Clarification
If this triggers when your opponent plays a minion with divine shield, the shield will take 0 damage and the damage will then be directed at the hero.
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I prepared Explosive Runes this morning
This card is realy good, it is a solid addition to burn/secret mage. I'd choose it over Mirror Entity every time i have to build a deck.
Side by side comparisons, this card is incredible. It's almost strictly better than Snipe, with the only thing that Snipe has over Explosive Runes that I can think of is that it costs less. Other than that, Explosive Runes is a much better card, it even is in the better class. Mage, a more control-ly and stall-y kind of class cares about your opponents board state more than Hunter, a generally more aggresive class does. The excess damage won't be wasted, so a Loot Hoarder won't just completely counter the Secret. Not to mention dealing the excess damage to the enemy's face also helps with one of Mage's biggest win conditions, which is to burn the enemy hero's health pool. Mage can seriously threaten a low health pool, especially if you have 12 or less health.
Against Potion of Polymorph, they each have their applications. PoP entirely removes the minion, including it's Deathrattle or other possible effects like with Acolyte of Pain, while Explosive Runes don't completely get countered by a Novice Engineer. If put in an arena draft, Runes would be better if you have more than one face targetting spell like Fireball as your win condition, or Potion if it's a more late game minion oriented deck.
On it's own tho, Explosive Runes feels like such a meh card. If Mirror Entity isn't commonly run outside of Secret oriented decks, then I can't imagine Explosive Runes being run either. Secrets are almost always a hit or miss, it would be much more reliable to run one Frostbolt over two Runes. Most 3-drops have 3 to 4 health anyways, nothing a Frostbolt and/or ping can't help with. It would be optimistic to say that this card will be run in more than half of Mage's viable archetypes that are not Secret decks.
meh
i wonder if it gets spell power buff?
I can't even play my minion before the mage removes it? It's like they're trying to make mage play like solitaire.
Hmm, what to do... if it's Mirror Entity, Macaw is definitely the way to go. However, Frozen Clone may lead to some weird shenanigans there, so maybe just Golakka will do. But if it's Explosive Runes... oof. Goodbye Crab and 3 Health, and nobody needs that against Mage. Even worse with the Macaw. Because it came off Glyph, there's no telling what this actually is. God, I hate this secret meta. And I'm a Hunter! Secrets are one of our ways we struggle to become viable!
i really dislike this secret because is too good. i actually don't see a good amount of counter play for this secret. play a weaker minion, gets damage to the face, play a stronger minion, lose that minion. i can only see this working on good deathrattle minions or divine shield minions if they absorb the entire hit.
I am very much stretching here but to test secrets, Shieldbearer Tech !
OK not really...
Secret mage just got awesome. This is like a better Snipe. How does this interact with Divine Shield though? Does it deal 1 damage to the divine shield and 5 to the hero, does the divine shield absorb it all, or does it take out the divine shield and do the remaining 5 to the minion > hero?
Probably just divine shield absord it all
Just like the Auchenai Soulpriest and Hozen Healer work with a divine shield, but from this line I wonder if the damage received by the minion is equal to it's health -you have a 2/4 with divine shield, does it take 4 damage or the full amount?- it all depends on the coding and how well they thought things through
How will this actually work. As Fireball or as Arcane Missiles? Because if latter then Divine Shield doesn't counter it.
It will deal 6 dmg to hero considering it will bring up a 0 count when it first strikes the minion with divine shield.
If it would work like this, it would punish f.e. Tirion hail mary plays. Hope that they will clarify it soon.
not 6, it just deal extra from minion hp
Kinda like this one, you'll have to think twice now how to play around something, Should i play a weak minion for Mirror Entity and Frozen Clone, or a better one for this new secret ? it's nice.
still if you are more afraid of your opponent getting a good minion than you are afraid of getting into some range (6 hp, 7 hp, 10 hp).... this card is what interaction means
Hey, admin, the actual name of the card is "Exploding Runes". You are welcome.
Counter to Ice Block and Exodia Mage