"This is so comfortable!" Young Master Ai lounged in the soft bed, unwilling to get up for a long time. The linen cover around the cotton filling had clearly been aired in the sun, and its sun-warmed scent made him feel wonderfully relaxed...
A bowl of multigrain porridge, two pork pies, and a few pieces of fruit made for a simple but thoughtful breakfast. It was clear his hostess had put care into it. Perhaps because she had confidence in the mage, Mrs. Stonefield felt she had entrusted the matter to the right person, and her hospitality grew even warmer... After watching him polish off the two pies, she even asked if he wanted to take a few along to stave off hunger on the road.
Aige promptly made a decision he would come to regret... He refused!
Damn it! Why did I refuse? Who was I trying to impress?
At Beech Farm, Aige stood before a little brat, practically ready to bash his head against the ground!
Mrs. Stonefield had told him earlier that a child at Beech Farm to the east might have a lead on the necklace. There was no question about it: he had eaten her food, so he owed her. Young Master Ai had naturally hurried straight to this blasted Beech Farm and found this blasted Kate Beech without trouble... the little brat standing in front of him.
"That necklace? I think I've seen it. But I can't quite remember right now. When I'm hungry, I tend to forget things I only vaguely remember. My favorite is Auntie Stonefield's special Stonetusk Boar meat pie. It's so tender and juicy, and the flavor lingers in your mouth. If you could get me one, maybe I'd remember something..."
What the hell! Master Ai was so angry he nearly slapped the little bastard... and he wanted to slap himself, too. Why did I refuse? Would it have killed me to take one for the road? Why the hell was I worried about looking good?
While the little brat was still drooling, a plainly dressed young woman walked over and said, "Kate, are you after pies again? Food is all you ever think about. Hello, sir. If you don't know Auntie Stonefield well, I'm afraid it'll be hard to get a pork pie from her."
"Stonetusk Boars often appear in a remote area south of our Beech Farm. They frequently run into the fields and ruin a lot of crops. You look like an adventurer, sir. If you can help our farm clear out a few Stonetusk Boars and give me the pork you get from them, I'll make this boy talk!"
"Sister Sally, your pies aren't as tasty as Auntie Stonefield's... Ow!" His sister gave the boy a headbutt, and he didn't dare make another sound!
Prompt: Accept Sally's quest to clear out the Stonetusk Boars. Kill at least 4 Stonetusk Boars that have entered the fields and obtain their pork. Upon completion, you will receive the one-star basic neutral card "Boar"!
"Bless you, beautiful little angel!" Young Master Ai whistled excitedly. "I'll take this quest!"... He turned and left, waving goodbye without taking so much as half a cloud with him!
Beech Farm was large too, at least on a par with Hall Farm in size. Most of it was farmland as well, planted with wheat, radishes, or pumpkins... As everyone knew, pigs liked to root around, especially for things like radishes.
The farm also employed some farmers, who often took it upon themselves to drive away boars that wandered in. But the boars were cunning too, picking remote spots where no one was around. To these beasts, a fine radish field was paradise... Yes, just one step away from hell!
Master Ai was now lying in wait not far from a radish field. At first, he had thought the quest would be simple. Killing a few boars would be a piece of cake, wouldn't it? With the mage's combat power, even ten of them would be no problem...
But he seemed to have forgotten one thing: this wasn't a game, where everyone in the city wore golden armor and every field was full of boars... In fact, after taking plenty of wrong turns along the way, he hadn't seen so much as one. Come to think of it, even if boars weren't very intelligent, the fact that they had survived at all meant they at least weren't stupid enough to get themselves killed! Why would they charge straight into the heart of the farm? Wouldn't that be asking for death?
Aige had searched all around, and in the end he could only obediently follow the pretty young woman's directions and head for the remote area to the south... This was where most of the radishes were grown, and he believed it would be more popular with the boars!
Sure enough, after he had waited here for two hours, a group of uninvited guests finally arrived. They were clearly one big family, seven or eight of them, young and old... Now Young Master Ai had what he needed for his quest!
Naturally, he summoned a Goldshire Footman to join the fight. The card wasn't for the boars; they weren't worthy of that. It was mainly because Aige planned to go to the mine for a quest that afternoon. As a meat shield, the Goldshire Footman would have to be summoned sooner or later, so he might as well summon him now and squeeze out some extra value!
