Hearthpwn

Forbidden Flame - a very versatile card in the deck. It can be used for 0 damage to trigger another Fireball off of your Archmage Antonidas, or just used as removal. A solid card.

 

Arcane Blast - either used early together with Hero Power for 3 damage removal, or combo'd with Azure Drake or Bloodmage Thalnos for 4-6 damage for 1 mana. Pretty good.

 

Babbling Book - one of the more recent additions to the deck. Babbling Book can either give you huge value cards such as Fireball, Flamestrike, etc. Or just an extra spell for your Yogg Count! (For some reason I tend to get Shatter more often than not. Hmm..)

 

Bloodmage Thalnos - a solid card-draw coupled with Spell Power. Use liberally, don't feel like you need to save him for big damage combos or anything, just chuck him out whenever really. 

 

Doomsayer - Pretty standard in control mage decks, since he can be coupled nicely with Frost Nova for a board clear. However! More often than not, I just use Doomsayer against 1-2 minions in turns 2 or 3 on it's own. It's usually enough of a hassle to deal with for the opponent that they Hero Power and let it kill their board. And if they do clear it, it absorbed 7 damage from your face and cost them X mana (depending on how much they invested in clearing it, of course)!

 

Frostbolt - A good spell. Kill stuff or send it face. Regardless, it's a good card.

 

Novice Engineer - Since the deck is built around fishing for Mr. Reno Jackson, obviously card-draw mechanics are going to be required. I usually prefer this card over Loot Hoarder because it draws on Battlecry instead of Deathrattle, so when shit is going bad, you don't need to kill the minion in order to find that card you need. The 1 Attack difference is a small price to pay for an instant card-draw.

 

Loot Hoarder - Draw more cards! The toss-up between using this card versus Novice Engineer is explained above.

 

Brann Bronzebeard - a soft taunt as well as great value from things like Babbling Book and Jeweled Scarab.

 

Jeweled Scarab - 3-drops are great as a Mage. You can get secrets (yay) or Polymorph: Boar. Great value here.

 

Acolyte of Pain - Draw cards! On turn 5 with your Hero Power or just on it's own. Either way it's guaranteed at least 1 card. (Be careful of filling your hand too much though, you don't want to burn any precious cards!)

 

Arcane Intellect - Guess what? More card-draw!

 

Forgotten Torch - Just like his buddy the Frostbolt, the Forgotten Torch is a really solid burn spell. It has the added bonus of shuffling a Roaring Torch into your deck, which is not only more burn, but also puts you 1 draw further from Fatigue!

 

Frost Nova - Stall the enemy board for 1 turn. Or pair it up with Doomsayer for semi-foolproof board clearing!

 

Ice Barrier - since we can no longer use Antique Healbot in standard, this is the replacement. 8 extra health, and the fact that it's a secret which sometimes makes your opponent play weird while trying to figure out which secret it is!

 

Ice Block - Holy shit, you don't die when they kill you! In case you didn't find Reno Jackson in time.

 

Spellslinger - I know, I'm going to get a lot of hate for this one, but I love the card. It sits nicely at 3 mana, which is nice for your curve and it gives you a spell. Sometimes it's a good one, sometimes it's not. But it's still a spell for Yogg!

 

Fireball - Removal. Or face damage. Whichever you prefer.

 

Polymorph - Removal. Don't like Savannah Highmane? No problem, it's now a 1/1 sheep!

 

Water Elemental - a solid 4-drop that freezes stuff. We like freezing stuff.

 

Elise Starseeker - I use this to make control matchups more favorable if I find a lot of control on ladder. However I usually get rid of this if the meta is faster.

 

Avian Watcher - Another one of the new recruits! This 4/7 taunt (because let's face it, you usually have a secret up) for 5 mana is really nice. Especially vs Zoo.

 

Azure Drake - Card-draw. Spell Power. What else could you want in a card?

 

Cabalist's Tome - More spells for Yogg! Also, you usally get some sort of removal or burn, so this helps counter out the fact that we only run 1-of's!

 

Ethereal Conjurer - A bit like Cabalist's Tome, helps negate the drawback of 1-of's. This time letting you choose what you need though.

 

Flame Lance - Solid spot-removal. Use it to kill that Flamewreathed Faceless!

 

Harrison Jones - currently a tech choice because I'm running into a lot of weapon classes on ladder. As well as people running Medivh, the Guardian.

 

Blizzard - A must-have for any control mage. Mild AoE damage as well as a freeze effect!

