Characters / Hearthstone Heroes Of Warcraft Heroes

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This is a list of playable Heroes and tropes as they appear in Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. Keep in mind that this is about the characters as they are represented in the game itself; for general tropes about the characters, click here. ^note The notes inside the quotes are the phrases they use at the beginning of a mirror match.

Basic heroes

General

Several tropes discussed with these characters can also be tropes applying to their class's playstyles and deck archetypes rather than being specific to that character.

• A Day in the Limelight:
  • The Book of Heroes tells an abbreviated version of each of the class heroes' backstory in Warcraft.
  • Whenever a new class is added, they come with a short set of prologue missions to introduce the character.
• Bragging Rights Reward:
  • Reaching 500 wins as any hero unlocks an animated Golden portrait of that character. Reaching 1000 wins unlocks an alternate portrait for them entirely.
  • Reaching level 100 on the Rewards Track each season unlocks a portrait for the basic hero of your choice. Additionally, every cumulative 100 levels (including those past 100) unlocks one of a different set of "Tavern Regular" portraits. Both of these sets depict the heroes wearing a popular armor set from World of Warcraft.
• Humongous Mecha: A mech-based series of skins for each hero were released with the announcement of Fractured in Alterac Valley.
• No Historical Figures Were Harmed: The Three Kingdoms bundle introduce skins for the heroes that are the equivalent of the Romance of the Three Kingdoms novels.

Arthas Menethil, the Death Knight

Arthas Menethil

Voiced by: Michael McConnohie (The Lich King, EN), Patrick Seitz (Arthas, EN)

All will serve me in death.^note There can only be one true king.

The lord of the Scourge knows that undeath is truly the greatest adventure.

Once the noble prince of Lordaeron, Arthas encountered the undead Scourge and slowly fell into desperation. Being driven to darker and darker places, Arthas eventually traded his soul to wield the runeblade Frostmourne, unwittingly becoming a pawn of the Lich King. Now a death knight, Arthas uses his unholy powers to raise the dead, freeze his enemies, and drain their blood. Arthas uses a unique secondary resource for some cards called Corpses, which are gained whenever a friendly minion dies. His hero power, Ghoul Charge, helps with this, summoning a 1/1 Frail Ghoul with Charge that dies at the end of the turn.

Additionally, Death Knights use a Rune system for their cards. When building a Death Knight deck, you must choose three Runes to include, which can be any combination of Frost, Unholy, and Blood Runes. Certain cards require specific Runes to be in your deck, with more powerful effects requiring either two or three of a certain kind. Frost Runes focus on card draw, mana manipulation, and freezing. Unholy Runes focus on raising dead and Undead synergies. Blood Runes focus on board control and life gain.

Death Knights were added in the March of the Lich King expansion in December of 2022.

His alternate portraits include Arthas, Kingslayer, Arthas Menethil^note This is a 3D animated portrait based on his appearance as a Death Knight in Warcraft III, Death Metal King, and Frostbringer Arthas.

Before Death Knights were a class, the Lich King was a neutral Legendary in the Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion. He's an 8 mana 8/8 with Taunt that adds one of 8 different Lich King cards^note From lowest cost to highest cost, these include Death Coil (2 mana Shadow spell that deals 5 damage to an enemy or heals a friendly character for 5 health), Death Grip (2 mana Shadow spell that steals a minion from the opponent's deck and adds it to your hand), Obliterate (2 mana spell that destroys an enemy minion and deals damage equal to its health to your Hero), Death and Decay (3 mana Shadow Spell that deals 3 damage to all enemies), Anti-Magic Shell (4 mana Shadow spell that gives your minions +2/+2 and Elusive), Doom Pact (5 mana Shadow spell that destroys all minions and removes the top card of your deck for each destroyed), Army of the Dead (6 mana Shadow spell that removes the top 5 cards of your deck and summons any minions that were removed), and Frostmourne (7 mana 5/3 weapon that summons every minion it killed upon being destroyed) to the player's hand at the end of each turn. Additionally, the Lich King acted as the first and final bosses of Frozen Throne's solo adventure, and beating the latter version unlocked Arthas pre-corruption as a Paladin hero portrait. See Bosses for information on the Frozen Throne boss, and see Alternate Heroes for information on the Paladin hero portrait.

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• Animate Dead: A variety of Death Knight cards can use their Corpses to raise minions. Unlike the Priest's resurrection effects, most Death Knight minions will come back as generic ghoul and zombie tokens.
• Anti-Frustration Features: Upon adding a Death Knight card with Rune requirements to your deck, the game will automatically equip you with the appropriate Runes if you haven't equipped them already, and there is an option to filter out cards that you can't use with your current Rune loadout.
• Black Knight: Death Knights are warriors of the Scourge that use frost and shadow magic to strike down their foes.
• Blood Magic: Blood spells primarily focus on bending blood, whether it's draining it from your enemies, fortifying your own, or making blood explode.
• But Thou Must!: If a card calls for a certain number of Corpses to enhance its effect, there's no way to not spend these Corpses once you have enough, aside from casting something else that needs Corpses first. This can be a problem if you're trying to stockpile Corpses for, say, a gigantic Corpse Explosion or Lord Marrowgar.
• Cast From Hitpoints: Overall, a lot of Blood cards have the gimmick of making you pay life from your hero to get powerful effects for their cost, synergizing with their plethora of healing and Lifesteal but making them risky in other builds. For example, Obliterate is a 1 Blood Rune spell that destroys a minion for 2 mana but causes your hero to take 3 damage, and the Core Blood Legendary minion Deathbringer Saurfang returns himself to your hand upon death but forces you to pay life instead of mana to play him again, giving you a 3/6 Taunt that can be redeployed for free as long as you have life to spare.
• Difficult, but Awesome: This is listed in-game as the class's weakness. Death Knights have an absurd array of cards covering a wide variety of effects, but the rune system limits what options you have access to, making deckbuilding into a rather tricky affair to determine what rune and card combinations you need. In-game, Death Knights also have to juggle an additional resource in the form of Corpses, making their decision-making somewhat more complex.
• Evil Counterpart: Just like the Death Knight's debut in Warcraft III, the Death Knight class in Hearthstone shares a lot of similarities with the Paladin, except with a darker twist:
  • Both are versatile classes with an array of different effects and lots of weapons, but while Paladins are kept in check by their cards being less generally powerful, Death Knights have the Rune system making them unable to use all of their best cards at once. The Rune system also parallels the Pure Paladin archetype, locking you out of certain cards and cutting your versatility in exchange for getting stronger effects.
  • Paladins have healing and buffs to empower their minions and make them more powerful, while Death Knights have no qualms about letting their minions die to generate Corpses and empower their other cards. This is reflected by their Hero Powers, which both spawn a 1/1 token; the Paladin's token sticks around, making it useful for receiving buffs if it's not removed, while the Death Knight's token can attack immediately but dies at the end of the turn, giving a Corpse.
• Human Resources: Death Knights make use of a unique secondary resource called Corpses to cast some of their cards, which they gain whenever a friendly minion dies.
• An Ice Person: Death Knights have a variety of Freeze effects, especially amongst their Frost Rune cards.
• Life Drain: Blood Death Knights specialize in using the Lifesteal keyword to sustain their hero.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Being the second class added post-launch, Death Knight has several odd things about it.
  • Death Knights use Corpses as a secondary resource that's exclusively used by their cards. They get a Corpse every time a minion dies, which can be used to fuel certain card effects. Other classes do gain Corpses, but the counter is hidden unless they acquire a Death Knight card.
  • Many Death Knight cards have a specific Rune requirement, with a special UI to let you choose what Runes you're putting in your deck. This prevents you from just jamming all the best cards in one deck, and opens the class up to a higher quantity of strong cards than other classes.
• The Minion Master: Their hero power summons a 1/1 Ghoul, although unlike the Paladin hero power, their minion won't stick around. Unholy Death Knights in particular focus on summoning minions by expending corpses.
• Multiform Balance: Choosing what combination of Runes you have is key. One of each Rune will allow the most versatility but doesn't have any "power" cards, two of a Rune will allow higher power cards but locks out one third of available options, and three of a kind gives access to the most powerful cards of a certain Rune set but has the least flexibility.
• Mythology Gag: The use of Corpses as a secondary resource system hearkens back to Warcraft III, where the Undead race could actively use corpses to raise new soldiers. In earlier versions of the game corpses were even intended to be an alternate resource like they are here (though this was scrapped due to balancing issues).
• Necromancer: They raise corpses to fight for them, and have Undead synergy cards. Even their hero power temporarily raises up a Ghoul.
• Power Makes Your Voice Deep: While wearing the powerful Helm of Domination in his base skin, Arthas has an imposing, deep voice provided by Michael McConnohie. Without the helmet, his voice is much higher and lacks the reverb.
• Pulling Themselves Together: Death Knights bring back Reborn from Saviors of Uldum as an Evergreen keyword, which causes a minion that dies to return to life with 1 health remaining the first time it's destroyed.
• Reduced Mana Cost: One of the themes for Frost cards are lowering costs and restoring mana. This is most prominent on higher-rune count cards, limiting the amount of mana cheating that the other runes have access to.
• Runic Magic: You need to include three Runes in your deck, which will determine what set of Death Knight cards will be available for you to play.
• We Have Reserves: Granted, this is in play to a certain degree for every class, but Unholy Death Knights basically make an art form out of it. Unholy decks focus around throwing tons of small minions at the enemy, and when they inevitably die they give you Corpses that you can then raise into even more Undead minions to throw at the enemy.
• You Require More Vespene Gas: Corpses are a unique secondary resource used by certain Death Knight cards. For the most part, you are allowed to cast these cards if you don't have enough Corpses, however their effect will be much weaker if you do.

Illidan Stormrage, the Demon Hunter

Illidan Stormrage

Voiced by: Liam O'Brien (EN), Yasuhiro Mamiya (JPN)

This ends now!^note You dare speak to me?

There's a darkness in the garden of the heroes that you know
Casting shadows even blacker than the night
There's a prisoner walking free, who still envisions what could be
Though long ago he sacrificed his sight
There's a villain who's been hated, and a savior who's been shunned
Who's tasted for the love that cannot be
They're all one and the same, and the worlds all fear my name
The hero that you never thought you'd see!

Leader of the Illidari and first of the demon hunters, Illidan was driven from his people for wielding the powers of demons to destroy them. Now, he uses those powers to summon demonic allies and ruthlessly strike down his opponents. His cards, like the demon hunters themselves, are outcasts of society and can often gain power by being the left- or right-most card in the hand when played. His hero power Demon Claws supports his aggressive style, giving him +1 Attack for a turn for only 1 mana.

Demon Hunters were added in the Ashes of Outland expansion in April of 2020.

His alternate portraits include Demonic Illidan, Demonbane Illidan, Felravager Illidan, Skullbearer Illidan, Ember Court Illidan, Infernal Armor Illidan, Illidan the Naughty, Sha Illidan, Sabertender Illidan, Mrrgillidan, Illhoof Illidan, and Felblaze Illidan.

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• Attack! Attack! Attack!: The overall theme of the Demon Hunter is to smack down the opponent with lots of minions and hero attack buffs, solidifying Illidan's early game advantage and wearing enemies down.
• Badly Battered Babysitter: His Sabertender skin humorously shows him looking worn down while covered in nightsaber cubs, apparently taking place in an alternate universe where his punishment was to be the Sentinels' catsitter for ten thousand years.
• Blind Weaponmaster: Illidan was forced to give up his eyes for demonic vision. It doesn't stop him from kicking ass. ^note In-lore, the demonic vision is far superior to normal eyesight and comes without any loss, as demon hunters can adjust their sight to see like normal beings. The blindfold is for the people around them, who don't like the sight of seared flesh and Fireball Eyeballs.
• A Day in the Limelight: Illidan and the Demon Hunter class are introduced in the Ashes of Outland Prologue adventure.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: He's still sore about being locked up for ten thousand years after saving his people from the Burning Legion.
• Eye Beams: The Eye Beam spell. It deals 3 damage to a minion and has Lifesteal, and costs 1 mana if it's Outcast.
• Fragile Speedster: Demon Hunter cards tend to be cheap and can be played early, and they generally deal little damage over many hits instead of one big burst. Demon Hunters must aim to win quickly, as their lack of hard removals will give them trouble when facing the tougher, late-game Taunt minions.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: The demon hunter specific keyword, Outcast, references their status as Token Evil Teammates, causing the stated effect to apply if it's either your left-most or right-most card.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: One of the major differences between Illidan and his brother Malfurion is Illidan's recklessness, and some sources note that Illidan had great potential as a druid but turned instead to the quicker path of the arcane. Illidan's hero power is exactly half of Malfurion's, losing the armor that a Druid gains in exchange for his hero power costing one mana less, perfectly reflecting Illidan's aggressive and reckless nature compared to his brother's cautious and patient approach.
• Hopeless Suitor: If Illidan is matched up against Tyrande, he tries to prove himself to her. She brushes him off. The game itself also mocks him for still pining for her.
  Truthfully, Illidan never had a chance with Tyrande. At all.
• Hour of Power: The Legendary Metamorphosis spell replaces the Demon Hunter's +1 Attack hero power with one that deals 4 damage and still only costs one mana; for the same amount of mana that Jaina spends to deal 1 damage, a Metamorphosed Illidan does 8. However, Metamorphosis is only good for two uses, so make 'em count.
• Informed Loner: The purpose of their special Outcast ability. If an Outcast card is played from the left-most or right-most position in the hand, it gains a bonus.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The "hero that you never thought you'd see" line in his reveal cinematic plays off his in-universe role as an Anti-Hero, but also how nobody expected Blizzard to ever add a new class to Hearthstone.
• Life Drain: Demon Hunters make heavy use of Lifesteal, even more so than Priests and Warlocks. It's their primary form of sustain.
• Mana Burn: Appears in the Demon Hunter arsenal as a 1-mana spell that leaves the opponent down 2 mana on their next turn.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: Demon Hunter is the only class that has a 1 mana Hero Power by default.
• Power Tattoos: Illidan is covered in glowing green ones, as are most of his minions.
• Promoted to Playable: Illidan was originally a neutral Legendary minion in the Classic set, as a 7/5 Demon for 6 that summoned a 2/1 Flame of Azzinoth whenever his owner played a card. His effect was... underwhelming to say the least, with no real synergy and a really awful statline. When Demon Hunters became a class and Illidan was chosen to represent them, the minion version was replaced with Xavius.
• Unreliable Narrator: The Ashes of Outland Prologue adventure is narrated from Illidan's perspective, and thus is told heavily in favor of Illidan.
  Malfurion would like to tell you HIS version of events someday...
• Sixth Ranger: The Demon Hunter is the first class to be added to the game after the initial nine.
• Useless Useful Spell: Humorously, the game does nothing to stop you from using Genn Greymane (whose Start of Game sets your starting Hero Power to cost 1 mana if your deck has only even-cost cards) in a Demon Hunter deck even though Demon Claws already costs 1 mana.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: A contractual obligation of all demon hunters, to show off their tattoos (and abs).
• Weak, but Skilled: Effect-wise, the Demon Hunter's hero power is pretty lame compared to other options. Mages don't take damage and can ignore Taunts, Rogues get two swings per use, and Druids get 1 Armor as well. However, Demon Claws only costs 1 mana compared to the others' 2, letting Demon Hunters more easily weave the hero power into their turns and supplement their weapons and minions.

Malfurion Stormrage, the Druid

Malfurion Stormrage

Voiced by: Ed Trotta (EN), Binbin Takaoka (JPN)

I must protect the wild!^note Nature must be preserved.

^{Click here to see Shan'do Malfurion}

The lord of the Night Elves is a wise and noble leader. Yes, those antlers are real.

The most powerful druid to ever have lived, Malfurion uses the trademark versatility of the druids to win his battles - many of his cards allows him to choose between which of two effects he wants to use, giving him more versatility than other decks. He also draws upon natural bounties in order to accelerate his mana growth, spending mana now to have more on future turns. Malfurion's hero power Shapeshift, grants him +1 attack until the end of the turn as well as +1 armor.

His alternate portraits include Shan'do Malfurion, Cenarion Malfurion, Storm's Rage Malfurion, Emerald Malfurion, Druid of the Flame Malfurion, Winter Fury Malfurion, Steel Guardian Malfurion, and Ice Lord Malfurion.

