Introduction
Good day everyone,
I’m here today with my first ever Hearthstone guide. I started playing Hearthstone back in September when one of my friends introduced me to the game. I was previously completely devoted to playing League of Legends and ranking up there but I often found myself frustrated with the game and just needed something to play whenever the trolls started setting up shop. At least, that’s what I thought! Before I knew it I was in love with hearthstone, more so with the mage class than any other.
It was love at first draw! The first time my opponent ‘rekt’ me with a pyroblast I was memorized, I said to myself, “I needed to do that!” And so I did. I picked up the mage class and have specialized in all variations of the mage class from then till now. Each season since then I have managed to grind my way up to rank 2-3 in a very short period of time. I have never attained legend rank but I do not think I play enough to deserve it but I will be sure to try in the coming season.
Anyway! Today, this guide will be based on one of the three decks I had used to climb the ladder last season (season 9) post the GvG update.
Let me Begin by stating that GvG was a complete mess the first few days and it was and is still hard to ascertain a good roster of possible opponent deck types you may face but I will try to cover the most common ones.
Deck Breakdown Preview
During the first few hours of GvG I had managed to obtain Blingtron 3000 from an arena pack and was very disappointed. I kept wondering like “why do I always get the crappy legendaries!!!” Little did I know that this card would be the baseline for an excellent ladder deck. This Deck is a great deck that will certainly be able to help anyone with mild knowledge of its use rank up extremely fast. Before i get started with the card by card breakdown and plays I’d like to list the deck pros and cons.
Deck Pros and Cons
Pros
- Relatively Fast Deck. (In my opinion fast decks are extremely effective on the ladder rankings above 5. Not only for the advantage of short match times, but it’s less mentally tiring and frustrating to play a fast deck rather than say a control warrior deck.
- Has great kill potential ( there are many ways to wreak havoc on your opponent’s hit points with this deck)
- Mildly consistent deck type
- Great VS almost all Classes if you Mulligan right. (Hardest match up was paladin, and that’s only if they manage to heavily heal themselves just before lethal. Another tough match up was the sea giant zoo.)
- This deck does not solely depend on one combo or 1 right card, all cards within this deck are good and synergize with each other.
- VERY FUN DECK TO PLAY! Hands down there is no greater feeling than playing blingtron-3000 and getting a gorehowl weapon to finish your opponent off.
Cons
- As with most decks in hearthstone, this deck is easy to pick up but takes experience to master, so practice first, if you have limited knowledge of the class
- Very unforgiving (Making the slightest mistake can cost you the match by 1 to -2 hit points. So always be wary of the kill potential of the cards you have in hand and even the cards you have yet to draw.)
Deck Breakdown (Card by Card)
ice-lance – One of the best cards in this deck (wait a minute! Every card is the best card in this deck :d) Ice lance has so much potential within this deck that it’s ridiculous.
- First off is the common and obvious frost-bolt+ice lance combo for 7-14 raw damage to your opponent’s face depending on how many pieces of the combo you manage to obtain before use. That combination paired with a bloodmage-thalnos on board is the pinnacle of the “I’m sorry” emote.
- Using ice lance to stop an enemy minion in its tracks
- Using my personal favorite combination – Blingtron 3000 + ice lance combo. (You play Blingtron, then if your opponent gets a threatening weapon from it, use ice lance to prevent its use, which would most likely guarantee you can use both Blingtron and your weapon without your opponent utilizing the weapon he got on your next turn.
mana-wyrm – There isn’t much to say about double mana wyrm for their use is pretty obvious. Mana wyrm synergizes well with early game spells like unstable portal, frostbolt, flamecannon and even turn 3 Kirin Tor Mage + secret for a lovely dose of pressure that will leave your opponents hovering the concede button.
frostbolt – another MVP of this deck. In the typical mage deck a user would try to conserve their frost bolt for the Icelance combo but because of the many ways to end your opponent within this deck, using frost bolt for removal of a pesky undertaker or any other minion is fine. Sometimes however if you have burned through lets say 15 out of 30 cards in your deck and you notice you haven’t seen an ice lance yet it is recommended to keep frost bolt for the combo.
flamecannon– This card is what you should use to remove threats from the board as opposed to using frost bolt to do so. This card with its 4 damage removal is excellent, not only because its 4 damage for 2 mana but because you can pair it with a bloodmage-thalnos for the removal of almost anything from the board due to the extra damage bump those cards provide.
bloodmage-thalnos – One of the best legendaries for mage decks. This card provides potential damage output and card draw by just putting it on the field. Lots of times this 2 mana hero will win you the game by providing that extra damage on your combos or by enabling you to draw that fireball you have been waiting on. In the early stages of the game you do not want to mulligan for this guy but certainly in the latter stages of the game his value as a card increases exponentially. A tip for using this card in the latter stages of the game is you can play it, then hero power it when you’re in a pinch just for the card draw, I have won matches quite a few times by doing this but it is not always necessary.
mad-scientist – not much to say about this card. Play it as soon as possible!
unstable-portal – if this card was a woman, she would be oh so sexy! This card can win you the game on its own. There isn’t enough that can be said about the potential utility that this card provides. I won’t go into much detail but you should play this card as soon as possible as well, especially if you happen to mulligan a mana wyrm and this card. An excellent combo when going first.
sorcerers-apprentice – This card is a great turn 3 play rather than a turn 2 play, for the simple fact that you can play this and unstable portal or flamecannon on turn 3, ensuring you milk this card for its cost reduction effect. Not to say that playing this card on turn 2 is bad.
snowchugger – this card was added for a few purposes.
- It is an excellent turn 2 play with a very good effect.
