Subject 9
Subject 9 is a 5 Mana Cost Legendary Neutral Beast card from the The Boomsday Project set!
Card Text
Battlecry: Draw 5 different Secrets from your deck.
Flavor Text
The original clever girl.- Mana Cost: 5
- Crafting Cost: 1600 / 3200 (Golden)
- Arcane Dust Gained: 400 / 1600 (Golden)
- Rarity: Legendary
- Class: Neutral
- Minion Type: Beast
- Set: The Boomsday Project
- Mechanics: Battlecry, Draw Cards, Secret
Subject 9 Card Review
This card can be really strong in decks running Secrets. In order for this to be playable, I’d say that you need to draw 2 cards. 5 mana 4/4 that draws a single card is not bad, but not THAT good –Â Azure Drake was better, because it also had Spell Damage (and it obviously fit into many more decks). At 2 cards, however, it’s already really strong. 3 cards and it’s bonkers – you don’t need to go higher than that. While it can theoretically draw up to 5, you have to simply ignore that part. Not only you won’t likely put 5 different Secrets into your deck, but even if you do, you will most likely draw some of them before this card. Still, with 3 different Secrets in your deck, you should draw 2 pretty consistently. Sometimes you will low-roll and get only 1, sometimes you will high-roll and get 3.
This card will 100% see play in Wild Secret Hunter deck. Combo it with Cloaked Huntress to get out all of the Secrets for free and you’re set. As for the Standard, it’s a bit more complicated. First of all, there aren’t many decks that play Secrets. Paladin and Rogue most likely won’t want to play it for now. Paladin doesn’t have any great Secrets in Standard right now, while Rogue’s Secrets fit different kinds of decks and you won’t likely want to put all of them into your deck (maybe with two different Secrets… but I’m still not seeing it). So we’re left with Mage and Hunter.
As for the Mage, right now the class still has Arcanologist, which is one of the best 2-drops ever printed and it tutors Secrets. That’s why, unless you want to put LOTS of Secrets into your Mage deck, Subject 9 just isn’t necessary. Slow Mage decks don’t run Secrets at all after Ice Block has rotated out, and faster Mage basically runs 2 copies of 2 Secrets (Counterspell and Explosive Runes), sometimes with an additional one (mostly Mirror Entity), but rarely. So Arcanologists are enough to get them.
Which means that we’re left with Hunter. This card would fit best into Spell Hunter, but it’s a minion, so that’s that. However, I’d say that it will definitely be played in any Hunter deck running at least 3 different Secrets – maybe some Recruit Hunter builds without Prince Keleseth, maybe Midrange Hunter, maybe the new Mech Hunter if it plays Secrets.
All in all, this card has massive potential, but the problem is that right now there is no deck that would really want to play it. If Secret Hunter was still a thing in Standard, then it would be an auto-include there. But it’s not. So right now it might not see any serious play, despite being absolutely powerful.
Card rating: 9/10 potential, but probably 4/10 in the upcoming meta
Will probably become the missing link in my Emeriss deck. Core cards atm are: Emeriss, tundra rhino, witchwood grizzly, bloodworm, DSR and stitched tracker. Then loaded with spells and takeouts. Aim is to full your hand with 5-cost minions then turn 10 play Emeriss and then spam 6/24 taunts, 4/10 charges, 8/8 lifesteal and any other mint 5-cost zombeast that I’ve managed to build in the meantime.
Just struggling to make it consistent, this card will either fill my hand with secrets, and increase the value of LE Wellstone or throw down as an 8/8 with charge (when played with TR) that gives late game security.
If I don’t get this in my packs, definitely going to craft it.
Just to clarify, not saying the card is 10/10 spectacular, but will definitely make decks that use “the hunter secret package” more viable – imho.
The only classes that run secrets are Mage and Hunter, the only time you’d use a secret in Rogue deck is a OTK Rogue. The Paladin secrets are fairly mediocre and this card is way too slow in Hunter decks. I could see play with this card after Arcanologist goes out of rotation.
