Grim Patron

Grim Patron is a rare neutral minion card, from the Blackrock Mountain set.

Strategy
Grim Patron serves as the centrepiece of the Patron Warrior deck, with various activating cards used to repeatedly damage the Patron, causing more Patrons to be summoned. Efficient trading and synergistic effects can result in good board control, allowing the warrior to deal overwhelming face damage from their army of Patrons. It can also generate good card advantage, leading to a potential win condition in itself.

This can be a very sticky minion since his 3 Health will allow him to survive most AoE damage and spawn another copy. This can make it so that the opponent has to deal with this minion first using one of their bigger minions or spells. Grim Patron provides value either through trading with enemy minions, or through passively providing additional Patrons by surviving damage. To make the most of the minion, combine it with trading and synergistic effects like Whirlwind and Revenge to simultaneously clear the opponent's board and develop your own.

Good Grim Patron play can create strong board control, but no matter how many Patrons the warrior gains they can still be removed through AoE like Flamestrike. The main challenge to the opponent is removing the Patrons without creating more. This is best achieved through powerful AoE damage or destroy effects, but is possible one by one. Small minions are a liability when playing against Grim Patrons, and the Patron player should trade into them as often as possible to create more Patrons. Note that the 7 minion limit means that with a full board no more Patrons will be summoned by the effect, allowing the opponent a little more room to deal with them.

Mages can damage friendly Grim Patrons using Fireblast in order to constantly have a minion on the board, allowing them to quickly overwhelm the opponent if the Patrons are not dealt with.

Minions like Aldor Peacekeeper, Shrinkmeister, or Crazed Alchemist can be useful in lowering your opponent's minion's attack to allow Grim Patron to attack and summon another Grim Patron. Effects like Baron Geddon, Wild Pyromancer, Whirlwind, Ravaging Ghoul and Tentacle of N'Zoth can be useful for damaging friendly Grim Patrons. Mad Bomber and Madder Bomber offer similar utility but are far less reliable. Grim Patron synergizes well with Frothing Berserker and Whirlwind, allowing Berserker to significantly increase its attack.

If the conditions are satisfied, Defile will trigger up to its maximum limit of 14 times, often leaving a board full of Grim Patrons for a warlock.

Quotes

 * Summon
 * A fight, count me in!


 * Effect triggering
 * Everyone, get in here!


 * Attack
 * Hehe, pile on!

Lore

 * ''s can be found at the in . They are initially neutral, but will become hostile (along with all other mobs in the bar) if  is killed or has  pickpocketed from him.

Trivia

 * Prior to Patch 3.2.0.10604, Grim Patron was used in combination with Warsong Commander to grant Charge to each new Patron generated that turn, allowing warriors to decimate their opponent's board in a single turn. See Warsong Commander for details.
 * The innkeeper's startup quote "Everyone - get in here and say hello!" is based on the summoning quote of Grim Patron. Its use here is likely due to the phrase's high popularity among the community, especially in the months following the release of Blackrock Mountain, which saw the Patron Warrior deck become one of the strongest in the meta. The phrase's popularity is also reflected in the creation of sites such as http://everyonegetinhere.com.

Voice
Grim Patron was voiced by Darin De Paul, who also voiced cards including Rend Blackhand, Axe Flinger and Baron Geddon, as well as the character Reinhardt in Overwatch.

Patch changes

 * Added.