Necrium Blade

Necrium Blade Card

Necrium Blade is a 3 Mana Cost Rare Rogue Weapon card from the The Boomsday Project set!

Card Text

Deathrattle: Trigger the Deathrattle of a random friendly minion.

Flavor Text

Grab death by the handle.

Necrium Blade Card Review

I really, really like this card. While 3 mana 3/2 weapon is not particularly crazy in Rogue (the class can already to the same thing much more flexibly with Deadly Poison), the effect is really interesting. If you keep this weapon at one durability, like you should in a deck you play it in, it’s like a Play Dead for Rogue. If you run a Deathrattle Rogue deck, you absolutely want to play it, no doubt about it. For example, playing Myra Rotspring on curve, picking a strong Deathrattle and then immediately trigger it can potentially be game-winning. Even the Blightnozzle Crawler looks better now that you can trigger his Deathrattle on your own turn (and even on the curve if you need to do it).

But it’s one of those cards that might see more play in a deck it wasn’t designed for. Even though it’s amazing in Deathrattle Rogue, the deck might turn out not to be viable. But even outside of it, this card has some serious combo potential. The most obvious one is the example from reveal – you drop Leeroy Jenkins, hit, Carnivorous Cube it, hit with this weapon and get 2 more Leeroys. 21 damage in total, and even if it doesn’t KILL your opponent, you’re still left with 3x 6/2 and Cube holding two more 6/2’s. Another example – again from the reveal video – is Kobold IllusionistMalygos deck. It was already tried out, but there was no good way to trigger your own Kobold Illusionist on your turn, now there is (not to mention that Necrium Vial was just revealed and it’s another way to do it, for more consistency).

The main problem I have with this card is that as long as you’re holding it on one point of durability for your combos, you can’t use your Hero Power, and Hero Power is a big part of the Rogue’s power. So ideally you’ll want to set it up a turn before dropping a strong Deathrattle minion and then quickly using it so you can Hero Power again.

I like this card, I’m quite sure that it will see some play. Weapon is okay, the effect is solid in both Deathrattle decks and in some combos, and we all know that Rogue is a combo expert.

Card rating: 8/10

Necrium Blade Full Card Art

Necrium Blade Full Art

Leave a Reply

37 Comments

  1. nickus
    July 29, 2018 at 1:12 pm

    This card is insanely scary. Almost noone mentioned this in regards to malygos. Take this scenario: play kobold illusionist, break the weapon, play backstab on your kobold. You end up with 2 malygos on board and up to 6 mana for burst spells like evis, shiv, petals, sinister strike… Not even mentioning prep

    • Helioshadow
      July 29, 2018 at 5:48 pm

      Wow… That’s terrifying. And considering how you literally only need three Razorpetals/Sinister Strike to deal over 30 damage, you could theoretically get a turn 7 OTK without Prep. That being said, it’s somewhere around a 6-card combo (counting one for two Razorpetals; otherwise, a 7-card combo) requiring one turn of set-up, and three specific cards (Necrium Blade, Kobold Illusionist, and Malygos), one of which is Legendary. Buuuut with draw engines like Elven Minstrel (playing 2-of for maximum consistency in drawing probably the only two minions in the deck), as well as Myra’s to fill your hand with burn once the core combo pieces are set, I reckon you can pull it off pretty regularly. Which is terrifying. You see the Necrium Blade come down and pray to RNGesus that they don’t have combo or die.

  2. Morei
    July 29, 2018 at 9:36 am

    Everytime they print a new 3 Mana 3/2 Weapon for any class, a Fiery War Axe dies in its sleep.
    Then I die of sadness.

  3. Lord Tyrone
    July 29, 2018 at 9:01 am

    Why do so many people pretend to be smart by failing to find ways to make a card work? I don’t think they realize they come across as whiny and dumb to most people.

    • TheTallRonan
      July 29, 2018 at 9:41 am

      Dude I hope you realize how you come across posting stuff like this

    • Soup And Salad
      July 29, 2018 at 1:08 pm

      Would you rather people in these comment sections give a dishonest impression of the card? List only the absolute best cases in which these cards can be used rather than considering the average case?

