Aluneth

Aluneth Card

Aluneth is a 6 Mana Cost Legendary Mage Weapon card from the Kobolds and Catacombs set!

Card Text

At the end of your turn, draw 3 cards.

Flavor Text

PHENOMENAL ARCANE POWER…itty bitty living space.

Aluneth Card Review

The legendary Mage weapon! The staff of Aegwynn, Medivh’s mother, the… nevermind. There are many important things to be said about this card, least of which is its lore. Obviously, we have to start with the card text. Featuring one of the most broken lines of text to ever see the light of day on a card in a card game, this card has the effect “Draw 3 cards”. Now that it has our attention, how good is it really? Well, for starters, it comes at the whopping cost of 6 mana. Not only does that happen as late as turn 6, it also means that when played on a turn between 6 and 9, this is all you will be doing for that turn. In layman’s terms, you are passing your turn over to the opponent… and sure, drawing 3 cards in the process, though that might as well happen at the beginning of your next turn, because you can’t use them before that.

Then comes the part of the weapon’s stats, specifically it’s lack of attack power. At a value of 0, that means your character can’t attack with it, meaning it can’t naturally lose durability, meaning you are always going to draw 4 cards per turn for the rest of the game. And as any Miracle Rogue player is well aware, never ever go full Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Fatigue is a thing and it will kill you far more efficiently than the enemy player. The only way to prevent decking yourself to death is to either win the game before that point or destroy the weapon – currently the only way to do that is to equip another weapon, which in Mage’s case means playing exactly Medivh, the Guardian.

If you want to end the game before fatigue, one sure proof way to do so is to kill your opponent. If you are drawing lots of cards, that means you want them to not be expensive cards, because otherwise you simply can’t play them all. What’s cheap and good at killing the opponent? Damage spells! Sitting comfortably behind an Ice Block, the Mage has plenty of freedom to Fireball away the enemy’s face with a constant refill from Aluneth. Like many others, I feel like this card will fit into exactly one deck – Aggro/Tempo Mage, though it might finally be a fitting deck for the name Burn Mage.

Card Review by Chimbarozo

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75 Comments

  1. Kol
    December 4, 2017 at 5:53 pm

    Lol ’The Darkness’ is pretty much a formidable counter to this Weapon.

  2. TheRobe
    November 30, 2017 at 1:37 pm

    Dust off those Mana Wurms! This is instantly broken in Wild. All this needs in Standard is maybe 1 more cheap burn spell.

  3. Piterno
    November 28, 2017 at 11:00 am

    Quest Mage will run this. They don’t care about fatigue, just to get the Lady-Lady-Reflect-Reflect-Old Dude combo, and the quest completed. As long as they draw their whole deck, they win. They just need to make sure to play a lot of low drops so they can keep their hands at 6 or less at the end of their turns. Glyph, Babbling Book, along with freeze effects and doomsayer, and others, fill this group. Playing this on turn 6 is risky unless they already have the ice block up, which they probably do on this turn, by means of arcanologist.

    • Ixc
      December 4, 2017 at 3:01 pm

      Except A) it’ll be hard to find space in the deck to find it and B) This has every chance of killing them through Ice Block with fatigue. Already quest mages regularly deck and fatigue themselves. Repeatable draw three end of every turn? Chances of that happening go way up. and C) It takes up an entire turn to play pretty much. A turn that quest mage players normally need to spend using cabalist’s tome or freezing the entire enemy board. Don’t think it’ll see too much play in quest mage.

      • Pyx
        December 7, 2017 at 9:02 am

        If you fatigue to death as quest mage, you’ve done something wrong. The goal of quest mage is to draw and prep your combo; by the time you’ve drawn your deck you’ve proooobably played 6 spells from, outside your deck. Mana is not really an issue for quest mage, and playing two arcane intellects each turn is massive (you’re not losing a card by playing arcane intellect). If you get 3/4 draws with this you’ve probably almost got all the pieces for your combo.

        Still, I’d say mill is a more pressing issue than fatigue for this card.

