Explosive Runes

Explosive Runes Card

Explosive Runes is a 3 Mana Cost Rare Mage Spell card from the Core Set 2024 set!

Card Text

Secret: After your opponent plays a minion, deal 6 damage to it and any excess to their hero.

Flavor Text

Sometimes it's safer NOT to read the warning signs.

Explosive Runes Additional Information

This is likely a better translation, but we haven’t gotten official word yet.

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65 Comments

  1. Asperkraken
    December 9, 2017 at 2:46 pm

    My new favorite mage card. Punishes aggro, deals face damage and buffs Ethereal Arcanist and reduces Kabal Crystal Runner. What else could you ask for?
    Watching people trying to guess between this and Counterspell in Standard is a riot, for the record.

    • Highball
      December 17, 2017 at 7:02 pm

      Always great when they coin to burn your counterspell but you played Explosive Runes instead 🙂

  2. Sir Stone
    December 5, 2017 at 2:20 pm

    Why does everyone think it’s easy to play around this? First off the whole point of a Secret is that you don’t know what it will be until you trigger it. And second, even if you play a 1/1 minion to trigger the secret in case it dies, you’ll still take another 5 damage to the face! This is basically a 3 Mana Fireball in a Secret!

  3. Sup3rskrull
    November 30, 2017 at 10:49 pm

    I might play secret after this really because secret is a bit slow compared to agro decks, but this card kills minions and deals damage!

  4. TAbril
    November 26, 2017 at 9:22 am

    So far only two warrior cards and two warlock cards have been shown, and each one is worse than the other. Am I the only one with this perception?
    In addition, most Legends do not open the eyelash (they do not seem particularly special) and the cards that can lead to a change of meta are mostly rares with nothing that breaks Highlander Priest (on the contrary, there are even new possible additions…).

  5. Jmay
    November 26, 2017 at 5:08 am

    Breakfast priest meta!

  6. ChrisMorray
    November 26, 2017 at 4:07 am

    Meanwhile at blizzard: Gee, Mage has been dominating the meta since Hearthstone’s release, what can we do to give her a much-needed buff? Oh I know! Give her snipe but stronger and have excess damage go face to the opponent! Also let’s make a 1-cost elemental that gives armor equal to the mana cost so she can beat Malfurion and Garrosh in gaining armor! Now nothing can ever beat her!

    • Swatchblade
      November 26, 2017 at 10:10 am

      Gee how i love noobs starting to get angry at blizzard because they think a card is op even though its probably only borderline playable

      • hubert
        November 27, 2017 at 9:30 am

        haha totally agree with you

    • Highball
      December 17, 2017 at 7:05 pm

      Wait, Mage has been dominating the meta since Hearthstone’s release? Was that during Shamanstone? Or Evolvestone? Or Druidstone? Or when Highlander Priest was the best deck in both formats for many months?

      Last time I remember Mage being dominate was Mech Mage during GvG.

  7. microzucini
    November 25, 2017 at 9:31 pm

    isnt this a sort of counter to an oposing mage…..if you know they have ice block get them low and put this down and if it deals damge to them it wont proc ice block since its their turn

    • ChrisMorray
      November 26, 2017 at 4:04 am

      Let me clear this up: It will proc ice block, but it will end during their turn rather than yours. You can test it right now if you have a friend who has eye for an eye (the palladin secret). The mage can actually play another ice block during their turn though.

      • James573847
        November 26, 2017 at 8:15 am

        Wrong. Secrets only work in your opponents turn. So if you have an Ice Block and your opponents has this secret, if you play a minion the excess mana will kill you (bypassing the ice block) because your secret can’t activate in your turn. That’s why fatigue damage (from turn draw) works agains Ice Block.

      • Highball
        December 17, 2017 at 7:07 pm

        Did this earlier today actual. He had ice block w/ 2health. I had Explosive Runes. He played babbling book and died.

  8. TheLosingName
    November 24, 2017 at 8:12 pm

    I can see putting this card in Secret Mage, probably not in any other deck.

  9. Meta
    November 24, 2017 at 5:14 pm

    I really like this card. Mage has always been my least favorite class but this card might actually change that.

