Savjz #1 Legend Reno Mage
- Last updated Dec 7, 2016 (Gadgetzan)
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Wild
- 15 Minions
- 15 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Reno Mage
- Crafting Cost: 11520
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 12/5/2016 (Gadgetzan)
- Savjz
- Pro Player
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Country:
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Tournament Decks:
33
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Ladder Decks:
853
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Well this deck has certainly gotten popular! I made it as I couldn't find this exact deck from one of Savjz's clips. All credit for the deck goes to Savjz, I shall just attempt to do a quick write-up!
Reno decks as a standard are played with the late game in mind, spend the early game fighting for the board and trying to stop those pesky aggro decks (ahem Pirate Warrior) from overwhelming you too much early.
Try and get the most value out of your mana, try and plan a few steps ahead so you don't waste removal on a turn before a Flamestrike for example.
Mulligans
Aggro: You should be trying to pick up your cheap removal spells like Arcane Blast, Frostbolt, Forgotten Torch, Forbidden Flame and Volcanic Potion. Make sure to keep a hold of Doomsayer and for weapon classes don't forget to hold onto Acidic Swamp Ooze.
Control: Against control keeping onto some early removal isn't too bad an idea, but you can be a bit greedier and hold onto cards like Arcane Intellect, Polymorph and Kabal Courier.
Mage Cards
Forbidden Flame - Removal at any point of the game, scales over time.
Arcane Blast - Combos with Bloodmage Thalnos and Azure Drake very nicely.
Babbling Book - I really like this card in control mages, and Pavel put it to good use at this year's Blizzcon! Can be combo'd with Brann.
Frostbolt - 2 mana, 3 damage and a freeze, need I say more?
Arcane Intellect - Great card to keep early vs control matchups, helps you get to your Reno faster and provides decent card draw.
Forgotten Torch - Decent early removal and shuffles a second cheaper Fireball into your deck.
Frost Nova - Good for holding a board of Jade Golems at bay and can be combo'd with doomsayer.
Ice Barrier - Gives you sufficient stall to extend those games vs aggro.
Ice Block - Works very well with Reno Jackson as it gives you a safety net to rely on, so you don't have to worry about if they can kill before you can Reno.
Manic Soulcaster - Great card to shuffle a second Reno Jackson or Kazakus into your deck, can be combo'd with Brann if you get a tick over Emperor on Brann, Reno or Manic Soulcaster.
Volcanic Potion - Great early boardclear to get rid of totems or to ruin zoo's day.
Fireball - Best card in the game.
Polymorph - Great for getting rid of Raganros, Sylvanas or Ysera.
Water Elemental - Fantastic card vs aggro and weapon classes.
Cabalist's Tome - Take a spin at the casino and roll for some new cards!
Blizzard - Great for halting a board of Jade Golems or clearing those pesky totems!
Firelands Portal - Nice tempo swing removal.
Flamestrike - Speaks for itself.
Neutral Cards
Acidic Swamp Ooze - Great card for stopping Pirate Warrior and Secret Hunter, though can be used to remove Ashbringer and Blood Fury
Bloodmage Thalnos - Don't get put off by the stats, +1 spell power and deathrattle card draw are some insane bonuses for a 2 mana card.
Dirty Rat - Quite possibly my favorite card from Mean Streets, I've plucked Reno Jackson, Jaraxxus and Alexstrasza from so many people. Combo with Mind Control Tech or Flamestrike to get some people salty. Ideally you want to use this as part of a combo, so don't mulligan for it.
Doomsayer - Great at soaking up damage or if you get lucky, removing their board. Can be combo'd with Blizzard or Frost Nova.
Brann Bronzebeard - Used to combo with the several battlecry minions spread over the deck, use your imagination!
Kabal Courier - Find that extra removal, or a second Ice Block.
Mind Control Tech - Very good vs aggro and can be used with Dirty Rat if they are trying to play around Mind Control Tech.
Kazakus - New card from Mean Streets, design yourself a spell which has crazy effects, can be quite powerful and swing the game in your favor. Versus control matchups I don't tend to choose card draw as it means you will fatigue first.
Azure Drake - This is like the bigger better brother of Bloodmage Thalnos, staple in any deck that uses a lot of removal.
Emperor Thuarissan - As you generally have a large hand, Emperor enables 10+ mana combos previously impossible. If left on board can snowball out of control and outright win you a game.
Reno Jackson - Staple of the deck, combo with Manic Soulcaster for another full heal.
Alexstrasza - Can be used defensively and offensively if you are ahead on board and have some removal left in hand you can turn into face damage.