 

Emperor Thaurissan - This guy is really good. Especially if you want to fit lots of burn into 1 turn. Or make spells cheap for your Archmage Antonidas.

 

Reno Jackson - Ah, the bread and butter of the deck. Not much to say here really, I built the deck around the guy, so he's here for a reason.

 

Faceless Summoner - Good value 6-mana minion. The 3-drop can carry insane value too! (Moroes, Flamewaker etc)

 

Archmage Antonidas - use this guy to get a bunch of Fireballs into your hand. Honestly though, I usually settle for 1-2, since most of my cheap spells are used prior to dropping this guy.

 

Firelands Portal - This card is crazy good. You can get stuff like Earth Elemental, Leeroy Jenkins or Grim Patron from it. 

 

Flamestrike - Yeah you pretty much can't make a mage deck without this card.

 

Alexstrasza - A pyroblast to face and an 8/8 body for 9 mana? Woot. No but seriously, since you're so busy controlling the board, usually you haven't touched their face in the first 10 turns, so Alex will usually deal 10-15 damage. If it's a sucky matchup, heal for 14? Keep in mind that using Emperor Thaurissan on Alexstrasza and a secret means they can both be played for 10 mana total. So a pretty good turn can be Alexstrasza + Ice Barrier/Ice Block.

 

Soggoth the Slitherer - This guy is the real MVP against dragon warrior, face shaman, etc. He's saved my life so many times in the last few days that he's a definite keeper.

 

Yogg-Saron, Hope's End. Some general pointers to consider when playing Yogg: he will probably draw a few cards; he will most likely remove shit from board; he might deal damage to your face.

Since this is a Reno Mage decklist, there will be a lot of options when it comes to replacing cards you don't have. The concept of the deck is that you run 1-of's. This automatically means you run a lot of tech cards, such as Harrison Jones and Flame Lance. These can all be interchanged with what you feel you need. 

 

General replacements that are viable: Sylvanas Windrunner, Harrison Jones, Big Game Hunter, Pyroblast, Ragnaros the Firelord.

 

Honorable mention: Rhonin. Combo'd with Archmage Antonidas he works wonders in control matchups. If you're running with Barnes you could get lucky and get even more value out of him! :)

 

Cheaper general replacements: cheaper cards can be added, just choose which ones serve your needs best. These cards include: Mirror Image, Arcane Missiles, Polymorph: Boar, Cone of Cold, Faceless Summoner

 

Specific replacements:

-Archmage Antonidas: Anton is a tempo card. Find a different tempo (or anti-tempo) card to replace him. Such as: Sylvanas Windrunner / Medivh, the Guardian

-Yogg-Saron, Hope's End: Yes, you can replace Yogg. Look for win conditions or huge tempo cards like Pyroblast / Ysera, Ragnaros the Firelord

-Bloodmage Thalnos: The key here is card draw, and not spell power. That's just an added bonus. So replacements should be Loot Hoarder or Novice Engineer, and not Kobold Geomancer or Cult Sorcerer.

-Harrison Jones: Anti-weapon tech card. Acidic Swamp Ooze works if you want the anti-weapon effect. Otherwise you can go with either Barnes or Elise Starseeker.

-Soggoth the Slitherer: Avian Watcher, Sen'jin Shieldmasta, The Curator.

Matches from rank 10-4. In these games are included, as shown above, the first version which didn't work at all. With version 2.1 I've finally found a place where the deck works wonders!

Updated for September 2016 Season (as of 04/09):

These stats are filtered "Season", which means they don't include matches prior to September season started. We saw less Yogg-Druid and more Beast Druid, making Druid a more favorable matchup this week!

Before I go into specifics there are a few general rules that apply to the mulligan that stay true regardless (or almost regardless) of the matchup. Cards like Forbidden Flame, Frostbolt and Doomsayer are pretty much auto-keep. They will always find value in the early turns against pretty much any opponent, and if they don't, well, at least you have them ready.

 

Reno Jackson is obviously auto-keep, since this is the guy you're mulliganing for most of the time. I also keep Babbling Book in every matchup.

 

Matchups in order of how frequent they were for me on ladder:

Hunter. There are a few different types of Hunter decks out there at the moment. There's the secret hunter, playing with Lock and Load and often times Yogg-Saron, Hope's End as well as the normal midrange hunter. I also found a couple of hybrid hunters that play slightly more aggressive than the midrange version. Regardless of which type of Hunter it is, the mulligan and strategy remains the same.

