Hearthpwn

Hey guys, I just hit legend with this variation of the standard tempo mage deck, so I wanted to post it and explain a few card choices. I just started playing Hearthstone last month, and I hit rank 1 with mech mage, but just did not have quite enough time to make it to legend. This month I started out playing mech mage again, but having much less success. I switched to a tempo deck that I built after checking out several popular decks, relying heavily on spare parts and low cost spells to trigger Flamewakers and Archmage Antonidas combos. That type of deck can be great, but much too often I found the deck running out of steam early in the game and losing due to losing board control or going into topdeck mode. I am not claiming to have created this deck, it is just a variation of many common tempo decks, and I believe it to be more consistent on ladder, and cause me way less rage, and I wanted to share it to hopefully help some other mages hit legend!

Most of this deck list is fairly standard tempo, but with this deck and several tech choices I was able to go from rank 5 to hit legend for my first time. When I first was putting this deck together, I knew right away that I didn't want to include Archmage Antonidas; although it is a great card, for a tempo deck I feel that it is too reliant on getting a decent number of spare parts, small spells, the coin and/or Emperor before it can be played effectlively. Not only do you not have to worry about setting up Archmage combos, but by removing him it also frees up room in the deck by being able to cut Clockwork Gnomes and Mechanical Yetis.

With the extra space in the deck, I looked at the weaknesses I was facing in the ladder at around rank 5. Most of my big losses came from hunters, warriors, warlocks and even other mages. With these classes being heavily popular on ladder (in my experience), I looked for ways to help counter these classes without changing too much in the deck.

My first decision was to include 2x Kezan Mystic. I was initially using only 1, but too often I would find that I couldn't draw into it or have it in my opening hand when facing hunters and mages. Furthermore I have lost several games in the past due to being held hostage by hunter or mage secrets that would be fatal to trigger, and slowly lose control of the board by being unable to clear the secret or draw a Mystic. With 2 Kezans, I much more consistently am able to draw a Kezan Mystic when I need it, and I almost always keep 1 of them in hand when playing against hunters/mages. It can almost win the game against face hunters and can save alot of pressure against mages. Even when not facing hunter/mage, they can be an asset because I often find that druid/paladin decks run Kezan and you can just steal your secrets back. Worst case scenario, it has the same stats as a Piloted Shredder for 4 mana, which I cut from the deck to make room. So often the shredders just get silenced or give me a terrible minion from their deathrattle. 

A second weakness I wanted to cover was against Patrons and Zoo locks. This is where I put in 2x Flamestrike to help counter. Against Zoo, the key to my wins have been to maintain some semblance of board control as long as possible, and if I make it to the later turns, Flamestrike can lock down games against zoos. Against patron, the game is generally slow in the beginning anyway, so making it to flamestrike time is easy. at that point, just wait until a Patron is on the board and destroy hopes with flamestrike. I have won many games against patrons, sometimes after they have burned through their whole deck, and Patron clears via Flamestrike is how it is done.

Running a counterspell and 2 mirror entities often provides such strong tempo gains, as well as baiting out poor plays because they think it is always mirror entity like so many mage decks.

To sum it up, this version of the deck I have found to be much more consistent than other variations. I went from rank 3 to rank 1 without losing a game. Maybe just lucky, but this deck has been great so far. If you have any questions or comments feel free to let me know. 

Thanks!