Ability



Abilities are special effects, powers, or behaviors found on cards. For spell cards, the ability describes the total effect of playing that card, while for minion and weapon cards, abilities are special effects or powers additional to the basic functions of the card. Abilities may be described in the card's text, or granted by enchantments.

Hearthstone features a large range of abilities. Abilities may trigger in response to certain events, provide ongoing effects to certain minions, or grant special powers or characteristics. Certain often-used abilities are written in memorable shorthand form using bold-faced keywords on the card, such as Battlecry or Deathrattle, while other abilities are written out with their full description in the card text.

Minion abilities granted by card text or enchantments can be removed using the Silence ability. However, abilities granted to minions through aura effects generated by other cards can only be removed by neutralizing the aura-generating card.

Keywords

 * ''This section is about keyword abilities. For keywords used to search the collection, see Keywords (collection manager).

Keywords are specific bold-faced words or terms printed on cards which specify a unique power or behavior without any explicit description. Mousing over a minion card with a keyword ability will generate a text display describing the ability. For a more detailed exploration of each keyword, and a list of related cards, click on the respective section headings.

In almost all cases, when a new keyword and mechanic is added for an expansion set, that keyword is only used in that set. (This does not apply when a new keyword is added for existing behavior, as when Poisonous and Lifesteal were added.) Two notable exceptions: Discover and Rush were added in League of Explorers and The Witchwood, and have been used heavily since their introduction.

For a discussion of why keywords do not exist for some often-seen behaviors in cards, see the trivia section.

Evergreen Keywords
These keywords can be found across multiple card sets and are frequently given new variations and synergies.

Battlecry
A triggered effect which activates when the card is played from your hand.

Choose One
Gives the controlling player the ability to choose between two or more effects stated in the card. Found only on druid cards.

Combo
Triggers an effect when played from the hand if you already played another card this turn. Found only on rogue cards.

Deathrattle
A triggered effect which activates when the minion dies. It is identified by a skull and crossbones that appears at the bottom of the minion's portrait.

Discover
Choose one card from three random class-appropriate cards.

Divine Shield
Absorbs the first source of any damage, removing the shield.

Freeze
Frozen characters lose their next attack.

Lifesteal
Damage dealt by the card also restores Health to the controlling hero. It is identified by a broken purple heart that appears at the bottom of the minion's portrait.

Poisonous
Any minion damaged by a card with Poisonous is destroyed. A type of triggered effect, Poisonous is identified by a green bubbling flask at the bottom of the minion's portrait.

Outcast
Gains an effect if it's the right-most or left-most card in your hand. Found only on demon hunter cards.

Overload
You have {X} less mana next turn. This effect is activated when the card is played from the hand, and typically allows a powerful card to be played for a low mana cost this round, at the price of reduced mana next turn. Found only on shaman cards.

Rush
Enables the minion to attack enemy minions on the same turn that it is summoned.

Secret
A type of spell card that remains hidden until its trigger condition occurs, revealing it and triggering its effect. Most Secrets can only be activated during the opponent's turn, but some exceptions activate at the start of the player's next turn. Only one of any given Secret can be in play for a given player at a time.

Silence
Removes all card text, enchantments, and abilities from the target minion, except for auras provided by external cards in play. Silence does not prevent enchantments and abilities from being applied to said minion afterwards, however.

Stealth
Minions with Stealth may not be the target of enemy attacks, spells or abilities until they attack or deal damage. Once they attack or deal damage, Stealth is removed. Minions with Stealth can still be affected by AoE spells such as Consecration, and randomly targeted spells such as Arcane Missiles.

Spell Damage
Increases the output of your damaging spells by {X}. Spell Damage is indicated by blue and purple sparkles rising from the card.

Taunt
Enemies must attack minions with Taunt before any non-Taunt characters. This includes minions and hero attacks. Taunt is illustrated by a large shield-like border.

Windfury
Can attack twice each turn. Windfury is indicated by multiple wind-like lines around the card.

Other Keywords
The following keywords only appear in specific sets or are used very sparingly.

Adapt
Choose from one of three possible upgrades from a list of ten.

Casts When Drawn
The spell card is automatically cast for no mana when drawn from your deck, and the next card in the deck is then drawn. Only found on a few Uncollectible spells.

Charge
Enables the minion to attack on the same turn that it is summoned. Originally an evergreen keyword, it has been phased out in favor of Rush.

Choose Twice
A variation of Choose One that allows the player to combine two options (or pick the same option twice) from a list. Found only on druid cards.

