Sets and Champions: A Cleric’s Perspective

INTRO

In Hero Realms, each champion has unique abilities and strengths—but how do you determine which cards truly offer the best value? To provide some clarity, I compiled a list of all champions and gave each card a subjective score based on what I consider important in gameplay.

Using these criteria, I calculated a score for every card and then compared these scores to the card’s cost, resulting in a cost coefficient. Low-cost cards are slightly penalized in this system. This is intentional because a powerful high-cost card is often more valuable than multiple cheap cards with less impact.

This approach gives an objective view of each card’s efficiency, making it easy to identify which champions offer the best value for their cost.

That said, I’m not a data expert. This is the first time I’ve done a data analysis like this, but I hope you find it insightful and that it helps you decide which sets to start with and which champions to buy.

About the scoring system

This section explains how the Champion ranking system was created. Each Champion card was given a numerical score based on its effects (such as draw, gold, damage, body, sacrifice, etc). These scores are used to calculate overall value, efficiency compared to cost, and separate ratings for early game and late game impact.

The system is meant to provide a structured and consistent way to compare Champions — not a perfect or absolute judgment of their strength.

So if you’re not interested in the methodology behind the rankings, feel free to skip the next section.

The scoring system

For this champion list, I wanted to create something more than just a personal ranking based on feeling or experience. Instead, I built a structured scoring system to evaluate every Champion card in a consistent way.

All Champion cards are included in the list, along with nearly all of their relevant effects and statistics — such as draw, sacrifice, body, damage, gold generation, and cost. Each of these elements was assigned a fixed point value. The goal was to make the evaluation as uniform and objective as possible, so that every card is judged by the same standards.

For example, draw as a primary effect is worth three points, while draw as a secondary effect is worth two. The more gold a card generates, the more points it receives. Higher damage and stronger body values also increase a card’s total score. By assigning clear numerical values to these effects, I created a foundation that allows Champions to be compared directly.

That said, the system is not perfect. Not every effect in Hero Realms can be easily quantified. Some mechanics are highly situational or difficult to measure in raw numbers. For instance, I did not account for top-decking effects in the formula, which means cards like Varrick may not score as highly as their in-game impact might suggest. Because their are so many unique or special effects across the Champion pool, I added a general “extra” column. This is worth one point by default and serves as a small adjustment for abilities that don’t fit neatly into the main categories.

For that reason, the scores should always be viewed with nuance. The system is designed to provide structure and clarity — not absolute truth.

Beyond the total score, I introduced a cost coefficient. This compares a Champion’s total point value to its cost, giving a clearer picture of efficiency. In other words, it shows how much value you receive for what you pay. A Champion with a high total score may still be inefficient if the cost is too high, while a cheaper card with a slightly lower score might actually offer better value.

To make comparisons even clearer, I ranked all cost coefficients and converted them into a quality percentage. This makes it easy to see at a glance how a Champion performs relative to the rest of the list.

Finally, I created separate evaluations for the early game and the late game. Not all Champions perform equally well in every stage of the game, so weighting the effects differently helps reflect their true impact over time.

For the early game score, I gave additional weight to economy, primary draw, and sacrifice effects, since these tend to shape the opening turns and influence how quickly a deck develops.

For the late game score, extra emphasis was placed on draw (both primary and secondary), damage, body, sacrifice, discard, cycle, and prepare effects. These mechanics typically become more decisive as the game progresses and resources increase.

Ultimately, this ranking system is meant to serve as an analytical tool. It does not replace experience, strategy, or playstyle preferences — but it does offer a structured way to understand Champion efficiency and impact across different stages of the game.

Top champions per set (cost efficiency)

Base	Dungeons	Dungeons promo	Call To Arms	Journeys	Journeys Promo
Tyrannor — 8.28	Lumina Greylocks — 7.59	Drakkon Imperious — 8.21	Mobia — 6.23	Andor — 6.08	Julian, Blood Guardian — 4.59
Arkus — 8.03	Gorgar, Demon of the Depths — 7.50	Hampus, Loyal Guardian — 7.21	Bloodfang — 5.17	Olara — 4.63	Wolf Lord — 4.55
Krythos — 7.26	Roland the Sun’s Blade — 7.35	Dustin, Imperial Fist — 6.93	Galok — 5.08	Lenka — 4.24	Teague, the Breaker — 4.50

SET	Average Cost Efficiency
Dungeons Promos	4.57
Base	4.44
Dungeons	4.38
Journeys	3.97
Call To Arms	3.63
Journeys Promos	3.26

Base Set

General strengths and weaknesses

The Base set has a relatively high average cost efficiency, but most of its valuable cards only appear at cost 4 or higher. The truly strong cards in this set start at cost 6, so it’s important to build a solid base economy to be able to afford them early enough.

Early vs late game performance

For the early game, higher-cost cards score better, but they only become useful from cost 4 onward (e.g., Broelyn and Rasmus). They aren’t the best cards overall, but a champion that provides 2 econ is still a decent early buy. The Sacrifice champions remain the best early-game cards, and in the Base set, these appear only from cost 6.

The late-game value of the set is decent.

Set composition (actions vs champions)

NOTE: when i talk about “total cards” this means like most 2 cost cards have 3 copies in the set. While 3 cost cards have 2 copies and anything higher only one. (there are exceptions).

The set contains 47 actions and 37 champions in TOTAL.

Action Cards Analysis (Cleric Focus)

Good Actions (actions that synergize well with cleric)

Closed Ranks – allows the cleric to deal damage (DMG). Total cards 1

Rally the Troops – gives opportunities to trigger Prepare. Total cards 1

Discard Actions (That Hurt Cleric)

Elven Curse (2)

Spark (3)

Wolf Form (1)

So this set has 7 primary discard ACTION cards. These are cards the cleric does not want to see in the market deck!

Low cost champions:

2‑Cost Champions (which synergy with Minor Resurrect and Righteous Resurrect)

The 2-cost cards are Wolf Shaman, Death Cultist, and Tithe Priest.

These are all cards you rarely buy because of their low performance and consistency.

3 to 4 cost cards ( Which synergy with Lesser Resurrect)

Observations:

Top cards are Reyla and Master Weyan, followed by Orc Grunt and Broelyn, with cost coefficients above 4 and quality around or above 50%. These are the best candidates for synergy with Lesser Resurrect.

Men at Arms, Darian, and Rasmus have moderate value but are less impactful.

Cult Priest and Street Thug score poorly and are not worth focusing on for resurrection strategies.

In short: when playing a Base set with Lesser Resurrect, focus on Reyla, Master Weyan, Orc Grunt, and optionally Broelyn. The 2-cost cards contribute little and don’t add much to synergy.

CONCLUSING BASE SET

Overall, I’m not a big fan of this set due to the many discard cards and the low quality of the low-cost champions.
And also their are a lot of cards (actions and champions) that a cleric just don’t want to see or buy in the market. A cleric wants to be the better deck builder and a market full of bad cards doesn’t help our game plan. Because a cleric lives or dies by the market. It doesn’t really have the tools to win a game in its base deck.