(w/guide) Vex Crow Tempo Mage
- Last updated May 17, 2018 (Witchwood)
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Wild
- 12 Minions
- 17 Spells
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Tempo Mage
- Crafting Cost: 3740
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/15/2018 (Witchwood)
- SirSalty
- Registered User
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Battle Tag:
SirSalty#21189
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
347
I stream several times a week on Twitch! Come chat :D Twitch.tv/HS_SirSalty
Climbed to rank 75 with this deck. It crushes cubelock and is also great against shudderwock shaman. You see guilty on my friends list? He was rank 3000, here he is 1800 and now he is rank 350 by climbing with this deck.
The best common matchups
1) Cubelock, you can deal damage from turn 1 to about turn 5-7 using minions and some cheap spells. This should make them use the heals that they have drawn and cause them to make some sub-optimal plays. From there they will normally lack pressure and you can burn them down, especially once you draw Aluneth. Make sure to get as much value from pinging as you can, although once you draw aluneth you likely will not be able to ping as much as you will need to have mana to play all your cards. Just be sure to calculate damage and think ahead.
2) Spiteful decks, both spiteful druid and spiteful priest are very favourable. The current lists which run keleseth often don't have enough early game that you can do alot of damage with minions and build a wide board using Vex Crow. Even once they start summoning big minions, they won't be able to gain board control as they will only be able to kill a couple minions a turn whilst the rest of your minions keep hitting face. Just be sure to play around Primordial Drake for druid, and Duskbreaker for priest.
3) Baku hunter, this is a closer matchup and will take a while to learn how to play against it. You should be able to win by gaining early board control and then racing them. The most difficult part is knowing when to hard control the board, and when to go face. Often you can gain a massive board with vex crow, but still lose because you were not aggressive enough.
4) Control Priest, (the one that runs anduin, eg. something like theo's deck). This is a good matchup because they lack early board clear, unless they run duskbreaker or get a very lucky pyromancer, but even then they will have to draw duskbreaker and another dragon and it will likely be their first play of the game.
Generic Mulligan
Vs paladins (assuming you don't know if they are odd, even or murloc)
Best: 2x Mana Wyrm, Arcanologist, Mad Bomber,arcane missles, Sorcerer's Apprentice if going second or have a cheap spell (just think about your curve and what you plan to play when. Dropping a naked apprentice on t2 vs a paladin is generally not very strong though).
Okay: Breath of Sindragosa, Frostbolt (only if going 2nd).
Vs Warlock (hopefully traditional cubelock, control cubelock is not as good as a matchup)
Best: 2x Mana Wyrm, Arcanologist, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Mad Bomber. Aluneth
Okay: Kirin Tor Mage (if you also have Arcanologist), Primordial Glyph (if you have Sorcerer's Apprentice), Polymorph (if you already have a strong curve)
Vs Priest and Druid
Best: 2x Mana Wyrm, Arcanologist, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Mad Bomber, Frostbolt (if going 2nd or have apprentice) Mad bomber is good as a 3/2 contest a 1/3 better than a 2/3 does.
Okay: Aluneth, keep if you have a decent play already.
Vs Rogue
Best: 2x Mana Wyrm, Arcanologist, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Frostbolt (if going 2nd or have and minion).
Okay: Arcane missles and Breath of Sindragosa are okay if you have Sorcerer's Apprentice.
Variations on the deck and replacements
Budget players:
1) Aluneth is a key card and your win percentage will drop significantly if you are playing against tier 1-3 decks without this card. However you can try and replace it with value midrange cards such as The Lich King (if you have him), Cobalt Scalebane, or even value cards like toki, the time tinker or Frost Lich Jaina if you have them.
2) Primordial Glyph. I would highly reccomend crafting this card as it is so versitile and a great card overall. However until you get the dust you can replace it with cheap spells such as 2nd Mirror Image, Flame Geyser, or even Arcane Explosion if you are playing vs alot of paladins.
3) Pyroblast. If you have Archmage Antonidas then add him. If you do I would reccomend taking out a Mad Bomber to add a 2nd Mirror Image so you have more cheaper spells to play with him. If not then you should just add a second Counterspell or a cheap spell and hope you don't come to a point of needing pyroblast (if you play vs alot of cubelocks you will definitely need it).
