Al'Akir the Windlord


 * ''For the Battlegrounds hero of the same name, see Al'Akir.

Al'Akir the Windlord is a legendary Shaman minion card, inducted into the Legacy set, formerly from the Classic set.

Summoned by
As well as being collected in decks, this card can also be summoned by the following card.

Previous availability

 * Regular Al'Akir the Windlord could also be obtained as a first-time reward for first time reaching Legend in Ranked mode from April 1, 2020 to March 25, 2021 (or as a reward of Climbing the Ranks (10/10) achievement).

Strategy
Playing this minion will be useful at almost any time, due to the many abilities he has. However, since he has Taunt it's very possible for him to die the turn after summoning, stopping you from gaining too much advantage from his Windfury. He is also vulnerable to Silence, which will nullify all of his abilities and make him very weak for his mana cost.

However, thanks to Charge, Al'Akir is especially effective for dealing large amounts of burst damage on the turn he is played. His Windfury makes him a perfect target for Attack buffs such as Rockbiter Weapon and Flametongue Totem. With no Taunts on the table, Al'Akir + Rockbiter Weapon can allow the shaman to deal 12 damage in a single turn. This combo is commonly used by shamans as a closer. In case it is not enough damage to end the game, the combo also leaves Al'Akir on the board as a Divine Shield Taunt, helping to prevent direct reprisals.

When defeating the opponent using Al'Akir is not possible, he can also be used to quickly remove dangerous or valuable enemy minions. With sufficient Attack he can remove two minions on the turn he is summoned, ideally without being destroyed himself.

Al'Akir is commonly found within Even Shaman decks due to his synergies with Corpsetaker providing it Divine Shield, Taunt, and Windfury all in one card in the addition to being a good finisher.

As a bonus, being an Elemental means Al'Akir can not only be used to activate Elemental synergy effects the next turn, but can also have his mana cost reduced by Fire Plume Harbinger. Being played a turn or two earlier can make a big difference on the impact Al'Akir can make to the board.

Lore

 * '' was the of air. He ruled over his domain of  from his seat at the . He was once the foremost tactician in the Old Gods' horrific armies. Aligned with the corrupted Dragon Aspect Deathwing and his fellow Elemental Lord Ragnaros the Firelord in their efforts to usher in the end of days, Al'Akir was defeated by the mortal champions of, who were able to enter Skywall from the breach in  and destroy the Windlord within his own sanctum.

Trivia

 * Al'Akir ("الأخير" in Arabic, more correctly transliterated as al-’akhīr) means "The Last One".
 * During the game's alpha and beta phases, Al'Akir was generally considered to be an extremely underpowered and undesirable card, widely named one of the worst legendaries in the game. However, as with the value of any card, over time a shifting meta game and new deck types has led players to discover the potential of the card.
 * Ben Brode states that during the game's alpha he was receiving so much negative feedback regarding Al'Akir card that the team very nearly buffed the card, with even top players within Blizzard asking him "How come you made him so bad?!" and asking him to "make this guy good". With Brode having originally pitched the card as a 3/3, Eric Dodds later increased the minion's stats to 3/5, but this was not enough to counter the negative feedback about the card, with the developers eventually scheduling a further buff to 3/7.
 * However, when the developers examined the alpha's backend stats, Al'Akir was found to in fact have the highest win rate of any legendary in the game at that time. The developers therefore realised that the card was simply under-appreciated, and quickly reverted the planned changes to the card, avoiding making "a pretty terrible mistake". This was the first time the developers used "hard data" to inform balance changes.


 * The artwork for this card comes from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game "War of the Elements" series, for the card Al'Akir the Windlord.

Patch changes

 * Moved from Classic to Legacy set.
 * Keywords rearranged in alphabetical order.
 * Visual effect: Al'Akir the Windlord now rides into battle on the tempest itself!
 * Previous: Windfury, Charge, Divine Shield, Taunt. [3 attack, 5 health, 8 mana, Legendary]
 * Visual effect: Al'Akir the Windlord now rides into battle on the tempest itself!
 * Previous: Windfury, Charge, Divine Shield, Taunt. [3 attack, 5 health, 8 mana, Legendary]