Hearthpwn

Scroll down for a complete mulligan and strategy writeup

 

After much deliberation and testing, I'm pleased to present "Minion Mage V. 2". There is much better early game, with the deck tailored to anti-agro decks including the current hunter meta. Some good card draw, and of course, Kel'Thuzad synergy. This deck excels at stalling to a win early game vs. rush decks, as well as unleashing Duplicate and strong control minions to destroy control decks.

<Update #5 - Complete Overhaul: -2 Mana Wyrm, +2 Zombie Chow - I've removed Frostbolt from this deck in favor of more minion-centric damage. Frostbolt is very nice against Shaman decks, to pick and choose minions to remove, but is terrible vs. rush decks which can constantly refresh their stable of on-board minions, while we have a spell which removes only one time. Without Frostbolt, their is better synergy with Zombie Chow, an amazing Turn 1 minion drop. And gauranteed to be a 2/3 every time. Whereas Mana Wyrm is spell dependent to activate it. Also, good synergy with the deathrattle minion theme of this deck. This deck doesn't mind healing opponent early game for 5/10 health, as this is a control-centric deck, favoring extending the game, and defeating opponent via Alezstraza to take down to 15 health.

-2 Frostbolt, +1 Undertaker +1 Acidic Swamp Ooze - Swamp Ooze is good against all decks as an early minion, and is essential with the current Hunter meta. Is very nice vs. Warrior/Paladin as well. Against other decks, it is a good 3/2 body on the board. Undertaker is an incredible minion which can be used early OR late game (I prefer dropping him a turn before Kel'Thuzad with some heavier threats on the board. When KT re-spawns the entire board every turn, it keeps refreshing and upgrading this guy to extreme proportions. The only way I'd play him early game when he is super susceptible to removal is with a "coin, undertaker, zombie chow" turn 1.

-2 Acolyte of Pain, +2 Arcane Intellect - I found Acolyte of Pain at times very unreliable to even draw 2 cards. Very rarely did I get 3 cards. The problem with Acolyte is, people rush to one turn kill him. And, if you have a huge hand, thanks to duplicate, and you have this guy on board, you can be taken advantage of, where the enemy one hits him to overdraw your hand. Arcane Intellect isn't quite as flashy, but it a guaranteed 2 cards every single time.

-2 Unstable Ghoul, +2 Mad Scientist - I found the Ghoul very ineffective against many decks. They can just ram a 3/1 minion into it and prevent their board from getting cleared. Mad Scientist is incredible with a few secrets in your deck, and can be dropped early vs. rush decks to do 2 damage to an enemy minion and grab you a secret. This card is a form of card draw, similar to a Loot Hoarder, but with better stats and it plays the card it draws. Just an incredible card, and very nice in this kind of deck. My favorite move is to drop this vs. zoo on Turn 2 and then (pray) it spawns a Duplicate for your Deathlord on Turn 3.

-2 Water Elemental, +2 Ice Barrier - I've been facing Hunter a LOT on the ladder, and I've needed this extra 16 health/armor more times that I can count. The comeback ability, with Alexstraza, Ice Block and 2 Ice Barriers is really superb. This (or Duplicate) is also great to bait out a Hunter Flare so your Ice Block remains intact. But, if the meta changes or you prefer more minions/less secrets (I have 2 Mad Scientists to take advantage of the increased secrets), then you can switch back to the Water Elementals. I had 2 Faerie Dragons in this spot in a different version of this deck, so feel free to substitute other 2 drops in this spot, for more help early game.

-2 Spectral Knight, +1 Faceless Manipulator +1 Loatheb - I found the Turn 9 combo of Faceless/Polymorph to work out incredibly in this deck. Thanks to the suggestions re: Faceless. Especially amazing is the ability to Duplicate whatever it is you copied from your opponent. Very nice way to steal a Ragnaros, or even an enemy's Kel'Thuzad, saving you the Turn 8 mana, to allow you to play it with 5 mana and continue wrecking his board. Loatheb is incredible and should be in every single Hearthstone deck. No explanation required. (I still feel SN is incredible vs. Priest/Mage, so if that's your meta on the ladder, feel free to substitute back in for a different card, like Ice Barrier.)