Mulligan Priority: Reno Jackson > Doomsayer >Frostbolt > Forgotten Torch = Arcane Blast. Don't keep Ice Block and think you're safe, as some Hunters run Flare. That's a risk we don't want to take. 

The gameplan versus hunters is to just remove everything. Kill his board, ignore his face for as long as possible. If you find Polymorph in your hand (after mulligan, don't keep it in mulligan) you should save it for Savannah Highmane. Look to have at LEAST 1 stall card ready for turn 8, such as Flamestrike, Blizzard or Frost Nova. 

I've found Hunters to be a slightly favorable matchup for the Renomage (57%). You DO have answers for literally his first 10-12 turns, it's just a matter of drawing the right cards. Hunters lack card-draw mechanics, so once he's emptied his hand he's going to be playing the "Draw 1 & Play 1"-game. That's where you take over the game with Archmage Antonidas, Alexstrasza etc.

 

Shaman. Apparently, Aggro Shaman is the most popular Shaman deck at the moment. I've found this matchup VERY favorable (68%), as he runs out of steam fast. Just like the Hunter matchup, you do have answers you just need them really early. Same mulligan applies here, with the exception that you should keep Bloodmage Thalnos if you have: a) Reno Jackson or b) Arcane Blast/Frostbolt. This matchup is about trying to figure out what cards he has in his hand. For example, if there's cards that he doesn't snap-play on board they're probably Lightning Bolt, Lava Burst and/or Doomhammer+Rockbiter Weapon. Be careful. Doomhammer will hit for 4, 10 or 16 in a turn. Double Lava Burst will be 12 with spellpower totem.

 

Druid. Tough matchup, mulligan for heavy removal and card-draw. Guide coming soon.

 

Mage. Most likely tempo mage. Saw 1 freeze and 1 reno out of 9 games. Coming soon.

 

Rogue. Miracle, N'Zoth, Reno/C'thun(??). Mulligan for midrange. Guide coming soon.

 

Priest. Control. No risk in greedy mulligan here. Polymorph MVP vs new Resurrect Priest. Coming soon.

 

Warlock. This is zoo, Renolock seems dead. Coming soon.

 

Warrior. Mulligan for Dragon (midrange) Warrior. Could be C'Thun or normal Control. Haven't seen Pirate Warrior in a while. Coming soon.

 

Paladin. Coming soon.

06/09-2016:

Swapped Novice Engineer for Loot Hoarder. No real reason other than I think the 2/1 body trading in early game might compensate for the battlecry vs deathrattle card draw.

 

Swapped Jeweled Scarab for Acolyte of Pain we weren't drawing enough cards, and 1 secret versus 1-3 cards wasn't working.

 

Swapped Barnes for Harrison Jones as most of my matchups in the past 2 days are weapon heavy. And with Medivh, the Guardian appearing in random decks, Harrison kind of makes more sense.

04/09-2016 (1):

Swapped Brann Bronzebeard for Barnes. Brann wasn't giving enough value, whereas barnes has been performing well during today's testing.

The Curator swapped for Soggoth, the Slitherer. Soggoth is performing a lot better in every situation.

Acolyte of Pain for Novice Engineer for instant card-draw.

The deck is now at a place where I feel it is strong against the meta, including both midrange shamans and control warriors which have been an issue during the past couple of days of testing. 

 

04/09-2016:

Changed Medivh's Valet for a Jeweled Scarab.

Stampeding Kodo for Brann Bronzebeard

Medivh, the Guardian back for Archmage Antonidas.

and finally, Corrupted Seer for Cabalist's Tome.

The changes I made yesterday weren't quite working out. Trying this setup instead.

 

03/09-2016:

Novice Engineer subbed out for Medivh's Valet. Card-draw is now less consistent, but the battlecry from Medivh's Valet works really well in the deck and gives the deck a stronger feeling. I think I'm keeping it this way.

Spellslinger subbed out for Stampeding Kodo. I will miss Spellslinger, but I wasn't sure what else to cut for the Kodo. This will have to do.

Archmage Antonidas subbed out for Medivh, the Guardian. I haven't quite decided on this change yet. While I do like Medivh and his weapon, it seems a bit inconsistent unless you happen to have Firelands Portal in your hand. A lot of our spells are so cheap that the Summoning Stone-effect from the weapon doesn't always give that huge value. And I'm not sure Antonidas was the correct cut. We'll see.

Cabalist's Tome subbed out for Corrupted Seer. This is a 2/3 body coupled with a Blizzard-ish. I like it and it synergizes well with The Curator.

Avian Watcher subbed out for The Curator. As suggested by the comments, this change works really well.