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• Achilles' Heel: Despite Druid's Jack of All Stats nature, they have a fairly significant weakness: they lack board clears and good hard removal. Their best board clears are Swipe, which deals 4 to one target but only 1 to all others, making it far more situational than cards like Consecration or Flamestrike, and Starfall, which either hits one minion for 5 damage or all enemy minions for 2, making it less efficient than comparable spells like Consecration and Fireball. All of their hard removal is terrible, usually involving cheap costs but massive downsides that defeat the purpose. As a result, Druids' best win conditions are to either ramp up their mana and overwhelm their opponent with big minions, or swarm the board with little minions and buffs.
• Combo:
  • Before it was nerfed in April 2016, Force of Nature (create 3 2/2 Treants with charge) then Savage Roar (give all friendly characters +2 attack this turn) was so powerful it was referred to as "The Combo". Taking into account Malfurion himself, it dealt at the minimum 14 instant damage, more if other creatures were on the field. ^note The nerf changed Force of nature to summon 3 2/2 Treants without charge.
  • In general, the amount of mana manipulation Druid has available to them, between cost reductions and mana boosts like Innervate, makes them an excellent class for playing combo decks, allowing them to easily string together more cards in a single turn than most other classes.
• Face–Heel Turn: Druid of the Flame Malfurion presents an Alternate Universe where Malfurion became Majordomo to Ragnaros instead of Fandral.
• Gaia's Vengeance: The general theme of the Druid, whose treants, beasts, and Ancients all reflect the wrath of nature.
  Cenarius: Who dares defile this ancient land?
• Happily Married: Has an entrance quote against Tyrande that acknowledge their marriage by calling her "My beloved Tyrande" while she calls him "My dear Malfurion".
• In the Hood: Storm's Rage Malfurion, which depicts him wearing the Stormrage Raiment set from WoW.
• Jack of All Stats: Druids are known for their versatility, since they have several cards that lets them chose from one of two effects, they can adapt to most situations. Even Malfurion's hero power can be considered a balanced intermediate between Garrosh's +2 armor and Valeera's +1 attack for 2 attacks.
• Lightning Bruiser: Druid-specific minions tend to have both high attack and defense while costing a lot of mana to play, such as Ironbark Protector and Tyrantus. (The Bruiser part) But Druid is also famous for their ability to ramp up their Mana crystal or reducing their minion cost using Barnabus, allowing them to field such minions sooner or deploying more than one in a turn. (The Lightning part)
• Magikarp Power: To contrast cards that break mana crystals (or disable them) for immediate power, Druids have a few options to invest mana now into empty mana crystals, paying dividends later on. A Druid that spends the mana on Wild Growth and Nourish will end up with 3 maximum mana ahead of his opponent in subsequent turns... if he can play them soon enough to benefit, that is.
• Mr. Fanservice: Like Garrosh, he's a heavily-muscled male hero who's not wearing a shirt.
• Mutual Disadvantage: In theory, the Poison Seeds spell does this by destroying all minions and turning them into 2/2 treants. In practice, it depends on a lot of factors (who had more minions beforehand, did any of them have deathrattles, were they bigger or smaller than 2/2, you get the idea).
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: Tyrande won't let him forget that he slept for 10000 years in the Emerald Dream.
• Panthera Awesome: Most of Malfurion's beasts are panthers or other big cats. He himself becomes a lion when he uses his hero power or the Claw or Bite spells.
• Reduced Mana Cost: The reward of Druid quest, Jungle Giants is Barnabus the Stomper, a minion whose Battlecry reduces the cost of all minions in your deck to 0. They also have a bunch of other powerful cost reduction effects, like Aviana (makes your minions cost 1) and Dreampetal Florist (reduces the cost of a minion in your hand by 7 at the end of your turn).
• Sequence Breaking:
  • Druids can make use of Innervate (+1 mana for that turn only), Wild Growth (+1 empty mana crystal to be filled next turn), and Nourish (+2 mana crystals which are already filled) to play cards of higher mana cost that could normally be played at that stage in the game.
  • With the advent of TGT, Astral Communion is a 4-mana spell that discards your hand but giving you 10 empty mana crystals. Coining and Innervating into this allows you to drop 10 mana minions as early as turn 2.
  • A few sets have added other sequence-breakers. The most notable ones are Darnassus Aspirant (Gain an empty mana crystal as a Battlecry, lose it as Deathrattle), Jade Blossom (gain an empty mana crystal and summon a Jade Golem) and Twig of the World Tree (1/5 weapon, +10 mana crystals when it breaks; although, since the crystals are filled and it's not likely to break before turn 9, it's more often used as a combo enabler instead).
• Stone Wall: Druid has access to some of the best Taunt minions in the game. On top of that, they're other class aside from Warrior to make heavy use of Armor. While it was less pronounced originally, they've received a lot of armor cards in later sets. It's not uncommon to see a Druid with 40+ armor on top of their 30 health, with a board of Taunts in the way.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: As a Druid, this is how he gains 1 attack and 1 armor when he uses his hero power. A few cards have this in flavour as well, such as Claw and Feral Rage.
• When Trees Attack: Malfurion has a trio of huge Ancient minions that act as his exclusive heavy-hitters, and he can summon smaller Treants through numerous effects. Druid cards in The Boomsday Project are all about Treant synergies.
• Why Won't You Die?: Has a number of powerful healing options such as Healing Touch and Ancient of Lore, which can be used with neutral ones like Antique Healbot, and if that's not enough, there's Tree of Life.
• Zerg Rush: One common Druid deck, nicknamed Token Druid or Egg Druid^note Due to the use of "egg" cards that spawn minions, involves filling the board with lots of little minions and giving them all +1/+1 buffs with Power of the Wild and Mark of the Lotus, and finishing with Savage Roar.

Rexxar, the Hunter

Rexxar

Voiced by: Matthew Mercer (EN), Akio Kato (JPN)

Let the hunt... begin.^note Bring it on!

^{Click here to see Wanderer Rexxar}

He only feels at home in the wilderness with his beasts. Super secret: Misha is his favorite.

As Champion of the Horde, Rexxar calls upon his bestial allies to win his battles. His beasts synergize with each other and with many of Rexxar's abilities, and he has a slew of direct damage shots and secret traps available should the need arise. His hero power, Steady Shot, is to skewer the opposite hero on an arrow for two damage, allowing him to apply steady pressure to the opponent regardless of what the board looks like.

His alternate portraits include Wanderer Rexxar, Giantstalker Rexxar, Dragonstalker Rexxar, Warsong Rexxar, Firefang Rexxar, Flamewalker Rexxar, Robin Hood Rexxar, Iron Hunter Rexxar, Snowflipper Rexxar, Black Ox Rexxar, Denwatcher Rexxar, and Rockabilly Rexxar.

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• Attack Animal: A large portion of their spells call Beasts to their side, most notably Unleash the Hounds and Animal Companion.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: As the old saying goes, "Face is the place." His hero power lets him keep shooting the enemy hero for 2 damage a turn and can't be mitigated by taunts. Many of his beast-related cards either have Charge, give beasts Charge to quickly shred an opponent's health, or just deal heavy burn damage. Exaggerated with the infamous 'Face Hunter' deck, which forgoes almost all board control to keep hitting the enemy's face and win the fight quickly.
  • Even Control builds (as control-ish as Hunter gets, at least) often use this strategy, since board control isn't usually optimal for the class and they're just so good at pressuring the face.
• The Archmage: Believe it or not, this is a viable Hunter archetype. As of Kobolds & Catacombs, a very popular Hunter list involves a deck with no minions, codified by Rhok'delar^note 7 mana Legendary 4/2 Weapon. If your deck has no minions, it fills your hand with random Hunter spells. The deck functions through the high number of Hunter spells that summon minions, acting as minions indirectly, and Deathstalker Rexxar providing endless Zombeasts.
• Bears Are Bad News: Misha, a 4/4 Taunt which is one of the Animal Companions. In canon, she's Rexxar's Empathy Pet.
• The Beastmaster: Hunter decks specialize in summoning and enhancing beasts. Rexxar is specifically the master of three beasts; Leokk^note 2/4 that gives your other minions +1 Attack, Misha^note 4/4 Taunt, and Huffer^note 4/2 Charge which he can call with Animal Companion and other cards.
• Boring, but Practical: Most Hunter cards lack flashy effects, just being generally strong minions and buffs. The class itself can be seen as this, with the entire game plan boiling down to "summon Beasts, hit the face, buff your Beasts up, hit the face some more". In fact, most Hunter cards with crazy effects see next to no play, since they're just so contrary to the point of the class.
• Composite Character: Rexxar actually wields a pair of axes in World of Warcraft, and usually attacks from melee range. Here, he's given a bow to better represent the Hunter class as a whole.
• HP to One: Hunter's Mark does this to one minion. Even if a Hunter has no minions to dispatch the marked minion, an easy follow-up is to use Unleash the Hounds to finish it off.
• Skill Gate Characters: Is an entire class of this. Most of the best Hunter cards are either Commons or Rares, Hunter has a very linear, one-dimensional gameplan and win condition while most of its card synergize really obviously with each others. Statistic shows that it had among the highest play-rates, and among the highest win-rates... from rank 20-6, with both tanks significantly from rank 5 or above.
• Trap Master: One of four classes to use Secrets, and two of his are literal hunters' traps. To encourage the use of these Secrets, the Eaglehorn Bow weapon (3/2) gains +1 durability every time a friendly secret is revealed and the Lesser Emerald Spellstone summons two 3/3 Wolves and is upgraded up to two times when you play a Secret.
• Zerg Rush: The card Unleash The Hounds summons a 1/1 hound with Charge for each minion on the opponent's side of the field. This can lend itself to overwhelming large creatures through sheer numbers alone (or just smacking the opponent in the face for massive damage).

Jaina Proudmoore, the Mage

Jaina Proudmoore

Voiced by: Laura Bailey (EN), Atsuko Tanaka (JPN)

You asked for it!^note Oh, it is on.

^{Click here to see Fire Mage Jaina}

The Kirin Tor's leader is a powerful sorceress. She used to be a lot nicer before the Theramore thing.

Leader of the Kirin Tor, Jaina uses her magical abilities to shape the battlefield in her favor by freezing, polymorphing, redirecting damage targeted at her, and fireballing her way through the opposition. Mages have access to the most versatile library of spells, but have weaker minions to compensate. Her hero power Fireblast helps with this, allowing her to deal one point of damage to anything on the board. Jaina is the first unlocked hero in the game and players always start the tutorial with her.

Her alternate portraits include Fire Mage Jaina, Arcanist Jaina, Netherwind Jaina, Apprentice Jaina, Archmage Jaina, Kul Tiran Jaina, Scholar Jaina, Red Riding Hood Jaina, Arcane Sentinel Jaina, Frost Fairy Jaina, Red Crane Jaina, Festival Jaina, Jaina Proudmurgle, Witch Jaina, and Chantress Jaina.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Pyroblast after the update which changed its Mana Cost from 8 to 10, as Mages have no way to restore their Mana thus causing it to be a late-game only full-turn move. Granted, 10 damage against a target (preferably the opponent's face, forcing them to stay above 10 health at all costs) can be amazing, but that won't help a player much if they draw it into their starting hand where it will sit like a rock for quite a number of turns.
• Bowdlerization: In 2018, her art was changed to have an undershirt hiding her cleavage, which is what she wears in Heroes of the Storm and is a bit closer to her current look in World of Warcraft.
• Confusion Fu: While not a core part of the class initially, later expansions gave Mage by far the most options for generating and casting random spells. While this does bring the Random Number God into play, it also has the advantage of making Mages better at grind games and catching opponents off-guard with surprise lethals and board clears.
• Counterspell: Available as a Secret that negates the next spell your opponent casts. Also the only card in the game that uses the "Counter" keyword for a long time. Mages later also got Objection! which negates a minion, removing it from play without even letting it trigger its Battlecry.
  What's the difference between a mage playing with Counterspell and a mage who isn't? The mage who isn't is getting Pyroblasted in the face.
• A Day in the Limelight: She is the first playable character from the game's Tutorial and is also the narrator for the Knights of the Frozen Throne trailer as well as being the only playable character in her original form and Frost Lich Jaina for the expansion's Prologue.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has her moments in the tutorial.
  Illidan: You are NOT prepared!
  Jaina: I don't know. I just played five missions.
• Disc-One Nuke:
  • Frostbolt (3 Damage plus Freezing) and Fireball (6 Damage) are two Mage Spells received with the basic starter cards, and are also two of the best damage and cost effective spell cards a Mage will ever receive.
  • Flamestrike is another basic card that everyone gets, but as mentioned multiple times in this site, it is the single most feared Board Clear in the game, and the holy standard to judge others.
• Ditto Fighter: Mirror Entity is a trap card that makes an exact copy of the next minion an opponent summons on the Mage's side of the field. Alternatively, Duplicate is a trap card that makes two copies of the next of the Mage's minions to get destroyed. For a spell card that isn't a trap, Echo of Medivh puts a copy of every friendly minion on the Mage's side of the field into their hand, Molten Reflection creates a copy of a friendly minion already on the field, and Simulacrum duplicates the cheapest minion in the Mage's hand.
• Doppelgänger Attack: Mirror Image allows a Mage to summon two minions who look slightly similar to Jaina herself. Although they cannot attack normally, they do have tangible defense as well as Taunt, making them great for shielding a Mage from minions' attacks.
• Elemental Barrier: The magic trap Ice Barrier creates a shield of ice that protects Jaina from the next 8 points of damage ... the only drawback is that this trap can only be initially activated by melee damage, not direct damage from spells, Hero Powers, or minion effects (although it can block damage from these sources thereafter).
• Elemental Powers: From Journey to Un'Goro onward, Mage has received a lot of Elemental synergy as well as a lot of their best new minions and cards happen to synergize well with or be Elementals themselves (Frost Lich Jaina, Pyros etc.)
• Forced Transformation: Mages can use Polymorph to turn minions into a 1/1 sheep with no ability other than it being a beast. They've gotten other variants, including Polymorph: Boar, which turns the target into a 4/2 boar with Charge; Potion of Polymorph, a secret that turns an enemy into a 1/1 sheep after it's summoned, Mass Polymorph, which turns everything on the board into a 1/1 sheep, and Polymorph: Jellyfish, which turns the target into a 4/1 jellyfish with Spell Damage +2.
• Herd-Hitting Attack: Mages are famous for having several spells that hit multiple minions at once.
• An Ice Person: Ice lances, Frostbolts, Cones of Cold, Frost Novas, Water Elementals... you're going to see a lot of your stuff frozen when fighting a mage.
• "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Her entire fight as Frost Lich Jaina against Tirion Fordring is this. Fortunately, he succeeds.
• Jack of All Stats: Jaina has quite a lot of utility, having a nice spread of spell cards and minions with effects ranging from burn damage to board clearing to summoning minions to gaining Armor, with minion buffing and healing being pretty much the only things she doesn't have access to. Mage decks over the years have varied quite a bit in strategy over the years as a result, from aggro decks spamming spells and cheap minions to Stone Wall control decks loaded with board clears and Freeze effects.
• Last Chance Hit Point: The Ice Block secret will protect her from lethal damage during that turn - it's a good sign to finish up quickly though, as you likely won't have more than a few healthpoints left.
• Lighter and Softer: The Hearthstone Jaina is taken after the Theramore bombing, but she is not as extremely bitter as in the original World of Warcraft. Instead, she just snarks.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • Unstable Portal puts a random minion in your hand for 2 mana, costing 3 less than it normally does. Since this can draw from any minion in the game, it's up to the Random Number God whether you get an awesome legendary or a Wisp.
  • Mage's Goblins vs Gnomes Legendary, Flame Leviathan, is also quite luck-based. It deals 2 damage to everything on the field once drawn into a Mage's hand, so its usefulness is completely at the mercy of when the RNG decides to give it to you. You're just as likely to get it in a situation that cripples your opponent as you are in a situation that heavily hurts your own field (and sometimes both, or neither!).
  • Firelands Portal is also somewhat luck based. It's a 7 mana spell that deals 5 damage and summons a random 5 drop. You might summon a free Earth Elemental, or you might get a 4/2 Stormpike Commando, or if you're really unlucky, a 1/1 Furbolg Mossbinder. Slightly offset by the damage effect, as dealing 5 damage will never not be useful even if the portal whiffs.
  • Deck of Wonders stuffs your deck with five Scrolls that each cast a random spell when you draw them. Sometimes you destroy the opponent's board, sometimes you also discard your entire hand while doing so...
  • Primordial Glyph, as a card with a discover effect, naturally also fits this, though the Discover function minimizes the randomness by giving you three options to choose from. Whether or not those three options are useful in your current situation, however, is up to chance.
  • Babbling Book, Cabalist's Tome and Ruby Spellstone add random spells to your hand. There's a good chance you'll get something amazing (like another copy of that spell!), but there's an equal chance you'll get an utterly terrible spell.
  • Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron throws out ten random spells on cast. You could blow up the opponent's board and fill your hand with some random useful stuff... or just Fireball yourself in the face and mill a bunch of cards.
  • To a lesser extent, Solarian Prime (generated by their Ashes of Outland Legendary Astromancer Solarian) will cast five random Mage spells when played. The catch here is that her spells will target enemies if possible, making her more reliable for destroying the opponent's things or burning the enemy hero.
  • In general; while every class has access to random effects, Mage tends to have the most random cards, between random card generation; Discover [Pick one of three random choices]; cards which target randomly [Such as Arcane Missiles] and topping off with cards such as Puzzxle-Box of Yogg-Saron. The only class which can compete with Mage in terms of sheer levels of RNG is Priest.
• Ms. Fanservice: This was more obvious prior to her art change, but still present. Her portrait made her cleavage stand out even more than usual, because it only shows heroes from the waist up and she was wearing a lower-cut top than she does in other portrayals. Post-bowdlerization, she still has a prominent exposed belly.
• Playing with Fire: Fireblast, Fireball, Flamestrike, Pyroblast - the mage has the most fire spells of any class.
• Randomized Damage Attack:
  • Arcane Missiles fires three bolts of pure arcane energy that do just 1 damage each randomly split between all enemy targets (including the enemy Hero). The only way this attack is ever not random is if the only target on the field is the enemy Hero. Greater Arcane Missiles is similar, but deals 3 damage per bolt instead of 1.
  • The Flamewaker minion shares a similar mechanic, firing two bolts of random targeting fire each time a friendly spell card is played.
  • Cinderstorm takes this one step further and fires five random missiles.
• Squishy Wizard: Jaina has a great barrage of spells with a variety of function, but she has no class Taunt minions and only 2 class direct healing (Ice Block and Ice Barrier, both are very slow Secrets that need set up first and even then, both of them will not save the Mage from damage on their own turn like Fatigue damage while the latter is completely useless if the opponent use burn spells to finish you off). Downplayed in Knight of the Frozen Throne, in which they receive incredibly potent health gain in the form of Frost Lich Jaina (see below) and Arcane Artificer (1 mana 1/2 Elemental that give you Armor equal to the cost of the spell you casted).
• Status Effect-Powered Ability: Mages have a number of cards that gain bonus effects if used on Frozen targets. These range from very strong (at least back in the day) like Ice Lance and Ray of Frost to meme-tier like Shatter and Icicle, although the majority are squarely mediocre.
• Time Master: The reward of Mage quest Open the Waygate is 5-mana Time Warp, which grants an extra turn for the caster.
• Trap Master: The magical trap variant. Mages have by far the most secret spells in the game, making it harder to narrow down which one spell a particular secret is. So many, in fact, that it's possible to build a just-for-fun deck containing nothing but all the secrets plus cards that benefit them or are benefited by them, and nowadays it's not even just a joke deck in Wild since Mages have so many good Secrets and Secret synergy that you can't fit them all in a single deck. The Mage Class Challenge in Curse of Naxxramas does exactly this. Mage Secrets also tend to have the most powerful effects, like negating spells entirely or copying the opponent's minions, but are also the most expensive at 3 mana.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: Mages get lots of ice spells to freeze enemies solid, along with a bunch of fire spells to burn them to a crisp.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: In the Knights of the Frozen Throne Prologue, she finally gets a playable card in her hand... on turn 3, while at 4 HP. And that card is Magma Rager.
  Jaina: Are you serious right now!?

