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Zephrys the Great

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Zephrys the Great is a legendary neutral minion card, from the Saviors of Uldum set.

Zephrys grants the wishing player a card from a selection of three cards, from the Legacy set, to help turn the tide of battle in the player's favor. The selection of cards is based on what is best for the current game state for the player, as determined by an internal algorithm.

Of all Hearthstone cards, Zephrys the Great required the most development work and the largest team effort to design.



Fixed bugs[]

The following is a very brief list of some documented interactions that have been fixed. For the official patch changes, see #Patch changes.

  • With the live release of Saviors of Uldum, Zephrys now more correctly values Reborn effects and "egg" Deathrattles.[1] Previously in pre-release, Zephrys did not value these two card effects when offering board clear cards.
  • Before Patch 15.0.4.33402, Zephrys was able to find lethal with an unused Basic Hero Power, but sometimes not with a used Basic Hero Power.[3] After the patch, this bug was fixed.
    • Example: Steady Shot is used, bringing the opponent down to 7 health with no minions on their board. Zephrys is played, leaving 6 mana available. Zephrys offered Fireball, but Steady Shot was already used so it was not lethal. As a separate and overlapping bug, Zephrys was not able to offer Avenging Wrath for lethal.[4]
    • Example: Shapeshift is used, killing off a 1/1 Taunt. Zephrys is played, leaving 6 mana remaining. He does not offer any lethal options, such as Bloodlust, which would give lethal with the minions on board. He does offer a Savage Roar, which would give lethal if both the 1/1 Taunt was off the board and the player had not attacked with Shapeshift yet.[5]
  • Before Patch 15.0.4.33402, Zephrys was able to offer Coldlight Seer with no friendly Murlocs on the field.[6]
  • Before Patch 16.0.0.37060, Zephrys overvalued the effect of Deathrattles by a lot, causing him to avoid destroying enemy minions with Deathrattles a little too much, instead preferring to offer freeze effects such as Frost Nova and Blizzard.[7][8][9] This was a large issue but was fixed after the patch. The change in Deathrattle evaluation was explained by Chadd Nervig on Reddit:[10]
"Previously, Zephrys valued Deathrattles as summoning a minion with stats equal to the difference in stats between the minion's base stats and the expected stats of a vanilla minion at that mana cost.
Now, instead of evaluating it as summoning a minion, it does something more generic, of adding 'that much value' to the opponent's board. In practice, this produces about the same results, except without the occasional card offered to deal with that extra summoned minion (which doesn't exist)."
  • Before Patch 17.0.0.44222, Zephrys preferred to offer SI:7 Infiltrator instead of Flare when played at 2 mana remaining and the opponent had at least one Secret up.[11][12][13][14] This was a consistent problem but was corrected after the patch.
  • Before Patch 17.0.0.44222, Zephrys was able to offer Loot Hoarder if Zephrys was played with 2 mana remaining and no cards were left in the deck.[15][16][17] After the patch, this was fixed.

Sounds[]

Lore[]

With the League of E.V.I.L. and its crew of calamitous lackeys, the League of Explorers equipped with archaeological artifacts, and the mystical mummies and monsters of Uldum, the desert sands have never hosted such a party of powerhouse prestidigitators and mischief-makers. Among those most powerful stands Zephrys the Great. While at a glance most would see nothing but a mild-mannered medium, Zephrys the Great is capable of divining and manifesting precisely what is needed in any given scenario.
Once this dune-dwelling diviner is played, the state of the game will be carefully analyzed and Zephrys will attempt to conjure exactly what you need to swing the game back in your favor or clench a decisive victory![18]

Unique to Hearthstone, Zephrys is a djinn.

Wowpedia iconThis section uses content from Wowpedia.
A djinn is a type of powerful air elemental that can be found in Skywall. They made their first appearance during World of Warcraft: Cataclysm.
It was the djinn that gave the tol'vir back their immortality as creatures of stone, in exchange for their allegiance to Deathwing. The only tribe of tol'vir to accept the offer were the Neferset. When the Orsis tribe refused to serve Deathwing, Al'Akir's djinn buried the city beneath a mighty sandstorm.
Most djinn in World of Warcraft are powerful lieutenants of Al'Akir, though a minor one has also appeared trapped in the Magical Brazier inside the Vortex Pinnacle. A legend among the tol'vir tells of a wicked djinn whom the Ramkahen sought to destroy. In an attempt to prevent his own death, the djinn tried to transfer his spirit into the body of a monkey. He was slain right in the middle of the transference, and only a fraction of his essence had moved over - only enough to possess the monkey's paw.

