Tier One Character, easy win!
Ever since Patches the Pirate got his buff a couple of seasons ago, he has been absolutely unstoppable! Easily one of the most powerful characters that you can choose, Patches lets you consistently pick up pirates throughout the game, leading to many golden minions and an overpowered deck. He is a great character for new players, as his strategy is simple; buy pirates and use his ability. That's all you have to do, and even if you know nothing about Battlegrounds you will most likely still end up in the top four.
When pirates were first introduced to Battlegrounds, Patches was a mid-tier character. He wasn't a bad character, but it was much more tricky to make an effective deck. This was based on the fact that when he first came out, his ability cost five gold to activate instead of three, meaning that you needed to be consistently buying pirates for his ability to do anything. If you were the only one on pirates, this was fairly easy to do and your deck usually operated quite well. However, if other people were also going the pirate route, the number of pirates in the pool was very limited, making it difficult to utilize your ability efficiently. This led to some games where it was nearly impossible to even go the pirate route, which always ended badly.
When Patches got his buff and the cost of his ability was changed from five gold to three gold, it pushed him right into the highest tier of characters. Now, no matter what, you can always buy a pirate, every turn. If you get lucky and are able to buy pirates from the tavern as well, you start to even get free pirates with the ability, and that by itself is broken. The ability to consistently get pirates every turn allows you to create gold minions faster than almost any other character, which leads to even more free minions! You eventually get to a point where your whole board is almost gold, and at that point, you can just sit back and let your deck do what it does.
While the character may not require the most strategy to play, nor is it exactly the most exciting, it is obvious that this is one of the most powerful characters, if not the most powerful, that you can choose. I would highly recommend this character to any player, especially if you are just learning how the game works. I can honestly say that I don't believe I have received anything less than fourth place with Patches the Pirate!
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