Uther Lightbringer, the Paladin

Uther Lightbringer

Voiced by: Michael McConnohie (EN), Shinya Fukumatsu (JPN)

I will fight with honor!^note I will command the light!

^{Click here to see Lightforged Uther}

Leader of the Knights of the Silver Hand. Best-selling author of The Light and How to Swing It.

The first paladin of the Order of the Silver Hand, Uther uses the knights at his command along with the power bestowed upon him by The Holy Light to ensure that his cards stay in play through a multitude of healing, buffing, immunity-granting, resurrection and misdirection abilities. Rather than use hard removal, Uther weakens his opponent's minions with effects that lower their attack and/or health. His hero power Reinforce has him summon in reinforcements in the form of a 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit.

His alternate portraits include Lightforged Uther, Uther Lawbringer, Judgement Uther, Second War Uther, Horseman Uther, Guan Yu Uther, Righteous Inferno Uther, Ascended Uther, Star Ascendant Uther, Greench Uther, and Burger Uther.

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• Adaptational Name Change: In Warcraft proper, his name is just Uther with no surname and "the Lightbringer" is his title.
• Barrier Warrior: Uther can give his minions Divine Shield with a spell or an exclusive minion.
• BFS: Most of Uther's weapon cards. The Truesilver Champion heals him as he attacks, the Sword of Justice buffs minions he summons at the cost of durability, and the Ashbringer (equipped when Tirion Fordring dies) is just a really big, really tough sword.
• Evil Laugh: Horseman Uther's intro dialogue.
• Evil Sounds Deep: Horseman Uther has a filter applied to his voice which deepens it and adds reverb. It gives even the unchanged lines some extra spookiness.
• Field Power Effect: Introduced in Festival of Legends, Paladins have a set of Aura spells that grant an ongoing effect for a few turns after being cast, such as Crusader's Aura passively buffing your minions upon attacking and Resistance Aura increasing the costs of enemy spells.
• Headless Horseman: Available as an alternate skin. While he technically doesn't lose his head, it is referenced.
  Horseman Uther: I've always said I'll get ahead...
• Herd-Hitting Attack: A lack of these is one of Paladin's main weaknesses. They do have a couple cards, like Consecration, Avenging Wrath, and City Tax, but none are very efficient unless combined with a mass HP to One effect. However, the neutral Wild Pyromancer is often considered an honorary Paladin card thanks to its effect dealing 1 damage to all minions after you cast a spell, which helps Control Paladin decks shore up this major weakness.
• Heroic Sacrifice: The gist of the Noble Sacrifice secret, which instantly summons a 2/1 Defender to intercept an enemy's attack.
• Holy Hand Grenade: All of Uther's offensive spells are light-based.
• HP to One:
  • The class-specific spell Equality changes all minions' HP to one. It would be a real shame if the enemy Uther just happened to have a Consecration or Avenging Wrath spell to sweep your side of the field...
  • Alternatively, there's the Atk To One cards such as Humility and Aldor Peacekeeper to serve as the Paladin's pseudo-removals.
• Jack of All Stats: Paladins in general have some of everything: healing, buffing, weapons, decent spells, in addition to never being short on minions. However, they usually aren't the best at any particular one of those, though they do have the most cards with the Divine Shield property.
• Knight Templar: The Pure Paladin archetype, where certain cards would grant bonuses when your deck has no Neutral card. It doesn't matter if you're unambiguously on the good side, if you're not officially part of the order, you're gonna annoy these minions into not giving their extra bonus.
• Last Chance Hit Point: One of Uther's secrets triggers when one of his minions dies and resurrects it with one health. If the minion had Divine Shield as a property, this can be additionally annoying since it will regain that as well.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Like with priests, you really want to clear our every single minion on a paladin's board. That 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit doesn't look tough, but for just four mana and a single card it could become a 5/5. Even more dangerous are several Silver Hand Recruits, since playing Quartermaster can quickly buff them all up to 3/3.
  • Bolvar Fordragon, the other Paladin legendary, is the only minion in the game that continually gains power while sitting in your hand. He's a measly 1/7 for 5 mana to start off with, but since he gains +1 attack for each of your minions that dies, he can become a scary 10/7 with some patience.
• Master of None: A problem saddled with attempts to play control with Paladin — while his board control options are decent, not a lot of them are actually great, leading to an attempted control Paladin being overshadowed by the more specialized control classes like Warlock or Mage.
• The Minion Master: His hero power summons a 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit, but he has various buff spells and Battlecries which dramatically improve them into Elite Mooks status. Tellingly, the Paladin Quest from Un'goro invokes this, having to cast a number of spells on your own minions, and his Death Knight minions are the Horsemen of the Apocalypse which will kill the enemy hero if not kept in check.
• Purity Personified: The "Pure Paladin" archetype (alternatively called No-Neutral Paladin or Paladin Paladin), which uses a set of cards that gain powerful effects so long as there are no Neutral cards in your deck. You can get these powerhouse cards so long as you're willing to sacrifice a huge number of utility and tech cards to remain "pure". Flavour-wise, most cards with the restriction are Lightforged Draenei.
• Red Shirt: The Silver Hand Recruits produced by his Hero Power. 1/1 weenies with no special traits to speak of for 2 whole mana, which is far from cost efficient. But if you're stuck with a hand full of expensive spells, they make a good stopgap measure to keep a tiny bit of board control. Just a little.
• Rhymes on a Dime: Horseman Uther does, like the original Headless Horseman in World of Warcraft.
• Take Up My Sword: Tirion Fordring, the Paladin-exclusive legendary minion, does this to Uther when he finally dies by passing on his Ashbringer, a potent 5/3 weapon.
• Tall Poppy Syndrome: Hilariously, although Paladin has plenty of options that buff their minions, the rest is about dragging the enemy down to Red Shirt level and equalize the playing field.
• Trap Master: One of the four classes to use Secrets. The Paladin flavour has them taking the place of their passive auras from World of Warcraft. The "Secret Paladin" deck even dominated the meta for a while. As of the Year of the Wolf, though, all Paladin Secrets were removed from Standard and replaced by Auras, which were made into a new set of spells.
• Token Good Teammate: He (and by extension, Liadrin) falls to this trope in the Whisper of the Old Gods expansion due to being the only class that (mostly) don't have any Old Gods-related cards in their class card set. In fact, several of the Paladin cards feature characters fighting against the titular Old Gods - including Ragnaros!
• Touched by Vorlons: Lightforged Uther depicts an Alternate Universe where Uther survived and joined the Army of Light (likely instead of Turalyon). The Lightforged are mortal paladins that have been empowered by the Naaru.
• Weird Beard: Horseman Uther has Uther's beard built into the Headless Horseman's helmet.
• Why Won't You Die?: Like Druid, he has a number of powerful healing options such as Holy Light, Guardian of Kings and Lay on Hands. Unlike Druid, Mill Paladin is not exactly viable, but these heals are practical enough to use in the course of normal game; one comes with a hefty 5/6 minion, and another draws you 3 cards.
• Zerg Rush: Uther can reinforce himself with an 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit each turn with his hero power or instantly summon 3 of the minion with the Muster For Battle spell. This works well with "buff all allied minions" or "get buffed based on number of allies" strategies, or just to take out one of the opponent's low-power minions that cost him a card while yours didn't.

Anduin Wrynn, the Priest

Anduin Wrynn

Voiced by: Josh Keaton (EN), Tomoaki Maeno (JPN)

The Light shall bring victory!^note Light smiles upon the just!

^{Click here to see King Anduin}

The future King of Stormwind is a kind, gentle soul. Except when he's in Shadowform.

Son of King Varian Wrynn, the King of Stormwind, Anduin has access to a multitude of healing and offensive spells, as well as buffs to make his creatures effective Stone Walls. He also has a number of "control" spells to destroy or take control of enemies to reflect the darker Priest disciplines. Priest decks tend to favour high health over high attack, and many of their cards deal with manipulating attack value and resurrecting minions. His hero power, Lesser Heal, heals anything on the board for two health.

His alternate portraits include King Anduin, Anduin of Prophecy, Transcendance Anduin, SI:7 Anduin, Zhuge Liang Anduin, Prince Charming Anduin, Holy Leviathan Anduin, Little Lion Anduin, Butler Anduin, Appetizer Anduin, Teen Idol Anduin, and Aduin the Valorous.

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• Animal Motif: As the game goes on, Dragon. Priest has the highest amount of class-exclusive Dragons and Dragon synergies and the Dragon minions' high health naturally synergizes well with the Priest playstyle and card pool.
• Anti-Magic: Priests have by far the most Silence effects in the game, allowing them to shut off enemy minions' abilities. They can often also be used on your own minions, removing detrimental abilities from minions like the Incorporeal Corporal^note a 2-mana 5/5 that destroys itself after attacking or Humongous Razorleaf^note 3-mana 4/8 that can't attack and turn them into overstatted monstrosities.
• Critical Existence Failure: The "wounded minions are still minions" rule especially applies for Priests, who can keep healing their minions up and make them a nuisance. Killing them is the only sure way to prevent this from happening. The Lightspawn card for priests averts this by having its attack always be equal to its health. Of course, this works both ways, and boosting the health of a Lightspawn is an easy way to make it a powerhouse.
• Explosive Overclocking: Northshire Cleric is one of the best card for a Priest's card draw. But beware of playing her against another Priest, especially if you have two on the board. Stories abound where the opponent healed the board and force you to draw more cards than you can handle, immediately exhausting your deck and instantly killing you from the Fatigue damage.
• Four Is Death: Inverted. He has two spells that instantly kill minions: Shadow Word: Death and Shadow Word: Pain. However, these spells work only for minions above or below 4 attack respectively. Minions with 4 attack are considered valuable because they can't be targeted by these spells without a buff or debuff effect. It wasn't until Rise of Shadows that Priests got a card that can destroy 4-attack minions (Forbidden Words). As a tongue-in-cheek nod to this, Caverns of Time gave Priests Shadow Word: Forbid, which specifically destroys 4-attack minions and has Flavor Text proclaiming that "At last, Priest has no more weaknesses."
• Glass Cannon: Can become one of these by converting his hero power from restoring 2 HP to dealing 2 damage using Shadowform. He can also turn his healing spells into offensive ones using an Auchenai Priestess' effect. Normally Priests are known for having a Stone Wall strategy, but a Shadowform strategy sacrifices this for cost-efficient damage output that forces Anduin to win a game earlier than he normally would. Taken to its extreme with the Shadowreaper Anduin Death Knight card, which gives him a 2 damage hero power that can be used multiple times a turn so long as you keep playing cards to refresh it. Darkbishop Benedictus allows Anduin to start the game in Shadowform if he has only Shadow spells in his deck, giving him incredible offensive presence at the expense of defensive tools and many of his board clears.
• Hoist by His Own Petard:
  • Priests are quite good at defeating opponents with their own cards, as they have numerous means of either Power Copying random cards from their opponents' decks or taking control of minions already on the field.
  • Can be a victim of their own cards if they play one or multiple Northshire Clerics and the opponent is able to heal minions.
• Mind Control: Has a few methods for taking over enemy minions. Shadow Madness is a 3 mana spell that lets him control an enemy with 3 or less attack for a single turn. Potion of Madness is similar, but targets minions with 2 or less for 1 mana. Mind Control is a 10 mana spell that permanently takes control of an enemy minion, although it can't attack immediately.
• Necromancer: Priest has the most number of cards that bring dead minions back to life, such as Resurrect^note 2-mana spell that resurrects a random dead friendly minion, Twilight's Call^note 3-mana spell that resurrects up to two Deathrattle minions that have dies this game as 1/1 minions, and Mass Resurrection^note 9-mana spell that revives 3 random friendly minions.
• One-Hit Kill: As a class, Priest has the most spells and minions that can instantly kill enemy minions regardless of health.
• Psychic-Assisted Suicide: The most common use of Shadow Madness is to take an enemy minion and ram into another minion, killing them both.
• Random Number God: A Rule of Fun deck, the so-called 'Randuin Wrynn', consists entirely out of cards with random elements to them. For extra fun, some of his cards copy random cards from the OPPONENT'S hand or deck.
  • In general; next to Mage, Priest tends to have the most access to random effects. While his signature is copying cards that the enemy has [at random]; there are also cards like Lyra the Sunshard and his version of Galakrond which can generate massive amounts of random Priest spells.
• Religious Bruiser: Being a devoted follower of the Light doesn't stop him from exclaiming that light will burn his enemy or will bring him victory. This is more prominently in him and Tyrande than Malfurion because the latter's quote tend to emphasize a general Gaia's Vengeance theme while the two of them exclaim their specific religion.
• Stone Wall:
  • He can drag a game out for an extraordinary amount of time thanks to his being able to drastically increase the max health of his minions, keep himself alive with his hero power and various cards, shut down any dangerous creatures with a plethora of removal cards like Shadow Word: Pain and Shadow Word: Death, or just take them with Mind Control. However, after the Year of the Phoenix Hall of Fame rotations, Priests have no direct damage output in Standard beyond keeping minions alive to hit the opponent's face or just waiting for them to die of fatigue.
  • Also reflected in his class cards. Almost every Priest class minion has more health than damage, invoking this trope. And later on can be exploited by the Lightbomb.
  • The reward from Awaken The Makers quest is a 5-mana 8/8 Taunt whose Battlecry sets your health to 40.
• So Proud of You: On the receiving end of this trope if he faced with the Warrior hero and play against his father Varian Wrynn, who proclaim proudly that his skill is growing.
• Telepathy: A few cards copy cards from your opponent's deck or hand and adds them to your hand. Among these are Mind Vision^note 1 mana, copy a card from your opponent's hand, Thoughtsteal^note 2 mana, copy two cards from your opponent's deck, Drakonid Operative^note 5 mana 5/6 Dragon, if you're holding a dragon, Discover a card from your opponent's deck, and Psionic Probe^note 1 mana, Copy a spell from your opponent's deck and add it to your hand.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: He wields the Light alongside the Shadow, using healing and fortifying powers alongside spells like Shadow Word: Pain. This can be seen in his portrait◊, where he wields a holy torch in one hand with a Shadow spell in the other.

