The 2007 World Championship in San Diego, California, featured plenty of daggers. Between Daspien Bladedancer and Rotun Daggerhand, Rogues made up a sizable fraction of the field and occupied over half of the Top 8 slots. Swords were out, and pocket-sized shivs were all the rage for solo decks. Thanks to March of the Legion, many of the caster classes obtained new and powerful weapons of their very own. The Bringer of Death and Crimson Shocker were both high-profile options that promised to see plenty of play in the new format. But as I watched the Gadgetzan finals just a few weeks ago, only one thought was running through my mind. Well, two, actually. The first was, ¡°What do those cards do?¡± The second was, ¡°Man, Runesong Dagger is insane!¡±

A rare weapon in the online world of Azeroth, Runesong Dagger for us cardboard jockeys is only an uncommon. The side benefit? No boss to beat down or friends to outrun! Just nice, easy foil to tear through. Runesong Dagger has wrecked house in plenty of Limited games, and it will certainly continue to do so. It¡¯s one of the best cards you can open in Draft play. But the card deserves plenty of attention in Constructed as well. Its low cost and cheap activation are both hallmarks of strong Constructed cards, so let¡¯s delve deeper and see how we can bolster our decks to enable including the new blade.

We certainly have reason to play it. Runesong Dagger provides the caster classes with an incredibly potent weapon with which to face down aggressive decks. And none too soon, I might add, because the slower decks definitely need more weapons! Shelly was already giving Hunter decks some dangerous, early resiliency, and now March of the Legion has introduced the next best thing in aggression: Bloodsoul. Aggressive decks of all flavors are promising to become more and more potent. The Warlock¡¯s fallback, Steal Essence, can languish in hand as Bloodsouls and Kagella Shadowmarks pound on their glittery robes and make them eat their pretty hats. Even the simple Gurzuk is gaining popularity as an alternative to Broan Charges-the-Fight. When it comes to damage-based removal, 3 health is the new magic number. I bet we¡¯ll even see a decline in Parvink¡¯s popularity against these new fellows. This is going to make the Dagger really popular with practically every class that can wield it. Certain options like Steal Essence and Frost Shock are no longer the most efficient removal on the block.

There¡¯s only one tiny problem with Runesong Dagger: it takes several turns to reap its real benefits. Fortunately, Runesong Dagger doesn¡¯t need a full turn to gain a counter¡ªthat¡¯s just the minimum growth it guarantees you. There are plenty of ways to draw extra cards to make sure your turn 2 investment grows even faster. Some of them are powerful and popular, and all of them are playable. The Dagger is a deckbuilder¡¯s dream. It has a strong effect that works well on its own and has a lot of potential for amplification. It also fits into several different classes, which means a lot of different decks can cash in!

Runesong Dagger looks like the perfect complement to most control strategies, which often focus on drawing cards anyway. In fact, while the last thing most players need is motivation to draw more cards, the Dagger has certainly provided us with that. Counterattack! and Rescue the Survivors! have become metagame staples almost since their release, which is saying something, considering one of them is over a year old! The raw card advantage of these effects has made the exclamation marks in their titles totally appropriate. You don¡¯t need me to tell you that Draenei decks can draw some serious cards, but, man, is it true. The Defias Brotherhood often complements the Draenei-only quest, and they make up the engine that has made those archetypes so inherently powerful. Combining these cards with the Dagger is a virtual no-brainer, depending on faction and race.

The Alliance is well known for their profound amount of card draw. Parvink has been the benchmark for 3-drop allies since release, and that card draw is clearly the reason why. There are a lot of great choices with which to maximize Runesong Dagger in this faction. The new Bizzazz is another fine choice. A deck packing the full four copies of Parvink and her bigger brother will be able to score plenty of extra verse counters, in addition to making great trades on the board. Another new ally that¡¯s near and dear to my heart is Weeble. Double your Parvink, double your fun! This protector is going to be highly played in the coming months, and I imagine the Dagger will often be in tow. There are few comparable 6-drops in the Alliance, and only a couple in the Horde and neutral factions.