  4. Crapcrack
    July 29, 2018 at 6:57 am

    solid but not better than shadowblade

  5. GlosuuLang
    July 29, 2018 at 6:25 am

    This in general seems weaker than Shadowblade, although it will of course be experimented with in Deathrattle Rogue. The problem with weapons in Rogue is that they make the Hero Power redundant, like a card like Flare would never be run in Warlock, since that class has card draw on demand. So weapons need to be something special to be considered including. Kingsbane is an example, but it needs the whole deck to support it. This weapon can provide great value if it can proc Devilsaur Egg or Cube, or the new Rogue Mech that spawns a 1/1 Poisonous Rush. Otherwise it’s probably too clunky. Worst case is if you have one charge left but need to attack for tempo (eg make Hench Clan Thug grow), but you are tempted to hold back to get value of the DR. And that can happen quite often. This looks like a 2/5 weapon in general, but I believe it can be a 3.5/5 in the DR deck.

  6. dumbendumber
    July 29, 2018 at 2:51 am

    So DR rogue wants back? I find it hard to imagine it outperforming Odd – that deck is in a great shape right now. A reusable 2/2 weapon for 2 beats a 3/2 for 3 that also wastes a card slot. So it boils down to the tempo gained by the deathrattles – the new brightnozzle is good, and as a 4-drop, you can trigger it right after play for a free-ish Vilespine effect (minus taunts). Cairne also is a great tempo play, but other than that, most DRs are about value right now – card draw, discovery, etc. Maybe I am forgetting something (feel free to point it out), but I have my doubts that DR rogue will be a thing – though blizz can always change my mind with some new cards.

  7. minti
    July 29, 2018 at 2:18 am

    this shoud be a 2/2. Just like the warrior effect weapon. Just becouse rogues has the best weapons in the game that does not mean he shoul continue getting overpowered weapons to have a chance of play. trigger friendly deathrattle is insanely powerfull effect in any deathrattle deck. Its the reason why hunter deathrattle is much stronger than the priest deathrattle at the moment.Giving it the maximum boddy is a pure example pf power creep. I don’t really see the reason weapon removal to be viable if every weapon has a built in anti- removal teck. Weapon are much better removal options than spells. Shadow word death for example is so outdated spell and is stil lconsidered priest’s greatest early game tool. comparin this to a weapon that has 2 charges with the potential of getting more is ridiculous.

  8. Gnomes
    July 28, 2018 at 10:10 pm

    I still want to rant about how firey war axe should’ve been kept at 2 mana and added battlecry, deal 3 damage to your hero. Firey War Axe was one of the most classic cards in the game and I miss it.

    • Soup And Salad
      July 28, 2018 at 10:32 pm

      Before Fiery War Ax was changed it was one of, if not, the best single cards in the game. Adding Flame Imp’s battlecry would not have reduced the utility of the card, and in some niche situations (Enabling cards with the “If your hero has less than 12 heath” clause) would have added utility to the card. It was a perfect fit in all Warrior archetypes much like Mage’s Frostbolt and Fireball, two cards that will also likely see changes in the future due to their power, and needed to be changed if any other low cost weapon in Warrior was to ever be played.

      The change still sucks for the class, and it has been a contributing factor as to why it has seen as little success as it has lately, but some major change to the card was ultimately necessary for new low cost weapons to come to Warrior.

  9. DukeStarswisher
    July 28, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    3 mana 3/2 weapons always see play in every class. Even if the rogue isn’t deathrattle, it will definitely be used.

    • Djelibaebi
      July 28, 2018 at 10:05 pm

      yeah the thing is tho, we already have a 3/2 weapon that – in a non-deatrattle situation – is 100% better with shadow blade

      • DukeStarswisher
        July 28, 2018 at 10:35 pm

        True. But even if a rogue runs a few deathrattles this will have more value.

        Face damage on curve is not as big of a deal as setting up for a deathrattle next turn I’d think.

    • Fluffy
      July 28, 2018 at 11:32 pm

      Except Kings Defender

  10. Sure
    July 28, 2018 at 9:43 pm

    If Malygos Rogue becomes a thing, I think this could see play along with Kobold Illusionist in much the same way Flobbidinous Floop will, as a four mana, +5 spell dmg. Otherwise seems pretty bad for standard, where, for now, there are not many good Rogue deathrattles.

