Hi folks, it’s time again for my recurring topic “Should I Dust This?!” where I ask players who are much better than me whether there is more value in a card I own than I’m giving it credit for.
Today’s card is the Hunter secret Rat Trap: “When your opponent plays three cards in a turn, summon a 6/6 Rat”. It is an Epic level card that is golden… and I don’t think I’ve ever used it even once.
Though obviously I understand how it could be used for amazing early tempo (like, you play it on turn 2, next turn your opponent plays murloc coin murloc, boom you have a 6/6 on turn 3)… My biggest fear is it takes away more immediate, useful secrets I could be playing, and if you draw it late game against certain decks, the opponent just ain’t gonna play more than two cards a turn, so it sits there useless.
So, my wise fellow players, is there unseen value that I’m missing? Or is using it as 400 dust for something else a better bargain? Please weigh in. Thank you!
Rat has seen some use in Secret Hunter decks. It’s a more specific, but higher power secret. It won’t show in most matches, but sometimes you’ll face something like a Rogue who clears your board with Prep+Vanish, plays something, and then bam: Rat Trap.
But because of its rare activation condition, usually reserved against opponents who have Divine Favor, Myras, Prep, Kirin Torn mage or Primordial Glyph, or other methods of playing multiple cards on one turn, it tends to sit useless against “normal” opponents. It also has no taunt or anything, so even if it shows up, it might be poor defense against the likes of a floody deck like Call to Arms or Odd paladins when they got you in a bind.
But beyond all that… the most important question is whether you need the dust. Golden cards have leeway since you can change your mind once at no cost. While Rat Trap can be seen as useless without a Subject 9 type deck, if you have no immediate need for the dust, there’s no need to be rid of it.
I say if you don’t have Subject 9, put Rat Trap on a “chopping block”. When a legendary shows up that you are short 400 dust for, that’s when you get rid of it.
It’s also useful later on by limiting the number of things your opponent can do. Depending on your opponent’s game knowledge, they might realize you played Rat Trap, and therefore try to avoid activating until they have an answer for the 6/6. Depending on the opponent, that could take a few turns of floating mana because they’re unwilling to trigger the trap.
I wouldn’t. It’s very useful against decks that board clear and then reload, and there’s very few decks that can avoid triggering it at no cost, especially while countering a Zuljin. And Rogue seems like it’ll be good going forward, and they often play 3 or more spells on turns 3-4.
it really depends what you want the dust for really.
as an example i had to dust my golden supercollider (even though it IS an amazing card that will still see play) in order to craft full golden the soon-to-be-HoF epics and Genn
I will give you the easiest answer. If you don’t planning to use it at all than dust it. If you’re going to use it then keep it. It’s really that simple. If for some other reason you want to get rid of it than do or other reason to keep it then keep it. This is about you while me and other players opinions will not dictate your responds since it’s up to you. Don’t forget to buy packs by getting packs you can get that card again all you have to do is select the right expansion it came from and use gold to buy the packs if you don’t want to spend money. Each pack cost 100 gold while the rest cost real money. So, a tip will be save up your gold through quest and matches to buy packs it will be hard at first but it will become easier as long you don’t use any gold. Save up until you have over 1,000 gold that way you can get over 10 packs worth.
Probably better to run secret plan, should be relatively consisten after rotation, so you could discover rattrap from this, if you run against a deck where it makes sense
Also , do you care about golden cards or not ? If no you can just dust it, even if the day may come, where you have to recraft it
(Which i doubt) you dont loose dust
There’s always a way to make that rat more effective. Take the dino who evolution the rat by putting adapting on it as the rat appear. This can work against normal players. Don’t forget other cards that can add their stuff on the rat when it appears on your turn to do damage or defense of beef. Certain cards can do this and I’ve been playing with this getting good results. The only question is can I get it out on time? Depending on the situation and the number of cards in my hand of mana it’s ify.
There will always be decks beating this rat making it this rat become a useless card to play. I’ve found by having facing very good players who were in higher ranks than me like 4 to 10 ranks ahead after each season has ended. I’ve found out my rat card wins less but it’s not a useless card and by tweaking the combos of cards it will win more.
Rat card with help will differ from “Standard” vs “Wild”. I love playing wild where majority of different combos awaits me. Just remember there’s always cards and decks are “meant” to beat you but that doesn’t mean a player should stop using it. Depending what players want to do in this game they will have to accept how certain decks can beat mostly all decks and there’s not supposed to be fairness here. That’s how this game design decks to be like MTG a challenge to test your limits and those who’re the dominant ones will always be in higher ranks than others, which is normal. As long a person can make it work a win is better than no wins. =D
Fun update: I just made a Hunter deck running Secret Plan, chose Rat Trap, and it helped me win the game.
So now I’m torn… because just like your advice, I “Discovered” the Rat Trap without running it… but now I understand how it can be useful if I DO run it, haha.
I’ll keep it for now. Hopefully I get a normal copy later on, so I can get that sweet, sweet 400 dust.
ALWAYS KEEP YOUR STANDARD CARDS. There is always a debate on whether or not you should dust cards after they rotate to wild. However, If a card is still in standard for another year keep it.
There are 3 expansions worth of cards waiting to be released. With the addition of Zuljin last expansion I can almost guarantee that we will get more Spell hunter support within the next few expansions. In which case a secret would fit that deck.
Unless you BOTH don’t care about how gold cards look and already have 2 regular copies of the card I would keep it.