Unlicensed Apothecary

Unlicensed Apothecary is an epic warlock minion card, from the Mean Streets of Gadgetzan set.

Strategy
Although this minion's drawback is severe, it's possible to avert it entirely. Due to Unlicensed Apothecary's obscene stats, playing additional minions will usually not be necessary to control the board. Slower decks like Handlock can take the most advantage out of this. Renolock can even play one or two minions while this is on the board and recover later using Reno Jackson.

While the incredible statline makes this a tempting choice for Zoolock, the downside is far more problematic in that kind of deck. Other strong 3 drops without downsides, such as Darkshire Councilman and Imp Gang Boss, are often better.

The drawback can be easily circumvented on following turns by first playing a Violet Illusionist or silencing it with Light's Champion, which will even negate the damage from playing itself.

Unlicensed Apothecary can be used in Treachery OTK decks, using either a Diseased Vulture also given away with Treachery with Curse of Rafaam to guarantee self-damage,Zul'Drak Ritualist with Brann Bronzebeard, or even Mad Summoner on an empty board to summon 6 minions for the opponent.

Quotes

 * Summon
 *  'Join the Kabal', they said. Hmph!


 * Attack
 * Want a drink? *cackles*

Lore
Unlicensed Apothecary is an who has joined the Kabal. Judging by his flavour text and trigger animation, it seems that he brews faulty healing potions to throw at your hero, causing you to take damage.

Trivia

 * Before Patch 9.2.0.21517, Unlicensed Apothecary was a Summon Resolution Step trigger. This led to the following interactions:
 * If you summoned an Unlicensed Apothecary and other minions in the same Phase (such as by summoning many demons at once using Krul the Unshackled), the Unlicensed Apothecary triggered for each other minion summoned.
 * If you played a Battlecry minion with a transform effect, any Unlicensed Apothecaries would trigger both for the played minion if it was the same controller (following the On Play Phase) and also the post-transform minion if it was the same controller (following the After Summon Phase). This meant, for example, that a Faceless Manipulator would trigger your Unlicensed Apothecaries twice. (This might have been a bug, as a similar bug with Rumbling Elemental triggering twice for Faceless Manipulator targeting a Battlecry minion was hotfixed (and the hotfix later accidentally reverted).)
 * Because heroes cannot recover from fatal damage once the current Phase ends, playing a minion with a healing Battlecry (eg Reno Jackson) while at 5 or less Health with an Unlicensed Apothecary on board would result in the hero being destroyed, even if the minion's healing should have allowed the hero to live, because the hero was dead before the Battlecry Phase began.
 * Important note: as of the October 17th update, Unlicensed Apothecary's wording has been changed to after you summon a minion and not whenever you summon a minion, and will no longer have the previous interactions.

Patch changes

 * Now reads: “After you summon a minion, deal 5 damage to your hero.” (Previous text: "Whenever you summon a minion, deal 5 damage to your Hero.") It will no longer activate from any Evolve effects.
 * Added.