- It provides another way to freeze your opponent’s hero or enemy minions, preventing their attack, enabling the use of icelance to finish off a heavy hitting minion or even! Enabling you to finish your opponent with double ice lance rather than waiting for a frost bolt. Lots of potential with this card.
Secrets – I decided to bundle these into one section because, the entire aspect of having secrets within your deck is already a psychological advantage against your opponent. The secrets within this deck are the usual, nothing new but the combination of 2 duplicate and two mirror-entity is ideal against the heal heavy match ups such as warrior, paladin, priest and handlock. A well-played mirror entity can be the difference between winning or losing. The same goes for duplicate. Duplicate is a good spell at any stage of the game, any, and I mean any card within this deck that gets duplicated is an advantage to you but personally i always try to duplicate a sticky threat such as piloted shredder, sludge Belcher or loatheb.
kirin-tor-mage – In addition to all the stated benefits of secrets above. The card that exemplifies the utility of secrets and give them much more value than if they were used on their own is this exotic mage right here! Such a great card! Its value is pretty self-explanatory so I won’t get into it in this guide but 2 of these in a deck with 4 secrets is a must.
fireball – No explanation needed. If you have one fireball and board control, save it for lethal for it is a guaranteed 6 damage that negates taunted enemy minions.
piloted-shredder – This card is a solid 4 drop that is pretty hard to remove for it leaves yet another 2 drop in its wake. This card was added mostly for its ability to usually let you keep board control after an opponent uses their AOE removals.
Sludge-belcher – Quite possibly the most played card after the Naxxrammus expansion got released (next to undertaker of course). It provides a solid taunt wall that provides another taunted minion when removed. this card is perfect for stalling the game or preventing zoo’s and hunters from depleting your precious life points before you can deplete theirs. It also synergizes very well with the secret duplicate (2 more sludge belchers please!)
blingtron-3000 – The Star of this deck. I use this card mostly as a finisher, it can net you both board pressure with its body and direct damage or removal potential with whichever weapon you get. When playing this card, don’t worry too much about which weapon your opponent is going to get because you’ll get to use your weapon first. Blingtron combos well with an ice lance/ frost bolt in hand or a snowchugger on the field. For any non-believer I will explain the logic behind this cards’ use.
I hate math (who doesn’t?) but there are 17 possible weapons that this card can give you or your opponent and quite frankly only 3 of those weapons can be considered mildly useless. Which is just a 17.6 % chance to get a useless weapon but this same percentage also applies to your opponent which is awesome! Almost any weapon you get can net you massive damage vs your opponent.
Loatheb – Ah yes, the great staller card- this is another card with an unmatched battle cry effect. This card can literally stall the game for at least 1-2 more turns, enabling you the necessary time to destroy your opponent or regain board control. This card can be played in many different ways but in this deck, I mostly use it to stall or apply pressure to a board that I already control, so that I can whittle my opponents HP down to lethal range.
dr-boom – Dr. boom- The 2nd best legendary from the GvG expansion. It is just a great card overall. This card comes with a 7/7 body and 2 lesser 1/1 bombs that have the potential to do 2-8 damage to your opponents’ face or minions. This card should be played at turn 7 most of the times for many reasons. It forces your opponent to remove it, it applies pressure to the board, it can get your opponent to lethal range for a nifty fireball or pyroblast finisher.
Pyroblast – The great finisher! In all of Hearthstone i don’t think there is a more satisfying finisher than this one. This card is 10 direct damage to your opponents’ face, with virtually no counter unless your opponent happens to be a mage with counter spell.The previous version of this deck did not have a pyroblast but i kept finding myself missing lethal by just a few points or getting to late game and having no way to bypass heavy taunts. So i decided to try it out and fell in love with it once more. Always use it as a finisher, most of the time though by turn 10 your opponent will be in lethal pyroblast range anyway or already dead ;D.
Mulligan
The mulligans for this deck mostly revolves around 1-2 drop cards for almost any match up; specifically
Hunter– aim for mana wyrms, flame cannon, mad scientist, snowchugger, unstable portal.
Zoo– same set up, except frost bolt may be a better mulligan over flame cannon due to reliability.
Druid– keep flame cannon definitely, and aim for mad scientist, kirin + secret for turn 3 pressure.
Handlock-same as argo, against handlock you want to have a kirin tor mage and mirror entity as your best mulligan if you have coin.
Warrior– chugga chugga chugga!!! snowchugger and mad scientist! Best bets! you want to immobilize their weapon plays, because that’s all they have during the early stages of the game. The good thign about this deck is that it allows you to apply massive pressure early and finish them with fireball/pyro before they can recover and stack lots of armor.
Paladin- hate these guys, mostly due to their healing. Play aggressively but don’t overextend and play too many minions on the board unless you already have most of what you need for lethal. A well-played loatheb on turn 5 can net you winning board control.
Rogue– don’t face many rogues but this matchup is a walk in the park.
Priest- early game pressure, argo mulligan and go face, they usually have no answers for you until it’s too late.
Shaman- can be a tricky match up, mulligan for mad scientist, mana wyrms and flame cannon, it’s usually good to bait their early removals and then crush them mid game with pressure.
Conclusion
Overall I believe this is a solid deck, I have used it successfully to climb from rank 17- 7 in less than 48 hours after the expansion was released. I know that if played right this deck will bring you just as much success in current Meta.
Thank you for taking the time out to read and review my first Hearthstone deck guide. There will be many more guides to come including my mage arena guide currently in the works and my current Mage aggro deck . I hope this guide will help you rank up and understand the nuances of the mage class a bit more. My IGN is M16NPREGNANT #1589 (yes I know, best name ever! j/k) but be sure to add me or leave comments if you have further questions about this deck list. Also, be sure to rate this deck if you like it. I will be adding videos of me using this deck to climb so be sure to look out for that :d Cya on the ladder!
