Firestorm 3.0 (Top 100 LEGEND)
- Last updated Oct 24, 2016 (Yogg Nerf)
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Wild
- 15 Minions
- 15 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 3500
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 6/15/2015 (Blackrock Launch)
- Zion7
- Registered User
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- 13
- 26
- 120
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Battle Tag:
Zion7
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Region:
US
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Total Deck Rating
1335
About - Greetings, Zion7 here (formerly known as MarineKingHS) to share an interesting Tempo Mage deck which has been working very well this season. I specialize in high level play on NA server and have obtained #200+ Legend Rank legend many times. I have roughly 5000+ wins in constructed ladder and like to help others improve their game.
This deck is called "Firestorm 3.0" because it is based upon the wildly popular Mage decks Firestorm and Firestorm 2.0 made by BrooklynHS. They were wonderful, fun decks for their time but BrooklynHS had retired (now un-retired) from HearthStone and Firestorm 2.0 was his last work so I will be taking over future development of Firestorm. The credit for the original idea behind this deck goes to him.
Deck Explanation - This deck is designed to win by establishing tempo early to mid-game through the use of high value synergies and unpredictable secret plays. This deck is highly difficult to anticipate and has a wide variety of well rounded tools. This is one of the few Mage decks that features both hard removal and anti-spam AOE. Fireballs and Polymorph can be used to deal with big threats, while the dual Flamestrikes deal with annoyingly large boards. This deck is a very good counter to many of the currently popular strong meta decks like Patron Warrior, Zoo/Demonlock, Mech Mage, Hybrid Hunter and many more.
Screenshots of Legend Rank (Season 15)
Update: New videos have been added for Season 18. This is a special "never lucky mulligan" ongoing instructional series (this was provided for all the people who say Firestorm 3.0 can only work if you get great opening mulligans) and more vids are coming soon, enjoy.
Firestorm 3.0 - S18 - Instructional Part 01 (vs Secret Paladin) [Never Lucky series]
Firestorm 3.0 - S18 - Instructional Part 02 (vs Shaman) [Never Lucky series]
Firestorm 3.0 - S18 - Instructional Part 03 (vs Shaman) [Never Lucky series]
Firestorm 3.0 - S18 - Instructional Part 04 (vs Ramp Druid) [Never Lucky series]
Firestorm 3.0 - S18 - Instructional Part 05 (vs Token Paladin) [Never Lucky series]
Firestorm 3.0 - S18 - Instructional Part 06 (vs Midrange Hunter) [Never Lucky series]
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Season 17 - Firestorm 3.0 - FULL PLAYLIST
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 01 (vs Midrange Hunter)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 02 (vs Aggro Hunter)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 03 (vs Fatigue Mage)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 04 (vs Midrange Hunter)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 05 (vs Patron Warrior)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 06 (vs Mech Mage)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 07 (vs Aggro Hunter)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 08 (vs Malylock)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 09 (vs Combo Druid)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 10 (vs Combo Druid)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 11 (vs Handlock)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 12 (vs Combo Druid)
Firestorm 3.0 - S17 - Instructional Part 13 (vs Patron Warrior)
<-- Below is a Season 15 Instructional series of Firestorm 3.0 -->
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 - Instructional part 01 (vs Demonlock)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 - Instructional part 02 (vs Waker Mage)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 - Instructional part 03 (vs Combo Druid)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 - Instructional part 04 (vs Control Dragon Warrior)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 - Instructional part 05 (vs Ramp Druid)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 - Instructional part 06 (vs Patron Warrior)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 - Instructional part 07 (vs Shockadin)
<-- Below are Season 15 demos of Firestorm 3.0 played at Legend ranks-->
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 vs Mid Range Hunter (Legend)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 vs Handlock (Legend)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 vs Freeze Mage (Legend)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 vs Combo Druid (Legend)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 vs Ramp Druid (Legend)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 vs Wallet Warrior 01 (Legend)
Season 15 - Firestorm 3.0 vs Wallet Warrior 02 (Legend)
<-- Below is a video of Firestorm 3.0 submitted by Khristophesaurus -->
Some card choices explained
Most cards should be fairly obvious, so I'm only going over a couple of cards choices that might seem strange.
Duplicate - This secret hasn't been popular for a long time but it really works nicely in this deck precisely because we run so many different secret. Duplicate gets excellent value from so many cards in the deck including Flamewaker, Shredder, Water Elemental, Blecher and more. But it's also very useful even if it duplicates Kirin Tor Mage, Mad Scientist and Mana Wyrm. In most Mage decks you wouldn't want to duplicate a Mad Scientist or Tor Mage because those decks ran very few secret cards and thus couldn't get value, that is not the issue in this deck though because we run 4 different type of secrets.
