What is Starship Piece in Hearthstone?

Hearthstone has many card effects that are common enough that they get their own keyword - a word or two that immediately tells you how the card works. Let's take a look at the Starship Piece keyword.

Starship Piece is a mechanic in The Great Dark Beyond that allows you to build a Starship. When a minion with Starship Piece dies, its stats and effects are added to your Starship. While building a Starship, an icon will show up on the battlefield letting you know you have this option. You can pay 5 mana at any time to launch your Starship.

Any class can build a Starship, but only Death Knight, Demon Hunter, Druid, Hunter, Rogue, and Warlock have their own cards dedicated to building Starships.

Keywords that Work Great with Starship Piece

As Starship Piece is an important part of the Starship mechanic, other cards that benefit with the Starship mechanic naturally fit with it. Starship Piece benefits with other cards with the keyword and cards that benefit off of you building a Starship, Exarch Othaar for example.

Starship Piece is naturally a slow keyword that wants you to bide your time until you launch your Starship. As such, anything to help you survive in the game enough to get your Starship active will be great. Have some Taunts and healing in your deck if possible.

Playing Against Starship Piece in Hearthstone

While Starship Piece can be used to make really fun and giant minions, it does have a few curious downsides. Namely the fact that while building a Starship, your opponent will see it coming because it will naturally take many turns to build it and they will see the icon on the board which launches the ship. Your opponent will feel inclined to hold onto some removal options to get rid of your Starship as soon as it hits the board, so don't be surprised if it only lives for one turn. Even without direct removal, your opponent might keep track of what pieces you've played to remember its stats and what it does.

Additionally, Starships are very slow to build since they cost 5 mana to launch and require players to have put several pieces in them before they become worth it. As such, against fast decks, it's not unreasonable in the slightest for them to try to kill you before you have a chance to play your Starship.

If Starships are ever popular in the meta, your opponent can also tech in a Star Vulpera to destroy it more efficiently than a typical removal spell.

Example Hearthstone Starship Piece Cards

Shattershard Turret and Heart of the Legion are basic examples of Starship Pieces. Both of them provide keyword for your Starship and are a simple demonstration of the way Starship Pieces interact with your Starship. Shattershard Turret for example, is not just a minion with Rush and Windfury, but will also give your Starship Rush and Windfury as well. Since your Starship is going to be bigger than just the Shattershard Turret by itself, it synergizes by giving a minion larger than itself those effects. Heart of the Legion gives the ship Lifesteal, which means that the Starship will heal for larger amounts than the piece by itself.

Star Vulpera is a tech card made specifically to counter the Starship mechanic as it can destroy a Starship or a piece of one for only about 1 mana worth of value and comes with a 4/5 body.

The Gravitational Displacer is a Legendary Starship Piece for Rogue. Unlike other Starship Pieces, the piece by itself does nothing (other than just be a 4/3 body on the board), but it gives the Starship a unique ability when launched to summon an extra copy of itself. If you planned to make a big Starship with Rogue, well now you can make TWO big Starships as a Rogue.