Molten Giant

Molten Giant is an epic neutral minion card, inducted into the Legacy set, formerly from the Classic and Hall of Fame sets.

Strategy

 * Molten Giants have the best synergy in warlock decks or decks that revolve around Health manipulation, most infamously in Handlock.


 * With their Life Tap hero power, warlocks are able to draw cards at a quicker rate as well as self-inflict damage to lower the casting cost of the unit. Adding one or two Molten Giants coupled with cheap taunters such as Sen'jin Shieldmasta will guarantee you heavy hitters as early as mid-game while at the same time protect your lowered Health Points from further weapon or minion attacks. Add Drain Life and Siphon Soul, for Health regeneration after using this combo. Couple them with Lord Jaraxxus to make the best out of Health manipulation decks.


 * Priest, druid, and paladin decks are all able to use Molten Giants with some success due to their healing cards and abilities. While lacking this synergy, the card can still be used effectively during the late game by any class.


 * If drawn by the paladin's Holy Wrath, this card will allow the player to deal 20 damage for 5 mana. This combo can be achieved through playing Lorekeeper Polkelt, then Holy Wrath while Molten Giant is still in the deck for 20 damage. This combo is usually done with Shirvallah, the Tiger instead because of its higher cost and consistency.


 * In later stages of the game, mages can use spells such us Echo of Medivh or Duplicate to summon many Molten Giants in the same turn. A well known mage combo is possible with 10 points of health or less: Two Molten Giant minions are played for zero mana, followed by an Echo of Medivh, granting duplicate cards which can be summoned right away, again for zero mana. The mage can then use another Echo and immediately play three of the resulting minions - a full board of Molten Giants.

Lore

 * s are a type of giant that live in warm mountains and underground. Most live in the . Small glowing yellow eyes peer out of a massive red stone skull. In fact, this creature's entire body is formed from chunks of red stone, even what appears to be a beard or mane. Its arms and legs are thick pillars of rock, and every inch is covered with molten veins. Molten giants are the brutal and cunning front-line defenders of Ragnaros' army.


 * Ragnaros pulled some of those giants from the heart of the to the  and the . The  has all shamans forbidden to summon, control and direct those unpredictable and violent fire s. The use of such coercion could trigger an event similar to the, if the elements grow sufficiently angry. Garrosh Hellscream recently ordered his dark shamans to force Molten giants into battle.

Trivia

 * The artwork for this card comes from the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game "Molten Core Raid Deck" series, for the backside of the card Golemagg the Incinerator.
 * Molten Giant is one of the original three Giants in Hearthstone. Several more have been added in expansions and adventure sets. All Giants are 8/8 epic minion cards, featuring a theme of their mana cost being reduced by a specific game factor.
 * Molten Giant is the first card to have a nerf reverted, albeit only because it was instead restricted to Wild format.
 * One reason for the change to Molten Giant with Patch 5.0.0.12574 (increasing base cost from 20 to 25) was to reduce the number of "evergreen" cards played in Handlock decks. Making Molten Giant less core forced players to look for useful cards in the other, rotating card sets, creating ongoing change in the deck.
 * This was also the reason behind reverting the change and instead moving to the Hall of Fame, allowing Wild players to use it forever while still spicing up the decks for Standard format.

Patch changes

 * Moved from Classic to Legacy set.
 * Moved from Classic to Hall of Fame set.
 * ''Commentary: Moving Molten Giant to the Hall of Fame allows us to revert it to its original mana cost, giving players a chance to experiment with decks featuring Molten Giants in the Wild format.
 * ''Commentary: Moving Molten Giant to the Hall of Fame allows us to revert it to its original mana cost, giving players a chance to experiment with decks featuring Molten Giants in the Wild format.


 * ''Commentary: "Molten Giant is an interesting card, but it’s too easy for players to reduce its mana cost to 0. We’re increasing Molten Giant’s mana cost to 25 to increase the risks players must take to get a free Giant. The changes to Force of Nature and Arcane Golem will make dropping to low health somewhat less risky as well, which helped spur this change."
 * ''Commentary: "Molten Giant is an interesting card, but it’s too easy for players to reduce its mana cost to 0. We’re increasing Molten Giant’s mana cost to 25 to increase the risks players must take to get a free Giant. The changes to Force of Nature and Arcane Golem will make dropping to low health somewhat less risky as well, which helped spur this change."