-1 Pyroblast, +1 Kel'Thuzad - This card was MADE for this and other Mage Duplicate decks. This card essentially gives your Duplicate insane power. The one downside to Duplicate is, you have to wait for hte enemy to crash into your minion. Kel'Thuzad works the opposite way. You want to kill your entire board each turn and demolish his board. Once the board is clear, sail away to the win. You MUST protect KT, by trying to bait the removal earlier in the game. Get those Hexes/Polymorphs used up on Sylvanas or Alexstraza, or even a Sludge Belcher. Have a Sludge Belcher on board, the turn you play KT, then when you ram your Sludge into an enemy minion, you get your Sludge back PLUS the 1/2 from the original SB. I originally had Cairne in this deck, for the synergy with Kel'Thuzad, but it was too dependent on a lucky turn and combo, and felt Loatheb was more important, than having a lucky game of 3 Baines plus a Cairne with KT board. >

 

 

 

The beauty of Duplicate is, that a mage can now run 1 anti-meta or "tech" card, aiming against ANY single class in the game, and with intelligent use of Duplicate, come out with 3 cards in hand all serving that purpose! This card is the ONLY option, of returning cards to hand, to activate extra battlecries, besides for the Brewmaster bounce cards. The Duplicate option is much stronger though; as a player using bounce cards will be extremely nervous the entire time his card is out on the field. He may even bounce the card immediately after activating the battlecry, negating much of the value of the card!! Not so with Duplicate. Just play the card and rub your hands with glee, waiting for your opponent to waste spells and/or minions attacking it. Like a little Trojan horse, begging to be hard-removed. With Duplicate, you've turned the game on its heels. This time, getting your minion killed, is actually WINNING!!

The true power of Duplicate is, as a mage, you can re-think and re-tool your deck each game, depending on who you are up against, right off the bat. The sense of empowerment this gives, is incredible, and really ups your odds at coming out ahead. And... this card is just FUN to play.

One BGH, with a Duplicate behind it, to wreck Handlock and control. One TBK to wreck Taunt Druid. One Harrison Jones to destroy Rogues/Warriors/Doomhammer. One Sylvannus just to wreak havoc. One Cairne, to laugh in the face of Priest and their "4 damage removal conundrum". The joy of having an opponent insta-concede at the sight of 3 Archmage Antonidas' in one game is something you have to experience to understand. 

Even Alexstrasza becomes uber-awesome with this! Against a zoolock player (with my Ice Block safely in place, of course) I managed to get 2 extra Alex's in hand! Had quite the fun, buffing him up every turn, for Uber-Triple BM after I had the guaranteed win.

Sludge Belcher is an incredible taunt at 5 mana, and with a nifty Duplicate in hand, you will be tearing a new one in Zoo all day long. 

For Card Draw we have the standard Acolyte of Pain, if you are desperate for card draw, feel free to "waste" an early Duplicate on one of 'em. Though we are missing some innate card draw (no Azure Drakes, or Arcane Intellect), Duplicate should create an artificial "full hand feeling" that partly alleviates the problem.

For now, this deck is running 1 Unstable Ghoul, for great synergy with Acolyte of Pain and Arcane Explosion. If you play the Ghoul smart, you can whittle down an opponent's zoo board combined with well timed Turn 2 hero power, and Arcane Explosion to keep them in check.

A few ideas I'm thinking about in this deck are a single Silence card, backed by Duplicate, though I haven't had a pressing need for it, thusfar. Though the Nerubian eggs can be quite painful. Also, I almost certainly plan on running the new Taunt "Deathlord" from Wing 3, and will probably exchange the Unstable Ghoul, and another card (Arcane Explosion), to run 2 Deathlords. Again, there is flexibility thru Duplicate to run just one copy of Deathlord, a card which is incredible vs. Zoo, but terrible vs. Control.

I run the single Kobold, for the dream Turn 4 / 2 damage AoE clear. Don't see the need to run two, as once you get past early game, and can drop your Water Elementals and Turn 5 drops, you should be in for clear sailing until you land your Turn 7 Flamestrikes. If Kobold doesn't turn up in the Mulligan or early on, he is still excellent to have for the Turn 10 double Fireball for extra +spelldmg. I opted for Kobold over Bloodmage Thalnos, solely for his early game potential. Against zoo, a 2/2 body after playing your 2 damage AoE is scarier than a 1/1, which is way more susceptible to Elven Archer or other pings. Just another early body for Zoo to deal with, sacrificing some card draw.

