bronzebeard_(Duels_hero) Brann Bronzebeard]] was a sleeper compared to his fellow Explorers, but in the wake of their nerfs it became apparent that he too had a broken hero power. '''Dino Tracking''' was originally a passive hero power that caused him to Discover the card he draws for turn. This gave him an absurd amount of control over what he drew, making it easy to turbo for a combo and risk-free to instead pivot to defensive cards as needed. This came to a head with [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Elwynn_Boar Elwynn Boar]] decks, which used the extreme consistency to rapidly tutor 7 of these and turn what was supposed to be a meme card into a frustrating meta threat. Dino Tracking was changed to instead cost 2 mana and Discover and a draw a card from his deck, putting a price tag on the searching.
* Of the two initial Death Knight heroes, [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Sai_Shadestorm Sai Shadestorm]] proved to be much stronger thanks to his excellent hero powers.

** '''Lichborne Might''' was a 1-mana hero power that gave a friendly minion +3/+3 but destroyed it at the end of the turn. This gave Sai unlimited uses of [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Power_Overwhelming Power Overwhelming]], a card that, while powercrept out of the meta, was once a staple aggro card and is still powerful in combination with Deathrattles and Charge minions. This hero power was used with the already-strong Unholy aggro Death Knight (and later Frost aggro Death Knight) package, particularly as another activator for [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Foul_Egg Foul Egg]]. Lichborne Might was nerfed to 2 mana in ''Festival of Legends'', making it harder to weave into turns.
* While [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Drek%27Thar_(Duels_hero) Drek'thar]]'s '''Warmaster's Frenzy''' was considered a bit of a joke compared to his other two options, a new card in ''Festival of Legends'' called [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Groovy_Cat Groovy Cat]] completely broke the game. Warmaster's Frenzy deals 1 damage to all minions, and has the Honorable Kill effect to give your hero +1 Attack. Groovy Cat meanwhile is a Druid minion that increases the amount of Attack your hero power gives you by 1 for the rest of the game on both Battlecry and Deathrattle. This is balanced for Druid's basic hero power, but Warmaster's Frenzy gives extra attack for ''every minion'' it Honorably Kills. This meant that once you have played two Groovy Cats, that's already +5 Attack for each kill, never mind getting more that you can resurrect. After you've gotten up to +8 or so, you just fill the board with 1/1 tokens then Hero Power for an instant lethal. Warmaster's Frenzy was nerfed from 1 to 2 mana, slowing it down in early runs.

