Hearthpwn

Hey everyone! After my successful rank 5 climb, I decided I would post my decklist for my Big Spells Reno Mage I used for the majority of my laddering this season. In around 30 games, I went from rank 12 to 5, refining the deck as I went. I love mashing up different archetypes and the Big Spells archetype slots in so naturally with Reno that it made sense to do so and was a blast to play. Let's talk about the components and later I'll get into matchup tips, mulligans and substitutions.

Big Spells Package

One of the most interesting archetypes to arise lately, big spells mage uses huge tempo swings to get the upper hand on the opponent. I've found that it's more effective against aggro/midrange than control, offering multiple clears until your opponent is exhausted of resources. Here are the key cards:

Spiteful Summoner: A heavy-hitter in this deck. Even if it hits a spell of cost 5, it's still well worth the 6 mana you're paying for it. I've high-rolled Firelands, Flamestrike and Pyro several times with it, which can be difficult for your opponent to deal with.

Arcane Tyrant: An amazing swing card which we need to stabilize the board state after blowing mana on expensive clears. It's also an elemental which can help provide synergy with Jaina for lifesteal.

Dragon's Fury: An absurdly massive clear for the mana cost. There is no chance of hitting for anything less than three and it often hits five or more. If you use a deck tracker, you can keep track of which cards you've drawn to make sure you use this when you know you'll hit big. Just be sure to use it before you run out of spells in your deck.

Cabalist's Tome: Helps for generating necessary low-cost spells that we can't include due to anti-synergy. The wild card pool is fairly broad, but extra freeze and secrets are nice to get from this.

Blizzard: An excellent stall card, especially against classes like paladin with lots of weenies. Can be lifesaving for stalling boards of giants or whittling them down before a Dragon's Fury. If you can, try to combine it with Doomsayer but don't count on it always being a possibility.

Meteor: I don't even understand why this card is allowed to be in this game. The damage it can put out is absurd for its cost. It doesn't always need to be saved for a big minion so use your judgment on it.

Flamestrike: Typical mage clear.

Firelands Portal: An excellent single target killer for targets like Spiteful Summoner, Naga Sea Witch, the Ghoul from UI, that divine shield lion and Kabal Crystal Runner. You can make amazing tempo plays as well from casting this with the Medivh weapon and following up with Arcane Tyrant.

Pyroblast: Occasionally useful as a "surprise" finisher. Gives high roll chances to Dragon's Fury and SS. Often I find myself using this to get a big minion out of Medivh in tandem with clearing a big threat.

Medivh, the Guardian: Since most of our spells are pretty big, we get nice high-rolls off this weapon. Although it seems lame, you can also use it to bring a 2-health minion to 1 before a Frost Lich ping. There is virtually no weapon destruction in wild so you're pretty safe playing this on curve.

Dragoncaller Alanna: An absurdly awesome legendary. This is fantastic for when you've baited out the AOE's from your opponent and is mostly immune to Dragonfire Potion. If you're in a position where you know you won't die next turn, it can also be worthwhile to use this to counter an opponent's decent-sized board. I highly recommend crafting this. Note that spells that have their mana reduced still count toward this proc.

Reno Package

Reno Jackson: The king himself. This card is one of the main reasons to play a deck like this in wild instead of standard. Many of the aggro decks can't handle the reset provided by him, and he can even be a game-changer against control decks who catch you offguard. Works well in tandem with Ice Block as you can bump yourself right up after getting it popped.

Kazakus: Not only are the potions really nice, they also count for your big spells. Unless you're about to die, never take a 1 mana potion. I almost always take the 10 cost spell as the mass poly saves your life against paladins, big priests and all types of warlock.

Inkmaster Solia: For some reason, everybody rips on this legendary as being terrible. However, it is an absolutely incredible card in this deck. Although the cost reduction doesn't synergize with Arcane Tyrant, Arcane Artificer or Medivh's weapon, playing a 10 mana potion 3 turns early, getting a 5/5 for free with Flamestrike, or finishing an opponent with a surprise Pyroblast makes her definitely worth it.

Survivability

To stay alive to make use of all of the nice synergies, we need spells and minions to keep us topped off and protected.

Frost Lich Jaina: A necessary card for this deck. In addition to keeping you up on health, it gives you continual value throughout the game. If you ever have a turn where you can safely drop this, do it as soon as possible as the hero power is absolutely insane. This is one of your main ways of healing.

Ice Block: A staple in any control mage. Eater of Secrets sees play in wild still (I've had my block eaten 3-4 times over my 30 games) so this might be a card to cut if you're seeing those too much. For the matchups where it doesn't get eaten, it's an invaluable tool so you'll have to make a meta call based on what you're seeing. The downside of it is that it low-rolls your SS and DF, but Arcanologist helps to mitigate that chance. I've found this invaluable against the vast horde of maly druids I've been facing lately.

