Legend in 3-Days: 64%W Secret Tempo Mage
- Last updated Sep 28, 2017 (Evergreen Nerfs)
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Wild
- 16 Minions
- 14 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Tempo Mage
- Crafting Cost: 3720
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 9/15/2017 (Frozen Throne)
- RDeeHs
- Registered User
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- 5
- 35
- 39
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Battle Tag:
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Total Deck Rating
352
Hello! [Big thanks to TwoDoorsThePlebLord and Kreptoman for helping out people in the Comment section! I haven't had time to be around lately as I have a big offline LAN to prepare for. It makes me really happy too see that a lot of people have had success with this deck! :) <3]
My name is RDee and I am a Pro player for Vexed Gaming.
I always try to look at the meta and predict what the next big thing could be.
As we all know Druid dominates the ladder, but Priest is also on the high rise and looks to become even better when the nerf hits 18th September.
If you check out my stats from rank 8 to legend you will see that I am 16-2 vs Priests, my matchups has mostly been Kazakuz Priest with 2-3 Big Priests. You will also notice that the only negative matchup is against Paladin.
Paladin will get hit a little bit by the nerf, meaning the matchup could become better.
So..This deck is working right now and seems really strong when played right, but could it become even stronger when the nerf hits? This is why I want to share it, I have barley faced any Secret Mages on ladder, but still the deck seems so strong. So why is no one playing it?..
The two biggest classes that people play right now is Druid and Priest, I played 151 games from rank 8 to Legend. I went 38-27 vs Druid 58.5% win rate. I went 16-2 vs Priest 88.9% win rate. I believe my sample size is big enough to prove this deck to be Good in this meta.
Alright so advice I can give you:
Mulligan: Mana wyrm / Babbling Book / Frostbolt / Glyph / Arcanologist / Apprentice.
We want Early game, It looks great to save Kirin'Tor + Secret to get an insane tempo start, but it easily backfires.
It's hard to snowball into the midgame without a 1 or 2 drop, even if we coin 3+3 drop (Kirin+Secret) it's rather weak. Mirror + Countespell has different effects depending on your matchup, it can be really weak or really great depending on what deck you face and which mana you decide to use it. But coining it turn 2 into a turn 3 Kirin+Secret usually gives you little value and negative 2 cards in your hand.
So what we want to do is try to mulligan and develope a board turn 1-2 and snowball and not skip 1-2 and go straight to 3. A dream scenario would be go first into Mana Wyrm > Arcanologist > Kirin'tor+Secret > Kabal crystal runner.
Tho the odds of this happening is so small that we can't save Kirin'tor and Kabal in our mulligan on random unless we have all 4 at once, we want the other 1-2 drops more.
The basic of this deck is tempo and that's how we have to look at it, play tempo and not the best value card.
Using secrets is really fun and I'll give you a few examples.
Let's say you have counterspell in your hand vs a Paladin, great! Now we can mess up his Steed, tho has he played Hydrologist? Because that card is great at messing up your CS's, what you want to do is play it at 3 if you think it's aggro pala to counter Blessing of kings, otherwise you play it on 5 to counter steed, but only if he hasn't played a Hyrdrologist and saved the secret in hand.
Vs Priest it can be great to get your board out and use a counterspell first at turn 5, to counter his Dragonfire potion play.
Vs Druid you want to think about turn 4-5.
Jade Druid: Turn 4, if you can do counterspell go for it because it can mess up his Nourish or he has to sacrifice his Innervate to stop your CS.
Vs Token Druid: This is a fun mind game! If you can play a secret turn 4 it's cool, from my own experiance very few Druid players then dare to play Living Mana.
So a dream scenario is you play Mirror entity he tries to play around it and plays Hydra. All of a sudden you get a hydra and board control = GG.
Otherwise if he plays Living mana into a counterspell it's also GG. It's because of mind games like this I managed to hit 58.5% vs Druid.
*You always want to save a Frostbolt vs Druid to counter a turn 1-3 Viscious Fledgling.
Replace:
You can replace the Lich King for one more Bonemare/Medivh/Antonidas - A late game finnisher.
Lich King is a good late game threat as he replenishes your hand when you are really low on cards, he forces a reaction as he is an 8/8 with taunt and a unique card draw effect.
Using 2x Bonemare increase draw consistency but makes you focus more on board to not dead draw a Bonemare without being able to use it.
Medivh has good synergy with spells like Portals for board control/tempo and a nice unique battlecry effect as Bonemare.
Antonidas will usually not see play until turn 9 when you can combo him with a glyph or frostbolt, if lucky can combo with Conjurer's Mirror image at turn 8.
