Shadowboxer
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Shadowboxer is a rare priest minion card, from the Goblins vs Gnomes set.
How to get
| Type | Source | Quality | Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card packs | The Regular version can be opened from any of these packs:  | Regular | 1~2 (random) |
| Card packs | The Golden version can be opened from any of these packs: | Golden | 1~2 (random) |
| Crafting | Craft a Regular copy for 100  | Regular | 1 |
| Crafting | Craft a Golden copy for 800 | Golden | 1 |
Notes
To edit these notes, go to Template:Shadowboxer notes.
- This minion's triggered effect activates whenever Health is restored to any minion, which includes both enemy and friendly minions. However notice that trying to restore Health to undamaged minions will not activate on-heal triggers like this minion's effect.
- As with all random effects, this minion's triggered effect can hit any enemy, including Stealthed minions and the enemy hero.
- Healing effects with an area of effect (such as
Circle of Healing) will heal all affected targets before this minion's effect triggers (once for each healed minion). This ensures that the Shadowboxer's damage is not undone by the same event which activated it. - Prior to Patch 12.0.0.25770, if Shadowboxer gained Lifesteal from
Unidentified Elixir becoming Elixir of Life, its triggered effect activated until your hero reached full health.
Sounds
- Play
- ▶️
SFX_GVG_072_EnterPlay.wav<summon sound>
- Attack
- ▶️
SFX_GVG_072_Attack.wav<attack sound>
- Death
- ▶️
SFX_GVG_072_Death.wav<death sound>
Trivia
- Shadowboxer is an excellent example of the invention of a new card causing the game's underlying mechanics to be revised. Prior to the introduction of Shadowboxer, AoE healing effects healed targets one at a time, with any triggered effects activating after each healing occurred. For example, with a Northshire Cleric on the board, a spell like Circle of Healing would heal one minion at a time, with each followed immediately by a card being drawn, before moving on to the next minion. However, this design presented a problem for Shadowboxer's design. The current mechanic at the time of the card's invention meant that with Shadowboxer's triggered effect activated after each healing, and therefore before all healing had taken place, a Circle of Healing would potentially heal the very target the Shadowboxer had just damaged, thus undoing its effects. Likely as a result of the invention of this card, the game mechanic was altered prior to the card's addition, with the result that all single-effect healing now takes place at once, before any related triggers are activated.
- Shadowboxer also provides an example of how formerly innocuous designs can become problematic much later. The introduction of the Lifesteal ability, while originally unimportant to the power of this card, became somewhat problematic in Kobolds & Catacombs when Unidentified Elixir could potentially grant any minion Lifesteal. A Shadowboxer with Lifesteal would trigger its ability, healing your hero, then trigger its ability again, repeating until your hero was restored to full health. This became especially bad in The Boomsday Project, with
Zilliax having the ability to give Lifesteal to any Mech. This would allow the Priest to fully heal themselves and deal a large amount of damage fairly reliably. Blizzard issued a preemptive nerf to Shadowboxer to prevent this combo.
Gallery
Shadowboxer, full art
Patch changes
Patch 12.0.0.25770 (2018-08-02):
- Now reads: Whenever a minion is healed, deal 1 damage to a random enemy.
Patch 2.0.0.7234 (2014-12-04):
- Added.