Hearthstone: 7 Best Highlander Cards From Showdown In The Badlands

Hearthstone’s Showdown in the Badlands expansion saw the return of the popular Highlander mechanic. For those who are unfamiliar, Highlander is the unofficial name for cards that get an extra effect when there aren’t any duplicates in your deck.

Hearthstone: 10 Best One-Drops

These are the best one-drops in Hearthstone.

Thanks to this requirement, Highlander cards can be made particularly powerful, since you’ll need to restrict yourself if you want to use them. Let’s see which of these new Highlander minions can reach that lofty bar.

Highlander minions will lose their effects if duplicates are added to your deck after the game starts, so decks like Plague Death Knight will cause real problems for you.

7 Theldurin The Lost

Several of the minions on this list provide infinite amounts of value. In comparison, Theldurin the Lost is pretty underwhelming. Three attack will only kill small minions; if you want Theldurin to have more impact than that, you’ll need to buff him significantly.

And while Hunter got some hand buff cards this expansion, that’s a lot of work to put in for what is ultimately just a good board clear. After all, while a sufficiently buffed Theldurin can wipe the board against aggro or even midrange decks, if your opponent is either playing big minions or just not playing minions at all, he’s not going to have much of an impact.

6 Gunslinger Kurtrus

One major factor standing in the way of Gunslinger Kurtrus being competitively viable is that you have to be running a Highlander Demon Hunter deck for him to be good. Demon Hunter is traditionally either extremely aggressive or combo-oriented, and both strategies suffer badly if you make your deck too inconsistent.

And even in such a deck, Gunslinger Kurtrus probably won’t be as impactful as you would like. There will be scenarios where your opponent only has a key combo piece in hand, but if you don’t kill it completely, that won’t help you much. Kurtrus is really only good when you can clear multiple small minions, which isn’t guaranteed against aggro decks, let alone anything else.

5 Doctor Holli’dae

Doctor Holli’dae’s main feature is the weapon it gives you, the Staff of the Nine Frogs. Assuming you have enough time to get through most of your weapon charges, it will summon an absurd number of stats, all of which will have Taunt.

Hearthstone: 10 Best Manathirst Cards

Do you have some mana to spare? Then make a difference using the most effective Manathirst cards in Hearthstone!

The biggest problem here is that Holli’dae gets completely shut down by weapon destruction, leaving you with a 4/5 and a 1/1 for five mana, which wouldn’t be great even if it didn’t also require you to play a deck without duplicates. As a result, the card’s effectiveness will depend greatly on how common Weapon tech cards are in the meta.

In the early days of Hearthstone, running weapon destruction was a significant commitment, but the introduction of the Tradeable keyword and cards like E.T.C., Band Manager have made it much easier to include in your deck.

4 Spirit Of The Badlands

Spirit of the Badlands costs just three mana, which is a major boon for control decks. Cards that provide both an early body to protect you against aggression and late-game value are highly prized, Astalor Bloodsworn being a great example.

The low cost also means you start getting value from Mirage quite early, although at that point in the game you might not be able to play the minion it turns into. Still, it does provide infinite value as long as there are still minions in your deck, so it’s tough to complain.

Minions with the Tradeable keyword can be put back into your deck from your hand, so theoretically, you could guarantee a target for Mirage to turn into even once you hit Fatigue if you keep at least two of them around.

3 Elise, Badlands Savior

Elise, Badlands Savior summons an impressive 21/21 in total stats, which alone will often be too much for your opponent to handle. Of course, if you are running Elise, you’ll be including minions that want to be summoned this way.

Titans, Colossal minions, and cards with powerful Deathrattles are all great to pull with Elise’s Battlecry, as most of their strength lies in their abilities, rather than their stats. Additionally, Elise notably summons copies of these minions, which means you can take advantage of their abilities again later in the game, either by copying Elise, bouncing her back to your hand, or just playing the minions normally once you draw them for real.

2 Rheastrasza

Rheastrasza is a true infinite value engine. A card that gave you a free dragon every turn would be pretty strong even without the mana reduction; with it, your opponent will be hard-pressed to keep up with your consistent stream of threats.

And while Hearthstone's Dragons have historically been strong minions, Showdown in the Badlands introduced a bunch of powerful new options, which increases the likelihood that the minion you get from the Nest will be a good one. You'll still be unlucky on occasion, but it’s one of the more consistent random generators in Hearthstone.

1 Reno, Lone Ranger

The original Reno Jackson is probably Hearthstone’s most iconic Highlander card, and Reno, Lone Ranger might be the most powerful version of him we’ve ever seen. A single-sided board wipe that severely restricts your opponent’s options for recovering will often win games on the spot.

And even if it doesn’t, as a Hero card, Reno, Lone Ranger gives you a new Hero Power, Reno’s Handcannon. The Handcannon’s effect swaps randomly, but all the options are strong, and able to give you card or board advantage, armor, or even extra mana.

Hearthstone: Every Minion Type, Ranked

With so many options for minions, which come out as the best types overall?