As everyone knows, the arena and constructed modes are very different styles of play. One of the biggest differences is the importance of card rarities. In constructed, as long as you have the card the rarity doesn’t mean much, apart from the single legendary restriction. In arena, however, you have a much higher chance of getting commons than anything else. You also have a very low chance of epics or legendaries. This means that commons have a much higher importance than other rarities during your arena runs.
Class selection and class cards will make a big difference in how you play your deck and what goes into it. But neutral minions make up a massive chunk of your deck, and knowing which minions are best is important in crafting the perfect arena deck. And unlike constructed, here you have every card to play from, including Wild cards.
Obviously every class will have their own strategy, and you’ll often want to fill in the missing pieces in your arena deck. However, these are, in my opinion, the best five neutral minions to add to your deck. These cards are extremely strong to the point that they should be picked over nearly all other commons.
Five: Pit Fighter
Pit Fighter is one of the most underrated cards in arena. For five mana it trades positively with almost every other five drop, while having enough health to often take a few hits from smaller minions. It may not splash onto the field like some other cards, and it won’t turn around a game that you’re losing massively, but if you can get it in play it will cause your opponent no end of trouble.
Because of his incredible stat-line, Pit Fighter works well with every class. It is a good tempo drop on turn five, while also being a strong draw later in the game. The only notable weaknesses it has are to Fireball, or extremely fast decks.
Four: Zombie Chow
Zombie Chow is a card that new players dislike and veterans love. Healing your opponent doesn’t sound great, right? Well it’s not, but having a one mana 2/3 is. If you are lucky enough to draw Zombie Chow on turn one, you immediately have all of the initiative for the entire game. Zombie Chow beats almost every other one drop and many two drops, allowing you to press your tempo advantage hard. Also, if you play it on turn one you often won’t care that your opponent has been healed, as they would not have lost much health at that point anyway.
Zombie Chow is so strong that he even does wonders in fast decks like Hunter, despite being a defensive card. The only weakness to playing Zombie Chow in any deck is the fear that you’ll draw it late game when you need something big.
Three: Bog Creeper
Bog Creeper is one of the new cards from Whispers of the Old Gods, and one that has made a name for himself in arena. Bog Creeper has not fit into any Standard deck, simply being too slow or having better alternatives. However, for arena, Bog Creeper is amazing. He is a big taunt, which is very important in arena where removal is less common. He also doesn’t have any conditions to play him, unlike some cards such as Fossilized Devilsaur. He is just a big seven mana minion that stops your opponent in their tracks.
Bog Creeper does have quite a few weaknesses however. The most notable ones are very quick decks and hard removal. Because Bog Creeper costs so much, you’ll often run into issues playing it when your opponent is convincingly winning the game, especially if they have removal to deal with it. That being said, if your opponent doesn’t have removal, or the game is fairly even, Bog Creeper is one of the biggest walls you can play. He represents a giant health pool and high attack, both threatening and defending.
Two: Piloted Shredder
Who is surprised that Piloted Shredder is on the list? Anyone? No one? Okay. Obviously Piloted Shredder is an extremely strong minion, being the bane of ranked players throughout Wild’s history. Shredder was one of the main reasons that players were looking forward to the Standard format, simply to be rid of it. For those of you who don’t know, the issue with Shredder is that it only loses two stat points to put a random two drop in play. While this random two drop can sometimes be awful and sometimes be amazing, it averages out to be approximately a 2/3 minion. This means that Piloted Shredder has the stat line of, on average, 6/6 for four mana. It’s also extremely strong against removal, since the two mana body will stick around. In fact, there are almost no good ways to trade positively with Shredder, without relying on randomness.
This one isn’t too much of a contest, Shredder is one of the best cards in the game, regardless of rarity. He is also a very low cost minion, meaning he works well in any deck. I would take shredder over almost any class common, almost every time.
One: North Sea Kraken
North Sea Kraken is often referred to as the legendary of arena. He hits the board with a massive splash – literally. Kraken is the finisher that many decks don’t have in arena. It hits the board killing a fairly large minion, and his damage represents a third of your opponent’s total health. Kraken can very easily win games by himself, or give you such a big card advantage that it allows you to press your advantage easily. Even if he dies to an immediate removal spell, he still kills something when he enters play and takes their removal, giving you a nice two for one in terms of card advantage. It’s definitely arguable whether Shredder or Kraken is better, but I like Kraken due to its reliability and pure, raw strength.
Kraken’s biggest weakness is simply losing before you get a chance to play it. This means you won’t want to fill your deck with Krakens, as you will have nothing to tide you over until you can play them. Also, because of its high cost, many fast decks won’t want to draft this card. However, if you’re looking for a single card to finish off close matchups, Kraken is the one to do it.