* Of all the signature treasures, none were as deck-defining or ''broken'' as [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Gift_of_the_Legion Gift of the Legion]]. This was a Demon Hunter treasure that gave the hero +1 Attack for each friendly minion that died that turn, with an Outcast effect that returned it to your hand. With two [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Line_Hopper Line Hoppers]] or one and [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Sticky_Fingers Sticky Fingers]]/[[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Khadgar%27s_Scrying_Orb Khadgar's Scrying Orb]], this let Demon Hunters build infinite attack from '''''just two cards'''''. Despite Duels being quite deliberately gross, this was just a little too easy to pull off. It was raised to 3 mana, making infinite combos a lot less consistent.
* Warlock was unquestionably the worst class in the preview/beta for Duels. In order to make up for that, they got two major buffs - first, their [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Dark_Arts Dark Arts]] hero power was buffed to 1 mana. Next, they got '''[[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Killmox,_the_Banished_One Killmox, the Banished One]]'''. Killmox is a 6 mana 3/3 Demon with Rush and Lifesteal that gained +2/+2 for each card you discarded that game. Additionally, if he's discarded, he instead returns to your hand. With Dark Arts, you could target Killmox to draw a card for 1 mana and buff him. When he came down, he was a 15/15 or more that healed your hero. Mixed with [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Felosophy Felosophy]] or [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Soulwarden Soulwarden]], and you could play Killmox just about forever. He was nerfed to only gain +1/+1, literally ''halving'' his stats.
* One of [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Drek%27Thar_(Duels_hero) Drek'thar]]'s signature treasures, [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Valorous_Display Valorous Display]], destroys all minions and lets you Discover a weapon to equip, while also locking you into building a Warrior deck. Priced at 6 mana originally, this was essentially a cheaper Twisting Nether that also often paid for itself with a free weapon. There was no deck that didn't want this -- control decks used it as an ultra-efficient piece of removal, and tempo and aggro decks used it to sweep Taunts and swing face with one more burst. Conversely, this also meant that every Drek'thar was Warrior, since the other options weren't very good. Valorous Display was bumped to 7 mana, making it just a touch less effective so the other classes could shine.
* [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Marvelous_Mycelium Marvelous Mycelium]] is one of Omu's treasures, and it has a rather storied history. Originally it allowed you to Discover a Choose One card and made your Choose One cards have their effects combine for the rest of the turn. This was way too niche to ever be a viable Treasure pick, so it was heavily underplayed. Blizzard responded by reworking the spell to instead Discover two cards, make those two cards have their effects combined permanently, and also shuffle itself into your deck. This was ''completely'' broken. Not only did Mycelium provide way too much value for 1 mana, it also effectively removed fatigue with its infinite shuffle. Blizzard first tried nerfing it to only Discover one card, but this had little effect. They instead gave up and reworked it again to Discover three cards and shuffle ''them'' into your deck, killing the instant and infinite value at the same time while still keeping the card's spirit.
* Starseeker wasn't the only broken thing [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Elise_Starseeker_(Duels_hero) Elise]] had in her toolkit at launch. [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Academic_Research Academic Research]] was a 3-mana spell that granted 1 mana crystal and upgraded by one each time a friendly minion died while it was in your hand. Don't worry about that "in your hand" part though, because for some reason it also had the Start of Game effect to be drawn from your deck for free. Note [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Loyal_Henchman Loyal Henchman]], an active treasure that has that same Start of Game effect and simply gains +1/+1 each turn, is often considered one of the best active treasures since it thins your deck for free. Now imagine that on a spell that acted as [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Twig_of_the_World_Tree Twig of the World Tree]] without the hoops. Keep in mind that Academic Research gave ''full'' mana crystals, making it refresh its own cost and letting you use all that mana right away. Needless to say, this was rather broken. Academic Research was nerfed three weeks after launch to give empty mana crystals and no longer start in your hand.
* Although [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Darius_Crowley_(Duels_hero) Darius Crowley]] didn't have the most illustrious launch, that same weakness was not carried over to his treasure [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Safe_Harbor Safe Harbor]]. For 2 mana, it bounced a minion from the board to your hand and made it cost 0. At first glance it already looks like a slower but still powerful Shadowstep, except ''it's not limited to friendly minions''. That means it was a 2-mana Mind Control that also lets you repeat an opponent's Battlecry effect. Even though Crowley himself was underperforming, this card was still clearly way too good and was nerfed to 5 mana.
* Just in case Sai's hero powers weren't enough, he also got access to a very powerful treasure called [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Glaciaxe Glaciaxe]]. This was a 4 mana 5/2 weapon which equipped a 2/5 weapon with Windfury as its Deathrattle, which then summoned three 1/1 zombies with Reborn as ''its'' Deathrattle. By itself, Glaciaxe dealt 20 damage over four turns, and left behind a sticky board afterwards for good measure. This was absolutely disgusting for aggro decks, especially early in a run where decks are thin and the health pool is low. As such, Glaciaxe was nerfed to a 3/2 and 2/3 on each side, putting its power way more in line.

* While most Treasure cards were rebalanced to be more fair (but still very strong) for the Duels format, one item that was completely unchanged was [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Robes_of_Gaudiness Robes of Gaudiness]]. It turns out that it was just as broken against player as it was against bosses. The difference between a player with and without a Robes of Gaudiness was massive. Unless your deck went full aggro, even mediocre decks not built around it could easily squeeze in 7-8 wins. If you were a control deck with the Robes, you were guaranteed to beat just about any deck that didn't have the Robes. High wins in Duels was dominated by control Priest, Warrior, and especially Paladin with Robes. Its brokenness was quickly noticed, and Robes of Gaudiness was hotfixed out of the format just barely above '''24 hours''' later.
* [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Fireshaper Fireshaper]] was a humble tier 1 treasure that dealt 1 damage to a random enemy after you cast a spell. It probably wasn't high on anyone's radar, but it was one of the most reliable treasures out there. It's pretty much generic and can go in nearly any deck, using its small benefit to ping off minions and get a little chip damage off your spells. On an empty board, it was effectively Illucia's already-strong hero power Mind Tether. In case you didn't get the treasure you were really gunning for, Fireshaper was a fantastic consolation prize. All of this led to it being one of the most ubiquitous treasures. It eventually proved too flexible for its own good, and was removed from the game in ''Fractured in Alterac Valley''.
* When ''Forged in the Barrens'' was released, Blizzard included a new set of treasures meant to interact with Spell Schools. Some were more successful than others, but none had as much sway on the game as [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Unstable_Magic Unstable Magic]]. It made so that after you cast an Arcane spell, you transformed a random enemy minion into a 1/1 Sheep. This literally turned every single Arcane spell, of which Mage had many cheap ones, into a removal effect that blanked Deathrattles and bypassed immunity. Minion strategies were invalidated by this treasure's existence, and the meta titled towards Mage since only they had enough Arcane spells to make use of this effect. Unstable Magic eventually became an Ultra Rare treasure, with its extreme rarity letting minion decks breath easily.

