Rumble Run is a unique game mode. You play as Rikkar, and choose between one of three randomly selected Shrines at the start of the run. Shrines are powerful minions with game-warping effects. You and your opponent have one, which determine the flow of the game. Whenever a Shrine would be destroyed, Silenced, removed from the board, or otherwise incapacitated, it instead goes dormant for three turns, giving the attacker a moment to rest.
Regardless of the class and shrine you take, your opponents in the Rumble Run are all the same characters, with the only difference being their deck, based on the Shrine they control. Tropes for this game mode cover the Shrines rather than the other trolls themselves.
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General Tropes
- The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: While the player will have to build a deck on the fly using the bucket system and random followers, the AI will always have a perfect deck to synergize with their Shrine. This can also be a Weaksauce Weakness for them though - killing their Shrine will have cataclysmic effects on their deck quality, while the player can gear their's toward more generally good cards.
- Forced Tutorial: On the first run, the first boss will have a Shrine that simply has 1 health and Taunt. It's there to get you used to the mechanics. King Rastakhan will also chime in with hints and clarifications throughout your first playthrough. Averted on future playthroughs, where Rastakhan is absent and even the first boss has a full-power Shrine.
- Keystone Army: The game will not stop reminding you that Shrines are the keystone of most Rumble Run strategies, and killing them should generally be your top priority.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Totally averted. Every shrine and exclusive minion in the mode can be drafted and used by the player.
Druid Shrines
Gonk's Armament
A 5-health Shrine that refreshes your mana crystals whenever you gain Armor.- Gathering Steam: In the early game, the Shrine won't have much mana to cheat out. The later you get however, and the more powerful the bonus becomes.
- Sequence Breaking: Whenever you gain armor, you get a full reset on your turn. This can happen as many times per turn as you have Armor generation. Also keep in mind that this includes the Druid hero power.
Gonk's Mark
A 3-health Shrine that gives any minion you summon +1/+1.- Zerg Rush: The Shrine encourages swarming tactics, spreading its small buff to as many minions as possible.
Bonds of Balance
A Shrine with 7 health that gains Attack equal to your hero's Attack at the end of your turn. Hunter Shrines
Halazzi's Trap
An 8-health Shrine that puts a random Hunter Secret into play whenever you cast a spell.- Trap Master: Halazzi's Trap will fill the board with the maximum number of Secrets rather quickly. It pairs especially well with the special minion which puts another random Secret into play whenever a Secret is triggered.
Halazzi's Hunt
A Shrine with 5 health that gives your minions an Overkill effect that reduces the cost of every card in your hand by 1.Halazzi's Guise
A 6-health Shrine that gives your Beasts Rush, Taunt, or Poisonous at random. Mage Shrines
Jan'alai's Mantle
A 5-health Shrine with +1 Spell Damage for every card in your hand.- Explosive Overclocking: The typical result of a board clear that hits both sides. While the boosted Spell Damage will almost certainly blow everything up, the Shrine itself isn't immune to spells.
Jan'alai's Flame
An 8-health Shrine that reduces your Hero Power's cost to 0 and refreshes it whenever it kills something.- Mechanically Unusual Class: The only Shrine that effects your Hero Power
Jan'alai's Progeny
A 7-health Shrine that adds a Frostfire to your hand whenever you Freeze a minion. Frostfire is a 0 mana spell tha deals 1 damage.- Weak, but Skilled: The Shrine may look bad on paper, but Mage has a multitude of ways to abuse the effect, including Archmage Antonidas, Flamewaker, any Spell Damage, or a Rumble-exclusive that casts a free Fireball every time you cast a spell.
Paladin Shrines
Shirvallah's Protection
A Shrine with 4 health that gives your minions Divine Shield after they take damage.- Achilles' Heel: The Shrine is totally defenseless against big damage, which will kill friendly minions before they have a chance to be protected.
- Single-Use Shield: Provides one of those each time a minion is hit, greatly extending their staying power. This can ruin any Death of a Thousand Cuts strategy.