 

 The key part to this deck is knowing WHEN to play a Duplicate. Keep in mind the following suggestions: 

1.  Don't telegraph the Duplicate. Keep your opponent on his heels. Make sure to have at least 2 extra copies of Secrets besides for Duplicate. I chose Ice Block, for a late game Alexstraza save. As well as Vaporize to deal with a Leeroy Jenkins turn from a Miracle Rogue. I prefer these, "Wait and See" secrets over Counterspell/Mirror Entity, which instantly lose the bluff once your opponent plays a card (as well as being able to be easily countered via cheap spells, etc.)
2.  Against Mage/Shaman, wait for at least one Hex before you play ANY copy of duplicate. The absolute worst thing, is getting two copies of Sheep or Frogs littering up your hand. Make the Duplicate be impactful. 
3.  Be very intelligent about the order of minions you play (for an AoE clear).  You want to make sure your opponent kills the exact one you had in mind, and not the lesser of the two minions. (The beauty of Sludge Belcher is, as a taunt, he will almost certainly go down the turn you play him, and you will get 2 more Sludges in hand.) This is one of the reasons I didn't bother with Mirror Image - I don't want to leave anything to chance, when having minions being killed off. Only high impact minions or early game options are included in this deck.
4. Try to get into the heads of your opponent. Ping a minion that will anyway trade with your minion, and enable a duplicate, to make your opponent think that the trade would be hurtful to your gameplan. Play Ice Block or Vaporize, or a different Secret, after playing a strong minion that you don't particularly need, to bait out a Hex. This gets the opponent to play his Hex on the minion of YOUR choosing. You are the one dictating which card gets Hexed, not him. Keep that in mind.
5. Never keep Duplicate in your opening hand, unless you know for certain you will be playing against a VERY slow opponent/deck. There are many early turn options for dealing with all sorts of aggro here, and you should be mulliganing aggressively for those. I very VERY rarely play Duplicate on Turn 3. If presented with the choice, a Duplicate on Turn 3 into a Turn 4 Water Elemental is certainly a valid option, especially against a Warrior. But, in general, the power of Duplicate comes out Turn 8 and later, as to avoid a loss in tempo. This is a late game miracle play to demoralize opponents.
6. I've been careful to have a lot of Turn 4-6 minions, for a Duplicate + Minion turn. On Turn 8, you can play Duplicate + Sludge. On turn 9, drop a TBK/Cairne and a Duplicate. On turn 10, you can even activate Archmage Antonidas, all in one turn, while also having that perfect backup plan to ensure his continuity onto further turns.
7. Very often, you will end up with massive hands of cards, from all of the Duplicates, and Fireballs from Antonidas (actually, don't worry about the Fireballs. That's a good problem to have). Try to be careful to avoid using Duplicate too much, especially on high cost cards (5 mana and up), if you have even the slightest suspicion that you are up against a mill deck. I lost about 5 cards, against a nasty Rogue variety with Saps and Coldlight Oracles/Mukla, due to having 4 Sylvanus in-hand. In those instances, try to line up your Duplicate with a Water Elemental.
8. Against Miracle Rogue, try to save your Kobold and double Arcane Explosion (or Arcane Missiles) to help get around a concealed Auctioneer on Turn 6, assuming you have all the cards in hand. Consider including a Loatheb and playing it on the post-concealed Auctioneer turn (Backed by a Duplicate of course. :P) Also,  save your Vaporize and/or Sludge Belcher for the Leeroy Jenkins' turn. a Double Sludge taunt wall (or Vaporize), will be tricky for him to get through.
9. Against control decks, make sure to save your coin, and Arcane Explosions, as well as Arcane Missiles to activate massive output from Antonidas, on a late turn.
10. Keep up the element of surprise. Against a slow deck, a Turn 3 Duplicate, with no minions on board is excellent. The opponent can be fooled into thinking he is up against a Freeze Mage, when no cards come into play. By turn 3, he sees it isn't aggro, assumes it is freeze mage, and may be hesitant about dropping his best minions, to avoid a Doomsayer turn. Therefore, don't play minions for the sake of playing minions. Try to keep the element of surprise, as long as you aren't in immediate board threat. Don't jump to your unstable ghoul or Kobold, if you can safely drop your Acolyte of Pain, and keep up Freeze Deck appearances. 

---One of the unique advantages of Warlock is the fact that there are two distinct game styles out there: Handlock and Zoo. With this, we aim to create a third sub-section of Mage deck, besides for Aggro Mage and Freeze Mage. (Secret Mage will need "Mad Scientist" to be viable.)

 

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Mulligan and General Strategy:

     General concepts: Spells included in deck (including Fireball) are exclusively for removal, unless you have a HUGE lead on board control. Try to use the spells wisely. Don't Fireball an Azure Drake, if you could Frostbolt + Hero Power it. Develop board control at the expense of that tempting 2/1 health minion you could easily ping. Better to play a minion like Water Elemental with a 2 health chunk missing, than ping opponent's minion and end turn. You are just feeding into his board if you do that. The minions in this deck are expressly chosen/built to wear down on an opponent's board. Slowly but surely you will develop a board presence that will overwhelm your opponent into A) conceding or B) losing - with no way to recover.

