Mankrik

Mankrik is a legendary neutral minion card, from the Forged in the Barrens set.

How to get
Regular Mankrik is obtained by reaching level 1 in the Forged in the Barrens ' Rewards Track. It is uncraftable and cannot be crafted or disenchanted.

Golden Mankrik can be obtained through Forged in the Barrens card packs or through crafting.

Generated cards

 * Summoned minions

Strategy
Mankrik, Consumed by Hatred provides a hard-to-remove body that can trade favorably with a number of mid-game minions, or can simply keep going face with the opponent struggling to deal with it. The total amount of stats provided by Mankrik and this secondary minion are huge, adding up in total to 6/11 spread across two bodies, well over usual 3 Mana stats.

Additionally, although it may seem like a small amount, the immediate 3 damage inflicted by the generated minion to the opponent when drawn is nothing to be scoffed at. Sometimes, in late games, it can provide a sudden, surprising amount of burst that you may need to finish off a low-Health opponent.

All of this is counterbalanced by the fact that Olgra, Mankrik's Wife has a delayed effect, requiring the player to draw it. Therefore, Mankrik should mainly be considered in decks or classes that have enough card draw to reliably reach the shuffled card before the game is over. It is also worth noting that this delay can be somewhat mitigated by cards like Stowaway and Barak Kodobane, which tutor the spell.

If one is able to shuffle several Wives into the deck, this can act as a potent, reoccurring source of damage, somewhat like Bomb cards. In particular, cards like Brann Bronzebeard or Zola the Gorgon that can repeat the effect, or Augmented Elekk that can shuffle several copies at once, are very threatening with Mankrik.

A notable aspect of the spawned minion's attack is its interaction with Secrets; Mankrik, Consumed by Hatred's attack happens at the start of the turn, when you draw his associated spell, and will trigger any Secrets that activate when a minion attacks the enemy Hero. This can have several varying effects:
 * Sudden Betrayal, Flame Ward or Explosive Trap can damage your board;
 * Shadow Clone or Bear Trap spawn minions for the opponent, while Wandering Monster and Noble Sacrifice also redirect Mankrik's attack;
 * Evasion, Ice Barrier or Ice Block can protect your opponent from subsequent attacks during the turn;
 * Misdirection or Eye for an Eye may turn the attack's damage against yourself, or in the case of Misdirection, against other minions on the board;
 * Rigged Faire Game cannot trigger on the turn the generated minion is drawn.

Since the attack occurs outside of your control, this is fairly unpredictable, and can be hard to plan around. However, these interactions may be positive or negative depending on the game's state (for instance, if Mankrik triggers a Vaporize, that may enable you to hit the opponent with a higher-Attack minion) and worth taking into consideration when you wish to end your turn.

Overall, as a decent early-to-mid-game minion providing a sizable amount of stats, as well as bonus direct damage, Mankrik can be a good inclusion in generally aggressive decks.

Lore

 * '' is an orc located at  in the  and near  in the . Quilboar corpses are littered around him in the . Mankrik also helps defend  on  against the minions of Ragnaros during the quest.


 * ''Mankrik and his wife Olgra battled quilboars in a small tauren camp when they were separated by the overwhelming numbers. As he saw his wife being overwhelmed by newcomers, rage came over him as he turned to face his enemies, but they brought him down easily with their vast numbers. He later awoke to a tauren druid tending his wounds — the druid had come across him on the Gold Road as he fell. Filled with uncertainty whether his wife was still alive or not, he stood at the Crossroads every day scouting the horizon for more quilboars to quench his bloodthirst.


 * ''He later managed to retrieve the corpse of his wife and bury her, raising a in her honor. However his thirst for their blood had still not been quenched, killing every quilboar he'd seen since they murdered his wife and burned down his homestead. Still not satisfied with the slaughter of the quilboar at, he later traveled to the Southern Barrens, realizing that there will be no peace without his wife, wanting to see their very homes razed. It's then hinted that  helps him to settle with his troubles and may be romantically involved.

Trivia

 * Mankrik used to be disenchant for full Arcane Dust value for one week (from March 30 to April 6, 2021) even without any card changes, but with its being able to get for free through Rewards Track after the expansion's release, which could cause frustration and duplicate protection loss to whoever got golden Mankrik through Forged in the Barrens card packs before expansion's release.
 * Mankrik's effect is a reference to the infamous quest in World of Warcraft, where he asks the adventurer to find his wife. However, his wife is very far away from his location, he offers no information on who or where she is, and the NPC in question is only referred as "". As a result, the  was often flooded with players asking where she is, and "" became a meme amongst the World of Warcraft community.
 * Mankrik and his wife were first mentioned in Secretkeeper's updated flavor text, two years before they were added.
 * Mankrik's attack quote and effect, as well as the name of the uncollectible minion his effect summons, are references to the quest in World of Warcraft, where he asks the adventurer to bring him 30 Quilboar Tusks in vengeance of his wife's death.

Patch changes

 * Olgra, Mankrik's Wife now summons a 3/7 Mankrik, Consumed by Hatred (previously: 3/10).
 * Added.