This is a question that many players eventually ask themselves. However, the answer is not easily found. Because of the many different game mechanics in Hero Realms – like ally abilities, draws, cycles and stuns – the answer is different depending on which kind of deck the player and their opponent have built. But let’s have a look at the candidates.
Elven Curse
At just a small 3-gold cost, Elven Curse is a cheap damage-dealer with 6 damage as its main ability. And it only has to faction with a single Wild card to bump that up to 9 damage total. In addition it makes the opponent discard a card.
As will be evident further down, there are cards that can deal more damage than this under the right circumstances. But that is just the thing. The circumstances need to be present. With Elven Curse, all that is needed is for a deck with a few other Wild cards. And since Wild is the most damage-heavy faction in the game, that is likely to happen all on its own. There are two copies of this card in the deck – as opposed to every other card on this list – which means that it can essentially faction with itself.
Close Ranks
Another aggressive 3-cost action is Close Ranks. It does 5 damage as its main ability and an additional 2 damage per champion that is on the board when played.
If the player has no champions at all, this is still a nice card with its 5 damage and possibility to faction for 6 heals. But if the player is able to establish and maintain a champion wall, this card will really start to amp up its damage. If just three champions are on the table, this card deals 11 damage. And we have all seen a game with seven champions on the board. In that particular case it would deal 19 damage!
Smash and Grab
It is a 6-cost action, and has a very nice main ability that deals 6 damage. On top of that, it can put a card from the discard pile on top of the deck.
Now, this card is very dependent on circumstance, because it loses a lot of its value if it is topdecked and has no discard pile. Or if there is only trash in the discard pile to pick from. However, if it is able to pull one of the other really high-damage cards? Making it possible to use such a card twice in a deck cycle can not be overrated and for that it earned its spot on this list.
Rake, Master Assassin
He is a 7-cost, 7-defense champion and also the only champion that made it to this list. As actions are a one-time use with no damage soak (and therefore more powerfully built) that is not wholly surprising, but keep in mind that this is not the end of the discussion. There are a few guards in the deck that are able to deal more damage than Rake, but they are also more likely to be stunned on their first turn on the board. This puts them in competition with the actions on this list, where they just can’t keep up.
With his high defense, Rake is able to hide behind guards and can deliver his damage over and over, because the opponent might not have the damage to take him out too. He has 4 damage and a stun to bring to the table as main abilities. The toughest champions have 7 defense and can be buffed up further if playing against a cleric. But even without, if such a champion is in play, this card deals 11 damage per turn on the board.
Before moving on to the last cards on the list, there are a couple of honorable mentions. Life Drain, which deals 8 damage and can faction for a draw and Rampage, which deals 6 damage and has two main ability cycles. Draws and cycles means the possibility of drawing into more damage. But in that department they are still outranked by two other cards.
Domination
This card is the only 7-cost action in the deck and it deals 6 damage and has a main ability draw. The draw is seldom guaranteed to bring in more damage, but if the deck has been thinned out there is a real possibility. The additional main ability for 6 heals is just icing on the cake.
It can also faction to prepare a champion. Preparing a champion means that the player gets to use that champion’s main ability a second time. And if that ability is used on basically any of the high-cost champions, this card really starts to deal out some damage.
Fire Bomb
As the only 8-cost action in the deck, we do expect value for our money and boy do we get it. As its main ability, it deals 8 damage and can be trashed to deal another 5 damage. That means that should it be needed, this card is guaranteed to deal a one-time 13 damage without meeting any circumstances.
On top of that, it has the main ability to stun a champion. With a 7-defense guard on the table, Fire Bomb does 15 damage and can do it consistently during the length of the game. And as with the cards above, it also has the main ability to draw into more damage. So if everything comes together for this card, it is truly a Fire Bomb.
Final Musings
Although there is no definite answer to the question posed by this article, it is at least clear that there are a lot of considerations to be made when going for that big damage. A lot depends on the build of both the player’s and the opponent’s deck and it is always a question of reading the board correctly. But hopefully you are now able to keep an eye out for the possibilities.
Also, if you enjoyed this article, you might want to listen to the Realms Rising Podcast S2 e5 where I spend some time discussing it with Anvroser.
Title: Which Card Deals the Most Damage?
Category: Deckbuilding
Tags: #Analysis, #Base Set, #Damage, #List, #S_Freak, #Stats
Published on: January 7, 2022
I specialize in dry humor, stats analysis and heckling. I am a Danish gamer, writer, and relentless perfectionist.
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