When summoning a minion, the player can choose where to place it. For example, Explosive Shot deals high damage to a single target with splash damage onto adjacent minions, while Dire Wolf Alpha is a minion that provides an Attack buff to adjacent minions. Minion placement is sometimes significant, as certain positional effects take effect depending on position. However, transformations will not be reversed by returning a minion to its owner's hand or deck the transformed minion is considered an entirely different card from what it was transformed from, and that is what is 'returned' to the deck. Note that if a minion is returned to its owner's hand, or shuffled back into the owner's deck, its Attack and Health will return to their original values, and any enchantments will be removed. Minions can be destroyed by reducing their Health to zero, or by using destroy effects such as Assassinate to remove them directly. Once summoned the minion will stay on the battlefield until it is destroyed or returned to the hand of its owner. Successfully playing a minion card will transform the card into the minion itself, which will then appear upon the battleground represented by a portrait.

Each minion has a mana cost value, shown in the top left corner of the card, which shows the amount of mana you must pay to summon the minion. Playing a minion card places that minion onto the battlefield. Hearthstone also expands the Warcraft universe a little, with further exploration of established themes, and some new additions of its own. While most minions are recognizable creature or character types from World of Warcraft, some, such as the legendary minion cards, depict major characters from Warcraft lore. Minions are a major element in battles between heroes, and are usually responsible for the majority of all damage dealt in a game. Minions with Taunt can act as defenders, preventing the opponent's forces from attacking the hero directly with melee attacks until that minion is destroyed. Minions are controlled by the player who summoned them, and can be commanded to attack their opponent's minions, or even the opposing hero. Minion cards can be recognized by their Attack (a number displayed on a yellow sword, in the bottom left corner) and Health (a number displayed on a red blood drop, in the bottom right corner). Minions are persistent creatures on the battlefield that will fight for their hero. A Beast-type minion, it has 3 Attack, 2 Health and a mana cost of 2.

List of the minions names