Trivia[]

  • When Team 5 decided to bring back the "If your deck has no duplicates" mechanic for Saviors of Uldum, they decided that the set needed to have a really cool and exciting card that synergized with the mechanic, on par with Kazakus from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan. The design team came up with the idea of a card that would allow players to look through their collection and choose any card to add to their hand, but the gameplay engineering and UI teams immediately protested against this design. The team subsequently tried to brainstorm a version of the card that would be feasible to create, with one of the suggestions being to have the card only show players a couple of cards from their collection. The idea was then born to have the AI select some reasonable choices for players to pick from. The team tried implementing this idea "like five different times", with each iteration a complete reimagining of the previous, until they landed on the version seen in the final set.[19][20] The team manually went through the Legacy set to pick interesting cards and place them into categories for Zephrys to choose from.[19]
  • The decision to have Zephrys only offer cards from Legacy rather than all sets was made partially for technical reasons, since figuring out how to rate each card involves a lot of manual work for the developers. However, according to Peter Whalen, the bigger reasons stem from design: a big part of playing with Zephrys consists of understanding what he's going to offer and how to maximize the payoff from him, which gets harder the larger the card pool is and the weirder the cards in it are. Legacy provide a versatile mix of removal, AoE, minions, and situational cards while also being fairly simple and well-known to most players, whereas expansions tend to consist of a lot more niche and situational cards. Legacy have the added perk of having fewer extreme cards that could make Zephrys frustrating to play against. Furthermore, only selecting cards from Legacy rather than all sets also means that players don't have to relearn the card every time a new expansion comes out.[21][22]
    • The developers briefly discussed allowing Zephrys to Discover Hall of Fame cards when he's played in Wild. However, they found that the payoff wasn't quite worth it and that it's easier for them to maintain Zephrys and for players to predict what cards he's going to offer if his effect is the same across both Standard and Wild formats.[23]
  • According to Chadd Nervig, one of the main designers of the card, Zephrys the Great required the most amount of development work and the largest team effort in helping to design, quality-assure, and polish the card for official release.[20][24]
  • According to Alec Dawson, a game designer on the Hearthstone team, Zephrys was the card that the team worked on the most in the history of the game.[25]
  • Zephrys has over 1000 lines of code running behind the scenes; typically, a card has around 2-20 lines of code, maybe even 50.[20] The code only takes milliseconds to run to evaluate the player's board state to offer the player cards.[20]
  • Zephrys was continually updated with changes made to the Basic and Classic sets while he was in Standard.[26] Once Zephrys left Standard and moved to Wild, he remained as is.[27]
  • Zephrys the Great was first revealed on July 31, 2019 in the official Card Reveal Livestream for Saviors of Uldum. An official Theorycrafting Livestream was then held the next day in which six content creators were invited to theorycraft decks and do battle against one another at Blizzard HQ.[33]
  • In the Tavern Brawl Three Wishes, players could play around with 0-mana-cost cards of Zephrys' effect: First Wish, Second Wish, and Third Wish.
  • Zephrys' effect is also found on the treasure card Zephrys's Lamp in the Tombs of Terror adventure. A special and very rare treasure card called Sack of Lamps is able to give many such Zephrys's Lamps to the player in a single turn.
  • Zephrys' effect is also found on the card The Perfect Idea in the Galakrond's Awakening adventure. Two copies of the card are contained within Commander Elise's deck which the player plays with in two separate encounters: the third encounter of the first League of Explorer's chapter against Kriziki the Winged, and the second encounter of the last League of Explorer's chapter against Waxrider Togwaggle. The player is able to freely experiment with Zephrys' effect using this card since it shuffles itself back into the player's deck after it is used to discover "the perfect card".
  • Zephrys the Great's Diamond form depicts the card forms of Tirion Fordring, Fireball and Boulderfist Ogre.

Gallery[]

Zephrys the Great full

Zephrys the Great, full art

 Zephrys the Great golden animated

Patch changes[]

