Elusive

An Elusive minion

"Elusive" is an unofficial term used to refer to minions that cannot be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.

While no official keyword is used to denote the ability, precisely the same text is found on several cards: Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.

Notes

• Elusive minions cannot be targeted by spells or Hero Powers from either player, such as Kill Command or Lesser Heal.
• Elusive minions can be targeted by Battlecries and minion Combo effects, such as Temple Enforcer or SI:7 Agent.
• Elusive minions can be affected by area of effect and randomly targeted effects, such as Lightning Storm or Arcane Missiles.
• Elusive minions can be targeted by both minion and hero attacks, even if the attack involves using a spell (such as Heroic Strike or Blessing of Kings) or Hero Power (such as Dagger Mastery or Shapeshift).

Keyword

While many consistent abilities such as Taunt, Stealth and Divine Shield are denoted by a specific keyword, the "elusive" ability is not. This is due to the developers' desire to balance the pros and cons of keyword use; 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 to examine their abilities. Elusive is particularly 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 also stated that it is possible in the future that a keyword will be added for the "elusive" ability - should there come to be a sufficient number of minions with that behaviour in the game. The team have considered names including "Shroud", "Untargetable" and "Ethereal".

In the Descent of Dragons update, several minions with this ability were added, and all had "evasive" as part of the minion name (for example, Evasive Drakonid, Evasive Wyrm). This may indicate that Team 5 has settled on "evasive" as an unofficial keyword for this ability.

For more information on why some abilities have keywords and others do not, see Abilities#Keyword creation.

Strategy

Elusive is generally considered a valuable ability, which substantially increases the survivability of a minion. As a result, elusive minions are usually mana-inefficient for their stats and other effects.

Elusive prevents the opponent from removing or affecting the minion using spells or Hero Powers. The opponent is forced to tackle them using combat, or untargeted effects. This can prevent the opponent from being able to counter the minion, either forcing them into disadvantageous trades, or leaving them powerless to stop your attacks. It can also catch them by surprise, rendering otherwise effective strategies ineffective.

Elusive minions are therefore most effective against spell-heavy decks and those which rely on targeted Hero Power usage (primarily mage). Decks such as Zoo which rely on filling the board with minions and contain few spells, are minimally impacted by elusive minions, and these are generally less than optimal choices against such decks.

While elusive is mostly advantageous to the controlling player, by preventing the player from buffing or otherwise targeting the minion it can end up a hindrance. This is most significant for decks which focus on useful spell buffs, such as Blessing of Kings and Mark of Nature, and those with friendly Hero Power usage (almost exclusively priest), preventing elusive minions from being granted useful effects, or being healed using Lesser Heal. However, note that Battlecries can still be targeted on the elusive minion.

Cards with Elusive

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Faerie Dragon	Common	Minion	Dragon	Any	2	3	2	Can't be targeted by Spells or Hero Powers.
Laughing Sister	None	Minion	General	Any	2	3	5	Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Reliquary Prime	None	Minion	General	Priest	7	6	8	Taunt, Lifesteal Only you can target this with spells and Hero Powers.
Showing all 3 cards

Forged in the Barrens

The below cards are planned for release with Forged in the Barrens, coming March 30th, 2021.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Bearshark	Common	Minion	Beast	Hunter	3	4	3	Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Showing the only card

Wild format

This section concerns content exclusive to Wild format.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Air Elemental	Common	Minion	Elemental	Shaman	1	2	1	Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Evasive Chimaera	Common	Minion	Beast	Any	2	2	1	Poisonous Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Bearshark	Common	Minion	Beast	Hunter	3	4	3	Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Arcane Nullifier X-21	Rare	Minion	Mech	Any	4	2	5	Taunt Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Evasive Feywing	Common	Minion	Dragon	Any	4	5	4	Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Shimmering Courser	Epic	Minion	Beast	Any	4	3	3	Only you can target this with spells and Hero Powers.
Spectral Knight	Common	Minion	General	Any	5	4	6	Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Evasive Wyrm	Common	Minion	Dragon	Any	6	5	3	Divine Shield. Rush. Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Beryllium Nullifier	Epic	Minion	Mech	Warrior	7	4	8	Magnetic Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Evasive Drakonid	Common	Minion	Dragon	Any	7	7	7	Taunt Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Winged Guardian	Rare	Minion	Beast	Druid	7	6	8	Taunt, Reborn Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Soggoth the Slitherer	Legendary	Minion	General	Any	9	5	9	Taunt Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Tyrantus	Legendary	Minion	Beast	Druid	10	12	12	Can't be targeted by Spells or Hero Powers.
Showing all 13 cards

