Hearthpwn

This deck is based on the echo control deck popularized by Day9 (can be found here). It is essentially the same deck, but I subbed out Sunfury Protector for Unstable Portal, and Mountain Giantx2 for Ethereal Arcanistx2.

This deck is hilariously fun. Almost every game comes down to the wire, and with the exception of games versus the cancerous Mech Mage, even defeats are enjoyable. Recommended for players who also enjoy playing Handlock style decks.

This is my first deck guide so bear with me.

Strategy

The name of the game with the deck is STALL. Mulligans should be for Mad Scientist every time, with hopes for Flamecannon and Frostbolt.

Your goal with this deck is to make it to turn 10, burning as much of your opponents removal in the process on expendables such as Sludge Belcher and Ethereal Arcanist, with as low a life total as possible. The goal being a Molten Giantx[card]Echo of Medivh [/card] wombo combo. Your opponent will likely concede after they've scooped their jaw off the floor, or make a hilariously pitiful attempt at finishing you off only to discover that the secret you've had for the entirety of the game was an Ice Block.

The Dream combo will account for roughly 50% of wins. Other ways to win are through snowballed arcanists or an Alextrasza combo.

Tech Choices

The reasoning behind Unstable Portal over Sunfury Protector  is that sunfury ends up being needed very very rarely, whereas having a cheap minion form portal can be invaluable. Playing portal early also keep the nature of your deck hidden, possibly causing your opponent to use his removal on the summoned minion where he needs to be saving it for the bigger threats this deck dishes out.

In a similar vein, the main problem i had with  Mountain Giant in Day9's incarnation of Echo Mage was that there were rarely times when I felt i could play this card. Without Life Tap, the earliest Giant possible to get was on turn 6, which is just too slow. Ethereal Arcanist on the other hand still poses a huge threat, and can be played earlier. Since Mad Scientist should be mulliganed for every game, there is a reasonably good chance of having a secret out on turn 4, where playing this minion becomes a 5/5, with the additional benefit of causing your opponent to need to deal woth it on the turn you play it, otherwise it will snowball out of control. An added bonus I've found is that Mad Scientist followed by Ethereal Arcanist telegraphs secrets mage, possibly misleading your opponent.

In Conclusion

If there proves to be enough interest in this Echo Mage variant I will update with class/deck specific mulligans and strategies.