by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Secrets, man. I utterly dislike them – playing them as well as seeing them on the board. There’s just something “icky” about them. Play your best minion, and let’s go!

I get that this attitude I have is a bit ridiculous. Like many aspects of Hearthstone, playing with secrets as a hunter, mage, or paladin is a perfectly valid strategy that a number of players employ very effectively. I’m just not one of them.

Personally, I would rather fill that deck slot with a minion. That puts the control back in my hand, rather than hoping that my opponent will trigger the trap I set for them. Also, seeing a secret in play against me does not change my game plan all that much. Getting paralyzed by the thought of triggering a secret isn’t going to help me win – but when I do see a secret, it definitely changes my attack order, or my card play order.

If you are facing a secret, eventually you will have to make a move that triggers it (unless you simply stop making moves altogether). If you are new to Hearthstone, here are my two suggestions for countering a secret: if you plan on playing a series of minions, play the weakest one first. If it gets copied or killed, your loss is minimal. If you plan on attacking the hero, attack with the most disposable minion first. If it dies, you have triggered the secret with minimal impact on your overall strategy.

Triggering secrets is as inevitable as death and taxes, but you can control the circumstances to some degree. It can be very satisfying to see major damage wasted on a low health minion, or see a copy of the Stonetusk Boar appear on the other side, instead of the War Golem.