Sources of Elusive

Elusive-granting cards

This section lists cards which grant the Elusive ability to other minions or to itself.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Robes of Protection	Rare	Minion	General	Any	3	2	4	Your minions have "Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers."
Showing the only card

Wild format

This section concerns content exclusive to Wild format.

Name / Desc	Rarity	Type	Subtype	Class	Cost	Atk	HP	Description
Spellward Jeweler	Rare	Minion	General	Any	3	3	4	Battlecry: Your hero can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers until your next turn.
Anti-Magic Shell	None	Spell		Death Knight	4			Give your minions +2/+2 and "Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers."
Kobold Monk	Rare	Minion	General	Any	4	3	6	Your hero can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Wee Spellstopper	Epic	Minion	General	Mage	4	2	5	Adjacent minions can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Beryllium Nullifier	Epic	Minion	Mech	Warrior	7	4	8	Magnetic Can't be targeted by spells or Hero Powers.
Showing all 5 cards

Trivia

• The removed card Grounding Totem had the text, "Your other minions can't be targeted by enemy spells or Hero Powers." This would have made it by far the most powerful Elusive card in the game, with its ongoing effect capable of granting the effect to a whole board of minions. Notably the text appears to either be in error (specifying only enemy spells and Hero Powers), or represent an earlier version of the ability.

References

	Cards
By type	Hero card Minion (Permanent) Spell Weapon
By class	Demon Hunter Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior Death Knight Neutral Multi-class
By minion type	All Beast Demon Dragon Elemental Mech Murloc Pirate Totem General
By spell school	Arcane Fel Fire Frost Holy Nature Shadow General
By ability	Evergreen keywords	Battlecry Choose One Combo Deathrattle Discover Divine Shield Freeze Lifesteal Outcast Overload Poisonous Rush Secret Silence Spell Damage Stealth Taunt Windfury
	Other keywords	Adapt Casts When Drawn Charge Choose Twice Corrupt Dormant Echo Frenzy Immune Inspire Invoke Jade Golem Lackey Magnetic Mega-Windfury Overkill Passive Quest Reborn Recruit Sidequest Spare Part Spellburst Start of Game Twinspell
	Other abilities	Can't attack Cast spell Copy Deal damage Destroy Discard Draw cards Elusive Enrage Equip Force attack Forgetful Gain Armor Generate Highlander Joust Modify cost Put into battlefield Put into hand Recurring Refresh Mana Remove from deck Replace Restore Health Return to hand Shuffle into deck Spend mana Steal Summon Take control Transform Unlimited attacks Upgradable
	Non-Constructed	Auto-Attack Auto-cast Shrine Start of Combat
By effect type	Area of effect In-deck effect In-hand effect On-discard effect On-draw effect Ongoing effect Positional effect Random effect Resurrection effect Triggered effect
By card set	Standard	Basic Classic Rise of Shadows Saviors of Uldum Descent of Dragons Galakrond's Awakening Demon Hunter Initiate Ashes of Outland Scholomance Academy Madness at the Darkmoon Faire
	Wild	Hall of Fame Curse of Naxxramas Goblins vs Gnomes Blackrock Mountain Grand Tournament The League of Explorers Whispers of the Old Gods One Night in Karazhan Mean Streets of Gadgetzan Journey to Un'Goro Knights of the Frozen Throne Kobolds & Catacombs The Witchwood The Boomsday Project Rastakhan's Rumble
By rarity	Free Common Rare Epic Legendary