  11. Smellberg
    July 28, 2018 at 9:33 pm

    This seems very good. 3 mana for 3 damage in one turn is not great. However, on the following turn you can kinda get 3 damage and spiritsinger Umbras effect on a played minion for free. That is the optimal situation I’d say.
    Downsides are: Facedamage to your hero, randomness if you have more deathrattles in play, possible weapon removal.
    I really don’t see these downsides as a major problem.
    With two deathrattle cards already being revealed for rouge prior to this (one of them a legendary), I really hope too see a fresh archtype for rogue.
    Hopes up: 4/5

    • Thomas O'Looney
      July 29, 2018 at 2:07 am

      Big death rattle rogue is already an archetype in wild it would be very hard to replicate in standard tho … Check out Dane hearthstone if you want to see

  12. Soup And Salad
    July 28, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    Necrium Blade is fine for a Deathrattle Rogue, which would be the only deck that would want to play this over Shadowblade. Granted, Rogue has had such a confusing relationship with weapons ever since the rotation of cards like Tinker’s Sharpsword Oil and the overkill changes made to Blade Flurry before the implementation of Standard that I am unsure if it would want to play weapons in their decks at all at times. Sure there is Kingsbane, but the sorts of decks that rose around that card are almost mutually exclusive from every other Rogue archetype besides Mill it functionally might as well not even count.

    Weapons in Rogue have always come off as almost unnecessary in recent formats with how the Hero Power and a copy of Deadly Poison can pretty much create a 3/2 weapon at any time. Of the now nine weapons Rogue has had, only Cogmaster’s Wrench and Perdition’s Blade really seem notable for their relevance outside of Kingsbane of course. The former might be my own fondness of the Mech Rogue deck I had some success with when I first started playing the game and the latter would’ve only seen much success during the initial phases of the game if it did at all.

    This card itself is a much slower, more expensive, and less precise Play Dead for Rogues. Perhaps getting an extra 7/7 from the Mechanical Hatchling or whatever it’s called or the poisonous 1/1 with rush immediately may be good enough to get this to see play in such a deck, but timing will be crucial when playing this to the point where destroying it might not be too detrimental for one’s opponent.

    • Anduin Needs a Haircut
      July 28, 2018 at 10:23 pm

      Don’t forget Spectral Cutlass, the Lifesteal weapon that gains durability when you play cards from your opponent’s class. It provides healing and sustain to the class that it normally doesn’t have, and Steal Rogues make good use of it. In general, Rogue weapons seem strongest when they provide healing or prevent damage (Lifesteal, direct damage to avoid face-tanking, and immunity) and have a long life (increasing in durability or keeping enchantments and never going away for good). Rogue weapons generally need to provide something that the hero power doesn’t to even be considered for use, and they do especially well if they have the durability to get lots of use out of weapon buffs.

      In that sense, I think that this weapon will see moderate use in decks that it supports.It doesn’t synergize with buffs well, but there’s really no other way to get access to this effect beyond Spiritsinger Umbra.

      • Soup And Salad
        July 28, 2018 at 10:36 pm

        Pick Pocket Rogue is currently among the weakest archetypes Rogue decks generally take shape as. I’d hardly call anything played exclusively in that deck relevant to the overall metagame. Spectral Cutlass is a good card for the archetype, but that one card cannot carry the archetype by itself.

  13. Jed
    July 28, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    Huh kinda neato hah hah fiery buffed axe
    It’s pretty ok if you want a weapon in a Deathrattle based rogue, it can also possibly combo shit

    3.75/5

  14. Coyote
    July 28, 2018 at 8:37 pm

    This is perfect for deathrattle rogue, wich i love to play. Not only it is an activator, but the weapon itself is a deathrattle, sinergising with both spellstone and roll the bones.
    The only thing that really triggers me is the fact that doomerang, for some reason, doesnt trigger weapon deathrattles.

