Hearthpwn

**Introduction**

Greetings, this is MazeMangler again! As some of you might already know, my greatest hearthstone joy is to invent unique decks and beat the meta with them. What you’re looking at here is a project that i was ,,working on‘‘ since WOTG (midrange shaman obliterates this deck). This is for everyone who wants to play the game with a major endgamegoal in sight to work towards to for the whole match, the tacticians among you and the few who want to take in the experience of an all out war in controlmatchups. If you’re tired playing pirate warrior, shaman, jade druid or renolock, consider joining me on this offmeta ride!

 

[Proof of legendrank](http://imgur.com/a/SxQtD)

[Decklist](http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/701994-legend-with-reno-nzoth-mage)

[For those who dont like hearthpwn](http://imgur.com/a/gN7eV)

 

**Renomage in Standard**

Why play Renomage and not Renopriest or the Overlord?

Renomage has 4 unique things:

Plenty unconditional removal, Iceblock, Burn and the Pingheropower. Especially the Mageheropower shouldn’t be underestimated, it’s often the difference between a dead frothing berserker and 7 damage to the face. In a controldeck only second to warlockheropower.

Renomage in general tries to prevent the game from snowballing out of control and then burn the enemy down. Problematic are the cases when you already used your burn and have difficulties to feed your Antonidas. That’s why Renomages run Alexstraza.
This is often not enough to win vs druid and other renodecks, main reasons are that this requires 3 turns to work, you need specific cards at the right time for it and you might get outvalued before you can pull out that combo.

Renomage is fine atm, but i think we can approach the match with a few more winconditions:

 

**Gameplan: Reno and the Unholy Trinity**

The beauty of Reno Jackson in this deck opposed to many other Renodecks is that he’s not only the protection from aggressive decks, but also an enabler for a specific deck tactic (think of a Renolock tapping the whole game because he can burstheal). In our case this it's the inclusion of 2 cards: Rhonin and N’Zoth. Rhonin is a 1 card value bomb that presents a threat and grants 3 arcane missiles. Antonidas converts those missiles into fireballs; if he isn’t able to lend you his assistance, you can still combo with flamewaker or spelldamage. N’Zoth brings back our Mage-Tirion and grants you another 3 missiles on top of the board.

Then there is Kazakus… but that’s a different story.
Sorry Reynad but it’s nearly impossible to not use the term wincondition when regarding this deck:

- Reno (aggro)

- Burndamage (especially vs control)

- Kazakus Potions (vs everything)

- N’Zoth board (especially vs druid)

**Weaknesses**

No deck without weakness! Main weak spots are:

- Decks that can flood and reflood the board
- Dirty Rat grabbing Antonidas or N’Zoth
- Transformeffects/Entomb

 

**Deck/Card analysis**

I’ll talk a bit about the cards, you might might learn something about their usage and place in this deck. Sorted by minions/spells and manacost:

 

**MINIONS**

**Mistress of Mixtures**

I’m positively surprised by the performance of this card. When on the play, threatens tunnel trogg with heropower. 2/2 staline is very usefull and as a greedy deck i welcome the 4 heal tot he face (already worth 1 mana). Can also be resummoned by nzoth or kazakus, absolutely staple in this facemeta.

**Paveling Book**

It rarely happens that this card ,,draws dead‘‘. The ability to run more removal in a renodeck is invaluable, Brann synergy. A card that an win games you should’t and is impossible for your opponent to play around.

Mandatory: Babbling Book is quickly becoming one of my favourite cards. It’s just so positive and…

**Ooze**

We are in a meta with doomhammers and 7/3 arcanite reapers.

**Thalnos**

If you haven’t crafted him yet, do so. He greatly increases the value of your damagespells and costs your opponent mana/an attack to remove. Also brings you closer to reno.

**Loot Hoarder**

While Loot hoarder in particular isnt very interesting, he actually is in this case because he is the 30th strongest card in this deck. Upsides are the cycle, n’zoth synergy and his low manacost as well as barnes synergy. He also doesnt clump your hand in slow matchups like another low cost card would. I value the cycle quite high here because this is a deck which often searches for specific cards and doesn’t do well with a fillercard of some sort. However, he doesn’t line up well vs claws and hooks, i feel like a dirty rat should be in his place….

**Doomsayer**

We’re playing a slow deck, we’re playing doomsayer. Doomsayer got a bit more skillintensive with the introduction of kazakus and dirty rat. He’s interesting with kazakus. You dont want to resurrect him at 10 mana but if youre crafting a 5 mana potion, consider taking the ressurection vs aggro to get a 2nd doomsayer. Tip: Coin this vs aggro when they played a 1 drop or they will get rid of it.

**Flamewaker**

Somewhat of an outcast in Renomagedecks because they don run a lot of cheap spells. We on the other hand can start an arcane missile clownfiesta. Flamewaker is a backup plan when Antonidas is busy. The deck is also short on taunts.

**Brann Bronzebeard**

Brann is a beast when he hits. But in this deck he has only 4 targets: BB, Barnes, Kazakus and Azure Drake. I play Brann mostly because he is a cheap proactive play that demands removal. And i dont run many taunts.

**Kazakus, the hero we deserve**

Insane. Below is a bit about his potions.

**Water elemental**

I can’t remember a meta in which this was stronger, just play it.

**Infested Tauren**

One of those cards you play for the greater good. Note that mage might be the best class to run infested tauren because it synergizes so well with low att. minions (ping). This card is here to increase deathrattle density and prevent turn 5 lethal.

**Tonight! A tell of truuue terror…**

From a fun point, i absolutely love this card. His voice acting, the lights, the theme of an actor playing a card in my deck, the drama.
From a competitive view, this card should have never been printed. Pulling somehting like rhonin or ragnaros instantly wins the game. Every deathrattle you pull gets resummoned by nzoth.

