Archmage Antonidas
Card Text
Whenever you cast a spell, add a 'Fireball' spell to your hand.
Flavor Text
Antonidas was the Grand Magus of the Kirin Tor, and Jaina's mentor. This was a big step up from being Grand Magus of Jelly Donuts.
Card Sounds
AHÃ
Eyyy it's Tony Fireballz. He's probably won me more games than any other class Legendary, with the possible exception of Tirion. Great card, all around, and very satisfying to use.
Archmage Wintonidas
There are some who call me.... TIM
You're damn right I require your assistance.
I bought the bundle pack today and I got this card for free as well as getting a Tirion Fordring from a booster pack so today been a good yday
My first crafted Legendary :)
My first packed one
Opened normal one and 10 packs later the golden one. that luck
#luck http://prntscr.com/bqyzhl
that would be just terrible if that was the case no one would play him as much and who gets 4 apprentice
You're taking away that one and only advantage mage has against warrior
Well, you could get it in Magic Mirror I suppose... That would be awesome, because you'd end up with double Antonidas, too!
Phewh. Finally I have free time that i can spend on reviewing. Archmage Antonidas review is starting.
Well, today i have backstories. When LOE came out, i wanted to access Entomb jsut becaus of Mech-mage and Tempo-mage meta. They carried Archmage Antonidas that time. I was so happy when i got it. There were numerous times when I entombed enemy Archmage and then finished them off ith him. He basically became my win condition in mage matchups. Yes, opponent's card as your win condition. Hillarious. Also, there were often times when mage could get 1-2 Fireballs from his Antonidas, but i could get like 3-6. Archmage Antonidas, 2x Power Word: Shield, Flash Heal. His Fireballs had been spent by the time stolen Archmage appeared. Ehh, love that card. Note: Casting Mind Control on Archmage Antonidas won't give you a Fireball.
I dont thing reviewing stats of this minion is nessessary. He could easly be like 3/3 for 7 and still be playable due it's effect. Yes, 5/7 can trade with few minions, but who cares when you can get Fireballs for like every card in our hand? He is usually played in tempo mage or decks with bunch of cheap spells like Mirror images, Arcane Missiles, Arcane Blast and so on, so when you drop Archmage Antonidas you get 1-3 Fireballs for every spell you cast. That is overwhelming, because your weak spells turn out into powerful removal. If Archmage survives, you can get numerous removals, so game will be over for your enemy. When a mage has 7 firaballs, nothing can stop him. The more value you squeeze out of Antonidas, the closer you to win the match.
Emperor Thaurissan is great with Archmage Antonidas. You either discount him + spells to turn into flaming inferno, or you discount Fireballs to play 3 per turn. 24 damage for 9 mana should be enough to take down your opponent pretty soon. if you discount few spells twice - you can get like 5 magma spells in one turn. Combine this with spell damage an you get insane burst. COnsidering that mage usually damages face in early game as well, it may be enough to finish the match with victory.
Not forget to mention "the Exodia deck". This kind of deck involves Archmage Antonidas, Emperor Thaurissan, Sorcerer's Apprentice and duping spells like Duplicate, Echo of Medivh. So the point of this deck is get Archmage Antonidas + 4x Sorcerer's Apprentice on the board, so you can cast Fireballs. THis is infinite power source, so if you manage to do this, you basically become The Death Star. You can destroy every single minion on board, you can destro your own face, enemy face. Just whatever you want. These decks are now in wild mostly, or in some Tavern brawls. In standart it's kinda impossible to realise.
Another synergy that is rarely seen and rotating out soon is Archmage Antonidas + Rhonin. You drop the second one just to let him die and get cheap spells to convert into powerful ones.
In some situations you can drop Archmage Antonidas and play secrets like Ice Block, Counterspell, Spellbender. This will confuse your opponent, because if he goes face and you dropped ice block - he is going to let Tony live, which is deadly for him. if he kills him - you at least get 1 fireball and 7 mana creature. If he tries to deal with him with spell, it gets blocked with the secret. So even a bad situation may turn into your favour just because of confusion.
If you play against priest, try to bait his Entomb. Same with shamans with Hex and other classes with powerful removals. He is good in control matchup, but against aggro and zoo he is mostly slo and helpless. Unless you stabilised after early game. At this point you can win pretty quickly by throwing fireballz into face. Anyway, Archmage Antonidas is a very dangerous threat against any deck, and if you cant stop him right away, you may lose in fe turns. Never drop Antony with no spells in hand. Tempo drop doesnt worth sacrificing of such insane combo card.
In conclusion i would say that Archmage Antonidas is a staple card for mage that is worthy to be crafted. NEVER dust it if you get it from a pack, even if you think you aint gonna play mage. If you get golden version - do not dust either. just imagine: constant Golden Fireballs in your opponent face! Such beauty... Unless you really need dust for other live-bending legendary. If you plan to play mage, have top tier neutral legendaries, you may consider crafting Tony, because its very powerful and unique card and it is in expert set, as well as cheap spells to be combined with him. New sets may bring us new spells, Antonidas-compatible.
If you've enjoyed reading this review, follow me in my profile to stay tuned and check out my other observations(Links):
The Expert Set:
Neutral legendaries: Onyxia | Baron Geddon | Malygos | Deathwing | Bloodmage Thalnos | Cairne Bloodhoof | Leeroy Jenkins| Harrison Jones |Sylvanas | Ysera | Ragnaros | Alexstrasza | The Black Knight
Class ones: Al'Akir the Windlord | King Krush | Cenarius | Edwin VanCleef | Archmage Antonidas | Tirion Fordring | Jaraxxus | Prophet Velen[Remastered in 26.10.2016] |Grommash Hellscream
The Whispers of the Old Gods Set:
Neutral legendaries: N'Zoth | Soggoth
Other Sets:
| Kel'Thuzad | Arch-Thief Rafaam |
My forum thread(Link)
Ayyyy thanks for the review :) btw, you might wanna edit your comment; on your 8th paragraph you said Shamans use Polimorphy; it's actually Hex. Might confuse some new players.
Finally crafted him! Been waiting so long for this sunuva!
Very strong and very useful for every mage deck. Saved my ass so many times. If the rival cannot remove this immediately he/she auto-loses the game. (I love his song as well :), strangely He has the same theme song with Tirion Fordring..weird.)
TO BOTTLE!
The new Ragnaros, Lightlord is not even close to how bad Anomalus is, though :(
both paladin and warrior got a pretty sick new class legendary, priest got a crappo one