Corrupt
The card gains an additional effect if the player plays a more expensive card while it's in their hand.

Counter
Prevents a spell that was just cast from taking effect. Currently the only card to use Counter is the mage spell Counterspell; see that page for details.

Dormant
The minion becomes a Permanent until certain conditions are fulfilled.

Echo
Adds another copy of the card to the hand after it's played that disappears at the end of the turn, and can be replayed indefinitely that turn.

Frenzy
A one-time triggered effect that activates the first time the minion survives damage.

Immune
Prevents damage dealt from any source to the target, and prevents all enemy interaction with the target.

Inspire
A triggered effect that activates each time the controlling hero uses their Hero Power. It is identified by a blue flag that appears at the bottom of the minion's portrait.

Invoke
If a version of Galakrond is in the deck, triggers his hero power and contributes to upgrading him.

Magnetic
Playing a Magnetic minion to the left of a Mech merges the two cards together, combining their stats and effects.

Mega-Windfury
Can attack four times each turn. Mega-Windfury is indicated by multiple wind-like lines around the card.

Overkill
A triggered effect that activates when dealing more damage than needed to kill the target.

Passive
Cards that continuously provide a global effect to the game via an aura. Passive hero powers are a main source of this ability. All Passive cards currently known have no mana cost associated with them.

Quest
A special type of spell card that does not take effect until certain requirements are met, granting a Reward upon completion. Active Quests and their Reward can be seen by either player while in play. Each Quest will be automatically included in the player's mulligan. All Quests are legendary. A player can only have one active Quest at a time.

Reborn
The first time the minion dies, it returns to life with 1 Health remaining. Reborn is represented by a cracked blue glow around the minion.

Recruit
Summons a random minion from the player's deck. A keyworded version of Put into battlefield, found only on Kobolds & Catacombs cards with this effect.

Sidequest
A type of spell card that does not take effect until certain requirements are met, granting a Reward upon completion. Unlike Quests, Sidequests do not start in the mulligan. Only one of any given Sidequest can be in play for a given player at a time.

Spellburst
A one-time Triggered effect that does something the first time the controller cast a spell. It is identified by a sparkle that appears at the bottom of the portrait.

Start of Game
A type of triggered effect that activates at the start of the game.

Twinspell
Casting the spell puts another copy into your hand, but without the Twinspell ability.

Keyworded Generation abilities
Some card generation or summoning effects use a bold-faced word to denote their ability.

Death Knight
Powerful cards that are generated from The Lich King and Arfus, considered to belong to their own class.

Jade Golem
Each Jade Golem summoned throughout the match is +1/+1 larger than the last. Found only on Druid, Rogue, Shaman, and Jade Lotus Tri-class cards.

Lackey
1 mana 1/1 minions with useful Battlecries.

Piece of C'Thun
The body parts of C'Thun. Playing all four will shuffle C'Thun, the Shattered into your deck.

Spare Part
1 mana spells with minor benefits.

Can't attack
Prevents a card from attacking.

Can't attack heroes
Prevents a card from attacking a hero.

Card draw effect
Causes the player to draw one or more cards from their deck.

Cast spell
Casts a spell on behalf of the controlling player.

Copy
Copies an existing card. Usually combined with a Summon effect to summon the copy into the battlefield, or a generate effect to place it into the player's hand.

Deal damage
Deals damage to a character, attempting to reduce its Health by the stated amount.

Destroy
Destroys a minion, weapon, Secret or Hero without dealing damage to it.

Disable Hero Power
Causes both players to be unable to use their Hero Power. This effect does not work against Adventure- and Mission-specific Hero Powers.

Discard
Causes the player to discard one or more cards from their hand.

Elusive
An unofficial term for minions which cannot be targeted by spells or Hero Powers, from either player. The term "evasive" is also used, especially after Descent of Dragons.

Enchant
Modifies the statistics or card text of one or more cards. May be temporary, permanent, or ongoing.

Enrage
While damaged, this minion gains the stated effect. Prior to Patch 11.0.0.23966, Enrage appeared as a keyword, but was replaced with generic text due to its scarcity.

Equip
Equips the hero with the stated weapon.

Force attack
Forces a character to attack.

Forgetful
A term for a minion which has a 50% chance of attacking the wrong enemy. Forgetful is a type of triggered effect.

Gain Armor
Causes the controlling hero to gain Armor.

Generate
Generates a new card, and places it into the player's hand.

Highlander
Has an effect when your deck has no duplicates.

