Hearthpwn

Overview

This is my version of the N'zoth Reno mage, which I found to be the strongest out of all the Reno mage variants and also the deck I enjoyed playing the most in the history of hearthstone since it fits my control/value playstyle perfectly, each game feels fresh and unique in its own way and the deck offers the potential to be modified in a myriad of quite different ways.

Win condition

Frost Lich Jaina: The unquestionable queen of the Mage arsenal capable of generating infinite value. DK Jaina synergizes perfectly with the wide variety of control tools that we will be running in the deck and potentially with some of our minions as well. Properly set up it stops any aggro and midrange deck in its tracks and it forces other control decks to constantly deal with your Water Elemental and carefully try to play around your hero power.

N'Zoth, the Corruptor: The thing is this card shines over other options like Medivh, the Guardian even though mage is not one of the strongest deathrattle clases and that is mainly because of its multi-purpose impact. The moment old N'zoth hits the board:

• You get a powerful board that threatens a fair chunk of damage and demands an answer
• If it brings back Deathlord, Rotten Applebaum or Sludge Belcher it offers you some protection and sometimes even healing.
• It generates extra value both because the Icy Touch targets and the extra Pyros and Sindragosa's Frozen champions.

Pyros (Occasionally): I've found out that in control matchups (particularly against Warlock), if you play your threats carefully and slowly bait you opponent's removal options the chain of extra 10/10 phoenixes becomes impossible for them to manage.

It's important to understand that your win condition is not the same in every matchup. While overwhelming your opponent with a stream of giant Pyros or Water Elemental might work well against a slow control deck, that plan will never be successful against aggro where you are better off just clearing the board and surviving until they run out of resources.

Identifying the deck you are playing against, its strengths and its weaknesses and playing accordingly is the best way to significantly improve your win rate.

Card explanation

I will organise this section in groups of general utility. Keep in mind that no card has only one possible utility. Also I will not repeat the cards explained in the previous section.

AoE removal

• Doomsayer: Good early on against aggro decks to buy time and also really useful paired with Blizzard and Mirror Image to clear bigger boards.
• Explosive Sheep: Even though it could seem a bad choice that weakens our N'Zoth, the Corruptor it's powerful enough against decks that flood the board early like Paladins or Shamans and an Icy Touch target that spawns a 3/4 Water Elemental in case of need.
• Volcanic Potion: It shares pretty much the same utility niche as Explosive Sheep.
• Meteor: It will often be good enough as an AoE removal that you can play earlier than Flamestrike but consider holding it against decks that run big threats like Ysera or The Lich King if you don't have any other big minion removal in hand.
• Blizzard: It can be used as AoE damage, with Doomsayer or even just to stall one more turn or set up stronger AoE removal in the following turn.
• Flamestrike: held is place as one of the strongest board clears in the game since before expansion were even a thing, no need to explain why.
• Kazakus: Both the 1 mana and 5 mana potions potions can give you very mana efficient board clears and in some cases the 10 Mana board polymorph can save your ass.

Single target removal

• Frostbolt & Forgotten Torch: Good tools at controlling the early stages of the board and potentially useful for burst damage or setting up Icy Touch.
• Fireball & Roaring Torch: Generally better used to remove mid sized minions as bursting your opponent is not your win condition but occasionally could serve that purpose as well.
• Meteor: As mentioned above meteor can be a good option against decks that run some big threats (e.g. Dragon Priest) if no other option is available.
• Voodoo Doll: One of the nicest Witchwood additions to the mage arsenal that helps us deal with big minions, untargetable minions (Tyrantus) and also generates Water Elemental after DK has been played.
• Polymorph & 5 mana Kazakus: There will be certain decks (Big Priest, Control Warlock, N'zoth decks...) If you don't want to deal with the same card over and over save you polymorph effects for the key targets.

