Preview
Many Welcomes to you my fellow Hearthstone players. Genox1s here with another Meta wrecking Hearthstone guide for you current and potential Mage enthusiasts. This time around I have a super special treat for you all. I’ve decided to create not just a written deck guide with all the juicy details of how to play my deck, but I’ve also decided to include a short video showcasing the deck at work ^.^. In addition to all of this awesome information this guide is just the first part of a 2 part legend series that will detail the two Mage decklists that i used to climb the ladder from the reset to rank 4, then from ranked 4-2 respectively . I am currently rank 2 and I am very eager to share these 2 decklists you so that you too can traverse the ladder as easily as i did.
Introduction
This deck list is a hyper aggressive list that strives on applying a tremendous amount of pressure on your opponent from the onset of turn 1. With its extremely low mana curve and exceptionally reactive cards, one may find themselves winning the game well before turn 6. This deck does this efficiently by enabling you to play multiple threats in the early stages of the match, forcing your opponents into situations where they just don’t have what it takes to remove your board fast enough and before they know it, its too late to even think about making a comeback. Well, that’s enough teasing for now, UNTO THE DECKLIST!
Card By Card Break Down
First off we have the ever so popular clockwork-gnome. A little guy that can be sure to give you great value in multiple ways within this deck. Just to name a few, it is an excellent card to have on turn one if you have the coin to pair with an undertaker and/or mechwarper. This card enables you to buff the undertaker because of its death-rattle effect or it can apply immense pressure early when paired with a mech warper play because it will cost zero mana crystals to play when mechwarper is on the field . The other half of why this card is so awesome is also due to its death-rattle that provides you with a spare part which can be very useful later on in the match. This card provides guaranteed value, it would be crazy not to include this card in almost every aggro styled deck.
cogmaster is one of the best turn 1 plays within this deck, with the plethora of mech cards that make up this deck, it is almost impossible not to get value out of this card. playing cogmaster on turn 1 and then a mech on turn 2 can really start the tempo going in your favor very early within the match up. 3 damage every turn from a 1 mana card will either force your opponent to remove it or be over run with face damage.
mana-wyrm A very aggressive card for 2 reasons!. first of all as you may have noticed there aren’t many low-cost spells within this deck to buff your mana wyrm early unless you manage to get a usable spare part early on. That is not a problem at all though, for your opponent won’t know this and will see the mana wyrm as a threat and try to remove it as fast as possible for every experienced Hearthstone player knows how out of hand a mana wyrm can get if left alone. The second reason to include 1 copy of this card is the synergy with all the potential spare parts that you gain from clockwork-gnomes and tinkertown technicians. A 1/3 mana wyrm can easily become a 4/4 powerhouse adding to the aggressive nature of the deck.
leper-gnome Still the most aggressive card in the game even with the addition of Naxrammus and GvG cards to the game. This card is a guaranteed 2 damage to your opponent’s face, that coupled with the ability to buff your undertaker, makes for game winning plays as early as turn 1. If you play this card and your opponent does not have a way to deal with it right away, then thats already 4+ damage to their precious life-points. Another reason this card works so well within this deck is how well it places pressure unto the board. Lets say you happen to have an undertaker and a leper gnome in play, and your opponent can only remove 1, he will most likely go for the undertaker allowing you to get even more value from your leper gnome.
Undertaker The most hated card in the game I’d say, seeing a hunter play this on turn one usually spells trouble for the opposing player, but hunters can’t have all the fun! can they? Undertaker is great for its super powerful effect that synergizes extremely well with death-rattle cards. Since there are so many death rattle cards in this deck it is not hard to see why this card is core to the success of this deck. While undertaker is a great turn one play, as you will see, it is often removed very early by your opponent because they think the deck solely relies on undertaker getting buffed and wrecking havoc. This couldn’t be further away from the truth. While a buffed undertaker is a very nice start it is baits you opponent into using hard removals on it in fear of the undertaker overwhelming them but this only makes way for your other aggressive cards to be played without fear of being removed and also puts you at a tempo advantage against your opponent. More on how to get value out of undertaker will be explained later but for now keep in mind that it is not a situation where you must mulligan for this card.