** While most schools got a generic "+2 Spell Damage to that school" pool 1 treasure, Frost also got [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Freeze_Solid Freeze Solid]]. Originally its effect destroyed any Frozen enemy minion after it took damage, which was severely limited as it demanded two resources for each removal. Blizzard opted to buff it in ''United in Stormwind'', changing it to instead cause you to deal double damage to Frozen enemies, including the face. This was unequivocally busted, letting players -- particularly Mozaki with [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Frost_Shards Frost Shards]] to generate endless Freezers -- easily burn down any player. It was then heavily nerfed to only cause Frozen enemies to take 1 extra damage from all sources, putting it in line with other tier 1 cards.
** Just in case Freeze Solid wasn't enough, Frost also got [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Glacial_Downpour Glacial Downpour]] in ''Fractured in Alterac Valley''. It summoned a Water Elemental at the end of your turn so long as you'd cast at least one Frost spell that turn. It's quite easy to cast a Frost spell on turn 1, essentially giving you a 3/6 minion with a Freezing effect that your opponent only had one or two mana to somehow deal with. As long as you could keep the chain going, you could then amass a free 3/6 every single turn. Since Glacial Downpour was a tier 2 treasure, you could actually draft it with Freeze Solid, turning every summoned Elemental into a 6-damage threat that opened up continued double damage. With ''Murder at Castle Nathria'', Glacial Downpour was heavily and justifiably nerfed to only summon a 2/1 Elemental with the Freezing effect, making it much easier to deal with.
* With the ''Fractured in Alterac Valley'' update for Duels, Blizzard decided to spice up the meta with a new passive treasure called [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Shadowcasting_101 Shadowcasting 101]]. And uh, [[GoneHorriblyRight spice it did]]. The treasure causes the first minion you played each round to generate a 1 mana 1/1 copy of it in your hand. Yup. If you play that copy first each turn, you can infinitely duplicate the effect of any minion ''and'' massively cheat its cost. Infinite reloads with N'Zoth? Sure! Infinite Totems off Payload Specialist? Why not? Infinite armor and protection off Mo'arg Forgefiend? You bet ya! The ability to flexibly pivot to any infinite minion whenever you need? Oh, of course. The most baffling thing about this effect is that it was a common Tier 1 treasure, meaning it was easy to build around and it was '''everywhere'''. Blizzard responded only two days later, bumping it to a Tier 2 Ultra Rare to the complaint of no one.
* [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Oops,_All_Spells! Oops, All Spells!]] was first released as an Ultra Rare that destroyed all minions in your deck at the start of the game and reduced the cost of all spells by 1 while giving you +2 Spell Damage. It was later moved to the regular pool 2 instead of Ultra Rare, where its true power was quickly discovered. The treasure was supposed to be a huge PowerAtAPrice effect... except the "price" turned out to actually be an ''upside'' that removed all of those worthless minions you were forced to draft from buckets, thinning your deck by upwards of 20 cards to easily burn and even OTK your opponent. It was soon after hotfixed to no longer give Spell Damage, but this barely put a dent in its usefulness. It was then removed from the game.
* [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Party_Replacement Party Replacement]] was a tier 2 treasure that caused you to summon an Adventurer at the start of your turn every turn, which is a 2/2 token minion that comes with a random evergreen keyword (a full list on [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Wailing_Caverns this page]]). This proved to be absolutely absurd in any minion-focused deck, giving you a constant flow of minions to buff or just keep pressure with that your opponent had to deal with turn after turn. It was especially frustrating to highroll a Divine Shield over and over, which is far and away the best effect. It was eventually moved to Ultra Rare, but its occasional appearance still made for unwinnable anti-games. This led to it eventually being banned entirely.
* [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Brittle_Bones Brittle Bones]] was a tier 2 treasure that caused your spells to summon a Volatile Skeleton after killing a minion, which is a 2/2 minion with the Deathrattle effect to deal 2 damage to a random enemy. This turned every board clear into [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Deathborne Deathborne]], a spell that already sees play. More than that, it turned them into a risk-free swing, since you could attack with your skeletons, clear the board to trigger their Deathrattles, then resummon a full board of skeletons again. Brittle Bones was quickly changed to only work on enemy minions, removing some of the unfair interactions. It was still too strong however, so it was later nerfed again to only summon one Volatile Skeleton per spell.
* [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Cold_Feet_Pact Cold Feet Pact]] is one of a few Death Knight exclusive passives added in ''March of the Lich King'' that interact with Corpses. Most are merely okay, but this one is very powerful. It summons a Risen Groom at the end of your turn every turn who has stats equal to half of your Corpse total. Spending Corpses ended up being somewhat of a surprise dud mechanic, at least in the initial set, so it was very easy to stockpile tens of Corpses at a time. This could let you summon a free 5/5, 10/10, maybe 15/15 every single turn to overwhelm the opponent. Even at a small Corpse count, it's basically Party Replacement all over again. Cold Feet Pact was shunted off to the Ultra Rare pool in January 2023, making it the second class-restricted Ultra Rare after Unstable Magic.