    • Jack
      December 24, 2017 at 2:14 pm

      Quest mage hold lots of cards on hand, 2 little girl 2 reflection 1 archmage , probably another key combo card, you will mill yourself for sure

  4. Deamon
    November 28, 2017 at 8:18 am

    Will fully rely on how the meta shapes up. If every deck carries multiple weapon removals this will be very very bad.

  5. Imaloony
    November 26, 2017 at 2:49 pm

    This is a very dangerous card. Six mana draw three cards is a little below the curve, but because it happens EVERY turn, it’ll very quickly give you insane value if the opponent can’t quickly destroy it. On the flip side of that, if you can’t quickly play the cards you’re drawing, you’ll start burning and then fatiguing. In the right tempo mage though, this card will just win games, and mage has a habit of finding ways to make cards insane. I was going to avoid giving this card the 5/5 treatment just because of the potential disaster it could bring, but honestly, card advantage is so important that I think it’s going to be very unlikely that this card won’t just be insane always.

    In arena… come on, this card is going to be nuts in arena. You see it, you pick it.

    Standard: 5/5
    Arena: 5/5

    • JappyJ
      November 27, 2017 at 12:34 am

      Have you ever played arena? The only way you could ever afford to play a 6 mana, 0 attack weapon with no immediate effect is if 1) you are already ahead on board and your opponent is low on cards or 2) both players have an empty hand, empty board, and you happen to topdeck it. Even then, I’d much rather topdeck a big juicy legendary minion than this card.

      Easily a 1/5 arena card

      • Imaloony
        November 27, 2017 at 1:49 am

        It’s 6 mana Draw 3 cards. That’s a pretty relevant and fairly immediate effect. People play Nourish in Arena, yeah? And they can’t immediately use those cards that they drew because they play it on 5 mana? Well, there you go. And for that extra mana you’ll be drawing cards for the rest of the game unless they happen to have a weapon removal card.

        Trust me dude, Mages don’t mind spending a turn drawing cards, especially when they can just Blizzard/Flamestrike the board the following turn, thus negating whatever momentum the opponent got from you “doing nothing” on your turn. And then you have a permanent card draw engine for the rest of the game. Which is bonkers nuts in Arena.

        Or, let me put it a different way: Mana Tide Totem is a solid card that draws a card every turn. Shaman doesn’t mind throwing that down to draw a card with the potential to draw more, spending a turn “doing nothing”, but it’s easily removable. Now for double the mana it draws 3 cards instead of 1 every turn and the opponent almost certainly can’t remove it. Yeah the totem is cheaper and on a less relevant turn, but Mage has the tools necessary to make up for that, especially for the reward of a constant reload effect.

        • JappyJ
          November 28, 2017 at 1:21 am

          First of all, Nourish is rated 55 on Heartharena, making it barely even average. No one plays nourish in arena, as it is almost never the best pick. Additionally, Mana Tide Totem (also rated pretty low on Heartharena at 59) is a totem. There are synergies, buffs, etc. that you can play is your deck which can interact with it, making it infinitely more dynamic and useful than a 0 attack weapon.
          You also will not be “drawing cards until the end of the game”, you will draw 3 cards at the end of your turn for 3 turns and it will break.
          Even if this card is average in arena, there is no way to justify a 5/5 rating. You do not pick this card over most other legendary minions.
          In my opinion, even in constructed, this card will fail. It has no place in a control mage deck, for fear of overdrawing/fatigue, leaving one other option, tempo/secret mage, and unfortunately it’s just a terrible tempo play, plain and simple. I predict that it will see play briefly, and then it will stop being played as the list is perfected. Just as the Hunter and Druid quests failed, and the Mage DK faded out of play (played in hardly even 40% of mage decks according to Hearthpwn), this card will fail too.

          • Imaloony
            November 28, 2017 at 4:55 pm

            No, you draw cards until the end of the game. Where on the card does it say that it loses durability when it draws? There’s also no FAQ which specifies that it does, so I believe that it just keeps drawing cards until it’s destroyed by another method, or the game ends.