• Against Warlock, assume it is Zoo: Mulligan for Deathlord, Unstable Ghoul, Arcane Explosion, Frostbolt. Try to segue from Deathlord/Ghoul into Belcher, and land your duplicate on either Deathlord or preferrably Belcher. (I saw one zoo deck waste BOTH of his Soul Fire spells on one Deathlord, +1 win). Vaporize is AWESOME if you get lucky enough to land one on a Doomguard. Have to time it with a clear board, on Turn 5.
• If Warlock is Handlock, try to play your Acolyte of pain ASAP, and dig for some Polymorphs/Fireballs. Play a Deathlord or Unstable Ghoul to get him to play some cards to deal with you. If you do that, and he BITES (a veteran handlock wouldn't), it will delay his Turn 4 play of giants/Twilight Drakes, and buy you some time to dig for Polymorph. Keep his health above 15/16 while you stabilize your board. When playing Spectral Knights, don't overload the board with them, as I've had a few handlocks play their Leeroy at face and Shadowflame for the perfect 6 health board clear of 2+ Spectral Knights. (Though, SN are incredible Duplicate targets vs. Handlock. They can't just Siphon Soul, or Hellfire them.) Try to use a Frostbolt/Fireball combo on the first Mountain Giant you see, so you can save your Poly for the second one, or on Ragnaros (many Handlocks play him nowadays). Be very worried about the handlock Faceless Manipulating his Mountain Giants. They can/will do that on Turn 5. If they don't do it on Turn 5 (and you just put up ataunt in front of the MG, instead of dealing with it), it means they are either saving FN for the wombo combo with Leeroy, or don't have any in their hand.
• Against Control Warrior: Mulligan for Polymorph, Water Elemental, Vaporize (avoid Deathlord, until warrior has used up removal). Spectral Knight is incredible vs. Control Warrior. Try to get Duplicate in play, the turn before you play Sludge Belcher. Use Vaporize on a turn you anticipate Grommash. Save Polymorph for Cairne and Rag/Alex. Don't waste a Poly on Baron Geddon. He is prime Fireball bait.
• Against Druid: Mulligan for Deathlord (a ton of minions can be messed up by losing their "either A or B" battlecry, and hard for druid to deal with at Turn 3). It ruins their early token minions, and eats up one swipe, and 2 Wraths. I've had a keeper of the grove plop down, losing his battlecry. Also, have had a few Druid of the Claws lose their Taunt AND chargeability from a Deathlord. Try to dig for a TBK (and cover him with a Duplicate) asap, vs. Ramp druid. Play your Acolyte of Pain and dig as much as you can until you get it. Save TBK for only the largest taunts, unless you have a guaranteed Duplicate on him.
• Against Paladin: Assume it is Naxxadin/Shockadin and mulligan aggressively for Arcane Explosion (don't use it too soon, you can catch 4+ minions with one spell) as well as Unstable Ghoul (Arcane Explosion plus a body). If it turns out to be control paladin, you will have a ton more time, and doesn't hurt to have these cards in your mulligan anyway. If it is control, Save polymorph for Tirion Fordring.
• Against Hunter: Keep Vaporize (!!!!) for the Turn 3 animal companion, whichever one it is. Unstable Ghoul is very good. Make sure hunter plays at least one copy of Hunter's mark before dropping a Deathlord. Spectral Knights are excellent Hunter's Mark bait. Save Polymorph for his Savannah Highmane (Fireball works, albeit not as well). (Next level tactics™ - If you are within lethal of a hunter (from bow/Kill Command, doesn't work if hunter has a full board of minions) on Turn 8, have Ice Block up, and have Alexstraza in hand, try the following trick: Turn 8 play Duplicate, don't play ANY other minions the entire turn. Drop Alexstraza on Turn 9. If he kills Alex, you now have 2 more turns to self-heal out of lethal range, as well as significant board presence. I've pulled this off 5 times so far, vs. hunters.)
• Against Shaman: Deathlord is top priority. It either gets hexxed (excellent outcome), or is left on board to help deal with a Shaman Turn 3 of Feral Spirit. Deathlord can get some battlecry minions messed up, like removing the 3 damagebattlecry from a Fire Elemental, and is easily dispatched with a single Fireball to his face. Al'Akir is a 1/15 chance in dropping if it is included in deck.