* [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/shockspitter Shockspitter]], while already powerful enough to get nerfed twice in constructed, it was ''even better'' in Duels in Brann Bronzebeard's hands. Being a Warrior/Hunter hybrid, he not only had more weapons to choose from, he also has a card that could allow him to OTK extremely easily [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/to_the_front To The Front!]], a 2-cost Warrior spell from ''Fractured in Alterac Valley'', which reduces the cost of minions you play that turn by 2, but makes them have to cost at least one. This allowed Brann to make an easy 4 card OTK, using To The Front!, [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/brann_bronzebeard his card equivalent]], Shockspitter and [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/zola_the_gorgon Zola the Gorgon]]. This combo allowed Brann to do absurd damage in a single turn for relatively cheap[[note]]If you attack every turn and play the entire combo as early as you can (which is turn 7), this can allow you to deal '''42''' unpreventable damage.[[/note]], and all he needed was to survive and draw the cards needed to pull the combo off, which is rather easy when Warrior's control game is taken into account. Even after Shockspitter's second nerf, it was banned from getting played in duels.

** Murky is a tier 6 minion whose original effect buffed another murloc's stats by +1/+1, with the potency of the effect increasing for each battlecry minion the player plays(if the player played 10 battlecries, the effect would be +11/+11 and so on). This minion also showed up along Drakkari Enchanter, whose effect allows end-of-turn effects to trigger an extra time, and combined with Brann and Young Murk-eye, it lead to numerous murloc boards with each minion's stats in the ''thousands'' due to the constant activation of Murky's scaling battlecry each turn. As a result of this, Blizzard pulled a Warsong Commander on Murky and replaced its effect in a later update with a flat "Give a Murloc +10/+10"

** Banana Slamma is a new tier 3 addition with the May 2023 update, whose effect is to double the stats of beasts summoned in combat. Meant to give token-spawning beasts a solid mid-game without having to rely on a early Leapfrogger Baron or Mama Bear builds, this minion succeeded [[GoneHorriblyRight a bit too well in that regard]]. Banana Slamma has ''exponential'' scaling with its own effect as soon as you own multiple copies or a golden one, which gives heroes like Zephrys, Varden and Reno Jackson, among others, a solid top 4 finisher build or even first place as soon as they get their hands on the offending monkey. The impact Banana Slamma has on a match cannot be overstated: You can use beast-summoners like Sly Raptor, Sewer rat, Manasaber or any beast with reborn, then slap taunt on them and as soon as they die, the spawning minion tends to reach anywhere from +70/+70 to '''over +300/+300''' in stats per beast spawned. Hell, you don't even need more than a one or two copies of those minions, since a Sewer Rat or a Manasaber can vomit taunt walls with health in the ''hundreds''. Not even Zippy can snipe them because this minions tends to have more attack than your beast-spawning minions, and outside a warband using Tunnel Blaster+Rivendare combo, there is pretty much nothing you can do to stop them once they get their giant beasts going. The monkey's Tier 3 status means its extremely common to find in a lobby with Beasts, and is ''everywhere'' as a result. Blizzard responded by bumping the monkey to tier 4 a week later, to hopefully slow it down.

** Young Murk-Eye, a Tier 6 8/5 Murloc added in the May 2022 rotation. He repeated battlecries done by adjacent murlocs on each end of turn, which when combined with Brann, created gigantic Murloc boards during the late-game. As a result, most non-naga boards struggled to clear a Murloc board without having to rely on Leeroy the Reckless or Mantid Queen, and with poisonous on top, it resulted in most lobbies going [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome either Naga or Murlocs]]. In order to allow other tribes to compete during the late-game, Murk-Eye was nerfed 10 days later in the same update that nerfed Nagas, by making it so only he repeats the battlecry of the murloc to his left now (and if you want him to repeat adjacent murloc battlecries again, now you need a golden version of him).

