Seems like the designers could have gone either way with this. Counterspell has 8.5x the play rate of Flare according to HS Replay. Why not have Flare able to defeat Counterspell? Balance things out a bit.
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You should generally know which turns the mage has placed it down. In some cases you can test for it can really be punishing to test for it and down comes netherwind portal, chances are you are playing flare because you pulled it from Zephrys and I think if this is the case you should be playing on the upper hand. Just don’t do anything silly.
If you closely read the text of both cards, you will see why the counter spell counters your spell.
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I get that it’s that way, but it was a design choice. Pretty much nobody plays Flare (I’ve been using it in an experimental deck). If they wanted more people to play it, they could give it that little edge.
Well if they made it good enough to see play it would kill off 2 entire archetypes. It can’t be any better than it is because of Zephrys, maybe it even deserves a hall of fame just for being in renos bag of goodies, then they can give hunter a card that is actually useful.
First in, first out, is how conflicts resolve in HS in the vast majority of circumstances.
Counterspell was in play first, it takes priority.
Because of the text on counterspell, flare doesn’t cast. It’s literally stopping the spell before it could even attempt to stop a secret. It always stops the spell.
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Nope (except if you mean the fact that flare is a spell). Making counterspell not counter a specific spell would writing that specific interaction, which would mean more time and more risk of bugs
Anyone tested this with oh my yogg? I presume it’s the same.
Does make sense to be fair.
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OK, fine, so Flare’s “spellness” dooms it to Counterspell.
And it’s really only seen these days because of Zephrys, which rotates out next Spring. After that, it goes (back) to the dustbin, for Standard, anyway.
It still seems a bit unbalanced that only mage has a defense for it, not the other secret-wielding classes. But whatever.
They should add a neutral minion that destroys enemy secrets like the old secret eater or that inspector guy. That would counter the counterspell since they’re battlecries.
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They did…
SI:7 Infiltrator was added to Classic as a HoF replacement.
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Then there ya go. Maybe not 100% solved since it eats one random secret, not all of them, but there’s your tech alternative to flare. Thanks, Mand.
Good point. I guess that’s something.
they could easily turn it into a 1/1 minion,
but the way its been its still a 3 mana trade for a 2 mana spell…
Flare is a spell. 'nuff said.