** Highlander Mage - Zephrys Revenge **
- Last updated Aug 7, 2019 (Saviors of Uldum)
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Wild
- 20 Minions
- 10 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Khadgar Mage
- Crafting Cost: 20940
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/7/2019 (Saviors of Uldum)
- AsherWare
- Registered User
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- 2
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Total Deck Rating
19
This is the highlander Mage deck I've been running on ladder around Rank 7 (EU) with great success.
It's shown no signs of slowing down and doesn't seem to have any hopeless matchups and many strong ones.
Zephrys the Great is an extremely strong card and this list is designed to be able to play him more than once in slower matchups.
We achieve this by either Getting another copy with Barista Lynchen (hopefully with some other strong Battlecry cards on the board although Zephrys the Great is strong enough to copy on his own) or by the combo of Archmage Arugal + Sandbinder that will either draw you Zephrys the Great and a copy or Siamat and a copy or Mountain Giant and a copy.
Zephrys the Great is usually the preferred pull but I think you will agree that drawing two Giants or Siamats is never going to feel bad.
Reno the Relicologist has seen some mixed responses from the community but is still a strong option here, and can clear token boards or a big threat on his own and often get you back in the game if things are going wrong.
Your hand is often quite full with a lot of cards replacing themselves or drawing so Astromancer is another strong choice in this deck and can be a great target for Barista with whatever it summons.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy was hopeless at 7 mana but is now a very playable card at 5 and if you're up against a slower deck it's often worth keeping off the mulligan if you can play it on 5 without being too far behind then your opponent is in for a really bad time.
Conjurer's Calling is a completely busted card. I think it would be viable without the Twinspell keyword. It's that strong.
Giant is the preferred target but with a lot of big minions in this deck don't be shy about throwing it down on anything that costs 6 and above if you haven't drawn your giant.
Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron is a super fun card that can swing a game or finish a stubborn opponent on its own.
With the Naga Sand Witch , we can reduce our Pyroblast ,Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron, Blizzard and Flamestrike by slapping a 5/5 body for 5 on the board. With big spells, the Sunreaver Warmage is an easy include and stays active after the discount.
That's an incredibly good deal and a huge discount that can swing games.
Arcane Keysmith: I don't think I've played this once without it giving me the Flame Ward option. Bye, bye aggro.
Vulpera Scoundrel This card is bonkers. Has impressed me a LOT in the games I've played. You can find really useful spells off of it and it has been fantastic in all the games I've played with it.
Matchups:
Warrior: Something has to go badly wrong to lose against Warrior. They can't cope with this deck.
Priest: The quest priests I've played just get overwhelmed before they can get online and start fighting back usually. This deck is swing play after swing play.
Shaman: The Shaman quest is NUTS and this is a tough matchup but in no way unwinnable. I'm around 50/50 with the ones I've played against.
Druid: Another very strong quest for Druid but this deck should be favoured
Warlock: We have a lot of zoo control options here so unless they go lackey mad with their quest this is usually favoured.
Paladin: The reborn decks I've come up against are a pain, as they can create very sticky boards that spiral out of control quickly but again, it's far from unwinnable.
Hunter: I haven't seen a ton of them on the ladder but I think this deck can keep up with their aggression.
DISCLAIMER:
These are EARLY days in the meta and this deck is expensive. Don't go wasting all your dust if you don't have a lot on this deck since you should wait for the meta to settle first.
This deck will probably stay competitive though if I had to guess. It had a lot of aggro tools and insane value in the long game.
It really doesn't have a lot of weaknesses even with the one of restriction. There are some really strong cards this expansion (and a lot of them) which makes Highlander decks very viable.
If you have the cards or dust to burn though, this is one of the most fun decks out there. Good luck!
I don't know, maybe I'm playing the deck wrong or something but I can't beat warrior. Currently 1-6 against warrior.
Change Arugal on Pocket Galaxy and thats would be great deck ever
what you think is more important Khadgar or Luna's packet galaxy for mage decks nowadays ?
I tend to prefer Lunas because Khadgar is nice but how many times you pull off that combo?
"This deck will stay competitive." Yes, Rank 7 deck sounds very competitive.
