Hearthpwn

Isn't it brilliant how the new mage quest is pulling us in many different and interesting deckbuilding possibilities? This thread is to get a serious breakdown as to what's possible with it and maybe boldly try and predict which one is best.

Exodia mage (2x molten reflection, Antonidas, 2x sorcerer's apprentice, TimeWarp) :
Weakness : The combo pieces are in the super grand majority of games unplayable on their own. Freeze Mage could use it's combo pieces for removal, this one cannot.
Strength : Inevitability, once the combo is assembled it's gg. AOE.
Ways to build it : Option 1 is acolyte, loot hoarder, novice engineer package. Option 2 is Auctioneer, arcane missiles, mirror image, freezing potion.

Giant OTK (Giants + Timewarp)
Weakness : Depending on the build, hand can get pretty expensive. Taunts (ahem* taunt warrior).
Strength : Unlike exodia, giant OTK can play it's combo pieces to secure the board or apply pressure. The combo can also be used in an non lethal way if needed.
Ways to build it : Cycle heavy (either acolyte/hoarder or auctioneer/spell). Including molten giants alongside the arcane giants. Including Alextraza or not. Including molten reflection or not.

Timewarp Tempo (tempo mage shell with quest)
Weakness : Loses OTK potential. Lack of a 3-drop unless Acolyte. No or few AOE.
Strength: Can have a tempo mage snowball effect. Proactivity.
Ways to build it : Elemental or not. With few or a bit more cycles. With or without AOE.

This is definitely incomplete. I will update the thread continually with information posted in the comments!

I also think that some kind of tempo mage is the way to go. There is basically two reasons for that: 

1) each spell generation is a tempo loss in the first place. However in tempo mage with mana wyrms and soccerers apprentice you can get some tempo back. Too bad that flame waker rotates out, maybe Violet teacher can fill the spot to get some more tempo going?

2) If you have early board control you can get much more value out of many of the spells, for example arcance explosion or poly: boar setting up good trades. Playing all this cards with little value while also drawing into the win condition in a freeze mage style seems very optimistic. 

Thats what i came up with 

Has relatively strong early game with arcanologist into kirin tor + mirror entity together with wyrms and apprentice. This should allow to savely play Burgling bully/Mukkla/Tome, getting close to finishing the quest, which then can be used as finisher, or just as a huge swing turn. But its of course very theoretical, before seing which kind of decks are popular. :)

I preferred a more Control Mage style in the spirit of Reno Mage with some of Freeze Mages stall tactics.

I run the OTK with Alexstrasza and two Arcane Giant (used to have a Molten Giant but wanted more control tools) and use Burgly Bully (the coins also count towards the quest) and Archmage Antonidas as an alternate win condition.  I'm playing Meteor for the sake of science and when you just have a massive Hate-boner for a certain minion.

definitely exodia mage- winning out of nowhere is amazingly fun and it still has all the basic pieces of tempo mage, only Archmage Antonidas and molten reflection are different because they facilitate the combo

exodia mage is also better than giant mage because it can win against taunts, which are common because of warrior quest

Quote from snowbear4 >>

definitely exodia mage- winning out of nowhere is amazingly fun and it still has all the basic pieces of tempo mage, only Archmage Antonidas and molten reflection are different because they facilitate the combo

exodia mage is also better than giant mage because it can win against taunts, which are common because of warrior quest

Personally, I'm playing the giants version with molten reflection and alex right now.

I keep running into other otk mages so I can't really judge the quality of the deck though the matches are incredibly fun and unusual lol