Transform

Transform is an ability which irreversibly transforms a minion into something else. This removes all card text, abilities and enchantments, and does not trigger any Deathrattles.

Transformation is not an enchantment but rather a permanent change, which cannot be undone. Silencing the transformed minion or returning it to its owner's hand will not revert the transformation.

Transform is the battlefield equivalent of replace.

For cards which transform in hand, see: Transform in hand.

Notes

• While transform effects effectively create a new minion in place of the old one, they do not summon minions and so will not trigger effects such as Knife Juggler or Starving Buzzard. The process appears to continue the summoning process precisely, with the new minion in place of the old.

• However, minions transformed as the result of a Battlecry will activate some of their triggered effects appropriate to the resulting minion, at the end of the summoning process.

• Example: A Faceless Manipulator is played, and its Battlecry is used to transform itself into a Savannah Highmane. First any "Whenever you summon" effects will trigger for the Faceless Manipulator, then (after the transform) any "After you summon" effects active for the Highmane, and then one extra phase is invoked to again trigger the "Whenever you summon" effects for the Highmane. This causes a Starving Buzzard to draw a card in this event, not during its normal phase prior to Battlecries, but instead after the minion's summoning has resolved, and all other effects have played out. However, this also causes an Unlicensed Apothecary to trigger twice.
• This double processing of the "Whenever you summon" effect specifically happens when the transform is the result of a Battlecry (minions transforming themselves, like Faceless Manipulator or Druid of the Claw; and minions transforming one other minion, like Master of Evolution or Tinkmaster Overspark. It also happens when playing Thrall, Deathseer (a Hero Card, not a minion, but the transform effect is still a battlecry). The latter effect can be particularlly devastating if one of your minions happens to be transformed into an Unlicensed Apothecary.
• Minions that are transformed as the result of a spell (e.g Polymorph, Evolve) are not ever processed as summoned.
• The exact behaviour of minions transformed as a result of Potion of Polymorph or Transmute Spirit is currently unknown.

• Minions produced by transformations will be immediately exhausted, as though they had just been summoned. This is true even if the minion which was transformed was previously ready to attack. However, if the resulting minion has Charge it will not suffer from exhaustion.

• Minions removed from play due to being transformed are not considered to have died, and so cannot be resummoned by effects like Resurrect or Kel'Thuzad nor will they trigger effects like Corridor Creeper.

• Transforming a minion will result in the new minion becoming last in the 'queue' that determines the order in which effects are activated, since it has been freshly put into play. This is the same result as if the new minion had been summoned in place of the old minion.

• Not all transform effects are explicitly described as such. Faceless Manipulator transforms the base minion into another minion according to how the card is played, despite the word 'transform' not being used on their cards. Comments by Ben Brode suggest this is likely due to the tradeoff between consistency and concision of phrasing.

• Cards that transform no longer keep any enchantments when they transform.
  • Example: Shifter Zerus, Molten Blade, and Shifting Scroll do not keep any enchantments when they transform.

• Cards that "transform a minion into a random one that costs (1) more/less", like Evolve or Devolve, will now always re-roll the minion, even if no minion exists in the target-cost minion pool. The minion will be re-rolled at the nearest possible cost.
  • For example, when a 0-mana Target Dummy is Devolved, because there is no negative-cost minion, it will transform into a random 0-cost minion.
  • For example, when a 25-mana Shirvallah, the Tiger is Evolved, because there is no 26-cost minion or another 25-cost minion, it will transform into a new Shirvallah, the Tiger.

