Hearthpwn

Hi I'm Talaria, I play regularly at high legend and I've been refining tempo Mage for a while now through every season. If you have followed this guide for since Karazhan came out you will have noticed that the Blizzcon lists closely resemble what I had been playing for a while then. I don't think the Blizzcon lists are the best tempo mage lists. This list should do better. I will share with you my stats each month and the list that I've finished the season with.

Edit: changed back to 2 Cults and 1 Explosion. I believe its just better to have that extra AOE and cheap spell dmg to combo with because we have more card draw anyway.

Follow me on twitter for more updates: https://twitter.com/TalariaHS

Upvote or comment if you would like a better text, I don't mind writing this for the community but it takes time and so I will only update it once I feel like I can spare the time if I am not asked to do it.

Most updated stats on the deck: October 2016

 Insane winstreak on September 30

Introduction

This is a tempo deck, which means you want to use your mana to affect the board state as much as possible. For example Azure Drake into Arcane Blast on a Blackwing Corruptor is a tempo play: for 6 mana you have put a 4 mana (stat-wise, 4/4 with 1 spell damage is an Ogre Magi) creature on the board and removed another 4 mana creature.

Decklist and card replacements

I will prefix the cards in the deck with a '+' and the card not in the deck with a '-' following each one with a short explanation.

Core: 2x Mana Wyrm, 2x Sorcerer's Apprentice, 2x Arcane Missiles, 2x Arcane Blast, 2x Flamewaker, 2x Fireball, 2x Arcane Intellect, 2x Frostbolt, 2x Azure Drake. — I will not discuss the core.

+ Harrison Jones: The Shaman weapon is a problem, specially by the time they can play Azure Drake. This increases the WR vs Shaman while giving you a good chance at beating Secret Hunters (an unfavorable MU otherwise). It also performs well against Control Warrior and you have enough threats in the deck to give them a hard time. If you can cycle your whole deck, you can more often than not win vs CW. — Replace this card with Babbling Book or Barnes if you don't have it / if the meta becomes less weapon-heavy.

+ Bloodmage Thalnos: This card is worth running because your minions are usually very weak (Cult Sorcerer has 2 hp) and this makes you vulnerable to cheap removal and will prevent you from gaining tempo. Druid for instance does this very well and is usually favored against tempo mage if all we run is 2-hp minions. This having 1 health means your opponent will likely try to hero power it down which still costs him 2 mana. But hand size leads to more powerful turns and cycle accelerates the pace of the game, and these two are more important in most match ups than the bigger body of Cult Sorcerer. — Replace this card with Babbling Book if and only if you don't have it.

+ Cult Sorcerer: Some retards will tell you this card isn't good enough but if you're smart you don't listen to retards. This is better in some situations than Sorcerer's Apprentice and sometimes you want to drop Apprentice first because if it doesn't live you can still use the spell power from the Cult, while sometimes you want to drop Cult first — eg going into a Rogue's turn 4 means you probably need the Cult in hand to make sure your Frostbolt removes the Tomb Pillager, while going into his turn 3 might mean you want Sorcerer's comboed with Frostbolt to remove SI 7: Agent. 3/2 is a fine statline for a 2-drop and when you compare it with Bloodmage Thalnos you're paying a card for +2/+1 in stats which is fair because Thalnos can just be pinged away and this card can be comboed with spells for immediate value while representing a threat that your opponent can't deal with unless he spend a card — which makes it about as good as Thalnos.

+ Firelands Portal: This card is both board and burn. The average value is good and the fact that it  often trades 1 card for 2 allows you to fight for card advantage which is important when you're trying to grind out a game or saving cheaper spells to lethal your opponent. Sometimes its good to just burn their face for 5 and it increases the deck's reach which is important in slower match ups. — Don't replace this card or you end up with a different deck.

+ Ragnaros, the Firelord: It has charge, it doesn't trade, your opponent has to deal with it and all you have to do is set up the stage for the arrival of the firelord. He likes to go face.

+ Emperor Thaurissan: Your handsize will often be good enough that this card has too much value to pass, and spellpower Flamestrike, Arcane Explosion or a handfull of spells with Flamewaker and Apprentice become incredibly powerful with Emperor. — Don't replace this card or you end up with a different deck.

+ Acolyte of Pain, - Cabalist's Tome: Here's why, Acolyte + ping costs 5 mana and draws you 2 cards (one in your turn) while Tome generates 3 spells. 2 cards from your deck have the advantage of accelerating the pace of the game, bringing you closer to your win conditions, but they are also more powerful than 2 random spells because you don't play bad cards in your deck. This deck runs 4 high value cards, which means your hand size is almost never going to be so low that you need to make suboptimal plays like 3 random spells from Tome. The advantage of Tome is that it always gives spells and it gives them immediately whereas with Acolyte you have to wait until next turn to draw more than 1 card, so that you can sometimes use them for higher value with spell synergy. But you also have the option to drop Acolyte for 3 and Acolyte puts a body on the board which your opponent has to deal with, sometimes using 1 card while giving you another, which makes Tome even less compelling as a tool to gain card advantage because then you can gain 1 card while your opponent loses 1. My argument is that there is no way 3 random spells outweigh the value of accelerating the pace of the game, drawing at least 2 good cards, putting a body on the board and potentially trading it with a card from your opponent. — Don't replace this card or you end up with a different deck.

+ Forgotten Torch: Games are not ending by turn 7 in this meta and we have enough card draw in the deck to warrant running a bad card (3 mana 3 damage) for the sake of drawing a really good one and increasing our reach by 6. — Don't replace this card or you end up with a different deck.

- Mirror Image, + Arcane Explosion: The fact that this card is playable in almost every turn and costs 0 with Sorcerer's Apprentice while protecting you from Spirit Claws and adding Flamewaker / Mana Wyrm synergy just makes it a little bit more consistent than Arcane Explosion, but with the increased card draw, cheap spell power and Emperor Thaurissan I believe Arcane Explosion is too valuable as a tool to grind out the board-centric match ups. — Replace Arcane Explosion with Mirror Image and cut Harrison Jones for a Babbling Book, Barnes or Water Elemental if you do so.

- Yogg-Saron, Hope's End: Yogg is good, but this deck does not serve Yogg. Often you don't hit a good enough spell count and Yogg will be very underwhelming. I prefer to run Flamestrike and Ragnaros the Firelord. You will often have to play your hand and find yourself topdecking lethal because there is no Yogg to refill your hand but that's why we have so many high value cards. — Don't play Yogg in this list.

Replays

vs Shaman

Replay #1: Apprentice into Mirror Image opener with Coin

Replay #2: Winning vs a good Shaman opener - note that if Arcane Explosion had been Mirror Image I would have pinged on 3 and played it together with Apprentice on 4. 

Replay #3: Grinding out a close game

vs Druid

Replays

12/08 with 1x Conjurer and 2x Firelands Portal