Hearthstone can be a surprisingly complex game to pick up, with its many different card types, numerous minion tribes, and unique hero abilities. Knowing just when to play a specific card can make or break a match, and that goes double for knowing when to play and how to use the game’s many available weapon cards.
With their limited number of attacks and sometimes extremely strong abilities, it can be difficult to know if it is better to hold off for a turn, or to attack the enemy for just a little bit more damage, even if it means the destruction of your weapon.
10 Skull Of The Man’ari
Skull of the Man’ari is a 0/3 Warlock weapon costing 5 mana to cast and only available in Wild decks. Obtained from the Kobolds & Catacombs set, the Skull has an effect that more than makes up for its high mana cost: at the beginning of the turn it will play a demon from your hand, ignoring any Battlecries or mana cost.
This can provide a way to play high-cost demons without experiencing the drawbacks their Battlecries provide. However, this can, in turn, be a downside if you have demons with good Battlecry effects in your hand, so balancing how many cards you keep in your hand becomes a necessary skill.
9 Aluneth
Also obtainable from Kobolds & Catacombs, Aluneth is a 0/3 Mage weapon costing 6 mana to cast and is only available to players in Wild decks. Aluneth can provide mage players with absurd levels of card draw, allowing them to comb through their decks for their important cards quickly. However, as with all forms of card draw, unless the player can play enough cards per turn, their hand can quickly fill up and potentially cause important cards to be lost, as well as pushing the player into fatigue damage. When playing Aluneth, care needs to be had to ensure there’s a way to get rid of it if needed, otherwise the enemy needs to be finished off quickly.
8 Ancharrr
Ancharrr is a 2/2 Warrior weapon costing 3 mana from the Descent of Dragons set. Moving into Wild with the release of Forged in the Barrens, Ancharrr is a perfect addition to any pirate Warrior deck to increase the ability to put pressure on the enemy. With every attack made by Ancharrr, a pirate is drawn from the deck and added to the player’s hand. With key upgrade cards providing extra durability and pirates like Hoard Pillager allowing the player to re-equip it, enemy players will need an answer and quickly, else they be overwhelmed by a sea of pirates.
7 Bulwark Of Azzinoth
Bulwark of Azzinoth is a 1/4 Warrior weapon costing 3 mana from the Ashes of Outland set, and thus available in Standard. With the Bulwark, any damage the hero takes is negated, removing one durability from the weapon instead. This can be extremely effective at stalling for time to draw removal or shields against hard-hitting enemies, but far less effective against aggro decks, or from multi-hit damage sources such as some spells, as each instance of damage removes one durability, quickly destroying the weapon. Knowing just when to play this card is half the battle, as unlike only weapons, wasting its effect on weak enemies only plays to the enemy’s benefit.
6 Dragon Soul
The Dragon Soul is a 0/3 Priest weapon costing 3 mana from the Kobolds & Catacombs set, and only available to players in Wild. For every three spells the Priest casts, a 5/5 dragon is summoned.
With no limit on how many times this can be done in a turn, the card allows for some early game pressure when combined with cheap spells. Combined with cards that can lower the cost of spells being cast, or that provide the priest with more spells to cast, Dragon Soul can lead to a lot of board presence that can be hard to eliminate.
5 The Fist Of Ra-Den
The Fist of Ra-Den is a 1/4 Shaman weapon costing 4 mana from the Galakrond’s Awakening set, moving into Wild with the release of Forged in the Barrens. For every spell cast by the player, a Legendary minion with the same cost is summoned, and the weapon loses a durability. Most of the value here comes from knowing what Legendary minions come from each cost value, and planning spells accordingly, as many Legendary minions gain their effects from Battlecries, something that has no effect when summoned by a card.
4 Rinling’s Rifle
With no surprise from its appearance, Rinling’s Rifle is a 2/2 Hunter weapon costing 4 mana coming straight from the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire set, remaining available in Standard. With a medium weapon cost, Rinling’s main draw comes from its flexibility, allowing the Hunter to discover and cast a Secret every time they attack with it. This allows the hunter more flexibility in how they adapt to their opponent and may allow them to play a secret that they need for a situation, but might not have put into their deck.
3 Sphere Of Sapience
The only Neutral Legendary Weapon, the Sphere of Sapience is a 0/4 weapon available to all classes for 1 mana from the Scholomance Academy set, and remaining in Standard. While this card doesn’t provide any form of card advantage, it more than makes up for its cost (both in mana and deck space) by allowing the player to cycle through their deck to find missing pieces for combos or key cards.
It can also be useful to triggering the Deathrattle on other weapons or removing unwanted weapons equipped with cards like Blingtron 3000.
2 Val’anyr
Once more from the Wild set of Kobolds & Catacombs comes Val’anyr, a 4/2 Paladin weapon costing 6 mana. With a high cost to play, Val’anyr can provide extremely high value once it gets going, providing a +4/+2 buff to a minion in the player’s hand and a Deathrattle that re-equips Val’anyr. Combining this with cards that trigger Deathrattles can quickly stack up buffs on minions in the player’s hand, providing even more chances to repeat the process. Play carefully around silences, as the chain can be broken early on with a silence on the buffed minion.
1 Kingsbane
Arguably the strongest Legendary weapon in the game, Kingsbane is a 1/3 Rogue weapon costing 1 mana from the Kobolds & Catacombs set and therefore is only available in Wild. Kingsbane is an essential card in weapon-focused Rogue decks, as its Deathrattle allows it to keep any enchantments on it while being shuffled back into the deck. If it’s the only weapon in the deck, it can be easily combined with cards that fetch weapons from the deck, quickly racking up an obscene number of buffs, and it can even be used to prevent fatigue damage by forcing it back into the deck with the Rogue hero power.
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