Vaporize - This is a RARELY run secret card that has been widely overlooked and ignored. Nobody expects it, which is exactly why it's highly effective in this deck. When you have it in play, just focus on removing any small threats with your spells or hero power and let the enemy kill their big minion or burst minion. Buffing up for one big burst dmg charge has become very popular and this secret practically wins the game if they run into it.
Flamestrike - It's not unusual to see 1 copy of Flamestrike, but few Mage decks run 2x copy of it. This reason we run 2 copies is because this deck is less of an aggro deck and more of a partially "stall" deck. What I mean by that is, this deck already has answers to single large minions, it's only real weakpoint is vs spammy boards. Flamestike is our MVP tools for dealing with that and slowing down the game. Once you draw into your Pyroblast, you can begin setting up lethal. Pyro lethal is easy to do if you can stall the game out long enough to chip away the enemies hp down to 10. Flamestrike helps greatly with that.
Pyroblast - This is another card that used to see play but hasn't been popular in a while. This card really gives you that "reach" to finish the game once the enemy has dropped below about 15hp. Basically you want to control the board early and once you draw Pyro, start preparing to nuke the enemy on turn 10. It's pretty easy to set up once you get the hang of knowing what to do with your fireballs and icebolts, depending on the situation. Also, don't be afraid to use Pyroblast even if the enemy lives. This is because you know that you also run 2 Frostbolts and 2 Fireballs, so chances are you will draw into one of them very soon after if you hadn't already.
Mulligans
You typically want to mulligan for 2x Mana Wyrm, 1x Forstbolt, 2x Mad Scientist, 1x Kirin Tor Mage, 1x Unstable Portal and 1x Flamewaker in that order. The reason we want the Tor Mage is because chances are VERY high that one of our 4 secrets will be drawn soon and playing a free secret is a huge tempo gain.
In addition, here are some mulligans you'll want vs each class:
• Against Hunters, you'll want to keep the Arcane Blast.
• Against Paladin you'll want to keep 2x Flamewaker. This is the only matchup where you would purposely keep 2 Flamewakers in your mulligan hand.
•Against confirmed Handlock, keep the Polymorph: Boar.
Strong and Weak Matchups
Firestorm 3.0 is particularly strong against Patron Warrior, Freeze Mage, Zoolock, Demonlock, Tempo Mage, Tempo Shaman, Handlock, Mech Shaman, Mech Mage and Hybrid Hunter (in that order).
Firestorm 3.0 is a little weaker against Dragon Pally, Control Priest and Wallet Warrior.
Card Replacements
This is a carefully designed deck so I would not recommend changing too many things around, but here are a few things you can do:
Vaporize can be replaced with Big Game Hunter or Mirror Entity.
1x Azure Drake can be replaced with Loatheb.
Dr.Boom can be replaced with Archmage Antonidas, Ragnaros the Firelord and Chromaggus (in that order).
Pyroblast can be replaced with Ragnaros the Firelord, Archmage Antonidas, Ravenholdt Assassin and Deathwing (in that order). The purpose of this card slot is for that extra "reach" to finish out the game when then the enemy starts running low on hp. They actually don't even need to be that low for you to begin chipping them down with minion dmg to face, hero power, fireballs and frostbolts etc. Try to think 2 or 3 turns ahead. Even Ravenholdt Assassin can get the job done efficiently if you use a little forethought.
Updates
August 17, 2015 - Season 17 Instructional vids have been added. Harrison Jones replaces Mystic Kezan because weapons and weapon classes are far more common than secrets right now.
August 27, 2015 (Post GT Expansion) - Harrison Jones has been cut because at the moment weapons have become a less less prevalent. In his place we run a simple Arcane Blast because it combines very well with Flamewaker and provides the 1mana spot removal we need now that everyone is playing more low cost early game minions. Polymorph was switched to Polymorph: Boar because it provides us an extra burst option while still giving us a way to deal with super threats and it's 1mana cheaper anyway.
If you have questions about this deck, reach upwards of Rank5 with this deck, or just wanna share thoughts about this deck, please leave a comment. I'll try to stay active within the comments, work schedule permitting.
Good luck, godspeed and happy rank storming!
Aye thanks for the good word m4ph1n3, yea I'd say that Poly is preeeety close to boar in terms of usefulness. Depending on your matchups I can definitely understand going back to the old poly, it can be better some times for sure.