Shirvallah's Vengeance
A Shrine with 5 health that deals 5 damage to the enemy hero whenever your hero takes damage.- Achilles' Heel: This Shrine loses nigh-instantly to Hir'eek's Hunger. When the Hunger user takes damage on their turn (which can be achieved by simply using Life Tap), the damage is instead dealt to the holder of Shirvallah's Vengeance, which attempts to deal damage to the Hunger user, which then reflects it back to the Vengeance user, and so on and so forth.
- Counter-Attack: Abused. The Shrine can wear on any opponent who tries to chip you down, but it really gets powerful when paired with cards that damage your own hero.
Shirvallah's Grace
Another 5-health Shrine, this casts a copy of any spell you play on a friendly minion onto itself.- Power Copying: It doubles up any buffs you cast, stacking another on itself.
Priest Shrines
Bwonsamdi's Sanctum
A 3-health Shrine that causes your Deathrattles to trigger two additional times.- Exact Words: The Shrine causes Deathrattles to trigger three times, but unlike other cards with that effect, the wording lets it stack with other Deathrattle-boosters (including itself!).
Bwonsamdi's Tome
A Shrine with 5 health that adds a random Priest spell to your hand whenever you cast a spell.Bwonsamdi's Covenant
An 8-health Shrine that causes healing effects to damage enemies.- Damage Discrimination: Your healing effects will only damage enemies, not allies. For example, this turns Circle of Healing into a 0 mana Flamestrike that also heals your own minions. For extra fun, Priest has a special minion whose Battlecry restores all minions to full health. You can just about guess what this means for the opponent.
- Exact Words: Note the wording of the Shrine's effect: "Healing enemies damages them instead." It does not specify that it only works for your healing effects. Normally it's not too big a deal since non-Priests rarely get healing effects in Rumble Run anyway, but when the Random Number God gets involved, all bets are off
. - Healing Shiv: This Shrine lets you use healing effects to nuke down enemies.
Rogue Shrines
Bottled Terror
A unique 2-health Shrine that gives all your minions permanent Stealth. When the Shrine is destroyed, your minions gain +2 Attack.- Mechanically Unusual Class: The most unique Shrine of the bunch. It has a strong active effect, but it also features a powerful Deathrattle. It's the only Shrine where never killing it can be a solid option.
- Sadistic Choice: You want to force the opponent into one of these. Do they kill the Shrine and suffer an attack boost, or weather the assault from a horde of stealthed Pirates?
Treasure From Below
This Shrine also has two health, and steals a card from your opponent's deck at the start of your turn, reducing its cost by 2 in the process.- Weak, but Skilled: With only 2 Health, it doesn't take much to destroy this Shrine. But if you don't destroy it, have fun being run to fatigue as your opponent plays half your deck against you at a discount.
Pirate's Mark
A 5-health Shrine that casts a copy of whatever spell you cast (on the same target). Shaman Shrines
- Covered in Gunge: Upon breaking a Shaman Shrine, Rikkar remarks that it was sticky.
Krag'wa's Lure
A Shrine with 2 health that gives your minions attack equal to whatever you Overload, similar to a board-wide Tunnel Trogg.- Support Party Member: While its attack buffs affect itself, the Shrine's low health make it bad for actually trading. Generally you'll want to protect it with Taunt minions (especially the ones with Overload attached).
Tribute from the Tides
A 3-health Shrine that causes your Battlecries to trigger two additional times.- Exact Words: Just like the Priest Shrine above, the wording allows the extra Battlecries to stack.
Krag'wa's Grace
A 10-health Shrine that reduces the cost of your spells by two. Warlock Shrines
Blood Pact
A Shrine with 10 health that causes your spells to cost health instead of mana.- Cast From Hitpoints: As long as the Pact remains, all of your spells will be this.
Dark Reliquary
A 4-health Shrine that summons a random Demon every time you discard a card.- Luck-Based Mission: Demons are notoriously varied in power level. Your Doomguard could summon Mal'Ganis and a Voidlord, or you could get two Blood Imps. Somewhat downplayed since summoning anything with your discard is still pretty good.
- The Minion Master: Dark Reliquary fills the board with demons quite quickly.
Hir'eek's Hunger
An 8-health Shrine that makes it so that when you take damage on your turn, the enemy takes it instead. Warrior Shrines
