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Highlander Ice (75% Winrate control deck)

  • Last updated Oct 24, 2016 (Yogg Nerf)
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Wild

  • 17 Minions
  • 13 Spells
  • Deck Type: Ranked Deck
  • Deck Archetype: Unknown
  • Crafting Cost: 11300
  • Dust Needed: Loading Collection
  • Created: 1/18/2016 (Explorers)
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  • Zion7
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  • Battle Tag:

    Zion7

  • Region:

    US

  • Total Deck Rating

    1335

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About - Greetings, Zion7 here (formerly known as MarineKingHS) to share an interesting Control 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 7000+ wins in constructed ladder and like to help others improve their game.

This deck is called "Highlander Ice" because it is deck that runs 1 copy of each card only, there are no duplicated because there can be only be one. This is a Reno Jackson based deck and as such it should be played in a slow, control manner.

Deck Explanation - This deck is designed to win by defending and stabilizing the board during the early to mid-game. To accomplish this the deck runs a respectable amount of low curve cards and removal. Then as the game progresses you just keep playing bigger and bigger threats until the enemy runs out of steam. The enemy can almost never win via pure late game control, so it usually comes down to them just diving into your face. To combat that we run heals, taunts and board clear AOE. The formula is simplistic, stall stall stall, clear, drop big threats, GG. Frostbolt, Fireball and Polymorph can be used to deal with single threats, while spells Arcane Explosion and Flamestrike deal with annoyingly large boards. This deck is a very good counter to many of the currently popular strong meta decks like Secret Paladin, Midrange Paladin, Aggro Shaman, Control Warrior, Patron Warrior, Aggro Druid, Ramp Druid, Oil Rogue, Dragon Priest, Midrange Hunter, Aggro Hunter and many more.

As of this moment, my Rank is 6 with this deck climbing to legend. I have been winning at about a 3 to 1 win/loss ratio which is nice! I suspect I'll easily make legend with this deck soon, work schedule permitting.

Screenshots of Current Rank (Season 22 : You've Won My ♥-Stone)

This is an instructional series for Season 22. 

Update:  New videos added, this will be an ongoing series. Enjoy!

 

Highlander Ice - S22 - Instructional Part 01 (vs Firestorm 5.0 Mage)

Highlander Ice - S22 - Instructional Part 02 (vs 2x Druid and Warrior)

Highlander Ice - S22 - Instructional Part 03 (vs Shaman Paladin and Druid)

Highlander Ice - S22 - Instructional Part 04 (vs Paladin Shaman and Warlock)

Highlander Ice - S22 - Instructional Part 05 (vs 2x Druid and Shaman)

Highlander Ice - S22 - Instructional Part 06 (vs Druid Hunter Mage and 2x Paladin)

Highlander Ice - S22 - Instructional Part 07 (vs Shaman Hunter Paladin and Mage)

Highlander Ice - S22 - Instructional Part 08 (vs 2x Druid and Priest)

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Demo Play by Khristophesaurus below

 Mulligans

You typically want to mulligan for Zombie Chow, Mana Wyrm, Mad Scientist, Arcane Missiles, Frostbolt, Flamecannon, Unstable Portal, Sorcerer's Apprentice and Flamewaker in that order. We typically want to avoid holding on to anything heavier than 3mana to start. It's important to mull harder for minions if you happen to get the spells but no minion on the first mull. This means, you'd keep 1 spell and try for those minions.

 

• Against Paladin you'll want to keep Arcane Explosion if you come across it because it's such a good counter to Muster for Battle.

 

• Against Aggro Shaman and Hunter you'll want to keep Reno Jackson because this card will single handily ensure your victory. These is the only matchups were we would purposely keep a 6mana card in the opening mull. It's worth it because it's basically an auto-win once played.

 

• Against Warrior and Rogue you'll want to keep Water Elemental because this card will stifle half of their removal options and could cause a snowball effect in your favor.

 Card Replacements

Zombie Chow - If Chow isn't your style but still want a sturdy 1 drop Argent Squire isn't a bad replacement.

 

Unstable Portal - This card is a dice roll that is sometimes good and sometimes bad, so if you aren't a gambler you can replace this with Haunted Creeper and have a sure value.

 

Sorcerer's Apprentice - Believe it or not this is a card that can easily be replaced by any 2 drop, it's not even an important card. Considering the current meta, I might suggest Acidic Swamp Ooze.

 

Spellbender - If you don't like this card or find it too difficult to get value on, swap it for Counterspell.

 

Flamewaker - I get this question a LOT because so many people don't have the BRM adventure. The replacement is Brann Bronzebeard, who brings the same stats as Flamewaker and is arguable just as if not MORE devastating to the enemy (depending on your hand). We run enough important Battlecrys to make this card worth it, including the Antique Healbot, Azure Drake, Ethereal Conjurer, Toshley, Dr. Boom and Arch-Thief Rafaam.

 

Echo of Medivh -Piloted Shredder is about the next best thing you can do for 4mana.

 

Ethereal Conjurer - Nexus-Champion Saraad, Loatheb and Stampeding Kodo are some solid alternatives here.

 

Piloted Sky Golem - Cairne Bloodhoof is good.

 

Reno Jackson - Are you joking?

 

Sylvanas Windrunner - Sunwalker is solid and sometimes even preferred since what we really need in this slot is something sticky/defensive.

 

Toshley - You know, contrary to popular belief Justicar Trueheart is quite decent in this kind of slow control deck. Some people seem to have their doubts about rather or not having a 2dmg ping means much going into the late game, I assure you it does. As a matter of fact, I'll be using Justicar in place of Toshley for instructional vid 9 and 10.

 

Ragnaros the Firelord - if you'er tired of hearing "I've got the fun in my sights!", then go for Sneed's Old Shredder.

 

Arch-Thief Rafaam - Ok,now I do NOT recommend changing this card and I KNOW you have it or chances are you wouldn't have Reno and then why are you here!? But having said all that, this slow was intended to give you later game power against other control decks. So Nefarian or Ysera would be the the best replacements.

 Strong and Weak Matchups

First of all let me say, this deck is not horrible vs any matchup that I've come across. There are many great matchups, a few ok matchups and some slightly difficult matchups, but like I said nothing streamrolls this deck because we run such a flexible and versatile toolset.

 

This deck is STRONG vs Secret Paladin, Midrange Paladin, Aggro Shaman, Control Warrior, Patron Warrior, Aggro Druid, Ramp Druid, Oil Rogue, Dragon Priest, Midrange Hunter, Aggro Hunter, Freeze Mage and many more.

 

The deck OK vs Zoolock, Demonlock, Renolock, Mech Mage and Raptor Rogue.

 

The deck is SLIGHTLY WEAK vs Entomb Priest, Murloc Paladin, Egg Druid, Bloodlust Shaman, Malylock and basically decks that revolve around just killing you with 1 big combo wombo in general. It's hard to employ our strategy of healing if the enemy deals massive damage from an empty hand.

Updates

Jan 28, 2016 - I took out the Mirror Entity because I felt that was too easy for the enemy to play around and it seemed to rarely get the value I wanted, especially with low curve decks like Zoolock gaining popularity. In it's place I've been running Spellbender with some success. It's highly unpredictable and buffing spells seem to be more popular than ever right now, so Spellbender fits the bill.

 

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 exploring!