See [[https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/The_Azerite_Snake The Azerite Snake]] in the Nerfed Cards section.

* The five Bloodstone classes all have special Legendary Azerite minions that can be obtained by Excavating four times. Even with that task in mind, they're all fairly balanced... with one ''glaring'' exception. Warlock's Legendary, [[https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/The_Azerite_Snake The Azerite Snake]], is a 4 mana 5/5 Elemental Beast like the other Azerite minions, but has a totally broken Battlecry: your Hero ''literally'' steals 10 Health from the enemy hero, lowering their maximum health total and bypassing any Armor they have. And since Warlock is ''pretty darn good'' at Excavating and stalling until that fourth Excavate happens, this results in a totally uninteractive, highly consistent win condition where you play Snake, then bounce or copy him at least two times with minions like [[https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/Youthful_Brewmaster Youthful Brewmaster]] or [[https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/Zola_the_Gorgon Zola the Gorgon]] to completely eliminate your opponent's HP. The only way to survive is to somehow kill the Warlock before he gets the combo going, steal the Snake with a lucky [[https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/Theotar,_the_Mad_Duke Theotar]] pull, drag the Snake out with [[https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/Dirty_Rat Dirty Rat]] and quickly kill it, or play a mirror match and get the combo off better/faster than the other Warlock. Those middle two options aren't even consistent, either, since the Warlock could just Excavate another four times to get a ''second'' Azerite Snake! While it was predicted Snake would be the best of the Azerite beasts, ''nobody'' could have predicted things'd be ''that'' bad.

* [[https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/Crimson_Clergy Crimson Clergy]] is a 1 mana 1/3 Priest minion from the ''Legacy'' set that draws a card when Overhealed. On his own, Clergy ''seems'' relatively innocent, but in Wild he became a problem child when it was discovered he could be paired with Radiant Elemental and boatloads of heal spells, letting you rapidly cycle through your deck and quickly slam big minions like Arcane Giant and Grave Horror onto the board. He was banned from the format in June 2023 to strike this toxic combo deck down.

Also see [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Shadowboxer Shadowboxer]] in the Nerfed Cards section.

* [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Mechwarper Mechwarper]], the centerpiece card of all Mech decks, is a 2/3 for 2 mana that reduces the cost of all Mechs in hand by 1 mana. Most Mechs are very efficient for the cost to start with, like the 3/4 for 3 Spider Tank and the 1/2 Taunt Divine Shield for 2 [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Annoy-o-Tron Annoy-o-Tron]], and are also quite cheap, meaning that if Mechwarper survives turn 2, it's very likely the opponent will spam the board with multiple minions for nothing at all, and even to this day there is no [=AoE=] spell that would be capable of dealing with such a board outside of [[https://hearthstone.gamepedia.com/Doomsayer Doomsayer]]. Plus, this effect ''stacks''; two Mechwarpers is an absolute nightmare that can create unwinnable circumstances, especially when combined with...

See [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Bloodsail_Deckhand Bloodsail Deckhand]] in the Nerfed Cards section.

See [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Vile_Library Vile Library]], [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Stag_Spirit_Wildseed Stag Spirit Wildseed]], [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Kael%27thas_Sinstrider Kael'thas Sinstrider]], [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Nightcloak_Sanctum Nightcloak Sanctum]], [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Bear_Spirit_Wildseed Bear Spirit Wildseed]], [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Theotar,_the_Mad_Duke Theotar, the Mad Duke]]l, [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Sire_Denathrius Sire Denathrius]], [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Prince_Renathal Prince Renathal]], [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Relic_of_Dimensions Relic of Dimensions]], [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Necrolord_Draka Necrolord Draka]], [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Sinstone_Graveyard Sinstone Graveyard]], and [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Boon_of_the_Ascended Boon of the Ascended]] in the Nerfed Cards section, and [[https://hearthstone.fandom.com/wiki/Tome_Tampering Tome Tampering]] in the banned Cards section.

