A special visual effect reflects that a card's mana cost will now be exacted in Health
Change Cost to Health is a tag used to represent cards which make other cards cost health (or occasionally, armor) to play instead of mana.
This enchantment causes your card to cost health instead of mana. If the cost change is limited to the next card only, it wears off as soon as you play the card or at the end of your turn (whichever happens first). More precisely:
- Cards played for Health reduce your hero's Health by an amount equal to the card's mana cost, instead of expending mana.
- Playing a card for health does not count as taking damage, and does not trigger any damage-related effects.
- The mana costs of those cards are affected as usual by cost modification effects, and thus their "Health cost" is modified accordingly.[1]
- Example: Playing
Mortal Coil for Health after the opponent has played 
Loatheb will reduce your health by 6.
- You must have a combined Health total greater than the final mana cost of the card in order to be allowed to play it this way.[2][3]
- Trying to play the card will otherwise result in an error message.[2]
- Cards in your hand that can be played using Health effect have their mana cost highlighted by red bubbles.
- In particular, you cannot play a card if its mana cost is equal to your combined Health total, even if your hero would be healed back by the spell's effect (such as Siphon Soul).
- Armor isn't taken into account when paying health for cards. Only health can be spent, and paying in health will ignore armor. For example, a 5-cost card cannot be played for health even if a player's hero has 3 health and 3 armor, for 6 total hitpoints.
- As paying health instead of mana does not count as taking damage, having Immune or Divine Shield on your hero will not prevent you from losing health.
- When an effect has been activated that changes the cost of a card to health, you cannot cancel the effect, unless it is specified to expire at the end of the turn.
- Playing an affected card will cost no mana. However, card text effects which consume mana are not altered, and cards with effects that depend on the amount of mana spent still function.
- Example: Playing
Forbidden Ritual after 
Bloodbloom will cost the player 0 Health (instead of 0 mana), and then consume all of the players' mana as usual in order to generate Icky Tentacles.
- Example:
Summoning Stone's effect will summon a minion with cost equal to the Health spent.
- Cards which specify changing Cost to Health during a turn will create a cost-modification enchantment attached to your player.
- If the cost to health-modification enchantment is attached to your player, not your hero (such as from Bloodbloom), it will not be cancelled if your hero is replaced by Ragnaros or Lord Jaraxxus.
- The effects of multiple card that change cost to health do not stack: since they do not add a Health cost to the card but simply replace the mana cost with an alternative cost, multiples are redundant. Moreover, all such effects wear off as soon as you play a single card.
- Example: If you have both Bloodbloom and Cho'Gall's effects active, you pay Health instead of mana for the next spell you cast that turn, then the effect ends. You do not get to do it for two spells in a row, and you don't pay Health twice.[4][5]
- Some cards apply the Cost to Health effect to the card itself when added to the hand. They will retain the Health cost while in the hand until played.
- Example: Playing
G'huun the Blood God draws two cards, which will have their costs changed to Health. The effect does not expire on its own, only until the affected cards are played.
- Changing Cost to Armor functions almost identically to changing Cost to Health.
- Instead of losing Health, these cards can only be played if the player's hero has enough Armor.
- If played, the card will then reduce your hero's Armor total by an amount equal to the card's mana cost, instead of expending mana.
- Much like changing Cost to Health, you must have Armor total greater than the final mana cost of the card in order to be allowed to play it this way.
Cards that change Cost to Health[edit | edit source]
Swipe left or right to see the cards. |
Cards that change Cost to Armor[edit | edit source]
Swipe left or right to see the cards. |
Patch 26.0.0.170824 (2023-04-04): Updated functionality: Immune and Divine Shield no longer prevent health from being lost if a card's cost is changed to health. Now, you will lose the required health cost in all situations. Playing a card for health also no longer counts as taking damage, and as such always removes health only and ignores armor.
Patch 8.0.0.18336 (2017-04-04): If your hero is Immune you can now play a card for health regardless of your Health+Armor total. Previously, even if you were Immune, you had to have a combined Health and Armor total greater than the final mana cost of a spell in order to be allowed to play it for health.
Patch 6.0.0.13921 (2016-08-09): Health now properly registers as a card's cost. (Example: Previously, Summoning Stone would always summon a 0-cost minion if a spell was played for health, since no mana was spent. Now, it will summon a card with cost equal to the health spent)
Patch 5.0.0.12574 (2016-04-24): Added.
