The Caverns Below
The Caverns Below is a 1 Mana Cost Legendary Rogue Spell card from the Journey to Un'Goro set!
Card Text
Quest: Play four minions with the same name. Reward: Crystal Core.
Flavor Text
Why can't it ever be The Taverns Below?- Mana Cost: 1
- Crafting Cost: 1600 / 3200 (Golden)
- Arcane Dust Gained: 400 / 1600 (Golden)
- Rarity: Legendary
- Class: Rogue
- Card Type: Spell
- Set: Journey to Un'Goro
- Mechanics: Quest
Cards Relating to The Caverns Below
| Crystal Core Type: Spell - Cost: 5 For the rest of the game, your minioins are 5/5. |
FInally this card left standard. 5 out of 5 in terms of power level as it was so stupid op they nerfed it 3 TIMES
This is the best quest.
Blizzard nerfing this piece of poo was rhe best decision they ever took.
Sorry..now this card get nerf?we are joking right?now control decks concede one turn after..Even the stones laughing..what a troll
There are now two choices for deck building:
Quest Rogue
Anti-Quest Rogue
Nothing else can be played until nerf. This is the most extreme metagame domination I’ve seen in a CCG since Necropotence for M:tG. It’s not that it can’t be beaten, it’s that it’s the only thing the game is about.
this is so broken NotLikeThis
BlessRNG RNGesus, please don’t give me this in a pack BlessRNG
you have 3 different 1 mana pirates. when you play 1 on turn 3 you summon patches onto the battlefield, return him to hand, play him and duplicate, next pirate puts 3 patches onto the battlefield, then vanish:)
That would summon Patches, not play him.
if you return patches to your hand after, you can play him, then duplicate, the next time you get all patches on the battlefield you can vanish them onto your hand and play those 3 patches again
If it only required 3 copies of the card played, it would actually give Pyros a purpose (if you get it from Swashburglar etc). Too bad you’d play a 10 mana 10/10 just to morph it into a 5/5 next turn,
I just can’t find a way how you could make this strong enough to play. I fear that Rogue is left behind in this expansion again, whereas classes like Shaman continue to get really strong cards
What? Rogue wasn’t really left behind last expansion, Hunter gets to take that title.
Lol if i just think of the decks that are possible because of this quest. Rogue might become the most broken class in the next expansion. For example this is the quest you can complete the fastest of all quests. Turn 2 quest complete is the dream. But mostly turn 4-6 you will complete the quest.
Alot of ‘bad cards’ that cost 1 or 2 mana suddenly become insane if you concider them as 5-5.
Anyway i aint gonne spoil my ideas. Figure out what can work, or wait till there is a netdeck….
Nope 🙂
Crystal Core should have been the paladin quest reward. Generate a 5/5 each turn for 2 and then be able to buff with all your left over minion buffs? OK. Not as good as Lord Jaraxxus, but better than Galvedon.
After you complete the quest all buffs are pointless. Silence will be pointless aswell…
I will try Vanish + two 0 mana minions control rogue.
It won’t be tier1 but it’s all about fun and faith in rank 20. Then all cards start shining.
Coliseum Manager actually has a purpose. A small purpose but a purpose none the less.
There was a short interview with one of the devs, the question was do you have any secrets you can reveal about the un’goro expansion he said “don’t judge the rogue quest just yet, you guys have no idea what is going to be released or the power of it”. We’ll just have to wait and see
Well they certainly were right about that!!! I will admit I didn’t think it was THAT good… definitely didn’t expect it to have such good synergy. This just proves everybody wrong, I love it!
He was certainly right about *that*.
I kinda doubt they *wanted* to break the game, though.
Oh well, there’s always Arena for the time being.
Token Rogue ?
Violett teacher, Illidan, barnes , Defias 5/5 Sherazin and 5/5 Vilespine Slayer
could be a good deck it wont be a tier 1 deck but i hope that it will find its way on the ladder
The quest is to PLAY four minions with the same name. Summon effects won’t count, it has to be played from the hand.
Basically pray to RNGesus and roll a clownfiesta with Thistle Tea, Mimic Pod etc.
The other approach is return effect like Shadowstep, Brewmaster etc.
