On and off I've been trying to make a Quest Mage work that doesn't rely on draw and freeze to win the game, and now after these aggro nerfs I feel that it's finally working out. I wanted to share the concept to see what you make of it, but without a decklist because I think the vast majority of Hearthstone players should practice deckbuilding without handholding :) (actually because I'm on my phone and can't use the deckbuilder, could add it later)
The idea is to completely switch strategy depending on the matchup. Against aggro you mulligan hard for typical tempo cards like Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, etc., and you just toss the quest away as well. Your goal is to survive until you can stabilize with Alexstrasza or Frost Lich Jaina, along with cheap Arcane Giants. This used to be hard against high burst damage or snowbally aggro decks, but it's much easier against more board control oriented decks like Hunter and Rogue that is popular at the moment.
Against control you switch into either using Jaina to win an attrition game, or you try to draw as fast as possible into an Arcane Giants OTK in matchups like Priest where it's more appropriate. This can require drawing down to about 7 cards left in the deck for a perfect OTK (enemy taunts/armor excluded), but often it takes far less than that to win since you are likely to get some random spells that help you out, like Simulacrum.
The advantage of a tempo package over freeze and AoE is that those cards aren't dead against control, and you don't rely on Doomsayers in a meta filled with silence. You also don't rely on combos like said Nova + Doomsayer, so you can run less draw and more value.
My performance with variations of this deck so far is 7 losses from rank 9 to rank 2, mostly due to not drawing Alexstrasza or Jaina against aggro. The win count is around 20-30, not quite sure since again, on my phone writing this.
So if someone is looking for a viable Mage deck that is less one-dimensional than standard Quest Mage, do give this concept a shot. It's not very hard to play, but still provides a lot of variation in what you can do, which win condition to go for.
I tried something like that in Wild, where it is much easier to complete the quest, you can play cards like Clockwork Gnome, Flamewaker and Toshley.
However, there was one very big problem, and I think it is similar in Standard. Tempo-mage is already starved for card-draw, and has to play a very tight curve to get ahead. Sacrificing a card and a mana-crystal in the earlygame to play the quest simply hurts far too much. If you get behind without the freeze-stalls, you are toast.
On and off I've been trying to make a Quest Mage work that doesn't rely on draw and freeze to win the game, and now after these aggro nerfs I feel that it's finally working out. I wanted to share the concept to see what you make of it, but without a decklist because I think the vast majority of Hearthstone players should practice deckbuilding without handholding :) (actually because I'm on my phone and can't use the deckbuilder, could add it later)
The idea is to completely switch strategy depending on the matchup. Against aggro you mulligan hard for typical tempo cards like Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, etc., and you just toss the quest away as well. Your goal is to survive until you can stabilize with Alexstrasza or Frost Lich Jaina, along with cheap Arcane Giants. This used to be hard against high burst damage or snowbally aggro decks, but it's much easier against more board control oriented decks like Hunter and Rogue that is popular at the moment.
Against control you switch into either using Jaina to win an attrition game, or you try to draw as fast as possible into an Arcane Giants OTK in matchups like Priest where it's more appropriate. This can require drawing down to about 7 cards left in the deck for a perfect OTK (enemy taunts/armor excluded), but often it takes far less than that to win since you are likely to get some random spells that help you out, like Simulacrum.
The advantage of a tempo package over freeze and AoE is that those cards aren't dead against control, and you don't rely on Doomsayers in a meta filled with silence. You also don't rely on combos like said Nova + Doomsayer, so you can run less draw and more value.
My performance with variations of this deck so far is 7 losses from rank 9 to rank 2, mostly due to not drawing Alexstrasza or Jaina against aggro. The win count is around 20-30, not quite sure since again, on my phone writing this.
So if someone is looking for a viable Mage deck that is less one-dimensional than standard Quest Mage, do give this concept a shot. It's not very hard to play, but still provides a lot of variation in what you can do, which win condition to go for.
Cheers!
I think Savjz is playing that kind of a deck.
I tried something like that in Wild, where it is much easier to complete the quest, you can play cards like Clockwork Gnome, Flamewaker and Toshley.
However, there was one very big problem, and I think it is similar in Standard. Tempo-mage is already starved for card-draw, and has to play a very tight curve to get ahead. Sacrificing a card and a mana-crystal in the earlygame to play the quest simply hurts far too much. If you get behind without the freeze-stalls, you are toast.
Editor of the Heartpwn Legendary Crafting Guide:
https://www.hearthpwn.com/forums/hearthstone-general/card-discussion/205920-legendary-tier-list-crafting-guide
This deck seems to be a gauarnteed win. You have unlimted healing and prior to that you just use the freeze bull shit and Doomsayer. Right?
I win due to skill and lose due to bad RNG. :D