Ragnaros the Firelord


 * ''For other representations of Ragnaros, see Ragnaros the Firelord (disambiguation)

Ragnaros the Firelord is a legendary neutral minion card, inducted into the Legacy set, formerly from the Classic and Hall of Fame sets.

Strategy
Because Ragnaros deals 8 damage when your turn ends, he can easily work as removal, while remaining a persistent threat. Due to how he attacks, Ragnaros will not take damage, and can be used to destroy powerful minions without being destroyed himself, although the targets of his attacks are random. Silencing Ragnaros will remove his special ability, but will allow him to attack normally.

Left uncountered, Ragnaros can quickly demolish even high-health opponents, or clear several powerful threats. However, because Ragnaros' targets are randomly selected, the exact effects of summoning him tend to be hard to predict. Players who are unable to remove Ragnaros entirely can use a number of weak minions to increase the likelihood of his attack being largely wasted; removing a small minion such as a 1/1 is generally the worst possible outcome of his ability. With no enemy minions on the board, Ragnaros represents a steady 8 damage output each turn.

Ragnaros' 8 Health makes him resistant to attack and even high-damage spells like Fireball and Lava Burst, while his 8 Attack means most attackers will be destroyed. This generally makes Ragnaros a very good target for transform effects such as Polymorph and Hex, and mind control effects such as Mind Control and Sylvanas Windrunner.

Because Ragnaros deals his damage at the end of the controlling player's turn, he generally provides guaranteed value, regardless of the opponent's response. For example, if the opponent immediately removes Ragnaros using Polymorph and Fireblast, the two players will essentially have traded cards, but the controlling player will still have dealt 8 damage.

Since Ragnaros's effect will always deal 8 damage, it makes him devastating when combined with effects that could summon copies of him, even with reduced stats. Cards like Shadowcaster can create 1-cost copies of Ragnaros that hit for 8 damage, while cards like Barnes and Shadow Essence can summon Ragnaros earlier than intended, who can be brought back with Resurrect or Eternal Servitude for full stats and just as much damage.

Silencing your own Ragnaros can sometimes be a good move, usually when the opponent has several minions and it is critical that the right target is struck. For example, if the opponent has 8 Health remaining but 4 minions on the board, ending the turn with an un-silenced Ragnaros grants only a 20% chance of him hitting the opponent. Provided there are no Taunts on the board, silencing Ragnaros will allow the player to use him to attack the opponent directly, winning the game.

Lore

 * ''"THIS WORLD AND ALL THAT YOU HOLD DEAR EXIST ONLY TO BURN!"

One of the four Elemental Lords, Ragnaros the Firelord is one of the most powerful forces on Azeroth.


 * '' The Firelord and his brethren once held sway over the entire world. As a servant of the, he fought against the for domination over the planet. The victorious Titans banished him and his brethren to the  — there to remain imprisoned until the end of time. It was then and there that the brothers turned on each other. For five millennia a battle was fought at the core of this world. It was during the  that Ragnaros attacked , Prince of Air. Thunderaan was utterly defeated and the Firelord feasted upon his essence, but was unable to consume him entirely. Ragnaros divided what remained between his servants, Baron Geddon and Garr.


 * ''In the center of a vast lake of fire in the Elemental Plane stands, the home of Ragnaros. Until comparatively recently, he ruled his underground land with a molten iron fist.

In the alternate reality of Whispers of the Old Gods, Ragnaros is "uncorrupted" into Ragnaros, Lightlord, turning to lead the fight against the Old Gods.

Trivia

 * With the release of Blackrock Mountain, Ragnaros is the most diversely-featured character in Hearthstone, featuring as a minion card, a boss, a replacement hero, and a narrator for the Blackrock Mountain adventure. The only comparable character is Nefarian, who features as a minion card, a narrator, and three separate bosses.
 * The expansion Whispers of the Old Gods extended this even further, introducing the "uncorrupted/double negative" Ragnaros, Lightlord.
 * However, as of Galakrond's Awakening, Reno Jackson has the most representation in Hearthstone; being a narrator for three Solo Adventures (League of Explorers, Saviors of Uldum, and Galakrond's Awakening), three playable Heroes in Solo Adventures (Reno Jackson [Saviors of Uldum], The Amazing Reno, and Renogos [Galakrond], a Boss in Galakrond's Awakening, two Legendary Minions, (Reno Jackson, Reno the Relicologist) and lastly a Mage Hero Card (The Amazing Reno).
 * The version of Ragnaros featured in Hearthstone is the original legless version, as opposed to the two-legged version introduced in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
 * Ragnaros's ability is similar to Auto-Attack, but does not use that keyword, which was introduced later.

Voice
Ragnaros was voiced by Matthew Mercer, who also voices Rexxar and Nefarian. Mercer is also known to fans of Blizzard's  as the voice of Jesse McCree.

Patch changes

 * Moved from Hall of Fame to Legacy set.
 * Moved from Classic to Hall of Fame set.
 * ''Commentary: Ragnaros is heavily played in both control and mid-range decks and even shows up as a finisher in certain types of aggro decks. His high immediate value and strength at the eight mana cost made the decision during deck-building, “Is this eight mana minion better than Ragnaros?” rather than, “Is this eight mana minion the best choice for my deck type?” Dozens of cards in the seven to nine mana range never saw play because Ragnaros was always the easy choice in that range, and some decks only want to run one high cost card.


 * Text changed from "Can't Attack" to "Can't attack."
 * Card art changed, apparently to reflect Ragnaros' new appearance in World of Warcraft.