This article is a study in evolution. In the beginning of the game’s development, there were weapons. There were Ranged weapons, single-handed weapons, and large Two-Handed weapons. There were Shields and items and other equipment, but the weapons shone brightest among the silver-backed cards. They were glory-bound. Weapons offer a type of card advantage, or a shot at card advantage, not found in other card types.

While the advantage that weapons offer may be simplistic, it is at the same time fundamental and profound. Quests, to date, do not really deal damage. They are not singly responsible for direct damage and are not often considered sources of recurring damage. Some quest cards generate tokens that deal a bit of damage, but those might be considered the exceptions that prove the rule. Abilities are largely sources of removal and damage. Abilities typically emit a single burst of damage, and are occasionally the source of damage over time, but they rarely provide a player with the ability to select a different target for the damage generated over time. For example, a Priest may consider throwing the old Shadow Word: Pain on an opposing hero. A single point of damage is inflicted on the target of the card with each of the Priest’s turns, but that damage’s target is fixed. This inflexibility of the fixed damage or the finite limitation of the single damage burst generally makes ability cards inferior to ally cards in terms of potential card advantage.

Ally cards are superior sources of damage compared to most quests and many abilities. When an ally card enters play, it represents a threat to an opposing hero’s health, but it might also represent the removal of opposing allies or pack an activated ability. Most allies offer the controlling player an opportunity to direct the combat damage delivered in an exchange from said ally to multiple targets depending on the need to do so. Essentially, they are flexible sources of continuous damage limited by their health.

Resource Economy and Investment

Imagine a case in which I have five open resources and am able to spend those resources on cards that might deal 5 damage. If I am able to hit an opposing hero or ally with Arcane Missiles, then I deal 5 damage. I get to deal the damage one time and will typically achieve a one-for-one trade. Some abilities offer better trades but typically result in a single burst of damage. In contrast, imagine that I am able to hit an opposing hero or ally with Fury. I deal 5 damage. If Fury survives, then I am able to hit for another 5. There might be a case in which Fury attacks a 2-health ally, does not die, and comes back to hit the opposing hero on the subsequent turn. If the hero is unable to deal with the big cat, the game is soon over.

Most aggressive game plans use this type of damage from allies to achieve an eventual win condition based on a little damage from abilities and a lot from ally-based combat. Fortunately for heroes that have to defend against these game plans, the wise developers have designed a plethora of options for efficiently removing such allies. There are several cards in the game that prevent an ally from attacking, remove the ally through death or some other consequence, or otherwise generally hold in check one of the game’s most versatile and complex forms of damage delivery.

I took you through this preface to build a case for the serious consideration of weapons as the single most important card type in the current metagame. Weapons offer a player the same diversity in damage type and distribution that allies offer, but there are relatively less options for removing the weapons. Weapon removal is somewhat scarce and not always the most efficient use of your resource investment. While Constructed decks may have an ebb and flow of cards that remove equipment based on the metagame, there are not always effective ways of dealing with very cost-efficient weaponry. It is important to note that I am not really complaining. I love this game. I love playing ally-based decks and going solo. I like that the game has options and those options will keep the game healthy. However, I think that some of the weapons released in the most recent set may have tipped a gentle balance established in the first two releases, and that is going to make for a very exciting time ahead.

Weapons are becoming more and more cost efficient. There are some very reasonable values all along the early turns, including Eskhandar’s Right Claw, Perdition’s Blade, and others. As these cheap cards gain increased attack values and decreased striking costs, they become extremely great values. They work as continuous sources of damage and removal, and they can keep both attacking allies and defending heroes in a submissive position.

If One Weapon Is Great, then Two Are Amazing

There has been a gentle trend in the game over the last six months. Players have noted the power of fielding two weapons on a hero. The TAWC version of the Bulkas Wildhorn / Cruelty deck used both Melee and Ranged combat weapons to capitalize on the advantage offered by weaponry. If you are able to spread around two consistent sources of combat damage turn after turn, then you are sure to dominate the endurance race while controlling an opponent’s board.

Dual Wield never did much for me as an ability. It was obviously a strong concept and offered strong returns for a player in an unsuspecting metagame. My major concern was the potential disadvantage that one might experience when the ongoing ability was destroyed. It was cheap, which made it both playable and vulnerable. If someone managed to blow up the Dual Wield, it would take one of your weapons along with it. Some players may note that you could always play a second copy in response to the removal, abusing the ability’s instant speed, but that led to consistency issues and still posed a risk of disadvantage.

The ability did make a showing in Team Cheaty Face’s dominant Gorebelly build at the U.S. Nationals, but it will go down in history as overshadowed by the fact that the dual wield characteristic was eventually given to certain weapons in the Fires of Outland expansion.

Dual Wield Goes Big Time

We have spent the early parts of the article discussing the inherent advantages of weapons over most other card types, and now we see that you might get to drop two to three weapons at a time. If you use Ranged weapons along with your dual wielding Melee tools, then you can capitalize on those types of advantage three times over. That can get pretty wild. The power level of the cheap weapons can be boosted through the addition of cards that pump your weapon, like Striker’s Mark, Eye of Rend, and the like. This makes the well-costed houses of destruction gain a second story!

The natural places to look for potential abuses are the Warrior and Rogue classes. The Warrior class can play most of the key parts and has always been good at going solo. It takes a few short tweaks to make the Gorebelly decks that have dominated the local scenes faster and more powerful with the addition of Timeslicer and/or Warp Splinter’s Thorn. Yet the most success using these dual-wielding threats may eventually be the Rogue. Erik Van der Laan just claimed the Rogues’ first win as he took down the DMF championship in Milan. Since the Australian and German Nationals, the multiple weapon–slinging Rogues have made top table finishes, and it looks like the trend is just kicking off.

Nobody Said Broken

I actually abhor the term broken. Most things in a game can be fixed, neutralized, or totally smashed through the use of creativity and alternative strategies. Though weapons rule the current metagame, they have become a target. There are removal cards. There are allies that might slow weapons down, prevent strikes, or change the cost of striking. Further, there are several cards that prevent attacks or damage from attacks. Many players are compiling a list of cards that might offset the dominant nature of weapons and the potential huge threat of dual wielding those weapons. Check out the Kingpin’s take on some counter-technology that could save you some damage in your next match:

Cyclone: Enjoy the next three turns
Hammer of Justice: A strong threat against solo decks
Blue allies: Grint Sundershot, Durdin Hammerhand, Margaret Fowl, “Chipper” Ironbane, Moira Darkheart, etc.
Ice Block, Holy Shield, and all of the non-holy Shields: always consider protection!
Giant allies
 

All of these options might give you an edge against weapons. While it does take effort to best weapons, there are plenty of building styles and key tech cards that can be employed by smart players to hold the weapon-wielding classes back. If you are really tricky, you might dual wield weapons yourself and play cards that limit the effectiveness of your opponent’s weapons. In the end, players will need to evaluate the potential threat that dual wield poses in this game, and they will be called upon many times in upcoming major events to either defeat the threat or make it work to their benefit.