Increment attribute
Adds or subtracts a value from something's Attack, Health, Cost, or Durability.

Joust
Reveals a random card from each player's deck. If the player who initiated the Joust produces a card with a higher mana cost, they win the Joust, activating a secondary effect. Both cards are then shuffled back into their respective decks.

Mind control effect
Transfers ownership of the targeted minion.

Modify cost
Alters the mana cost of another card or Hero Power.

Multiply attribute
Multiplies something's Attack, Health or Cost by some value, which so far has always been 2.

No Durability loss
Causes the possessing hero's weapon to not lose any Durability during their turn.

Permanent
Permanent "minions" lack Mana cost, Attack and Health, are untargetable, are immune to all effects except their own, do not count as minions for effects, and take up a space on the battlefield.

Playerbound
Provides a permanent effect bound to the player. Similar to the aura-generation effect associated with the keyword ability "Passive".

Put into battlefield
Directly places a card from the player's deck or hand into the battlefield, without triggering any Battlecries.

Put into hand
Draws cards of a specific type directly from the player's deck and places them into the player's hand.

Refresh Mana
Refills the player's empty Mana Crystals.

Remove from deck
Removes cards directly from the player's deck, without placing them into the hand. Similar to discard effects.

Replace
Replace one card with another, without destroying or discarding the original card.

Restore Health
Heals a character, increasing their Health by the stated amount, up to but not beyond their current maximum Health.

Return
Returns the target minion to its owner's hand.

Set attribute
Via an enchantment, assigns a new value for something's Attack, Health, or Cost.

Shuffle into deck
Places a card into a player's unused deck, with its placement randomly determined.

Spend mana
Spends mana in addition to the normal mana cost to produce an extra effect. Currently, all cards with this ability spend all available mana, and the effect is proportional to the amount of mana spent.

Summon
Summons the specified minion/s. Distinct from simply playing a minion card from the hand, this is an ability found on spell or minion cards, sometimes triggered by a Battlecry or Deathrattle.

Transform
Changes a minion into something else irreversibly, entirely replacing the previous card.

Transform in hand
At the start of the controlling player's turn, changes a card into something else while it is in the player's hand.

Unlimited attacks
Allows the possessing hero to attack any number of times each turn.

Types of ability

 * See also: Tags

These are rough categories of abilities that describe certain common behaviours.

Area of effect
Affects all characters of the stated type.

In-hand effect
Effects which activate while the card is in the player's hand.

On-discard effect
Effects which activate upon being discarded from the hand.

On-draw effect
Effects which activate upon being drawn from the deck.

Ongoing effect
An ability which provides a specific effect on an ongoing basis.

Positional effect
Takes effect depending on the specific order and position of minions on the battlefield.

Random effect
Chooses a target or effect at random.

Removal
Used to remove minions from the board. Generally refers to destroy, transform or high-damage effects.

Triggered effect
An effect or behaviour which only activates in response to a certain event. On minions, these are denoted by a lightning bolt icon at the bottom of the portrait.

Boss and Tavern Brawl abilities
The following abilities so far only appear on cards featured in boss encounters and Tavern Brawls.

Auto-cast
Causes the Hero Power to be used automatically at the start of each turn, provided the hero has enough mana to spare.

Auto-Attack
Causes the minion to attack automatically at the end of the turn, targeting the minion or minions directly across from it. The minion cannot be commanded to attack, or prevented from attacking.

Shrine
Whenever the minion would be destroyed or removed from the field in any way or get Silenced, it instead becomes dormant for 3 turns.

Trivia

 * According to Ben Brode, the game's alpha featured 4 or 5 keywords which were removed from the game prior to the beginning of the beta.

Keyword creation
Keywords were specifically designed by the developers to help players to quickly recognise when a large number of minions have exactly the same ability, such as minions with Taunt, saving time spent reading each individual card's text. However, while keywords make it easier in cases where they are frequently encountered, when such examples are rare, keywords can actually serve to make understanding cards harder, requiring players to mouse over cards in understand to examine their abilities. The case of the "Destroy any minion damaged by this minion" effect was cited by Ben Brode in 2014 as an example where the developers could have added a keyword, but chose instead to simply describe the ability in full, since it is was originally only found on 2 cards. Senior Producer Yong Woo explained:


 * "You know, keywords are double-edged swords. On the one hand, it really condenses information. I tell you Deathrattle and you know what it is right away. I tell somebody off the street Deathrattle and he is going to be like "What are you... selling me a snake?". They will not know what I am talking about, so it is a balance we have to reach between condensing the information and making too hard a set of vocabulary for new players to understand. It is something we continue to work on."

