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PROOF OF LEGEND:

Up until the Undertaker nerf that took place during the last few days of the January I was feeling pretty "bleh" about my performance last season.  From about the 13th of the month up until literally the last day of the season I was pretty much stuck at the Rank 4-6 range.  I was bouncing around from deck to deck not really being able to decide on anything in particular, and I even built a Pirates deck which performed terribly taking me from Rank 4 to Rank 8 in about 2 hours of play.  

Then Blizzard nerfed Undertaker, and I started miraculously winning...a lot.  I logged in on the last day playing Mech Mage and found myself winning around 70% of my games from Ranks 5 to 1 (Getting from Rank 1 to Legend took a little while, I ran into some bad RnG and some tough matchups).  I was a little surprised, surely the Undertaker nerf couldn't have made Mech Mage this viable on ladder right?  After thinking about it though, it made perfect sense.  

Mech Mage was solid prior to the Undertaker nerf, but it wasn't "great".  It had problems against decks like Zoo and Face Hunter, or basically any deck that could amass a large amounts of Deathrattle minions after playing an Undertaker.  These Undertaker decks could generally "go under" your slower Mech Mage deck and kill you before you could really get board control.  These Zoo decks and Face Hunter decks, or anything else that attempted to use the tried and true Undertaker+Death Rattle strategy are almost completely gone from ladder now after the patch so these bad match ups just aren't there anymore.  Doubly, since these decks are gone, it positions Mech Mage as these as the fastest aggro deck in the format.  When I call this deck an aggro deck I use that term a little loosely, because unlike a lot of aggro decks it has some great midrange and late game as well.

Playing Six One Drops:

While this Mech Mage list is pretty similar to a lot of Mech Mage decks one area where it really stands out is the number of 1-cost minions that it plays.  Most Mech Mage decks only run four one drops, but I can't stress enough how important it is to play six.   You want to come out of the gates fast with this deck and running 2x copies of Mana Wyrm, Clockwork Gnome and Cogmaster ensure that you are able to do this.  

No Harvest Golem:

We have to make room for the extra 1-cost minions, and this is done by cutting Harvest Golem.  While Harvest Golem is a good card and very mana efficient, it isn't that aggressive, and aggression is what we are going for with this build of Mech Mage. 

Unstable Portal:

I have been on the fence about this card ever sense GvG came out but I have finally come to the conclusion that this card is actually really solid.  While the RnG factor is likely to turn a lot of players away from this card you simply just have to look at it from the standpoint that on average Unstable Portal is going to get you a minion that is just that, average.  Since you are paying 2 mana for Unstable Portal, and the minion you are getting cost 3 less, you are getting to play the minion you receive for one mana less than normal, thus making this average minion good instead of average.  For every time you get a terrible card like Stonetusk Boar you will get something awesome like Sneed's Old Shredder.  Also, this card pretty much ensures that you always have some sort of out in your deck, and makes it impossible for you to be drawing dead in almost any situation. With a stroke of luck you can always hit that random creature that will turn the game around.  Because of this, you should almost never concede when you are playing this card in your deck.  You generally want to play Unstable Portal later in the game when you have extra mana available and you also generally want to play it before you attack incase you get a minion that will buff your other minions. 

Dr. Boom:

A lot of people are opting out Dr. Boom right now and replacing him with other cards like Piloted Sky Golem because of the amount of play that Big Game Hunter is seeing right now, but I think it's still right to play Dr. Boom.  In my experience it will only get hit by Big Game Hunter maybe 10% of the time, and if this card sticks around until your next turn then your chances of winning are going to increase dramatically than if you didn't play Dr. Boom at all.  Sometimes Dr. Boom can be coupled with a Time Rewinder to make extra bombs, which is a lot of fun to do and is very powerful.

Spare Parts:  

If you can, try to save your spare parts for the same turn that you play Archmage.  You usually want to do this on turn 8 or 9 and put a couple of fireballs in your hand before you pass your turn in case they have a way to deal with your Archmage.  Finicky Cloackfield and Archmage are obviously work great in conjunction with each other.  Spare parts also work great with your Mana Wyrms.

Using The Coin and Mechwarper Properly:

Playing Mechwarper on turn one is not always the right play.  Honestly, most of the time it is the wrong play.  You want to ensure that you get value out of your Mechwarper so a lot of times you will want to play it on turn 2 with a coin and another mech to avoid just playing it on turn one and having it get hit by Wrath, Dark Bomb, etc...Be very careful with the way you sequence your Coin and Mechwarper early in the game.  You want to get an explosive start, but you also don't want to walk into a trap.

Snowchugger:

Snowchugger is really strong right now in the current meta.  Druid is the most popular deck on ladder and it makes them not be able to attack with their hero power.  Paladin is also very popular and it shuts them out of their equipment.  The same goes for Rouge and Warrior, although they aren't that popular at the moment.

Mana Wyrm:   Mana Wyrm is arguably better than Undertaker now.  It's basically Undertaker with one more toughness after the patch.  

The Current Ladder Meta:

Currently on ladder I am facing a lot of Druid, Paladin, and Mage.  The Druid decks are your basic ramp decks and it is probably the most popular deck on ladder at the moment at higher ranks and legend rank.  This makes sense because Druid is really consistent and now it can't get overrun by Undertaker.  I've been going about 50/50 against Druid with this Mech Mage deck.  Paladin control is pretty popular right now and I've been beating it about 65% of the time.  There are a few Mage variants being played, the Swiss Army Knife Mage which plays a lot of different cards and has a pretty diverse game plan, Fatigue Mage, Freeze Mage, and of course this deck.  I've been beating Freeze, Swiss Army Knife, and Fatigue Mage about 70% of the time and going 50/50 versus the mirror.  Warrior isn't that popular right now, and I think it's because it's main role in the meta was keeping the cancerous Undertaker decks in check, and since Undertaker is basically gone now this role doesn't need to be filled.  The only deck that I have been losing to really is Handlock, but I haven't been running into it much.  My win % against Handlock is only around 25%-30%, but every deck is going to have a bad matchup.  I've been beating Rouge around 75% as well.  I've been crushing Hunter.

Why Play the Deck:

I was playing this deck before the Undertaker nerf but I couldn't get past Rank 5.  Two days after the nerf I ran this deck up to legend during a power session.  Ranks 5-1 were pretty easy, but like I said Rank 1 took some work (as it should).  This is obviously indicates that the deck performs well in the current post-Undertaker climate.  If you like playing cancerous aggro decks then this is about as close as you can get to that style of play at the moment.  If I had more time to play at the end of the season I feel like I could have easily ran this deck up to Top 100 Legend.  The only reason why I would not play this deck is if I were running into a lot of Handlock on ladder.    

Some Tips On Climbing Ladder:

My biggest tips for climbing ladder is to first make sure you eat before you play, and make sure drink lots of water.  Also there is a lot to be said about not eating crappy food when you play, you just think better when you eat healthy (I.E. don't hammer back a bunch of double cheeseburgers from McDonalds and then be surprised when you feel like crap and play like it too).  Frustration can be your biggest enemy when you are playing ladder, and if you find yourself getting frustrated just take a little break, go for a walk, go hang out with some friends for a little while, do some chores around the house, anything that will keep your mind off Hearthstone for a little while. 

I hope this deck serves you guys well!

CHEERS,

KRUPS