I had the old polymorph in there for a while, but when I unpacked the new poly I changed it out.
It is a little more painful to polymorph one of your opponents minions into a 4/2, BUT I have found it is way more useful, and it keeps me from 'wasting' removal on one of their minions that I might have polymorphed in the past.
The card has also helped me push out lethal on quite a few games. have a minion or two on the board? attack then polymorph and it is 4 more damage since Huffer has Charge.
The deck works like magic! So much more powerful and fun to play than it appears as the decklist. Just want to say thank you!
Thanks for the comment Ansavin, I agree that the Firestorm decks work better in practice than they look on paper. This is the case with most innovative decks. You are very welcome.
Going on 7 matches now and Ive yet to win a single one. My deck matches exactly to what you have listed and Ive followed the muligan guide. Ive had no problem reaching lower ranks before but this deck has brought me from 14-16 without a single win. Either ive had the shittiest RNG ever or the deck is garbage. Its terrible against Paladins, Rush hunters, and shaman.
9 losses. Lets add Patron warriors to that list as well.
Hey there Atrevelyan, sorry to hear you've hit some hurdles. Let's hypothetically say you are using a truly trash deck, I mean the worst of the worst (like murlock mage or something), to lose 7 matches in a row is still quite a lot. I could be you're doing something wrong, but it also be that you really are having a bad string of luck or that the particular matchups you've been facing just aren't right. My advice is don't sweat the losses, switch to another deck and get back to winning ways. If you like the idea behinds Firestorm 3.0 you can always try it at a different rank or time of the season (those types of things dictate what you're matching up against).
Vids updated for season 18, I give you the "never lucky" series.
This deck is working much better than I expected it to. At first glance I didnt think it'd do well with all the weird card choices and "1 ofs" creatures. Now Im liking this deck alot! :D Just a qn though, have you considered effingy? I feel it'd help get your creatures to stick on the board much better and get better board control.
Hi Juice, I'm glad you're liking the deck it actually works pretty well post TGT. I had considered Effigy in place of Mirror Entity. Seems like a perfectly reasonable card swap to me, it's all a matter of preference : )
Loving this deck, its smashing everything I queue against at my rank.... except dragon priest
Dragon priests are about 1/3 of the matchups I get and Im 1-7 against them. Only won the 1 game due to the Dpriest having a bad hand the entire game. The problem Im seeing is that I can never gain board, and end up having to use spells to clear their minions to prevent dying myself. I dont feel as if I can just cast spells to his face and I never have a turn to play flamewalker and dont ever seem to have a hand to make it worth playing him knowing he dies the next turn.
Is there anything I could sub in this deck to better go against Dpriest or any tips on the matchup? (may just be playing it all wrong)
Hi Cheeesetoast, I'll be frank with you Priest has ALWAYS been a bad matchup for any tempo Mage deck and Firestorm 3.0 is no exception. The deck is very strong against most things, but is weaker against things like Dragon Pally, Control Priest and Wallet Warrior. Dragon Priest is like Control Priest, a very slow deck that stockpiles heaving hitting cards for later and slows your tempo down early. It's very hard to deal with that, so when you are experiencing an influx of Priest, just switch decks.
Hey Xiimbox, glad to hear you are having success. Yes you can definitely go legend with it. It's a great deck post-TGT so shoot for the stars : )
HI Denibob, if you feel you are lacking card draw I suggest subbing the Poly Boar for Arcane Intellect. In personal opinion the deck doesn't need more card draw. The style of this deck is in some ways similar to Midrange Hunter and like Midrange Hunter it doesn't require much in the way of card draw. We are supposed to be controlling the tempo and going in the finish before the game goes super late. So I'm going start a new season of instructionals for this deck to show people exactly what I mean, be on the lookout.
i still play the old version firstorm 3.0 i like it so much i just cant change it maybe im stuck in past and should update to these new cards but i luv the old deck so much :D
Hey there Zeroxz81, there's absolutely nothing wrong playing the old cards. In fact the changes I made are very minor and so far there's no significant difference in the win rates of this new revision vs the old. Both decks are working for me just fine, I just think the new one is slightly better but not even enough to worry about : )
I've changed kirin tor against arcane int...i am from 10 to 4
Congrats Flayswar, there's nothing wrong with experimenting card changes. I personally find the Kirins to be a staple, but some find them less useful.
Replacement for Arcane Blast ?
Hi Nitroximum, Arcane Missiles for sure. It's nearly the perfect replacement so you don't have to worry about burning 400d on a Arcane Blast until you just feel like it.