Valeera Sanguinar, the Rogue

Valeera Sanguinaar

Voiced by: Tara Platt (EN), Mayumi Asano (JPN)

Watch. Your. Back.^note I always do.

^{Click here to see Cap'n Valeera}

Expert assassin. Deadly gladiator. Best knife skills in her cooking class, according to survivors.

A blood elven rogue of exceptional skill from the Warcraft comic, Valeera, although identifying as a blood elf, has sworn herself to the Wrynn family. She focuses on summoning creatures and using weapons which gain power if they aren't the first card played in a turn, as well as using cheap card removal and card withdrawing abilities to delay an opponent until she can stab them in the back. However, she suffers from a severe lack of survivability, meaning she needs to win fast. Her hero power, Dagger Mastery, equips her with a 1/2 Wicked Knife to use as she pleases.

Her alternate portraits include Cap'n Valeera, Nightslayer Valeera, Deathmantle Valeera, Diao Chan Valeera, Gladiator Valeera, Titanblade Valeera, Valeera the Nice, Garden Party Valeera, and Center Stage Valeera.

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• Action Girl: Valeera particularly stands out as the most active hero in direct combat, even more than the male ones! Specifically, while all heroes channel the spell cards in their decks, Rogues tend to actually attack with their hero much more than others due to having limitless weapons for 2 mana apiece. She's only matched in this regard by Illidan, whose cards have lots of weapons and Hero attack buffs as well as a 1-mana hero power for buffing his Attack.
• Adaptational Badass: Diao Chan Valeera's flavor text heavily hints that she can fight, which is a significant departure from the original novel where Diao Chan is better known for being a Honey Trap and bring upon the fall of Lu Bu.
• Ascended Extra: Valeera is a rather minor character (even in the comics, Broll often overshadowed her) with only a cameo in WoW. This is particularly noticeable compared to the other Heroes of Hearthstone who are all large parts of the story with major roles in the games. According to blue comments on Twitter, this was to add a Blood Elf Hero, while the original option, Garona, would've been another orc. This also led to a joke among the player base that she is obviously the best rogue, because you've never heard of her.
• Combos: A named mechanic for Rogue-exclusive cards, who usually gain additional effects or potency if used in succession, making it possible to load a deck with cheap Combo cards and keep hitting the opponent as fast as possible. Rogues also specialize in chaining cards together, with multiple ways to draw, reduce the cost of cards, and return minions to their hand to reuse.
• Crack Ship: In-Universe. The Three Kingdom skin has her to be in the role of Diao Chan, with Garrosh in the role of Diao Chan's lover Lu Bu. This is despite the fact that Garrosh and Valeera never met, let alone were portrayed on the same side in any material.
• A Day in the Limelight: Being the titular character and the only playable hero in the Brawl "Valeera's Bag of Burgled Spells", which feature her casting spells from different classes with each spell summoning a random minion with the same cost.
• Devious Daggers: The Rogue hero power equips a 1/2 dagger on demand, fitting with their sneaky Fragile Speedster scheming. Most of their collectible weapons are daggers, knives, and short swords, and many of their spells invoke using a dagger for their name or animation.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Rogue's cards tend to have low mana costs to facilitate their Combo mechanics, which requires quick thinking and knowledge of the best sequences. Additionally, Valeera is expected to use her daggers for early board control while preparing her Combo, but she doesn't deal as much damage as Garrosh nor have armor to mitigate the damage like Malfurion while her card arsenal doesn't have many board clear and no healing. But if you pull it off... well, there's a reason they call it Miracle Rogue.
  
  To drive the point home, statistic showed that Rogue has been a consistently unpopular class in ladder and barely breaks the 50% win rate. In tournament? Rogue has been in every World Championship line up that ended up winning, even in times where it is considered underpowered.
• Elite Mook: The reward from Rogue quest The Caverns Below is Crystal Core, a 5-mana spell that sets your minions' stats to 4/4 for the rest of the game. Yes, that includes the 1-mana Charge Stonetusk Boar.
• Femme Fatale: Valeera has this aura about her personality and voice (it helps that she's voiced by Tara Platt this time around), making her more fitting as a sneaky Rogue. This is kind of surprising for those who read the comic, where she was a lot more impulsive.
  • The Three Kingdoms bundle cast her as Diao Chan, further emphasizing this portrayal of her.
• Fork Fencing: Deadly Fork will leave a Sharp Fork weapon for Valeera as a Deathrattle. You may laugh, but remember it's a 3/2 weapon, compared to her default 1/2 daggers.
• Fragile Speedster: Valeera will make many more attacks than the other attack-heavy heroes (except maybe Illidan) due to having infinite 1/2 weapons for 2 mana each as well as more class-specific weapons. However, unlike Malfurion or Garrosh, she cannot shield herself with armor, so she will take the full brunt of counterattack damage each time.
• Glass Cannon: Rogues can deal a lot of damage very quickly with burn spells, weapon buffs, and Stealth minions. As a trade-off, the class has extremely limited healing, Taunt, and board clears, making their health a very precious resource and keeping them all-in all the time.
• Irony: It's frequently joked that Rogues are less secretive than Paladins^note Rogues used to have no access to Secrets while the honorable Paladin class did; eventually Paladin's Secrets were all rotated out while Rogue got to keep theirs for a year and less thieving than Priests^note Priests are able to copy and steal the opponent's cards, while Rogues can only generate cards from other classes while being better miracle workers than both.^note Priests and Paladins are servants of the Holy Light, but the Rogue class is famous for its "Miracle Rogue" combo deck.
• In the Back: The aptly named 'Backstab' card for the rogue - free to use, and deals two damage to an undamaged minion. Whispers of the Old Gods add up with Shadow Strike, same thing, except five damage and costs 3 mana.
• Lady in Red: While base form Valeera and Cap'n Valeera avoid this due to the fact her main characterization has little usage of her sex appeal, Diao Chan Valeera has a sultry delivery to all of her voice lines, dress completely in a red skimpy outfit and is explicitly based on and named after a character known her being a Honey Trap.
• Master Poisoner: While the Poisonous keyword (kill any minion damaged by something with Poisonous) can be found across all classes, it's most synonymous with Rogue. Rogues have the most Poisonous minions available to them and can apply Poisonous to their minions in several ways.
• One-Hit Kill: While not usually literal since you're bound to get in a LITTLE damage beforehand, many top-tier Rogue decks over the years have involved stalling for time until you have the cards and mana to perform one massive turn that burns the opponent down before they can react. Miracle Rogue involved using a Leeroy Jenkins + Shadowstep combo to repeatedly bash your face in, Oil Rogue used weapon buffs (mainly the titular Tinker's Sharpsword Oil) to give you a massive weapon, and Garrote Rogue focused on filling their deck with the Bleed token spell and amassing extra Spell Damage to make them lethal.
• Poisoned Weapons: Rogue weapons are generally pretty dinky compared to Warrior and Hunter weapons. However, they have a large selection of spells dedicated to buffing their weapons up with poisons. This ranges from poisons that buff attack to utility effects like drawing cards on hero attack or granting the Poisonous keyword. Rogue weapon buffs are never dead draws thanks to Dagger Mastery, which makes them much more successful than in other classes.
• Power Copying: Many Rogue cards add random cards from your opponent's class to your hand, letting you tap into their abilities - even ones they might not actually be running.
• Pirate Girl: Her 1000 wins portrait shows her as one of these.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: "Watch. Your. Back." when starting a match. "Here. We. Go." when initiating attack. The first one is thrown back at her in any encounters with Kel'Thuzad with "Okay. I. Will."
• The Smurfette Principle: While the dev team specifically avoided this by letting her and Jaina to be the primary heroes of their class, this can unintentionally happen if you obtain Medivh and/or Khadgar to replace Jaina and didn't / don't want to obtain the other heroines. Rogue was also the only class to be solely represented by female heroes, until the release of Scabbs Cutterbutter and Edwin VanCleef all the way in 2021.
• The Stoic: Valeera in this game is less explosive and hotheaded than she was in her origin comics, rarely raising her voice and actually showing the subtlety and silence required for a Rogue. The exception is when she emotes Threaten.
  I WILL BE YOUR DEATH!!
• Tactical Withdrawal: Valeera has a few cards that do this, with one of them, Vanish, even causing minions to return en masse. These cards are the crutch of a Mill Rogue and Quest Rogue deck.
• Trap Master: Starting with Kobolds and Catacombs, Rogue became the fourth class to use Secrets. Their Secrets are generally flavoured around crafty tactics, and are logically the most difficult to use correctly.
• Twofer Token Minority: The reason she was included is to have a female blood elf neutral hero, while the original options Matthias Shaw, Edwin Vanclef (human, male) and Garona Halforcen (half-orc, Heel–Face Revolving Door) has already been filled by the other heroes.

Thrall, the Shaman

Thrall

Voiced by: Chris Metzen (EN), Hideaki Tezuka (JPN)

For Doomhammer!^note For the Frostwolves!

^{Click here to see Warchief Thrall}

Thrall quit his former job as Warchief to save the world and spend more time with his family.

Son of Durotan and former Warchief of the Horde, Thrall uses his elemental ties to call upon aid. Elements are fickle beings however, and will often demand mana be paid not only during the turn they are summoned, but also the turn after that. This grants him a large amount of versatility and burst potential, but his ability to draw and generate cards is limited. His hero power, Totemic Call reflects the volatility of elementals as well — Thrall may summon a totem imbued with power, but even he does not know which totem the elements grant him.^TotemsStoneclaw Totem, a 0/2 Taunt; Healing Totem; a 0/2 that heals your other minions for 1 each turn; Searing Totem; a 1/1 with no effects; and Wrath of Air Totem, a 0/2 with Spell Damage +1. From 2021 to early 2024, Wrath of Air Totem was replaced by Strength Totem, a 0/2 that gives a random friendly minion +1 Attack at the end of your turn.

His alternate portraits include Warchief Thrall, Earthfury Thrall, Ten Storm Thrall, Thrall, Son of Durotan, Alterac Thrall, Wolfrider Thrall, Frostwolf Thrall, Frog Prince Thrall, Mechaconduit Thrall, Snowman Thrall, Jade Serpent Thrall, and Thundercaller Thrall.

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• Devolution Device: Shamans get the Devolve card from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, which transforms all enemy minions into random ones that cost 1 less. Funnily enough, the artwork displays the Big Bad Ensemble from the expansion pack devolved into Murlocs. They also have Devolving Missiles shared with Mage in Scholomance Academy, which combines this with Arcane Missiles.
• Dishing Out Dirt: Oddly enough, this is usually averted. Very few Shaman cards make use of earth, although they did gradually get more earth-based cards later on (often removal spells or Elemental minions).
• Elemental Powers: Thrall's minions and spells reflect the major western elements, as is fitting for a Shaman. This theme is heavily emphasized in Journey to Un'Goro, which gave them a lot of Elemental synergy.
• Evilutionary Biologist: Starting with the Evolve^note Transform all friendly minions into random minions that cost 1 more and Master of Evolution^note Same thing, but only for one minion cards from Whispers of the Old Gods, Shaman has had this as a theme. It was continued with Devolve^note Same thing again, but for enemy minions and in reverse in Mean Streets of Gadgetzan and reached its logical conclusion in Knights of the Frozen Throne when the Shaman Death Knight was entirely based around this.
• Forced Transformation: Shamans can use Hex to turn a minion into a 0/1 Toad that has Taunt.
• Herd-Hitting Attack: Lightning Storm deals 2-3 damage to all enemy minions.
• An Ice Person: One of two classes to use Freeze spells (the other being Mage). It's far less emphasized here, though.
• Jack of All Trades: Shaman's cards are somewhat infamous for being all over the place. Over the years, they've had stints as both a heavy aggro class, a durable control class, a midrange class, and anything in between. They have cards for clearing the board, buffing minions, healing up, burning the opponent down, removing troublesome enemies... barring Secrets, if you can name it, there's probably a Shaman card for that.
• Luck-Based Mission:
  • His hero power summons a random totem out of a possible four - will you get the one you need, or will you get something not as useful?
  • In addition, several of his cards do varying amounts of damage - Lightning Storm deals two or three damage to all enemy minions, whereas Crackle (added in Goblins vs. Gnomes) can do anywhere from three to six damage at random. This aspect was toned down over the years, with Lightning Storm even being buffed to a fixed three damage.
• Mundane Utility: His 2021 Winter's Veil skin shows him using his shaman powers to build a snowman. As the description states, "It's no good wielding the incredible powers of the elements if you can't have a little fun with them."
• Playing with Fire: A few cards use this as a theme, such as Lava Burst and the classically powerful Fire Elemental.
• Power at a Price: The Overload mechanic. Cards that Overload cause the player to be short X number of Mana crystals next turn to balance out how abnormally strong the card is for its current cost. Nearly half of their hero-exclusive cards have Overload; it's possible for them to liberally make use of Overload then reinforce their powerhouses with cheap 2 Mana totems the next turn.
• Shock and Awe: Several of Thrall's shaman spells are lightning-related.
• Weak, but Skilled: Al'Akir the Windlord, the Shaman's legendary minion from the Classic set, can be considered to be this. He has 3/6 stats for 8 mana, which is beyond weak for its cost. However, it also has Windfury, Taunt, Divine Shield, and Charge properties, making it have the most effects of a single minion in the game.
• Zerg Rush: Shaman specializes in swarming the board quickly with small minions. Their Hero Power allows them to summon a Totem each turn, which in turn can be turned into threat by cards like Bloodlust (+3 Attack on all friendly minions this turn), favorable trading through buff or allows more swarming from cards like Things From Below (6 mana 5/5 Taunt minion that has its cost decrease by 1 for each Totem summoned).

Gul'dan, the Warlock

Gul'dan

Voiced by: James Horan (EN), Tesshō Genda (JPN)

Your soul shall be mine!^note I am your nightmare!

^{Click here to see Shadow Gul'dan}

Talented, persuasive and hard-working. Too bad he wants to feed your soul to demons.

The first warlock of the orcish Horde, Gul'dan represents the Warlock class and their willingness to sacrifice everything around them in return for power. Many of his cards, while strong, will directly hamper his ability to continue fighting by demanding health, cards, or even entire mana crystals as sacrifices for their play. Gul'dan also dabbles in devious tactics like disrupting the opponent's hand and deck. Even his hero power Life Tap lets him damage himself for 2 points to draw a card.

