Hearthpwn

Introduction

When I first started playing HS about a month ago, I had no idea where to start. All I knew was that I loved the game, and wanted to play a competitive deck. I checked out all the deck lists on sites like this, and constructed some decks using dust and packs that I bought. What I didn't understand was where to start really... I ended up spending a lot of dust crafting a deck that ultimately was more about beating the meta at the time than it was moving up the ladder.

For moving up the latter, you want a good basic aggro deck. The obvious one is a Zoo based deck. You can craft this one for a very low amount of dust (1600) and you basically have something that is as good as Zoo gets. It even comes with a helpful guide, and the author is there to answer questions as well.

I used that deck to get into rank 17 on my first 2 weeks of the game (the last 2 weeks of season 2) and it was quite fun. However I wanted something different... I really liked playing as Mage, so I looked for a budget Mage deck to start with. The one I found was this budget Mage deck from Tidesoftime. With only 5 rares (2 Knife Jugglers, 2 Azure Drakes, and a Defender of Argus), it's easy to put together, and a lot of fun to play. Once you start winning with it though, you will probably want to make some changes. Once I got to rank 15 or so, I started having problems finishing my opponents in time before they put out bigger minions. I wanted to make the deck longer lasting.

With these changes, I am doing much better now, gaining ranks every day. I'm up to rank 9 now, far better than I have ever done. I will embed my climb from rank 13 to rank 9 in 2 videos below.

I suggest you build the original deck first, and watch his videos and play with it a bit before trying mine. You might find the faster pace more suitable to your style.

The Changes

The main changes were made in response to the various walls I hit when playing with that deck. As you know, with an aggro deck you want to finish by turn 7, as you don't really have the means to get rid of the nastier minions that come out after that. However I needed a way to deal with board clears, and perhaps a quick finish before running out of steam. The changes I made were to make the deck longer lasting, but still have enough speed to absolutely finish the opponent on turn 10.

Mage Cards

• I added Counterspell to keep my minions alive longer and take care of board clears - namely the nasty turn 4 Consecrate from Paladins that will put a quick stop to your tempo, as well as Hellfire which Handlocks like to use to not only clear the board, but lower their health enough to put in a giant. The problem is that this takes up an early turn, so is best used along with a Sorcerer's Apprentice. In any case, it's almost always good to leave up there late game, as it can bluff your opponent into playing around a Mirror Entity. This card isn't crucial but it has helped me keep my minions alive at least an extra turn every time I have used it.
• Ice Barrier is another card I added to give the deck a bit more durability. This is more of an 'emergency only' card, and should be mulliganed every time. If you end up with it, it can be used to buff your minions.
• Flamestrike isn't in the budget version, but I have it here. I have to look back at my play to see how useful it was. I will very likely remove this card... if you need to clear the board on turn 7, you are probably going to lose no matter what.
• Pyroblast was the first card I added, and it made a HUGE difference and is exactly the card I needed to climb the ladder. I have had so many turn 10 victories thanks to this card, because you can't always get your opponent down by turn 7... If there's one card that I think is crucial to improving the deck, it's this one. At least, that was the case for me.

Neutral Cards

• Mana Addict is a card you almost never see, but I often saw tremendous value from it in my games. It doesn't seem to be as big of a target as the Mana Wyrm, so it will stay on the board much longer. If you can get it up on turn 1, your opponent will probably be busy dealing with your Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, and Mirror Image tokens to be bothered with it. Meanwhile, every time you cast one of your spells to clear, you just gained a free +2 attack that turn. You can see in one of my videos below where I had a 7 hit attack to the face - and it could have been 9 if I had been more patient with my play. 
• Faceless Manipulator is one I came up with after running into issues with games lasting too long where I didn't draw my Pyroblast. The good thing about this card is that it is only 5 mana, so it's not too much of a waste to use while the game has yet to be decided. It comes in handy to steal a taunt, or a Grommash Hellscream to use on itself after it has been played, or even a Cairne Bloodhoof to get a 'free' legendary. Be careful though, don't give away that you are about to use one. I made the mistake of leaving up my opponent's bubble/taunt minion in the hopes of stealing it 'fresh'. I pinged the hero instead, and he absolutely knew what I was up to and played accordingly. 

The Videos

Below are two videos I made of my progress moving up the ladder. Note that before I built this deck, I have never been able to move past rank 17 - 13 is as high as I could get with the original version. As soon as I made these changes, these are the results. As you can see, I still made quite a few misplays, as in the first video I was doing other work while playing, and I am still learning how to play more carefully and patiently. I hope the videos help people understand what to do and what not to do with this deck. 

Rank 13 > 11

This is the video where I had some dumb misplays that I noticed as soon as I did them. I still did quite well - The first minute is skipped, as the first opponent was AFK

Rank 11 > 9

This is my record-making climb from this morning... I got pushed back a few stars, since I kept running into expensive Warrior decks running 5 or 6 Legendary cards, without being able to apply enough pressure to finish them off. I did manage to beat one in the video below however.