            Arena is all about card advantage. When you pick Aluneth, you’re saying that you will never not have card advantage for the rest of the game. It’ll mill you fast for sure, but you’ll have so much firepower at your fingertips (especially since this is mage, a class that has some really powerful cards) that it’ll be no sweat to grind the opponent down from there. You keep saying that spending all your mana to draw is a terrible play, but people do it all the time. It’s a common play that happens when you’re running low on options. This is a single turn investment which says that you never have to do it again. That’s pretty strong in my book. For that same reason, Tempo Mage will love it, since Tempo mage never wants to run out of fuel, which is a serious risk for them. Think about it, they already run Arcane Intellect which, for as much mana and a second card, and only draws four compared to Aluneth’s three (which will only compound from there in future turns). Spending one turn putting an auto-loader on your hand is more than worth it for Mage considering how much mana they already spend on drawing.

        • Pedro
          November 28, 2017 at 6:47 am

          Nourish on Curve (on arena): Probably Ramp for extra porwer, only going to use it for draw if you’re aggro druid and have emptied your hand. If not on curve, you can Nourish and use one, two or all cards drawn, since these cards come immediatly. Nourish comes with the choice

          Mana Tide Totem: First, it’s a totem. Have some sinnergy, but not that much. Second, it’s a minion. It can benefit from a lot of effects from neutral and class shaman cards. Also, it draws 1 card each turn, which accelerates your card advantage, but allows you to empty your hand accordingly. Ever seen someone throw 2 Mana Tides on turn 2 (with coin) and turn 3? You know what you do on these cases? You let the totems alone so your opponent draws himself to death as he won’t have enough mana to play all cards.

          Now for Aluneth: On curve, waste of time. Out of curve, good if you’re ahead, terrible if you’re not. You’ll be wasting a lot of mana for future investment. Unlike Nourish, you’ll be only using the cards next turn. Arcane Intellect gives you 2 cards right away for half mana, meaning you can use most of the cards.
          And, of course, drawing doesn’t cost durability, so the only usage is on a fast deck on the late game, since on curve you’re giving your opponent the lead, or else you’ll start fatiguing to death in 7 turns or less.

          Think about a Rogue using Sprint on turn 7. Not very useful right? On turn 10 is ok, because he can cast one or two of them. Aluneth won’t give you that

  6. Chocobo
    November 26, 2017 at 7:11 am

    Really dangerous mechanic.
    Tempo or Combo mages will run this for sure.
    Of course there will be some noobs killing themselves with fatigue too but who cares.

  7. Redshirt54
    November 24, 2017 at 6:55 am

    This would work well with the other k&c card that switches players decks around. Run yourself out of cards and then steal their deck. They’ll have no cards till they play the spell to switch back.

  8. Mamchi
    November 21, 2017 at 5:38 am

    Super Secret, Burn Mage is coming!

  9. Sunburn
    November 20, 2017 at 1:17 pm

    Any MTG players here laughing at all these people saying the phrase “too much card draw”? After playing Magic for long enough, you learn there is ALWAYS a way to abuse ridiculous card advantage. This card has the potential to completely shape an entire new archetype of deck, potentially with fireball being the most expensive card besides itself.

    Imagine this card reads “Play 4 two mana cards a turn for the rest of the game. You lose in 8 turns.” There will be a string deck that makes this work.

    • Henry
      November 21, 2017 at 11:58 am

      I completely agree with you. What I don’t think people realize is that over time Wild will just become pure combo like in Vintage. Also idk how people haven’t realized that by the time you mill yourself you’ve already won because you’d always play this in a combo deck. I think cards like Preparation are extremely problematic in the long run because they allow decks to have an infinitely greater mana efficiency when playing a zero cost card vs a one mana card. Archetypes like Miracle Rogue will only get stronger when they print cards like these. All I see when I read this card is yawgmoth’s bargain/necropotence which is funny considering their used to be a hearthstone card that was 1 mana draw 1, combo draw 2 (ancestral recall?). I think way to many people are underestimating this card.

    • PandaWolf525
      November 25, 2017 at 11:37 pm

      Wowo finally some other MTG players/smart people that understand how card draw works and that in any deck being able to draw is good and can be broken in the long run if let a lone. Oh how it brings back memories of playing EDH every night in college.