His alternate portraits include Shadow Gul'dan, Felheart Gul'dan, Nemesis Gul'dan, Shadowmoon Gul'dan, House of Rituals Gul'dan, Fel Colossus Gul'dan, Mogu'shan Gul'dan, Hatcher Gul'dan, and Gargoyl'dan.

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• Bad Boss: The only warlock minions that actually enjoy working for Gul'dan are the Succubus, Mistress of Pain, and the Floating Watcher. The others either hate him or are apathetic, with special mention going to the Imp minions (Flame Imp, Imp Gang Boss, and Blood Imp) whose voice clips are literally nothing but complaining. Granted, having loads of exclusive spells/minion effects that involve harming or killing your other minions probably isn't the best way to get on their good side.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: Lord Jaraxxus, his original legendary card, is literally this if one considers heroes to be the bosses. He is unique among minions in that summoning him normally (rather than having him pulled directly to the field) makes him into the hero instead of Gul'dan.
• Cast from Hit Points: Gul'dan has a powerful hero power, but using it costs him 2 HP in addition to the mana cost. A few of his minions also have Battlecries that damage your hero.
• Casting a Shadow: He makes good use of shadow magic.
• Critical Status Buff: Playing cards with Discard mechanic with an empty hand or while top-decking is practically this, as it allows you to play them without paying any cost.
• Deadpan Snarker: His emotes are easily the most condescending of the cast. His old Sorry emote in particular oozed with so much sarcasm it was an insult just to hear it.
• Deal with the Devil: See Power at a Price. Gul'dan's Demons are quite powerful for their cost, but they tend to come with various downsides from losing health, Discarding cards, destroying your mana crystal and so on. Even his spells have this theme, best exemplified with the Flavor Text of Void Contract.
  YOU SIGNED WHAT?!
• Discard and Draw: Warlock has the vast majority of cards that discard from the hand, usually depicted as demonic sacrifices with cards such as Soulfire. It can also sacrifice health for more card draw. In Mean Streets of Gadgetzan, Warlock gets more cards that emphasize discarding and drawing.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: Gul'dan summoning Jaraxxus will cost him his own life, as he can't control the Eredar Lord of the Burning Legion.
• Friend or Foe?: The Warlock has multiple spells and/or effects that damages everyone in the game, such as Hellfire, Dread Infernal, Felfire Potion, and more. They're pretty powerful for their cost, and in a pinch, you can take your enemy down with you.
  Hellfire: It's spells like these that make it hard for Warlocks to get decent help.
• Glass Cannon: Gul'dan's cards have the best mana-cost-to-power ratio in the game, but come with varying drawbacks, such as causing him to lose health, cards, or board control, meaning he can lose options and survivability pretty quickly. Notably, varying Warlock decks involve exemplifying one of those drawbacks to greatly improve on others: a Giants Warlock is based around losing health quickly through minions and his hero power to both gain card advantage with said hero power and summon the powerful Molten Giant^note 8/8, initially costs 20 mana but costs 1 less per health lost. and Mountain Giant^note 8/8, initially costs 12 mana but costs 1 less per other card in hand. cards. Warlocks also have a lot of cards whose effects scale with your hand size, encouraging aggressive use of Life Tap to fill up your hand and drop huge bombs on your opponent early, at the expense of your hero's health.
• Godzilla Threshold: Summoning Jaraxxus can be this for Warlocks, considering how Gul'dan has to die for it to happen.
• Heel–Face Turn: Implied with the Whispers of the Old Gods spell Renounce Darkness, which replaces his hero power and all warlock class cards with ones from another class. Can lead to Redemption Demotion due to the ridiculous amount of RNG involved, though the new cards receiving a 1-mana discount also make it a potential Lethal Joke Item.
• Hellfire: He's a warlock, are you surprised? Ranges from the aptly named Hellfire, Soulfire, Shadowflame, and Demonfire.
  Demonfire is like regular fire except for IT NEVER STOPS BURNING HELLLPPP
• I Am Your Opponent: When Jaraxxus is summoned normally, he makes it abundantly clear that he is the hero you will fight, not the puny warlock that he replaced.
  Lord Jaraxxus: You face Jaraxxus! EREDAR LORD OF THE BURNING LEGION!
• Improvised Weapon: Discard is mostly a Warlock-exclusive mechanic, befitting their Power at a Price theme. But there are ways to weaponize this, acknowledged by the Devs with the Howlfiend^note Whenever this minion takes damage, discard a random card. - Treachery^note Choose a friendly minion and give it to your opponent. - Defile^note Deal 1 damage to all minions. If any die, cast this again combo, which can get the enemy to Discard their entire hand.
• Life Drain: Almost all of their healing is done via this. They make the heaviest use of the Lifesteal mechanic and even have Drain Life as one of their spells.
• One-Winged Angel: Warlock players who use Lord Jaraxxus, since Jaraxxus replaces Gul'dan as the player character.
• Our Demons Are Different: Guldan's minions are demons that run the gamut from succubi to imps to vaguely human abominations. The only thing they have in common is that they can be bound by warlock's will... that is, if they're willing to pay the price...
• Lethal Joke Item: Treachery is a 3-mana spell that gives one of your minion to your opponent. Remember MTG's Donate? Same deal here; give your opponent a minion with nasty drawback (or just Doomsayer to bypass its activation sequence), and watch Hilarity Ensues.
• Mook Maker: The reward of Warlock quest Lakkari Sacrifice is Nether Portal, an invulnerable, untargetable Permanent which constantly spews out two 3/2 Nether Imps at the end of every turn.
• Playing with Fire: Hellfire, Flame Imp, Demonfire, Shadowflame, Soulfire... and that's just the basic set.
• Power at a Price: The Warlock in a nutshell.
  • Gul'dan has access to Demons that are very good for their cost in Mana, but cost him in other ways like HP, discarding cards, or breaking a Mana crystal. As a result of having access to heavy-hitters earlier than he ought to, the general strategy of Warlocks is to rush them and dominate the match before an opponent can catch up. A number of Warlock spells also tend to be quite powerful for the mana cost, at the expense of costing you more in other ways (Soulfire, for example, deals a massive 4 damage for a single mana, but also forces you to discard a card).
  • This even applies to his Hero Power. Life Tap lets him draw one card at the cost of two mana and two health. Despite the extra cost, Life Tap is easily the most powerful basic Hero Power in the game.
• Rush Boss: If an opposing Warlock plays Jaraxxus, you usually have about 2-3 turns to take out his 15 hit points before his weapon and his 6/6 Infernals overwhelm you.
• Serial Escalation: The sacrifices required to play the Warlock's demon cards get progressively higher as the mana cost of the cards rises, in order to match with their progressively more powerful stats and abilities. You go from losing 3 health to the Flame Imp, to losing 2 cards to the Doomguard, to losing Gul'dan himself to Lord Jaraxxus.
• Smart Bomb: His Twisting Nether card clears the board of anything and everything. Generally considered a poor card, but it has been known to catch people off-guard. Also can be an incredibly powerful preparation for Lord Jaraxxus next turn.
• Stone Wall: Control Warlock has many removal, board clear, Taunt and self-healing options, but lacks direct damage. However, this archetype is the most likely to make good use of Azari the Devourer.
• Token Evil Teammate:
  • While Garrosh is also a villain in World of Warcraft, it's mostly downplayed with his cards as he has access to plenty of Alliance characters and other good guys. Gul'dan really plays his villainy up, however. Not only are his mechanics traditionally evil, aside from Wilfred Fizzlebang, every one of his minions can be considered a villain or evil entity. In pretty much every set where Warlocks are represented by a specific character, that character will almost always be a villain. Gul'dan himself even says in his story in the Book of Heroes that "there are no heroes here".
  • Slightly subverted in Whispers of the Old Gods, where he has the option to play Renounce Darkness^note 2 mana spell. Replace your Hero Power and all Warlock cards with cards from another class. The cards cost 1 less and become a different class.
• Your Soul Is Mine!: His intro speech. Mechanically, Warlock is the only Mill archetype in Standard ever since Coldlight Oracle got booted to Hall of Fame. And thematically, the Mill effect is done by destroying their hand or deck through cards such as Azari the Devourer or Tickatus, symbolically destroying the enemy's mind or soul directly.
• Zerg Rush: The classic Zoolock is this: a deck based around taking control of the board with cheap minions and tokens while always refueling with Life Tap. It's been one of the staple decks since the game's launch, rarely dipping out of the meta, and sometimes dominating it.

Garrosh Hellscream, the Warrior

Garrosh Hellscream

Voiced by: Patrick Seitz (EN), Tetsu Inada (JPN)

Victory or death!^note Hahaha, bring it on!

^{Click here to see Corrupt Garrosh}

This former Warchief of the Horde isn't bitter about being deposed. Not at all.

Former Warchief of The Horde and son of the legendary Grommash Hellscream, Garrosh has access to a lot of weapons and abilities to encourage straight-up brawls. Warrior decks either focus on gaining massive amounts of armor and withstanding enemy attacks, or forego defenses for powerful tempo plays with fast minions and hard-hitting weapons. Warriors have no keywords of their own, but specialize in damage to their own minions as well as Charge and Rush. His hero power Armor Up! grants him two armor, meaning he can step into the fray himself without risking his life.

His alternate portraits include Corrupt Garrosh, Garrosh of Might, Garrosh of Wrath, Nagrand Garrosh, Lü Bu Garrosh, Pirate King Garrosh, Forge-wrought Garrosh, Garrosh the Wild, Garrosh the Chained, Goulash Garrosh, and Mok'Nathal Garrosh.

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• Attack! Attack! Attack!: One way to play warrior is to just beat your opponent down with weapons and charge minions, coupled with attack boosts.
• Big Ball of Violence: The Brawl spell uses one of these as a visual, which represents all the minions on a board getting into a giant melee with one (randomly chosen) survivor.
• Body Armor As Hitpoints: His hero power gives him two armor - almost identical to hitpoints except that certain effects will work off how much health he has, regardless of how much armor he has built.
• Better to Die than Be Killed: His opening war cry is the translated version of Lok'tar Ogar, Victory or Death, - his Concede quote will let you know that it's not all talk.
  Garrosh: "I choose death!"
• The Corruption: His 1000 win portrait depicts him corrupted by Y'Shaarj like he was in the Siege of Orgrimmar.
• Crack Ship: In-Universe. The Three Kingdom skin has him to be in the role of Lu Bu, with Valeera in the role of Bu Lu's lover Diao Chan. This is despite Garrosh and Valeera never met, let alone on the same side in any material.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Any Warrior deck with an excess of Whirlwind effects, where they deal 1 damage to every minion on the board. There is plenty of explosive synergy to go around and a variety of strategies to choose from (the old Warsong Commander OTK, Blood Warriors to spam the board with big, cheap minions, building up big Frothing Berserkers), but there's a catch - you need to do an obscene amount of math very quickly to pull off anything, and one misstep can lose the game on the spot. To give an idea, the pre-nerfed Patron Warrior deck was the single hardest deck in the game to play, with even the highest level players constantly making mistakes with it, but also one of the best, possessing everything a deck needed to be good.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: It's pretty telling that two of the Legendary minions, Vol'jin (a Priest minion) and Cairne Bloodhoof's special interactions are taking shots at him. They don't do the same with the alternative hero Magni.
• Injured Vulnerability: Warrior has multiple minions and abilities that deal extra damage or even outright oneshotting injured minions. Alternatively, they also have cards that grant extra bonuses on injured minions.
• Kill It with Fire: The reward of the Warrior quest Fire Plume's Heart is the Sulfuras weapon, which changes his Hero Power into Ragnaros' iconic, randomly-targeted 8-damage fireball.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Shield Block generates a lot of armor points, and draws a card.
• Mighty Glacier: Garrosh will usually hit the hardest per attack relative to the other attack-specific classes, but he needs a weapon card to do so (unlike Valeera or Malfurion who can use their hero powers) and will probably make fewer attacks overall.
• Pet the Dog: Garrosh may be a jackass, but he has time to say a genuine Happy Winterveil when greeting someone during the Winterveil.
• Spin Attack: Cards like Whirlwind, Death's Bite, and Blood Razor reflect this by dealing 1 damage to all minions.
• Shield Bash: Or Shield Slam as the card is named - deals one damage per armor point to a minion.
• Stone Wall:
  • Various "Control Warrior" builds rely on building up a massive amount of Armor and clearing the board with Brawl before dropping fearsome late-game minions to beat down the opponent after their momentum has run out. Unlike Priest's healing, Armor can be built up past the standard starting health pool, blunting many burst damage combos.
  • With Dead Man's Hand and Bring It On, he can keep gaining Armor and replenishing his deck, while tanking his opponent's blows and watch them die from Fatigue. Watch Trump mastering the play and going from 40% winrate to 100%.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Rise of Shadows gave rise to Bomb Warrior, where they will shuffle Bomb card into opponent deck which deals 5 damage when drawn. And that's not counting the bomb minions they field when Blastmaster Boom hits the field.
• Turns Red: Enrage minions get buffed (usually through attack damage) when they're wounded, and Garrosh has a lot of card to cause said wounding. He can invoke this himself with Mortal Strike and Revenge, which deal more damage if his health is low.
• Useless Useful Spell: Warriors can play aggro decks perfectly well depending on the format, but their hero power is almost completely irrelevant to those strategies since aggro decks care more about the amount of pressure they put on the opponent than their own health total. It's also the worst hero power in Arena, where health barely matters and armor synergies are far more scarce. By contrast, every other class can at least get some mileage out of their hero power no matter what deck archetype they play.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Doesn't appear to have anything to cover his chest. What prevent him from crossing into Mr. Fanservice like Malfurion is that his hero portray framed his gigantic gauntlet and belt buckle in the center rather than his chest.

Duels heroes

Wizard Duels

Star Student Stelina

Are you trying to stain my perfect record?^note How am I going to copy my own test?

An over-achiever, the Demon Hunter legendary Scholomance Academy, and also the Demon Hunter hero in Duels. Her hero powers are:

• Infernal Strike costs 1 mana and grants +1 Attack that turn and adds a Second Slice to her hand if she attacks and kills a minion, which is a 1 mana spell that grants her +2 Attack that turn.
• Outlander costs 1 mana and Discovers a Fel Spell if she played an Outcast card this turn.
• Illidari Strike targets an enemy minion, summoning two 1/1 Illidari with Rush to attack it.
  
  

As a card, Stelina is a 4 mana 4/3 with an Outcast effect that looks at three cards in your opponent's hand and lets you shuffle one back in.

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• Five-Aces Cheater: She blatantly admits multiple times that her "perfect record" comes from copying off of other students.
• Nerf: Outlander used to be a passive hero power that gave her +1 Attack each time she played her outermost card, but provided too much chip damage alongside the combo potential. It was first nerfed to have a 1 mana activation cost, before being reworked entirely.
• Stealth Pun: Stelina is the only hero of the initial set that isn't a professor or some kind of faculty. That's because demon hunter was the youngest class when she was added, and isn't experienced enough to have a professor.
• Teacher's Pet: She's presented this way in her art and theme.

Forest Warden Omu

We will see who grows strongest.^note Let the stronger of us decide!

A treant professor who wishes everything at Scholomance could grow. Omu is both the class's legendary of the set and the Druid hero in Duels. Her hero powers are:

• Nature's Gifts either gives her +2 Attack that turn or +2 Spell Damage that turn.
• Invigorating Bloom reduces the cost of cards that cost 5 or more in her hand by 1.
• Harvest Time! destroys a minion for 3 mana and summons two 1/1 Saplings for its owner.
  
  

As a card, Omu is a 6 mana 5/4 whose Spellburst refreshes your mana crystals.

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• Ambiguous Gender: Omu is a woman, although the only identifying features are her voice and flavor text.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Harvest Time supports aggressive token Druid builds, especially ones that use Deathrattle minions that can be triggered by the hero power while also getting two minions.
• Gathering Steam: Invigorating Bloom is 2 mana to do nothing for the first few times it's used, but let her ramp into a whole hand of cheap cards after a few turns.
• Nerf: Harvest Time was originally 2 mana and summoned 2/2 Treants, but it was too strong as a board flooder, Deathrattle trigger, or even late-game removal.
• Treants: She is a Botani, a tree-like race native to Draenor. Lord knows how the timeline works out for her to be on Azeroth during the Third War.