Alternative Cards
Arcane Missiles - Can replace Arcane Blast
Cult Sorcerer - Can replace Bloodmage Thalnos
Flame Lance - Can replace Forbidden Flame
Ethereal Conjurer - Can replace anything really it's just a good card
Inkmaster Solia - This is nice card that fits into control mage well
It is merely impossible to win against jade druid, the only chance is to get sheep + ressurect spell from kazakus, but you have to be very lucky, otherwise you just get swarmed with golems. having so bad time against them.
In other match ups this deck is pure fun and is really enjoyable.
Try and save some burst, Alexstrasza them while you have ice block up and finish them off.
Granted it's easier said than done, but you can win some of the times. And don't hesitate to go all in on board before them. I'm not saying it's a good match-up but it's not unwinnable.
Every deck has it's "Achilles Heel". Even Midrange Shaman has unfavorable matchups. No single deck is going to dominate every other deck. The best that you can hope for is that you teched well against your bad matchups, and that you draw favorably and find your win condition before they do.
Jade druid is an inevitable loss the longer the game draws out. So you have to play more aggressively. Also, they lack decent board clears/ removal. Basically, the match comes down to a decent Kazakus turn, and hoping that they don't start the Auctioneer/Idol train too early.
the burst this deck can generate is underestimated, some games I end up getting 2 extra 6dmg spells, a pyroblast and 2 kazakus potions, if u anticipate that u can burst a deck without heal like jade druid while you freez his board... It's not as easy as pulling a turn one ptp but it's possible ;)
You gotta choose your side mate!
I am destroying almost all decks with this one. Except with other control decks were we both go to our last cards and its just luck then.
I am also using Arch Thief Rafaam from LoE. His spells can be combined very well with Inkmaster. He is 70% of my wins with this deck my win condition. If I am sure that my opponent doesnt have any other AoE left I will use the Zombie Artifact, if I have some minions left and one of them survives to the next turn and is able to attack I will use the 10/10 Buff from Him. I've just got my self a 18/18 Arcane Golem and won a Warlock who had 14 health. Even a Jaraxxus couldnt survive it. If your opponent has a a lot of hp you can use the buff after you get him to 15 health with Alexstrasza. Sometimes you have to be patient with this deck. Snipe the small minions, AoE them and keep your best AoE for the late game. Frost Nova+Doomsayer can be a win win against a druid since their removals are limited
I played quite a s**t ton of games with this, maybe over 100 by now. Sure I misplayed here and there, but this deck feels so underpowered by everything else in the meta. I'd say it's easily tier 3, maybe tier 2.
It gets out-valued by renolock (which is a frequent matchup), gets sometimes beat by pirate warrior if your hand is nothing but 6 and 7 drops, and gets destroyed by idol druid (also common). Regarding priest, I've found that Drakonid Operative tends to pull stuff like Reno Jackson, Thaurrisan, Kazakus, or some other high-powered cards from my deck CONSISTENTLY. It wouldn't bother me if it were one or two times, but it happens so much that it's starting to get irritating. The other reno-classes (Priest and Warlock) easily outvalue just about everything in this deck. It doesn't matter how much of the game you know, your opponent has cards that are simply better.
For example:
Kabal Courier vs. Drakonid Operative. Drakonid Operative is better in every way. You get better choices and better stats.
Flamestrike vs. Felfire potion. Sure you can say that both heroes take 5 damage, but this doesnt matter when they have Juraxxus, Refreshment Vendor, and Reno in their deck.
Flamestrike vs. Dragonfire Potion. This is basically a better version of Felfire potion. If they're running a dragon deck this is a cheaper AND better (in terms of value) than flamestrike in just about every way.
Though regarding Idol Druid and Pirate Warrior, you will lose very, VERY quickly if you get a bad starter. You simply have no chance beating Idol Druid. I've beat very few of them, and the ones i've beat were running beast Druid and not Idol druid. The one game I managed to beat idol Druid was where I got extremely lucky in my Firelands portal and managed to pull a Grim Patron (It was amazing at the moment).
Against Shamans, you will simply get out valued half the time. Removing a 4 mana 7/7 is easy once, but later when they drop 0 mana 5/5 and and everything else, it just gets impossible.
Paladins are good machups. Survive the early game and the rest tends to be easy as long as you're smart with managing what cards to keep.
