Arch-Villain Rafaam

Arch-Villain Rafaam is a legendary warlock minion card, from the Rise of Shadows set.

Strategy
Arch-Villain Rafaam's stats are very strong for a Taunt minion, comparable in distribution to those of Ancient of War. His Battlecry is also potentially very powerful, as Legendary minions tend to be stronger than your average fare. However, you must keep in mind that the Legendary minions you gain are completely at random, and any structure or strategy your deck has will be thrown out the window in exchange for random value. This means that there are generally three ideal situations in which Rafaam should be used:
 * Your deck is based around attrition and is incapable of finishing your opponent off. If you're in a secure position where your health is reasonably high and your opponent is low on resources, Rafaam can convert your remaining recovery/stall cards into Legendary minions to finish your opponent off.
 * Your hand and/or deck have been filled with numerous, but generally underpowered, cards via other effects. These include cards such as Banana Buffoon, Ravencaller and Impbalming; the cards that these generate are generally considered to not be worth their mana cost, but because they are created in large numbers, converting them into legendary minions can be a powerful combo.
 * Your deck primarily runs cheap, aggressive minions. By turn 7, you may be running out of steam, so Rafaam can convert your weak minions into powerful ones to help finish the game.

Rafaam can also be used in counter-play against your opponent. For example, if they summon King Mukla, the two Bananas added to your hand can be used as fuel to create more Legendary minions. Tricky cards inserted into your deck such as Bombs or Hakkar, the Soulflayer's Corrupted Blood can be effectively nullified and transformed into a boon instead. A stellar combo would also be to play your own Hakkar, let it die, then use Rafaam to destroy your copy of Corrupted Blood, effectively making the damage it deals one-sided to your opponent.

Rafaam synergizes well with Supreme Archaeology, increasing the chance of drawing something huge with Tome of Origination once completed.

In Arena, where board presence is generally more valuable and reliable than card synergy, Rafaam is an easy pick, not only for his superb base stats but because any Legendary minions he generates are going to easily turn the tide in your favor.

Lore
For the lore of this card, see Rafaam (Lore).

Trivia

 * This card's effect is a call-back to Golden Monkey, which features the exact same ability.
 * Rafaam's gauntlet on his card art is a reference to Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet.

Patch changes

 * Added.