Leeroy Jenkins

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

Strategy
Leeroy is a cheap and deceptively powerful Charge minion, with an obvious drawback - playing him summons two 1/1 Whelps for the opponent, precisely sufficient opposition to destroy Leeroy the next turn. However, in exchange for this weakness, Leeroy offers exceptional burst damage at a very low cost. Combining him with return effects and/or +Attack enchantments can allow cunning players to inflict as much as 32 damage in a single turn. However Leeroy must be combined with such effects for effectivness as his six damage and 5 mana cost means that on his own he compares unfavorable to the 4 mana Fireball. Ironically, to use Leeroy to his maximum effectiveness, you need a plan.

Leeroy is generally chosen for his prowess as a game-closer, but can also be used if necessary to remove critical targets, or to push the opponent's Health low enough to finish them the next turn. Leeroy is generally considered the most powerful and useful neutral Charge minion for the purpose of dealing burst damage.

Once on the board, Leeroy is easily removed, making his use mid-game situational. However, increasing his Health and removing the Whelps can allow him to become a more permanent part of play.

If not using Leeroy as a finisher, many players will play Leeroy with a specific plan in mind for the removal of the Whelps granted to the opponent, such as Fan of Knives. If you are the opposing player and the Whelps were allowed to survive, you can improve them with various enchantments to exceed their basic stats, especially possible for decks focusing on small minions. In most cases, it will be preferable to hold onto the Whelps and use other forms of removal to destroy Leeroy, but if necessary the trade is almost always a wise one.

Take care if your opponent has a Knife Juggler, who will shoot twice for 1 damage after Leeroy is played — once for each Whelp. If you're particularly unlucky, both points of damage can hit Leeroy, destroying him immediately before he can attack.

Also note that the Whelps can be advantageous in certain scenarios. Some Dungeon Run bosses may have a quest to play a certain number of deathrattle minions. By filling up your opponent's board with 1/1 Whelps, you can prevent them from completing these sorts of quests. Likewise, you can use the 1/1 Whelps to mitigate the effects of some secrets and deathrattles.

To cite a very specific example, if an opponent has Voidlord on the board with four other minions, playing Leeroy will occupy the remaining space on the board and Voidlord's deathrattle will only summon a single 1/3 minion with taunt.

Leeroy also has fantastic synergy with Mind Control Tech, who requires the opponent to have 4 minions in play to be effective. If an opponent is playing around Mind Control Tech by keeping his board narrow, you can give him two whelps and then play Mind Control Tech, hopefully stealing one of the non-whelp enemy minions.

Combinations
Leeroy can be buffed from hand to increase the power of his strike, while possibly even giving him a chance to survive next turn. Don Han'Cho alone can buff Leeroy into a powerful 11/7 minion with Charge, devastating anyone without removal or Taunt. For Paladins, combine with 2 Blessed Champion for a 32 damage 2-turn kill, or reduce the cost of any of the cards.
 * Grimy Goons (Warrior/Hunter/Paladin)

Hunters can use Leeroy in combination with Unleash the Hounds to summon two additional Hounds, due to the Whelps summoned by Leeroy for the opponent. Another combination would be to buff Leeroy using Emeriss, and making a copy of the 12/4 Leeroy using a Faceless Manipulator for 24 damage, which, in most cases, should be able to finish the opponent. The drawback of this combo is that Emeriss is a 10-mana card, and if played on an empty board, the opponent could make prepare for a finisher, by either placing a taunt, or playing a secret that nullifies the attack.
 * Hunter

Arcane Explosion can be used as a cheap way to clear away the Whelps, as they only have 1 health and Mirror Image can be used to screen Leeroy, again at limited cost.
 * Mage

Rogues can use Leeroy in combination with Shadowstep as well as other cards. Play Leeroy and attack, Shadowstep Leeroy, play Leeroy again, but for only 3 mana, or use Fan of Knives to clear away the four Whelps. If using Shadowstep, some combination of two Sinister Strikes or two Cold Bloods can allow the rogue to deal a total of 18-20 damage for 10 mana, from just that combo and turn. Alternatively, leave the four Whelps on the enemy's battlefield to clog it and use Conceal to minimize their effect (with much caution against a shaman or a druid).
 * Rogue

A shaman combo is to summon Leeroy Jenkins and cast Rockbiter Weapon once on him, summon an Abusive Sergeant and target Leeroy with the Battlecry, and cast Windfury on Leeroy once. This allows Leeroy to deal 22 damage for 10 mana, or 26 damage for 11 mana if you have The Coin and a second Abusive Sergeant.
 * Shaman

Alternatively, summon Leeroy Jenkins while you have a Baron Rivendare in play, attack once, cast 1-2 Ancestral Spirit on him, coin, and then use Reincarnate (or cast Ancestral Spirit once then use Reincarnate), summoning 5 fresh Leeroys, and then attack with each of them. This will result in a total of 36 damage for 11 mana, or 30 damage for 9 mana if you did not have The Coin or a second Ancestral Spirit.