Professor Slate

Oh hey, are you a new professor?^note It sure feels like I'm one of the old ones!

The potions master. Slate is the Hunter legendary and also acts as the Hunter hero in Duels. His hero powers are:

• Survival Training deals 2 damage to the enemy hero and gives a random friendly minion +1 Attack.
• Death Games triggers a random friendly minion's Deathrattle.
• Savage Secrets passively adds a random 2-cost Beast to Slate's hand whenever a friendly Secret is triggered.
  
  

As a card, Slate is a 3 mana 3/4 who makes all of your spells Poisonous.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Sure, using something like Rapid Fire to blow up minions for cheap seems tempting, but given that Hunter is more concerned in general with hitting face than clearing minions (and the Hunter spells cheap enough to enable Slate see very little play due to being low-impact on their own) and has essentially no area-of-effect damage^note Explosive Trap doesn't count because anyone that goes face while Slate and a Secret are both up would have to be a special kind of Too Dumb to Live, Slate doesn't offer much to the Hunter's game plan... yet.
• Captain Ersatz: Of Snape, although his design looks more like generic Mad Scientist.^note Due to his WoW model being a Palette Swap of Professor Putricide, who is a full-on Farnsworth Shout-Out.
• Deathbringer the Adorable: One of his treasures is Bonecrusher... which is an adorable pink bunny playing with a butterfly.
• Master Poisoner: His potions turn all of your spells poisonous.
• Playing with Syringes: On his artwork, he's holding a colossal syringe full of toxic green poison. This syringe is one of his Treasures, which steals 4 attack and health from an enemy minion and transfers it to a friendly Beast.

Mozaki, Master Duelist

Spells be the greatest weapon of all.^note Look, it be just like a Mirror Image!

A troll instructor of the arcane. She is the Mage legendary and acts as the Mage hero in Duels. Her hero powers are:

• Wyrm Bolt deals 1 damage and summons a 1/3 Mana Wyrm if it kills a minion, which gains +1 Attack after you cast a spell.
• Secret Studies costs 1 mana and draws a Secret from her deck.
• Frost Shards deals 1 damage for 1 mana and adds a 2-mana 2/1 Elemental to her hand that Freezes enemies it damages.
  
  

As a card, Mozaki is a 5 mana 3/8 Mage legendary that gains Spell Damage +1 after the player casts a spell.

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• An Ice Person: With Frost Shards, she can produce an endless army of freezing Elementals.
• Indy Ploy: Her signature treasure Infinite Arcane destroys her deck while allowing her to Discover a card every turn, throwing all planning out of the window and letting her think on her feet. It also gives her virtual immunity to Fatigue, as her deck will always have one Discovered card at any time.
• Lonely at the Top: Her threaten emote, although in a more braggadocious way.
  Mozaki: The only bad thing about being the best is how lonely it is!

Turalyon, the Tenured

I will savor this victory.^note Is that you, Uther? No more pranks!

One of the Alliance heroes of the Second War who travelled through the Dark Portal, sacrificing himself to seal it from the other side. He was eventually inducted into the Army of Light, a force that destroyed the Burning Legion and is destined to defeat the Void Lords. Also, somehow he's a professor at Scholomance. He acts as the Paladin hero in Duels. His hero powers are:

• From Golden Light resurrects a random friendly minion that died this game with 1 health remaining.
• Bring on Recruits summons a 1/1 Silver Hand Recruit and also adds one to his hand.
• Modest Aspirations sets a minion's attack and health to 3.
  
  

As a card, Turalyon is an 8 mana 3/12 Paladin Legendary with Rush that sets the attack and health of any minion he attacks to 3.

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• Awesome, but Impractical: The ability to beat over huge minions for free 4 times is pretty cool. Unfortunately, big minions that see play tend to come with Deathrattles or fast effects, making Tuarlyon effectively an overpriced removal spell that nets you a 3/9. Add the fact that he's awful against weenie minions, and you have a neat but niche effect.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: If Turalyon attacks a minion that's smaller than 3/3, his effect actually buffs it.
• One-Hit Kill: He sets the enemy's health to 3, he has 3 attack... It kinda works out.

Mindrender Illucia

This will be a most amusing test.^note I'm afraid only one of us can win.

The wife of Lord Barov and a master of Mind Control. Illucia is the Priest Legendary of the set, and she also acts as the Priest hero in Duels. Her hero powers are:

• Shadow Mend restores 2 health, and if the target is still damaged she draws a card.
• Mind Tether passively causes her to deal 1 damage to the opponent after she casts a spell.
• Call of Madness summons a 0/2 Voidfiend that deals 1 damage to the opponent and gains 1 health at the end of her turn.
  
  

As a card, Illucia is a 3 mana 1/3 that replaces your hand with a copy of your opponents. She originally swapped hands and decks with the opponent until the start of your next turn before she was changed.

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• "Freaky Friday" Flip: Her original effect effectively did this, switching hands and decks with the opponent using her powerful mind manipulation.
• Nerf:
  • She was originally 2 mana, but was far too good as just a generic play that obliterated tempo decks. Now she works as a combo counter as intended, but isn't very good against non-combo matchups (although can still waste opposing value cards).
  • Her original effect completely swapped hands and decks with the opponent. This ended up being extremely overpowered with the very aggressive Shadow Priest introduced in Stormwind, since they could empty their hand and end with Illucia to skip their opponent's turn.

Infiltrator Lilian

Are you trying to ruin my espionage?^note No, but you're ruining mine!

Lillian Voss is the daughter of Benedictus Voss, a high-ranking member of the Scarlet Crusade. She was sent to Scholomance to investigate the mysterious activity reported in the cellar. She would later be killed and resurrected as a Forsaken, awakening mysterious powers within her as she set out to rid the world of the corrupt Scarlet Crusade and hunt down the last of the mindless Scourge. Lillian, in her Infiltrator form, acts as the Rogue hero in Duels. Her hero powers are:

• Roguish Maneuvers equips a 1/2 Dagger, or a 2/2 Dagger if Combo'd.
• Connections passively adds a random 1-cost minion to her hand at the start of her turn.
• Vile Concoction gives a minion Poisonous and if Combo'd adds a random Toxin to her hand.
  
  

Lillian first appeared in Knights of the Frozen Throne as a Rogue legendary. She is a 4/5 for 4 that replaces all spells in your hand with random spells from the opponent's class. In Scholomance Academy, she appears as her human form named Infiltrator Lillian, another 4 mana Rogue legendary, this time a 4/2 with Stealth. On death, she becomes the 4/2 Forsaken Lillian and attacks a random enemy.

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• Back from the Dead: Infiltrator Lillian becomes Forsaken Lillian on death.
• Desperation Attack: You can play Infiltrator Lillian followed by Backstab to have her instantly swing for 4. It's not guaranteed to go face if the opponent has minions in play, but it's perfect for setting up sneaky lethals.
• Discard and Draw: The OG Lillian Voss does this. It's generally a questionable choice to get rid of spells you put in your deck for potentially garbage random ones, although she is useful once you're near the end of the game and you can swap your low value rogue spells for stuff that's possibly better. She can also reroll other bad generated spells, and slays in a dedicated Burgle Rogue deck.
• Counter-Attack: Try to take out Infiltrator Lillian before she can attack (or after she already has)? She retaliates by hitting something you control.
• Our Banshees Are Louder: Forsaken Lillian is summoned with an ear-splitting Ghostly Wail as she rams herself into a random enemy.

Instructor Fireheart

I won't go easy on you. I dislike imitators.^note Please. I'm a true original.

Serving as the Shaman legendary for the set, Fireheart also acts as the Shaman hero in Duels. Her hero powers are:

• Totemic Power summons a random basic Totem, or a non-basic Totem if she's Overloaded.
• Ferocious Flurry grants her +1 Attack and Windfury that turn.
• Stormcatcher passively prevents her from being Overloaded.
  
  

As a card, Fireheart is a 3 mana 3/3 that Discovers a spell that costs at least 1 mana. If you cast the spell that turn, her Battlecry triggers again.

Alternate Shaman skins for Fireheart appear in constructed mode, including Daring Fireheart.

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• Continuity Nod: She's heavily implied to be the living form of Instructor Coldheart, a boss in Scholomance in World of Warcraft.
• Developer's Foresight: Her restriction to not Discover 0-cost spells, which was specifically implemented so she couldn't go infinite off Lightning Blooms.
• Heroic Spirit: According to her flavour text, even death can't stop her as long as she has the fire in her heart. This is why the Scourge turned her into an ice-cold lich.
• Nerf: Totemic Power was one of the most broken hero powers in the Duels launch event, since it used to summon a non-basic Totem as well as a basic one. This made it easy for her to flood the board.

Archwitch Willow

I didn't want my inner conflict to manifest this way.^note I know.

The professor of demonology. She is the Warlock legendary of Scholomance Academy and also acts as the Warlock hero in Duels mode. Her hero powers are:

• Dark Arts costs 1 mana and looks at three cards in her hand, letting her choose one to discard and drawing a card to replace it.
• Demon Blood gives a random Demon in her hand +3/+2 for 1 mana.
• Soulcial Studies passively summons a 3/2 Imp whenever she casts a spell that generates Soul Fragments.
  
  

As a card, Willow is an 8 mana 5/5 Warlock legendary whose Battlecry summons a random demon from your hand and deck.

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• Balance Buff: More of a Burf than a straight buff, but Willow was initially a 7/7 for 9. She was buffed because her effect was laughably bad compared to other demon-cheating effects.
• Deadpan Snarker: She has a lot of dry wit to her voice lines.
• Hot Witch: An attractive woman otherwise positioned as a Witch Classic.
• Parrot Pet Position: Her Impish Aid (available as a Treasure) is riding on her shoulder parrot-style.
• Token Evil Teammate: She seems to be the only Wizard Duels hero who knows there's something dark going on in Scholomance.

Rattlegore

<irritated roar>^note <confused snarl>

A monstrous skeleton abomination created in the depths of Scholomance. ...Oh, and somehow he's the one that got picked to be the Warrior hero for Duels. His hero powers are:

• No Guts, No Glory costs 1 mana and deals 1 damage to a minion. If it lives, it gets +2 Attack. If it dies, Rattlegore gains 2 Armor.
• Bruising forces a friendly minion to attack a random enemy minion for 0 mana.
• Magnetic Mines passively shuffles a Bomb into the opponent's deck at the end of the turn if Rattlegore has any Armor. The bomb deals 5 damage to them when drawn.
  
  

As a card, Rattlegore is a 9/9 legendary for 9. On death, he summons a copy of himself with 1/1 fewer stats. That copy summons a 7/7, which summons a 6/6...

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• Boring, but Practical: At the end of the day, the minion a big lump of stats. He's also very slow on the turn he's played. That lump of stats however is nearly impossible to remove, and threatens great trades and face damage constantly for pretty much the rest of the game. If your opponent doesn't have a Silence or mind control effect, they might as well concede.
• Pokémon Speak: His only quotes are "RATTLEGOOOOORE!!!" on summon and a simple "RAAAW!" for attacking.
• Resurrective Immortality: Not technically immortal, but he resummons himself up to 8 times before going away forever.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Mind control. Warrior is one of the worst classes in terms of non-silence removal, meaning your Rattlegore is now your opponent's unstoppable threat. Never ever play Rattlegore against a Priest, unless you want to give them the easiest Cabal Acolyte + Wave of Apathy ever.

Alterac Valley

Shared Tropes

• Mechanically Unusual Fighter: Unlike any other heroes, Vanndar and Drek'Thar can choose a specific class based on the signature treasure they choose at the start of the game, and can even become Neutral should they choose the right treasure.

Vanndar Stormpike

This battlefield will be mine!^note What makes ye so sure of that?

This is only tropes related to his appearance in Duels. For general character tropes, see the Alternate Heroes section.

The leader of the Stormpike Expedition and commander of the Alliance forces in Alterac Valley. When building a deck, Vanndar can choose to either be a Demon Hunter, Hunter, Paladin, Priest, Rogue, or Neutral hero based on which Signature Treasure he picks. His hero powers are:

• Promote gives a minion +1/+1 and either Stealth, Poisonous, Rush, Windfury, Taunt, or Divine Shield at random.
• Send in the Scout summons a 2/2 SI:7 Scout that adds a random card from your opponent's class to your hand on death.
• Battle Tactics reduces the cost of two random Neutral minions that cost 4 or more in Vanndar's hand by 2.
  
  

Vanndar is also a Legendary neutral minion from the Fractured in Alterac Valley set. He's a 4-mana 4/4 that, if he costs less than every minion currently in your deck, reduces their cost by 3. He is also an alternate hero for the Warrior class.

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• Gameplay and Story Segregation: Vanndar's hero equivalent is a Warrior, but that's not one of his playable classes since it's not an Alliance class.
• Luck-Based Mission: Promote rolls a random keyword with its +1/+1 buff. This can be completely useless, like Rush on a minion that could already attack or Stealth on a minion you were planning to attack with, or could be insane like Windfury on a huge minion.
• Nerf:
  • On launch, Battle Tactics was one of the most broken hero powers ever, since it reduced the cost of every minion in hand rather than just two. The neutral and 4+ cost were not big enough restrictions for such an insane ramp, and Vanndar could easily flood the board with massive legendaries that cost 2 mana very early in the game.
  • While nowhere near as strong as Battle Tactics, Promote was also an insanely strong hero with its original price of just one mana. This let him easily weave small buffs into turns, alongside the potential for crazy highrolls like Stealth, Divine Shield, or Windfury on major threats.

Drek'thar

For the Frostwolf Clan!^note Finally, a worthy opponent!

The chieftain of the Frostwolf Clan and the commander of the Horde forces in Alterac Valley. When building a deck, Drek'thar can choose to either be a Druid, Mage, Shaman, Warlock, Warrior, or Neutral hero based on which Signature Treasure he picks. His hero powers are:

• Warmaster's Frenzy deals 1 damage to all minions, granting him +1 Attack that turn for each Honorable Kill it gets.
• Harness the Elements draws a spell and reduces its cost by 1.
• War Commands costs 3 mana and draws a Neutral minion that costs 3 or less and reduces its cost to 0 that turn.
  
  

Drek'Thar is also a 4-mana 4/4 neutral Legendary from Fractured in Alterac Valley that, if he costs more than every minion currently in your deck, summons 1 of them.

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• Blind Seer: He's blind, but is also a powerful Shaman.
• Deal with the Devil: The signature treasure Pact of the Lich lets him be a Warlock by allying with Tamsin. By this point in the story, Tamsin had already become a lich and was no longer aligned with the Horde.
• Nerf:
  • Originally, the Drek'thar minion summoned two minions from the deck instead of one. This proved to be a disgusting highroll with not much negative impact on deckbuilding for aggro decks, so he was nerfed.
  • War Commands used to be a 2-mana hero power, but had to be nerfed to 3 as it allowed some gross early turns.

The League of Explorers

The League of Explorers is the name of an elite-ish team of treasure hunters who tracked down the three pieces of the Staff of Origination and foiled Arch-Thief Rafaam. First introduced in their eponymous expansion, the player joined them on their quest to aid them in disarming traps, dueling horrid beasts, and overall making sure they didn't die horribly.

They returned as the protagonists in Saviors of Uldum, venturing from the Hall of Explorers to stop Rafaam, the League of E.V.I.L. and their stolen city-ship of Dalaran from acquiring powerful artifacts and destroying the world. They are the playable heroes for the Tombs of Terror singleplayer mode. They made yet another appearance in Galakrond's Awakening, as the playable heroes for the Explorers side of the adventure.

In early 2022, the four were brought back as heroes for the Duels game mode.

