[LEGEND] Dragon Mage (Top 500)
- Last updated Jul 4, 2015 (Blackrock Launch)
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Wild
- 21 Minions
- 9 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 6120
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 6/29/2015 (Blackrock Launch)
- user-15776728
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Total Deck Rating
333
Spent the season of June reaching Legend and optimizing a Dragon Mage control deck. This deck has gotten me through rank 5-1 with relative ease and has kept me easily in the top 500 of the Legend rankings. It's an incredibly solid control deck that dominates other control decks such as Paladin and Warrior. It furthermore does an incredible job at outliving the combo decks from Oil Rogue and Patron Warrior. It fairs quite well against Tempo Mage, Zoo Warlock and does surprisingly well against any slower type of Hunter.
The deck features many heavy, big threats such as Ysera, Nefarian and Dr. Boom. The main feature however, is the plethora of sustain abilities due to the use of two Antique Healbots, Alexstrasza and an Ice Block. It does not use Fireballs, Polymorph functions as a better 4-cost removal spell in control matchups and there is no burst in this deck. Lastly, it uses two Flamestrikes due to their importance in matchups such as Zoo Warlock and Patron Warrior.
For a full video guide:
Video Guide Contains:
- Statistics/Win percentages from over 200+ games, global win percentage 65%.
- Match 01: Control Warrior
- Match 02: Zoo Warlock
- Match 03: Aggro Hunter
- Decklist information, justification for card choices
(All accessible with a 'navigation bar' at the bottom of the video)
In general the deck performs best against common decks in this order:
1. Priest/Control Paladin > 2. Control Warrior > 3. Patron Warrior > 4. Oil Rogue > 5. Tempo Mage/Mech Shaman > 6. Freeze Mage/Druid > 7. Warlock Zoo > 8. Hybrid Hunter > 9. Aggro Hunter > 10. Handlock > 11. Malygos Warlock > 12. Aggro Paladin
Two more matches (Zoo Warlock and Patron Warrior):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8LuCjEaMEU
Potential changes:
- Change 1x Sludge Belcher for Harrison Jones for an even better matchup against warriors (and other weapon users, of course).
General mulligan strategy:
Generally you're looking for Mad Scientists and Blackwing Technicians. Against aggro decks you want to mulligan for Zombie Chow. Against slower, more control decks you're looking for Scientist, Technician and Twilight Drakes. When you're up against a deck you know is likely to play threats early (e.g. tempo mage, zoo lock) you'll also want to mulligan for Frostbolt.
Get run over a bit by Face Hunter at times, and of course Agro Pally which as you said is a big problem for it. Otherwise my win rate seems to be close to what you claimed. Thanks for the deck though. Is a lot of fun versus the current meta, even though perhaps it's not the best deck to rank up with thanks to the slower speed games :).
I have every card but alextrasza any card replacement suggestions please?
Is anyone else having a really hard time with the mana curve on this deck? I am really struggling to get the flow of this deck down and a lot of times i find myself with a hand full of dead cards in the early to mid game
Haven't had much of a problem if you follow his mulligan strategy outlined in guide. I will almost always mulligan away dragons since I expect to draw into them within a couple turns (occasionally will keep a twilight). I do sometimes run into problems with the healbots mid game, where I have them and dont want to play them quite yet. If you're facing a lot of aggro, I do think you can replace the Nefarian slot with a card of lower mana cost.
Loving this deck, thanks a lot Haas. A couple random observations..
I have been able to handle any class so far; patron will give me some trouble if I do not draw into a flamestrikes. Usually I am able to deal with their first attempt with the patrons, but then have a hard time shutting them down on their second attempt.
I havent messed with Nefarian yet, subbed in Chromaggus instead since I thought the effect was neat. The 'problem' with Chromaggus is I almost end up milling myself with cards from his effect. Since I am winning pretty convincingly in most matchups by the time you can play such a card, I think this card slot can be subbed with anything you want honestly. I usually always have a dragon in hand (one of the drakes usually), so I dont think you necessarily have to use a dragon legendary.
Love the mad scientist opening. I think most people are expecting a mirror entity secret and play cautious right off the bat.
If you can get a duplicate on a healbot or get two from chromaggus, it is usually game over as you just outlast them and then drop the big guys on them. Big guys usually stay on board for a few turns because they use removal on your twilights or buffed up blackwing techs.
Loving the deck! This crushes aggro and control, but I'm getting obliterated by midrange (especially midrange hunter). Any tips? It seems impossible to stabilize against them...
Fantastic video guide. Well done! I can't play this deck yet (missing Ysera and Alex), but instead will content myself to imagine dragons:
No, damn it -- that's not what I meant!
Hi there. I made a few small changes to this deck that has made it more stable against aggro. I completely agree with you that the deck is otherwise very efficient and extremely fun to play, but I was finding it way too inconsistent in the current meta. Hopefully the deck creator won't mind me sharing these suggestions and maybe he could also comment on them. What I did was:
-1Duplicate, -1 Mad Scientist, -1 Sludge Belcher
+1 Explosive Sheep, +2 Acolyte of Pain.