mad-scientist Now this is an excellent card to have very early in the game. As can be seen from the deck list you have 2 secrets within this deck both of which gives great value to you. The earlier you can play your mad scientist, the better. As you will see within my video it can really be the difference between winning and losing a match, or keeping board control or losing it. After you play this card you want to juggle with the decision to let it be destroyed or not. Personally if you have board advantage it is always good to destroy your mad scientist by running into your opponent’s minion. More will be explained about how to get max value out of mad scientist later on.
mirror-entity and counterspell Just a short note about both of these great secrets. Ideally you do not want to ever have secrets in your opening hand or at any stage of the early game really. it can really hinder your tempo and reduce the value of mad scientist. Of course being a random card game it is inevitable that this will happen sometimes but if so it’s not a huge deal, just play around removals. let’s say its turn 4 and you are facing a warrior or its turn 3 and you are facing a druid and you have a counter spell in hand and you have board control….. Play that sucker! and watch his swipe be negated and or in the case of the warrior, watch his brawl be negated, wasting his entire turn and you being an entire turn ahead you will almost always win the game if that happens. In the case of mirror entity it is a tempo card, playing mirror entity is so good, it really doesn’t matter which card you get from it, it will help it maintain tempo in match close match ups and it will also enable you to have a threat on board even if your other minions manage to get removed as can be seen in my shaman/druid match up within the showcase video. Another thing to note about these 2 secrets are, they are my personally preference, i used to use 2 mirror entities but i found a counterspell more valuable vs removals.
frostbolt Not much explanation needed here. if your opponent plays a threat that cannot be ignored you can use frostbolt to stall it or destroy in and continue to hit face. If your opponent is below 15 hp i usually keep this card to use in conjunction with my other finishers such as a fireball, goblin blast mage or with the 100 minions i already have on the field ;D.
snowchugger I’m tempted to refer to this card as the warrior slayer but for the sake of not confusing our newer members i won’t ;D. Pretty standard mech mage card that can win you the game vs weapon based classes such as warrior, rogue or even hunters. This mech synergizes mostly with mechwarper reducing tis cost by 1 and allowing you to play it 1 turn earlier which can net you a great early game advantage.
annoy-o-tron I just love this card, it’s not exactly your undertaker or mana wyrm where it can be buffed or anything to that effect, but this card provides you with a divine shield and taunt which is extremely effective in preventing weapon classes and even your opponent’s board from getting to the real threats that are in play. this card can buy you the 1 or even 2 turns needed to draw into what you need or to simply deal as much damage as possible before your opponent attempts to clear the board.
mechwarper aka Mechwrecker the *undertaker of GvG*, any deck with a sufficient amount of mech cards within it should always bring along 1-2 mechwarper because of its unchallenged ability to let you summon other mech cards for dirt cheap. Your opponent will try never to let this card see the light of day but in this deck it is very hard for them to remove it. lets say you have an undertaker and a mechwarper in play..which do they remove? if they don’t have an AoE clear that clears the board of both at the same time, any one they remove will still be detrimental to them. In my experience my opponents usually try to remove the undertaker first which is a huge mistake. especially since this deck utilizes cards like goblin blastmage and tinkertown technician who give massive advantages when you have a mech on board.
harvest-golem Pretty simple purpose for this card. You want to have a sticky minion on the board, a minion that is resistant to most aoe removals, another great fact about this card is that even after it dies the card it leaves behind is a mech which is excellent for fueling your goblin blastmages and tinkertown technicians.
Great card that has an awesome battle-cry that provides a spare part and a 1/1 buff to itself when a mech is on the board. Wonderful card to add to any mech based deck, especially one as aggressive as this one. A 4/4 minion on the board at turn 3 can really force your opponent into a spot where he has to make tough decisions. Since this card is usually not the only one on the field when played it will almost always be a case where it’s either your opponent removes and takes damage from the other minions, or take a 4 damage minion to the face. Also i also use this card for trades more often than not, since it is not a mech I am more likely to trade it to maintain board control and allow my other minions to continue doing what they do best, deal direct damage.
goblin-blastmage Fire!!! this card is a tremendous card within this deck, it has many purposes within this deck list. Firstly, due to its very awesome battle-cry that deals 4 random damage split between enemy characters if you have a mech minion on the board. It provides and maintains tempo at very best, most times allowing you to clear the board or dealing 4 damage to your opponents face WHILE STILL providing you with a 5/4 minion on board. that’s essentially a possible 9 damage if you activate this cards battle cry and get to attack with it, and in a game where your opponent only has 30 hp, it’s usually over for them.