Cards with Transform

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Malygos's Polymorph	None	Spell		Mage	1			Transform a minion into a 1/1 Sheep.
Storm Egg	None	Minion	General	Shaman	1	0	3	At the start of your turn, transform into a 4/4 Storm Drake with Rush.
Witchy Lackey	None	Minion	General	Any	1	1	1	Battlecry: Transform a friendly minion into one that costs (1) more.
Hex	Free	Spell		Shaman	4			Transform a minion into a 0/1 Frog with Taunt. If you Hex a Murloc... it really isn't much of a change, is it?
Polymorph	Free	Spell		Mage	4			Transform a minion into a 1/1 Sheep. There was going to be a pun in this flavor text, but it just came out baa-d.
Mutate	Common	Spell		Shaman	0			Transform a friendly minion into a random one that costs (1) more. You'll get the transformation you want when murlocs fly.
Demonic Project	Common	Spell		Warlock	2			Each player transforms a random minion in their hand into a Demon. Another group project where Jaraxxus doesn't do any work.
Druid of the Scythe	Common	Minion	General	Druid	3	2	2	Choose One - Transform into a 4/2 with Rush; or a 2/4 with Taunt. She's a scythe for sore eyes.
Druid of the Claw	Common	Minion	General	Druid	5	4	4	Choose One - Transform into a 4/4 with Charge; or a 4/6 with Taunt. Cat or Bear? Cat or Bear?! I just cannot CHOOSE!
Faceless Corruptor	Rare	Minion	General	Any	5	4	4	Rush. Battlecry: Transform one of your minions into a copy of this. What does Madame Lazul have against faces?!
Shadowy Figure	Epic	Minion	General	Priest	2	2	2	Battlecry: Transform into a 2/2 copy of a friendly Deathrattle minion. Terrible at shadow puppets: "This is... a tentacle! And this is... two tentacles!"
Plague of Murlocs	Epic	Spell		Shaman	3			Transform all minions into random Murlocs. This is horrible! And adorable!
Faceless Manipulator	Epic	Minion	General	Any	5	3	3	Battlecry: Choose a minion and become a copy of it. The Faceless Ones are servants of Yogg-Saron, and they feed on fear. Right now they are feeding on your fear of accidentally disenchanting all your good cards.
Muckmorpher	Epic	Minion	General	Shaman	5	4	4	Battlecry: Transform into a 4/4 copy of a different minion in your deck. Fan favorite in the muck morphin' sewer strangers.
Treespeaker	Epic	Minion	General	Druid	5	4	4	Battlecry: Transform your Treans into 5/5 Ancients. Honestly, his delivery is a little wooden.
Tinkmaster Overspark	Legendary	Minion	General	Any	3	3	3	Battlecry: Transform another random minion into a 5/5 Devilsaur or a 1/1 Squirrel. Tinkmaster Overspark nearly lost his Tinker's license after the Great Ironforge Squirrel Stampede of '09.
Wardruid Loti	Legendary	Minion	General	Druid	3	1	2	Choose One - Transform into one of Loti's four dinosaur forms. “Ravasaur!” “Pretty scary” “…Blammodax!” “Is that a thing?” “SMAXODON!” “….now you’re just making those up.”
Harbinger Celestia	Legendary	Minion	General	Any	4	5	6	StealthAfter your opponent plays a minon, become a copy of it. She wanders realities, taking on many forms. One was a unicorn princess.
The Storm Bringer	Legendary	Spell		Shaman	6			Transform your minions into random Legendary minions. Finally, Electra can work from home.
Showing all 19 cards

Wild format

 This section contains information exclusive to Wild format.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Poultryizer	None	Minion	Mech	Any	1	0	3	At the start of your turn, transform a random minion into a 1/1 Chicken.
Transmute Spirit	None	Hero Power		Shaman	2			Hero Power: Transform a friendly minion into a random one that costs (1) more.
Kazakus Potion	None	Spell			5
Kazakus Potion	None	Spell			10
Druid of the Saber	Common	Minion	General	Druid	2	2	1	Choose One - Transform into a 2/1 with Charge; or a 3/2 with Stealth. That's saberTEETH, not like curved pirate blades. That's a different kind of druid. Druid of the Curved Pirate Blades.
Druid of the Flame	Common	Minion	General	Druid	3	2	2	Choose One - Transform into a 5/2 minion; or a 2/5 minion. Druids who fought too long in Northrend were easily seduced by Ragnaros; a mug of hot chocolate was generally all it took.
Druid of the Fang	Common	Minion	General	Druid	5	4	4	Battlecry: If you have a Beast, transform this minion into a 7/7. The Druids of the Fang live in the Wailing Caverns. They wear cool snake shirts and tell snake jokes and say "bro" a lot.
Evolve	Rare	Spell		Shaman	1			Transform your minions into random minions that cost (1) more. So you say you want an evolution. Well, you know. We all want to change the board.
Devolve	Rare	Spell		Shaman	2			Transform all enemy minions into random ones that cost (1) less. Ragnaros looked down. He looked like some kind of War Golem. "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME," he yelled. But all that came out was a deep grinding sound. He began to cry.
Druid of the Swarm	Rare	Minion	General	Druid	2	1	2	Choose One - Transform into a 1/2 with Poisonous; or a 1/5 with Taunt. The Druid awoke from troubling dreams to find herself transformed into a giant spider.
Polymorph: Boar	Rare	Spell		Mage	3			Transform a minion into a 4/2 Boar with Charge. It's always Huffer.
Potion of Polymorph	Rare	Spell		Mage	3			Secret: After your opponent plays a minion, transform it into a 1/1 Sheep. Tastes like Baaaaananas.
Master of Evolution	Rare	Minion	General	Shaman	4	4	5	Battlecry: Transform a friendly minion into a random one that costs (1) more. Will be really useful in the new "Hearthémon" game.
Shellshifter	Rare	Minion	General	Druid	4	3	3	Choose One - Transform into a 5/3 with Stealth; or a 3/5 with Taunt. Master of the Three Shell Monte.
Furbolg Mossbinder	Rare	Minion	General	Any	5	1	1	Battlecry: Transform a friendly minion into a 6/6 Elemental. Behold, the unstoppable power of MOSS!
Unstable Evolution	Epic	Spell		Shaman	1			Transform a friendly minion into one that costs (1) more. Repeatable this turn. They grow up so fast.
Recombobulator	Epic	Minion	General	Any	2	3	2	Battlecry: Transform a friendly minion into a random minion with the same Cost. For when you didn’t combobulate quite right the first time around.
Lotus Illusionist	Epic	Minion	General	Shaman	4	3	5	After this minion attacks a hero, transform it into a random 6-Cost minion. If you think her Illidan and Sylvanas cosplay is great, wait till you see her Reno Jackson!
Prince Taldaram	Legendary	Minion	General	Any	3	3	3	Battlecry: If your deck has no 3-Cost cards, transform into a 3/3 copy of a minion. Three Princes stand before you. This one wants to copy others.
Thrall, Deathseer	Legendary	Hero card		Shaman	5			Battlecry: Transform your minions into random ones that cost (2) more. "Do not be afraid. Approach. The dead will sleep… for now."
Showing all 20 cards

