Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk
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| Set: | Rastakhan's Rumble |
|---|---|
| Type: | Minion |
| Minion type: | Beast |
| Class: | Mage |
| Rarity: | Legendary |
| Cost: | 7 
|
| Attack: | 4 
|
| Health: | 4 
|
| Abilities: | Battlecry, Summon |
| Tags: | Elemental-generating, Hero Power-related |
| Artist: | Jakub Kasber |
Battlecry: If your Hero Power dealt 8 damage this game, summon Ragnaros the Firelord.
You mess with the Bird, you get the Firelord.
Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk is a legendary mage minion card, from the Rastakhan's Rumble set.
Contents
How to get[edit | edit source]
Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk can be obtained through Rastakhan's Rumble card packs, or through crafting.
| Card | Crafting cost | Disenchanting |
|---|---|---|
| Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk | 1600 | 400 |
| Golden Jan'alai, the Dragonhawk | 3200 | 1600 |
Summoned minion[edit | edit source]
Notes[edit | edit source]
- Jan'alai tracks the total amount of damage the player has dealt with any of their Hero Powers that game. The counter is not reset if the player returns Jan'alai to their hand or deck and plays her again,[1] nor does it reset if the player changes their Hero Power during the course of the game (such as by using a hero card).[2]
- Jan'alai tracks damage dealt to any target by your hero power, including self-damage such as Life Tap.
- In-game, Jan'alai's card text includes a counter informing the player how much more Hero Power damage they need to deal before Jan'alai's Battlecry effect can trigger; for example, if the player has yet to deal any damage with their Hero Power, "(8 left!)" will be displayed at the end of the card text, whereas if the player has dealt enough damage to summon Ragnaros, the counter will change to simply say "(Ready!)". This counter is not shown in the collection manager and is only displayed while Jan'alai is in the player's hand in-game.[3]
Fixed bugs[edit | edit source]
- Playing Jan'alai with Brann Bronzebeard used to cause a crash, summoning only a single Ragnaros and causing the game to soft-lock when the turn ended.[4] This bug was corrected in a later patch.
Strategy[edit | edit source]
Jan'alai's Battlecry is extremely impactful, summoning Ragnaros the Firelord, an extremely powerful minion on its own. Having Ragnaros is already a good reward, but it also effectively costs 1 less mana and adds a 4/4 body. However, you will need put your Fireblast to work for this effect.
To meet the damage threshold as quickly as possible, include as much Hero Power synergy cards as you can. Daring Fire-Eater gives your Hero Power a burst of damage for just 1 mana, while Spirit of the Dragonhawk triples your Hero Power damage output. In Wild, another option is to run an odd deck with Baku the Mooneater for an upgraded Fireblast, which halves the number of times you need to use your Hero Power at most. Wild also has additional options like Fallen Hero, Garrison Commander, Coldarra Drake, and Justicar Trueheart.
Ragnaros himself can do a lot of work without depending on Jan'alai, so consider adding ways to reuse it like Zola the Gorgon or Youthful Brewmaster. Since Ragnaros himself is an Elemental, Frost Lich Jaina will let you heal off of his fireballs.
Jan'alai combos extremely effectively with Khadgar, summoning two copies of Ragnaros for 9 mana, for a whopping 16 damage. Combine with Khadgar and a 1 mana Faceless Manipulator for 4 Ragnarosses and 32 OTK kill.
Quotes[edit | edit source]
- Summon
- Attack
- ▶️Fan the flame!
- Death
- ▶️<death sound>
Lore[edit | edit source]
This section uses content from Wowpedia.- Jan'alai is the dragonhawk loa of the Amani trolls.
- In Zul'Aman, Hex Lord Malacrass stole her essence, imbuing it into one of the Amani's deadliest rogues. Jan'alai's spirit is chained by Zul'jin. She is freed when the chieftain troll is killed.
- Jan'alai appears with the other Amani gods in Zul'Drak, directing the player to the leopard goddess, Har'koa. The Amani gods are also summoned and tell the player to defeat the guardians at the Altar of Quetz'lun and kill the Prophet of Akali.
- Jan'alai appears in Zul'Aman where her spirit is chained by Daakara. He is freed when Daakara is killed.
- A Disciple of Jan'alai is present in Tal'aman, the Amani tribe's enclave in Zuldazar.
In Hearthstone lore, Jan'alai serves as the patron loa of Jan'alai's Dragonhawks, the mage team in Rastakhan's Rumble. Her connection to Ragnaros is unique to Hearthstone.
Trivia[edit | edit source]
- Jan'alai went through a number of iterations during the development of Rastakhan's Rumble. The developers always wanted to include the effect "Your Hero Power also targets adjacent minions" on one of the set's mage cards to play into the fiery Hero Power theme of Jan'alai's Dragonhawks, but the effect shifted around between Spirit of the Dragonhawk, Pyromaniac, and Jan'alai herself throughout development. Another similar idea was a card reading "Spell Damage affects your Hero Power", and at one point Jan'alai was a 6-mana 4/4 minion with this effect as well as Spell Damage +3. This effect was later moved to Spirit of the Dragonhawk, but according to Peter Whalen, the deck didn't quite work due to the difficulty of trying to include both Hero Power and Spell Damage cards. Thus, Jan'alai was changed to have a more direct pay-off as a 6-mana 4/4 with "Battlecry: Summon every minion you've killed with your Hero Power", but this had two major issues, the first of which was that players "really, really, really hate" being beaten by their own minions. The second issue was that this design forced both players to keep track of every minion that died even if the mage player hadn't drawn Jan'alai yet. As a result, the designers wanted to find another version of Jan'alai in the same space, with a similar mana cost and an effect that gave players some mid- to late-game value as well as tempo. They started discussing "awesome fire creatures" from Warcraft and Hearthstone's past and eventually settled on simply bringing back Ragnaros, who felt perfect for the role.[5]
- Jan'alai's flavor text is a reference to the internet meme "You mess with crabo, you get a stabo", which is associated with pictures of mostly non-harmful animals holding knives or firearms one way or another.
Gallery[edit | edit source]
 Jan'alai in World of Warcraft. |
Patch changes[edit | edit source]
Patch 13.0.0.27845 (2018-11-29): Added.
References[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Hearthstone (2018-11-19). Rastakhan's Rumble Card Reveal Livestream (40:05). YouTube. Retrieved on 2018-11-20.
- ↑ Peter Whalen on Twitter. (2018-11-19).
- ↑ Hearthstone (2018-11-19). Rastakhan's Rumble Card Reveal Livestream (29:25). YouTube. Retrieved on 2018-11-20.
- ↑ Kinky Gaming (2018-12-05). Jan'alai Bug - Hearthstone. Retrieved on 2018-12-05.
- ↑ Cam Shea (2019-02-04). Hearthstone: Peter Whalen and Dean Ayala on Designing Key Rastakhan Cards. IGN. Retrieved on 2019-02-05.