This is my rationale:
-1 Duplicate: Generally I find duplicate to be a very inconsistent card, and I become overly focused on playing it at the exact right time so that it copies something desirable. The reality is, you have all the tools you need to win any match-up in this deck, without needing to duplicate anything. Furthermore, the mad scientist mechanic very often brings the duplicate out at a time that you don’t want it.
-1 Mad Scientist: Everyone loves mad scientist and I agree that it is a great card – but with only 2 secrets left in the deck now (1 Ice Block, 1 Ice Barrier), it doesn’t make much sense to have 2 mad scientists. One is sufficient. You’re going to be digging deep into the deck in most matches… the chances of you being unable to reach the secrets and the scientist are fairly low. If you’re losing to aggro decks, the game has likely been decided by turn 5-6 – having an extra mad scientist will not solve this problem.
-1 Sludge Belcher: I know this sounds weird, belchers can be fantastic. But they are extremely vulnerable to silence, which all aggro decks run. Having an extra taunt in the deck is not going to save you against extreme aggro. What you need is AoE and hard removal, and to get that, you have to be able to find your flamestrikes, frostbolts and polymorphs faster. Belcher doesn’t help you do this.
+1 Explosive Sheep: This is a great utility card in a deck like this, as it can allow for a board clear early in the game which will buy you some much needed time. It’s also a really good card in Mage decks, because of the hero power – it’s a staple in a lot of freeze mage decks, which have the same early-game objective of stalling. As of turn 4, you can play and detonate the sheep in a single turn, which is huge. Even if you toss it out there without detonating it, it will change the way your opponent is playing. I typically mulligan for this card, unless I’m facing druid, warrior or rogue. You could also consider a Doomsayer in this slot instead – the problem with doomsayer is that later in the game, your opponent will typically have a way of dealing with it, so you might not always get value, whereas with explosive sheep you pretty much always will.
+2 Acolyte of Pain: this is really the key change. As I said, you have all the tools that you need to win in the deck, you just may not have them in your hand. The deck needs more of a draw engine (Azure Drake x 2 isn’t enough). Acolyte is powerful here because Mage can ping it for extra draws. If you play it on turn 3 and your opponent cannot deal with it immediately, you will likely get 2 cards off of it the very next turn (run it into something and ping it, or vice-versa). If you’re able to use acolyte effectively, your chances of having/finding the cards that you need to survive/win go way up.
If you are on a part of the ladder where you are facing a lot of extreme aggro (such as the aggro Paladin deck that has recently caught on, or a ton of face hunters), then I would also recommend either a second Explosive Sheep or a second Zombie Chow. This is a trickier change to make, because none of the other cards in the deck are expendable. I wouldn’t touch any of the dragons or the blackwings. Honestly, the next card that I would remove is Dr. Boom. You’ve got plenty of late game threats. Boom won't help you if you're not alive to play him.
Great ideas- will road test both the original and your modified version.
Edit: your changes are good ideas. I prefer them. The deck feels less static and more able to react with the card draw and the sheep allows 2 or 3 enemy minions to be removed if played well/ and deals with the mirror image spell SO well lol
Cool, glad to hear that. It's still a bit slow for the current meta, but can get a pretty good win rate with it.
Thanks! Glad you're having some success with it...
I'm replacing Alexstrasza with Wisp. So far it's working wonderfully!
Replaced Dr.Boom with 2 Wisp, it's working great!
Can't replace that zombie. This deck is almost impossible vs aggro as is. Zombie helps stabilize early game to draw into heals/secrets
Any possible replacements for Ysera?
I replaced Alexstraza for Chromaggus and I've been getting great results!
I've had a lot of fun playing with this deck, and I totally agree with its strength vs Control warriors, but I'm going to have to strongly disagree with its strength against Priest control. I'm not sure how you managed to beat them all the time and I wish one of your videos was of a priest matchup, but I just get trounced.
Shrinkmeister/Cabal Shadow Priest combo takes my Ysera and I have to blow a polymorph to stop my own Ysera...
Mind Control usually grabs my Nefarian/Alex, Shadow Madness takes the Sludge Belchers.
Double Thoughtsteal just wrecks.
Vol'jin is just annoying.
I'm just not seeing how this deck apparently dominates control priest, because after I use all the tools in the deck, the priest still has more.
Yeah no I fucking really agree. I usually get DESTROYED by Priest control. I've had Ysera taken like you mentioned in the majority of those games. I had one priest mind control THREE nefarions from me.
Overall the win-rate is still pretty good, I'm still learning the deck (probably 70 games in). But I'd rather que into a face hunter than a control priest at this point.
Fantastic deck, I've had a very high win rate since I've started using it. However, I don't really notice Nefarian helping much. Someone else brought up the idea of replacing it with Chromaggus. Thoughts?
Finally got around to making a profile just to say this is one of the best and most fun control decks I've ever played. It also wrecks Patron Warrior, which is always a good thing, because that deck was seriously starting to ruin this game for me. Surprisingly good vs. aggro too.