I don’t play wild but I feel like this would also be good in Wild Freeze Mage.
wild mage just has way way way better options, secret keeper, and the 2 drop death rattle guy
also, if you try and slot in 3 or 4 different secrets to get value, mill rogue is very popular, and geting a huge power boost cause of the 3/2 gang up minion…. so combo decks have to make sure not to go over 5 or 6 cards in hand, otherwise your combo pieces might get burned. he fills ur hand with all these nice secrets, then thurizan and alexstrasa get burned
why no love for this card? seems quiet good and probably has future potential with addition of new secrets. its like azure drake stats with more draw potential
You have to run 5 secrets in your deck and not draw them and then they don’t even come into play they just enter your hand. 1. The Minion is understated. 2. you risk overdrawing. 3. You still have to pay the mana cost of the secrets. It could be useful in wild with a card like Cloaked Huntress that’s about it.
I also forgot a huge downside. It’s 5 DIFFERENT secrets not any 5 secrets. So you can’t even draw secrets you run 2 of.
If you’ve played a Warrior deck with Forge of Souls in it, you’d know if you only have one weapon left in it, you’ll draw that one weapon when you cast Forge of Souls. Just because the card says Draw 5 different Secrets does not mean you have to play five different secrets in your deck to draw anything.
Additionally. Azure Drake was one of the best Control cards out there because it was a minion with good enough stats that also drew a card. This can easily draw two or three. The draw is specific only to Paladin, Hunter, Mage, and Rogue, but it will still probably be good enough in the same way Elven Minstral is good enough in Rogue.
I mean it’s pretty ok draw if your deck has a lotta secrets
4/5
Card reveal list says this should be revealed at 9 PM today.
Looking for an ice barrier because you’re at one health? Well, now you can just play Subject 9 to trigger your opponents!
Fastestest card to be nerfed in September
Time to put this in my Secret Rogue! 😀
Nice tool for Secret Hunter (as it generally lacks draw). It’ll interfere with Rhok’delar, but I’d say it’s worth swapping for a Cloaked Huntress, Stitched Tracker, maybe Gadgetzan Auctioneer build.
As of now, Paladin doesn’t have a lot of card draw outside of Divine Favor, which is useless against aggro builds, so I can see this maybe putting Secret Paladin back on the spot.
Secret Mage? That’s a bit of another story. Sure, Mages have ways to get free Secrets in their minions, but those minions are hardly ever played. Mages have plenty of card draw, so it’s unlikely to be needed when you have Aluneth, Arcane Intellect, etc. Also, remember the card Glacial Mysteries? Hm?
glacial mysteries is 8 mana so its not all that great for tempo plays. And this actally gives you nice tempo. The abbility to play the cards you draw is what wil lmake this card powerfull and mage kinda does not have those. Although In the mage case this card will draw you the most value.
In a spell hunter deck it will not synergize with the legendary bow since it will make it kinda useless. So good luck playing it there. But with proffesor putricide This card can give you tons of value. And cards like cloaked huntress will give you a unkillable turn 6 maybe 7. Paladin secrets are preeety bad but for wild this is really nice. I don;t know why is this card neutral though. i was hoping it would be some dragon priest card. it urned out to be some verry dissapointing hunter card that is neutral on top of it all.
Subject 9 is probably a step into making Secret Paladin viable again. It definitely isn’t Mysterious Challenger, but it does draw out most of the low value secrets out of your deck, making each of your later draws better.
For Mage and Hunter, a five mana 4/4 draw two or three specific cards from your deck is perfectly playable. In those too, drawing a secret in the late game isn’t very good unless it is specifically Explosive Runes or Freezing Trap. Plus, the Beast tag isn’t irrelevant for Hunters. You could also play this in Rogue, but the Rogue secrets aren’t very good.
As long as Secrets remain a popular option in Mage and Hunter, Subject 9 will see at least some play. I am just not sure if it’ll see play in Tempo Mage.
Card will absolutely not see play in mage. It’s 5 DIFFERENT secrets and counteracts Arcanologist. You generally don’t want to overdraw and fatigue in a control mage and you would have to cut way too many useful cards. Secret Hunter is possible but again you have to run all different secrets this card does not benefit from doubles other than insurance in case you draw one. You have to figure 2 secrets is not very good you have to run at least 3 different secrets to find running this card beneficial.
Given the way cards like Forge of Souls and Ice Fishing work, you’d draw as many cards as you can up to the number the card allows. Thus, if you only have one weapon in your deck and you play Forge of Souls, you’ll draw that one weapon. You can try it out yourself just build a Warrior deck with Forge of Souls and a single weapon or a Shaman deck with Ice Fishing and a single Murloc.
