Rin, the First Disciple

Rin, the First Disciple is a legendary warlock minion card, from the Kobolds and Catacombs set.

Strategy
Rin contains a strong effect locked behind very slow cards. She requires a heavy investment of 41 mana to destroy your opponent's deck with Azari, the Devourer, the Felspawn from each seal are far below the statline until The Final Seal, and Azari has no impact on the board besides being a large body. Playing these cards are often bad for tempo, but fortunately, Warlock has many ways to clear the board and stall the game long enough to play Azari.

The effect of Azari is very powerful when played. Destroying the opponent's deck means they will start taking Fatigue damage, be deprived of new options, and render card draw effects worthless, and it's even better the fewer cards they have in their hand. Even when burning only a few cards, the fact that fatigue damage is taken immediately still makes Azari a powerful play. Warlock has many high-power defensive minions and removal, but lack late-game burst damage, and Rin offers an alternate win condition of stalling and wearing out the opponent. Furthermore, Azari may destroy parts of a combo when played against a combo deck, and can mitigate late-game advantages created by Shuffle into deck effects such as Togwaggle's Scheme.

Skull of the Man'ari is ineffective with Rin because it can summon Azari without destroying the opponent's deck.

If Rin is played on turn 6, and seals are continued to be played on pace, it is possible to destroy the opposing deck with Azari, the Devourer on turn 11. This means that barring external card draw, nearly half the deck will be destroyed.

Utilizing cards such a Bloodbloom and Cho'gall can help to speed up the rate seals can be played, but the amount of self-damage makes it costly. However, this can be offset by Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, which counteracts the self-damage taken while simultaneously providing solid removal.

Play Rin carefully around Priest, as she is vulnerable to Silence and her 3 attack makes her vulnerable to being stolen by Shadow Madness. Similarly, Mage can neutralize Rin with Polymorph, and playing the Seals into Mage Secrets is very dangerous due to the threat of Counterspell (which breaks the chain and denies Azari) and Mana Bind (which can potentially give the opponent their own Azari). Shaman has access to Hex, Devolve, Earth Shock, and Plague of Murlocs, which are all cards capable of neutralizing Rin. In addition, any Highlander deck can play Zephrys the Great and find Hex, Silence, Earth Shock, or even Mind Control, which all neutralize Rin. (*anti-counter measures can be taken with attempts at 'card recovery'. In instances when Rin may become silenced, utilizing plays such as 'Vectus' and/or 'Body Wrapper' can be used to keep the strategy alive.*)

Rin is usually ineffective when used with Resurrection effects, particularly N'Zoth, the Corruptor. Although Rin offers Taunt and a 3/6 body, acquiring another seal is usually ineffective unless the first one was somehow neutralized, in which case she was likely transformed. Deck destruction effects usually permanent, and spending massive amounts of mana on small demons and a 10/10 is a very suboptimal play at best. Copy effects are also ineffective with Rin due to the same reason. Even when another seal is played, the game likely ends sooner before a second Azari is acquired. The Demons summoned from the seals can also pollute the resurrect pool of Bloodreaver Gul'dan

Lore
Rin is unique to Hearthstone. According to the poem in the flavor text for Lesser Amethyst Spellstone, Rin was the first to give in to the power of Azari, the Devourer, murdering her kin and becoming a warlock.

The s summoned by the Seals are the fourth tier of minion that warlocks can summon.

Trivia

 * Rin's Seals were originally more complicated, as they each had a different effect, such as "Deal Damage", "Restore Health", and "Summon a Demon", among others.
 * Azari, the Devourer was originally a 15/15 that could not be targeted. Testing proved people were not impressed with it which made the team come up with the idea of deck destruction.
 * Rin's card art features a Kabal Demon behind her, the uncollectible token that is summoned from the Netherbloom effect of Kazakus's Battlecry.
 * Rin's quotes are spoken in, the language of demons. "Shaza-kiel" means "Surrender your soul", but no official translation has yet been provided for any of the phrases used in Rin's summoning quote.
 * This card's flavor text is a reference to the Pink Floyd song "Dogs of War".

Patch changes

 * Added.