Secret

Secret is an ability where a spell card is played face down and a stated effect triggers upon a specific condition occurring. The playing of a secret is revealed to the other player, but the name and details of the secret are not. Secrets can only be activated on the opposing player's turn, preventing them from being intentionally triggered by the controlling player. Secret cards are limited to mages, paladins and hunters, and are all expert cards.

Notes

• Secrets can only be triggered on the opponent's turn, preventing the casting player from triggering their own secrets.

• Secrets triggered by a minion being played will take place after any Battlecry. For example, Mirror Entity will copy a Twilight Drake after its Health buff has been applied.

• All secrets available to a class have the same mana cost. This prevents opponents from guessing the secret based upon its cost, which is the only information displayed when a player plays a secret.

• In some cases a secret may be triggered, but be unable to take effect. This can happen with Mirror Entity and Noble Sacrifice if there is no room remaining on the hero's board, and with multiple secrets if their specific target is removed (see below). In such cases, the secret will not take effect, and will remain in place.

• The limited choice of secrets available to each class allows experienced players to calculate the identity of unrevealed secrets. Since each secret has a specific trigger, players can intentionally test the secret to attempt to determine its effect, attempt to draw the secret out with weak cards and actions, or simply hedge their bets in order to minimise its negative consequences. For example, a player facing a mage with a single active secret may choose to summon a weaker minion before summoning a stronger one, in case their opponent has Mirror Entity, and then attack with the weaker minion first, in case that secret is a Vaporize.

Multiple secrets

• You can have up to five secrets at any one time, but you can't have more than one copy of the same secret active at any one time.

• Multiple secrets can trigger from a single event, for example a minion attacking the hero will activate all Explosive Trap, Misdirection and Freezing Trap secrets active on that hero at the time.

• Only one secret can take effect at a time, and multiple activated secrets will always take effect in the order in which they were played. For example, a minion attacking a hunter who has played Misdirection followed by Freezing Trap will be Misdirected before then being returned to the controlling player's hand. This can make the order in which secrets are played extremely significant.

• If a secret removes the specific target for another secret which was already triggered, the second secret will not take effect, since it now lacks a target. For example, if Freezing Trap removes the minion which would have been the target of Misdirection, the Misdirection will not trigger, since it no longer has a target.

• Note that this rule only applies for secrets which require specific targets; secrets such as Explosive Trap and Snake Trap do not require targets, and will always take effect once triggered, even if the original trigger minion has been removed from play.

Secrets

Template:Card by ability table

Related cards

Template:Card by ability table

Hunter

Mage

Paladin

Related cards

History

Secrets likely evolved from the cancelled "Combat Tricks" feature, removed early in the game's development. Similar to secrets, these allowed players with active Combat Tricks who attacked their opponent to play a card on their opponent's turn, disrupting their play. Ultimately it was found that removing Combat Tricks actually made the game more fun, as well as further improving its speed. It seems the idea was not wholly abandoned though, since secrets appear to represent a weaker form of the same mechanic.

Patch 1.0.0.4944

With Patch 1.0.0.4944, secrets were made to only be triggered on the opponent's turn. Prior to this, players could intentionally trigger their own secrets, allowing them to make use of them as additional spell effects, rather than counter-abilities.

While most secrets were unaffected, some interesting play options were intentionally removed by this change. The developers stated that the ability to trigger your own secrets was preventing them from creating new and powerful secrets, due to being easily triggered by the controlling player prior to this change. While removing certain strategic possibilities, this change was therefore intended to allow for the creation of a diverse range of new secrets. The subsequently announced Curse of Naxxramas mage secret Duplicate was confirmed as an example of a card that the earlier design would have prevented from being implemented.

Patch changes

• Patch 1.0.0.4944 (Open beta, 2014-03-11): Secrets can now only activate on your opponent’s turn.