As such, if your mage deck only plays Explosive Runes and Counterspell or your Hunter deck only plays Explosive Trap, Freezing Trap, and Wondering Monster, you’ll draw a copy of each without needing to play five different secrets.
People say it will be good in secret hunter but that’s just stupid. Secret hunter doesn’t use minions since it ruins R’hok delar and To My Side!.
its a beast so you can create it with the Dk and cycle your deck
It’s probably going to be a while before they update DK Rexxar beast pools. Next rotation maybe?
Secret Hunter and Spell Hunter are two separate decks. Secret Hunter is basically Spell Hunter if it removed some of the lesser spells and No minion requirement spells for a midrange hunter core of minions.
Secret Hunter is basically a deck halfway between Midrange and Spell Hunter
Did you forget that spell hunter ran Barnes and Y’sharj even though it messed up the no Minion theme? This is only 1minion, it will be seen in spell hunter for sure
For the lore guys out there. Subject 9 is a hyper intelligent devilsaur from Azshara. The player helps her board a rocket ship. Apparently her flight was successful. Hopefully she is voice-acted and doesn’t just growl.
Thanks for the lore. Alway fun to hear. 🙂
Standard secret Hunter will love this. Beast tag!
Secret hunter is a flcking lame trash deck, have to highroll to win = Definition of clown fiesta shkit deck. – Sammy
so only 2 cards(which are not as close as game winning as SS) out of 30 and its already a highroll,well i guess taunt druid is a highroll too then
So – it’s a second rate, *neutral* Mysterious Challenger…
I can’t see it really getting any play with Paladin in Standard as there are fewer really good secrets than wild – and Bellringer Sentry and Hydrologist should have you covered. There’s even less point playing it in Wild as you’ve got the real Mysterious Challenger. I guess there could be an edge case for a weird Odd/Secret Paladin hybrid (since all the aforementioned cards are even costed).
Standard Secret Mage generally only runs 2 or 3 types of secret and Arcanologist has a better mana/stat line and curves nicely into a secret. This would be overkill in any Mage deck – even in Wild where you might actually run 5 different types of secret.
So… that just leaves Hunter. Even then, this is a bit peculiar. You can’t use Even/Odd Hunters because the secrets cost 2 and this guy costs 5. You’re probably *not* going to want to add a 5 mana minion to Secret/Spell Hunter as it’s normally going to screw up “To My Side” and “Rhok’delar” … that leaves a mid-range Beast Hunter with the Spellstone. To be fair, that’s not a bad deck but it doesn’t run that many secrets – still, dropping a 4/4 minion that tutors 2 or 3 cards for 5 mana isn’t bad, especially since it’s got the Beast tag.
… as for Rogue, well, there really isn’t a secret package worth running for this.
If you were to draw just Counterspell and Explosive Runes as a Mage from playing this card, that’s still a tutoring Arcane Intellect attached to an at most two mana 4/4 body.
You don’t need to get the full value out of this card to make it playable. Just getting two cards will be enough a lot of the time outside of Paladin.
Oh, I agree, just I think in Mage it would be overkill as you’ve already got the option of 2 Arcanologists – which I think is probably better for consistency.
Hunter though…
We need more than 3 rogue secrets.
Spell Hunter ran Barnes and Y’sharj, this is only one minion. The deck will definitely run this
Good point, well made 😉
Perfect for Secret Hunter but pool of secrets must increase this Expansion.
Not really. Just drawing one of each of Freezing Trap, Explosive Trap, and Wondering Monster should be enough. Plus, some are starting to include Rat Trap.
Even when Cloaked Huntress was around, I don’t recall Secret Hunter playing more than four different Secrets
So we all know this is going to be good in Hunter, question is how to make it work in Paladin, Mage and Rogue:
Rogue: Forget about it
Paladin: Well at least you can spam all the secrets together, really only useful if you need to get through your deck for combos (such as Deathknight OTK which is the Paladin deck I’ll try this card with if I get it, combine with Bellringer, Divine Favour and Aunctioneer for lots of draw, maybe even too much draw whoops.)
Mage: Many secrets to use, pretty good, but clogs up hand with five 3 mana spells. Maybe too slow. BUT I have a combo in mind; In Quest Mage, complete Quest, play this and have 5 secrets now in hand. Next turn, drop 2 Mana Addicts, 1 Sorcerers Apprentice, then Quest. Get one more Sorcerers Apprentice out and spam all 5 Secrets, giving Mana Addicts +10 attack each. Attack face, and now your opponent has to deal with 5 mage secrets and would have taken 25 damage from both Mana Addicts and the 1st Sorcerers Apprentice you played.
