Legend, Tempo Mage [60% WR at high legend]
- Last updated Nov 11, 2016 (Yogg Nerf)
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Wild
- 15 Minions
- 15 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Tempo Mage
- Crafting Cost: 7840
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/12/2016 (Karazhan)
- TalariaEU
- Registered User
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- 9
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- 54
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
197
Hi I'm Talaria, I play regularly at high legend and I've been refining tempo Mage for a while now through every season. If you have followed this guide for since Karazhan came out you will have noticed that the Blizzcon lists closely resemble what I had been playing for a while then. I don't think the Blizzcon lists are the best tempo mage lists. This list should do better. I will share with you my stats each month and the list that I've finished the season with.
Edit: changed back to 2 Cults and 1 Explosion. I believe its just better to have that extra AOE and cheap spell dmg to combo with because we have more card draw anyway.
Follow me on twitter for more updates: https://twitter.com/TalariaHS
Upvote or comment if you would like a better text, I don't mind writing this for the community but it takes time and so I will only update it once I feel like I can spare the time if I am not asked to do it.
Most updated stats on the deck: October 2016
Insane winstreak on September 30
Introduction
This is a tempo deck, which means you want to use your mana to affect the board state as much as possible. For example Azure Drake into Arcane Blast on a Blackwing Corruptor is a tempo play: for 6 mana you have put a 4 mana (stat-wise, 4/4 with 1 spell damage is an Ogre Magi) creature on the board and removed another 4 mana creature.
Decklist and card replacements
I will prefix the cards in the deck with a '+' and the card not in the deck with a '-' following each one with a short explanation.
Core: 2x Mana Wyrm, 2x Sorcerer's Apprentice, 2x Arcane Missiles, 2x Arcane Blast, 2x Flamewaker, 2x Fireball, 2x Arcane Intellect, 2x Frostbolt, 2x Azure Drake. — I will not discuss the core.
+ Harrison Jones: The Shaman weapon is a problem, specially by the time they can play Azure Drake. This increases the WR vs Shaman while giving you a good chance at beating Secret Hunters (an unfavorable MU otherwise). It also performs well against Control Warrior and you have enough threats in the deck to give them a hard time. If you can cycle your whole deck, you can more often than not win vs CW. — Replace this card with Babbling Book or Barnes if you don't have it / if the meta becomes less weapon-heavy.
+ Bloodmage Thalnos: This card is worth running because your minions are usually very weak (Cult Sorcerer has 2 hp) and this makes you vulnerable to cheap removal and will prevent you from gaining tempo. Druid for instance does this very well and is usually favored against tempo mage if all we run is 2-hp minions. This having 1 health means your opponent will likely try to hero power it down which still costs him 2 mana. But hand size leads to more powerful turns and cycle accelerates the pace of the game, and these two are more important in most match ups than the bigger body of Cult Sorcerer. — Replace this card with Babbling Book if and only if you don't have it.
+ Cult Sorcerer: Some retards will tell you this card isn't good enough but if you're smart you don't listen to retards. This is better in some situations than Sorcerer's Apprentice and sometimes you want to drop Apprentice first because if it doesn't live you can still use the spell power from the Cult, while sometimes you want to drop Cult first — eg going into a Rogue's turn 4 means you probably need the Cult in hand to make sure your Frostbolt removes the Tomb Pillager, while going into his turn 3 might mean you want Sorcerer's comboed with Frostbolt to remove SI 7: Agent. 3/2 is a fine statline for a 2-drop and when you compare it with Bloodmage Thalnos you're paying a card for +2/+1 in stats which is fair because Thalnos can just be pinged away and this card can be comboed with spells for immediate value while representing a threat that your opponent can't deal with unless he spend a card — which makes it about as good as Thalnos.
+ Firelands Portal: This card is both board and burn. The average value is good and the fact that it often trades 1 card for 2 allows you to fight for card advantage which is important when you're trying to grind out a game or saving cheaper spells to lethal your opponent. Sometimes its good to just burn their face for 5 and it increases the deck's reach which is important in slower match ups. — Don't replace this card or you end up with a different deck.
+ Ragnaros, the Firelord: It has charge, it doesn't trade, your opponent has to deal with it and all you have to do is set up the stage for the arrival of the firelord. He likes to go face.
+ Emperor Thaurissan: Your handsize will often be good enough that this card has too much value to pass, and spellpower Flamestrike, Arcane Explosion or a handfull of spells with Flamewaker and Apprentice become incredibly powerful with Emperor. — Don't replace this card or you end up with a different deck.
+ Acolyte of Pain, - Cabalist's Tome: Here's why, Acolyte + ping costs 5 mana and draws you 2 cards (one in your turn) while Tome generates 3 spells. 2 cards from your deck have the advantage of accelerating the pace of the game, bringing you closer to your win conditions, but they are also more powerful than 2 random spells because you don't play bad cards in your deck. This deck runs 4 high value cards, which means your hand size is almost never going to be so low that you need to make suboptimal plays like 3 random spells from Tome. The advantage of Tome is that it always gives spells and it gives them immediately whereas with Acolyte you have to wait until next turn to draw more than 1 card, so that you can sometimes use them for higher value with spell synergy. But you also have the option to drop Acolyte for 3 and Acolyte puts a body on the board which your opponent has to deal with, sometimes using 1 card while giving you another, which makes Tome even less compelling as a tool to gain card advantage because then you can gain 1 card while your opponent loses 1. My argument is that there is no way 3 random spells outweigh the value of accelerating the pace of the game, drawing at least 2 good cards, putting a body on the board and potentially trading it with a card from your opponent. — Don't replace this card or you end up with a different deck.