* [[https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/Tony,_King_of_Piracy Tony, King of Piracy]] from ''Festival of Legends'' and [[https://hearthstone.wiki.gg/wiki/The_Jailer The Jailer]] from the ''Maw and Disorder'' mini-set were both banned because in Druid, they were absolutely ''toxic'' partners in crime. Tony was a 5 mana 4/6 Pirate that swapped both players' decks while he was in play (and also draws a card if he's the Finale, but that's neither here nor there), and The Jailer was a 10 mana 10/10 that destroyed your deck and made your minions Immune for the rest of the game. You can probably guess the combo: play Tony to swap decks with your opponent, play Jailer to destroy your opponent's deck, then finally kill Tony to swap back. That alone's bad enough, but even without Jailer, Tony could enable all kinds of stupid shenanigans in Wild, leading to him being banned there alongside Mechwarper, while Jailer got slapped with a ban across both Wild ''and'' Standard. A month later, both cards were released from jail, but got HUGE nerfs in exchange: Tony's cost was increased to 7 and his effect became a Battlecry that just replaces your deck with a copy of your opponent's, while Jailer's Battlecry was changed to make him only grant Immune to himself.

!!Others[[note]]Anything that's part of battlegrounds but doesn't quality for the other categories[[/note]]

** Golganneth's Tempest makes all the minions in the tavern cost only 2 gold, as well as removing the manual refresh button(Refreshing now happens whenever the player buys a minion). The number of hero synergies created with this pseudo-millhouse anomaly led to no less than '''seventeen''' heroes getting banned from lobbies with Golganneth's, with some prime offenders Dinotamer Brann inding and using Battlecries far more often than normal, Fungalmancer Flurgl securing murlocs without issue because of the reduced purchase price of the minions, Kurtrus Ashfallen activating his hero power almost every turn without much issue, Silas Darkmoon farming a high amount of minions of his tavern tier, etc. The heroes banned from this anomaly as a result were: A.F.Kay, Captain Eudora, Dinotamer Brann, Elise Starseeker, Forest Warden Omu, Fungalmancer Flurgl, Galakrond, Kurtrus Ashfallen, Ozumat, Scabbs Cutterbutter, Silas Darkmoon, Overlord Saurfang, Professor Putricide, Xyrella, Yogg-Saron, and Y’Shaarj.

** Bring in the Buddies adds ''every'' buddy in the game to the minion pool in the tavern. Because many of this buddies were never meant to interact with other heroes(as the above examples in the buddy section shows), the number of broken interactions created with this anomaly is insane. For example: the most noticeable one involved Dinotamer Brann and Shudderwock abusing Denathrius' Buddy(Shady Aristocrat) to potentially get near infinite quests and infinite gold in the span of a few turns, as well as duplicating the battlecry of Piloted Whirl-o-Tron, Sneed's buddy, to repeatedly copy repeatedly the same deathrattles over and over, creating a invincible board with just a few generic deathrattles. This led to a later patch nerfing both Aristocrat(getting its tier bumped to 3) and Whirl-o-Tron getting bumped to tier 5 as well as changing its functionality to only trigger on start of combat and copy deathrattles from other friendly minions not called Piloted Whirl-o-Tron, permanently removing the battlecry synergy it had with Brann and Shudderwock.

** '''Bring in the Buddies''' adds ''every'' buddy in the game to the minion pool in the tavern. Because many of this buddies were never meant to interact with other heroes(as the above examples in the buddy section shows), the number of broken interactions created with this anomaly is insane. For example: the most noticeable one involved Dinotamer Brann and Shudderwock abusing Denathrius' Buddy(Shady Aristocrat) to potentially get near infinite quests and infinite gold in the span of a few turns, as well as duplicating the battlecry of Piloted Whirl-o-Tron, Sneed's buddy, to repeatedly copy repeatedly the same deathrattles over and over, creating a invincible board with just a few generic deathrattles. This led to a later patch nerfing both Aristocrat(getting its tier bumped to 3) and Whirl-o-Tron getting bumped to tier 5 as well as changing its functionality to only trigger on start of combat and copy deathrattles from other friendly minions not called Piloted Whirl-o-Tron, permanently removing the battlecry synergy it had with Brann and Shudderwock.

** Cap'n Hoggarr was the holy grail and enabler of any AMP pirate strategy, creating warbands that easly hit the hundreds of stats per minion. Additionally, Hoggarr was still insanely strong as an engine for extra(or ''infinite'', if you find more copies of him) gold on any build from other tribes that wanted to find combo pieces (any baron comps like Omega/Boombox or Leapfrogger/Goldrinn) more consistently, gain massive stats (Nomi/Lil'ragnaros scaling builds, Demon Ur'zuls, Quillboars with Darkgaze Elder and Kalecgos builds) or just grab a golden baron with selfless defender for a full divine-shield board. Hoggarr was eventually booted in the May 2023 refresh as a result.