Card draw & card generation

This deck does not run a lot of card draw, the only cards that are here specifically for that are Raven Familiar and Witchwood Piper although you could also get card draw through Kazakus. This was done on purpose as you will anyways have a full hand, the deck relies on good resource management and that means that you generally will be trying to use the smallest amount of cards each turn to get the job done and always thinking ahead. This also allows us to play more card generators in the deck which in my opinion makes the deck more fun to play and the games less repetitive, it's not a ranked efficiency oriented decision but not all has to be tryhard. As card generators we would run:

• Primordial Glyph: You will look for the discounted spells that best fit our needs based on the matchup.
• Jeweled Scarab: Mage has great 3 mana options such as Volcanic Potion, Twilight Flamecaller, Frozen Nova, Twilight Flamecaller, Kabal Courier.. not to mention all the secrets. Worst case scenario we get a 3 drop to fight for board.
• Kabal Courier: With Mage, Priest and Warlock as the pool of options we have access to arguably the most prominent control clases through hearthstone history and some of the most impactful effects that one card alone can have (Twisting Nether, Voidlord, Entomb or Confessor Paletres to mention some) and as said with Scarab, worst case scenario we get some minions or mefiomed spells to fight for board.
• Zola, the Gorgon: With a deck of carefully picked powerhouse cards the value this card can generate is undeniable. Extra Kazakus or N'Zoth, the Corruptor are some good example but it's a flexible choice of target from game to game.
• Sindragosa: On average it should give you decent bodies plus two Icy Touch targets, it can also give you game changing legendaries or it could give you Lynessa Sunsorrow (which would still be a target for your hero power).

Survivability

We should be ok thanks to all the removal but on top of that we bring the wall of taunts integrated by Tar Creeper, Deathlord, Rotten Applebaum, Sludge Belcher and Ghastly Conjurer and to offer medical assistance Antique Healbot, Rotten Applebaum and of course, everyone's favorite adventurer/explorer/superhero/richness seer Reno Jackson!

Fatigue Wars

This is of course not a fatigue deck so don't expect to beat Mill Rogue or DeadMan Warrior by fatiguing them every now and then a control matchup will end up in a fatigue battle trying to get the most out of your last cards. In those cases the deck is pretty well suited since we are running few draw mechanism that most control decks and we get 2 extra turns of advantage thanks to Deathlord and Forgotten Torch.

Secret package

The only secret that seems to hold its place in the Reno archetype consistently is Ice Block, which I agree it's a powerful tool, not for its synergy with Reno Jackson but for its counter potential against OtK Combo decks. The problem is that against many other archetypes is not game changing, that coupled with the fact that it's generally run with Arcanologist, which once you draw your only or your very few secrets is just a River Crocolisk, and Ice Barrier, that tends to only be impactful against aggro style decks, made me cut the secret package in favor of some other flavor choices.

Interesting cards to consider

As I mentioned to the beginning the good thing about Reno decks is the wide margin of modifications they allow the player, so I'm going to suggest some cards that could be great additions to the deck.

• Dirty Rat: The rise of Aviana + Kun the Forgotten King combo decks, or decks with powerful battlecry cards like N'Zoth, the Corruptor or Shudderwock wakes this sneaky rodent a win condition in itself, copy it with Zola the Gorgon and enjoy instant concedes against Combo Druids.
• Babbling Book & Bloodmage Thalnos are both card sources in their own way, are cheap and have 1 hp. I like to always run some cheap Icy Touch targets of my own in case you face a combo deck or a clever control player who's not in the mood to help you get your aquatic army.
• Leyline Manipulator: It's a good 4 drop statwise, it's an elemental and it has many targets to hit in a heavy card generating deck.
• Tinkmaster Overspark if feel like you need extra polymorph effects is not a bad option, specially since Cubelocks and Big Priests became so popular.
• Brann Bronzebeard, suggested by AquaticFlames27 is an interesting choice to squeeze more value out of our many battlecries.

I would like to encourage participation and feedback having in mind that the purpose of the deck is being a good deck to successfully play in ladder and a fresh deck with enough interesting options to spice it up. Disclaimer, this is not intended to be the next top tier meta deck to shake legend.

Thanks in advance to all who come and share their opinions!