Ben Brode has also stated that when a keyword conveys more than one behaviour rule, it can be hard for players to remember these from just the keyword. For example, Taunt and Charge immediately convey that the minion possesses a single, specific ability. In contrast, the "elusive" ability is tricky because it has more than one effect, protecting the minion from both spells and hero powers, but not Battlecries or attacks. Ben Brode has stated that the elusive ability was "right on the razor's edge" regarding whether or not to create a keyword for it.

Yong Woo has stated that it is possible in the future that keywords may be added for currently existing abilities such as the "elusive" ability of the Faerie Dragon, Laughing Sister and Spectral Knight - should there come to be a sufficient number of minions with that behaviour in the game. Other card text for which keywords were considered, and for which keywords may be added in the future, include on-draw effects and Joust.

Following its launch, the game did not see the addition of any new keywords until The Grand Tournament, when Inspire was introduced. Inspire was initially represented by the text "Whenever you use your Hero Power do X", but the developers felt that replacing it with a new keyword would both save space on cards and also highlight the new mechanic as a key feature of the new expansion. They also felt that the game had been around long enough that it was acceptable to introduce a new keyword. However, the developers did not choose to make the same expansion's new Jousting mechanic into a keyword, partly because of a lack of synergy with established keywords, and partly because it is "more in depth" than other keywords. Inspire also featured on a larger number of cards than Joust.
 * New keywords

The League of Explorers, the next major addition of cards, saw the debut of Discover. Originally intended to debut in a Tavern Brawl, the second added keyword was postponed due to technical difficulties.

A new keyword would not be added until Journey to Un'Goro, with Adapt. A few months earlier, the long-standing "Poison" ability ("Destroy any minion damaged by this minion") was formalised, with the addition of the Poisonous keyword. The change was purely cosmetic, but appears to have been due to the introduction of a number of new Poisonous cards with Un'Goro, therefore justifying the creation of a keyword for the long-standing effect.

As the game grows, the developers feel increasingly open to adding new keywords. When the game was new, Ben Brode says, the developers "really wanted to keep ourselves in check as far as the number of keywords we added and how quickly we added them", but since The Grand Tournament have begun adding keywords quite regularly. In 2018, Dean Ayala explained that the team tends to create keywords that are unique to specific expansions, to ensure that players don't have to learn "a hundred new mechanics" when they log into Hearthstone. As a result, new keywords tend to be introduced at around the same pace that old keywords rotate out of the Standard format. While all old keywords continue to exist in the Wild format, Wild generally has more experienced players that are able to "learn new things a little bit more over time". However, Ayala emphasizes that player feedback plays a big part in deciding which keywords to continue using in future sets and which ones should remain expansion-specific.

A handful of justified exceptions exist. Mega-Windfury was added with Goblins vs Gnomes for just one minion: the uncollectible V-07-TR-0N, summoned by Mimiron's Head's triggered effect. However, this keyword is followed on the card by the italicized text, "(Can attack four times a turn.)", essentially negating the use of the Mega-Windfury keyword. The redundancy can be explained by the obvious similarity between Windfury and Mega-Windfury, with the use of the keyword aiding players in immediately understanding the card's ability. Choose Twice was also added for one specific card, but is obviously based on Choose One. Likewise, the Start of Game keyword only appeared on three cards at the time it was added, but is justified by its self-explanatory name. The humorous keyword "Charrrrrge" was similarly added exclusively to the card Skycap'n Kragg with The Grand Tournament, but served only as a cosmetic variant on Charge.

Patch changes

 * Frenzy added.
 * Corrupt added.
 * Spellburst added.
 * Outcast added. Dormant keyworded.
 * Invoke and Sidequest added.
 * Reborn added.
 * Twinspell and Lackey added.
 * Overkill added.
 * Casts When Drawn added, replacing the previous card text "Cast this when drawn".
 * Magnetic added.
 * Echo, Start of Game, and Rush added. Enrage removed and replaced with "while damaged".
 * Recruit and Choose Twice added.
 * Death Knight added. Lifesteal added, replacing the previous card text "Damage dealt by this minion also heals your hero."
 * Adapt and Quest added.
 * Poisonous added, replacing the previous card text "Destroy any minion damaged by this minion."
 * Jade Golem added.
 * Discover added.
 * Inspire added.
 * Mega-Windfury and Spare Part added.
 * Poisonous visual effect added.