Hearthpwn

Publication of the original decklist that made me legend during season 33 (December).

Editing of the INTRODUCTION with the legend season 34 (January) stats and proof.
Added a MATCHUPS section, and an EDIT section to the guide.
New edition of the guide with the decklist update.

Editing of the INTRODUCTION with the legend season 35 (February) stats and proof.

Forbidden Flame: good removal, always usefull and you can get value from it in every game. It's also a good Archmage Antonidas spell for a free fireball... 

Mistress of Mixtures: the new Zombie Chow from MSOG, probably a weaker turn 1 card, but the way it can heal you in the late-game is really good. Unlike Zombie Chow, this is not a dead card in your hand if drawn later on the game.. A must have in a Reno decklist.

Arcane Blast: what should I tell about this one ? A 1 mana spell that kills almost every card from aggro decks, that can also help you to curve your turns. Against control, it’s a really good removal in combination with Bloodmage Thalnos or azur drake, and a free Fireball with Archmage Antonidas.

Babbling Book: 1 mana drop for a 1/1, it’s ok. And this card is giving insane value with its random spell, comboing well with bran, and always surprising the opponents. Here’s a tip if you have for example two flammestrike (one from babbling book and one from your deck), always use the spell from your deck first. Your opponent will not play around the second one, and will fell pretty sad afterwards.

Dirty Rat: the RNG lord, the combo breaker, and the Renodeck fucker. This is now a must have against all the Reno decks, and it's very good versus Miracle Rogue too. It's even a good wall when the Warrior or Shaman face hand is empty. I'm not in love with this card, but it's a must have.

Acidic Swamp Ooze: just a metagame card, crucial against pirate decks, fine against Lord Jaraxxus, and good against shamans and hunters. The vanilla body is totally ok.

Doomsayer: your only full board removal. I always thought this card was insane, because you always need to think about how to play it the best way, to think about how the opponent can kill him… This card can always be useful, even against control decks, so that’s a must keep, no need to argue…

Frostbolt: nah I’m kidding, won’t explain anything about it lulz.

Bloodmage Thalnos: card draw, spell power, nespresso, what else ?

Mind Control Tech : comboing well with the Dirty Rat and very good in an aggro meta.

Ice Block: amazing card against combo decks, that can gift you some more turns against all kind of decks, and that makes your Reno Jackson safer to play. Almost always wait the secret to get triggered, and then Reno Jackson (not the case against Jade Drood).

Kabal Courier: in my first list, I was playing without her. What a fucking mistake, this card is very good, even better than Babbling Book. Bad body, but the ability to DISCOVER a card is really strong. You’ll always have an ok choice. And sometimes, you’ll have the game winning card. The good thing is that it’s not that much random, because you choose by yourself what you want. One of those value cards, that I love to play.

Brann Bronzebeard : very important card with the new Kazakus, and also the Kabal Courier. Can work nice with Babbling Book, Azure Drake, or even Manic Soulcaster. This card is one of the win condition in control and midrange matchups, so don’t waste it.

Arcane Intellect: card draw… and works with Archmage Antonidas !

Volcanic Potion: let’s speak about this card, which is I think the best card of the extension the mage earned. This is a fucking 2 AOE spell for 3 mana. It’s also called the aggro nightmare. Or the pirate abyss, the zoo rekt, the… oh god I need to stop that ! This card is a must have, it’s one more AOE spell, and a really good one for the Renomage. And it also works with Archmage Antonidas !

Manic Soulcaster: this is the first card that you can swipe out. She’s in my list since the beginning, and I was at first really disapointed about this card. But finally I find it pretty cool. It’s the best vanilla body you can get on turn 3, which is fine against aggro decks, whithout being incredible. It’s against control decks that the card becomes really insane. It pushes you away from exhaust, and also duplicates one of your win condition…

Forgotten Torch: this is incredible in a Reno deck…

Fireball: next sire pls…

Water Elemental: this card is a must play in this metagame, it’s a really solid body, with an incredible effect, that is slaying the warriors and shamans. You can really stomp the game by just freezing the face of this warrior with his 7/3 Arcanite Reaper equipped and Heroic Strike in hand. Feelsgoodman !

Kazakus: insane card. Fucking insane card. Making every Reno deck playable by herself, saved me tons of games, and just totally sick. So a T4 wincondition, that is over flexible, you can do everything you want with her (even throwing your game the hard way by taking the bad choices), probably the best card of the deck. Don’t even ask me : « what should i play instead of Kazakus pls ? », and GO PLAY YOUR FUCKING PIRATE WARRIOR INSTEAD !

Polymorph: no need to speak about a silence, hard removal, N'Zoth, the Corruptor fucker, and all that stuff card…

Azure Drake: draw, spell power, card played since beta in almost all decks, balanced card thx Ben Brode…

Blizzard : it’s a good AOE. You need as much AOE as possible. So you play that AOE. Yeah Hearthstone is easy what did you expect ?

Emperor Thaurissan: insane. Fucking insane card. Excepted against aggro decks, this card is always amazing, allowing you to make tons of Fireball with Antonidas… Must play.

Reno Jackson : lmao shit card.