  10. HowtoBasicallyRuinyourhosuse
    November 19, 2017 at 7:26 am

    How to Mill yourself
    Drakkari Enforcer + This weapon

  11. brandon
    November 14, 2017 at 3:52 pm

    i play secret aggro mage this great card when your deck is built upon getting as much value out fast, then burning them off. i will cut cabilist tome for sure which helps rebuild a hand. i still see me keeping a.i. though.-excuse me you are on fire.

  12. Rormiester
    November 12, 2017 at 9:33 am

    Molten Blade Meta

    • hihi
      November 26, 2017 at 12:16 pm

      Yeah lol fatigue warrior

  13. THE GUY
    November 7, 2017 at 2:12 pm

    This card is going to mill you so hard it forces a hand dump and that will probably be inefficient and wasteful.

    …also it belongs in a museum.

    • Snail
      November 7, 2017 at 6:15 pm

      Secret mage have no problem vomitting their hand.

  14. Bombtrap
    November 7, 2017 at 12:44 pm

    My Harrison Jones is looking for this.

  15. Crapcrack
    November 7, 2017 at 6:35 am

    this does NOT lose durability when u draw cards and therefor fatigue becomes an issue, great wpn 4 burn mage tho’

  16. PandaWolf525
    November 6, 2017 at 3:05 pm

    Time to add another card to my Wild Burn Mage Deck. Need this for the massive draw.

  17. Bingo
    November 5, 2017 at 11:57 am

    With all those legendary weapons, I wonder if Malkorok would become playable.

  18. Derek
    November 5, 2017 at 9:23 am

    I rate this card 3 stars. Playing it in a control deck is problematic because you will likely be holding 6-8 cards in your hand already, and you will probably overdraw. This card belongs in an agroo or zoo deck that likely won’t be holding many cards. The problem is those decks probably don’t want to use their turn 6 to play a weapon without any immediate impact. That said, drawing three cards is excellent when you are low on cards, which can happen in any game, so three stars.

  19. Moloch
    November 5, 2017 at 5:56 am

    Exodia mage combo will be playable so much earlier in the game??

    • Kidnapperen
      November 5, 2017 at 9:18 am

      OFC it looses durabilty, otherwise it would not have 3…

      • Snail
        November 7, 2017 at 6:21 pm

        It wont lose durability for its effect. Medivh weapon does so because its literally stated on the weapon effect.

    • hihi
      November 26, 2017 at 12:17 pm

      No youll just burn ur combo

  20. Exploding Banana
    November 5, 2017 at 4:38 am

    People are seriously undervaluing this card just because it is “too much draw”. Obviously in control and combo decks accelerating yourself to fatigue and/or milling cards is a problem. However, this card belongs in a tempo/aggressive deck. The main way control decks beat aggressive/tempo decks is by stabilising and then outvaluing. However it is incredibly difficult to out value this card as a control deck. Also, as an aggressive/tempo deck, milling and bringing yourself closer to fatigue is not an issue at all. The main thing which would make this card not see play is if aggressive/tempo mage decks are not a thing or if the meta is full of weapon removal.

    • Jaych
      November 6, 2017 at 5:32 pm

      Really? In a Tempo/Aggressive deck?

      You really want to spend your Turn 6 doing absolutely nothing in an AGGRESSIVE/TEMPO deck, instead of, I dunno, setting up a target for your Bonemare?

      That’s what they call a bad idea.

      • Snail
        November 7, 2017 at 6:24 pm

        If you got a minions and bonemare, it is reasonable to cast them first.

        After that, cast this weapon to get the rest of your burn to finish off the opponent.

        Just because it 6 costed, doesnt mean have to be cast at 6th turn.

        • bob dob
          November 7, 2017 at 7:19 pm

          if your aggro deck hasn’t already won or you don’t have lethal next turn on turn six, you’ve kinda already lost

          • Exploding Banana
            November 13, 2017 at 5:08 am

            Yeah, an aggressive/tempo deck can afford to spend 6 mana for no immediate impact if it’s this good. The main issue with doing nothing for 6 mana against control decks is that you keyboard them stabilise and then you cannot win. Very few control decks can stabilise against 4 cards a turn. As mentioned, you do not need to play thisbe on turn 6, it is simply played against control decks later in the game after they seemed to have stabilised and suddenly you’re back in the game, drawing a bunch of fuel and burn. There used to be an aggro mage deck which ran frost nova and ice blocks to stall out to draw burn, this works on a similar principle where you play a slow card to draw your burn/fuel.

