Hearthpwn

Hi friends!

Welcome back to part two of this budget deck series! I had some great feedback on our priest deck (which you can find here) and I've been super excited to get back into things!



Today's deck is Secret Mage, a wonderful archetype with a core of strong cards. For those of you who missed the last video or need a refresher, here is my criteria for the series.

Criteria:

• No set dust limit.
  We don't want to set an arbitrary number to go by, but still be conscious of how much we are spending and provide downgrade/sidegrade options when available. We also want to generally steer clear of Epics and Legendaries.
  
  
• Focus on the CORE of a deck.
  Let's define the absolute necessities of the deck. Identify what the strongest cards are and build around that.
  
  
• Have a reasonable upgrade path.
  Using budget versions of existing archetypes provides players with the ability to spend more dust to have a 'complete' deck. This way, if someone enjoys the deck or has more resources, they get more bang for their buck!
  
  
• Prioritize cards that aren't rotating.
  A new season is almost upon us and it's a smart idea to avoid crafting those year of the kraken cards. We want our dust to go long AND strong!

Now let's take a look at the core of Secret Mage!

The Core:

2 Mana Wyrm
2 Arcanologist
2 Frostbolt
2 Medivh's Valet
2 Counterspell
2 Explosive Runes
2 Kirin Tor Mage
2 Fireball

As always, check out the accompanying video for a more in depth chat about the cards. The odd one out here is Medivh's Valet as it is about to rotate. If you are really struggling for dust, feel free to leave it out!

The Notable Exclusion:

Cabal Crystal Runner

The major sacrifice we make for the budget is one of the deck's best mid-game tempo plays. Having played with and without, you can really feel the difference in power level! If you have these in your collection or want to spend some extra dust, craft them up! Just be warned, you won't get to use them for long.

Meat on the bones:

1 Cabal Lackey
2 Sorcerer's Apprentice
2 Arcane Intellect
2 Firelands Portal
2 Cobalt Scalebane

Once again, check out the video for some more in-depth talk and a few suggestions on other possible inclusions. Definitely some room to move here, particularly if you want to get a 5th secret in there.

Flex slots:

1 Acidic Swamp Ooze
2 Twilight Flamecaller
2 Spellbreaker

This is the combination of flex cards I came up with! As always, I recommend you tailor this to suit what you are facing on the ladder. For me, dude paladin was everywhere and Twilight Flamecaller seemed like a reasonable way to combat that. If you're after some more consistently strong cards, Dire Wolf Alpha or Water Elemental are great budget inclusions.

Feedback:

Think this deck is too far out of your budget? Got some card suggestions? Had some good/ terrible luck with the list? Let me know! This project will be ongoing and I'm always looking for ways to improve.

I'm also looking for suggestions on the next deck for the series! You can hit me up here on Hearthpwn or at Twitter.