Destroy

For cards that destroy other cards in the hand and deck, see Remove from game.

Destroying a minion, weapon, or location removes it from play. Only minions and locations currently on the battlefield and weapons that are currently equipped can be destroyed. Discarding a card removes it directly from the player's hand and from the game, but does not destroy it. The destruction of a minion is often referred to as 'killing' or 'dying'. Destroying the enemy hero will conclude the match. The exception to this is Majordomo Executus.

Destroy effects are effects which directly destroy a minion, hero, weapon, Secret, or location removing it from play regardless of its stats and enchantments, and without dealing damage to it.

Destruction

Cards can be destroyed in several ways. Regardless of the method used, the results are the same.

• Minions and heroes can be destroyed by reducing their Health to 0
• Weapons can be destroyed by reducing their Durability to 0, or by equipping another weapon
• Cards of any type can be destroyed using appropriate destroy effects
• Attempting to return a minion to the controlling player's hand when the player already has the maximum amount of cards in their hand will destroy that minion
• Secrets can be destroyed through attempting to gain a second copy of a specific Secret.
• Locations can be destroyed by reducing their Durability to 0, or by cards that specifically destroy locations, such as Demolition Renovator.

Consequences

• When a card is destroyed, it is immediately removed from play, and any Deathrattles will be activated. Other minions' triggered effects may also be activated (e.g., Flesheating Ghoul), as well as Secrets (e.g., Redemption). For a list of related triggered effects, see Triggered effect#Minion death.

• Some spells provide special effects if the target minion is killed, such as Mortal Coil and Bane of Doom.

Notes

• Technically, "destroying" a card refers to removing it from play while it is in the Play Zone - the battlefield for minions, or the weapon slot for weapons. Removing a card from play while it is in the hand results in the card being removed from hand (not to be confused with discarding), while removing it from play while it is in the deck results in a remove from deck effect. Note that attempting to move to a full zone will result in the card being removed from play with consequences matching its current zone.
  • Certain effects only come into play when the minion has been destroyed or killed - that is, specifically removed from the Play Zone. For example, Deathrattles will only activate when destroyed, not when discarded or removed from other zones. Likewise, cards destroyed through overdraw are not considered to have died, and therefore will not be summoned by Resurrect.

Destroy effects

Notes

• The majority of destroy effects affect minions, and are ideal for removing minions without triggering on-damage triggered effects such as those of Acolyte of Pain, Armorsmith and Frothing Berserker. However, any Deathrattles will still be triggered by destroy effects.

Cards that destroy

For Wild format listings, see Destroy/Wild format.

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Cards that destroy specific targets

Destroy effects can be categorized by which types of targets they destroy.

Minions

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Minions that self-destroy

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Weapons

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Secrets

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Mana Crystals

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Hero

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Locations

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Related cards

For Wild format listings, see Destroy/Wild format.

The below cards have synergy with minion death.

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Trivia

• Prior to Patch 20.0.0.77662 (2021-03-25):, Lord Jaraxxus could be destroyed by Sacrificial Pact. After being changed into a Hero card, this is no longer possible outside Classic format.
• Minion death is a major card feature for the adventure Curse of Naxxramas, with most of the adventure's cards involving Deathrattles or minion death in some way.
• All classes have a spell with a destroy effect, although the shaman's only destroy effect spell, Reincarnate, re-summons the destroyed minion with full health, arguably reducing its outright destructiveness.