Dragon

Dragons are a type of minion. Most Dragon synergies involve Battlecries which activate if the controlling player is holding a Dragon card in their hand.

There are more legendary Dragons than any other specific minion type, and the type includes an especially high number of large, high-stat, high-cost minions.

Some of the most expensive Dragons, particularly Legendaries, have multiples of 4 in their statlines (4/12 for Ysera or Malygos, 8/8 for Alexstrasza or Nozdormu, 12/12 for Deathwing, etc.)

Background

 * A is a reptilian creature, usually winged, with magical or unusual abilities. Dragons were one of the first intelligent life forms to appear in Azeroth. It is not clear whether the titans created them or if they somehow evolved prior to the titans' arrival. At one time, their numbers were uncountable, but in present-day Azeroth there are very few left. Originally, there were many different dragonflights, with many different colors to be seen. The five most influential, however, were the reds, the greens, the bronze, the blacks, and the blues, and eventually most (if not all) of the other flights disappeared.


 * Chosen by the titans, each of the five dragonflights were given domain over a certain aspect of the world, ranging from the earth to time itself. During the War of the Ancients, the dragonflights sought to fulfill their duty and strike against the invading Burning Legion. Over time, the dragons have endured much hardship and only a handful still remain, hostile to all that may tamper with the titans' creations.

Cards that generate Dragons
These cards bring new Dragons into play through their card text.

Design
Prior to Blackrock Mountain, Dragon was the only minion type to have no synergy effects in the game. This effectively made the type purely cosmetic, as it had no functional difference from the general type. In February 2014, Eric Dodds stated the following regarding the design and future of the dragon minion type:


 * "So the Dragons was really done for flavor. To give you some insight into development, a couple of years ago, we were talking about adding this guy who would interact with the Dragons, but he never made the cut. Really we just kept it because the Dragons are such iconic and cool Warcraft characters that we felt needed to be labelled as dragons. We're likely to do something with that in the future, we just don't know exactly when."

The designers would eventually add the first Dragon synergies to the game with Blackrock Mountain, just over 1 year after the game's full release. Ben Brode explains that the Dragon synergies added with the adventure were intended to support the inclusion of high cost Dragons in the deck, with the size and power of Dragons considered thematic to the type. Minions like Blackwing Technician were therefore added, with 'holding' effects that allowed the player to benefit from having a Dragon in their hand even if they could not yet afford to play it.

Mike Donais explained that the 'holding' mechanic had the potential to further explore a relatively new element in Hearthstone: bluffing. Because the successful activation of a Blackwing Technician, Blackwing Corruptor or Rend Blackhand highlights the presence of a Dragon in the player's hand, this can be used to play mind games with the opponent, who may alter their play in order to counter the Dragon assumed to be in the player's hand. Donais stated, "Bluffing is something I want to encourage more in our games."

Dragon art
While most dragon art is featured on Dragon minion cards, some is found on other cards. For a full list, see Dragon art.