The Runespear
The Runespear is an 8 Mana Cost Legendary Shaman Weapon card from the Kobolds & Catacombs set!
Card Text
After your hero attacks, Discover a spell
and cast it with random targets.
Flavor Text
When asked what the runes do, the tauren smith smiled: "A little of this, a little of that..."
- Type
- Weapon
- Rarity
- Legendary
- Set
- Kobolds & Catacombs
- Class
- Shaman
- Cost
- 8
- Attack
- 3
- Health
- 3
- Minion Type
- Mechanics
- Discover
- Artist
- Jakub Kasper
- Collectible
- Yes
- Rating
- 1.9/5 (2065 votes)
Card Review & Interactions
Card Interactions
- If you choose a spell that has Overload, you WILL be Overloaded. - Source
Review
Sigh. Sometimes we just have to be blunt and there's no getting around it - paying 8 mana for a 3/3 weapon feels miserable. Attacking with this weapon better be worth your investment, in terms of mana, tempo, board, etc. Sinking 8 crystals into a 3-attack weapon is hard to justify, so before anything else, we have to ask the question "does this card justify it?" Personally, I think that the answer is "no". If we look at the available Discover pool for this card, aka Shaman spells, we quickly come back down to Azeroth to realize that there is a lot of bad with all the good and for the each great option there are many "worst of the worse" options as well. Given that the targets are random, you really want to be picking, if possible, from spells that don't target, such as Shaman's board clears, Bloodlust, Evolve or Devolve, etc. However, some of the more impactful AoE spells are symmetrical, and for every spell that doesn't target there are at least twice as many that do, ranging from damage, removal, buffs, etc. Put simply, Totemic Might and Cryostasis are more likely results than Far Sight. Obviously we don't yet know what new spells Shaman will be receiving and things can potentially always change in the future, but right now it's not looking too for The Runespear.
There is also the fact that this card is extremely slow. Now, that's not the biggest factor here, considering that it's very likely that it is at it's least worst when you don't have any minions and the opponent does, but then an 8-cost 3/3 weapon feels even worse. Given that it is you as the player who actually casts the spells, you also have to take into account that spells with Overload will overload you, further increasing the cost that you pay for it. Despite all that, we have to give this weapon its due diligence. In the event that you do end up getting this weapon, either for free through an effect or with a discount, it does become one of the better legendary weapons out there.
Card Review by Chimbarozo
33 Comments
Spirit
You're too slow!!
SimEgg
If you pick a overload card, say Volcano, do you overload?
D00mnoodle
yogg saron overloads you, so i guess it does. (for the record i don't think it should though, since yogg saron (or this weapon) is casting the spell and not you)
MrMeme
But does Tortollan Primalist overload you?
D00mnoodle
I actually don't know if he does. The reason i know about yogg is because i experienced it first hand in a game. I haven't played primalist yet so i cant say.
Goon
Yes. Overload is part of the card text, so it's applied to the player as an effect of the spell. Tortollan Primalist applies overload and this almost certainly will too.
D00mnoodle
Too slow and risky, but very fun. If you overload from it (yogg saron overloads you too) it's pretty bad, but if it doesn't it might be strong with stuff like lightning storm, feral spirit or volcano. Also potentially very strong in arena.
1/5 in constructed, 3/5 in arena, 5/5 fun
af
if this overloads crystals then theres no chance.
seenowthepowerofthegodfather
at the very least its deal 3 damage and cast a spell of your choosing
ab00000
What do you mean at the very least? That's exactly all the card does
Nightfall
wow, this card really sucks. I mean, the spells can backfire, attacking your own minions.
Xander Raidon
An 8 mana 3/3 weapon (that casts 1 random spell with random targets, to a possibility of maximum 3) is pretty damn weak & slow. It needs some serious synergy like 10 mana Shaman spell that fully heals hero and draws 3 cards.
sober667
Everythink depends on spels in expansion and synergy with overload. if will be big that card will be busted even if you get drow/ AOE/even two wolfs2/3 with provoke is nice value lets think at turn 8 is deal 8 damage and cast spell wich is another 3 mana so its geting like 6 mana value instantly and next 2 attacks will be same
For control deck not bad
Jonathan Lehrmann
Wtf are you saying. Provoke? Drow?
Arcaser456
Draw and Taunt
Nope
I think we all know the real class legendary should be Doomhammer.
Highball
The Fist of Ra-Den woulda been cool too. Overload and draw a card or something
Playwright
This just seems like an improved version of Primalist, and since I found Primalist nine times out of ten is more helpful then hurtful I would be willing to use this if it means it removes some of the risk of Primalist and allowed me to use it three times at the cost of it being a weapon instead of minion.
MarmotMurloc
Ouch, I was really hoping for some super good shaman weapons, it's the main class I play...
Something along the lines of: 6 cost 3/2 with "whenever you attack transform your minions into ones that cost one more" This would still be bulky, but would be a double evolve trigger that you could bring in two turns earlier, which I prefer to this tortalan primalist weapon.
I just feel like this weapon will be way to bulky. It would be better almost if you couldn't attack with it and the ability just activated three times! By turn 8 you'll be attacking the lich king with a 3 damage weapon, which just seems a little to risky for me.
I still hold out hope that shaman will get something nice, something that makes Murloc quest viable maybe! (But with Murloc quest, it may need a lot of somethings)
Oh well, still looking forward for the other legendaries!
Jonathan Lehrmann
Lol at your thinking your weapon suggestion would be anything other than ridiculously OP.
MarmotMurloc
Hey, I mean, sure it would be great but thrall cost five, double evolves and improves your hero power. Nerf it to a 2/2 if you want, but it would really be that bad woth acidic ooze and especially that bloodshot corsair! I think it would really be that unbalanced, maybe 2/2 for 7, but that might be too weak. Thanks for the opinion though!
Roberto
Can you discover other classes spells?
crapcrack
Too slow, too much rng, too bad! C'mon Blizzard!
EPOCH
Another useless card! Hail to the Blizzard! Absolutely Crap...
to
Total garbage wtf blizzard lay off the crack..
DyingHawk
It's fantastic, you may have a few duds of three one target removals but there are so many good spells and so much potential value the card is great. Aluneth on the other hand is hot garbage...
Jack
This card is great! A bit slow for the meta but 3x tortolan primalist on a 3/3 weapon seems bonkers. Yeah you might get overloaded but you still get another free spell on the following turn. Shaman has board clears so if you need one desperately this might give you one. I see this card slaying in arena.
ab00000
I hate you
Razik
I have maybe stupid question why in description of this card is "random targets" not random target? (everyone knows aoe spells works on all targets).
Boneless
I can’t say for certain. What I can say is that not every spell you discover will hit all minions.
imaloony
Another meme weapon. Too hard to control, too expensive, too likely to blow up in your face. It may have some interesting spells it works with that don't care about targets, and if you get three of those off, this may even get value. But it's too unlikely to work out like that in the end.
Same deal in Arena.
Standard: 1/5
Arena: 1/5
Planeguy
Dust
CD001
This was my free legendary weapon... and I can confirm, yes, it's pretty bad :|
The random factor completely kills it... when you need to get that extra 4 damage to kill something, you'll not get any of the spells that do that (and Shaman has several) or, if you do, it'll target your own minion. If you've got an empty board, guaranteeing whatever is cast will target an enemy minion you'll not get the choice of any removal cards...
About the best you can hope for is Lightning Storm or, maybe, Evolve. If it was "discover a spell and set its cost to 0" it might be playable as a late game, high value card, in a control oriented deck - as it stands, having this in your deck costs you more games than it saves.
Comments are closed.