And it's still doing fine at Rank 3....
ive tried this deck for 2 days , i love the highlander decks from before ,, but the reno mage decks at the moment with the cards available now are just too slow ,, all fast aggro decks destroy this deck and quest pally , quest shamen , quest priest , control warrior wreck it , its just too slow at mo .
Are you sure we're talking about the same deck?
I have over 80% winrate against Warrior. Basically I rejoice for a free win whenever I face Warrior. The few quest Priest I face in ladder are easily dealt with too with this deck. If you'd said Quest Rogue and Secret Hunter, I'd have had to say you might have a point.
If you think it is too slow, take out some of the cards that make it slow and replace them with quicker cards.
Alexstrasza to Stargazer Luna, Tortollan Pilgrim to Frost Nova are some suggestions that come to mind.
As far as Matchups are concerned: Against Warrior, don't overcommit too early. Most Warriors run 2x Brawl, 1x the new Destroy all damaged minions card and maybe 2x warpath. So never have more than 3 minions on board, unless you're contesting for the board. You can easily summon bigger minions than he can and cheaper. So just hold your cards until he runs out of options.
Quest Paladin is tricky, I try to go for Reno, Meteorologist and Blast Wave. But if I see Arugal, Khadgar, Zephrys or Vulpera Scoundrel, I keep them to play early (you don't need to rely on them to generate more value, but your enemy will target them as high priority targets, which helps you prolong the game until turn 5 or 6, where you can start winning).
Quest Shaman I cant speak to, I've only faced 2 shamans on ladder, won a game, lost a game. My intuition tells me that you can overwhelm your opponent easily with your minions, as Shaman lacks good removal. Yes, he has Earthquake, but that will empty his board too. And he has many small minions, you have many big ones. So unless he has a 2 turn lethal, push for the face.
Quest Priest is really slow. Unless the have great draws, you will always have bigger minions than him on the board. As many decks on ladder have wide boards currently, they will choose to run board clears rather than single target removal. Just keep adding big minions and push em. If you see a favourable trade that prevents the priest from healing his minions, I take it. Otherwise I just freeze or destroy the board and go face.
Quest Hunter is quite a challenge if they draw well early. And it is difficult to gauge when the time to play Reno or removal has truly come. In general, I finish half the games before the hunter was able to complete his quest, and those games are usually favourable. If you dont draw any decent removal before turn 6, things can turn sour pretty quickly.
Quest Rogue is usually not that much of a problem, as the 3/2 Hero Power will not be enough to remove the 5-12 Health minions you can summon every turn. I try to go for cheap cards in this Matchup, so the board is not too wide once turn 5 rolls around. So Zephrys, Arugal, Khadgar and Vulpera Scoundrel. That way I can usually stay in the game and then start turning a corner with the usual suspects: Reno, Meteorologist, Blizzard.
i just would remove Arugal and Blast Wave, the rest seems great!
at last, a proper wallet mage list.
а что так мало легендарных карт,давай больше.
Is Reno worth crafting for this deck? I don't have it or Barista but I was going to run Colossus of the Moon because i've found it to be super sticky and annoying for people to remove. I've been looking at the Highlander decks and between this and the Brann deck those seem to be the only two viable decks.
Yes, definetely worth crafting. If you don't have it, your deck will lack board control. Reno is great for cleaning up the board and flipping rhe board state.
As for Barista replacement, I'd reckon Colossus is too slow and heavy. it will sit in your hand and be useless in half your games. Probably it's better to replace it with a Messenger Raven or maybe Stargazer Luna.
Reno is actually quite strong as a clear but not absolutely necessary to play the deck. Out of the two, I'd craft Barista because the value generation can be extreme (and she fits in a lot of decks.) I've made a few adjustments to the deck taking out Khadgar (really good card but very much win more) and Arugal (same deal) and replacing them with Flame Ward and Khartut Defender (this card is really nuts) and have been having great success so those are some substitutes you could make if you are short of dust.
if you dont put reno, why you play highlander? Reno is the only reason the deck become highlander.
I just went 12:1 in the Brawliseum with this deck, and I'm a pretty average player. Only change was replacing Barista Lynchen, which I don't have, with Magic Trick, which seemed to work fairly well.
The only loss was to a Murloc Paladin that was just too quick for me. Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron saved me from another Murloc Paladin and a Quest Paladin - such an amazing card, particularly at 5 mana.
Thanks a lot for sharing this deck.