Sylvanas Windrunner : she's very good versus Priest and every control deck, but very useless against aggro decks. I felt like I was facing tons of Priests and Renomage, so having it was way more usefull than a Loot Hoarder. It's up to you !

Archmage Antonidas: this is a card that I always loved in Renomage, I can’t really play without him, but this card is not really a must have. It’s a dead card against any aggressive matchup (half of the ladder), but this card makes the matchup against Renolock a fucking farming simulator stuff. And I feel like farming a deck is always nice, don’t you ? (If you remplace this card, the matchups against control decks will be fucked up, so take a decision : do you want to get a better matchup against aggro ? or not ... that’s the question !).

Flamestrike: WOW 4 DAMAGE AOE IS STRONK…

Firelands Portal: incredible value, flexible card, cleans well Enperor Thaurissan, and buffed with MSOG (White Eyes, Grimestreet Enforcer)…

Alexstrasza: one of the best card in the meta. No more control warriors, so she’s back again. Can be a nice game saver after an Ice block if you don’t have Reno Jackson, and it’s really useful as a win condition against most of the midrange and control decks (and gives this deck some freeze mage playstyle games sometimes, always enjoyable to play)… In any case, she works well with Archmage Antonidas !

Loot Hoard/Acolyte of Pain: let’s speak about the real problem of playing a Reno archetype with an other class than warlock. The draw is always lacking, always… You play one card of each, and when you need exactly THE card that will save you, you’ll need to have it fast. But I feel like a good mulligan is enough against aggro decks, and drawing too much is a problem against control decks at the moment.

Flame Lance: this card was incredible with the Ragnaros the Firelord permapick meta, but Ragnaros the Firelord is inexistant at the moment. Useless against aggro decks, not even that good against warlock Twilight Drake or Mountain Giant… I don’t recommend you to play this card.

Dirty Rat: the potential of this card is really cool. Makes the matchup against Reno decks way easier, and it’s still a good T2 taunt against face decks. But you need to be sure to know how to play well this card before trying it, because it can ruin your game very hard.

Refreshment Vendor: I played with this card until rank 4, then I swipped it for a Sen’Jin shieldmasta. This card is very good if you want to have an even better matchup against aggro decks, otherwise, I don’t really like it. Was really painfull to heal that Jade Drood when I just needed to rush his face in order to get my chance to win, so after being tilted, I picked TAZDINGO in replacement…

Arcane Explosion: I just don’t like this card, even if it can help against pirate decks.

Harrison Jones : the card is a bit too slow, but having this and the Acidic Swamp Ooze in the deck can help a lot versus weapon matchups. The body is ok.

Ragnaros the Firelord : too slow, won’t even help against Jade Drood, I don’t like it…

Frost Nova : played it for a long time, then removed her from the decklist. It’s a good card with Archmage Antonidas. It’s a good tempo card, that can make a freeze playstyle even more possible. It’s good with Doomsayer too. But that’s all…

Second Rate Bruiser : good replacement for Sylvanas Windrunner because it's a good card against Priest (4 ATK), and also against aggro decks... 

Cabalist's Tome: big value card, played it at the beginning, removed it afterwards, and I'm not missing it. It’s slow, it’s sometimes too hard to play because your hand is too big, I don’t really like this with the actual metagame.

Sorcerer's Apprentice / Flamewaker: those cards are good. But this decklist isn’t built around them. So it’s a bad pick here.

Arcane Missiles: good pick if you want to have more options against aggro decks. Even good with Archmage Antonidas, so that’s a viable pick.

Medivh, the Guardian : nah I’m just trolling you… I don't like the win condition it offers to you, and it's risky to play him in an anti-weapon metagame.

« Great » mulligan : Mistress of Mixtures, Doomsayer, Reno Jackson, Volcanic Potion, Frostbolt, Arcane Blast, Kazakus, Forgotten Torch, Acidic Swamp Ooze.

« Ok » mulligan : Water Elemental, Bloodmage Thalnos, Forbidden Flame, Kabal Courier, Brann Bronzebeard, Manic Soulcaster, Dirty Rat, Mind Control Tech.

« Crappy » mulligan : Azure Drake, Blizzard, Emperor Thaurissan, Archmage Antonidas, Flamestrike, Sylvanas Windrunner, Firelands Portal, Alexstrasza, Ice Block, Arcane Intellect, Polymorph, Fireball.

« Great » mulligan : Babbling Book, Doomsayer, Bloodmage Thalnos, Arcane Intellect, Azure Drake, Emperor Thaurissan, Kabal Courier, Kazakus.

« Ok » mulligan : Reno Jackson,Frostbolt, Brann Bronzebeard, Manic Soulcaster, Mistress of Mixtures, Acidic Swamp Ooze, Forgotten Torch, Fireball, Water Elemental, Polymorph, Dirty Rat, Mind Control Tech, Forbidden Flamme.

« Crappy » mulligan : Alexstrasza, Firelands Portal, Sylvanas Windrunner, Flamestrike, Archmage Antonidas, Blizzard, Ice Block, Volcanic Potion, Arcane Blast.

