Hey everyone! I’m Stryder and I was a Top 200 Battlegrounds player on the NA server prior to the MMR reset. With Patch 19.2 there’s been a ton of things to learn about new minions, new heroes and new spells. One of these new heroes is Y’Shaarj the defiler with a hero power that costs 2 gold and adds a random minion at the beginning of combat from your current tavern tier onto your board which you get to keep.
Based on a couple games played with this hero, he definitely feels like a combination of Yogg and Elise, but he’s different in his own way as well. In the early game, he’s worse than both Yogg and Elise because you don’t get the stat bonus you get from Yogg and you don’t get the consistency you get from Elise, plus if you hit a battlecry with your hero power you don’t actually get to play the battlecry.
In the mid-game, he plays very similar to Yogg and Elise where the optimal strategy if your board allows for it is to go from Tier 2 to Tier 5 very quickly by tiering each turn, selling a minion and using your hero power. Compared to Elise, Y’Shaarj is definitely weaker because you miss out on the discovers and the battlecries, but compared to Yogg I think Y’Shaarj might actually be better because you’re guaranteed a minion from your tavern tier whereas if you’re unlucky with Yogg you could still be hitting Tier 1 minions with your hero power.
In the late game, I think this is where Y’Shaarj really shines because as Yogg, you don’t really use your hero power in the late game because oftentimes you end up getting a minion you don’t want and wasting gold. As Elise, your hero power doesn’t do anything except give you a single Tier 6 minion when you get there. With Y’Sharrj, it’s quite common where you end up in a situation where you have one “flex” spot on your board to cycle buff minions or minions you plan to sell next turn. In these cases, often a random minion from Tier 5 or Tier 6 will be dramatically better than the random minion you’re keeping just to have 7 minions.
As an example, if you’re playing a dragon board and you have Kalecgos and you’re playing battlecry minions each turn, you often have 1 spot on your board that you’re just leaving empty and playing weak battlecry minions. If you’re playing as Y’Shaarj, often it’s worthwhile selling your battlecry minion, leaving a spot empty and just playing your hero power as almost any random Tier 5 or Tier 6 minion will be better than your battlecry minion.
At the moment, Y’Shaarj is ranked pretty low according to HS Replay, but I predict once players learn how to play him and get familiar with his curve, he’ll settle in the low Tier 2 bracket close to how Yogg ranks, if not slightly better. If you want to see a video of this hero in action, check out my gameplay video here: https://youtu.be/h6b9Y9-OT-s
Clown Power lel