      • whitenerdy
        November 21, 2017 at 8:47 am

        Dude, you’re not spending 6 mana to do nothing, you’re spending 6 mana to refill your hand…repeatedly…until your opponent is dead…
        That’s EXACTLY what aggressive decks want to do, especially a burn mage that doesn’t need board to kill you…

  21. SimEgg
    November 4, 2017 at 4:12 am

    You can get rid of it I think, just attack! If you attack enemy face 3 Times it Will be destroyed! So you can limit it to draw even 6! It dose not deal damage but you can attack with 0 attack gorehowl!

    • SimEgg
      November 4, 2017 at 4:37 am

      I’m wrong! You can’t attack with 0 attack weapons 🙁

  22. Frogbane
    November 4, 2017 at 3:12 am

    Zoo Mage maybe? Lots of 1, 2 and 3 mana minions? Secret synergies aswell? This card could create a Zoo Mage.

    • PandaWolf525
      November 6, 2017 at 8:30 pm

      I’m down for that. Mage already has a few good 1-3 drop minions. Just add in a few 1-3 mana spells (make sure to have Fireball because what mage deck does not play Fireball) and your set to go nutz. Already planning on adding this to my Wild Burn/Tempo Mage.

      • Frogbane
        November 7, 2017 at 10:31 am

        That sounds like a wonderful idea! I wonder how it would go in standard. I mean compared to the other artifacts like Priest’s Artifact, Mage’s Artifact would be great. Maybe add a Pyroblast if it comes down to the wire?

    • Mamchi
      November 21, 2017 at 5:36 am

      The best idea I have heard here. I have actually tried it with elementals during un goro expansion. I think with this card, it will be possible.

  23. Jaych
    November 3, 2017 at 5:57 pm

    You know, there IS such a thing as “too much card draw”. This is the perfect example of that.

    Sure, it’s a powerful ability. Not awful, but not particularly great. You’d need to empty your hand pretty quickly and pretty consistently. If you do run this card, I assume you’d also run Medivh so that you can replace this with Atiesh and don’t draw too much from this.

    And Dan, they’re NOT moving Ooze to the Hall of Fame. It’s a Basic card, AND it’s not the new expansion year, two criteria that they’ve specifically labeled for not using HoF. Think before you type.

    • Threather
      November 3, 2017 at 6:10 pm

      There are mage archetypes that want to empty their deck or hands asap. Yes sure current quest mage and current control mage dont fit that image but when you run double frostbolt, double manaworm, double valet, double kirin, double crystalrunner, you will run out of cards. So drawing 3 is great.

      But yeah i agree with your guys comments that medivh wont be viable anymore. Mages will just need to find another victory condition like death knight, giants or OTK.

      3 cards from your deck are consirably better than 3 random spells, thats why this card is better than cabalist tome for aggro/giants mage.

      • Jaych
        November 3, 2017 at 7:14 pm

        I see your point, but the huge problem here is that it NEVER STOPS DRAWING YOU CARDS. I mentioned Medivh as a means to GET RID of this before it gets too inconvenient. If you don’t, you’re going to fatigue out by Turn 11, and there’s no way in hell Mage is killing anyone that quickly.

        • SkywardStryk
          November 3, 2017 at 7:43 pm

          If I’m not mistaken, you can only draw 9 cards from this because each time it’s ability activates it loses a durability (similar to Sword of Justice).

          • Soranon
            November 3, 2017 at 9:45 pm

            NO it wont. Sword of justice’s text specifies that it loses durability

          • Pindead
            November 4, 2017 at 8:35 am

            The “too much draw” myth. You never draw too much in this game.

          • Jaych
            November 4, 2017 at 9:32 am

            @Pinhead

            SOMEONE has never heard of fatigue. Or overdraw. THAT’S too much draw. There’s no way to consistently play 4 cards every turn.

