Hearthpwn

 

 

 

What's up folks? I'm RenoJackson and I always like to mess around with obscure decks to fine winning formulas that others don't often think of. Around the end of every expansion, I'd always come up with something cool, and this time it's Even Mage! It's win/loss was 27-10 from #400 to #80 legend, note that the few first losses were with subjectively worse versions of the deck, so it's actually performing far better.

 

Why Even Mage? Believe it or not, there's many many thing you can put into this deck and make it work. There are actually 3 packages I was able to accommodate into a single deck (The Hero Power package, the Spell Power package and the Elemental package), and the fact they always share a few common cards makes it even easier to integrate them. The hero power synergizes especially well with Fallen Hero, Garrison Commander, Dalaran Aspirant and especially Coldarra Drake (we only include 1 of it since it's a bit clunky). Mage also have access to many powerful cards that were built around spell power like Spellzerker and Cosmic Anomaly (which happens to be an Elemental. The 1 mana hero power works really well for pinging your own Spellzerker and fueling your Dalaran Aspirant to power up your burn spells, Unexpected Results and the Flame Geyser you should get from Steam Surger.

 

Card choice:

 

Fallen Hero, Garrison Commander, Coldarra Drake: The first two cards are really strong cards for early board control. The Commander can ping off the 1/1s to ensure your spell power minions could stick on board so you can aim everything at face. Coldarra Drake is expensive, but is something you should just drop at 6. Like most other minions in this deck, the Drake is a minion that demands answer as it enters, or your opponent will just risk losing the game altogether.

 

Dalarant Aspirant: Amazing card. The fact you it can snowball out of control very easily with your hero power means it's a constant threat. Your opponent needs to remove it or risk 10 damage Fireballs.

 

Spellzerker: Another very good 2 drop. You play it, ping it or bump it into a 1/1 or something, then your Frostbolts suddenly deals 5 damage.

 

Cult Sorcerer: A 3/2 with built-in Spell Power, very solid.

 

Unexpected Results: Good card but the mana cost makes it a bit clunky to go off. Also the results are, well, very unexpected, so you very often get only 4 mana worth of stats even with +2 Spell Power. I only include it as a 1 of for that reason.

 

Elemental Evocation: This card is crazy, but a dead card if you include 2 of them. You can get Surgers on board for only 2 mana or Ragnaros for only 6, but the main reason to play it is to combo with Cosmic Anomaly so you can just start burning their face.

 

Steam Surger & Primordial Glyph: The Surger mitigates the problem of having too many spell power minions but no spells. You only run 4 spells that deals damage in this deck, so Surger gives you an extra 2. Yeah dealing 2 for 2 sucks, but when you have +3 Spell Power on board, it suddenly looks pretty attractive! Glyphs can also give you damage spells or board clears your deck don't have.

 

Pyros: It's an elemental. It's loads of value. It fuels your Surger. It's the best early elemental you can slot into this deck to be honest.

 

Rhonin: I'm not kidding, Rhonin is truly the strongest late game bomb you will ever get to pick for this deck. If your opponent doesn't remove him, he deals 7 every turn. If they do, his Missiles will do like 15~24 damage for only 3 mana. It's very awkward whether your opponent wants to remove him or not. 

 

Cards I'll try out:

 

Molten Reflection: On theory, it looks very attractive to copy spell damage on board or a big drop like Ragnaros or Rhonin. But then again, it's 4 mana.

 

Aluneth: Not sure if that card's good here, we have too many clunky cards.

 

Arcane Explosion: Good card vs aggro. Remember, your spells don't deal just 1 damage, they will very often deal at least 2~3 damage, so this makes the card a very attractive board clear for 2 mana.

 

Water Elemental, Leyline Elemental: Just solid elementals, might be better than Shimmering Tempest. Water Elemental can also stop Rogues, while Leyline discounts Glyph spells and Geysers.

 

Arcanosaur: A strong card on theory, but I'm afraid this card will just nuke your board too often.

 

Shimmering Tempest: I tried both this card and Celestial Emissary and still undecided on which card is better. Sure Emissary gives you Spell Power, but you have to play a spell right after that which makes it much worse than permanent effects like of Cult Sorcerer's. And the thing is you don't really want to hold it since you want to get on board or fuel your Surger, so it's often just a 2/1 for 2. Tempest is also an Elemental and can potentially give you burn, but yeah, it's not excellent either.

 

Frost Giant:  Might be too slow, but Frost Giant has synergy with hero power and is an elemental now.

 

General gameplan:

 

Against Control: This deck usually preys on Control & Combo, except Odd Warrior. Like I said, almost EVERY minion in this deck is potentially lethal. If your opponent leaves up spell power minions, they risk dying to burn, while if they clear spell power minions and leave up things like Fallen Hero and Steam Surger, they risk just dying to minion pressure. Hero and Drake can deal 20 damage for 10 mana, while Hero and Commander can deal 4 damage for 2. You get on board early and chip them down before setting up for burn later on. Just remember to calculate your burn and potential burn a few turns ahead.

 

Against Evenlock: There's a very interesting dynamic here. You should play as aggressively as possible, don't be afraid of lowering their health, but stop before they get too low UNLESS you have Spellbreaker or you're confident you can kill him with burn in 2 turns. Should try to aim face in the early turns and trade away Drakes and Giants with your undercosted burn spells while chipping away his health total.

 

Against Aggro: Face face face. You need to outrace them, you won't be keeping the board for long. If you lose the board too early on though, try to look for cheap board clears from Glyphs and set up a turn where you can clear the board and apply counter pressure.

 

That's it for the guide :) if you have any specific matchup in mind, ask away! I think it might even be better than Odd Mage, should you dodge all the Paladins. Too bad I perfected the deck way too late, not many will care since it's so close to the new expansion. Anyways, have fun and be creative!

 

Check out the deck in action on my Twitch!