I disagree with you on every count. :D Are there suitable alternatives? Sure. But all of these legs are valuable to the deck archetype and felt very useful when I play them. The deck you are building towards is much more aggressive, and I reckon you wouldn't even need to do a singleton deck. Just stick to burn mage, as you said you played before.
Your playstyle seems to be tilted towards the aggressive, whereas my goal is to win by turn 20. The current meta allows for this slower style currently. Many decks I face on ladder are not straight aggro decks. Mage, Paladin Warrior are all kind of slow.
With this in mind:
Archmage Arugal is useful as bait on turn 2, as opponents will want to remove it quickly. Later it is great when you combine it with Luna's Pocket Galaxy or Arcane Intellect. Gives you really sweet combos your opponent usually cannot foresee.
Luna's Pocket Galaxy is just a plain solid choice. Given, it is hard to find the time to play it facing aggro, but in all other matches it will start pulling its own weight 2 or 3 turns after you played it. It is just important then that you can stall the game long enough until you outvalue your opponent.
Well how can we stall the game then?Siamat is awesome for that. It's a 6/6 Taunt Divine Shield to slow the opponent. If there's 2 big minions on the field, Rush and Windfury can take care of them. Just one minion? Rush and Divine Shield has you covered. I never play this card aggressively. Siamat is there to bring me back when I fall behind.
So the last thing we need is value.Barista Lynchen has got you covered. 4/5 at turn 5 is decent enough to play and keep you in the game. so the question just is, how much value can you manage to squeeze out? Zephrys the Great , Vulpera Scoundrel,Reno the Relicologist and Meteorologist are all great single targets to copy. But having a 1 mana copy of a minion and then copying multiple of these insane battlecry minions will easily swing a game in your favour. Would definitely miss Barrista in the deck if she were replaced.
Kalecgos is insanely strong as you can get additional removal, freeze, card draw or a Conjurer's Calling. It often helps you get that one additional turn that you need to get lethal.
Alexstrasza is just an added bonus and generally strong card. Usually with Reno the Relicologist and Meteorologist along with Blizzard, Flamestrike you can easily delay until turn 9, where you can potentially use it defensively. I tend to not use it that way though. Oftentimes, opponents will overcommit to the board when you drop below 15 health. With the good removal options this deck has, you can oftentimes empty their board and put some stats on your side. The next turn you can Alex for a 2-turn lethal, or in some games have direct lethal ( 1-Mana Alex to 15, from turn before Reno for 4, 5-mana Pyro for 10, Heropower for lethal). Really satisfying.
Generally speaking, I agree with your sentiment, that many legendaries dont make a deck better. All of these cards are situationally great though. So unless there's a better alternative, I would not throw these out just because.
I made several changes to the deck that I discuss in the video, but basically they were taking out the Barista, the archmage, the keysmith, the sand witch, AND Khadgar (although thinking about putting him back in) for King Phaoris, the golden scarab, the messenger raven, stargazer luna, and frost nova. I think these changes allow the deck to function more consistently, have better early plays that keep me alive rather than very slow combo builders that get me blown out by aggro but beat control a little harder, and just feel smoother cause I have more cards I can play sooner. Happy to discuss all these changes with anyone who wants hope you all enjoy the gameplay, the base deck was very good.
Mana curve is too high. There are no proactive cards until you reach 4 mana; and even then, it's only sandbinder. This deck is pure greed and will lose to anything with even a hint of aggression before you can start cranking out your big guys.
Nope. I've had a lot of success against aggro with this list. Went from 7 to 3 over the last couple of days. Murloc, zoo and Hunter lists with over 65% winrate. Keysmith on 4 literally always gives you a clear for aggro, Zephyrs gives you an answer and coin blastwave is another clear. Vulpera is also extremely strong against aggro.
The whole point of this list against aggro is the comeback game. They can do damage to you early but you have turn after turn after turn of clears until they can't keep up. Some VERY fast lists with the nuts draw can get you but them getting you down to to 15 or 10 by turn 4 or 5 is not a big issue when they are completely shut out of the game until you zilliax, alex.
The mana curve is high but the comebacks are overwhelming. Play the deck first. This has a positive winrate against the popular aggro right now.
I've also found that the new quest shaman doesn't do too well against this deck and warrior auto dies to it. As I said, try it.