Also any more spells you cast will increase the damage by 4 for each one so it is possible to OTK too.
Probably not consistent enough but if I get this I’ll try it anyways.
why should u play this in quest mage… In your variant you need like 5 secrets and the usual combo stuff… way to many cards required… Quest Mage is just working when u need like 4-5 cards… U cant make like 30% of your deck useless
I find it boring playing the usually Quest Mage, and anyway that version isn’t as good now that Ice Block rotated out.
But you have plenty of draw with secrets, that 2 mana draw a secret plus this and you draw them fast. Put Piper in deck to draw out Subject 9 as you’ll only need a few minions for this deck and helps the consistency getting it. Plus if you get that 8 mana put 5 secrets from deck into play from random spell generators (with my luck I seem to always get that) it wont be useless anymore with all the secrets. Plus all the minions that work with secrets.
Anyway, this is just another version of Quest Mage which has focus on Secrets, probs won’t be as good as the original but more fun imo, but I’ll only try it out if I get Subject 9 in a pack, probably won’t willingly craft it xD
(I was just throwing out deck ideas, not trying to make a perfect God Tier deck.)
Sounds like Exodia mage minus the infinite damage and requiring more cards. Plus it’s worse against Taunt can’t be good.
Secret Hunter always lacks of carddraw, maybe this Card will help
Since Priest got absolutely useless legendaries I was hoping for some good neutral legends for him. well, NONE of those released are for priest.. For the first time I regret that I paid for pre-order, thanks!
Priest isn’t really useless this expansion. Fun factor wins it for the class!
if your preordering for one class then isnt it smart to wait until all the cards are revealed to see if the class looks good?
I hv preordered since karazhan but this time I m still not convinced that I should pay for this expansion. All the love to Druid is so discouraging.
same here
Priest Cars are absolutley garbage, this is the weakest exp for Priest since Beta (im playing since beta)
I preordere and i regret it too
Are we pretending that Frozen Throne didn’t happen?
I wouldn’t call Zerek’s Cloning Gallery “absolutely useless” yet. And we’re still only a bit over half into the reveal season. Legendaries aren’t everything – Priest can still get a few solid class or Neutral cards.
yes… there are still 3 Priest cards missing and 3 Cards can really make a huge difference
With the base Priest has at the moment, it can. Dragon Priest would only need about two more good cards to be good again.
Cloning project is an otk or massive value bomb
Cloning Lab is quite powerful, there is already an almost viable spell based OTK-ish deck with Priest right now that Zerek’s would fit right into. Zerek’s into Velen, Malygos, Radiant Elemental plus Mind Blast is 20 damage. Smite is 14 damage at 0 mana. Any spell damage minions add 4 damage, Bloodmage Thalos in particular as it is a good fit. And Radiant Elemental Into Zerek into Velen, Maly, and 2nd Radiant allows Mind Blast to be played for 0. This is the full combo but even pulling just a Velen or Malygos can end games. And although you can only play one copy of Zerek since its a spell Shadow Visions is gonna give Priest far more consistency than any of the other classes will be enjoying with their legendary spells.
<3 is a npc from a chain quest of Azshara, an inteligent raptor who flies far away from Azeroth in a rocket… but it ended in dr.bum labs :'( http://www.wowhead.com/npc=36500/ subject-nine
welp only 4 classes have secrets….barely over 40%. so right off the bat can’t go past 2/5… and only 2 classes even use secrets….1/5… had this been a hunter specific maybe a decent card. but as a nuetral….. who ever designed this card should be fired
If u draw 1 Card with this statline ist okay. if u draw 2 ist value. Good Card!
Yea, like Kazakus and Aya were only even allowed to be played in 3 classes that’s not even 40% so they could not go past 2/5 either. All the Death Knights, heck all class cards are only allowed to be played in 1/9 classes so none of them could have even come close to 1/5.
What awful logic is that MrSparkles? The problem OP has with this card (which is a valid complaint), is that it’s literally unusable in most classes and yet takes the place of a NEUTRAL legendary. Most neutral legendaries are better suited for specific classes, true, but there’s always a way to make a meme deck that can use them well. Meanwhile this card is NEVER going to be any better than a vanilla 5 mana 4/4 for all 6 classes that can’t get secrets.
