Polymorph is back (in a way) and Naga Mage gets a lot of love, including a Legendary minion, in the upcoming Hearthstone card release, Throne of the Tides.
Mage players were mostly focused on Mech Mage so far in the Voyage to the Sunken City metagame, though the best card-slingers around found a lot to enjoy in the complicated Naga-based deck that aimed to utilize the synergies between Spitelash Siren and Commander Sivara.
The former deck is not getting any love from the new class cards, but the latter certainly is, as the new goodies are brimming with potential.
List of Mage cards in Hearthstone‘s Throne of the Tides
Submerged Spacerock
An interesting effect and one that may remind you of Evocation, a powerful Legendary Mage spell from the past that filled your hand with random spells before discarding them at the end of your turn.
Submerged Spacerock has a similar role to play, but it’s much more difficult to time when it goes off. Nevertheless, it means more resources and more spells, so it will definitely be a source of experimentation among the class’ players.
Polymorph: Jellyfish
The original Polymorph pretty much got rid of the threat entirely by transforming the target minion into a 1/1 textless Sheep for four mana. This effect was deemed a bit too powerful as time went on and the card was removed from Standard while its Shaman counterpart, Hex, was upped from three to four mana at one point.
Here, much like with TGT’s Polymorph: Boar, there’s a potentially significant downside if you can’t ping away the enemy minion you’re transforming, making it either a six-mana play of a two-for-one for your opponent. Meanwhile, +2 Spell Damage on your side for three mana sounds great for combo finishers, but you do need to have something on the board to transform, which also isn’t free. Make no mistake, this is going to be a very tricky card to use.
Lady Naz’jar
Most players have figured out that there’s no way Team Five won’t feature Lady Naz’jar in this Naga-centric expansion, so it was fairly easy to peg that it would be the mini-set’s final reveal.
The Arcane spellcast transformation is the most interesting one as a combo enabler, but the flexibility and the potential to alter your gameplan entirely against aggressive opponents make this a very interesting card that is almost sure to play a part in slower Mage decks for a long time going forward.
The Throne of the Tides mini-set launches on June 1. A list of all of its cards is available here.
