Mukla's Champion

Mukla's Champion is a common neutral minion card, from the Grand Tournament set.

Strategy
Playing this card and using your Hero Power will cost you 7 mana. Its stats are poor for its cost and as a soft taunt it may be swiftly removed from the board. For 7 mana you can play Stormwind Champion, which grants the same effect, albeit as an aura, while providing a 6/6 body. Mukla's Champion's ability, however, grants a permanent upgrade to the minions it affects, whereas Stormwind Champion's buff fades if it is removed from the field. Mukla's Champion's ability also can be triggered multiple times over multiple turns, providing a powerful snowballing effect. For this reason, this card is best played in situations where you hope it can remain on the board for several turns, buffing a field full of minions. It synergizes well with cards like Muster for Battle, Kara Kazham!, Forbidden Ritual, and other cards that provide a large number of relatively weak minions for low cost.

This card can work well with paladin or shaman decks since it has synergy with their Hero Powers. Because Mukla's Champion's effect activates after the hero power is used, the summoned Silver Hand Recruit or Totem itself will also receive the buff.

Lore
This gorilla is a champion of King Mukla, and is riding a hippopotamus. The mount is notable, as hippopotamuses are not previously known to exist in World of Warcraft. The planet of has hippo-like creatures called s, but they have rocky plates covering their backs, as well as long, club-like tails, neither of which are possessed by the beast ridden by Mukla's Champion.

Trivia

 * This card's flavor text is a reference to 's description of a in.
 * Early concept art for this minion originally had the gorilla riding on a horse, using a traditional lance. However, when they started creating cards for The Grand Tournament, the developers realised that the emphasis on the Joust mechanic in particular meant that it was "really important to have a really cool mount." With the desire to make the mount a little more "from the jungle", the champion was later drafted riding a "dino dragon mount" and his lance changed to a sharpened bamboo cane. This felt "a little more like Hearthstone, but still "wasn't quite there yet". The developers eventually decided to mount the gorilla on a "really angry war-hippo".

Voice
Mukla's Champion was voiced by Dave Mallow, who also voiced The Mistcaller, Mogor's Champion and Spawn of Shadows.

Patch changes

 * Added.