The Caverns Below

The Caverns Below

Regular

Gold

Set:	Journey to Un'Goro
Type:	Spell
Class:	Rogue
Rarity:	Legendary
Cost:	1
Abilities:	Generate, Quest (ability)
Wiki tags:	Spell-generating, Triggered effect

Quest: Play four minions with the same name. Reward: Crystal Core.

Flavor text

Why can't it ever be The Taverns Below?

External links

Data page • Hearthpwn

The Caverns Below is a legendary rogue spell card, from the Journey to Un'Goro set.

How to get

The Caverns Below can be obtained through Journey to Un'Goro card packs, or through crafting.

Card	Crafting cost	Disenchanting
The Caverns Below	1600	400
Golden The Caverns Below	3200	1600

Generated cards

Notes

• The Caverns Below counts minions played, not minions summoned. This means that minions such as Doppelgangster will trigger only once, and not three times, for the quest. In summary, minions' names will only be counted for advancing the quest if the minions were played from the hand.
• The quest progress counts any minions that have the same name, even if they are not the exact same minion. For example, playing from hand an Imp token created by Imp Master and an Imp token created by Imp-losion would count as playing 2 minions of the same name, despite the two Imps' difference in source and card art. Similarly, playing a Doppelgangster, returning one of the uncollectible copies to one's hand and then playing the copy again would count as 2 minions of the same name.
• Upon playing Crystal Core, all friendly minions in the player's hand, deck and battlefield get set to 5/5 stats, and any friendly minion summoned/transformed/taken control of thereafter will be set to a 5/5 the next time Auras update, if it has not been set to a 5/5 this way yet. Afterwards, minions can still take damage, get buffed and activate their triggered effects, Battlecries and Combos like normal; they will simply start out with 5/5 stats by default. This includes tokens created by cards such as Violet Teacher and Onyxia, copies of other friendly minions created by Barnes and Shadowcaster, and transformed minions created by spells such as Polymorph and Hex.
  • All Jade Golems summoned after playing Crystal Core will be 5/5 minions.
  • Taking control of an enemy minion after playing Crystal Core, such as using Sylvanas Windrunner's Deathrattle or a randomly generated Potion of Madness, will cause that minion's stats to immediately be changed to 5/5. They will stay a 5/5 even after being returned.
  • Silencing a minion affected by Crystal Core will remove all enchantments and card text except the Crystal Core enchantment, meaning that the minion's stats will remain 5/5. (It's hypothesized that the enchantment is being removed but re-applied instantly - so rather than it being unsilencable, it's added back too quickly for anyone to notice.)
  • Cards that create 1/1 copies of minions, like Herald Volazj and Mirage Caller, are hard-coded to not copy the Crystal Core buff. As a result, the Crystal Core buff is re-applied afterwards, so the copies will be 5/5, not 1/1. (The copies used to be 1/1s before Patch 8.2.)
  • If you have a Sword of Justice/Addled Grizzly and Crystal Core and play or summon a minion, it will become a 6/6. (Before Patch 8.2, merely summoned minion would get buffed +1/+1 THEN become a 5/5.)

Strategy

An effective way to complete The Caverns Below is to use return to hand effects such as Gadgetzan Ferryman, Youthful Brewmaster, Ancient Brewmaster, Coliseum Manager, Shadowstep and Vanish, as well as cards that create copies of other cards, such as Shadowcaster, Gang Up, Thistle Tea and Mimic Pod. For a list of all cards with return and copy effects, see return to hand and copy.

Another strategy to complete this quest is using the Flame Elemental tokens generated by Igneous Elemental and Fire Fly. Not only do these quickly place minions with the same name into your hand, they generate 1 mana 5/5s once the quest is complete, and have Elemental synergy.

Crystal Core is one of the trickiest Quest rewards to make use of. It has obvious synergy with cheap, low-statted minions like Swashburglar or low-statted minions with strong Battlecries like Vilespine Slayer. On the flip-side, it has severe anti-synergy with many high-cost minions, as most will be reduced in stats or gain little to no benefit. One of the strongest aspects of the card is buffing tokens, such as the Violet Apprentices created by Violet Teacher, or the Stewards summoned by Moroes. Each will become a 5/5 minion. It also has great synergy with Edwin VanCleef and Biteweed, as long as they're in the player's hand and not on the board when Crystal Core is played. Each begin at 5/5 and can gain a large amount of stats. Other generally good cards to receive the Crystal Core buff include Razorpetal Lasher, Runic Egg, any minion with Living Spores, The Voraxx, Novice Engineer, Devilsaur Egg, and so forth.

This card is notable for its anti-synergy with Jade Golem decks, as it will limit all future Jade Golems to 5/5.

Lore

The crystals of Un'Goro Crater are ancient titan energy sources. The Crystal Core is a particularly powerful one, and represents infusing the affected minions with titan energy, comparable to the opposite of Old God corruption, "except that you look like a Norse god at the end instead of a tentacle monster. A 5/5 Norse god."

Trivia

• The enchantment aura provided by Crystal Core is similar to the enchantment aura Miniature, encountered in the Tavern Brawl Miniature Warfare.
• The spell's visual effect consists of two card's effects reused: the first stage is Devolve's mist cloud effect, extended by Renounce Darkness' shimmering effect and some small sparks.

Artist

Template:Setartist

Gallery

The Caverns Below, full art

Patch changes

• Patch 8.4.0.20022 (2017-07-10): Condition changed from "Play four minions with the same name." to "Play five minions with the same name."
• Patch 8.0.0.18336 (2017-04-04): Added.