Hearthstone’s Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion card reveal season is underway! We can expect to see multiple cards revealed on daily basis leading up to the expansion itself.

In this post, I take an in-depth look at Venomstrike Trap.

Venomstrike Trap

Venomstrike Trap is a Rare Hunter class card from Knights of the Frozen Throne expansion. It is a two-mana Secret with the effect that when one of your minions is attacked, Venomstrike Trap summons a 2/3 Poisonous Cobra.

The activation condition of Venomstrike Trap is the same as Snake Trap: one of your minions has to be attacked. It is therefore not very effective against aggressive decks that want to force you make the trades.

Note that it is not a Noble Sacrifice: the Cobra is summoned on the board, but it will not become the target of the attack. The Cobra has no stealth either, so your opponent can deal with it immediately if they have the appropriate resources available.

Secrets are heavily meta-dependent: what other people are playing affects your choices, and also what other people expect you to be playing affects your choices.

Venomstrike Trap is stronger than Snake Trap when there are lots of Whirlwind effects or other cheap area-of-effect damage in the meta: the Snakes die to a Ravaging Ghoul or a Maelstrom Portal, but the Cobra survives. On the other hand, if there is no area-of-effect damage available, it is more likely for a Snake to survive until the next turn if you want a Beast on the board for any synergies, and should multiple Snakes survive, that would set up for a good Scavenging Hyena turn. Snake Trap also has better synergy with Knife Juggler, should you include that in your deck.

Venomstrike Trap is at its strongest when Hunter is pressuring a control deck. Sure, the Cobra can be dealt with, but it still requires resources to be used while other pressure keeps building up, and it threatens to push through even a big Taunt minion.

Cat Trick remains the strongest Hunter Secret overall – a position that could only be challenged by lots of decks that run very few or no spells whatsoever, or such an abundance of pure aggro that Explosive Trap would become the only real option – but Venomstrike Trap gives Hunter another good anti-control Secret for more variety and surprises, also from Professor Putricide. It can also occasionally shine against more aggressive decks by taking out a Bittertide Hydra or a similar big threat.