*Cool idea is using 1x Bonemare 1x Antonidas and putting in a Bully or two!*
You can replace Conjurer for 1x Babbling book or 1x Acolyte. I've tried both and Book is nice for more early game while Acolyte is nice when you face more control decks for a better late game.
Conjurer is a nice card to curve into and better vs all the Face/Aggro decks!
Conjurer also gives you a good midgame boost with Mirror images into value Bonemare.
I hope this deck can help You to climb the ladder and have some fun in HS :)
Gameplay video vs Highlander Priest by Kadakk:
Gameplay video by TheSynch:
Let's play by seancool_com:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/VexedRDee
Twitch: https://Twitch.tv/RDeee - I stream a lot!
I use this deck and its really good for me. I didn't play with Shaman yet, but I think its going really good! Thx! <3
How did you beat the hunter and priests ? Those kick my ### when I play against them
How did you beat the hunter and priests ? Those kick me ## every time
same here - seriously having problems with those hunters. and warlocks too with those lifesteals once they bring on guldan its game over
I started using a tempo variant from the disguised toast website. Kabal larky even without a secret to play turn one helps with board control. added +2 Bittertide Hydra (turn 5 minion forces the opponent to panic and get rid of it )
The problem with Bittertide Hydra is that it will lose you the game against aggro decks. Hydra works far better in aggro decks who always go face and force their opponents to deal with their minions. Tempo doesn't do that.
Kabal Lackey is a pretty weak play because Mage secrets aren't very aggressive. Lackey would be great in Hunter, but in Mage there's nothing you want to Counterspell or Mirror Entity before turn 3 so you're often playing a turn 1 2/1 which isn't terribly impressive. Breath of Sindragosa fits the deck better if you're not terribly keen on Babbling Book and want more board control.
I don't have a LK (probably my next craft if I don't get him from packs) so I dropped in my Ysera.
https://hsreplay.net/replay/Y252U7EedCRKCU7sXo6csS
First game turned out great. I'll update with some more after I get about 10 matches under my belt.
Hello guys!
I tried this deck as well and I think it is one of the best decks at this moment, it really deals with the priest which is really nice in this meta.
In the video bellow you have two match-ups
1) vs the highlander priest, where you can see what path you should choose
2) nerfed pirate warrior???
I hope you can enjoy it :) See you guys.
Switched one Mirror Entity for Spellbender mainly for Paladins buffing with Steed and most play around Mirror. Also good for protecting a large minion with SW:Death or something.
Thank you for your contribution, I can put it in the info section below the other gameplay video :)
Feels good that a lot of people are enjoying the deck.
I'm trying to switch stuff around because this deck wins or loses depending on the mulligan. Not getting cards that cost 2 or less in the first 2 turns means you lose.The problem with this deck is that it's too fragile, if your first two turns are not ideal you just get destroyed. I just lost 3 times in a row because i couldn't play any cards for 2 turns, being so curve dependant means that the deck basically plays by itself and if you don't draw perfectly you lose.
The lich king is so damn weak in this deck, if you have enough mana to drop the lich king you probably already lost the match, he is a "win more" card, if the enemy developed a board and you dropped him they will just remove him and beat you to death, you can only play him when you have a board that needs protecting. I'm trying to add more options to the early game and taking out the lich king but as i see it this deck has a 50% winrate, you either win in the mulligan phase or you lose. So having given up on the mulligan i tried to make it more consistent mid game.
I took out the babbling book(a random spell is worse than it sounds), lich king and ghastly conjurer and added one meteor because it can be used way more often, burgly bully because each coin is a fireball and antonidas for obvious reasons, you can play him earlier and forces the enemy to remove him. If they don't they get fireballed to death.
Say you have ten mana and a coin from the bully, that's 7 mana for antonidas and you use a coin, now you have 4 mana left and a fireball, you shoot that fireball and now you have one more fireball you can use next turn.
EDIT: typos, explained the changes a bit better.
EDIT 2: This deck is like the hunter version of mage so bonemare is too late game'ish for me, and i'm trying to find a replacement for it, so far i've tried auctioneer, medivh, alextraza, ysera, acolyte and arcane giant and the arcane giant seems to be the better choice and oddly enough you can drop him earlier than bonemare. The second spot goes to acolyte of pain so i'm switching arcane giant and acolyte of pain around depending on what i'm finding the most in ladder.
I like these changes. My problem is playing against hunters. I toke out the babbling book for a volcanic potion.
I disagree with the bone mare in part for being that it actually helps maintain the board. However, I like the point you made about the arcane gaint. if you try it let me know how your outcome looks.