Slow, clunky, unreliable quest. Also does NOTHING for 5 mana the turn it’s played. Hot garbage IMO.
Not true. The turn its played, it should turn all your minions on the board into 5/5s.
I get the feeling he was giving an example of what to do once the card is played, not how to quickly complete the quest. He’s not wrong though, Token Rogue will absolutely love this card. Complete that quest and the constant 5 damage burst from all the tokens will quickly add up
What’s your opinion now?
Hello milly rogue: oracle gankup control deck
Turn One (starting second): This -> Wisp -> Wisp -> Shadowstep -> Shadowstep -> Wisp -> Wisp
And then you have to wait until turn 5 to even play the effect. Also in what world can you reliably draw these cards quickly enough?
Angry Chicken viable?
Or does it force it’s stat down after the enrage?
Oh! I get it! Use bounce mechanics to pull it off! It doesn’t specify they need to be different cards, just the same minion! I think Shadowstep is still in rotation…
Hello wisps!
If we get another neutral card generating the same 1/2 elemental tokens as Fire Fly and the mage spell, Elemental Aggro rogue could become a thing.
And as weak as it sounds, it might very well not be the worst Rogue deck around 😀
Really stupid question: does permanently staying a 5/5 esentially makes immune your minions to every damage that would not kill them? If thats the case then rogue will be broken lol
If that was the case then that would be broken lol. However, the spell will simply set the attack and health of all of your minions to 5/5 when they enter the battlefield. I’m not sure how the spell will interact with possible hand buffs you might be able to steal, and if the minion would keep the buff, or even just a buff while already on the board, but I guarantee it will not make your minions immune to non-lethal damage.
Turn 6: Tinyfin Tinyfin Vanish. QUEST COMPLETE. MAX VALUE.
Turn 7: Deadly Poison (or any other combo activator), Defias Ringleader x2.
If the Tinyfins somehow survived that’s 6x 5/5 on the board right there with mana enough left to Sap a taunt off the board.
Hmmm, though you’d need to cast the Crystal Core, so…
Turn 7: Preparation > Crystal Core > Defias Ringleader x2
……. everyone else gets AMAZING quests and then they give rogues this…? What the f*ck is Blizzard thinking? It doesn’t make any sense to print a card like this
None of the quests are good sorry to disappoint you
Habe you seen the priest quest? Gtfo
1 mana 5/5 shadowcaster copy.
5/5 Moroes with 5/5s spawning every turn.
Onyxia board of 5/5s
Unlike other quest rewards, Crystal Core is a spell, so it can be countered I guess?
Also turn 5 crystal core is a huge tempo loss and you can probably only drop a couple minions next turn, since you would need to play a lot of cards to conplete the quest while holding the board in previous turns.
The best scenario might be turn1 quest, turn2 two same 1drop and 2*shadowstep, and prep+crystal core+minions on turn 3…
Warlock’s reward is also a spell as far as I know.
Am i the only person who thinks this reward is a lot worse compared to the other quests?
One hundred percent agree, the hunter quest, great end result hard to accomplish, warlock quest easy to accomplish , situational end result, priest, kinda hard to accomplish , borderline o.o end result, shaman just weird to accomplish op end result.
Am I the only one thinking that this would make rogue jade actually viable.
Technically Jade Golems are “summoned” and not “played”. So it’s not going to count towards the quest unless you Shadowstep the golems or use other copy or bounce mechanics.
And it also seems that your golems are CAPPED at 5/5 if you do get the quest off. Idk, I don’t think it’ll be viable, but who knows.
So how to activate this card?
Return effects (Shadowstep, Brewmasters, Gadgetzan Ferryman, Bloodthistle Toxin)
Copy effects (Gang Up rotating out, Shadowcaster)
Draw and Copy effects (New Mimic Pod, Thistle Tea)
How to ABUSE this card? Depends on mechanics of the card.
Play Sir Finley, get Shaman hero Power, 2 mana 5/5 with a cool effect (or just a 5/5 for the fiery totem thingy… Always the worst totem…).
A bunch of stealth minions up until you get the quest done, and you have a max 35 burst damage with a full board.
