Adapt

For the Paladin spell Adaptation, see Adaptation.

Adapt
Choose one of 3 bonuses.

Adapt is an ability which allows the player to choose one of three bonuses, called adaptations, for a minion from a total of ten choice cards (listed below). These adaptations give a small enhancement to the minion, allowing the minion to "adapt" to situations on the field.

Notes[edit | edit source]

Each Adapt has the same pool of 10 possible adaptations.^[1]
Multiple Adapts from the same minion, whether through minions inherently granted multiple adaptations such as Galvadon and Volcanosaur, or through Brann Bronzebeard, are processed separately and have a chance to produce the same options, regardless of the player's previous choice.^[2]
If Spellbender intercepts Adaptation, your opponent chooses Spellbender's adapt choice.

If specified in the text, Adapt can affect multiple minions.

Strategy[edit | edit source]

Each card with Adapt brings about different uses of this ability, and strategy of the choices can significantly vary depending on the card. See:

Adaptation#Strategy

Crackling Razormaw#Strategy

Elder Longneck#Strategy

Ornery Direhorn#Strategy

Pterrordax Hatchling#Strategy

Ravasaur Runt#Strategy

Ravenous Pterrordax#Strategy

Thunder Lizard#Strategy

Verdant Longneck#Strategy

Evolving Spores#Strategy

Lightfused Stegodon#Strategy

Vicious Fledgling#Strategy

Volcanosaur#Strategy

Gentle Megasaur#Strategy

Adaptations[edit | edit source]

There are a total of 10 possible choice cards for the Adapt keyword.

Related cards

Cards with Adapt[edit | edit source]

Wild format

This section contains information exclusive to Wild format.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Galvadon	None	Minion	General	Paladin	5	5	5	Battlecry: Adapt 5 times.
Adaptation	Common	Spell		Paladin	1			Adapt a friendly minion. Pray for salvation. If that fails, pray for extra horns or bigger teeth.
Crackling Razormaw	Common	Minion	Beast	Hunter	2	3	2	Battlecry: Adapt a friendly Beast. Wasn't clever enough to go AROUND the electric fence.
Ravasaur Runt	Common	Minion	Beast	Any	2	2	2	Battlecry: If you control at least 2 other minions, Adapt. Doesn't like to adapt unless others are watching. Some minions are such show-offs.
Elder Longneck	Common	Minion	Beast	Druid	3	5	1	Battlecry: If you're holding a minion with 5 or more Attack, Adapt. And so the bartender says, “Why the long neck?”
Pterrordax Hatchling	Common	Minion	Beast	Any	3	2	2	Battlecry: Adapt. Aww. So cute. Want to feed him another finger?
Thunder Lizard	Common	Minion	Beast	Any	3	3	3	Battlecry: If you played an Elemental last turn, Adapt. What? THUNDER LIZARD is adapting!
Ravenous Pterrordax	Common	Minion	Beast	Warlock	4	4	4	Battlecry: Destroy a friendly minion to Adapt twice. For better results, feed your pterrordax low-fat, high-fiber minions.
Verdant Longneck	Common	Minion	Beast	Druid	5	5	4	Battlecry: Adapt. Always sticking its neck into other people’s business.
Ornery Direhorn	Common	Minion	Beast	Warrior	6	5	5	Taunt Battlecry: Adapt. "It's an herbivore. How dangerous can it be?" - Famous last words
Vicious Fledgling	Rare	Minion	Beast	Any	3	3	3	After this minion attacks a hero, Adapt. A youngster who is truly hungry for self-improvement.
Evolving Spores	Rare	Spell		Druid	4			Adapt your minions. The most powerful mushrooms are commonly found in boxes marked with "?".
Lightfused Stegodon	Rare	Minion	Beast	Paladin	4	3	4	Battlecry: Adapt your Silver Hand Recruits. “Come now, Johnston. I think those horns are quite fetching on you.”
Volcanosaur	Rare	Minion	Beast	Any	7	5	6	Battlecry: Adapt, then Adapt. Always fun to say out loud "VOL-CA-NO-SAUUUR!"
Transfer Student	Epic	Minion	General	Any	2	2	2	Battlecry: Adapt.
Gentle Megasaur	Epic	Minion	Beast	Any	4	5	4	Battlecry: Adapt your Murlocs. "Low, low rents! Must enjoy a nomadic lifestyle. Quasi-sentient, bipedal, amphibious humanoids ONLY!"
Showing all 16 cards

Trivia[edit | edit source]

The highest number of adaptations granted by one card on a single minion is five, with Galvadon.

However, multiple successful attacks with Vicious Fledgling may stack up more than five adaptations.

The idea of Poison Spit may have came from the removed Rogue spell Poison Fang, from the Naxxramas adventure.

Design[edit | edit source]

Designer Dean Ayala explains the origins of the Adapt ability:

The first version of Adapt came about during development of the previous expansion, Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. A concept we had for one of the factions was all about building and upgrading mechanical creations. Whenever a Mech was played, you would get a Spare Part-style card that could give that Mech a new ability. Eventually we simplified the mechanic so that whenever you played a Mech, you could just pick a way to upgrade it. We loved how this played, but at the time we were happy with the Kabal, Jade, and Goon mechanics, and decided to push the idea to a future set. When it came time to brainstorm for Journey to Un'Goro, we came back to this idea of upgraded Mechs and thought it would be perfect for the story we wanted to tell about our dinosaurs.

Near the beginning of Un'Goro, there were around 20 different options for Adapt. Originally we had adaptations that did things like deal damage to other creatures or let a player draw cards, but we felt the story of Adapt was clearer when the expectation was always that it would make the minion itself better. The adaptations that were the most engaging to us were the ones you chose based on the current game scenario rather than adaptations you might pick in any situation.

... One of the things we like about Adapt is that it affords you the versatility to make some unusual choices if the situation warrants it. Cards with keywords like Poisonous can create some very interesting board states, but the cards on their own might be too one-dimensional to warrant inclusion in your deck. One of our mechanical goals with Adapt was to take all of these interesting attributes and let players decide when and how to utilize them.

Adapt also shares some similarities with another mechanic we created for League of Explorers: Discover. One of the greatest strengths of Discover is that it creates game scenarios that would never exist if players only had access to cards they put in their deck. Being presented with three random options went a long way in creating new and interesting situations that kept each game experience of Hearthstone fresh and exciting. Our goal with Adapt was to capture that same feeling, but with a set of possible outcomes small enough to allow for strategy and counterplay.^[3]