    • Soup And Salad
      July 28, 2018 at 10:12 pm

      Doomerang does not trigger a weapon’s deathrattle because the weapon is not destroyed just returned to the hand. It is the same reason why a Deathrattle minion does not have its deathrattle triggered by cards like Sap.
      If Doomerang read “Destroy your weapon and deal damage equal to its attack to a minion. Add a copy of the weapon to your hand” instead, it would.

  15. Orasha
    July 28, 2018 at 8:29 pm

    Seems interesting, but I’m not sure if there are enough good Deathrattles in Standard for this. This miiiight find a home if more are released, but Deathrattle Rogue always seems to be something they push and it hasn’t really worked for a while. Wild is a completely different story though.

  16. Zulda
    July 28, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    Kinda Weird They Are Pushing For Deathrattle Priest And Rouge In The Same Expansion. Stats Are Waraxe So Already Ok, Deathrattle Is Pretty Circumstantial, If You Have What I Will Calls “Eggs” (Small Minion That Die To Become Big Minions) Or Some Other Strong Deathrattle Minions, Then Yeah This Is Good. If You Have A Mix Of Some Weaker And Stronger Deathrattles, Maybe Hold Out On Breaking It And Try To Kill The Not As Good Deathrattles.

  17. Helioshadow
    July 28, 2018 at 8:14 pm

    Throw this into Dane’s Big Rogue, and you can get turn 3 Necrium Blade into turn 4 Kobold Illusionist and proc it instantly for a dude (assuming you swung turn 3). Of course, you’d much rather combo Illusionist with Spiritsinger Umbra, but it could work with a decent hand (i.e. Silver Vanguard + Backstab). Probably the dream would be turn 2 Cheat Death into turn 3 Necrium Blade and swing into turn 4 Kobold Illusionist, swing and pull Silver Vanguard, backstab Vanguard and pull Kel’Thuzad. You get a pretty well developed board on turn 4, even outpacing Big Priest. That’s insane.

    In Standard? idk. Probably need better Deathrattles and synergies for it to work. But that’s just my judgment.

    • Thomas O'Looney
      July 29, 2018 at 2:10 am

      That’s inferior to playing Barnes but maybe a good fallback t3

      • Helioshadow
        July 29, 2018 at 6:01 am

        Except Dane’s Big Rogue doesn’t quite benefit the most from Barnes due to the low-roll potential and the inability to control which target it hits. Really if you roll anything that isn’t Silver Vanguard, you aren’t in a good spot to begin with (plus Barnes interferes with Kobold Illusionist). The deck currently is missing early and easily combo-able deathrattle triggers (besides Spiritsinger Umbra which is expensive and can’t be regularly combo’d, and Backstab for the 1/1 clone which could be used for something else [and doesn’t quite kill the Kobold Illusionist]) as well as decent turn 3 on-curve plays, and this card could supplement going first w/o coin (as well as having fantastic synergies with the rest of the deck once you hit late game). So ye.

  18. Ahcadya
    July 28, 2018 at 8:13 pm

    Is this the first ever Deathrattle trigger in rouge? Interested to see what this can do…

  19. Lucasato
    July 28, 2018 at 8:11 pm

    Wow,this is very cool!

  20. Burnqpund
    July 28, 2018 at 8:09 pm

    Deathrattle rogue could be viable?

  21. Potato
    July 28, 2018 at 8:08 pm

    If this was battlecry and deathrattle, boi.

  22. Piterno
    July 28, 2018 at 8:08 pm

    Battlecry: trigger the deathrattle of a targeted minion is worth .5 to 1 mana. Battlecry draw a card is worth 2 and deathrattle draw a card is worth 1. If it ever could be a targeted minion on deathrattle, that would be worth .25 to .5 mana. This is worth even less. Other 3 mana 3/2 weapons, like Eaglehorn Bow and Shadowblade, are much better. Priest and Hunter have good deathrattle synergy cards because one has a quest and both have deathrattle cost reduction effects… Rogue lacks deathrattle reduction effects to make this worth it…

  23. r0nin
    July 28, 2018 at 8:08 pm

    This card is insane. You will see what I mean.

  24. Kuma
    July 28, 2018 at 8:06 pm

    Still better then fiery war axe