Play a Token deck with Violet Teacher? Possibly the return of Miracle, but minus conceal in standard will take a toll on it.
Gang Up is rotating out, but Tempo-Mill could be decent with Coldlight Oracle abuse and copying 3 mana 5/5’s. Not to mention 3 mana 5/5’s which cycle into more 3 mana 5/5’s with Gang Up is going to be insane in wild. Just obliterate the enemy’s board doing as you do with Mill, then constantly pump out 3 mana 5/5’s which cycle into more 3 mana 5/5’s. I can see this quest being excellent in Mill, as you naturally play a ton of Coldlights.
Or play a ton of cheap card draw that cycles into more cheap card draw, leading to a giant board of 5/5’s relatively early. Say you get Novice Engineer off of a Thistle Tea or Mimic Pod. Play Novice, double shadowstep, and another one, you got a decently sized hand of low cost 5/5’s.
What minions benefit most from this? Patches, other low cost chargers. Things that naturally have 0 attack? Windfuries like Young Dragonhawk? Cheap card draw minions. Wisp? Murloc Tinyfin?
Obviously this is just theorycrafting; we don’t know how the quest reacts with aura buffs (Murloc Warleader) or spell buffs (Cold Blood). But will we see a world where Southsea Deckhand pulls out Patches (or… AN ARMY OF PATCHES WITH GANG UP?!?!), play double Cold Blood into a Faceless Manipulator for a burst 26 damage WITHOUT PATCHES? 8 mana, 4 cards, and a potential OTK with little to no setup.
I can’t WAIT to try out Gang Up Patches in wild and burst the enemy down from 30 >:3
I doubt the OTK is actually going to be possible with this card since there’s a huge chance they playtested this card and edited the mechanics… But a man’s gotta dream, eh? :3
Oh, wow I didn’t even think about this next possibility…
Shadowcaster Factory. One of my favorite decks to play.
Discount your cards with Emperor Thaurissan, Shadowstep, Bloodthistle, etc.
Brann Bronzebeard into Shadowcaster into Shadowcaster on the Shadowcaster.
An infinite chain of 1 mana 1/1’s if played well (which this deck is IMPOSSIBLE to play perfectly). With the quest, you get 1 mana 5/5’s at the cost of having to do the combo (which you’ll only be able to pull off the combo around 20-30% of the time). Thank you Dane; your contributions have been noticed <3
Brann’s going to Wild… ya I’m sad too, the thought came up too
I’m pretty sure someone will make an OTK deck out of it. Like, seriously. Without thinking, first thoughts: 2 Stonetusk boars into 2 Coldblood into Kobold geomancer into 2 Eviscerates into weapon swing is 29 damage for 10 mana. Maybe they can include pirates for mor lethality. Or if they can preserve shadowstep, 2 stonetusk boars with two shadowsteps with two coldblood is 28 damage in itself. One Raid leader would make extra 4 damage. You can remove taunts with Preparation + Sap/Vanish. And we all know rogues can draw theor decks quite fast. And again, it might never work. But I look forward to find out.
oh no, please don’t do that! Because if you do that, stonetusk boar will get nerfed. We don’t want that, rite?
Theory crafting and practise are a huge diffrence… You still have to deal with an openent who wont just sit idle waiting for you to have all the cards to pull off an insane combo.. Although i m sure there will be games your able to pull it off, there will be alot of games were you wont, or just not in time….
Anyway rogue was allways the most complicated class to play with and this quest just continues that line. I sort of like the idea of having a class that is only for the veterans and best of hearthstone players, but only if it is rewarded in actualy winning, and not for just average result….
I just played against a deck based on this Quest THE CAVERNS BELOW. The quest was completed at the end of turn 4 and the 5/5 card was played on turn 5 and I conceded after watching his 3 other cards in play turn into 5/5’s.
I really like this card as it is completely different, will require some skill to pull off consistently, and works with existing cards that have traditionally been ignored or otherwise seen less play. This is good thinking and I’m anxious to see how it plays out. I’m also curious to see how these new cards mix in the Wild since there are so many cards that get positive synergy from them.
So this is what they can do now that Gang Up is gone.