NB: The following superscript references describe and depict scenarios for the corresponding bug.
  • Forged in the Barrens logoPatch 20.0.0.77662 (2021-03-25): Fixed a bug where Zephrys the Great would not offer Mass Dispel or Shadowflame when your board was full.
    • Ashes of Outland logoPatch 17.4.0.49534 (2020-06-09):
    • Ashes of Outland logoPatch 17.2.0.47374 (2020-05-12):
      • Fixed a bug where Zephrys would miss lethal when there was an enemy Taunt minion with Lifesteal that you could attack into.[36][37]
      • Fixed a bug where Zephrys would prefer not to transform/Silence certain high-stat Deathrattle minions (such as Waxadred).[38][39]
      • Fixed a bug where Zephrys could miss lethal using Unleash the Hounds.[40][41]
      • Fixed a bug where Zephrys would not offer Silence options for minions with the "Can't Attack Heroes" effect.[42][43][44]
      • Zephrys is now slightly less likely to offer single-target removal for next turn.
      • Zephrys will no longer offer Natalie Seline for next turn.[45][46][47]
      • Zephrys may now offer Polymorph instead of Hex in a few cases where it would be better for your opponent to have a 1/1 than a 0/1 with Taunt.
      • Swipe will now fill the AoE category (instead of single target damage) if Zephrys expects it to be used against the enemy hero.[48]
      • Improved how Zephrys evaluates enemy minions that have low base stats for their cost, but are buffed.
    • Ashes of Outland logoPatch 17.0.2.45932 (2020-04-20):
      • Zephrys the Great has been updated to accommodate the Sacrificial Pact and Glaivebound Adept changes.
      • Fixed a bug where Zephrys the Great would not offer a lethal option if your hero had a large amount of Attack.[49][50]
    • Ashes of Outland logoPatch 17.0.0.44222 (2020-03-26):
      • Zephrys the Great has been updated for the changes to the Legacy set in Year of the Phoenix:
      • Improved ordering of simulated attacks to best make use of Rush minions to clear Taunts, in order to maximize potential face damage. This should solve many cases where Zephrys "missed lethal" that involved trading a Rush minion into a Taunt before going face with other minions.
      • Zephrys is now more likely to offer a Freeze card when the opponent has a full board, since it locks the opponent out of being able to play any minions.[51]
      • Fixed a bug where Freeze effects were sometimes offered against already-Frozen enemies.[52]
      • Fixed a bug where SI:7 Infiltrator was offered for next turn over Flare for this turn.
      • Fixed several bugs involving the opponent's weapon and/or Frozen state, for calculating whether healing should be offered.
      • Fixed a bug where minions whose base cost was higher than 10 (such as Shirvallah, the Tiger) were evaluated as being extremely valuable.[53][54]
      • Fixed a bug where Windfury was not offered for use on a minion that has already attacked once this turn.[55][56][57]
      • Fixed a bug where Crazed Alchemist was offered to destroy your own Doomsayer.
    • Descent of Dragons logo Patch 16.0.0.37060 (2019-12-05):
    • Saviors of Uldum logo Patch 15.0.4.33402 (2019-08-26):
      • Fixed several bugs involving weapon removal:
        • Acidic Swamp Ooze was sometimes not offered against 1-Durability weapons.[65]
        • Harrison Jones was sometimes offered against 1-Durability weapons when he could not be played that turn.[65]
        • Weapon removal cards were not offered against 0-Attack weapons.
        • Weapon removal cards were not offered when it would prevent your opponent from having lethal on their next turn.
      • Fixed several bugs involving certain cards not being offered:
      • Fixed several bugs involving Hero Powers:
        • Hero Powers were sometimes assumed to be usable, even if they had already been used that turn.
        • The current cost for Hero Powers is now considered, instead of assuming a cost of 2.
        • Damage and healing modifiers on hero powers are now accounted for.
        • Upgraded Hero Powers (such as through Sir Finley of the Sands, or Justicar Trueheart) are now considered.
        • If your Hero Power has been replaced, Zephrys will no longer assume your base Hero Power is still usable.
      • Fixed a bug where Betrayal was not appropriately counting as a single-target removal option when it would only damage one target.
      • Fixed a bug where Alexstrasza was being offered based upon the opponent’s combined Health and Armor, instead of only their Health.
      • Fixed a bug where silence cards were not offered to unfreeze your own minions for lethal.[31]
      • Among potential lethal options, silence cards will now be favored, in order to help minimize potential interference from Deathrattles or other unique card effects.
      • Fixed a bug where Zephrys did not properly consider multiple Deathrattles on the same minion (most commonly from Magnetic minions).[66]
      • Improved Zephrys's evaluation of the value of healing this turn vs next turn.
    • Hotfix (2019-08-08):[67]
      • Fixed a bug where Zephrys sometimes didn’t handle enemy Divine Shields properly.
      • Fixed a bug where Zephrys sometimes didn’t handle Poisonous properly.
      • Fixed a bug where Zephrys didn’t consider that buffing a 0-Attack minion would let it attack that turn.
      • Taught Zephrys how Doomsayers work. As a rule, we don’t plan to teach Zephrys about individual card mechanics and interactions. However, we’ve made a one-time exception in this case since having less-than-perfect offerings from Zephrys when trying to find an answer to a Doomsayer could cause you to lose your board or end up with no good plays for the turn.
    • Hotfix (2019-08-06):[1][68]
  • Saviors of Uldum logo Patch 15.0.0.32708 (2019-08-01): Added.