Warlocks can use Leeroy in combination with Power Overwhelming, Abusive Sergeant, and/or Faceless Manipulator on the attack buffed Leeroy to deal very large amounts of burst damage from hand. Simple combos can finish off a heavily wounded opponent if there's no Taunt minion in the way. Large combos, especially those involving Faceless Manipulator, will need cost reductions from Emperor Thaurissan's effect.
 * Warlock

If your opponent has a Unlicensed Apothecary in play, each summoned Whelp will cause the Unlicensed Apothecary to do five damage to your opponent's hero. This, combined with Leeroy's 6 attack, can hit the opponent's hero for 16 damage using only one 5 mana card.
 * Vs. Warlock

History
Since the game's beta, the 4-cost Leeroy was a critical card in many one turn kill (OTK) combos. His Charge, high Attack and relatively low cost made him perfect for a quick, fatal blow to finish the opponent, removing the need to worry about the Whelps summoned by his Battlecry. As a result, Leeroy became a choice pick for many decks featuring burst damage. Following release, Leeroy was featured perhaps most explosively in Miracle Rogue decks, where he was combined with 2 x Shadowstep and 2 x Cold Blood (1-cost at that time, hence total combo took 4+0+2+0+2+1+1 = 10 mana, enough without cost reduction or other tricks) to deal 26 damage in a single turn. This made the card a critical piece in delivering a devastating OTK. Leeroy was also often used in combination with cards such as Power Overwhelming and Faceless Manipulator (often after increasing his Attack), whilst shamans often combined Leeroy with Flametongue Totem and Windfury to create a devastating OTK.

In September 2014 the card saw a small but significant change - an increase in cost from 4 to 5. In an official announcement, it was stated that the change was intended to return focus during play to the state of the board, rather than simply upon building an overwhelming OTK in the player's own hand, which many times could not be prevented by the opponent. The developers had previously made similar changes to game-ending cards such as Unleash the Hounds and Pyroblast.

Lore

 * '' (aka Ben Schulz) is one of the most famous players/characters in World of Warcraft. The video has become a World of Warcraft phenomenon. After much debate and controversy, , Leeroy's guild, have admitted that this was a staged promotional video. They maintain, however, that it is essentially a faithful re-enactment of a true event.


 * ''The video depicts an raid group carefully planning out a method for clearing out the . The scene is the epitome of highly structured raid play, where order of battle, combat tactics, and numbers crunching are par for the course. Among the group is Leeroy Jenkins, sitting AFK and saying nothing while the rest of his extremely cautious group discuss tactics on how to safely defeat a boss in Upper Blackrock Spire (to the point of calculating a 32.33% (repeating, of course) chance of survival). After a full minute into planning, before his party is properly prepared, however, Leeroy suddenly returns to his computer saying, "All right, time's up, let's do this...", then screams his signature line, "LEEROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOY JEEEEEEENKIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINS!!!!" and he charges blindly — solo, no less — into the battlezone.


 * ''The other party members stand still for a moment confused, perhaps in shock, and then run after Leeroy with haste, yelling, "STICK TO THE PLAN! STICK TO THE PLAN!!" to complete their original goal and to "rescue" the helpless crusader. Meanwhile, Leeroy has proceeded to aggro nearly every creature in the chamber, while the party is quickly overwhelmed and unable to coordinate. At this point, the party wipes (all members die) and discovers that their buffs have been exhausted.


 * The movie concludes with the words "At least I have chicken", which has become a secondary catch-phrase. Schulz has said that KFC is the guild's favorite snack, and that while Leeroy was AFK, he had gone to reheat some leftover chicken in the microwave. Schulz states that he was kicked out of the guild for about five minutes until they let him back in after the incident. He also stated that they used a soulstone after the event to rez everyone.


 * ''Leeroy's actions have caused the larger World of Warcraft community to use his name to represent any action that could be seen as potentially dangerous and/or incredibly stupid. The Leeroy movie is generally suggested to be a must-see for any and all WoW players. It has become a popular term for a person who causes a bad pull that causes a group wipe. In 2005, Leeroy was also mentioned in a question about World of Warcraft on the TV game show Jeopardy!.

Trivia

 * The artwork for this card comes from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game "Heroes of Azeroth" series, for the card.

Patch changes

 * Moved from Hall of Fame to Legacy set.
 * Moved from Classic to Hall of Fame set.
 * ''Commentary: "Leeroy Jenkins created a strategy that revolved around trying to defeat your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. We like having a variety of deck types but taking 20+ damage in one turn is not very fun or interactive."
 * ''Commentary: "Leeroy Jenkins created a strategy that revolved around trying to defeat your opponent in one turn without requiring any cards on the board. We like having a variety of deck types but taking 20+ damage in one turn is not very fun or interactive."


 * Previously: Charge. Battlecry: Summon two 1/1 Whelps for your opponent. (4 mana, 6 Attack, 2 Health, legendary, neutral)