One of the best forms of draw in the Alliance is the quest Corki¡¯s Ransom. It may seem cruel to trade Corki¡¯s freedom for verse counters, but one does what one must in the fight against the Horde. Guaranteeing a minimum of one card per turn, Corki's Ransom makes sure the Dagger keeps firing over and over in the late game. The constant draw also keeps your hand fueled and makes sure you keep the upper hand as health begins to dwindle and the game comes to a close. That¡¯s a win-win if I ever saw one.

Warlock decks looking to cash in on their Felguard or Voidwalker companions can add You Are Rakh¡¯likh, Demon to their arsenal. Let¡¯s just say that this caster class is going to be a lot more dangerous thanks to this particular weapon, which gives Warlock decks something to do on turn 2 other than play Eye of Kilrogg. Aggressive styles have the new Thulthun, a truly monstrous man that gets a lot better with the Dagger clearing out protectors. Defensive all-stars like Sarmoth, Hukkath, and the new guy Haaroon will be a lot more difficult to fight through with the Dagger at their backs. Er, at your back. Uh, moving on . . .

Quests are usually the bread and butter when it comes to most decks and their ability to draw cards. From the neutral side of things, there are other interactions that are just as awesome and available to any deck. Gahz¡¯ridian has started to come into its own as an alternative draw effect in slower decks, but its high complete cost means it won¡¯t interact too favorably with our new brand of Dagger deck. Still, Gahz¡¯ridian¡¯s ability to fit into any deck is probably going to make it a hit, especially since the Dagger is typically only going to be played in decks with a long game plan. Falling to Corruption will do exactly what you need in a pinch¡ªand it¡¯ll do it on the cheap¡ªbut it¡¯s a risky option for most decks. After all, you can¡¯t activate the Dagger if your resources are all tied up or sent to the discard pile. Still, its cost to complete is as low as they come, and it bears an interesting resemblance to the more costly Gahz¡¯ridian. Perhaps late in the game, permanently losing two resources will turn out to be less damaging than losing the use of five for one turn. I could certainly understand this to be true on turn 9 or so. It¡¯s an interesting balance, and one I¡¯m sure deckbuilders will be exploring.

Each member of the Donation cycle is a reasonably good card with the Dagger, but one in particular outshines the rest. Though A Donation of Mageweave will get you three verse counters, it¡¯s not the best card, in my opinion. A Donation of Silk has always been one of the cheapest ¡°draw two cards¡± effects in the game, and despite some new competition from March of the Legion, it remains firmly near the top. Unlike the aforementioned draw effects, the middle Donation easily fits into a Dagger-based curve. A turn 2 Runesong Dagger followed by a turn 3 completion of A Donation of Silk lets you use your third resource to immediately pop off an ally. Few aggro decks can recover from such a fast tempo loss. Not only that, but if you¡¯re playing Horde, completing Counterattack! on the following turn will let you kill someone else immediately after, and then you can mop up the game however you see fit. That quest has been really powerful in decks with graveyard access, and Runesong Dagger fits into those decks nicely. Personally, I think A Donation of Silk is the perfect complement to Runesong Dagger, and I expect that most players who run one will find the other a very attractive option.

I feel confident in saying Runesong Dagger will end up being one of the most popular cards from the new set, and I daresay it is also one of the better ones. Horde decks will love to abuse it with a base of potent quests. Allies will form the fuel for most Alliance builds. The power level of Runesong Dagger is quite reminiscent of Perdition¡¯s Blade, another cheap dagger that removed dudes and found a lot of success in basically every class it was legal in. It¡¯s likely that this pointy little stick will become the control player¡¯s Perdition¡¯s Blade. It might even outshine it, thanks to the longevity of its power. Runesong Dagger will affect a game as long as it¡¯s in play. I for one will always be displeased to see it on the other side of the table. For now, I¡¯m still struggling to squeeze it into several different decks!