Strifecro is just on another level ainec. He's played so many games with mage that he can just slap together a list and crush house.

So the polymorph card is bad? I've seen others recommend it as a great way to control the board, is this outdated info?

this is the place I got that info

http://www.icy-veins.com/hearthstone/basic-mage-deck

It's a good card in a grinder mage deck. There's not really a spot for it in tempo/freeze/mech builds. It's a pretty bad card vs aggro and very strong vs control.

i actually use 1 copy of poly in freeze mage

I played a few games with freeze mage last night

ran into:

1. control warrior

2. control warrior

3. hunter running flare

4. priest running double kezan mystic

I don't remember what the 5th opponent played but I won that one and called it a night

oh yeah, the last guy was some kind of funky aggro warrior

Need some very general advice while playing mage if someone could help me out?

Two questions : what are the best cards to craft? I know this is an open question, but I'm saying in order from the most important to the least, in terms of cost? I'm new, so I need a ton of cards. I crafted Mana Wyrm the other day because I was reading in some articles that that card is irreplaceable, and now that I've had a few games with it, I know why people say that. It's increased my win rate. What other cards are that important, on the lower end? Keep in mind, I'm very new to this game, I've opened up less than 15 packs.


Second question : How do I beat Hunter?

It depends a lot on what cards you already have. There are definitely some cheap decks that can be built for mage (the flamewaker mage deck is pretty decent, and really whips hunter from my experience).

Here is a sample deck:

Thanks IAmRobik. I'll study that deck and see what I can get from it.

One of the problems I have is when to play a card optimally. I know arcane intellect is something that should be used later rather than earlier, and getting mana wyrm out early is very important, the issue is when is it optimal to do the reverse?

There's a lot more thought to this game than it appears on the surface. Right now this is the deck I'm using, can someone critique? (It's obviously a noob player's deck)



Essentially my strategy is to drop Mana Wyrms early, stay on top of keeping board control, and then dropping Echo of Medith to overwhelm my opponent.

Any advice would be appreciated.

You will get a lot of the good mage cards simply by playing a bunch of mage games and leveling up your account. Mad Scientist is a card that is in every single mage list (tempo/freeze/grinder/mech). But you can't craft these, you need to buy the first expansion and play through it. If you crafted mana wyrms, it sounds like you want to run a more aggro mage deck like tempo or mech. So I recommend crafting unstable portals/sorcerer's apprentice next. After you've gotten those and leveled your account, you can start thinking about legendaries like Dr. Boom (which is the most played legendary in the game) and Archmage Antonidas.

Damn. So.. how do I go about buying the expansion and playing through it? I'm a total noob. I'll do that to get mad scientist.

And, you're saying unstable portal is very important? I'm ok with that, I'll target that card now, I may have the dust for it. Question : do I need 1 or 2 of them, and what cards should I get rid of to make room for it?

I would recommend running a faster deck. Mage decks are either very very fast, or very very slow, your list has a mixture of fast and slow cards. Cards I would take out are Goldshire Footman and Ice Barrier. I would also only run 1 ooze and flamestrike. I would get mad scientist's asap and run 2 mirror entities and a counterspell.

Edit: Run 2 portals. To get the expansions, go to the main menu and in the bottom left, you'll see the shop. Curse of Naxraxxmas (this is spelled horribly wrong) is the first expansion and Blackrock mountain is the 2nd. Flamewaker is also a very important card for this type of deck that comes from blackrock.

OK thanks WildBob. I have 200 dust after creating an unstable portal just now. I'll create another one and take out Goldshire (he wasn't that good anyway).

I'm ok with taking out 1 ooze, but... why take out a flamestrike? It seems like that card is the mage's "trump card"? Can you give me some insight on the thinking behind taking it out?

You need more minions. Ditch the Goldshire Footmen for anything really (even double Arcane Missiles to feed the Wyrm). If you don't have mad scientists available I would drop every secret. Drop a blizzard or 2nd flamestrike for like Boulderfist Ogre. I'd be more specific but on my phone... just more middle game and even late game minions and less spells. Or, more useful spells. You have too many situational spells.

Flamestrike is a strong card, and is basically the nut card in arena. But in an aggro mage deck, it's less important because you're trying to burst the opponent down very quickly. Flamestrike is more important in a slower mage deck like freeze or grinder where you're trying to win through fighting for board presence, which means you're less focused on throwing everything you have at their face and more focused on trading with their minions. Don't take that as you should always attack their face if you're playing tempo, because that's not true if you can make an efficient trade, but one copy is enough in a fast mage deck and some people don't run any whereas in a slow grinder deck, you'd likely run 2 copies of it.

Edit: Another card you should target is piloted shredder which is pretty much the best 4 drop in the game.

I got you. So the thinking is that in a fast deck, you shouldn't be worried as much as clearing everything, you should be worrying more about overwhelming then. Makes sense.

Thanks again.

You just need to play more and more to get a feel for how decks are player. You need to play one way against a certain deck and a different way against another. You should also watch trump's beginner series and just watch streams in general (strifecro/kolento are my personal favorites and ones that I find the most informative -- added bonus that strifecro is probably the best mage player). They will be playing decks which are more complicated and will have cards in them that you don't have, but it will be a good general idea and will help you learn how cards work and interact

Not sure I would recommend crafting Archmage until the new expansion comes out because new cards and interactions might be more valuable than Archmage Antonidas.

Not really applicable to Boom, because he still seems to be the best legendary card in the game, even after the expansion hits.

Really just academic to wil318466, because he has only 200 dust, but others might be in a different situation.

I wouldn't craft any legendaries right now, but I would also wait until a couple weeks after TGT is out and the dust has settled a bit. Some cards that seemed like they might be insane before GVG came out have been sitting in my collection since, having only been played a couple times.

i highly doubt boom won't be playable reguardless of circumstances unless it receives a nerf

What do you think is better in Mech Mage?

2x Mana Wyrm + 2x Unstable Portal
or
2x Mad Scientist + 2x Mirror Entity

I prefer the first one, but is it -EV overall or about the same?

Reasoning: most classes in this meta can 'play around' mirror, and mad scientists get silenced. Can't play around portals and mana wyrm is just a better minion than scientist.

I'm not saying it wouldn't be playable, but Boom is played in fewer decks right now than he has been since GVG came out. There may be a specific archetype that evolves out of TGT that doesn't use Boom, hence wait it out.

Anyone have any general guidelines on when to go for a board trade, and when to go for direct damage to the other player?

It seems I always pick wrong.

It depends what class/deck you going against and how much mana they have left.

For instance, leaving anything on the board after turn 7-8 against druid is dangerous due to FON/SR combo. But against mid range paladin it's typically safer to leave guys on board e/c the tokens.

If they can easily buff their guys or they run spells/minions that punish you for not trading, then it's normally best to trade.

Additionally there are certain threats that always have to be removed regardless of class such as patrons, frothing, jugglers, shades etc that get too strong quickly.

Another example is against mech mages, don't leave mechs early on or they will tinker/blast mage you.

So basically you need to know your opponents deck and how much mana/how many cards they have. You also have to know your win conditions. Face hunter can't really afford to trade, while control warrior can and has time to trade.

Classes that need board control: Shaman, druid and paladin--so if you can reduce there board footprint it's normally better. Also you need to consider your own comeback mechanisms. If you can't comeback easily after a clear, you should consider your options. Druid has real trouble trying to come back from clears without using there combo to clear but it ruins your win condition. Conversely, control warrior/paladin have ways to clear the board easily, same with priest and in many cases mage.