"Tech choices" depending on meta:
-If there are alot of paladins then it becomes quite an rng based game. I would reccomend taking out the Polymorph and adding an extra Mirror Image. If it is mostly odd paladain, I would also remove the Breath of Sindragosa and add an Arcane Explosion.
-If the meta is cubelock dominated, then I would reccomend taking out one Mad Bomber and adding a second counter spell.
-I am still experimenting so let me know suggestions of tech cards for classes that you like, especially newer decks such as hadronox taunt druid.
-Overall cards worth to consider adding: harrison jones, 2nd mirror image, 2nd counterspell, arcane explosion, knife juggler.
I'm rank 4 with it but I can't climb anymore, I'm facing too much paladins. Good deck tho I destroy Druid, Spiteful Priest and Cubelock.
The only thing is that paladin generates so much board pression so it's hard to win if you don't get a good curve early game
What do you mulligan for against control/aggro?
Against aggro I keep any 1-2 drop minion/1 spell, mad bomber any card that creates board pression in order to have a good early game. Against control I keep explosives runes cuz they tend to drop tar creeper on turn 3-4 and any cheap minion. Dont keep mad bomber unless your playing against cubelock.
I'd say cinder storm is better option than mad bomber, because it gives you bonus minion to Crow, +1 attack for for your Mana Wyrm And it is cheaper with Sorccer's Apprentice.
And I play here Antonidas, because it is great value against control decks. But it is just my opinion.
any replacement for Primordial Glyph, i have everything except that card
I'd say no, it's the best card for spell mage now, I think.
I would definitely reccomend crafting it as it is a great card across many mage decks as it is so versitile. Try adding an extra mirror image and an extra counterspell and see how it goes!
I want to try this deck but i don't want to craft Alluneth.
Is it an important card?any replacment?
No, it's a key card, it enables any kind of tempo mage, because you never run out of fuel, which consists of cheap spells for the crow and cost reducing cards Kirin Tor Mage or Sorcerer's Apprentice
Thanks for the answer mate!
Why Mad Bomber?
2 mana 3/2 that clears your opponent's board or 3 to their face. Why Mad Bomber? Because it's Hearthstone!
It gives you a better chance to win against paladin decks
This deck needs a few early game minions so it can do repeatable damage and put on pressure vs classes with healing ie. cubelock. With medivh's valet no longer around a replacement was needed. As there are alot of paladin's around mad bomber seemed like a good choice. It is also good against kobold librian. Worst case (ignoring times where rng is horrible and it kills your minions), it is a 2 mana 3/2 that does some damage to your opponent and some damage to yourself.
Enjoying the deck so far.
Thanks.
I'm really liking this deck. I took a break from hearthstone so I started my climb at rank 25 this season. From rank 25 to ~rank 16 my winrate was 85%. From there to where I am now (rank 10) I am at 68% winrate. I cut one vex crow to add put in a Curio Collector and that seems to be working pretty well.
OK, so I made the mods suggested and also replaced Aluneth with Azalina Soulthief, since Aluneth tends to fatique you to death rather fast and there's no way to remove it.
The Vex Crow is a powerful card, but the problem is that without protection it's vulnerable to a one-shot kill from Hunter, Rogue or Mage. Also, it doesn't get dealt enough to really be useful.
Verdict: it's still pretty unusable. 20 games played, 10 won, 10 lost; went from a 0-star Rank 20 to a 2-star Rank 19. That's a lot of effort for not much advancement.
Azalina soulthief seems a weak replacement for aluneth. Against cubelock you want aluneth so you can draw all the burn from your deck and play it in a few turns to outburst their sustain (hopefully they used their big heals as defense vs your early minions).
Against other aggro and tempo decks they have a pretty empty hand anyways. The only time I see this card potentially working is against druid, however you would have toget quite lucky as there deck is based around alot of synergies.
Its a tempo deck. If you place aluneth turn 6 and havnt won wo turn 10-12. Game is over anyway.