Hearthpwn

Mana curve is too high. There are no proactive cards until you reach 4 mana; and even then, it's only sandbinder. This deck is pure greed and will lose to anything with even a hint of aggression before you can start cranking out your big guys.

It's a control card, not an aggro card. Mage lacks a lot of good early AOE effects. If control mage ever becomes a thing again, I think this secret will fit right in.

In what world would you need to do 6 damage to anything on turn 2?

More like Savannah LOWmane, amirite?

The decks that I hated to play against got neutered, and the decks I like to play were untouched and will be more viable in the meta without Combo Druid/Kingsbane/Shudderwock ruining the fun.

So yeah... pretty good.

Remember Big Priest and Machine Gun Priest? When Priest is good, the meta sucks. I'm okay with it being the dumpster class.

As a Mage-only player, I kind of prefer it when Mage isn't top-tier. I don't like playing the same uninspired netdecks that half of the ladder is playing. I like to theorycraft and homebrew my own stuff. Mage has been doing alright for me in that regard.

I've got, like, 6 different BSM decks that I've been tooling around with; Regular BSM, Keleseth BSM, Odd BSM, and elemental/non-elemental versions of each. The archetype isn't even in that bad of a spot right now. It has a positive win-rate overall, It hard-counters most aggro decks, and the only thing it really struggles against is Shudderwock.

I miss the hell out of Ice Block, though...

FLJ is my fave card ever. Aluneth is powerful, but I hate the types of decks that it goes in.

Handbuff Paladin is back on the menu, boys!

Just kidding... it will see about as much play as the Grimy Goons cards.

What are the options for mage these days?

• An average control deck that gets out-valued by other control decks
• An average aggro deck that gets out-tempo'd by other aggro decks
• An inconsistent combo deck that is more likely to lose to its own card draw than anything else

Meanwhile: Combo druid gets bonkers cards. Rogue will probably be able to do some broken stuff with its new legendary spell. Warlock and Paladin could probably get by without making any changes, but some of the new cards might increase their power slightly.

Mage didn't get any support for its current archetypes, and it doesn't look like these new cards are going to be bringing anything new to the table.

This is what I wish Wild was all the time. Instead of all old sets, restrict it to a few different sets and see what new things people might come up with.

Step 1: Play control deck

Step 2: Play Skulking Geist

Step 3: Win

Just came back here to tell you that I recently got to Legend with your Reno Mage variation! (thank goodness I got matched up with a more manageable Quest Warrior, rather than another perfect curve Pirate Warrior opponent)

Managed to Kazakus + Soulcaster + Echo of Medivh (from Glyph) on Turn 9, and then later used the duplicate Soulcaster on Nzoth. :D 

Was a little scared at first when I saw the Warrior finally play Dirty Rat, but thankfully it latched onto a duplicated Elise.

Thank you so much for the card choice guide and your recent feedback! I look forward to seeing what Reno Mage variation you come up with for the coming expansion!

Apart from the Welcome Bundle, I haven't spent money on the game since TGT - I've had no trouble "keeping up" with the meta-game. About one-third of all cards released will actually see regular play on ladder - collecting 45 playable cards from each expansion isn't exactly an onerous task. Playing every day will net a player over 2,000 gold each month - about 80 free packs for each expansion. Four hundred cards will net a complete set of commons, a complete set of "playable" rares, about fifteen epics, and four or five legendaries. Dust from duplicates, gold cards, and trash epics and legendaries will allow any player to craft a couple legendaries, and a few epics. There is a thread on hearthpwn for people looking to mine the "Play a Friend" quest - it resets every 10,000 posts, and is currently on its fourth or fifth iteration. It's the easiest way to mine gold - one game, win or lose, and earn 80 gold. I've made about two dozen friends at Fireside Gatherings - I get two or three PaF requests each week, for about 800 gold. That's another 32 packs for each expansion - a couple more legendaries, and a handful of epics. If you want to collect every card, you can't as a F2P player. If you want a complete collection of playables, it isn't too difficult - I have every card I want from the past two years, apart from Chillmaw, Fandral and Elise.

I broke down the lists from popular streamers and metagame snapshots on twitter here.

This is how the cards spread out across the various lists:

And this is how the decklists look without the 16 core cards:

Thank you, bro! Advices are very very nice!