General Tropes:

• Big Damn Heroes: For Uldum and eventually the world. Rafaam was in the process of unleashing evil plagues and generally lording over the people... until the League of Explorers showed up. They also stopped from from resurrecting Galakrond and literally destroying Azeroth.
• The Bus Came Back: All of them returned as the main characters of Saviors of Uldum.
• The Cameo: Elise can be seen in the Whispers of the Old Gods trailer. They're also all guests that arrive for the big party at Karazhan, and Reno and Finley were prominently featured in the trailer. Reno gets told off for trying to make off with the silverware.
• Composite Character: Each of the Explorers represent two classes at once, covering everything except Warlock (and Demon Hunter and Death Knight). They tend to mix and match themes, especially with their treasures.
• Good Counterpart: They're the good guy class equivalents to the Galakrond cards from the previous set.
• Nerf: A good number of their treasures and hero powers were nerfed in the transition from Tombs of Terror to Duels. Duels may be full of Purposefully Overpowered cards, but there is a line with some of the ridiculous stuff the Explorers could do.
• Original Generation: While Brann Bronzebeard is famed on Azeroth for his daring adventures, the rest of the League is composed of Hearthstone originals.
• Weak, but Skilled: Reno Jackson is the biggest of them stat-wise, and even he's understatted. However, they all make up for it with powerful abilities.

Reno Jackson

Voiced by: Travis Willingham

We're gonna be rich! And save the world!^note One out of two ain't bad.

This is only tropes related to his appearance in Tombs of Terror, Galakrond's Awakening, and Duels. For general character tropes, see the Hero Cards section.

With a bag full of treasures and a well-styled mustache, Reno is ready to take Tekahn down!

As a playable hero, Reno represents both the Mage and Rogue, combining his roguish personality with some new artifacts he found lying about. His hero powers are:

• Amateur Mage deals 1 damage to any target, or 2 if Combo'd.
• Relicologist grants his next spell Spell Damage +2 for 1 mana.
• Arcane Craftiness costs 3 mana and fires two missiles at random enemy minions that each deal 1 damage, repeating for free if a minion is killed.
  
  

Alternate Reno skins for Mage appear in constructed mode, including Cookin' Reno.

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• Clothes Make the Superman: Reno is only nominally a mage - his "magic" comes from the various items he scrounged up. This is nodded to in gameplay, since his playable hero is a Rogue/Mage hybrid, referencing his "true" class along with what he's acting as.
• Nerf: Arcane Craftiness has proven to be one of the most unbalancable hero powers in Duels. It started at 2-mana and able to hit face, which got Wildfire banned. It was still overperforming so it was nerfed to 3 mana. That was still too good, so it was finally nerfed to no longer hit face.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Wildfire, a mage spell that increases the damage of your hero power by 1 for the rest of the game, was so insanely broken with Arcane Craftiness that the card can no longer be drafted or found in buckets in Duels. It increased the damage of each missile by 1, making it easy to clear entire boards and deal disgusting face damage with a single button press.
• Powerful, but Inaccurate: His Gatling Wand, which he barely knows how to use. It's obviously insanely powerful, but Reno is by no means a Mage. He almost kills Elise and himself messing around with it in the themed Tavern Brawl, and even the card version is unpredictable.

Elise Starseeker

Voiced by: Amy Walker

The League of Explorers cannot fail!^note Apparently I am my own worst enemy.

This is only tropes related to her appearance in Tombs of Terror, Galakrond's Awakening, and Duels. For general character tropes, see the Alternate Heroes section.

Whether she needs magic or a trusty machete, Elise is ready to save Uldum.

Elise represents the Druid and Priest classes. Her hero powers are:

• Elise's Might grants her either +2 Attack that turn or +2 Armor.
• Druidic Teaching restores 2 health and draws a card if that fully heals the target.
• Starseeker passively adds a Moonfire to her hand after casting four spells on the same turn, which is a 0-mana spell that deals 1 damage.

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• Came Back Strong: One treasure lets her resurrect her 7 most powerful minions (5 in Duels), and also grants them Taunt for good measure.
• Characterization Marches On: She's quite different from her role as Mission Control and the younger teacher her actual hero represents. She's a veritable Action Girl with a host of offensive abilities.
• Machete Mayhem: One of her treasures is a machete, specifically the one she was wielding in Journey to Un'goro. That's especially noteworthy since neither Druid nor Priest is traditionally a weapon class.
• Obvious Rule Patch: Her Starseeker hero power got Malygos banned from Duels, as his +5 Spell Damage made a stockpile of Moonfires instantly lethal.
• Pragmatic Adaptation: Elise is only nominally a Priest, since all of her Priest abilities are flavoured as Restoration Druid spells. This keeps her feeling truer to her role as a normal playable hero.

Brann Bronzebeard

Voiced by: Carlos Larkin

I gotcha cornered now!^note Someone doubled my battlecry!

^{Click here to see Brann as he appeared in The League of Explorers}

Riding on a dinosaur and looking for a fight, Brann's ready to finish this.

A famed dwarven archaeologist, brother to Magni and Muradin Bronzebeard, and founder of the League. Him and the player launch an expedition to Uldaman to locate the second piece of the staff. Afterwards, he left to explore Un'goro, eventually mastering the art of taming dinosaurs.

In The League of Explorers, Brann was a 3 mana 2/4 who causes all Battlecries to trigger twice. His second incarnation, Dinotamer Brann, is a 7 mana 2/4 Hunter Legendary who summons King Krush^note 8/8 Beast with Charge if your deck has no duplicates. His third incarnation, Deepminer Brann, is a 6 mana 2/4 Warrior Legendary who makes your Battlecries trigger twice for the rest of the game if your deck has no duplicates.

As a playable hero, Brann is both the Hunter and Warrior. His hero powers are:

• Spread Shot deals 1 damage to any target and an additional 1 damage to the enemy hero.
• Well Equipped equips a random weapon and sets its durability to 1.
• Dino Tracking Discovers a Warrior or Hunter Beast and gives it +1/+1. In the single-player version, it passively causes Brann to Discover cards from his deck instead of drawing them.
  
  

Alternate Brann skins for Hunter appear in constructed mode, including Bakin' Brann and Earthen Brann.

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• Adventurer Archaeologist: One of the most respected and well-known on Azeroth.
• Attention Deficit... Oh, Shiny!: He ignores the death threats and carnage around him to explore the rooms of Uldaman. He even wonders about what kind of tales Archaedas could tell them while the keeper is trying to kill him.
• Fluffy Tamer: At some point between LoE and Saviors of Uldum, Brann went on an expedition to Un'goro where he learned to be a proficient dinosaur tamer. In the "League of Explorers: Revived!" tavern brawl, Elise finds him in the middle of taming King Krush.
• Mythology Gag: Dino Tracking lets you Discover instead of draw, which is similar to the Warrior spell Explore Un'goro. And of course, Brann left on an expedition to...
• Nerf: Dino Tracking was on the receiving end of not just a double nerf, but a double rework. It originally had the same effect as its single-player incarnation, which made him way too consistent. It was then reworked to Discover a card from his deck, which was still really strong. It was finally totally reworked to its current incarnation, putting it in line with Scarlet's Scourging hero power.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Both his Spread Shot hero power and Ol' Faithful treasure are these. Both inflict Splash Damage as you'd expect (Ol' Faithful has the additional effect of dealing 1 damage to all enemies).
• Sibling Team: If you use him in a Warrior deck with Magni as the hero. If he's played against an opposing Magni, he'll ask him if he's seen their brother Muradin lately.
• Weak, but Skilled:
  • Brann Bronzebeard is a 3-Mana 2/4, meaning that his stats are underwhelming for the amount of mana you spend to play him. However, his continuous ability, which doubles the effects of all of your battlecries while he's on the field, more than makes up for this deficit when played correctly. For instance, play him before playing Dr. Boom and you'll have an extra two bombs to wreak havoc with, Mind Control Tech will steal two enemy minions, Wyrmrest Agent will boost himself twice, while C'Thun will set off two salvos of deadly projectiles. Of course, getting him to stay on the field long enough to get these effects to work is the tricky part, since any savvy opposing player will take out Brann as soon as possible due to just how powerful he is.
  • Dinotamer Brann has horrible stats and a restrictive effect, but cheats out an 8/8 Charge at only 7 mana, letting the Hunter potentially deal 10 burst damage.
  • Deepminer Brann's stats are about as bad as Dinotamer's and he still carries the Highlander restriction, but making that sacrifice gives you the original Brann's Battlecry-doubling effect permanently, letting you reap the benefits of having Brann on the board without having to worry about keeping him alive. Despite being class-restricted, Warrior still has plenty of good Battlecries to double: examples from Standard-legal cards available at the time of Deepminer's addition include copying your opponent's last spell twice with Asvedon, Dredging and gaining armor twice with Igneous Lavagorger, summoning three copies of Fleshshaper, and shuffling six card-destroying T.N.T. into your deck with Boomboss Tho'grun.

Sir Finley Mrrgglton

Voiced by: Terrence Stone

Stand aside, fiend! It is time to save the world.^note Great scott! A murlocleganger!

^{Click here to see Finley as he appeared in The League of Explorers}

This is only tropes related to his appearance in Tombs of Terror, Galakrond's Awakening, and Duels. For general character tropes, see the Alternate Heroes section.

Sir Finley rides into battle, ready to dispense justice against his final foe.

A gentlefish who comes to the player's aid in the Ruined City to help them gain hold of their surroundings and track down the third piece of the staff.

Finley represents the Shaman and Paladin classes. His hero powers are:

• New "Recruits" summons a 2/2 Amalgam Explorer that has all minion types.
• Bubble Blower Discovers a Paladin or Shaman Battlecry minion for 0 mana but Overloads for 1.
• Power Up! gives a minion Divine Shield and Windfury but Overloads for 2.

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• Back from the Dead: It seemed like Karl had been Killed Off for Real during the Dungeon Run. However, it turns out he just got separated from George and is now one of Finley's treasures.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: He's riding a Jeweled Scarab named Maxwell as Sir Finley of the Sands. The bug is also an unlockable treasure.
• Buried Alive: He's found in Tanaris buried up to his hat in "The League of Explorers: Revived!". It's up to the player to dig him out.
• Jousting Lance: The Truesilver Lance, a 5/1 treasure that gains +2 Durability (nerfed to a 3/1 that gains +1 in Duels) whenever Finley Overloads.
• Scare Quotes: On the hero power New "Recruits". They're certainly not your typical recruits, being inexplicable Amalgams.

Monster Hunt

• Interface Spoiler: The patch that added Darius also added achievements for getting wins as Houndmaster Shaw and Tess Greymane, spoiling the fact that they're somewhere in production.

Darius Crowley

I am in position.^note I'll blast you apart!

Position your field artillery to dominate the battlefield.

Once a pro-Alliance rebel leader, Crowley was freed during the Worgen assault on Gilneas and became a Worgen himself. Crowley and Greymane later reconciled and joined forces to combat the attacking Forsaken. He now leads the Gilneas Liberation Front alongside the Bloodfang pack and the 7th Legion.

Darius is a Warrior hero. He begins the game with an indestructible cannon on his side of the board. When he uses his Hero Power, the cannon fires and deals 1 damage to minions across from it. His hero powers are:

• Fire! costs 1 mana and fires the cannon, refreshing if it kills a minion. This is the hero power used in the Monster Hunt mode.
• Fire Away! fires the cannon and also grants his other minions +1 Attack.
• Fire at Thee! fires the cannon twice.
  
  

As a collectible card, Darius Crowley is a 5 mana 4/5 Warrior Legendary with Rush from The Witchwood that gains +2/+2 each time he kills another minion.

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• Attack! Attack! Attack!: One of the most aggressive-leaning Duels heroes, with all three hero powers being most effective early and when ahead.
• Balance Buff: After severely underperforming compared to other Duels heroes, Darius received a bunch of buffs to his hero powers and treasures to try to bring him up to snuff.
• BFG: Cannons are kinda his thing. Ironically, his artwork shows him with a sword.
• Eyepatch of Power: He has a eyepatch over one of his eyes to prove his badassery.
• Magikarp Power:
  • Darius' hero power is definitely the weakest of the four Monster Hunt heroes and arguably the weakest in Duels, but he has a slew of exclusive treasures based around buffing his cannons up. With the right build and enough encounters beaten, you'll be blasting your way through everything with just your hero power.
  • This also applies to his card. Like the Boogeymonster, Darius starts out relatively weak for his cost but gets stronger whenever he kills an enemy. Unlike the Boogeymonster, he has Rush, allowing him to start snowballing right away.
• Mechanically Unusual Class: His hero power is the most unique among any playable hero. Rather than directly do anything, it commands a permanent token on the field to take effect. Because of how his token works, positioning and Hero Power enhancement is of greater importance than other classes.
• Nerf: His Safe Harbor treasure was one of the silliest cards ever. It was a 2 mana spell that sent a minion to your hand and made it cost 0. Any minion, making it a 2-mana Mind Control that copies Battlecries and could be used to double your own Battlecries if needed. It was nerfed to 5 mana, and is still really strong.

Death Knights

General

• Bragging Rights Reward: Not in Duels, but their alternate constructed skins. They could be earned by achieving enough wins in a Heroic Tavern Brawl run. Ghoul Queen Scarlet and Frostmonger Sai both required a respectable 3 wins, but Crimson King Sai required an astounding twelve win run.

Sai Shadestorm

Finally, a real fight!^note Be careful what you wish for.

The first of two Death Knight representatives added in March of the Lich King. Sai's hero powers are:

• Ghoul Blitz summons a 2/1 Ghoul with Charge that dies at the end of the turn.
• Gathering Storm draws a card and grants a Corpse.
• Lichborne Might gives a friendly minion +3/+3 but destroys it at the end of the turn.

Alternate Sai skins appear in constructed, including Frostmonger Sai and Crimson Knight Sai.

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• Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if Sai is freed from the Lich King's control or not. When selected he claims to be the Lich King's champion, but he has a fairly hostile unused Start emote vs. The Lich King and his Wow emote is "By Acherus!", the citadel used by the Knights of the Ebon Blade.
• Cold Ham: He's relatively reserved in his delivery, but still quite bombastic.
• Nerf:
  • Ghoul Blitz used to summon a 1/1 ghoul with Charge and Reborn, but this was way too flexible since it let him hit two different targets, breeze through a Divine Shield, or even just hit face and end the turn with a 1/1 in play.
  • One of his treasures, Glaciaxe, used to be a monstrous 5/2 weapon for 4 that equipped a 2/5 weapon with Windfury on Deathrattle, which was far too much damage on one card. It was lowered to 3/2 and 2/3.
• Pun: His Greetings emote is a cool "Hey." In a mirror match, he responds with the dad-jokey "Hay is for deathchargers."

Scarlet Leafdancer

Voiced by: Erika Ishii

Looking for a fight? You found one!^note Ohohoho, I can't wait!

The second of two Death Knight representatives added in March of the Lich King. Scarlet's hero powers are:

• Blood Parasite summons a 2/1 blood leech with Lifesteal.
• Hematology costs 1 mana and spends up to 3 Corpses, reducing the cost of a random card in her hand by 1 for each Corpse spent.
• Scourging Discovers an Undead minion.
  
  

Alternate Scarlet skins appear in constructed, including Ghoul Queen Scarlet and Zombie Queen Scarlet.

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• Blade Enthusiast: Scarlet loves her runeblades, and almost all of her Signature Treasures are weapons.
• Blood Knight: She's thirsty for battle. This is represented in her gameplay, which leans more aggressively than Sai.
• Fiery Redhead: Passionate for war, with hair to match her name.
• Tom the Dark Lord: Scarlet Leafdancer isn't exactly the most intimidating name, but she more than makes up for it in bloodthirst.

Others

Diablo

Not even death can save you from me!^note Finally, a match made in Hell!

The Lord of Terror himself, who was temporarily added to Duels as part of the 2021 Hallow's End crossover with Diablo. Diablo is a Warlock and Warrior hero, and has the following hero powers:

• Primal Power costs 3 mana and deals 3 damage to Diablo in exchange for +3 Attack that turn and +3 Armor.
• Demonic Transformation costs 1 mana and discards a card from Diablo's hand, then adds a random Demon to his hand that costs the same amount as the discarded card and reduces its cost by 2.
• Doom Charge costs 6 mana and Discovers a minion in Diablo's deck, summoning a copy of it to attack a random enemy then die.