  10. Elijah Kemeny
    November 24, 2017 at 1:27 pm

    Man a lotta people are so freaking stupid. This is a very very good card. Your oppenent usually can play around mirror entity. Well with this card, that problem no longer exists. What is secret Mage exactly? It’s pretty much an aggro deck that gains a lot of tempo. If you can use mage’s other cards to make a secret cost zero and you play this on turn two with a coin or turn three, not only do you obliterate the opponents minion, but you also deal face damage which is super super important in secret Mage. This is a five star card. Definitely will see play in secret Mage.

  11. Cuddler
    November 24, 2017 at 11:27 am

    Decent idea for a mage secret. While similar to Snipe, this would instead be used as a potential replacement for Mirror Entity in the current Tempo Secret Mage deck. While this can still be played around with a drawn Patches, this does have the added benifit of doing Face Damage which would be difficult to play around outside of Druid with their Druid of the Swarm and Crypt Lord or by playing Tar Creeper.

    Granted, the only reason this could see serious play is because it’s in Mage and the class has a cornucopia of ways of drawing it and getting extra effects off with it.

  12. moroii
    November 24, 2017 at 11:04 am

    This crapcrack guy is not seeing the point, wouldn’t you run a deck with 4 fireballs if you good? Tf it only kills a minion its still a strong tempo play.

    • moroii
      November 24, 2017 at 11:05 am

      IF you could* haha

    • NegativeNazi
      November 24, 2017 at 2:07 pm

      He’s full of crap and high on crack
      This card adds a whole new type of mind games in secret mage with what to play around and wether its worth taking the damage
      and everyone knows what happens when you’ve taken too much damage against a tempo/secret mage in the late game

  13. Crapcrack
    November 24, 2017 at 10:31 am

    I don’t know why everyone says it’s so good. It’s similar to hunter’s Snipe, ur opponent can very easily play around it and the face dmg often is unnecessary.

    • Haha
      November 24, 2017 at 10:58 am

      Ur life is to say this secret is crap? Haha.

    • TheFatty
      November 24, 2017 at 12:16 pm

      Youre forgetting why snipe is bad. Snipe is bad because its A: its very easy to play around and B: hunter damage spell that doesnt go face.

      This is has both of those problems dealt with. Face damage is INCREDIBLY relevant for secret/tempo mage. Their gameplan involves getting you to a low enough life total in the early turns that they can burn you out over the top in the late game when your power plays start to come in.

      So the options for playing around this card are A: play a small minion into it. Its removed and you get frost bolt+ into the face. Mage is ok with that.

      B: play a midrange minion with 5 or 6 health, it gets removed and you get little or no damage on your face. Mage is ok with that.

      Or C: play a large minion with 7 plus health into this, and mage spent 3 mana fireballing it without killing it. This is probably the worst case scenario for this card.

      But heres the catch. The best way to play around Explosive runes is the WORST way to play around Mirror Entity. Secrets get more powerful when you have to make conflicting plays to play around them.

    • Skyler
      November 24, 2017 at 2:44 pm

      Because snipe is played around by playing a 1/1. If you play a 1/1 against this, it becomes a 3 mana fireball cast on the opponent’s face, which is what tempo mage usually does anyway.

    • LikeABoss
      November 24, 2017 at 4:26 pm

      Unnecessary unless you’re running an aggro burn deck. You force them to choose between giving you value and board control when they play a bigger minion cuz they don’t want to die, or playing a small minion to give you less board control/value but then you get the burn damage. And what if they try to play around this when they’re low on life, so they play a big clunky minion and waste their whole turn against an aggro deck, and this whole time it could just be counterspell. The only way to play against this is to never play a minion. Or a 1/5 or something. Sick card.

    • Pindead
      May 4, 2018 at 7:42 pm

      OMG you suck! My eyes!

  14. UkuleleLover
    November 24, 2017 at 10:21 am

    This card looks broken!

  15. CD001
    November 24, 2017 at 10:00 am

    Shame about the artwork though 🙂

  16. chocobo
    November 24, 2017 at 9:16 am

    Seems really strong.I really dont like mage spells that deal damage and remove minions.
    This does both.Tempo secret mage is far from competitve just because of how inconsistent the secret synergy is.Sometimes you have mirror entity and opponent has only big minions or counter spell and they only have one good spell.These times the decks feels great but most of time counter spell and entity didnt work that good.
    But this card seems a win/win situation.If they play a firefly they lose one mana and take 4 to face, thats more than an frost bolt.
    Maybe this makes secret mage more consistent tier 1-2 deck.

