Hearthpwn

Well, it's a "tech" option for odd decks, I give it that.

It should mean that the card copies all secrets your opponent has and plays them. You get no copy into your hand, the secrets get automatically played. And only one copy per secret.

It doesn't remove opponent's secrets nor does it take control of them. It just copies them and plays it for you.

I am pretty sure that playing 2 Conjurers is just wrong. I played 1 and 2 copies and the 2nd copy has stranded in my hand way too often.

Anyway, if you can't play around Counterspell because you have to use that 5-7 cost board clear in your hand and have no mana to test, this new card changes literally nothing, just like any other secret tech card. It's too late already. Knowing that it's Counterspell is often irrelevant because you have to assume and play around the worst possible outcome everytime anyway.

In a nutshell: Knowledge is power, unless you are already dead anyway.

Quote from fusilli >>

Nah. Secret mage thrives on high tempo enabled by having secrets; copying their secrets does little to impact them. Stealing a block and then healing would work against, say, freezemage, but not against stuff like this with heavy board prescence; simultaneously, stealing a 3 dam aoe that they know is coming doesn't work against a board full of 4/4s. Eater is a significantly better tech card, whilst being worse in other MUs, but most slower decks don't mind the poor base statline of eater in other MUs because the card does its job well in the main MU it's needed for.

Don't think it manages enough for the aggressive decks to want it.

 Literally this, except for the fact that you overrate Eater of Secrets. A good secret mage player will never overcommit with secrets in any MU where a teched Eater or Flare is a realistic option.

Horde Operative is also not an "insane Secret Mage mirror match tech" because you don't want to wait for a 0-2 or even 0-3 disadvantage in active secrets against your opponent. You want to play this when you have no secrets or you have to guess, which ones they have to not get a copy of the secrets you already have in play (which gives info to your opponent btw, because they see that you didn't copy their secrets).

Another big issue of the card is that your opponent knows your secrets. When we had that Kabal card that used to draw a random potion and one of the options was the Sheep potion, EVERYONE could very easily play around that. And it really isn't a big deal for secret mages to play around their own secrets, especially if they are already ahead (which a 3 mana 3/4 will not change at all). The card is absolutely terrible in the mirror.

That being said, the only decks that could run this are reno lists because yes, some secret mages actually play Iceblock, but that's only relevant if you can use a massive heal like Reno and board clears to not get burned out again in later stages. Also, how does this trigger Explosive Ruins or Mirror Entity (lol)? Do you get the additional secret?

To me, this looks like a standard "tech" card to keep the new secret paladin, Hanar, and Ring Toss in check.