** Upbeat Duo's pre-nerf incarnation had a simple Battlecry: you could choose any minion on the field, and every two turns Duo would add a copy of it to your hand. Digging for extra copies of specific minions is one of the main paths to victory in Battlegrounds, so a minion that just gives them to you repeatedly for a mere 3 gold investment is already really good, with the only downside being that Duo took up precious board space. The problem was with the nature of Duo's Battlecry. Firstly, the "add the selected minion to your hand" effect qualified as an enchantment, meaning it would be retained when tripled, doubling the amount of cards you were supposed to get off of it. Secondly, Brann doubled the application of the enchantment, setting up a guaranteed triple for any card you wanted, including ''Brann himself''. Duo's insane highroll-potential punctuated its already incredible standalone power, and as such the card received a rework that simply required minions to be adjacent to it instead of selecting a target via Battlecry, resolving both issues.

** Banana Slamma is a new tier 3 addition with the May 2023 update, whose effect is to double the stats of beasts summoned in combat. Meant to give token-spawning beasts a solid mid-game without having to rely on a early Leapfrogger Baron or Mama Bear builds, this minion succeeded [[GoneHorriblyRight a bit too well in that regard]]. Banana Slamma has ''exponential'' scaling with its own effect as soon as you own multiple copies or a golden one, which gives heroes like Zephrys, Varden and Reno Jackson, among others, a solid top 4 finisher build or even first place as soon as they get their hands on the offending monkey. The impact Banana Slamma has on a match cannot be overstated: You can use beast-summoners like Sly Raptor, Sewer rat, Manasaber or any beast with reborn, then slap taunt on them and as soon as they die, the spawning minion tends to reach anywhere from +70/+70 to '''over +300/+300''' in stats per beast spawned. Hell, you don't even need more than a one or two copies of those minions, since a Sewer Rat or a Manasaber can vomit taunt walls with health in the ''hundreds''. Not even Zippy can snipe them because this minions tends to have more attack than your beast-spawning minions, and outside a warband using Tunnel Blaster+Rivendare combo, there is pretty much nothing you can do to stop them once they get their giant beasts going. The monkey's Tier 3 status means its extremely common to find in a lobby with Beasts, and is ''everywhere'' as a result.

* Naga:
** Stormscale Siren, originally a Tier 3 5/4 that made your Naga minions with Spellcraft apply it to themselves at the end of each turn. This effect is deceptive in its simplicity: even without factoring in the effects of the Spellcrafts or their built-in synergies (such as Critter Wrangler), each individual recast of the Spellcrafts counts as a spell activation, meaning Tidemistress Athissa and Eventide Brute would both activate and scale ''extremely'' quickly, meaning the entire board would likely reach triple-digit stats in only a few turns. She got kicked to Tier 5 (and stats increased to 6/5) to hopefully slow down Nagas and allow other tribes to keep up with them, which didn't do a damn thing as the scaling Siren offered was simply too obscene to handle. Siren was quickly kicked out for being too good, lasting less than a month of play; Nagas had other nerfs at the time but were eventually recognized as collateral damage from Siren's antics and most of them were gradually reverted.

** Banana Slamma is a new tier 3 addition with the May 2023 whose effect is to double the stats of beasts summoned in combat. Meant to give token-spawning beasts a solid mid-game without having to rely on a early Leapfrogger Baron or Mama Bear builds, this minion succeeded [[GoneHorriblyRight a bit too well in that regard]]. Banana Slamma has ''exponential'' scaling with its own effect as soon as you own multiple copies or a golden one, which gives heroes like Zephrys, Varden and Reno Jackson, among others, a solid top 4 finisher build or even first place as soon as they get their hands on the offending monkey. The impact Banana Slamma has on a match cannot be overstated: You can use beast-summoners like Sly Raptor, Sewer rat, Manasaber or any beast with reborn, then slap taunt on them and as soon as they die, the spawning minion tends to reach anywhere from +70/+70 to '''over +300/+300''' in stats per beast spawned. Hell, you don't even need more than a one or two copies of those minions, since a Sewer Rat or a Manasaber can vomit taunt walls with health in the ''hundreds''. Not even Zippy can snipe them because this minions tends to have more attack than your beast-spawning minions, and outside a warband using Tunnel Blaster+Rivendare combo, there is pretty much nothing you can do to stop them once they get their giant beasts going. The monkey's Tier 3 status means its extremely common to find in a lobby with Beasts, and is ''everywhere'' as a result.

