Legend with Tempo Mage

Introduction

Hello everyone, I recently achieved the legend rank for the first time using this deck!  As soon as Blackrock Mountain cards were released I theory crafted a mech-tempo hybrid deck with Flamewakers and Goblin Blastmages, and was very excited for the crazy combos.  Unfortunately that deck was too inconsistent and I let the idea fade away until I used someone else’s aggro mage deck with Mech Yetis and Flamewakers.  The deck had some problems/was a theorycraft but it helped me think of the idea to use the spare part mechs in a midrange mage deck with Antonidas.

After I got legend I told all of my friends about this deck and the two that used it got to legend on the same day (I did do some coaching on how to use the deck however). This deck works very well because it can beat anything from face hunter to get in here warrior to handlock.  I like this deck a lot because of the many win conditions.  It is very similar to the pre BRM tempo mage, but pretty much adds an aditional win condition with Antonidas making the deck much much much better.  Sorc apprentice can also get more value because with the addition of flamewaker  spell synergy has blown through the roof (Sorc apprentice, mana wyrm, Antonidas, and now flamewaker).

With this deck you usually play in a board control style/ midrange and try and take small advantages along the way.  Then use your spells/antonidas/flamestrike/big creatures to take the win. However, you can also go HAM in the early game with mana wyrm, sorc apprentice, and flamewakers and get turn 5 lethals.  This deck is very strong on the ladder right now because of how versatile it is with many ways to win, and does well against all of the decks commonly used.

Mulligan Guide

A very important thing to note is that this deck has four 1 drops (which is a lot).  Your early game is important and you should mulligan for a very strong start.  The biggest mistake I see is when people keep a 4 drop and mulligan the rest of the hand.  Coin is so valuable in this deck, so even if you go second it’s almost never a good idea to keep a 4 drop and most of the times I toss flamewakers. (The only time you should keep a 4 drop or flamewaker is if you have a strong 1-2-3-4 curve or 2-3-4 curve or something crazy powerful like that.)

Against Warrior and Druid don’t keep frostbolt most of the time.  If you have mana wyrm and sorc apprentice then definitely keep the frostbolt, but Warriors and Druids don’t have many minions to frostbolt in the early game, and the best way to use it sometimes is to go SMOrc with mana wyrm and frostbolt face. So unless you have good synergy with frostbolt in your starting hand feel free to toss it to look for your four 1 drops. Flame Cannon is great against Druids btw.

Top Tier Mulligan Keepers

Tier 1: Clockwork Gnome/Mana Wyrm/ Mad Scientist, Sorc Apprentice (Sorc Apprentice is Extra God Tier against Priest because of their 1-3 Northshire Cleric)

Tier 2: Frostbolt, Flame Cannon

Tier 3: Flamewaker, Piloted Shredder (Toss these unless it would be dumb not to/ Perfect Curve/ Good Curve and playing against Hunter for flamewaker)  Flamewakers are very good against Hunter, but you still need the synergy cards which make flamewakers kind of slow against other classes.

A Note on Mad Scientist: This card is absolutely broken. It’s a 2 mana 2-2 that draws AND plays a 3 mana secret. That’s how you have to think about it.  5 mana worth of possible stats  with the downside of possibly being a bad 2 mana mininon.  You want to milk that value.  It is often better to not frostbolt an enemy minion, and instead trade scientist and ping.

So make sure you get value out of the mad scientists as soon as possible.  If you don’t successfully kill them off before you draw your secret then you missed the chance to draw a card.  This is because that mirror entity that you drew for the turn could have been a dr. boom/ sludge belcher/ flamestrike that you really needed.

Matchups

As I mentioned earlier this deck can beat any deck regularly and at the most a match is only slightly unfavored but pretty much depends on draws and rng. However some matchups are cakewalks such as priest or favored for you like Rogue.

Patron Warrior: Slightly favored for warrior (however today I went 2-1 against patron warrior but I that deck is broken and this deck isn’t built to beat it so I still think it’s favored for the patron warrior but only slightly) I would guess about 55-45 for patron warrior.

Handlock: 50/50.  Handlock is a strong deck that has been around for ages, very solid. But our deck is op 2.

Face Hunter: 55-45 for us.  I wen’t 2-0 against hybrid hunter today but I have learned how to beat hunter with this deck after many many many games of playing face hunter and facing them for many many games with this deck.  Turn 1 is almost always coin ping there 1 drop ( that’s great value make sure you do it).  Early to mid-game You have to out SMOrc them while clearing their board with flamewakers. You might also be able to pull out an archmage antonidas victory but you can’t plan to win like that/ it has to be out of the blue oh hey that’s an antonidas spare part combo next turn. And Freeze face with frostbolt if board is clear/semiclear and flamewaker/many wyrm is out.

Hybrid Hunter: 55-45 for us ^

Druid: 60/40 for us, but ramp druid is a crazy strong deck that can pull out wins out of it’s butt with Thaurissan/ Combo/ and crazy strong curves.  Sometimes it can be incredibly frustrating to lose to them especially knowing that you’re favored.

Other Tempo Mages: 70-30 for us. You absolutely take a crap on their inferior decks.

Freeze Mage: I fell like saying 50/50  because of how much I lose to freeze mage playing other decks. but there are very few freeze mages on ladder, and when I do play against them I end up getting Loatheb or Ragnaros and wrecking them. Rag is great against freeze mage because even when it’s frozen it still does 8 damage.

Rogue: 65-35 For us. Oil Rogue is a crazy strong deck, but for some reason they are pretty easy.

Mech Shaman: 55-45 for us. Sometimes their fel reavers can be very op, but other times you have a better curve and wreck them.  Always a 1 sided match. Also, it might be more in our favor, but I really remember getting wrecked by mech shaman and getting angry.

Mech Mage: 70-30 for us, that deck is obsolete. No card draw for them and our early game is just as strong and more consistent.

Priest: 80-20 I almost never lose against priest with this deck.

Control Warrior: 60-40 for us.  Play clockwork before mana wyrm and mana wyrm before Apprentice if you have to make a choice.  If they have their 2 mana weapon in their hand the dream is turn 1 clock work gnome turn 2 mad sci. It’s gg if that happens. Also clear their Acolytes with 1 hit and it’s gg.

DemonZoolock: 55-45 for us. Zoolock is super strong, but if there are no Imp Gang Bosses on board then Flamewaker can wreck them, and flamestrike does a lot of work.  Malganis can be killed by fireball ping, but since he can be called out at the most awkward times it can be really frustrating.  Also there can be some insanely crazy plays with Power Overwhelming and Void Terror.  Luckily for us that deck takes a lot of skill and a lot of times players don’t play it to its full potential! If everyone was Strifecro/Godlento level I would probably say 50/50 matchup or less.

Overall Hardest Matchups: Patron Warrior, Handlock, Zoolock, Hunter but hard games make Hearthstone fun!

Thank you for reading the Guide! I’ll answer any questions/comments as I’d love to hear what you all have to say! Go Get Legend guys!

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