The Adapt Mechanic from Journey to Un'Goro

Table of Contents

• 1. Crackling Shield
• 2. Flaming Claws
• 3. Lightning Speed
• 4. Liquid Membrane
• 5. Living Spores
• 6. Massive
• 7. Poison Spit
• 8. Rocky Carapace
• 9. Shrouding Mist
• 10. Volcanic Might
• 11. Changelog

Adapt is a mechanic that was introduced with the Journey to Un'Goro expansion. There are ten Adapt options in total, and whenever you Adapt a Minion, you will be offered three of those options to choose from. What you decide to pick will depend on the size of the Minion involved, and the game state. To get the most out of the Adapt mechanic, you should try to weigh each option on its merits every time, rather than falling into a pattern, or following general rules. With that in mind, we have highlighted the use of each option for you. You should also be aware that some picks work better with Minions that can combo when Adapting twice than they do on their own.

Crackling Shield is strong if your opponent does not have small minions or ping effects. If your opponent is going to have to invest a lot of damage to break the Shield, then this will be a good choice. A good rule of thumb as to the effectiveness of the Shield is to add an amount of Health to your Minion based on the smallest single piece of damage your opponent is able to do. This will allow for a reasonable comparison with Rocky Carapace.

A lot of the time, Attack is a worse stat than Health. However in some situations, Flaming Claws will be useful, either to challenge a large minion on the board, or to set up lethal damage.

Lightning Speed on its own is often a poor ability, however when used with Crackling Shield, or Rocky Carapace, it can become game changing. If your Minion can Adapt twice, you should carefully consider how good Windfury will be on your Minion when combined with your second choice.

Liquid Membrane will tend to be one of your higher priority choices, particularly in aggressive decks. On Minions with double Adapt, you will be able to use this to protect your other choice, which will often create a formidable Minion. The ability to be untargetable is particularly helpful if you are not expecting weapons or AoE spells, and your Minion is large.

Minions that spawn as a Deathrattle effect are very good at maintaining pressure against control decks, as they survive AoE. If you are the aggressor in a matchup, or if your deck naturally buffs Minions, then Living Spores will be particularly good. The Plants are also handy on defence as well though, as if they are not tidied up by your opponent, they can be used to kill annoying aggressive minions with low Health.

Taunt can be used to either defend your Health Total, or to defend other Minions on the board. Those Minions will often be utility Minions, but sometimes you will simply want to block an attack on a big game-winning Minion.

Poisonous is a new keyword used instead of the old text "Destroy any Minion damaged by this Minion". It is a very powerful mechanic in conjunction with Divine Shield, and is also powerful on small Minions. On larger Minions it is less useful, as they are likely to destroy opposing Minions through damage anyway.

Rocky Carapace is a great choice in matchups where your opponent does not have spot removal. +3 Health is a lot in Minion combat, and with Adapt having a value of about 1 Mana, this only has to protect your Minion for one turn and it has more than paid for itself. You should always consider the differences between this and Crackling Shield if you are offered a choice between one or the other. In games where your opponent is playing large Minions, you might prefer to take Crackling Shield instead.

On a big Minion, Shrouding Mist is very versatile. It can almost guarantee that your Minion gets to deliver damage next turn, whether that is to remove a problematic enemy minion, or to push damage to the face.

Although one of the worst choices for Adapt when based purely on stats, there will be many occasions when the balance of Volcanic Might will make the Adapted Minion just the right shape to kill an enemy Minion and survive.

• 30 Mar. 2017: Guide added.

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