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• Crossover: With the Diablo series.
• Crutch Character: Doom Charge can be an absurdly powerful hero power in the early matches, since it can highroll an endless army of Rattlegores or other sticky Deathrattles. Once your deck starts to get diluted and the game starts to get faster, paying 6 mana to maybe highroll is a lot less good.
• Equivalent Exchange: Primal Power costs 3 health, but also grants 3 Armor. It's net health neutral, but can be abused with Immune or The Demon Seed to make it net +3 instead.
• Temporary Online Content: He was only available to play during the Hallow's End event, and has since been removed from the game.
• Transformation of the Possessed: The implication of Demonic Transformation is that your cards are possessed by demons, and the hero power has them take on their true form. The artwork even shows The Dark Wanderer, who Diablo took as his host and twisted his body into Diablo's in Diablo II.

Adventure heroes

The Great Dalaran Heist

Rakanishu, the Mage

I'm what you'd call a "criminal element".

The mischievous fire elemental from Togwaggle's lantern.

An elemental that lives in Togwaggle's lantern, serving as his "magic candle". Rakanishu represents the Mage, and in addition to Fireblast, he can unlock Burning Wit, a one mana power that reduces the cost of a random card in his hand by 2, and Frostburn, letting him Freeze a minion or deal 2 damage to a Frozen minion.

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• Familiar: Togwaggle sees him as this.
• An Ice Person: With Frostburn.
• The Imp: He's a tiny troublemaker that works for Togwaggle most for kicks.
• Playing with Fire: Makes sense, given the whole "fire elemental" thing.
• Shout-Out: Rakanishu is the name of a miniboss in Diablo II.

Vessina, the Shaman

You want to dance, sssssweety?

Hagatha's shamanistic serpentine sidekick slithers sinisterly.

A sethrek shaman and a close companion of Hagatha's. Vessina serves as the Shaman hero, and in addition to Totemic Call, she can also use Evolution, transforming a minion into one that costs 1 more, or Refresh, drawing a card for 1 mana and 1 Overload.

Vessina also became a playable card in Saviors of Uldum. She is a 4 mana 2/6 Shaman Legendary that gives your other minions +2 Attack so long as you're Overloaded.

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• Evilutionary Biologist: If she takes Evolution.
• Snakes Are Sinister: If working for a villainous organization and being close friends with a witch don't count as sinister, nothing would.
• Snake People: Sethrek are more akin to anthropomorphic snakes than the usual example, but she still qualifies.
• Sssssnaketalk: In casse it wasssn't obvioussss from her desssssssssscription, her quotes incorporate a lot of this.

Ol' Barkeye, the Hunter

Me! I'm nextsies!! Gimmies of the gun!!!

Who gave a high-powered sniper rifle to a gnoll?

A random gnoll that Dr. Boom outfitted with a sniper rifle. Ol' Barkeye is the Hunter for this mode, and can use Steady Shot in addition to Opportunist, giving a minion +2 Attack for the turn, or Pet Training, adding a 1/1 Shifting Chameleon to your hand that becomes a random 1-cost minion each turn.

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• Dumb Muscle: He's dense as a brick, but also one of Dr. Boom's heavy hitters.
• Sniper Rifle: His weapon of choice. Or rather, Dr. Boom's choice.
• They Called Me Mad!: Dr. Boom has a miniature tirade like this the first time you play as Barkeye... in regards to him giving heavy munitions to a gnoll.
  Dr. Boom: They laughed when I gave a sniper rifle to a gnoll. Aim for the laughter! Shoot!
• You No Take Candle: Even surrounded by the trope-naming creatures, Barkeye's language stands out as especially broken. His entry quote is "Locksed up and loaderted!" just for an example.

Kriziki, the Priest

Darkness I wield.

Lazul promised this shadowy arakkoa that she would fly.

An arakkoa outcast who joined the League to regain her wings. Her alternate hero powers are Distort, which swaps a minion's Attack and Health, or Soothe, which gives a minion -2 Attack until your next turn.

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• Bird People: A corrupted arakkoa.
• Power of the Void: She draws her powers from the Old Gods. Presumably she began with Draenor's Old Gods like her kin, but uses C'thun imagery for her spells on Azeroth.
• Wings Do Nothing: Like all other arakkoa outcasts, she's afflicted with a curse that leaves her wings inoperable. Her motivation for fighting is to undo this.

Captain Eudora, the Rogue

Ready for target practice!

This fleet-footed vulpera pirate captain has gone freelance.

A vulpera mercenary-for-hire, and pirate captain. Her hero powers are Yoink!, burgling a random class card, or Cut-less, which deals 2 damage to an undamaged minion.

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• Ascended Extra: From 1/3 of a dungeon encounter in WoW, to a playable hero.
• Cunning Like a Fox: Befitting a fox, she's a crafty and intelligent pirate.
• Fox Folk: Vulpera are humanoid foxes.
• Pirate Girl
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Happens during Galakrond's Awakening Chapter 3: League of E.V.I.L. side. As the final defense for Dalaran, she only has her own airship with no one else to help her against the full might of the Dragonflights. When Rafaam says that the others got eaten by them and he himself is still busy with his master plan, she calls it quits and bails when understandably not happy being used as bait. However, you still have to last the final turn when she says that.

Mr. Chu, the Warrior

I understand you need some muscle?

This black-market bodyguard is the new muscle for E.V.I.L.

A strong pandaren. Mr. Chu is the Warrior for this mode, and can pick between Armor Up as well as the unlockable Invigorating Brew, which deals 1 damage to a minion for +2 Attack, or Undermine, which shuffles two Explosives into the opponent's deck that deal 3 damage when drawn.

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• Demolitions Expert: If he takes Undermine.
• Nothing Personal: His response to any of the bosses. The only one he sounds genuinely sad to say this to is Madame Goya, who he bodyguarded in World of Warcraft.

Squeamlish, the Druid

Me take many forms!

A Druid of the Rat, known for her turtle and hedgehog forms.

A kobold druid with some... interesting forms. In addition to Shapeshift, Squeamlish can use Lifebloom, which restore a minion to full health, or Touch of Bark, which gives a minion +1/+1.

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• Genki Girl: She's always bubbling to show off her druidic powers, and is positively bouncing to meet everyone in Dalaran.
• Obliviously Evil: Squeamlish genuinely doesn't know she's beating up the good guys. Depending on the context, she either thinks she's fighting the villains or she's trying to help Dalaran fight the League of E.V.I.L. but is so incompetent she beats who she's trying to help. With her interaction with Bonepaw, she's hurt and confused when he calls her a bad guy.
• Pretender Diss: When she encounters The Rat King, since her rat form is way better.
• Voluntary Shapeshifting: Her forms include but aren't limited to: a rat, an armadillo, a hedgehog, a shrub, a turtle, and a puppy. The rat is her favourite. This is mostly flavour though - she never actually transforms in-game sadly.

Tekahn, the Warlock

The power of the Neferset will answer.

This tol'vir prince is forged of hate and stone.

The dark pharaoh of the Neferset tribe. No one is quite sure why he serves Rafaam, but he will make sure Dalaran falls into his master's hands. All of his hero powers deal two damage to himself, and he chooses between the standard Life Tap, Pain Split; dealing 2 damage, and The Pact; summoning a 2/2 Imp.

He also became a playable Legendary in Saviors of Uldum. Dark Pharaoh Tekahn is a 5 mana 4/4 Warlock minion who permanently sets your Lackeys' stats to 4/4 for the rest of the game.

For his Plague Lord form, see the Plague Lords folder under Tombs of Terror

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• Ascended Extra: He first appeared as a quest mob in Uldum. He was also the first Dalaran Heist hero alongside Vessina to get his own card.
• Cast From Hitpoints: All three of his hero powers cost 2 health in addition to their other effects. In return, they're much stronger than their contemporaries.
• Evil Laugh: When Haro Setting-Sun declares that there is no good in Tekahn's soul, Tekahn's only response is menacing laughter.

George the Fallen, The Paladin

I'll make them pay for what they did to Karl!

A vengeful paladin who's breaking vows and faces alike,

One of the paladins who was lost in the jungle, and later wandered into the Catacombs where he was a boss of the Dungeon Run. His companion, Karl, didn't make it out of that encounter ^note Or did he?. Now George is back for revenge on the adventurers. George's unlockable Hero Powers are Backup, which adds 3 Silver Hand Recruits to your hand, or Boon of Light, granting a minion Divine Shield.
George returns as a boss in Galakrond's Awakening.

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• Ascended Extra: He's come a looooong way from an innocuous bit of flavour text.^note For anyone not in the know, George and Karl were first mentioned on the flavour text for Lost in the Jungle and a Brick Joke on Vinecleaver. The joke was popular enough that they became a rare boss in Dungeon Run, and now, well...
• Beware the Silly Ones: George was the Lovable Coward and Cloudcuckoolander of the duo. Without Karl, he's become a vengeful, dark paladin. It is Played for Laughs, but only to us since we know his history.
• Fallen Hero: From a Paladin who is presumably loyal to the Alliance to joining the League of E.V.I.L. for his vengeance and fighting prominent Alliance hero and allies like Khadgar.
• Light Is Not Good: He's still wielding the powers of the Holy Light, but doing so for his vengeance.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: He's here to avenge his fallen companion, Karl.
• Token Human: Of the 9 playable characters in the Dalaran Heist, and one of the very few humans working for E.V.I.L..

The League of Explorers

See the Duels Heroes section above.

Other Single Player Heroes

Monster Hunt

Darius Crowley, the Cannoneer

For information on Darius, see Duels Heroes.

Shaw, the Houndmaster

Look what the dogs dug up!

Harass your foes with rushing bloodhounds.

A Gilnean hunter accompanied by tracking hounds.

His Dog Whistle hero power lets him call forth a Bloodhound, a 1/1 Beast with Rush.

Houndmaster Shaw is a collectible Hunter Legendary. He is a 4 mana 3/6 that gives your other minions Rush.

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• The Beastmaster: He gets along exceptionally well with hounds, certainly much better than he does with people.
• Fluffy the Terrible: His unique treasures include three Beasts named Princess, Butch, and Bubba, all of which are ferocious hounds.
• No Celebrities Were Harmed: Players have noted a striking resemblance between Shaw and Tommy Wiseau.
• Original Generation: Unlike Darius and Tess, Shaw was made up for this game.
• Raised by Wolves: He's rumored to have been brought up by hounds.
• Right-Hand Attack Dog: As his name would imply. He even has a pair of Gilnean hounds with him in his portrait.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: His reaction to Agatha's taunting that she's got a thousand dark spirits arrayed against him?
  Shaw: I've. Got. Dogs.

Toki, the Time-Tinker

Your time is up!

Don't like the results of a turn? Manipulate the timeline!

A friend of Chronormu (AKA Chromie), Toki is a gnomish scientist working to uncover the secrets of time. She's also a powerful mage with an affinity for time magic... and recklessly abusing it. While she displays a cheerful disregard for Gilneas and the curse, her determination and willingness to take risks nonetheless makes her a formidable ally in this time of need.

Simultaneously, Toki is a scarred, grizzled gnome mage with great control over time magic. Frequently sighted in Gilneas, her form flickers in and out of existence, displaying a grim, crazed determination to stop someone from affecting an event in her own future. Oddly enough, she has been showing photos of herself to citizens and asking if they have seen this gnome... For details on this Toki, see Bosses.

Her 0 mana Hero Power is Temporal Loop, which starts her turn over - giving her a second chance on RNG effects or to just recover from any mistakes.

As a collectible card, Toki, Time-Tinker is a 6 mana 5/5 Mage Legendary that adds a random legendary minion from the past to your hand - the past being cards limited to the Wild format!

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• Awesome, but Impractical: Maybe one of the most variance-based cards in the game. Wild Legendaries at the time of her release range from incredible like Sylvanas Windrunner, Mal'Ganis, or Emperor Thaurissan, to downright horrendous like Patches the Pirate, Majordomo Executus, or Hemet Nesingwary. Throw in terrible stats for her cost, and she's firmly this trope. That said, that effect is hilarious.
• Expy: A Gnome girl with short hair and green eyes who messes with time? Nope, definitely not Chromie.
• Luck Manipulation Mechanic: Temporal Loop can be used to reset RNG-based effects if they give you unfavorable results.
• Magitek: She prefers to channel her magic through various gizmos, in contrast to most mages.
• Meaningful Name: Toki means "time" in Japanese.
• Not in This for Your Revolution: She's only interested in stopping Hagatha to prevent some future event in her own timeline, rather than for the sake of Gilneas.
• Original Generation: Like Shaw, she has no precedent in Warcraft.
• Random Number God: Not only is her card one of the most luck-reliant in the game, she also has quite a few luck-based cards in her arsenal. That's where Toki's hero power comes in, letting her reset unfavorable outcomes.
• Reset Button: One of the passive treasures she can draft resets the game if the player takes fatal damage, but can only be used once.
• Save Scumming: Pretty much what her hero power boils down to. Screwed up somewhere? Start the turn over and get it right!
• Sequence Breaking: She creates cards that technically shouldn't exist.
• Time Master: She's a mage with an extensive knowledge of time magic, who pulls cards from unavailable sets (in Standard).
• Token Evil Teammate: Downplayed. While she ultimately aids the other monster hunters, she displays some Anti-Hero traits, such as joining the monster hunters' battle against Hagatha to stop her from affecting some event in her future rather than to protect Gilneas and ignoring her inventions' effects on the fabric of time. She also kills her evil future self when she travels back in time to stop her from doing something. Make of that what you will.

Tess Greymane, the Tracker

The trail leads here.

Scavenge for spells to turn a monster's power against itself.

Tess Greymane is the daughter of King Genn Greymane, and heir to the throne of Gilneas. During the Legion's third invasion, Tess joined the Uncrowned, a secretive organization of Rogues sworn to defeat the Burning Legion.

Tess' Hero Power is Scavenge, which allows her to Discover any class spell that was previously cast that game.

Tess Greymane is also a Rogue Legendary. A 7 mana 6/6, her Battlecry replays all cards you've played this game from another class.

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• Ascended Extra: She is a pretty minor character in World of Warcraft. Here, she is pretty much The Hero of the Single Player campaign in all but name, something that her father Genn usually took in storylines involving Gilneas (he was Demoted to Extra into a narrator).
• Automatic Crossbows: Wrist-mounted ones, no less.
• Enemy Summoner: Note that "all cards from another class" includes minions.
• Exact Words: Tess takes into account your current class when she's played. If you got your hands on another class's hero card and played it, she'll replay all of your Rogue cards (which will usually be most of the cards you played that game).
• In the Hood: A change from her look in WoW. Instead of a helmet-less set of leather armor, she's dressed in a badass Diablo style demon hunter-esque getup.
• Lethal Joke Item: If Tess uses her hero power, but no class spells have been played, she's given A Small Rock, a 0 mana spell that does 1 damage. This puny little thing is deceptively valuable, as it functions as a free Combo trigger. Spell Damage minions also dramatically increase its potency, especially when combined with Malygos. Finally, there's the Whisperer, whose Hero Power causes all spells, including yours, to have Echo. With the Small Rock, this results in a turn two kill.
• Random Number God: While you can determine what cards Tess replays, the order they're replayed in is completely random. Additionally, if any Discover effects are involved, the choice will be made at random.
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Being the daughter of a badass werewolf king means Tess has a big reputation to uphold, and she lives up to it pretty well.
• Scarily Competent Tracker
• Walking Armory: Her unique treasure card Tools of the Trade allows Tess to equip one of three different weapons: a 1/8 Stake Launcher with Windfury, a 4/2 Handgonne, or a 2/2 Blunderbuss that damages minions adjacent to its target. The spell then returns itself to her hand, letting her swap between these weapons at will.

Rumble Run

Rikkar, the Rookie

I can do this!

A lone Darkspear jungle troll with no tribe or loa. He joined Rastakhan's Rumble looking for glory, but had trouble finding the right group to join. In a moment of inspiration, he took the mic and announced that he was challenging everyone there. Impressed by his bravery, Rikkar earned the favour of all nine loa gods.

Rikkar is the playable hero of the Rumble Run. At the start of the run, the player chooses which loa Rikkar will follow, determining his primary class.

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• Eager Rookie: He's very ecstatic to have the chance to prove himself in the Rumble.
• Say My Name: Once his opponent is low enough, he demands they do this.
• Wowing Cthulhu: All of the loa are blown away by Rikkar's ballsy move, declaring that he would single-handedly defeat them all. This earned him their combined blessings.