Barnes in this deck:

Bad pulls: 7 (BB, doomsayer, N’Zoth, reno, azure drake)

Good pulls: 5 (Loot hoarder, flamewaker, thalnos, brann, mistress of mixtures)

Insane pulls: 5 (sylvanas, rhonin, antonidas, infested tauren, thaurissan)

**Azure drake**

It’s card draw that doesnt suck and costs 5 mana.

**Sylvanas**

A way to beat druid. Gets resummoned by nzoth, not many alternatives here if you want to play nzoth mage. Just remeber how dangerous it ist o drop rhonin when the enemy hasnt played their sylvanas yet.

**Thaurissan**

Too good not to include. Produces more fiureballs and makes the enemy play inefficiently next turn. What you already know: It has a high priority to drop thaurissan on an empty board so your opponent will waste his hardremoval.

**Antonidas**

Should at least get 2 fireballs. Can close games fast when dropped against agressive decks to prevent them from topdecking lethal. Nothing else you dont know already.

**8 mana Wargolem**

Unplayable in an aggro matchup. So much revolving around this dying on your side oft he board. Missiles provide massive swingturns. Rhonin is a rather elegant solution to win controlmatchups by including only 1 (2 with n’zoth) deckslots.

**N’Zoth, greatest of the 4**

With controlwarrior out of the meta, only warlock can comletely clear the board, priest coming at least close. I appreciate N’Zoths speed once he drops: Unlike Ysera, your opponent has an answer or dies. 6 N’Zoth targets total in the deck, 2 backbreaking when resummoned. N’Zoth timing is key: You usually want to drop nzoth when your enemy’s aoe is gone but games dont go like you want sometimes. Sometimes you just play him to resummon thalnos and hoarder to get more fuel.

 

**SPELLS**

**Forbidden flame**

Flexible removal that removes a southsea deckhand just as well as an abyssal enforcer. Also gets converted to a fireball for 0 mana.

**Arcane Blast**

The spelldamage requirement will seldom be met, but those small-time-buccaneers have to die.

**Mirror image**

A card that is seldom seen in Renomage. I see this card as a better flash heal: 2 0/2 taunts should block at least 5 facedamage. They protect flamewaker and grant a fireball from Toni. Solid, can be replaced.

**Frostbolt**

The freezing effect is actuially relevant for once, 4 mana 7/7 and frothing are nice targets.

**Forgotten Torch**

Earlygame removal, run it.

**Fireball**

Just play it.

**Polymorph**

With priest and the 4 mana 7/7 back in the meta and this deck’s weakness to Sylvanas, this card is most welcome.

**Demonwrath**

Pirates dont like this card.

**Iceblock**

Back when i was a noob i thought this card was nowhere close to good. Turns out it’s insane. It let’s you play much more comfortably instead of using your mana inefficiently to prevent a surprise lethal. Also allows to set up counterlethal. I try to hold it in controlmatchups for as long as possible because it can turn into a fireball with thaurissanhelp.

**Flamestrike**

To get a feeling of old Arenadays in constructed.

 

Cards that can be replaced easily: Loot hoarder, mirror images, brann, barnes

Cards to include: Dirty rat, mc tech, flamelance, blizzard, kabal courier.

 

**KAZAKUS POTIONS**

1) When to take which manacost

When dropped on curve, you often just take the 5 mana potion to curve into. However, the 1 manacost potion is tempo par excellance (especially the 1 mana demonwrath). The sheep potion is not available, so you have a 58% chance to get a specific effect, 53% when taking other manaoptions.
Almost always take the 10 mana pot in slow matchups. If you brann, consider taking 2 separate manacosts and effects tob e able to respond smoother to the future boardstate.

2) What to take when at 5/10 mana

Not going indepth here, but this priorityline should help:

5 Mana: AoE>Ressurect>Damage>Armor>summon demon>draw>sheep>healthbuff>freeze>draw demons

10 mana: Ressurect>AoE>Sheep>summon demon>healthbuff>Damage>Draw>Armor>draw demons>freeze

Especially the resurrect combo with healthbuff is devestating vs control. However, a dead doomsayer or babbling book should influence your decision here.

 

**Mulligans**

Aggressive Class (Shaman, rogue, warrior, paladin, hunter):

Everything below 3 mana – mirror image, torch and volcanic potion, kazakus and reno.

Slow Matchup (priest, warlock, mage):

Hold onto Arcane Intellect and polymorph in addtion to your low cost removal/minions+ kazakus. I’d mulligan Kazakus away vs renolock because that’s the least tempointensive matchup.

VS druid:

You want earlyminions and arcane intellect to buid up pressure. Keep kazakus as well.

**MATCHUPS**

Now, here i want to apologize. Despite having the best winrate i ever had to legend i suffered from ladder anxiety and not tracking my stats helped me tremendously to focus more on the fun part of the game. So take this with a grain of salt:

Good matchups:

Renolock (combo), Pirate warrior, pirate rogue, renomage, control warrior

Even matchups:

Renolock (ragnaros+blastfire potion), miracle rogue, aggro shaman, renopriest, dragon priest, Tempomage

Bad matchups:

Midrange shaman, Midrange hunter, Zoo, Jade druid, Malygos druid, divine favour paladin.

 

**THIS IS THE END**

Holy moly that was intense but helped me wash away the pressure from laddering. If there are any questions, feel free to ask. I wish you good fortune, a happy feast of winterveil and epic battles vs renolock. Show your enemys who is in charrge now!

And always remember: We’re gonna be rich!