Trivia

• Prior to Patch 8.0.0.18336, all druid Choose One transform cards had inconsistent wording, with Druid of the Claw not including the word transform, Druid of the Flame showing the end result as opposed to the stat change, and Druid of the Saber including both the word transform and related stat changes. This was eventually changed with the release of Journey to Un'goro to follow Druid of the Flame's formatting, with the new Shellshifter also written like this.
• Prior to some time in early 2013, the word "Transform" was printed in bold text on cards such as Polymorph, and always with a capital letter. This suggests that it was previously a keyword (like Charge or Battlecry), complete with its own tooltip explaining the effect. The relative complexity of the mechanic (a non-reversible minion change) might justify this, with the ability the subject of some confusion during the game's beta.

Patch changes

• Patch 16.0.0.37060 (2019-12-05): Cards that "transform a minion into a random one that costs (1) more/less", like Evolve or Devolve, will now always re-roll the minion, even if no minion exists in the target-cost minion pool. The minion will be re-rolled at the nearest possible cost.
• Alpha patch (unknown date, pre-May 2013): "Transform" in card text is no longer printed in bold, and is not capitalised.

References

	Cards
By type	Hero card Minion Spell Weapon
By class	Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior
By minion type	All Beast Demon Dragon Elemental Mech Murloc Pirate Totem General
By ability	Adapt Auto-Attack Auto-cast Battlecry Can't attack Cast spell Casts When Drawn Charge Choose One Choose Twice Combo Copy Deal damage Deathrattle Destroy Discard Discover Divine Shield Draw cards Echo Elusive Enrage Equip Forgetful Freeze Gain Armor Generate Highlander Immune Inspire Invoke Joust Lifesteal Magnetic Mega-Windfury Modify cost Overkill Overload Passive Permanent Poisonous Put into battlefield Put into hand Quest Reborn Recruit Refresh Mana Remove from deck Replace Rush Restore Health Return to hand Secret Shrine Shuffle into deck Silence Sidequest Spell Damage Spend mana Start of Game Stealth Summon Taunt Take control Transform Twinspell Unlimited attacks Upgradable Windfury
By effect type	Area of effect In-deck effect In-hand effect On-discard effect On-draw effect Ongoing effect Positional effect Random effect Resurrection effect Triggered effect
By card set	Standard	Basic Classic The Witchwood The Boomsday Project Rastakhan's Rumble Rise of Shadows Saviors of Uldum Descent of Dragons Galakrond's Awakening
	Wild	Hall of Fame Naxxramas Goblins vs Gnomes Blackrock Mountain Grand Tournament The League of Explorers Whispers of the Old Gods One Night in Karazhan Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Journey to Un'Goro Knights of the Frozen Throne Kobolds & Catacombs
By rarity	Free Common Rare Epic Legendary