Battlecry is a minion ability where a particular effect activates when the minion is played directly from the hand.
Notes
- Battlecries do not activate if the card is brought into play by another card. For example,
Alarm-o-Bot, Faceless Manipulator and Mirror Entity all place minions onto the board, but any Battlecries will not be activated. - Battlecries generally occur once, when the card is brought into play. Unlike some other buffs, these effects do not therefore rely on the casting minion staying alive, and cannot be removed by destroying it. For example, destroying
Stormwind Champion will remove its bonus effect from any affected minions, whereas Shattered Sun Cleric's battlecry, once granted, will not be removed by killing the Cleric. This means battlecry minions are generally some of the less valuable minions once they have been played, since much of their point value lies in their battlecry. - Order of play can be important. For example, if no other murlocs are in play, playing Coldlight Seer, followed by Bluegill Warrior, will waste the Seer's battlecry; while playing the Warrior first will allow it to benefit from the Seer's battlecry.
- Battlecry effects take place each time the minion is summoned by the player. Cards such as Ancient Brewmaster, which return a minion to your hand, can be used to benefit from a minion's battlecry effect more than once.
- If a battlecry effect requires a specific target, that target must be selected immediately after playing the minion. A target must be selected, if possible. By cancelling the battlecry, the player may actually choose to reverse the summoning, something which is not normally possible when summoning minions. If no suitable target is available, the battlecry simply will not occur, and it will not be possible to un-summon the minion.
- The casting minion is generally not considered a suitable target for their own battlecry.
- Battlecries will take place before any triggered secrets.
Strategy
- It is a common strategy for players to use return effects (effects that return a minion to its owner's hand) on their own battlecry minions in order to benefit from the effect again. The minions Ancient Brewmaster, Youthful Brewmaster and Kidnapper, as well as spells such as Shadowstep and Dream, and hostile actions such as Sap, can all be used for this purpose. This type of play is most effective when combined with minions with powerful battlecries.
Cards
Template:Card by ability table
Related cards
Template:Card by ability table
