Stealth

Stealth
Can't be attacked or targeted until it attacks.

Stealth is a minion ability which prevents that minion from being the target of enemy attacks, spells and effects until they attack. They can, however, be affected by area of effect spells and abilities or those that have random targets, as well as spells and effects generated by their owner.

Notes

• Minions in Stealth cannot be directly targeted by the opponent in any way. This includes Battlecry effects from enemy minions.

• Minions in Stealth can still be directly targeted by the controlling player. For example, a Voodoo Doctor can be used to heal a friendly Stealthed minion that has been damaged by AoE, or a Shattered Sun Cleric can be used to buff it.

• Unlike in games like World of Warcraft, receiving damage will not break a minion's Stealth.

• Any additional effects or enchantments of Stealthed minions are still active even if Stealthed. This can make Stealth a very convenient way of protecting valuable buff minions, which may otherwise be vulnerable to attack. Blood Imp is one example of a buff minion that comes with Stealth.

• A minion that is in Stealth and given Taunt by another card will not act as a taunt until it comes out of Stealth.

• Like Divine Shield, Stealth is both an ability of a minion and an effect on the minion. Once the effect is consumed, the card text is still present but no longer does anything.
  • A Stealthed minion that is silenced will lose the Stealth effect, regardless of how it became Stealthed.
  • A non-Stealthed minion that is granted Stealth will gain the Stealth effect, regardless of whether it has ever had the Stealth effect before or has the Stealth card text.
  • Attempting to grant a Stealthed minion Stealth again has no effect.
  • Granting the Stealth effect does not grant the Stealth card text.
  • There are very few cards capable of repeatedly gaining Stealth; as of Mean Streets of Gadgetzan only Lotus Assassin, and One-Eyed Cheat in Wild format.
  • A minion with the Stealth card text which is restored to its original state (such as through being re-summoned (Kel'Thuzad, Reincarnate) or re-played) will regain the Stealth effect. Conversely, the Stealth effect itself will be lost upon death or being returned to the hand or deck.

• Minions that attack lose Stealth after the Combat Preparation Phase and just before any subsequent Death Phases/the actual combat itself, meaning that even if no Damage Event is created by attacking (such as by triggering Ice Block or if the minion is reduced to 0 Attack before the actual combat), the attack still breaks Stealth.^[1] Conversely, if you have a Stealthed 0 Attack minion, and due to Clumsy it is attacked, it does not break Stealth because it does not create a Damage Event.^[2]

• Note that Damage Events for 0 damage (involving Divine Shield and Commanding Shout), while not allowing on-damage triggers to run, will break Stealth. Conversely, if there is no Damage Event at all (because of Immune or Ice Block), Stealth remains intact.^[3]

• The only way to grant Stealth to a hero is through Valeera the Hollow's Battlecry and Cloak of Shadows, both of which grant Stealth to the controlling player's hero until their next turn.

• Minions that have the ability to attack randomly such as Ogre Brute, Imprisoned Felmaw, and Infiltrator Lilian's Forsaken Lilian are able to attack minions with Stealth.

Strategy

Stealth is very effective for protecting minions from enemy attack. However, as the Stealthed minion is unable to attack without losing the effect, Stealth's value is largely strategic. A minion which simply stays in Stealth is generally of little use to its owner, unless it offers a useful triggered or ongoing effect, in which case remaining in Stealth can be extremely desirable, especially as these minions are often high priority soft taunts.

Much of Stealth's value often lies in keeping the minion hidden until it is ready to attack; in a sense a substitute for a Charge minion, played the following turn. Stealth minions can offer a similar level of unstoppable damage, although they can still be removed with random target or AoE effects. In exchange, Stealth minions offer synergy with triggered effects and Battlecries, allowing the player to build them up before bringing them out of the shadows.

Stealth is almost exclusively found as a part of minion card text, meaning that minions either come with Stealth, or do not. However, the Spare Part Finicky Cloakfield and the Rogue cards Conceal, Master of Disguise, and Fadeleaf Toxin from Xaril, Poisoned Mind can be used to grant Stealth temporarily.

Cards with Stealth

For Wild format listings, see Stealth/Wild format

This section lists cards which have the ability to become Stealthed when played.

Collectible

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Uncollectible

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Sources of Stealth

For Wild format listings, see Stealth/Wild format

Stealth-generating cards

This section lists cards which generate minions with Stealth.

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Stealth-granting cards

This section lists cards which grant the Stealth ability to other minions or to itself.

