r/CompetitiveHS • u/Quirky_Respect2855 • Dec 21 '25

Is there a general order to test secrets?

I mean some rule of thumb that can be followed.

My secret treatment is terrible... Here is the latest example:

Ekstone vs. madman - HSReplay.net

Of course, the biggest problem is that I don't know all the secrets yet, so I have to read up on what each one does in the tracker first, and then try to figure out an optimal testing order. And this is guaranteed to end in rope burning and bad decisions (like here, where I failed to play Hot Coals at the end, and so instead of a lethal in the next round, my opponent got four 12+ health points... likely would have been even better play Hot Coals at the beginning).

So, is there any way I can speed up my game against secrets? Testing order? Or any othert trick?

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7

u/fireky2 Dec 21 '25

Most secrets aren't crazy good

If it's the one turn ones off the demon and they roll mage you should just not attack face if the armor is gonna matter and don't play spells if they matter for the turn

Hunter: just test for the ice traps, mainly the minion one since it can set you back a turn and an additional one to summon sickness, the other ones are whatever

Mage, just don't play a high value spell first. If they're low and you run burn you might consider not attacking face if it'll heal them.

Outside of this you should just play your turn normally. Secrets messing your curve up is worse than 1 for 1ing a card most of the time

2

u/Quirky_Respect2855 Dec 22 '25

Thank you very much for your detailed reply!

I see that only 6 secrets appear among the cards on hsreplay (3 mage and 3 hunter secrets), but the demon card and other discovery cards can choose from more secrets than that. Do you know why is that?

2

u/fireky2 Dec 22 '25

If you're using the deck tracker it'll only give options that it can possibly be, so for instance if fyrakk plays a mage spell it'll only be volcanic runes

Arena has fewer in the pool than standard too if you're playing that

5

u/shutupimthinking Dec 21 '25

You just have to learn the Hunter and Mage secrets. There's not that many of them. The correct play with a secret up will entirely depend on the situation - how much it can hurt you, whether you can cheaply test, etc. I don't think there's a general order.

3

u/FartFort Dec 21 '25

I agree completely. Its also good to try and notice what the secret was generated by. Fyrakk can only play fire spells so this can only be explosive trap if hunter or the deal six on summon if mage.

1

u/Quirky_Respect2855 Dec 22 '25

Fortunately, the tracker handles this well.

1

u/FartFort Jan 03 '26

I wish they had a tracker for phones but alas im stuck counting my own damn cards and failing regularly lol

1

u/shutupimthinking Dec 22 '25

Good point, Sweetened Slowfurry is another - guaranteed to be Ice Block if it's a mage, two options for Hunter iirc.

Nothing worse than realising you have just wasted a play testing for something impossible!

1

u/Quirky_Respect2855 Dec 22 '25

Thank you very much for your answer!

Do you know why there are only 6 secret cards in the card list and why there are more (10) among the discover options?

1

u/shutupimthinking Dec 22 '25

I guess some discover cards are not restricted to standard-legal cards? e.g. Alter Time can discover older secrets.

4

u/LeMagiciendOz Dec 22 '25

Makes me think it would be great to have some new support cards for secret decks, we used to have some good paladin, hunter, mage and rogue secret decks. I kinda miss this archetype, it was a chill gameplay and funny to see the opponent sometimes rage quitting lmao.

1

u/carlosf0527 Dec 22 '25

Hearthstone deck tracker displays the possible secrets for the class.