    • References[]

     
    1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Chadd Nervig on Twitter. (2019-08-18). 
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Trolden (2019-08-05). Funny And Lucky Moments - Hearthstone - Ep. 455 (08:33 - 09:12). YouTube. Retrieved on 2019-08-05.
    3. ↑ Shouldn't Zephrys always offer you lethal when possible? Almost lost a brawl game because he didn't offer me fireball.. (2019-08-08). Reddit. Retrieved on 2019-08-16.
    4. ↑ Zephrys won't give you Avenging Wrath as lethal option even with your opponent at 7 HP, no minions on board and exactly 6 mana left.. (2019-08-13). Reddit. Retrieved on 2019-08-13.
    5. ↑ Zephrys missed lethal or I was not playing it optimally. (2019-08-16). Reddit. Retrieved on 2019-08-16.
    6. ↑ Brian Kibler on Twitter. (2019-08-22). 
    7. ↑ Why Zephrys the Great don't give Twisting Nether? I lose in opp turn because he use Penance on my Zephyros and Ragnaros the Firelord win (i have exactly 8 health). (2019-11-28). Reddit. Retrieved on 2019-12-06.
    8. ↑ Where's my Twisting Nether, Zephrys??. (2019-09-15). Reddit. Retrieved on 2020-01-19.
    9. ↑ WAS THERE A ZEPHRIS NERF OR SOMETHING?. (2019-11-22). Blizzard Forums. Retrieved on 2020-03-23.
    10. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named celestalon_deathrattle_evaluation_dec_2019
    11. ↑ Hearthstone (2019-11). Hearthstone Collegiate Championship Fall 2019 - Championship Bracket Day 2 (Stanford vs Cal) (0-2) (04:53:00 - 04:54:10). Twitch. Retrieved on 2020-01-12.
    12. ↑ Zeph, where's my flare?. (2020-03-02). Reddit. Retrieved on 2020-04-06.
    13. ↑ Zéphyrs not giving lethal making me lose the game. (2020-03-24). Reddit. Retrieved on 2020-04-06.
    14. ↑ tahedozHS on Twitter. (2019-08-19). 
    15. ↑ C'mon Zephrys, I don't need more cards. (2020-01-14). Reddit. Retrieved on 2020-01-21.
    16. ↑ Zephrys offered Loot Hoarder in fatigue?. (2019-08-27). Reddit. Retrieved on 2019-08-29.
    17. ↑ BiladaClub on Twitter. (2019-08-10). 
    18. ↑ Blizzard Entertainment (2019-08-01). Saviors of Uldum Card Reveal Recap, Final Week. Retrieved on 2019-08-06.
    19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named saviors_reveal_livestream_2
    20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 20.3 Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named angry_chicken_interview
    21. ↑ Peter Whalen on reddit. (2019-07-31). Retrieved on 2019-08-01.
    22. ↑ Peter Whalen on reddit. (2019-07-31). Retrieved on 2019-08-01.
    23. ↑ Peter Whalen on Twitter. (2019-08-17). 
    24. ↑ Chadd Nervig on Twitter. (2019-07-31). 
    25. ↑ Tim Rizzo (2019-08-18). Dawson: "Zephrys was definitely the card we worked on the most in the history of the game.". InvenGlobal. Retrieved on 2019-09-29.
    26. ↑ Chadd Nervig on Twitter. (2020-03-17). 
    27. ↑ Chadd Nervig on Twitter. (2020-03-17). 
    28. ↑ Stonetusk Boar Paladin. (2019-08-14). Reddit. Retrieved on 2019-08-29.
    29. ↑ Trolden (2019-08-18). Funny And Lucky Moments - Hearthstone - Ep. 459 (00:05 - 01:15). YouTube. Retrieved on 2019-08-18.
    30. ↑ MarkMcKz (2020-01-26). INFINITE DAMAGE Combo! Zephrys Witch's Cauldron OTK! (01:20 - 01:32). YouTube. Retrieved on 2020-03-23.
    31. ↑ 31.0 31.1 HysteriA (2019-08-08). Zephrys Experiments - Will Zephrys Always Find Lethal? - Saviors of Uldum Interactions. YouTube. Retrieved on 2019-08-09.
    32. ↑ Chadd Nervig on Twitter. (2019-07-31). 
    33. ↑ Blizzard Entertainment (2019-07-29). Saviors of Uldum Livestream Events!. Retrieved on 2020-02-16.