          • mystakesweremade
            November 5, 2017 at 4:32 am

            If you’ve seen recent footage the Priest weapon doesn’t lose durability after summoning a 5/5 dragon because it doesn’t say lose 1 durability
            I assume this is the case for this weapon too (and if so then this weapon is just bad, your opponent won’t even ooze it just to fatigue you)

        • Snail
          November 7, 2017 at 6:30 pm

          As mage, a class with many burn spells, they easily be able to use everything they draw to pponent face.

          I have mill rogue and mage is one class that incredibly hard to mill.

          Its because any draw i give them means 3 or more damage.

          Its like letting gadgetsan auctioner to live because he will mill their owner. Which is wont happen

        • travis
          November 16, 2017 at 9:34 am

          mages cant kill people by turn 11? you know nothing jon snow….

  24. Threather
    November 3, 2017 at 4:25 pm

    So its for mage…. Thought it was neutral legendary.
    Anyways it seems interesting for some kind of tempo secret mage with kirins and stuff. Because you dump your hand so fast and you want to hit medivh asap. 6 for draw 3 and potentially 9 is slightly better valuevise than 3 for 2 -> (3 draw gives 2 extra cards in hand, 2 draw gives 1)

    I see this being played over cabalist tome in control mage.

    • dan
      November 3, 2017 at 4:49 pm

      I dont know, worst case scenario its draw three for six which is not a disaster. Doubt these weapons will overtake the meta so such that everyone runs two 3 mana oozes (as i reckon acid will rotate into hall of fame). Just u wont gain the armour as its a zero attack weapon.

      • Simon Garner
        November 3, 2017 at 6:33 pm

        No, three isn’t worst case, worst case is you burn a shit ton of cards.

      • hihi
        November 26, 2017 at 12:24 pm

        Acid can’t rotate cuz it’s a basic card. It’s also not overpowerd

  25. David Cruz Conesa
    November 3, 2017 at 3:59 pm

    I am a little bit disappointed with this new legendary weapons. If they are somehow popular almost all decks will run two oozes and that is wired. If they are not popular the main new mechanic of the expansion is not seeing play. If not two many oozes it will be good in tempo/secret and any kind of fast mage decks cause they get out of cards easly and can use it two find the burn

  26. zz
    November 3, 2017 at 3:01 pm

    dan is right

  27. KonuTech
    November 3, 2017 at 2:25 pm

    Well said

  28. namedanon
    November 3, 2017 at 2:03 pm

    We’re going to be seeing a lot more Swamp Ooze this expansion

    • dan
      November 3, 2017 at 2:53 pm

      Will probably go hall of fame i reckon

  29. D00mnoodle
    November 3, 2017 at 2:01 pm

    If it gets immediatly removed, its draw 3 for 6, which is worse than nourish, if it goes of two times it’s good. If it goes of more than 2 times you draw to much i think. Your enemy would probably never destroy this weapon and mill you by doing so. It also has 0 attack and 3 durability so you can’t get rid of it yourself. Don’t think this will be seeing much play. Which is a pity because the artwork is stunning!

    • dan
      November 3, 2017 at 2:56 pm

      I assume you lose a durability each turn though

      • D00mnoodle
        November 3, 2017 at 3:38 pm

        That would improve it alot but don’t forget that you draw 4 cards each turn (start of turn included) so you’ll have to dump most of your cards quickly, indicating an aggro deck. But an aggro deck doesnt want to spend 6 mana and gain 0 tempo out of it.

        • dan
          November 3, 2017 at 4:46 pm

          What are you talking about? U draw three at the end of your turn only.

          • Jaych
            November 3, 2017 at 5:24 pm

            He was saying that you get three cards from this, IN ADDITION to drawing at the start of your turn. So you essentially draw 4 cards every turn. Try reading next time.

          • hihi
            November 26, 2017 at 12:26 pm

            it doesn’t lose durability

        • Travis
          November 16, 2017 at 9:40 am

          I’m so surprised people are forgetting that Mages have cards that make their POWERFUL secrets cost ZERO, nothing. The secret mage deck is already very powerful tier 2 deck. It can empty its hand very quickly. If you’re flooding your hand with cards and playing secrets for zero while playing other spells… I just don’t see how people aren’t losing their minds over this idea.