Now, I still worry that this quest might be too easy to accomplish, especially given Rogue’s card draw, shadowstep effects, and the new legendary. Not sure, though? I’m a little worried because it IS an aggro card in rogue, which is already a good aggro class. Hopefully not too powerful.
This is not a midrange card not an aggro card, and no, it’s not too easy. While you’re messing around with Brewmasters and Shadowcasters, your opponent is killing you. Plus, it comes directly into conflict with miracle rogues stat buffing, do that deck becomes useless with it
This looks like it could be a staple for rogue or a complete dud…
This is a really good (powerful) card. It can be a buff to aggro rogue or to a variation of aggro rogue.
We all understand, that the quest can be finished very easily. Yes, it does require specific cards to do so, but it can be potentially finished by t5 and you can make a massive swing.
Because rogues have shadow step, they can play (let’s say) Fire fly x2 + two shadow steps. Quest completed and waits to be played. In order to get more value out of it, you can play stealth minions before playing the quest reward, that will become 5/5 on t5. The best example is Moroes, that can potentially generate 5/5s. I purposely mentioned that fire fly, because you can play 5/5 cheap tokens on the following turn.
Although adding the quest to your deck won’t allow you to have lethal on t4, I still think, that that doesn’t make the deck weak.
This is a great quest and I see it working perfectly with an aggro deck that uses a lot of cheap charge minions like Southsea Deckhand, plus of course Shadowstep and Ferryman for example to make it work.
Imagine after having the quest activated to be able to pull 5/5 charge minions for 1 or 2 mana, and if you return them to your hand, would do 10 damage in 1 turn with a single minion.
I think it’s a great quest that will open new different ways to play aggro, rather than the usual.
I think this card is not as bad as you think. Thalnos, novice engineer, loot hoarder, coldlight oracle… Are cards that accelerates your deck but they become useless at some point of the game. On the other side, we have young brewmaster, ferryman, shadowcaster, shadowstep and the 5/4 brewmaster (not that good but meh, can be playable), two copies of each card un your deck and that makes them already 10 cards to activate the quest (and i’m sure we will have more cards like them).
So if you think about it, the little drawing cards combined with the “return it to your hand” mechanic can make you draw the combo really really fast. Then, all your little drawing minions and the other stuff become 5/5, so a turn of 4 5/5 minions wouldn’t be that crazy.
I hope they give the rogue more cards to make this completely viable.
Wow, this is a really strange card… Playing four minions with the same name could be not as difficult as it seems, but what about the Crystal Core? I definitely don’t know what to expect from this Reward and that’s why I will certainly try this Quest XD
What does the crystal core do? It must be god or else rogue is screwed this expansion.
makes all your minions 5/5 for the rest of the game.
you’d probably play this in a deck with lots of draw and small minions.
(it costs 5 to cast btw)
Now, does this mean that all your minions on the board are also changed to 5/5s? What about minions that are summoned from other minions such as Defias Ringleader? Are minions summoned from other minions also changed to 5/5s?
All of your minions will stay at 5/5. It’s a permanent buff.
This card is for ferryman and shadowstep…maybe even some brewing to be happening! too bad gang up is gone! could be abused in wild though!
forgot about shadowcaster….
Maybe a battlecry blubber baron deck!
I replied too fast…. I’m actually seeing viable scenarios that aren’t too far fetched to make this castable by turn 5. This could actually be playable
If this card was in Druid, it would make some sense.. Aggro Token + Midrange potential. As it is, I’m not sure how this card is supposed to be played.
Does this even work with tokens? It says play, not summon.
water rogue buff, miracle rogue nerfed af
Well it really isn’t a nerf, since you will never play this in a miracle rogue.
It is a nerf since now every deck except elemental shaman pirate warrior and jade druid will completely revolve around the quest. So it is a nerf by rotating cards out but giving them nothing
idk even know what to think about this card like the quest is weird and the reward is really bad. I am guessing this is for a combo aggro deck or just a meme deck. The one class who needed much help got rekt
Rogue was never really a class who played big minions. (except van Cleef) And since rogue likes to combo stuff it prefers to play small stuff that do things instantly… Allso it’s in line with the complicated play that rogue allways folowed. If there are more cards that will support rogue with this quest it might be good.
now the ferry man is viable xD