fireball Use this card on your opponent’s face when you are close to lethal, very simple. it is also advisable to use this card on a heavy taunt minion like say a sludge-belcher or an ancient of war if you have no other way of removing that card from play
jeeves Jeevesus christ this card is good. I was so skeptical when creating this deck, i thought this card would never work for i had tested it on release and it sucked for the type of deck i was using at the time but in this aggro mage decklist it is the beating heart of this deck. This card allows you to never lose steam against your opponents. What makes this card work great is that you can start benefitting from this cards effect at the end of your own turn, and with the amount of aggression you put out in the early stages of the game, 2-3 extra cards every turn will certainly win you the game in an instant. There’s a lot of strategy that must be put into know when is the perfect time to play this card but that will be explained in the match up section!
Win Percentage
I am kind of new to keeping statistics on my win percentage and such but i managed to record the statistics of this deck during my climb from reset to rank 4 where i hovered between rank 5-4 for a while until i switched to my current mage deck that will be show cased in my upcoming guide in a few days. I’ve played a grand total of 54 games in ranked with this deck and another 50 games in casual where my win percentage is roughly 86 percent which is extremely good for the legend deck lists i face owing to my match making rating better known as MMR being very high.
Mulligan Guide
Where do i start. So many great ways to start a game off. Almost anything you mulligan for will be good but optimally you want to aim for 1-2 drops of course. An undertaker coupled with a clockwork gnome or leper gnome in your starting hand is a pretty great way to start. A mechwarper and a clockwork gnome with an undertaker is also a great way to start by playing the undertaker on turn 1 then playing the mechwarper and clockwork gnome on turn 2 is an extremely explosive start. My personal favorite is a manawyrm/undertaker start with coin in hand. Play the mana wyrm then coin into undertaker. your opponent will get rid of the mana wyrm and if you have mad scientist you will be able to buff the undertaker next turn or even better if you have 2 clockwork gnomes. There are so many possibilities that it would take too much time to explain them all but hopefully my video makes things much clearer for you .
Match-up Guide
Warrior– you want to ideally mulligan for a snowchugger, an annoy o tron, mana wyrm or undertaker. These cards especially the snow chugger will enable you to get full value out of your other cards because the warrior usually has no good answers to an early annoy o tron and or snow chugger even if he does the amount of resources that will be used to remove those cards will allow you to overwhelm the board before turn 5 where he can possibly brawl. Another mulligan to keep in mind is a mad scientist, if you manage to get a counter spell out from your mad scientist on turn 4 or even a mirror entity you will have the advantage as a warrior usually plays brawl or a sludge-belcher on turn 5. and if you can negate that removal you’ve pretty much already won.
Rogue– Fairly easy match-up, most times the wrong will be overwhelmed by the sheer aggressiveness of your deck, the key to winning this match up is not to overextend your minions unto the board too early. be mindful of blade flurry which can aoe clear any minion with less than 4 health. That said the only other thing to look out for is a fan of knives which only can clear one drops and azure drakes. If a rogue plays azure and you are not close to lethal, get rid of it immediately. The weakness of rogues against this deck is that their entire playstyle revolves around surviving the first few turns without utilizing too many of their spells. mad-scientist is also a great Mulligan for this match up also, along with snowchugger, annoy-otron, mechwarper and undertaker paired with 1 drop death rattle minions.
Priest– Relatively the same thing as rogues, try to keep your minions healthy and get rid of their northshire cleric if they play it. You can over extend on the board if you have minions like annoy o tron or harvest golem but don’t fill the board up with too many 1-2 health drops unless you have counter spell in play or you’re buffing your undertaker/manawyrm. Important thing to note, do not buff your undertaker over 5 attack damage when facing priest, you want to have it at 4 attack optimally. follow these rules and you’ll win this match up easily.