A fight at this level was hardly in doubt. Boars were only low-level creatures, after all. Although their charge gave them some fighting power, that was only against ordinary people. If a combat professional could still come to grief against them, they might as well quit. It was even simpler for a mage like Aige. With one Polymorph, he turned the big boar in the lead straight into a sheep. The unlucky fellow became Shaun the Sheep, wandering slowly and innocently around nearby...
All Aige had left to do was cast Frostbolt on the remaining boars to slow them down and keep them from charging, then quickly finish them off with the Goldshire Footman and two Wisps!
The fight ended quickly. Eight boars lay sprawled across the ground, more than enough to complete the quest. But it seemed Lady Luck had smiled on him once again: a card floated lightly above the corpse of the largest boar... What the hell? A little mob actually dropped a card outright? How lucky was that?
After all, even the worst basic card cost 20 portions of Arcane Dust to craft, right? Normally, it took killing several monsters to get one portion of Arcane Dust. That meant whenever a card dropped, it was definitely equivalent to killing at least 60 monsters-a complete and utter jackpot. And what if he got lucky and a white card, a blue card, or even a golden orange card dropped? (Hey, buddy, wake up. You'd be better off trying your luck in the lottery!)
The one-star basic neutral card "Boar"! That was the card Aige had looted from the boar. It seemed to be the same "Boar" card as the one from his quest...
A one-cost neutral minion with one star of attack and one star of health. It was a Beast and came with Charge.
In the game, this card didn't see much play. Frankly, a one-cost 1/1 had rather poor stats. Its Charge was nice, allowing it to attack as soon as it was played, but the problem lay in Hearthstone's mechanics: when attacking someone else, it would be hit back. With its delicate one health, it was sure to die as long as the opponent could retaliate. Fortunately, anyone using it was bound to treat it as a kamikaze anyway. Since it wasn't coming back, the question was whether it would die gloriously... Most of the time, it definitely would, because it was usually used to finish things off, specializing in taking down all sorts of big minions with low health.
Of course, drawing it early on wouldn't clog your hand, since it only cost one. If it couldn't charge an enemy minion, it could always attack the enemy hero instead. After taking one health off the enemy hero, it would become a standard 1/1 minion on the board... Though it certainly wouldn't stay there through the next turn.
Generally speaking, there were plenty of good one-cost minions. Opportunities to finish things off didn't come up often, and even when they did, you might not draw Boar. Most importantly, using it was bound to cost you card advantage (meaning it could at best trade one-for-one with an enemy, and might not even manage that, effectively costing you a card). That was why most decks didn't include it.
For a direct comparison, take the Elven Archer, another one-cost 1/1. On entering play, she could fire an arrow at any minion for one damage, making her miles more useful than a charging Boar... With such a gem available, the Boar card could only step aside.
There was one slight exception, determined by a very inconspicuous attribute of its own... Beast! It looked like nothing more than descriptive text. Who didn't know a boar was a beast? But in fact, it identified one of its attributes: it belonged to the Beast type. That was sure to make it very popular with the zoo keeper.
In Hunter decks, Boar would occasionally have a place. That was because Hunters, who specialized in getting "friendly" with Beasts, had far too many Beast-related cards in their hands. For example, Buzzard let its owner draw an extra card whenever a Beast was played while it was on the board. Scavenging Hyena gained +2/+1 whenever a friendly Beast died while it was on the board. Houndmaster could give a Beast +2/+2 and Taunt when played. Then there were cards like Tundra Rhino and Kill Command...
See? They were all restricted to Beast minions. For all these reasons, Hunters prioritized Beast cards in their decks, trying to build combos and bring out the force of a wild animal park... Among these Hunter cards that pursued Beast combos, some of the seemingly inconspicuous little Beasts seemed to find a use as well.
But a dose of cold water was in order: even in a Hunter deck, there were still better one-cost Beast cards than Boar... If the Hunter was lucky enough to open the white Beast card Young Dragonhawk, Boar was bound to face retirement as well (Young Dragonhawk had Windfury, which let it attack twice; no further explanation here).
Under Hearthstone's game mechanics, a minion card couldn't attack immediately on the turn it was played. That made Charge a valuable ability, allowing the minion to attack at once and turn the battle around in an instant. But on the Azeroth Continent, it wasn't nearly as impressive as it was in the game. Charge was merely a rather special speed-boosting ability...
Charge: The Boar can swiftly charge a designated single target at 400% of its running speed, dealing one star of damage while briefly stunning the opponent. The duration of the stun depends on the difference in strength between the two sides and can last up to one second.