Hearthpwn

I think everyone is gonna be playing murloc shaman day 1, and crab could really swing that match up.  If murloc shaman ends up bad the 1/1 seems pretty solid for sure.

I played a very similar list to legend this season 3 days after the expansion, except with sindragosa in place of toki, no pyros, and various tech cards over the keysmiths.  Keysmith is a solid card, but I think it's the weakest part, so I'll take it out for applebaum/tar creeper or another ooze or a geist based on what I'm facing.  There are better defensive tools against aggro, and I just haven't found it consistently powerful.  People tend to only remember the flashiest uses of the card I think, like when you spellbender kings or mana bind a rin seal, but good players usually play around it well.  I haven't really changed my list since the first few days of the expansion, it seems like the best list is already mostly solved.

I think you make some really good points about patience.  The most common mistake I see people make with the deck is feeling the need to play something every turn.  Sometimes you should just pass against slow opponents.  I agree with most of what you are saying, except for your analysis of the tempo rogue and quest warrior match ups.  I think that big spell is probably the best tempo rogue counter out there, maybe 75% against it.  Fr0zen brought the deck to worlds because it farmed tempo rogue even back when it had corridor creeper, and now the mage has voodoo doll and other defensive tools.  Odd only tempo rogue actually has a fighting chance vs big spell, but I absolutely think the mage is still favored if the match up is played correctly.  Odd tempo rogue runs out of resources pretty fast without minstrel so it won't ever really be able to come back from a turn 5 fury like paladin can.  Only way I ever lose is if I don't have an aoe by 6 or if jaina and the other healing is really buried.  Taunt warrior however is an absolutely brutal match up in my experience, with only rin lock and quest rogue being harder to win.  Usually they get ragnaros shot online before mage can apply really any pressure, and their minion game is much stronger so mage has to be defensive in the early game too.  Even sindragosa and alex aren't too scary with execute to deal with them.  Alanna usually gets dealt with easily by brawl or reckless flurry.  None of the other minions generate pressure fast enough to contest rag shot.  Only way I win is if I can get Jaina down before the quest and get water elementals nearly every turn.

Yeah I agree that aggro decks like call to arms paladins seem like a real problem for decks that pass turn 1.  But we haven't seen how the new cards will change things up. 

I'm curious has anyone considered secrets and spellstone at all?  Explosive trap, wandering monster, and spellstone are all great against paladin.  I guess taking out 1 drops would make things inconsistent though.  Maybe there's at least room for a couple of candleshots?

Alexstrasza is pretty good against aggro for stabilizing against after you clear everything.  It also makes fatigue situations better if you are behind on life going in, such as against warlocks.  You can alex them when they get on 4 per turn to make sure a 2-3 card lead is enough to win.

Losing Dirty rat will hurt a lot.  Combo opponents suddenly become way harder to beat.  None of the other loses will do too much to hurt mage I think.  Value isn't the issue against cubelock, it's more about not letting things get out of control early.  Voodoo doll will help a lot in the match up I think for dealing with early giants and doomguards.  No n'zoth will help too.  2 oozes may be required for skull of the manari.  Rin warlock become almost unbeatable unfortunately, since rats can't pull azari anymore.  Hopefully it goes away with the loss of n'zoth and people only play cube.

Paladin looks to be the king of aggro going forward, and that's a really good thing for fans of control mage.  Paladin is very manageable.  Also secret mage is rotating, and it is the worst match up besides obscure stuff like dead man's hand and quest rogue.

It's too early to say though if big spell mage will be good in the next expansion.  It just depends on how the new cards change things up.

Thanks!  I'll work on trying to clean up this post.

 Why are all the spell hunters called "Big Hunter"?  I thought big hunter was the Kathrena deck.

I tried to make it a bit easier to read just now.  I'm not an expert in formatting, and I know it is pretty dense.

Good luck in your tournament this weekend!

It's just that good.  Check out the mulligan win rates for the card on HSreplay if you don't believe me.  One of the highest win rate cards in the mulligan against every class.

I don't really know what I want to add yet.  I don't know how the meta will look.  Flamecallers were a reaction to Dude Paladin, which is common right now, but I don't know what decks I will need to tech for in the future.  I will say that Voodoo Doll looks promising and is worth trying out at least.

I highly advise against taking out doomsayer.  They are way too important against aggro.  I would say ooze, geddon, and flamecaller are the most flexible slots.  Learning resource management with this deck can take time, but I'm confident the deck doesn't need draw if you pace removal in slower match ups.

Thanks!

Sorry I know it's really dense.  Not really sure how to format on Hearthpwn, but I'll try to clean it up a bit.

You are correct.  However,  Big Spell Mage doesn't have a large ladder presence right now, so Medivh is better.  Medivh is great vs Priest and Spell Hunter.

Alanna is still plenty good vs Spiteful Priest, that deck has no burst.  Also Ice Block doesn't prevent fatigue damage, so good players will make it so that you won't be able to alex in fatigue, the damage will kill you on your turn.