    • Crapcrack
      November 24, 2017 at 10:39 am

      Ummm no… This secret is far from competitive. Do u play the hunter’s secret Snipe ?

      • Wow
        November 24, 2017 at 11:13 am

        Hunter doesn’t have pyroblast, fireball and other spells to face. It’s all about what hero has the card.
        Quest mage can deal 30+ dmg in a round if used in the good deck. If the mage quest would be the (for example) paladin one, it would be mostly useless.

      • Cuddler
        November 24, 2017 at 11:18 am

        You would play it if there was a dedicated secret hunter deck since it is probably the class’ second or third best secret behind Freezing Trap and maybe Explosive Trap or Cat Trick. Such a deck doesn’t exist though because Hunter’s secret synergies extend only to Cloaked Huntress and Professor Putricide.

      • Immolate
        November 24, 2017 at 11:39 am

        Last season, I ran a highroll Secret Hunter with Barnes that ran 2x Snipe. Got close to a 75 percent winrate from rank 15 to 10. It’s not as bad of a card as you seem to think. It is great at destroying many of the most popular 3 drops. This secret can potentially take out 5 drops. It seems pretty good to me.

        I try not to immediately judge a card when it is first revealed. Instead, I imagine what is possible with it. And I can see that this card could have a large amount of potential. It’s much too early to write it off.

      • Chocobo
        November 24, 2017 at 2:02 pm

        Really poor choice comparing it with Snipe.Dont compare cards from different classes.
        As stated above mage has a LOT of direct burn and doesnt care about taunts if you want to compare it with hunter.
        Giving mage minion removal that also works as burn to face is in theory really dangerous.
        Snipe relies in board presence for it’s burn.Mage can burn you without any minions.
        This card will give the deck consistency.
        Although not for much since in 4 months Vallet and Firelands as well as Book will be gone.

        • Chocobo
          November 24, 2017 at 2:08 pm

          Hunter * relies in board presence for its burn..

          I also have to add that mage has ice block.2 more burn cards + ice blocks is really good.

    • Cuddler
      November 24, 2017 at 11:10 am

      Tempo Secret Mage is a tier 2 deck at the moment and will most often play only 2 Counter Spell and 2 Mirror Entity and/or the occasional Mana Bind. The deck doesn’t win off the strength of the secrets because as you have said those are easy to play around. Where it does come from though are its secret synergy cards like Midivh’s Velet, Korin Tor Mage, and Kabal Crystal Runner. The intelligent player will also get more out of their secrets though like playing Counterspell on Turn 6 against a priest to prepare for Dragonfire potion.

      Explosive Runes could be a replacement for Mirror Entity in Secret Mage, but this won’t lite the world on fire in any meaningful way.

  17. Skyler
    November 24, 2017 at 8:57 am

    Insane. It’s a 3 mana deal 6 in all instances. Basically 3 mana fireball AND it’s impossible to play around! It even counters exodia mage

  18. Telim Tor
    November 24, 2017 at 8:49 am

    With this I will reach Legend again with secret mage….is insane!

    • Crapcrack
      November 24, 2017 at 10:35 am

      I clearly can’t see why this is insane, plz explain it to me.

      • Telim Tor
        November 24, 2017 at 11:01 am

        Ok, maybe not insane, but really good. After playing more than 200 secret mage games you would know.
        Secret mage wins with the combination of tempo plays that allow you to make minion damage + face damage. When you loose, a lot of times was for that last 5 health points of your opponent that you couldn’t hit. This secret helps you with that final push + deal with enemy minions + make more difficult for your opponent to guess what secret do you have.
        I can’t wait to put it in my list:
        http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/956869-legend-58-wr-162-116-secret-mage

  19. bell
    November 24, 2017 at 8:33 am

    Bye bye Mirror entity lol

    • Risky Chance
      November 24, 2017 at 12:43 pm

      I think it’s strongest played alongside Mirror Entity because you play around them in opposite ways.

  20. Roberto
    November 24, 2017 at 8:27 am

    Heck, this 1 seems strong……..
    The opponent can’t actually play around it. In a way or the other it hurts him…….

    Some1 pointed out that playing a divine shield minion (argent squire for example) will prevent the face dmg, but are we sure about it? Or will the spell count the dmg done to the minion as 0 and deal 6 to the face?

