Medivh, the Guardian

Regular

Gold

Set:	One Night in Karazhan
Type:	Minion
Class:	Neutral
Rarity:	Legendary
Cost:	8
Attack:	7
Health:	7
Abilities:	Battlecry, Equip
Wiki tags:	Weapon-generating
Artist:	James Ryman

Battlecry:Equip Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian.

Flavor text

If you think the party's great now, just wait 'til he invites the orcs over!

External links

Data page • Hearthpwn

For Medivh's other appearances, see Medivh (disambiguation)

Medivh, the Guardian is a legendary neutral minion card, from the One Night in Karazhan set.

How to get

Regular Medivh, the Guardian is obtained by completing The Spire, the fourth and final wing of One Night in Karazhan.

As a Wild-format card, both regular and golden versions of Medivh, the Guardian can also be crafted for the following amounts:

Card	Crafting cost	Disenchanting
Medivh, the Guardian	1600	400
Golden Medivh, the Guardian	3200	1600

Weapons generated

Known bugs

If you give Atiesh Lifesteal (e.g. by playing Leeching Poison), it will incorrectly heal your hero when it summons a minion.^[1]

Notes

Atiesh's triggered effect summons a minion randomly selected from all collectible minions with a base mana cost equal to the mana cost of the triggering spell, regardless of class.
The final mana cost of the triggering spell is used to determine the selection, including any cost-modification effects (such as due to Emperor Thaurissan, Loatheb or Millhouse Manastorm).

Example: If you have 10 mana and cast Forbidden Healing with Atiesh equipped, a 0-Cost minion will be summoned: despite the spell's text consumed 10 mana to boost the healing effect, the spell's mana cost was actually 0.

In particular, if Cho'Gall's effect is used to play a spell spending Health instead of mana, Atiesh will still summon a minion matching the spell's cost.^[2]

Example: Suppose you have Summoning Stone in play, Atiesh equipped, and a Shadowflame in hand with mana cost reduced to 1 by Emperor Thaurissan. If you play Cho'gall and use its effect to play the Shadowflame for 1 Health, you will spend no mana but both Summoning Stone and Atiesh will summon a 1-Cost minion.^[3]

If there is no minion matching the final mana cost of the triggering spell (for example, a 15-mana DOOM! due to Loatheb's effect played through Cho'gall), no minions will be summoned but Atiesh will still lose Durability.^[4]

If the triggering spell is countered by Counterspell, no minion will be summoned and Atiesh will not lose Durability.
If minions can't be summoned due to the board being full, Atiesh will not lose Durability.^[5]

Strategy

This minion is poor for its cost, but comes with a very useful Battlecry: equipping Atiesh. This weapon provides the same effect as Summoning Stone, albeit for 3 uses only.

The weapon's effect makes it useful in a spell-oriented deck, especially those with reasonably expensive spells, making the most of its limited duration. While the randomness of the minions summoned reduces their value somewhat, even fairly cheap spells can provide a lot of value from this card, hopefully outweighing the poorness of the minion itself.

As a weapon it is vulnerable to weapon-destroying effects like Acidic Swamp Ooze or Harrison Jones. A few effects can increase its Durability, extending its use, specifically Captain Greenskin and the warrior cards Upgrade! and Bloodsail Cultist (although Upgrade! will use up its Durability to summon a 1-mana Minion).

Has strong synergy with Twisting Nether, Pyroblast, and DOOM!. Since Atiesh's effect activates after the spell, after the spell is used it leaves the board with an 8 or 10-Mana minion on the user's side, making it a powerful method of regaining board control.

Quotes

Summon: A game? So kind of you to join me.

Attack: I always win.

Lore

This card represents a reimagined, younger version of the archmage, when he was not only the guardian of Azeroth, but also its most eligible bachelor.

For lore on the main character, see Medivh. For background lore on One Night in Karazhan, see One Night in Karazhan#Lore.

Trivia

This card marks the first time in Hearthstone's history where a character is available both as a collectible hero and a collectible minion.
Atiesh is notable as the first neutral weapon in Hearthstone. Medivh, the Guardian is also only the second neutral card to equip weapons, the first being Blingtron 3000.
This card's text refers to the weapon as "Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian", despite the weapon card's name being simply "Atiesh". However, this may be due to a translated error.
The music that plays when this card is summoned is from the ending cinematic in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos when Medivh departs for the last time.