Paladin– paladins are a bit tricky but easy to deal with once you have the right cards. Mulligan for goblin blast mage, mechwarper, udnertaker and or other mechs like annoy-o-tron. Goblin blast mage is an excellent count to their muster for battle strategy that is prevalent in almost every paladin deck. If you don;t mulligan into goblin blast mage mulligan into mad scientist so that you may activate the secret. This is one of the rare match ups that if you manage to draw a counterspell in hand it will do you more good than harm to negate their counter spell. most times though consecration will not put too much of a dent on your board and you should be on your way to winning the match way before turn 8 when they can heal and draw. Also another thing to note, frost bolt can be used on turn 3 if you suspect they may use a truesilver champion.
Hunter- A match up of knowledge of the hunter class and mulligan, believe it or not you have more aggressive potential than they do. You want to mulligan for annoy-o-tron mechwarper, clockwork gnome, snowchugger and a frost bolt. it is always good to have a frost bolt against a hunter just in case they get to play their undertakers on turn 1 first. This match up can get out of hand if you do not play correctly. if a hunter plays a secret be sure to activate it right away if you suspect it is freezing-trap or explosive-trap. those 2 are usually the only answers hunters have against aggressive decks like these. If you happen to have a mirror entity in hand or mad scientist on board on turn 5 be sure to play it or activate it so they if the game gets to turn 6, you can mirror entity their savannah-highmane. Basically you just want to go for face as much as possible and get rid of any beasts on the field that are threats.
Druid– Can be tricky with their tempo gain from innervate and wild-growth nevertheless you are still favored to win this match up if you play correctly and get the draws needed. mulligan for mad scientist, undertaker, mechwarper, frost bolt. and apply as much pressure to the board as early as possible, usually their only board clear comes along when they have 4 mana. never the less keep applying pressure and attacking their face. The most optimal play int his match up is to play counterspell when you suspect a swipe is coming but rushing them down to low health works just as effectively, counterspell just seals victory.
Warlock/zoo/Handlock– facing zoo is pretty easy/ mulligan for undertaker, manawyrm, frost bolt and annoy-o tron. apply pressure by going for face and trading to destroy their big threat cards like knife-juggler. It is also good to get a goblin blastmage down as soon as turn 4 comes around for the ultimate tempo swing. For handlock its simple. Watch out for hellfire early and if they play twilight drake kill it if you can. i usually mulligan for mad scientist in this match up so that i can have a secret out when and if they try to clear my board. Don’t take the handlock below 15-13 if you don;t have a sure-fire way to kill him on the next turn or 2, if you happen to have jeeves in hand you can take them below 15 and play jeeves for the card draw into a finisher like fireball and/or frostbolt/lepergnomes.
Mage and Shaman usually stand no chance from my experience, mulligan for undertaker, madscientist, mechwarper and just play your cards on curve, the match usually doesn’t last past turn 6 so there’s nothing to fear from these 2 classes.
Spare parts I decided to add a little section about the spare parts that you can get from mech cards because this deck utilizes them quite efficiently. Basically you want to use the spare parts you gain as quickly as possible when you see the opportunity. Since this deck utilizes double jeeves you do not want to run into a situation where you have more than 2 spare parts within your hand and cannot get sufficient card draw from jeeves!. Try your best to use your spare parts wisely and efficiently. You can watch the video and discern some tips on how to do this!.
Gameplay Video
And now for a short video of this deck in action. Hope you learn and enjoy watching! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ws6cgmTYhMw
Notable replacements for undertaker
Since the undertaker nerf was implemented the same day that this guide was released some of you may certainly want to replace undertaker with another effective card although nothing is quite as effective as an undertaker some noticable replacements are ;- +1 manawyrm and +1 micro machine.
Conclusion
Phew! what a write-up, overall i know this is a solid deck this that will help you to climb the ladder with the least amount of frustration as possible due to you being the one with the hyper aggressive decklist and not the zoo’s or the hunters. I Thank you for taking the time out to read another one of my legend guides and do hope you have as much fun playing this deck list as i did. As stated before this is only part 1 of my series, part 2 will be out shortly detailing another amazing decklist but this time a decklist more tailored for the climb past rank 5 and unto Legend. Be sure to drop me comments to let me know how the deck list has been working for you. Also let me know if you enjoyed the video showcase and be sure to tell me if you prefer deck guides accompanied by video showcases or just written guides. I will also be aiming to improve the overall quality of the videos if you guys liked this one. Thanks again for your time and Have a great one until next time!
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