Overall the deck is alright, though the title is misleading. Savjz did NOT get to rank 1 legend with this deck, and climbing with a slow deck like this is hell. I stayed in the rank 12-14 range the whole time because I any win streak was killed by Idol Druid or bad RNG. Was hoping to hit legend with this, but i'm starting to lose hope considering all the other decks are simply better.
Honestly, I have to agree. I've been trying very hard to climb to legend with a variation of this deck and it's miserable. I played easily 100 to maybe 200 games. The highest I got was rank 4. Reno mage is by far the weakest reno deck. I will say this. I highly recommend taking out dirty rat and mc tech for something more immediate. You hardly ever draw enough cards to get both of the combo pieces in your hand, and they're pretty weak cards against aggressive lists. Also, don't even bother teching against jade druid.
In the hope of not being completely negative, I've heard of a few people actually reaching legend just playing reno mage. I don't if it's luck or them being very skilled, but I doubt most people will share that success.
Right, except the thing with this deck is that Savjz didn't even post it nor refine it. He just made it in two seconds while he was rank #1 legend and the guy who posted it here wrote a misleading title.
Is Medivh or Prince Rafaam a good card for this deck? Princes artifacts synergize well with Inkmaster
the 2 of them seems decent value choices, but the cards already in can hardly be replaced... value will not be your problem while playing the deck but board control :)
I played a few rounds with the deck today and wasn`t that successful on rank 4: 2-2 in the end. The games were all really close, but IMO Renolock and Reno Priest are still stronger than the mage!
See the two close loses here: VOD Savjz Reno Mage
Youtube-Player:
Took out Mind Control Tech and replaced him with Elise Starseeker. This deck is probably the best Reno deck when it comes to beating Aggro, but against Control, the lack of win condition hurts.
Vs control, always brann Kazakus and Rat when they doomsayer! vs Renolock you'll win either by burst or fatigue!
Played a few games and suddenly realised that I have no idea what is the win condition of this deck. There is a lot of ways to survive against almost anything your opponent can play. But what should I actually do to kill my opponent? Comparing with Renolock, there is no final combo like Leeroy+Power Overwhelming, minions are focused on clearing the board in order to prevent your face from taking damage. You just cant play Jaraxxus at some point and spam 6/6 and then go face with them. Playing up to fatigue seems like only reasonable win condition to me, which doesnt work against Jade Druids at all.
I play a very similar build where I took out the Dirty Rat combo pieces (because I don't have the card) and put it some finisher legendaries: Ysera, Ragnaros, and Elise. My win condition is to hold out to Elise and/or have rag and ysera get good value. Alternatively I often find my matches at fatigue with my opponent out of resources and I have some burn spells left. Coupled with an extra Reno from Manic Soulcaster I'm finding this deck to be good at winning in fatigue.
The Brann + Rat + MCT combo is a meme. It makes for funny highlight videos, but when it comes to playing on ladder, you'll rarely get a chance to use them together; in which case MCT becomes a vanilla 3/3, Rat becomes a liability, and Brann is better utilized by comboing with Kazakus, Courier, or even Babbling Book.
I'd take out the Rat and MCT, and replace them with more reliable cards. Personally, I include Archmage Antonidas as a win condition against other control decks. Otherwise, your win-condition is just to out-value your opponent. Use Manic Soulcaster to shuffle another Reno or Kazakus into your deck, and your winrate against other Reno decks skyrockets (especially Renolock, which will go to fatigue waaay before you). Antonidas also makes playing Jaraxxus a losing move for the Warlock.
I also include Inkmaster Solia, as she can generate huge swing turns against midrange decks. Gaining board control against a Jade deck is critical, and Solia can provide that in a BIG way, if played right.
I run this deck with the following changes: -1 Dirty Rat -1 Mind Control Tech -1 Blizzard, +1 Inkmaster Solia +1 Ragnaros the Firelord +1 Second-Rate Bruiser.
I prefer Second-Rate Bruiser to Dirty Rat, i love the plays Dirty Rat makes but imo Second-Rate Bruiser is more reliable. Ragnaros the Firelord is imo more useful to me than Mind Control Tech, which i often find useless in my hand. And Inkmaster Solia, i got her in a pack so i wanna use her, and she is quite good with the Kazakus potions, when you manage to pull it off.
Pretty nice deck :)
Excellent deck and very strong right now. I went 15-1 last night and entered legend at #70 with it.
Made one change however. -1 Forbidden Flame, +1 Flame Lance. Better for things like Mountain Giant and 4 mana 7/7.
I dont think its a must but it is DAMN useful to heal to 15 when playing against stupid pirate warrior or dealing 15 to face against control match-ups