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Manathirst is a new mechanic introduced in Hearthstone's March Of The Lich King expansion. It essentially gives extra bonuses to a card's abilities once you have reached a certain number of mana crystals.
This versatility with Manathirst cards means that you can either choose to play a card immediately, or wait for it to have an extra impact later on. This short guide covers how Manathirst works, some notable cards with the attribute, and some playstyles tips and tricks.
What Is Manathirst?
Manathirst is a new mechanic that grants cards an extra ability if you have reached a certain mana crystal threshold. Here's a look at a card with Manathirst.
This is Astalor, a new Legendary minion added with the March of the Lich King expansion. As you can see on the card, this card provides an extra bonus of dealing two damage when you have reached four or more mana crystals. When played before that, the card will only activate its top line of abilities.
Typically, Manathirst is designed to balance out how powerful a card is and to make it valuable whether you play it early or later in the game. Take this card, Unholy Fel, as an example.
You could choose to play this as a one mana board clear (or near enough) in the early game, or hold on to the card for its extra Lifesteal attribute when you hit four mana. This also means that Unholy Fel isn't as useless when you draw it from the top of your deck towards the end of the game. This logic can be applied to most, if not all, Manathirst cards.
General Info
Here are a few tips on how Manathirst works in-game.
- Manathirst abilities can be triggered as soon as you hit the required mana crystals, and you can spend your mana without worrying about hitting the value. The card will still use its Manathirst ability if you have 2/6 Mana Crystals, for example.
- You can't use Manathirst when a card is Reborn or summoned - it only works if you play it directly from your cards.
- A Hearthstone developer clarified on Twitter how Battlecry and Manathirst cards interact. For example, if you are using Brann, whether a card gets double the effect of its Manathirst ability. The key here lies in the card text. If a card includes the word "Instead" the card is not impacted by the double Battlecry of Brann. If it doesn't include that text, it is. You can see this illustrated on the card Sunfury Clergy.
- Sunfury Clergy when combined with Brann will restore six health twice, rather than just one.