    34. ↑ Trump doesn't get offered Windspeaker for lethal in Outland Inn-vitational tournament. (2020-04-21). Twitch Clips. Retrieved on 2020-04-22.
    35. ↑ Windspeaker not offered for lethal. (2020-03-27). Imgur. Retrieved on 2020-03-27.
    36. ↑ Tell me please Zephrys, WHY don't you offer me a fireball?. (2020-04-06). Reddit. Retrieved on 2020-05-13.
    37. ↑ Chadd Nervig on Twitter. (2020-04-08). 
    38. ↑ "I wish for a hex" "2 mana 2/3 coming right up" - Zephyrs. (2020-04-05). Reddit. Retrieved on 2020-05-13.
    39. ↑ Zephrys, are you sure you don't want to give me earth shock here?. (2020-04-04). Reddit. Retrieved on 2020-05-13.
    40. ↑ guouey on Twitter. (2020-04-08). 
    41. ↑ Zephrys does not find lethal with Unleash the Hounds. (2019-09-09). Imgur. Retrieved on 2019-09-09.
    42. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named can't_attack_1
    43. ↑ pnc_hs on Twitter. (2020-04-16). 
    44. ↑ andafern_ on Twitter. (2020-04-14). 
    45. ↑ Hearthstone Esports (2020-05-09). Shaxy vs blitzchung - Division B - Hearthstone Grandmasters Asia-Pacific 2020 Season 1 - Week 4 (10:28 - 11:50). YouTube. Retrieved on 2020-05-13.
    46. ↑ Zephrys, explain yourself. (2020-03-31). Reddit. Retrieved on 2020-05-13.
    47. ↑ Why zephyrs didn't offer a cheap removal or at least southsea deckhand? I know I couldn't loose, but anyway.... (2020-04-18). Reddit. Retrieved on 2020-05-13.
    48. ↑ guouey on Twitter. (2020-04-08). 
    49. ↑ TheViper94HS on Twitter. (2020-04-17). 
    50. ↑ Tyler doesn't get offered Soulfire for lethal. (2020-04-17). Twitch Clips. Retrieved on 2020-04-22.
    51. ↑ Chadd Nervig on Twitter. (2019-12-11). 
    52. ↑ Chadd Nervig on Twitter. (2019-12-11). 
    53. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named faceless_4_pyroblast_1
    54. ↑ Chadd Nervig on Twitter. (2020-02-03). 
    55. ↑ HysteriA (2019-09-07). Zephrys Experiments 2! - Will Zephrys Always Find Lethal? - Hearthstone Saviors of Uldum. YouTube. Retrieved on 2019-10-29.
    56. ↑ Zephrys doesn't give Windfury for lethal if you have already attacked with your minion. (2019-09-01). Reddit. Retrieved on 2019-09-01.
    57. ↑ ZEPH MISSING OBVIOUS LETHAL. (2020-01-12). Blizzard Forums. Retrieved on 2020-01-21.
    58. ↑ Zephrys misses lethal through Stealth + Taunt (Wardruid Loti). (2020-08). Twitch Clips. Retrieved on 2020-04-22.
    59. ↑ StormFever on Twitter. (2019-09-09). 
    60. ↑ Simon Welch on Twitter. (2019-09-19). 
    61. ↑ Zephrys can't find lethal with King Krush. (2019-09-01). Imgur. Retrieved on 2019-09-01.
    62. ↑ Thijs not offered King Krush for lethal. (2019-10-16). Twitch Clips. Retrieved on 2019-01-11.
    63. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named shadow_madness_supercollider
    64. ↑ HysteriA (2019-09-21). Zephrys One Turn Kill Combos - Hearthstone (03:20 - 03:47). YouTube. Retrieved on 2019-09-29.
    65. ↑ 65.0 65.1 Trolden (2019-08-11). Funny And Lucky Moments - Hearthstone - Ep. 457 (07:23 - 8:07). YouTube. Retrieved on 2019-08-12.
    66. ↑ Thijs gets the perfect card. (2019-08-11). Reddit. Retrieved on 2019-08-11.
    67. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named august_8_hotfix
    68. ↑ Mike Donais on reddit. (2019-08-05). Retrieved on 2019-12-12.
    69. ↑ Alliestrasza (2019-08-04). Allie vs. Regis (ft. Blizzard DEVS - Dave Kosak & Mike Donais) - Both Perspectives (Dual POV) (09:40 - 10:03). YouTube. Retrieved on 2020-01-21.

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