How to play as Teron Gorefiend in Hearthstone Battlegrounds

The latest hero to join the Battlegrounds in Hearthstone is none other than the original Death Knight, Teron Gorefiend. With an interesting hero power that lends itself especially well to Reborn and Deathrattle minions, Gorefiend allows you to gain a good early advantage on the board, until you can reach a powerful Undead, Beast, or Mech composition in the end, ideally. So let’s talk about how to play — and how to win — as Teron Gorefiend in Hearthstone Battlegrounds.

The key to a good run as Gorefiend is smart use of his hero power, Rapid Reanimation, which costs zero gold and reads as such:

• Choose a friendly minion. Start of Combat: Destroy it. Once you have space, resummon an exact copy.

The “once you have space” part makes this hero power especially good when used on two kinds of minions: those that have Reborn, and those that summon more minions with their Deathrattle effects. That’s because that special condition guarantees that the original minion will be re-summoned later, even if its spot is taken on the moment it’s destroyed (either by its Reborn copy or by a minion it just summoned from its Deathrattle).

Since this hero power thrives on Reborn and Deathrattle effects, it’s easy to see how Undead and Beast compositions would be ideal for it — but while that’s absolutely true, those aren’t the only minion types that will work well with Gorefiend, as we’ll find out.

Undead minions have almost automatic synergy with Gorefiend

For Undead, it’s easy to see how getting extra copies of Eternal Summoner is extremely powerful — it’s arguably the most powerful Undead card at the moment, since it has a lot of scaling potential every time it triggers its Deathrattle again. The extra Reborn activations will also have a lot of synergy with Sister Deathwhisper for another viable endgame comp.

But even before you reach those endgame minions, using your hero power on cards like Anub’arak, Nerubian King will add extra permanent power to your board. And much sooner than that, pretty much any Reborn effect, from Risen Rider to Scarlet Skull, will work. You might want to get a Jelly Belly in there to take advantage of the extra Reborn activations as well.

Beasts will get to double dip on their powerful Deathrattles

Beasts also have a very clear candidate for this hero power in Goldrinn, the Great Wolf. But just like with Undead, there are many other good minions that benefit from Gorefiend’s power before you reach Goldrinn, such as Rat Pack (even better if you have a Mama Bear), or even good old Leapfrogger.

Another card worth mentioning that serves both the Undead and Beast compositions is Sinrunner Blanchy: The mare-that-refuses-to-die will stick even more to your board if you can summon her two more times during the game by using this hero power on her.

Mechs can get Omega Busters that are even more busted

Mechs have one particular strategy that will shine with Gorefiend as well: the one that relies on Omega Buster and Kangor’s Apprentice. If you use Gorefiend’s hero power on your Omega Buster, it’s very likely to come back early in the battle, meaning that you can get Omega Busters as your first and second Mechs to die on the match.

As soon as Kangor’s Apprentice dies, both of those Omega Busters will be back in action to give your Mechs some crazy scaling. If you can add a Titus Rivendare to that board, your power levels will go through the roof.

There are other minions that get to have fun with Gorefiend too

Even before you get to the end of the game and settle on your Undead, Beast, or Mech board, there are many other minions worth mentioning as good targets for Rapid Reanimation. From the early to mid-game, look for Impulsive Trickster, Kaboom Bot, Piggyback Imp, or Selfless Hero to get the most bang for your buck.

Later in the game, cards like Ghastcoiler will serve almost any composition. And Dragon players might have some fun using Gorefiend’s power on Nadina the Red for an extra shower of Divine Shields — in that case, it would be smart to avoid positioning her as the first minion on your board, as is usual.

Basically, the rule of the game when playing as Teron Gorefiend is to take advantage of those Deathrattle and Reborn effects early on, while aiming to settle on a nice Eternal Summoner, Goldrinn, or Omega Buster. But do not be discouraged if you can’t find those specific minions in the end, as we’ve just shown that there are many alternatives that can work as well.