Spell Damage



Spell Damage is an ability which boosts the overall damage of spells by the listed amount. Spell Damage does not increase healing done by spells, and does not increase damage dealt from non-spell sources such as Hero Powers, Deathrattles or Battlecries. Sources of Spell Damage are indicated by purple sparkles around their portaits.

Strategy
Spell Damage is a valuable quality for classes which use damaging spells. The mage, rogue and shaman classes are good examples, but every class has damaging spells and can therefore benefit from it. Spell Damage is especially important to control decks such as Freeze Mage and Miracle Rogue, as well as spell-related aggro decks such as Aggro Shaman.

Like most card text effects, Spell Damage takes effect as soon as the related minion comes into play. This makes order of play very important, and allows you to quickly unload a flurry of buffed attacks in one turn, if you have the mana to spare. This is particularly possible with low mana cost minions such as Kobold Geomancer. Even if your opponent removes your minion the next turn, you will still have gotten some use from them.

Note that while many varieties of Spell Damage minion exist, almost all of them offer the same bonus: Spell Damage +1. This means the difference between a Dalaran Mage and an Archmage (and the justification for the extra mana cost) lies only in Attack and Health values, not in their actual ability to boost spell damage. This can make low-cost Spell Damage minions an appealing choice, allowing you to rapidly and cheaply put them into play, ideally in immediate combination with some damaging spells.

Players will generally want to protect their Spell Damage minions, and may not wish to summon them until they have a sturdy Taunt in place, although this does not of course protect them from spells and other effects. Conversely, attacking players will often want to dispose of Spell Damage minions as quickly as possible, before their owner can put their bonus damage to good use.

This can make Spell Damage minions good lures for removal, as well as neutralisation through Silences and transform effects. Spell Damage minions often function as soft taunts, drawing the priority fire of your opponent while other targets are ignored. In less than ideal circumstances, this is as good a use of a Spell Damage minion as any, especially if you have other Spell Damage minions on the way, have no spells in your hand, or have already used most of those in your deck.

Trivia

 * Sources of Spell Damage are usually minions, but Jungle Moonkin makes both heroes sources of Spell Damage - although they depend on the minion's ongoing effect to retain this ability.
 * The developers have tried having cards that decreased the opponent's Spell Damage, but found that it was too confusing in practice.
 * Most minions with Spell Damage themselves have explanatory tooltips that state "Your spell cards deal 1 extra damage". This is true even for those with Spell Damage +2.
 * Malygos correctly states "Your spell cards deal 5 extra damage."
 * Other cards which grant or mention Spell Damage, such as Ancient Mage and Velen's Chosen, simply say "Your spells deal extra damage" instead.

Spell Damage-generating cards
This section lists cards which generate Spell Damage cards.

Spell Damage-granting cards
This section lists cards which grant the Spell Damage ability to other characters or to itself.

Patch changes

 * Unknown patch: Mousing over a source of Spell Damage will no longer highlight the cards in the player's hand that benefit from Spell Damage; previously, it did.
 * The first Spell Damage synergy is added, with Master of Ceremonies, as well as the first card to multiply Spell Damage: Arcane Blast.
 * “Spell Power +1” has been renamed “Spell Damage +1”.