Wing Commander Mulverick

Class: Druid

Rarity: Legend

Type: Minion

Mana: 4

Stats: 2/5

Rush. Your minions have "Honorable Kill: Summon a 2/2 Wyvern with Rush."

The lore

Alterac Valley is an area where the Horde’s Frostwolf Clan and the Alliance’s Stormpike Guide are fighting over the ownership. In World of Warcraft, Alterac Valley is a 40 vs. 40 battleground.

Although the playtime length became shorter after patches, players had to slay the opposing faction's general — Drek'Thar for the Horde and Vanndar Stormpike for the Alliance — in order to achieve victory. A battle in Alterac Valley even lasted for three days and the players had to use every element in the battleground to win.

Wing Commander Mulverick is an NPC in Alterac Valley, held prisoner in the Dun Baldar North Bunker. Once the players take over the bunker and release Mulverick, he returns to the Horde's main camp. After he returns, Mulverick accepts turn-ins of a quest item to attack the Stormpike Aid Station.

Other than Mulverick, the Horde has wing commanders Guse and Jeztor. The Alliance also has three wing commanders — Sildore, Vipore, and Ichman. These characters are parodies of Top Gun (1986) characters, and Mulverick is named after Tom Cruise’s character Maverick.

Mulverick also appears in the Burning Crusade. In Shadowmoon Valley, you can accept a mount race quest while working for Netherwing Dragonflight reputation. As Mulverick is created after Maverick, he shows great flying battle skills.

Mulverick also appears in Warlords of Draenor expansion as a garrison follower.

Card effect

Wing Commander Mulverick has a 2/5 body, which is not great for a 4-mana minion. Considering that Stormwind Knight never saw play (except a few meme OTK decks) and Militia Commander was great because it gained +3 attack on the turn it is played, Mulverick's body is underwhelming.

The real power of Mulverick comes from the aura effect. When Mulverick is alive, all friendly minions summon a 2/2 Wyvern with Rush when Honorable Kill is triggered.

As this is effect is an aura effect and not a battlecry effect, it works with other minions' battlecries, too. For example, playing a Guardian Augmerchant with Mulverick on the board to kill a 1-health minion will summon a 2/2 Rush minion. Of course, the summoned 2/2 Rush minion will also gain the Honorable Kill effect.

Strengths

Mulverick is an amazing tool to take board advantage in an aggro mirror match. Mulverick can allow the player to clear the opponent's board and build the player's own board at the same time.

Druid currently has a difficult time taking the board back once it loses the initiative in an aggro mirror match because it lacks effective AoE clears. Mulverick can also help with Aggro Druid's main issue — running out of value and resources too quickly.

Mulverick also synergizes well with other new Druid cards. Frostwolf Kennels and Dire Frostwolf helps Druid to stick minions on board, which will increase the chances of Mulverick's aura effect working.

As Mulverick's aura effect works with battlecries, it synergizes very well with minions like Guardian Augmerchant and Pen Flinger.

Weaknesses

When Honorable Kill triggers, Mulverick is amazing. However, there are some opponents that you won't be able to trigger Honorable Kill against.

For example, Quest Warlock mostly plays giant-like minions only. It will be very difficult to take advantage of Honorable Kill against these decks. If there aren't any aggro decks in the upcoming meta, Mulverick might not be worth a spot in the deck.

Overall

As Hearthstone's meta is becoming more aggressive, Mulverick's days will likely come soon. Mulverick has the best chances to take advantage of the new Honorable Kill keyword.