    • Thalgande
      November 24, 2017 at 9:28 am

      If im correct currently in the game it displays all dmg that a divine shield wouldve taken (so ‘4’ when hit by 4 dmg) and not a flat ‘0’. So im pretty sure all 6 dmg would also be absorbed by the divine shield. Regardless even if that is the case, this secret is really strong since i dont see a divine shield meta anytime soon

  21. Henceforth
    November 24, 2017 at 8:21 am

    This is the best secret for the mage.

    • Henceforth
      November 24, 2017 at 8:22 am

      If you have a +2 spell minion on board, this will do more damage or only 6damage?

      • Roberto
        November 24, 2017 at 8:29 am

        Spell dmg affects secrets if it is in play when they get procced.

        In this case it will deal 8 dmg, as it worked with Snipe for hunter + Azure drake/Bloodmage Thalnos.

    • Crapcrack
      November 24, 2017 at 10:34 am

      Umm no r u high?

  22. aaron
    November 24, 2017 at 8:20 am

    I don’t like these type of secrets hard to play around and it directly stops you from playing well against things like mirror entity. It’s a good secret no lie, I just don’t like it in the game.

  23. Name (Required)
    November 24, 2017 at 8:18 am

    Imagine getting lethal out of this

    • Name (Required)
      November 24, 2017 at 8:21 am

      It also bypasses Mage’s Iceblock just lower their health to a minimum of 4 health and next time they play a Sorceresses Apprentice to Time Warp Fireball you they’ll take 4 damage

  24. Thalgande
    November 24, 2017 at 8:16 am

    This secret is really good. Unlike other minion based secrets your opponent cant play around it by simply playing a really cheap/useless minion. The only realy way to deal with this secret effectively would be to play a divine shield minion or if you want to trigger a deathrattle (carnivorous cube perhaps). Seems better than potion of polymorph and mirror entity.

    • Palka Analka
      November 24, 2017 at 9:06 am

      don’t the divine shield minion gets 0 and you get fireball in the face?

      • Thalgande
        November 24, 2017 at 9:25 am

        Fairly sure that currently a minion with divine shield absorbs all dmg from the first hit. (If im correct it still shows the damage that the devine shield minion wouldve taken). So i imagine it works the same way with this secret: divine shield absorbs all dmg. On top of that it would be kinda ridiculous to have a secret that you simply cant play around. Having only divine shield minions to worry about is a very small risk for only 3 mana. (Most decks currently dont even run a single divine shield minion).
        I might be wrong but im pretty sure this is how it will work. Even with this ‘downside’ its still really good

    • Nope
      November 24, 2017 at 9:58 am

      Better than Fireball. This card is bonkers.

      • Crapcrack
        November 24, 2017 at 10:32 am

        R u trolling or something? Firebal is an amazing card ! This is easily played around by dropping small minions.

        • nope
          November 24, 2017 at 10:38 am

          No. I understand it doesn’t always hit what you want, but it is significantly more efficient. It’s not strictly better but this is really good for burn mage.

          • Crapcrack
            November 24, 2017 at 10:42 am

            Burn mage has no use for this, this card is not good. It’s similar to hunter’s secret Snipe (which never see play) but for 1 extra mana and +2 dmg, the face dmg is irrelevant most times.

    • Crapcrack
      November 24, 2017 at 10:34 am

      Wut? Dropping small minions is exactly how u play around it. The face dmg often is irrelevant.

      • adezero
        November 24, 2017 at 12:34 pm

        I agree with crapcrack. no one is gonna put this in their deck, you’ll only see it from cabalist’s tome or primoridial glyph. burn mage doesn’t need this damage, they get most of their damage from alextrasza.

        • PandaWolf525
          November 25, 2017 at 1:16 am

          the Question si do you play Wild or Standard. In both this card is good becuase its hard to play around when added with other secerts or just in burn. I take it Crapcrack that you have been beaten by Mage 1 to many times and are pissed to see mage getting another useful card like all classes do when ever a set comes out.

        • PandaWolf525
          November 25, 2017 at 1:18 am

          Also what burn mage deck are you playing that uses Alex. at that point your just quest mage hoping to go infinate with Arch Mage, Burn Mage is ment to wreck them early then finish with larger spells in the end.

      • Thalgande
        November 25, 2017 at 4:56 am

        I mean getting hit in the face for about 4 extra dmg and getting a minion destoyed does sound pretty good. Especially when playing against a class that has quite the burst dmg potential. So those 4 extra hitpoints are going to matter more than you might think.