After a rather calm weekend, the Murder at Castle Nathria reveal season has resumed. During the last hours, we received all the remaining Rogue cards we were still missing to see: Secrets are back for Valeera, together with a Legendary unit with a very original effect in Halkias.
However, one of the aforementioned Rogue Secret cards raised some questions among the community members: in particular, we're talking about Kidnap.
Maybe it's because of the unclear text, maybe because Team 5 doesn't have infinite space to write a card's effect, but there's no denying that Kidnap doesn't have the clearest effect to ever see the light of the tavern.
Fortunately for all of us, Hearthstone Game Designers Cora "Songbird" Georgiou and Leo Robles swiftly provided some insights regarding how this Secret works, as well as some interactions with other existing mechanics.
First of all, let's talk about what exactly happen when Kidnap triggers:
- Your opponent plays a minion.
- Kidnap triggers and the played minion goes into a 0/4 Kidnapper's Sack summoned on the Rogue's side of the board.
- If you manage to destroy the 0/4 Kidnapper's Sack, the kidnapped minion will return to the original owner's hand.
- If the Rogue's side of the board is already full, Kidnap won't trigger (just like it happens with other summoning Secrets like Oasis Ally or Netherwind Portal).
Quote From Songbird Rogue plays Kidnap.
Paladin plays Stewart the Steward.
Stewart gets put into the Kidnapper's Sack and Sack is summoned on Rogue side of the board.
Paladin kills 0/4 Kidnapper's Sack.
Stewart goes back to Paladin's hand.
What happens if the Rogue’s board is full? Does the minion disappear, instantly go back into hand or does the Secret just not trigger?
If your board (as the Rogue player) is full, Kidnap will not trigger.
Now that we have cleared how Kidnap usually works, there are a few interactions you should be aware of. First of all, minion that return to your hand after you pop the Kidnapper's Sack will retain their buffs.
Quote From Songbird "Stewart? Where did your hand buffs go?"
Minions do actually retain buffs when they're returned to the players hand from the Sack.
But how does that work precisely? Leo Robles points out that the returned minion won't retain mana cost discounts or increases; however, it is safe to assume that stats buffs (like the ones you receive from Alliance Bannerman or Conditioning (Rank 1)) won't go away.
Quote From Leo Robles Minions keep buffs? Well that's interesting. I guess this also applies to enchantments such as Switcheroo health switches, Far Watch Post cost increases & cost reductions?
Cost changes: no. Cost changes are deleted when a minion enters play as to not mess with Evolve-like effects (Leper Gnome should cost 1 when on the board, even if it somehow costed 10 when played).
Additionally, there's the Battlecry question: does Kidnap allow the minion's Battlecry to resolve or does the unit get kidnapped before? This Secret's text states "After", meaning that the effect should let the unit use its Battlecry and then kidnap it. Not only this sequence is confirmed by the tweet you see below, but it is also consistent with other Secrets from the past like Explosive Runes, Snipe and Mirror Entity.
Quote From Leo Robles So how do Battlecries work when they are stuffed in the sack? @hsdecktech or @MyntyPhresh
This Secret says "After", so it waits for anything like Battlecries to resolve before this triggers.
Last but not least, what about Colossal minions? What will happen? It's simple: just like for Battlecries, Kidnap will trigger only after each appendage is summoned, meaning that you'll have a "headless" Colossal on your side of the board, but with the appendages ready to work as usual.
Quote From Songbird What about the appendages of Colossal minions?
The appendages are summoned before the base minion gets put into the Sack because this is on "After" timing rather than "Whenever" timing.
What do you think about this card? Do you think it will see any play? Let us know in the comments below!
Comments
If it does end up backfiring more than helping, they might consider buffing it to be a 'when' effect (unless secret rogue as a whole happens to be strong). For now though, I'm willing to wait and see how well it works out in practice. We can identify the worst case scenarios, but we should also keep in mind how effective it can be against other common minions like those with rush and deathrattle.