Your DK comment is completely idiotic, because the DK cards obviously don’t take up the spot of one of the neutral legendaries.
Your Aya/Kazakus comment is also just dumb, because if you check the Gadgetzan list of legendaries, you’ll see that each of the classes only had one legendary, because the second class legendary was Aya/Kazakus/Don Han’Cho, it was just in the neutral section so they didn’t have to put separate copies into each class that could use it. What this ultimately means, is that, again, none of those cards took a neutral legendary spot, in fact MSoG had more neutral legendaries than any other set.
By your awful logic literally every single class card is 1/5 because they are solo class
Again, none of those cards take up the spot of a neutral legendary. Why is that hard to understand? This card is LITERALLY USELESS (a vanilla 5 mana 4/4) in all classes except 2-3, which basically means those 2-3 classes got an extra legendary in the place of a neutral legendary for every class.
Aya and Kazakus did take up neutral slots, wat
Also lets not forget our friend Captain Greenskin, who until K&C, only affected 4 classes? Just like the secrets? How about that.
I’d prefer not to have to play around secrets against more than the 4 classes that already have them.
Again a card being Neutral is strictly more powerful than if it were class specific, why is that hard to understand? If this card is potentially good as a Hunter class card then it is at least that good as a neutral.
Secondly, there are many ways for a card to be powerful aside from being viable for every class.
Justicar was EFFECTIVELY USELESS except in warrior and a little paladin but it was so strong in warrior TANK UP became a meme. Y’Shaarj was effectively useless for most classes except big decks, and Barnes into Y’Shaarj in spellhunter become a menance. There are plenty of cards that are EFFECTIVELY USELESS for most classes but made significant impact on the game because they were so incredibly strong in the situations they were utilized.
Yikes…. who hurt you?
Take a deep breath.
when your minions cost 1, you need to draw spells to waste all that mana
dont know about this. dont think it will be any good. 1/5
Well, there u got ur Drawmachine Hunters.
Why is this not the Hunter Legendary? Like it seems way more on theme for Hunter than Boommaster Flark. Perhaps it was a last minute switcheroo because they have no new Hunter Secrets.
neutral legendary!….. that’s good in 1 class….. and only even use able in 3….. derp
kinda 4
It’s because all the class legendaries for this set are either the chief scientist of the class, or the legendary spell named after the chief scientist. While it’d be cool to have a dinosaur or beast scientist, the illustration and name for this card would likely have to change so people would immediately recognize it as a scientist. It looks to feral and unintelligent to be a scientist as is.
I hope this means that we will see more secrets. I feel like this is kind of unfair to be a neutral card though.
Arcane Intellect values drawing 2 cards at 3 mana, so if you can hit that then Subject 9 is a 2 mana 4/4. Even then, are those really cards that you want to play? Maybe in Hunter, just maybe, it seems to be the class they’re aiming this at the most. Even then, I’m not 100% on this.
Wouldn’t Subject 9 be a -2.5 mana 4/4?
3 mana for draw 2 + 2 mana 4/4 = 5 mana 4/4 draw 2.
I didn’t realize you meant 2 secrets rather than all 5; you’re right
Not every class has secrets available to them, this seems to be a waste?
Why “waste”? It’s not like Neutral cards synergize with all of the classes. There are Neutral cards that work only in a single class and there’s nothing wrong with that.
This is still good Neutral material, since there are 4 classes with Secrets. It’s a bit like Captain Greenskin before every class got a Legendary weapon. It was useless in lots of classes, but the card was absolutely fine.
but even of those 4 classes only 2 even play secrets really… mage has better fetch mechanics. and spell hunter is only one that uses traps really so a minion isn’t good in that deck…. just feels like not only was it limited but the 2 that might use it don’t really have a place for it.
theres nothing wrong with bad legendaries, they print cards like these so people can try and make them work
The only problem here is that you CAN’T make this work outside of the classes that use secrets, which does feel like a stupid design choice. Bad legendaries are fine, legendaries that are vanilla 5 mana 4/4s in 6 out of the 9 classes are NOT fine. This is basically a hunter/mage/paladin legendary that’s taking up the spot of one of the neutral legendaries.
Or a weak 5mana legendary to dilute the card pool.
Can’t think of a deck this could fit into. Secret paladin? I’m not really about this.
this card could be sooo good in secret hunter its not even funny too bad secret hunter is trash unless they get new secrets