** Banana Slamma is a new tier 3 addition with the May 2023 whose effect is to double the stats of beasts summoned in combat. Meant to give token-spawning beasts a solid mid-game without having to rely on a early Leapfrogger Baron or Mama Bear builds, this minion succeeded [[GoneHorriblyRight a bit too well in that regard]]. Banana Slamma has ''exponential'' scaling with its own effect as soon as you own multiple copies or a golden one, which gives heroes like Zephrys, Varden and Reno Jackson, among others, a solid top 4 finisher build or even first place as soon as they get their hands on the offending monkey. The impact Banana Slamma has on a match cannot be overstated: You can use beast-summoners like Sly Raptor, Sewer rat, Manasaber or any beast with reborn, then slap taunt on them and as soon as they die, the spawning minion tends to reach anywhere from +70/+70 to '''over +300/+300''' in stats per beast spawned. Hell, you don't even need those particular minions since even something like a Sewer Rat or a Manasaber can vomit taunt walls with health in the ''hundreds''. Not even Zippy can snipe them because this minions tends to have more attack than your beast-spawning minions, and outside a warband using Tunnel Blaster+Rivendare combo, there is pretty much nothing you can do to stop them once they get their giant beasts going. The monkey's Tier 3 status means its extremely common to find in a lobby with Beasts, and is ''everywhere'' as a result.

** Sylvanas Windrunner's Buddy, Nathanos Blightcaller, had the battlecry of removing a minion and buff the stats of its neighbors by the same amount as those of the removed minion(or double those stats if Nathanos is golden). Combined with divine shield or Cleave minions, and it led to a lot of degenerate mid-to-lategame boards on Sylvanas' side. This resulted in Nathanos being bumped to be a tier 6 buddy shortly after release, the highest one and the buddy tier that takes the longest amount of turns to obtain.

** Tess and Scabbs' minions were low tier ones that gave the hero access to either the previous(Tess) or next(Scabbs) opponent, meaning you'd get access to buddies your opponent might not even have yet, among other things. Particularly, they had strong synergy with Elise Starseeker's Jr. navigator, whose battlecry gave a discount to hero powers and was extremely powerful as a result. This interaction, along other ones (such as Ambassador Faelin's buddy Submersible Chef, whose battlecry can generate a random Tier 1,3 and 5 card and add them to your hand) led to Jr. navigator being changed to only discount Elise Starseeker's hero power and no one else's, along Tess and Scabbs having their buddies bumped to a higher tier.

* Poisonous was a long-standing, controversial mechanic in Battlegrounds. Any minion with Poisonous will one-shot anything it damages, and in a gamemode where stats often decide games, a mechanic that essentially offers ''infinite attack'' is extremely powerful. The mechanic was borderline impossible to balance properly because of Divine Shield, as with it even a goofy lil' Murloc could go 2-for-1 against a bunch of triple-digit-stat monstrosities. Even when divine shield wasn't a factor, it was still too problematic because Murlocs with Brann or Young Murk-Eye could already create Murloc Warbands in the hundreds of health, making Other tribes like Quillboars, Pirates and Demons useless when going against murlocs. After years of dominance, and minions getting nerfed or booted out of the game to try ''anything'' that could balance the mechanic, Blizzard decided the keyword itself was the problem and replaced it with Venomous - which is functionally identical, but is only single-use, giving stat-based builds a fighting chance. And for good measure, said keyword was only given to 2 minions to make it much harder to create a full venomous board.

** Friend of a Friend has the dishonor of being the shortest-lived Battlegrounds minion to exist in the format, existing only for less than a week, and for good reason. He was a tier 6 minion with the battlecry to discover the buddy of a different hero. By virtue of being unable to offer buddies that only work with their respective heroes, Friend of a Friend was a low risk ,MASSIVE reward that was auto-pickied every single time he showed up. At worst, you lose 1 gold for picking him but in the best case-scenario, you could generate incredibly powerful buddies. And even the worst case scenario didn't exist if you were running Brann, which guaranteed another discovery. Need some Darkmoon tickets for a cheap ice block or some huge value swing? No problem! Wanna discover a free Tier 6 minion to further boost your board? Go for it! Need to goldenize your Goldrinn or give your Amalgadons divine shield? Sure, Why not? This minion was [[TheScrappy despised by everyone]] during his short tenure, singlehandedly warping the entire Battlegrounds meta around its very own existence, much like the infamous Nightmare Amalgam, and it wasn't uncommon for the final turns of a game to degenerate into [[ComplacentGamingSyndrome Amalgadon mirror matches]] thanks to the massive power spikes this minion generated, and his removal was met with universal acclaim. The minion eventually made a short comeback for a few months in early 2023, where his effect was changed to only activate when ''sold'', completely removing any obscene synergy it had with Brann or Shudderwock.