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Achievements

Name	Requirements	Rewards
You Didn't See Anything... (1/5)	Play 5 minions with Stealth.	10
You Didn't See Anything... (2/5)	Play 15 minions with Stealth.	10
You Didn't See Anything... (3/5)	Play 50 minions with Stealth.	10
You Didn't See Anything... (4/5)	Play 150 minions with Stealth.	10
You Didn't See Anything... (5/5)	Play 500 minions with Stealth.	20

Trivia

• The spell Transcendence, used by the Lorewalker Cho tutorial boss, grants Cho an effect very similar to Stealth: he cannot be attacked or targeted by his opponent, but he can still target himself and can take damage from non-targeted effects.

Patch changes

• Patch 23.4.0.139963 (2022-06-01): Added a new fading animation for minions that exit Stealth.
• Patch 11.0.0.23966 (2018-04-10): Minions now only break Stealth when attacking. Damage dealt by card abilities, such as Knife Juggler's knife throw, no longer breaks Stealth.
• Patch 1.0.0.4944 (Open beta, 2014-03-11): Minions who have Taunt and Stealth now have an effect that more clearly indicates that Taunt is temporarily disabled during Stealth.

References

Cards By type Hero card Location Minion (Permanent) Spell Weapon By class Death Knight Demon Hunter Druid Hunter Mage Paladin Priest Rogue Shaman Warlock Warrior Neutral Multi-class By minion type All Beast Demon Dragon Elemental Mech Murloc Naga Pirate Quilboar Totem Undead General By spell school Arcane Fel Fire Frost Holy Nature Shadow General By rune Blood Frost Unholy By rarity Free Common Rare Epic Legendary Mechanics Evergreen keywords Battlecry Casts When Drawn Charge Choose One Combo Deathrattle Discover Divine Shield Dormant Freeze Immune Lifesteal Mega-Windfury Outcast Overheal Overload Passive Poisonous Reborn Rush Secret Silence Spell Damage Start of Game Stealth Summoned When Drawn Taunt Tradeable Windfury Card set keywords Adapt Colossal Corrupt (Corrupted) Dredge Echo Finale Forge Frenzy Honorable Kill Infuse (Infused) Inspire Invoke Jade Golem Lackey Magnetic Manathirst Overkill Quest Questline Recruit Sidequest Spare Part Spellburst Titan Twinspell Non-constructed Allied Auto-Attack Auto-cast Avenge Once per Turn Revive Shrine Spellcraft Start of Combat Venomous Classification Adventurer Basic Hero Power Basic Totem Cat Classic Basic Totem Concoction Galakrond Imp Libram Poison Relic SI:7 Spy Gizmo Treant Upgraded Hero Power Watch Post Whelp Other mechanics Can't attack Cast spell Change Cost to Health Copy Corpse (Spend/Gain) Deal damage Destroy Discard Draw cards Elusive Enrage Equip Force attack Forgetful Gain Armor Gain Mana Generate Increment attribute Joust Modify cost Multiply attribute Permanent Playerbound Put into battlefield Put into hand Put on deck Recurring Refresh Mana Remove from game Replace Restore Health Return to hand Set attribute Shuffle into deck Spend mana Steal Summon Take control Transform (Transform in hand, Transform when drawn) Unlimited attacks Upgradable Effect types By range Area of effect Hero zone Positional Random Resurrection By condition Deckbuilding Highlander In-deck In-hand One-time On-discard On-draw Ongoing Triggered Card sets (Expansions / Adventures / Mini-sets) Standard Path of Arthas Core TITANS Festival of Legends (Audiopocalypse) March of the Lich King (Return to Naxxramas) Murder at Castle Nathria (Maw and Disorder) Voyage to the Sunken City (Throne of the Tides) Wild Caverns of Time Fractured in Alterac Valley (Onyxia's Lair) United in Stormwind (Deadmines) Forged in the Barrens (Wailing Caverns) Madness at the Darkmoon Faire (Darkmoon Races) Scholomance Academy Demon Hunter Initiate Ashes of Outland Galakrond's Awakening Descent of Dragons Saviors of Uldum Rise of Shadows Rastakhan's Rumble The Boomsday Project The Witchwood Kobolds & Catacombs Knights of the Frozen Throne Journey to Un'Goro Mean Streets of Gadgetzan One Night in Karazhan Whispers of the Old Gods The League of Explorers The Grand Tournament Blackrock Mountain Goblins vs Gnomes Curse of Naxxramas Legacy Classic Classic Removed Promotion Reward Basic Classic Hall of Fame Wild Event