Teron Gorefiend Battlegrounds guide: how to play the new hero

Teron Gorefiend is the new Battlegrounds hero for Patch 25.4. His 0-cost hero power, Rapid Reanimation, reads “Choose a friendly minion. Start of Combat: Destroy it. Once you have space, resummon an exact copy.”. This unique effect gives us some ideas on how to best play Teron Gorefiend. The ability to destroy a minion and then respawn it only when there is enough space perfectly lends itself to Reborn and Deathrattle effects. Particularly those that spawn extra minions.

Indeed, Teron comes with the provision of “not be[ing] offered in any lobbies in which neither Undead nor Beasts are in that game’s minion pool”. Notice how these two tribes are the main ones that rely on Deathrattles, Reborn, and additional token spawns. Tying this hero’s presence to synergistic tribes that are not explicitly mentioned in the hero power sets an interesting precedent.

Contrast that to Lich Baz’hial jeopardizing her health in a no-Demon lobby or Tamsin Roame not keeping permanent buffs when Dragons and Tarecgosa are absent. For players that haven’t bought the Battlegrounds Season Pass, only getting Teron Gorefiend when his best targets are available is a massive step in the right direction.

Now that we’ve dissected his hero power, let’s see how Teron Gorefiend fares in the early game of a Battlegrounds lobby. Right off the bat, we can notice that Risen Rider and Icky Imp’s token spawning capabilities should virtually beat any other opener, with the help of Teron’s hero power. Scallywag and Micro Mummy are close behind. This allows for a strong early game, as well as synergy with Avenge minions. 

An early Corpse Refiner is almost guaranteed to proc if you own some token spawners. In addition to said economy powerhouse, Tavern Tier 2 hosts other Teron-friendly minions such as Harvest Golem and Sewer Rat. Even hero powering Eternal Knights can reap dividends since it makes them scale twice as fast. A classic Selfless Hero can never hurt either!

With the hero’s early-game strength being tied to specific minions, as well as Corpse Refiner’s and Eternal Knight’s ability to ease the mid and late-game, a Fast Basic Curve seems to be the most balanced approach. This means a level on 4, 7, and 8 gold, to leverage the strong early game into a reasonably early direction.

As shown above, Avenge minions are a perfect match for Teron Gorefiend's Battlegrounds hero power. Consequently, you can create additional stats for your board via Bird Buddy, Budding Greenthumb, Pashmar the Vengeful and the slightly overtuned Ghoul of the Feast. You can also play the long game with Dazzling Lightspawn and Impatient Doomsayer and bank the Avenge effects for future turns.

While the mid game is the stage where you try to find direction and transition to a coherent build, our discussion hints towards finished builds, thus this stage will be blended into the late game section.

As mentioned above, Reborn plus Teron Gorefiend equals Love — the Battlegrounds hero is released on Valentine’s Day, after all. What better tribe to make use of his hero power than Reborn’s poster child, Undead? An early Eternal Summoner Discover is perfect for Teron, especially since the hero power can offset the lack of a full board. If not, even the underrated Sister Deathwhisper can fare decently, since Teron can trigger an additional Reborn.

Similarly, for Beasts, an early Ghastcoiler negates board disadvantage thanks to the hero power doubling its effects. Goldrinn, the Great Wolf also complements Teron, but you might as well try Leapfrogger for an earlier direction. Bear in mind that the hero power resummons an exact copy, thus any Taunt or Reborn buff is kept! You can find plenty of footage on how to play Leapfroggers from Nicholena, but we're showcasing a more recent video that is more relevant to the meta that awaits Teron Gorefiend.

Mechs get some love too, as Omega Buster will now trigger first thanks to Teron Gorefiend’s Battlegrounds hero power. If you have two Omega Busters, destroy one and place the other one first, virtually ensuring they are the first two Mechs to die. Kangor’s Apprentice approved!

What about the other Divine Shield tribe? Hero power a Nadina the Red and place her after your Dragons for a chance to Divine Shield twice. A huge Impulsive Trickster can also do the trick in a Demons Comp.

No sign of the minions from the preceding section? You’ve then probably gone for a beefy build like APM Pirates or Magmaloc Elementals and you’re hopefully Top 3. By this time, you might have seen your opponents’ boards and noticed they have teched one or two Mantid Queens against you. Don’t worry, the new hero’s got a counter tech for that!

Teron Gorefiend hero power on a Tunnel Blaster, while Baron Titus Rivendare is on board, should kill an unbuffed Mantid Queen before it can trigger its Start of Combat effects. Battlegrounds dev Dominic “DCalkosz” Calkosz has previously confirmed that the Start of Combat priority queue favors hero powers ahead of minions — good news for Teron Gorefiend. This means the 6 damage from Tunnel Blaster plus Baron Titus should hit the Mantid Queen before it can gain any Divine Shield or extra stats.

More generally, a hero power on Tunnel Blaster can deal with opponent Divine Shields twice, since the minion’s respawn can counter the additional shields created by Selfless Hero.

Teron Gorefiend's abbreviation is TG, but did you know he is actually an OG? Despite the lack of fanfare, you are looking at one of the longest-standing Warcraft characters. Established in Warcraft II, the only other Battlegrounds characters that can match this feat are Deathwing, among heroes, as well as Khadgar and Uther the Lightbringer, among minions.

Warcraft II came out in 1995. For reference, most of your favorite streamers weren’t even born yet. Streamers born by then hadn’t passed their literal BabyRage phase for too long. Some say that’s still the case…

Hope you’ve enjoyed the info on how to play Teron Gorefiend, the trivia, and the streamer banter. We’ve got plenty more where that came from! We cover the whole range of content in our dedicated Hearthstone section, as well as wider esports news on Esports.gg.