The spell flare problem (Hunter)

Community Discussion
1

Hunter’s Flare is a spell for no reason.

There are only 4 classes that play secrets. And two of those classes have secrets that counter spells: the mage’s counterspell and the paladin’s “oh my yog”.

In other words: there are few classes that flare is useful and the only purpose that exists - destroy secrets - can be nullified.

The remedy does not cure the disease. It’s ridiculous. Does not make sense.

Why don’t the same mechanics as eater secret or chief inspector and explosive runes or snipe apply? By the same logic explosive runes should kill eater of secrets the same way counterspell nullifies flare. But that’s not how it happens.

Flare turned over just a rotation card.

One more hearthstone card design problem. No logic and no sense.

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There are only four types of cards. Flare isn’t a Weapon. Flare isn’t a Minion. Flare isn’t a Playable Hero. By process of elimination, Flare can only be a Spell.

Triggering effects tend to come in two ‘flavours’; “Whenever” and “After”. “Whenever” tends to beat most other effects.

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Because Eater of Secrets is a battlecry, which is something that happens before the minion comes into play. By the time it hits the board, the secret is already gone.

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I think they wanted to limit the power of flare in the release. It already was quite strong with almost no drawback, for one mana: detroy upto 3 secrets worth 3 to 9 mana, (to that time one could have only 3 secrets in play) .
Other secret counters entered the game with expansions in a already powercreeped state or they powercreeped themself.

Flare

All minions lose Stealth. Destroy all enemy Secrets. Draw a card.

  • Type: Spell
  • Set: Legacy

Eater of Secrets

Battlecry: Destroy all enemy Secrets. Gain +1/+1 for each.

  • Type: Minion
  • Set: Whispers of the Old Gods

Kezan Mystic

Battlecry: Take control of a random enemy Secret.

  • Type: Minion
  • Set: Goblins vs Gnomes

Chief Inspector

Battlecry: Destroy all enemy Secrets.

  • Type: Minion
  • Set: The Witchwood

SI:7 Infiltrator

Battlecry: Destroy a random enemy Secret.

  • Type: Minion
  • Set: Legacy (added 2019)

Horde Operative

Battlecry: Copy your opponent’s Secrets and put them into play.

  • Type: Minion
  • Set: Forged in the Barrens
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I’m pretty sure, even in Vanilla, you could have up to 5 secrets active at once.

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I admit I was a little surprised when I first saw the interaction.

It could have gone either way. But yeah I think it’s fine the way it works because the other tech cards are all 1 mana weaker by nature, but flare is still a fairly efficient spell even if you don’t remove any secrets.

1 mana cycle and remove stealth is still kind of okay. Not especially amazing in hunter but it’s not like overpaying for an understatted vanilla minion, as the other tech cards end up being.

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responding to what BrknSoul said: you are just confirming that a card that fails to achieve its purpose in the game has logic

responding to what Onlineritter said: a better design would be flare to destroy one or two random secrets and cannot be countered

1 Like
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Flare should of been a 1/1 weapon, enough said.
Hearthstone needs a 2nd option for spells and equipment, Just like MTG has sorcery and
Artifacts.

Currently they are stuck at a brick wall like a writers block because they try to keep the game simple with only 3 option Spells/minions/weapons.

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No it doesn’t. Your comparison with Magic isn’t correct, by the way, since I don’t think there’s any interactions with the type of spell you cast (other than enchantments), or it must be some lone card in a very niche deck. Both can be countered by the very same card, so why bring it even up?

And why do you think they’re stuck at a brick wall? Because it does work with only three options. You might not think it works, but that’s because you are foiled by the intended game mechanics.

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The reason this happens is because

Flare

All minions lose Stealth. Destroy all enemy Secrets. Draw a card.

The first part is happening first, destroy all enemy secrets is not first.

so all minions losing stealth. period. is the first part of the spell.

thats why it’s different from battlecry minions.

i know it’s really stupid, flare should be changed to destroy all secrets first.

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11

You’re wrong there. Counterspell doesn’t stop part of the spell, it stops the entire spell. If a mage would have stealthed minions, they wouldn’t lose their stealth if Flare gets counterspelled.

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Counterspell stops all effects of a spell before any of them have an effect, it doesn’t let some parts happen and then prevent the rest.

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Their are some spells in MTG that only focus on Instant or Sorcery, Counter Spell Is clearly the card you are referring too and yes it targets both Spell types.

By just having spells covering quest, direct damage, buffs silence ect ect it limits the mechanics of the game.

Clearly, Flare should of been a boom stick or bow weapon.

The fact it gets countered because it’s a spell proves that the mechanics are limited
and counter cards shouldn’t cover every spell unless it legendary… Not a simple rare/epic that can turn up multiple times with a cheap discover mechanic.

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Correction, counter spells in MtG counter ALL spells, including instants, sorceries, creatures, artifacts, enchantments and anything else you cast. So, it’s funny you say Counter Spell in Hearthtstone shouldn’t counter every spell.

And no, Flare shouldn’t have been a weapon. That would make it impossible to run in Secret Hunter with a 3/4 Eaglehorn Bow.