I really like this comment as you explain in depth you thought process and why you choose to include different tech cards and remove others.
The thing with a tempo deck is that you must hardcore mulligan for 1-2 drops, otherwise you will lose all tempo.
Think about it as Hunter, if you play Hunter and don't have a 1 or 2 drop the game is usually over as they have this kind of playstyle all the time, while Mage just has it with a deck like this.
I have noticed a lot of hate towards Lich King, which is why I have included a info section for replecements and thoughts towards why he is included and why you can use other cards instead of him.
I did not update the deck and switch him out as I want the deck to be true to the original I hit Legend with and this win rate, if I switch him out after it just feels like tricking people.
Conjurer is really good if you face a lot of aggro or tempo decks, while only good vs control if you have a Apprentice+Mana wyrm out on curve, or for a potential Bonemare .If you teched in Antonidas it can be for a turn 8 easy fireball tempo play.
Meteor is a nice curve card in a deck like this with unexpected AoE to take people by surprise, tho very slow vs any kind of aggro as the game is usually over at turn 5+. While we already have a good matchup vs control, tho this might make it better vs Midrange?
In the replacement section I also belive in playing Bully + Antonidas, tho with saving Bonemare:
"Antonidas will usually not see play until turn 9 when you can combo him with a glyph or frostbolt, if lucky can combo with Conjurer's Mirror image at turn 8.
*Cool idea is using 1x Bonemare 1x Antonidas and putting in a Bully or two!*"
Thanks for your comment and I just wanted to answer as it was such a good one! I will take a closer look at Arcane Giants myself! :)
this deck gets countered by not going first lmao
its the most strong and not that expensive deck i ever seen !!!
yea ... what's wrong with the deck, man? i mean ... it has to be the deck right? we are all perfect after all
FeelsBadMan, what is your sample size vs Aggro Hunter? Might just be a bad streak?
Otherwise I have some advice for you regarding the Hunter matchup that I and TwoDoorsThePlebLord wrote down in the comments earlier:
RDeeHS: "Well at the top of my head vs Hunter: You have to mulligan for 1-2 drops, Mana wyrm, Arcanologist, frostbolt and glyph. Apprentice is also good but first at turn 3 in combo with a frostbolt or glyph. We focus on value drops with 3 hp over 2 as their 1 drop is a: 2x Alley cat or b: 1x Firefly. Their max damage at turn 2 is then 2 hp (without playing around random Razormaw), meaning Apprentice is the only minion without value here, we could even drop a Vanilla Mediv Valet to not lose board tempo.
Hunter has a similiar gameplan as us, that's why it can be tricky to play against. Both decks want to mulligan for 1-2 drops to get early board, both decks want to snowball. Mage has great tempo in Mana wyrm, frostbolt, glyph, apprentice. While Hunter wants to mess us up with an early bow and bearshark as bow counters our 3 hp minions over 2x turns to gain board, then bearshark counters our frostbolt, but not a turn 5 valet+secret clear.
All the hunters play a Hydra now, if you can frostbolt that then it should be GG.
They are also weak towards Mirror Image, spec since a lot have skipped Unleash the hounds or just play 1x. Meaning Conjurer gives us good value in this matchup spec since it has 6hp for value trades.
Around turn 5-6 the game is usually over, sometimes it can be a stalemate with minimal trades until turn 8. if that happens we could close it out by going face a lot and get 2x fireballs to face for 12 damage at turn 8.
Hope this helps! :)"
TwoDoorsThePlebLord: "Also Hunter has no board clears so board is the key. Against the hunter you can allow yourself to prolong the game. Hunter easily runs out of cards, although this deck also plays a lot of cards each turn, mages can rebuild their hand with Arcanologist and Arcane Intellect.
At turn 3 try to play counterspell, because on turn 3 they either play Animal companion or Eaglehorn bow. If you get animal companion that's perfect if not your counterspell will stay and potentially could be activator for your Medivh's Valet.
At turn 6 you should try to play Mirror's Entity to get Savanah Highmane (Even tho i saw 0 of them played today) you still often get something good even if it's a Alley Cat if it survives it can be comboed with the Bonemare."
Hope this info can give you some insight into this matchup so you can start winning it!
Any replacements for Medivh's Valet? I don't have 700 gold to get another wing for an adventure that is going to roll out in the near future.
Maybe it is impossible to switch him out?
Well Medivh's Valet will give you Burst-Tempo-Board control, so it's really harsh to remove him. The deck wont play the same at all, but might still work. I cant give you a good replecement option as the card is so unique in what it does.
I tried the deck without it, I have been in lots of positions where I could of used it.
The deck is still great without tho! :)