Arcane Artificer: Often ends up being 1 mana to heal 5-7 health with a 1/2 body. What's not to love? Don't bother saving this for a huge moment as it can often be worthwhile to just drop it when you have a spare mana before a spell. Against combo decks, you want to save this for right after they pop your Ice Block. It pairs really well with some of your AOE spells.

Mistress of Mixture: Anti-aggro healing to help our early game.

Doomsayer: King of clears or just a fantastic stall tool early game. In control, try to get a combo with Blizzard. In aggro, drop it early on to stall their tempo and clear a minion or two. It can also be a nice empty board play, especially before turns where you want to do something big (Frost Lich, Dragoncaller)

Explosive Sheep: Another form of clear to help against aggro, particularly pally shields before a bigger AOE.

Twilight Flamecaller: Not the greatest card in general but invaluable in a meta where 50% of matchups are dude pally.

Tar Creeper: One of the best early game taunts available.

Deathlord: Perfect for anti-paladin. Terrifying against warlocks. Also useful for countering some combo decks like Exodia mage, Exodia pally or Maly druid.

Dirty Rat: See above.

Polymorph: Absolutely essential for all of the bullshit that warlocks are pulling off right now. Pick your target wisely. Voidlords aren't terribly difficult to handle over time with your multiple clears so it's often better to save for Mal'Ganis or a lone cube. You can also make big priests cry by morphing their Barnes pull.

Acidic Swamp Ooze: The ladder is infested with pallies. Although the 3/2 weapon isn't that daunting, it still saves 3 damage most times. I only seldom end up seeing a warlock use the legendary weapon or a mage use Alun'eth so use your discretion when deciding whether this card is worth including. The 3 mana version of this card that gives armor is also a possibility.

Skulking Geist: Go to hell, Jade Druids. Some priests are going with Inner Fire again and warlocks have Doom Pact so this has some application elsewhere but is mostly there to satiate my rage against Jade as they accounted for two of my early losses. As I've played more and more, Maly druid has become far more prevalent. This card removes two of their burn spells as well as Naturalize (which can be very problematic) and Raven Idol for generating more burn. I would highly recommend including this card based on my experiences.

Volcanic Potion: I would normally say this is a terrible idea in Big Spells but it's just so necessary to deal with paladin right now. I'm cutting this the second the meta slows down.

Draw

This deck needs to find alternative sources of draw since Arcane Intellect is a no-go. I rarely find myself needing a lot of draw as with all of the spell generation and waiting to case bigger spells, my hand is often fairly full.

Babbling Book: This sucker fits nicely when you have a leftover mana crystal. Also a nice ping target for Frost Lich. Not much else to say. Is currently out of the deck due to anti-pally tech cards. Re-add in control meta.

Kabal Courier: I love the card generation as you can get some very nice options out of this. It can be hit or miss so this is a card that might be worth cutting. Is currently out of the deck due to anti-pally tech cards. Re-add in control meta.

Coldlight Oracle: Dual purpose of burning warlock cards and drawing like a fiend. Can be a nice bait against paladins if you know you can clear the next turn. Is currently out of the deck due to anti-pally tech cards. Re-add in control meta.

Acolyte of Pain: Tons of draw packed into one card.

Arcanologist: A controversial pick but one that I felt was necessary. I always mulligan away Ice Block and try to snag this. That gives me a value draw card and allows me to put in a nice defensive tool without worrying about low-rolling too often. Feel free to cut, but I'm hesitant to do so.

 

MATCHUPS AND MULLIGANS TO BE CONTINUED

Mulligans and Strategy

Paladin:

 

Warlock:

 

Potential Additions

Zola the Gorgon: Really cool card that I will probably add if the meta switches to a more control-centered. It is amazing in conjunction with Dragoncaller, Reno, Kazakus, Medivh, Inkmaster, and Spiteful. The only hesitation is that it can be slow and slow gets you killed at times.

Sindragosa: An insane value card. I had it included for awhile and it won me one or two games, but more often ended up being a dead card in my hand.

Plated Beetle: Nice for combating early aggression while providing proactive healing in the form of armor.

Antique Healbot: I had forgotten that this card existed. I feel like it could be a nice addition but a dead card in a few matchups.

Bloodmage Thalnos: I ran it for awhile but it's often too expensive to combine with any spells. The card draw is nice but I don't find it super necessary.

Mad Scientist: It is often imperative that we pull Ice Block from our deck. The issue I have with Mad Scientist is that it doesn't guarantee you'll get a secret out ASAP like Arcanologist can. People will occasionally silence your scientist or let it stay on the board. Arcanologist has none of these problems and even has better stats. That being said, Mad can often be a better tempo play. Your choice.