• Against Rogue: You want as many copies of Frostbolt as you can, to deal with his 3 health minions. Deathlord is INCREDIBLE early game, as it can disrupt a rogue deck entirely. Many rogue minions are combo/battlecry. If you land a Leeroy on Turn 4, that's one easy way to destroy the miracle (Frostbolt, Arcane Explosion + Hero ability, even Fireball/Polymorph = GG). A Gadgetzan on Turn 4 can be good also. He has less mana to cast his spells for draws, and you can easily nuke him down (same way you did Leeroy). A 2/2 Edwin VC = too bad, eh?
• Against Mage: Frostbolt is a MUST. You want to take out his Mana Wyrm on Turn 2 ASAP. Deathlord is very good, especially if it eats a Fireball or Polymorph. That's less damage to face, and less answers for our REAL threats. Mage doesn't usually have such awesome drops. And, this deck hasn't quite caught on in the meta yet (/wink), so not much to worry about there. If it drops an Alexstraza early, that is probably for the best for you. You can Polymorph or Frostbolt/Fireball Alex out, and he loses that security blanket. If doomsayer, hah! If Antonidas, again, Fireball. He won't be able to take much advantage of the spell ability of Antonidas if he already used all his resources taking down your Deathlord.
• Freeze Mage: Deathlord is especially incredible, especially if it gets a Doomsayer pulled before it's time. Or an Alexstraza, which you can destroy before he gets a chance to pull off his endgame. Most other freeze mage minions are worthless. Though you can deny one card draw from a Novice Engineer with Deathlord. If you have a full board andfreeze mage drops a Doomsayer, try to Polymorph or Fireball the Doomsayer. If you don't have those options, Duplicate is a viable turn. The first minion you played will be the one duplicated. Spectral Knight destroys freeze mage, and he will have to waste his Flamestrike/Blizzards just to remove them. Excellent duplicate target. Make sure to have Ice Block up when within lethal range.
• Against Priest: Mulligan for Frostbolt. Best one turn removal of his Northshire Cleric, as well as his 4/3 (assuming it doesn't get instantly healed with Circle of Healing). Unstable Ghoul is weak vs. Priest, especially with Northshire Cleric on the board. Just makes unlimited free card draw. DO NOT PLAY DEATHLORD, as Priest can one spell remove it for free. Bait out his Shadow Word Pains (3< damage) on your Water Elementals, Sludge Belchers, and other low minions. BUT, feel free and PLEASE play deathlord if you have a TBK in hand on turn 6. if he uses a Cabal Shadow Priest to foolishly steal your Deathlord, you plop down your TBK for fun and profit! (YAY, a TBK target in the priest deck) (Spectral Knight, INC - True story). Sylvanas is INCREDIBLE vs. Priest, as long as Priest has some minions on the board that are worth stealing. Also, very good drop on the lead up to Turn 8. (YOLO Rag incoming, FTW). Try to have Duplicate land on your Sylvanas OR Spectral Knight. That way, you get to replay Sylvanas immediately after he wastes one of his SWD. And Spectral Knight just wrecks priest. Save Polymorph for Ysera and Cairne. We can use Fireball/minions on Ragnaros if need be. In the end, the Priest game comes down to a war of attrition. I've gone multiple games going to the last card in a priest's deck and killing him with fatigue damage. (But, in my old mage deck, pre- Spectral Knight, I'd usually not have the upper hand. This time around, it's me fatiguing the Priest, not vice versa)
• General Deathlord Tips: Don't play on Turn 3 vs. a Control deck (except for Druid). Watch out for instant spell removal on it (like a Hunter with Hunter's Mark or Kodo, Equality, Shadow Word Pain, The Black Knight (!!!!!), execute, shield slam). Deathlord is INCREDIBLE vs. Rogue (disrupt their combo cards, and Leeroy), and almost a win condition vs. Zoo or any other agro deck. Also, many control decks can't take advantage of the deathrattle minion. Hunter's have a ton of 1/1 or 2/1 drops. Druids lose their combo cards. Zoo loses battlecries. Shaman's Fire Elementals lose their 3 damage battlecry. Also, watch out for Shaman playing Reincarnate on Deathlord. Per Trump (Twitch), Deathlord takes a good bit of time to learn how/when to use it best (especially vs. control decks).

 If you need any more specific card or matchup tips, I'll be glad to double and triple the size of this strategy guide, for those interested. =P

 

--- Please add any comments or suggestions, to help fine-tune this deck, and give me feedback on your experiences with the deck.