+ Forgotten Torch: Games are not ending by turn 7 in this meta and we have enough card draw in the deck to warrant running a bad card (3 mana 3 damage) for the sake of drawing a really good one and increasing our reach by 6. — Don't replace this card or you end up with a different deck.
- Mirror Image, + Arcane Explosion: The fact that this card is playable in almost every turn and costs 0 with Sorcerer's Apprentice while protecting you from Spirit Claws and adding Flamewaker / Mana Wyrm synergy just makes it a little bit more consistent than Arcane Explosion, but with the increased card draw, cheap spell power and Emperor Thaurissan I believe Arcane Explosion is too valuable as a tool to grind out the board-centric match ups. — Replace Arcane Explosion with Mirror Image and cut Harrison Jones for a Babbling Book, Barnes or Water Elemental if you do so.
- Yogg-Saron, Hope's End: Yogg is good, but this deck does not serve Yogg. Often you don't hit a good enough spell count and Yogg will be very underwhelming. I prefer to run Flamestrike and Ragnaros the Firelord. You will often have to play your hand and find yourself topdecking lethal because there is no Yogg to refill your hand but that's why we have so many high value cards. — Don't play Yogg in this list.
Replays
vs Shaman
Replay #1: Apprentice into Mirror Image opener with Coin
Replay #2: Winning vs a good Shaman opener - note that if Arcane Explosion had been Mirror Image I would have pinged on 3 and played it together with Apprentice on 4.
Replay #3: Grinding out a close game
vs Druid
Replays
12/08 with 1x Conjurer and 2x Firelands Portal
Nice deck for climbing
my deck just change -Arcane Explosion -Forgotten Torch -Acolyte -Harison -Emperor
+Babbling 2 +Mirror Image +Water Elemental + Faceless for more tempo each turn
This is one of my easiest game play lol
You need lot of RNG to win with this deck, is pretty much useless to me.
this deck is being updated soon but to make it known I might have to create another one on hpwn. If you'd like to know the updated list in a more timely manner follow me on twitter https://twitter.com/TalariaHS.
Got legend a bit late this season because I didn't bother but here it is:
Its correct to run Flamestrike atm. I cut Thalnos and Arcane Explosion for Flamestrike and 2nd Mirror Image.
Nevermind what I said here, the most powerful list is the one displayed.
FInally someone agrees with me that Faceless Summoner is not stapled in tempo mage...
Hi! Could you walk me through your reasoning on the latest changes, particularly +1 Arcane Explosion +1 Sylvanas Windrunner -1 Flamestrike -1 Faceless Summoner? Thanks!
Hi :)
TO OTHERS: SEE THIS COMMENT FOR EXPLANATION ON LATEST UPDATES IF THE TEXT IS STILL NOT UPDATED
I have found that investing a bit more on Barnes synergy pays off, sometimes you even know you have a high change at highrolling because you haven't drawn your Sylvanas or your Ragnaros. But it also happens that the fight for board is often better with Sylvanas, in particular vs Hunter and other midrange decks (except Shaman), if you don't want to run Flamestrike which is a bad card vs Control. Sylvanas is often worse than Faceless Summoner vs Zoo, aggro Shaman and Control Warrior, but vs the latter its still better than running Flamestrike, and I feel like as long as there are Hunters on the ladder we either run Sylvanas or Flamestrike. So that if you run into a lot of Zoo and aggro Shaman you would rather leave Barnes out of the deck and run Faceless and Flamestrike with 2x Water Elemental.
Bloodmage Thalnos was put in the deck for Barnes and Arcane Explosion, and these 3 go together. Barnes more often than not gives you spell damage which increases Arcane Blast and Arcane Explosion synergy. Arcane Explosion is often a 2 damage AOE for 2 mana, or a 4 mana AOE that you play while developing a Cult Sorcerer / Bloodmage Thalnos, which is really good tempo.
Without Barnes I would consider cutting both Bloodmage Thalnos and Arcane Explosion and go for Flamestrike and Ethereal Conjurer again. I also think its correct to cut Barnes if the meta becomes more agressive (right now its more midrange than aggro). Second Mirror Image would then also go in the deck.
What to you think about replacing 1x Arcane Blast and Forbidden Flame for 2x Forgotten Torch because these are the only one missing
Thank you very much
I'm closing in on top 100 (160 right now) and Kolento made a very similar list, but he includes Barnes in his and 3 other different cards. He doesn't run Yogg and his end game is exactly the same. Kolento is better than me so I take that to be a good sign :)
What are your thoughts on Arcane Giant once the next wing unlocks? Maybe instead of Ethereal Conjurer?
It would be good if you could drop it for like 5 but its unlikely to come on 5 by 5 because that means you have drawn and cast 7 spells by then, which is unlikely even with Arcane Intellect being one of them.
On 6 you have Faceless Summoner which isnt conditional so I take this to be a late game card and you need to have a good hand size in the late game to take advantage of the tempo which this deck usually doesn't.
To sum it up I think its bad in this list because its dead in your hand for a long time and you wont be able to take advantage of it when it isn't.
Maybe someone will come up with a slower mage list to make good use this card.
I am testing Giants right now but you have to run Cabalist Tome and Yogg if you want to make Giants work. It doesn't look as consistent because all of these 4 cards (2 Tomes and 2 Giants) can easily be dead cards in your hand but sometimes it works pretty well. I still don't know how I feel about it but at least there's a way to run Arcane Giant, just not in this list.
Maybe you should explain why forbidden flame is better than forgotten torch
Alright I'll do a better write up in a few mins. Thanks for the suggestion :)
More often than not you will have already used your low cost cards by the time you can drop Archmage Antonidasand it will be hard to get enough value out of him. My thoughts are it belongs in a deck with more card draw. I would rather run Ragnaros the Firelord in this deck.