APM Pirates Battlegrounds guide: scale large-arr with these tips

Arr matey! Pirates have been known to harbor some scummy builds. While the infamous Exodia Scam comp has been neutered by the Khadgar removal, APM Pirates remain a force in Battlegrounds. 

Pirates’ themes have always included looting and plundering, with some of their mechanics revolving around stocking and gaining Gold. Thus there’s no wonder that this APM Pirates build asks you to match their riches by having an expensive gaming device, a computer. APM stems from “actions per minute”, the amount of moves one can make in video games. The higher, the better! Animations on mobile devices and tablets slow down the APM of a player, thus making this build less efficient. Hence, we would not recommend trying this unless you’re on a PC, as it involves a whole lot of clicks, dragging and animations. Prepare to be met with the BBoomer emote otherwise.

The gist of APM Pirates is to buy, sell and refresh Pirates for free using Cap’n Hoggar, buffing your board in the process. But actions speak louder than words, especially if it’s Actions per minute, so here’s a glimpse of what this build can achieve, as evidenced by Jim “LiiHS” Liu’s gameplay.

So, you’ve tempoed the early to mid game and now you’re searching for direction. A way to scale beyond reach of your opponents. And quickly, before they find late-game poison techs such as Mantid Queen and Leeroy the Reckless. You can choose this build if you find the following cards.

Firstly, you need Cap’n Hoggarr, no way around him! Secondly, you need your Hoggarr Golden. Easier said than done, but Greta Gold-Gun might do the trick! You ideally need another Cap’n Hoggarr now to truly go infinite. You need a Golden and a normal copy of the Cap’n in order to (re)gain three gold per each Pirate bought, then subsequently sell each to pay for the rerolls. Repeat this as many times as you can during the shopping phase to buy, play and sell minions and buff your board in the process, using the cards below.

Now, you need some scaling minions. In past metas, this was achieved in 1/1 increments via Pirates Salty Looter and Peggy Sturdybone, in addition to a Southsea Strongarm here and there.

Since Battlegrounds Season 3 focuses on dual-type minions, APM Pirates gain a suite of choices outside their tribe. If Elementals are in the lobby, you have not one, but two options in the form of the scaling Magmaloc that will grow alongside Master of Realities. If Murlocs are in, you can even add Poisonous to the Magmaloc. He’s a mrgrower! You can check out Radu “Rdu” Dima’s video showcasing the above strategy. Bear in mind that Magmaloc has since been moved from Tavern Tier 4 to Tier 5!

What if the lobby locked you out of Magmaloc plays, banning both Elementals and Murlocs? Then hopefully Dragons are in and you can unload some of those bought Pirates’ stats onto a Chronormu. This can have the added benefit of Divine Shields in the form of Nadina the Red. 

Any hero can attempt this strategy — one of its perks is the ease to pivot into it once you have some key pieces. But some heroes are more equal eek-hull than others! Of course, powerful economy staples like Trade Prince Gallywix and Millhouse Manastorm fit this playstyle by making one extra gold per sale due to their hero powers. In contrast, serial triplers like Maiev, Scabbs Cutterbutter and The Rat King can have earlier access to the key pieces, as well as more chances to discover them. 

But fear not, heroes that favor this build aren’t only restricted to top meta picks. Gimmick choices such as Queen Azshara can also discover Greta Gold-Gun through their hero power, while Lady Vashj can get Greta’s Spellcraft and keep its Golden effect permanently! Occasionally, you can highroll the key minions through Patches the Pirate’s random hero power.

There’s a reason why Hoggarr is a Cap’n and not a Deck Swabby. He advanced in rank and learned some useful tricks along the way. Do it too, so you can avoid others’ mistakes, for APM Pirates or Battlegrounds in general!

One common mishap concerns buying a third Hoggarr when you already have two, but one of them is pseudo Golden due to Greta. While the Cap’n won’t triple right away, it will triple the following turn! This will prevent going infinite next turn, as you will revert to gaining two gold per Pirate bought. So make sure to sell the third Hoggar before it’s too late! Radu “Rdu” Dima learned it the hard way!

Another tip would be that scaling does not automatically win games. Spend your time during combat to scout the opponents’ boards and keep track of discovers. Figure out if you need a Leeroy to nullify a Mantid Queen or Mech Taunt. Don’t tunnel vision on Pirates, buy that Tunnel Blaster to counter a Divine Shield board! Maybe even the classic Selfless Hero can do the trick.

The final tip is one you can use in any Battlegrounds build, not only for APM Pirates. A Mantid Queen seems to not count both tribes of a dual-type minion when triggering her effects! Hence, if you have a Pirate board and one Magmaloc, which is an Elemental and Murloc hybrid, Mantid Queen will only proc two times. However, if there’s two Magmalocs, one will count as Elemental, one as Murloc, plus the Pirates, thus three procs. If that Mantid Queen already has Taunt (it should!), this means it should get both Windfury and Divine Shield more often than not. This dual-tribe interaction seems consistent with other cards such as Menagerie Jug or Tea Master Theotar, which do not buff dual-type minions twice, not even in niche cases.

Now that you’re practicing your APM with Pirates, why not use some of those extra clicks to stay tuned to esports.gg? With a new Battlegrounds Season underway and a Constructed Mini-set fast approaching, our Hearthstone news and updates section will be scaling like your board.