Patch 16.4.0.42174

Patch 16.4.0.42174 is a Hearthstone patch released on February 26th, 2020. It is a large patch, adding major updates to Battlegrounds as well as returning Khadgar to the store and adding a new card back for owning him.

Battlegrounds
We're adding Dragons as a new minion type to Battlegrounds! Galakrond and Reno Jackson, who recently spread his scaly wings for the first time as the mighty Renegos in Galakrond's Awakening, will join the five original Dragon Aspects as new Heroes!

18 new minions will be added alongside them, 12 of which will be the new Dragon minion type. All but two of these minions are new to Hearthstone altogether, exclusive to Battlegrounds!


 * Galakrond
 * Galakrond's Greed [Cost 1]: Replace a minion in Bob's Tavern with a random one from a higher Tavern Tier.


 * Deathwing
 * ALL Will Burn! [Passive]: ALL minions have +3 Attack.


 * Ysera
 * Dream Portal [Cost 1]: Refresh and add a Dragon to Bob's Tavern.


 * Nozdormu
 * Clairvoyance [Passive]: Your first Refresh each turn costs (0).


 * Malygos
 * Arcane Alteration [Cost 0]: Replace a minion with a random one of the same Tavern Tier.


 * Reno Jackson
 * Gonna Be Rich! [Cost 4]: Make a friendly minion Golden (once per game).


 * New Battlegrounds Minions


 * Dragonspawn Lieutenant [Dragon, Tier 1] 2 Attack, 3 Health


 * Taunt.


 * Red Whelp [Dragon, Tier 1] 1 Attack, 2 Health


 * Start of Combat: Deal 1 damage per friendly Dragon to one random enemy minion.


 * Glyph Guardian [Dragon, Tier 2] 2 Attack, 4 Health


 * When this minion attacks, double its attack.


 * Steward of Time [Dragon, Tier 2] 2 Attack, 4 Health


 * When you sell this minion, give all minions in Bob's Tavern +1/+1.


 * Waxrider Togwaggle [Tier 2], 1 Attack, 2 Health


 * Whenever a friendly dragon kills an enemy, gain +2/+2.


 * Unstable Ghoul [Tier 2] 1 Attack, 3 Health


 * Taunt, Deathrattle: Deal 1 damage to all minions.


 * Bronze Warden [Dragon, Tier 3] 2 Attack, 1 Health


 * Divine Shield, Reborn


 * Hangry Dragon [Dragon, Tier 3] 4 Attack, 4 Health


 * At the start of your turn, if you won last combat get +2/+2.


 * Drakonid Enforcer [Dragon, Tier 4] 3 Attack, 6 Health


 * After a friendly minion loses Divine Shield, gain +2/+2.


 * Herald of Flame [Dragon, Tier 4] 5 Attack, 4 Health


 * Overkill: Deal 3 damage to the left-most enemy minion.


 * Cobalt Scalebane [Dragon, Tier 4] 5 Attack, 5 Health


 * At the end of your turn, give a random friendly minion +3 Attack.


 * Murozond [Dragon, Tier 5] 5 Attack, 5 Health


 * Battlecry: Add a minion to your hand from your last opponent's warband.


 * Twilight Emissary [Dragon, Tier 5] 6 Attack, 8 Health


 * Taunt, Battlecry: Give a friendly Dragon +3/+3.


 * Razorgore, the Untamed [Dragon, Tier 5] 2 Attack, 4 Health


 * At the end of your turn, gain +1/+1 for each Dragon you have.


 * Holy Mackerel [Murloc, Tier 6] 8 Attack, 4 Health


 * After another friendly minion loses Divine Shield, gain Divine Shield.


 * Imp Mama [Demon, Tier 6] 6 Attack, 8 Health


 * Whenever this minion takes damage, summon a random Demon and give it Taunt.


 * Kalecgos, Arcane Aspect [Dragon, Tier 6] 2 Attack, 8 Health


 * After you play a minion with Battlecry, give your Dragons +1/+1.


 * Nadina the Red [Tier 6] 7 Attack, 4 Health


 * Deathrattle: Give your Dragons Divine Shield.

Battlegrounds Balance Changes

 * George the Fallen
 * Boon of Light Hero Power cost reduced from 4 to 3.


 * Sneed's Old Shredder
 * Moved from Tier 6 to Tier 5.


 * Mama Bear
 * Old: 4/4 Beast. Whenever you summon a Beast, give it +4/+4. New: 5/5 Beast. Whenever you summon a Beast, give it +5/+5.


 * Tavern Tier 6
 * Starting cost of Tavern Tier 6 has been reduced to 10 Gold (down from 11).

''Dev Insight: Tavern Tier 6 has a lot of exciting minions and we'd like players to have more of an opportunity to reach it than they have. We're also trying to make Tavern Tier 6 more interesting by adding some of these powerful new minions.''


 * Removed Heroes
 * Professor Putricide

''Dev Insight: We'd like to go back to the drawing board on Professor Putricide. We're going to disable him for now to make way for our new Heroes, but you'll likely see him return in the future with some changes.''


 * Removed Minions
 * Shielded Minibot
 * Annoy-o-Tron
 * Mounted Raptor
 * Phalanx Commander
 * Psych-o-Tron
 * Tortollan Shellraiser
 * Piloted Sky Golem
 * Festeroot Hulk
 * Boogeymonster [sic]
 * Sated Threshadon

''Dev Insight: We're removing some minions to help make room for the new minions. We also want to balance out the minion pool a bit. For example, there were way more Mechs in Battlegrounds than any other minion type. We're also removing some of the minions that aren't performing very well and ones that have generally been less exciting to play with.''

Game Improvements and Bug Fixes

 * Speeding up animations from 0.8s > 0.2s across all game modes for Overkill, Lifesteal, Poisonous, Inspire, and cards that reference "Whenever" and "After" in their text, outside of some special cases.
 * "Recruit" will no longer be displayed on the turn timer when a player is about to lose in Battlegrounds.
 * Rafaam's Hero Power will no longer trigger a Triple notification before you transition to the combat phase in Battlegrounds.
 * Fixed a visual issue in which Golden Primalfin Lookout would sometimes display Golden Murloc cards.
 * Fixed an issue where the scoreboard would not sort players correctly on the first turn if they conceded during the mulligan in Battlegrounds.
 * Fixed an issue where the scoreboard could appear unsorted when reconnecting to a game in progress in Battlegrounds.

Arena Rotation
Starting March 4, the Arena will include cards from the following sets:
 * Basic
 * Classic
 * Goblins vs. Gnomes
 * The Witchwood
 * Saviors of Uldum
 * Descent of Dragons
 * Galakrond Awakening