« Great » mulligan : Babbling Book, Bloodmage Thalnos, Arcane Intellect, Azure Drake, Emperor Thaurissan, Kabal Courier, Kazakus, Water Elemental.

« Ok » mulligan : Archmage Antonidas, Sylvanas Windrunner, Firelands Portal, Brann Bronzebeard, Forgotten Torch, Fireball, Polymorph, Acidic Swamp Ooze, Mistress of Mixtures, Reno Jackson.

« Crappy » mulligan : Flamestrike, Blizzard, Alexstrasza, Ice Block, Volcanic Potion, Arcane Blast, Forbidden Flamme, Dirty Rat, Mind Control Tech.

Shaman face is by far a favored matchup, it's a surviving matchup. But take care : the shaman can kill you freaking fast, and a bad choice at the mulligan can totally ruin your game. The two key cards in this matchup are Reno Jackson and Kazakus. The best way to win is to keep them in the starting hand, or try to hard mulligan for them. Doomsayer and Acidic Swamp Ooze are also some must keep, as they are able to remove tons of pressure from those decks. Polymorph is a good card to keep against Shaman, but only if the rest of your hand is good.

The worst common idea is to keep the Ice Block in those matchups. This is a too slow card. You can save yourself one turn, but if he still has the board, he cleans your ass on the next turn anyway. So just don't be mad of dying in 4 turns, and go mulligan for some removal and win conditions. Once your mulligan is fine, try to curve your mulligan by thinking : "I'll play this on turn 1, then this card on turn 2, etc...". Having a good curve is absolutly needed. I died very often with Reno Jackson in hand, just because this Shaman killed me on turn 4. This was because the rest of my hand was too heavy.

But in those matchups the most important thing is to keep in mind that you usually need Reno Jackson or/and Kazakus in order to win. You need to find the balance between surviving and trying to get the winning cards, because the two types of cards are required in order to win. Win condition and surviving until you can get your win conditions (on the board, or just in the hand).

This matchup isn't easy at all. It's also a surviving matchup, since the Miracle Rogue is the braindeadliest deck of the game. Because yes, this deck can put an insane pressure by getting the tempo from spells and Gadgetzan Auctioneer, but it has now the best early game of the game with the Small-Time Buccaneer on turn 1 and the hero power on turn 2. This makes the matchup very awfull, and I'll be honest, if the Rogue get a perfect hand, you won't be able to do anything against it.

The best way to mulligan is to keep the same cards as against a face deck. Simply because the early game pressure of the Miracle is too heavy. The only difference is that Polymorph is very worth to keep, in order to stop even a big all in Edwin VanCleef on turn 4, a Questing Adventurer or even a Gadgetzan Auctioneer. Dirty Rat is also a fantastic card in this matchup. Miracle Rogue is a combo and a synergy deck, Dirty Rat is able to cut those combos, by forcing them out of the hand, and cleaning them instantly.

You'll always be answering to the Rogue, but the Renomage has enough tools in order to get the win, if the Rogue's starting hand is ok with it !

Renolock is the reason why Renomage starting to get spammed on the ladder a few weeks ago. This matchup is incredibly favored for the Renomage (80+% winrate). 

The gameplan is easy to get : a Renolock can't win the lategame without putting a Lord Jaraxxus on the board. There is 15HP in front of a Mage. What does the Mage says ? (oops my mind is corrupted) YOU BURST HIS FUCKIN FACE !

The way to get into the burst moment is not everytime easy. You always need to care of having a burst potential in hand, or soon in hand. If you can't kill Lord Jaraxxus in 3 turns, he'll outvalue, and the game is over. So don't use your Fireball, and other spells randomly.

The key thing is the way to get down the Mountain Giant and the Twilight Drake on turn 4. If you need to use all your spells on it, it's a free way for the Warlock to put his Lord Jaraxxus on turn 9, he knows there is potentially no more burst in your hand. Polymorph is the best option, so keep it on the mulligan. The other option is to get a good board from turns 1 to 4 in order to be able to trade them. Care of letting them on the board ! Faceless Shambler can make the nightmare even worst.

Then the rest of the decklist isn't to hard to control. Archmage Antonidas is the key to get more and more winning tools in this matchup. He is way more important than Kazakus. By the way, you don't really need a combo Brann Bronzebeard + Kazakus in order to win, so don't be greedy, and get the tempo that the Kazakus Potion can provide when you need it.

The last tips is to care of a random combo Leeroy Jenkins + Power Overwhelming + Faceless Manipulator = 20 damages. But this needs at least one turn of Emperor Thaurisan in order to be ready. So always be sure that your out of this combo, even by putting an early Ice Block or Reno Jackson.

There is tons of things to say about this matchup, but I'll avoid to make it longer so a few random last tips :
They put Doomsayer - You answer Dirty Rat
They put Reno Jackson - You answer Alexstrasza
Save Acidic Swamp Ooze for Lord Jaraxxus.
Don't be worried about not hard removing Brann Bronzebeard if there is no more battlecry in the opponents deck.

The mirror matchup is a very slow matchup. The most important thing is to be patient. Very very patient.

You aren't able to burn a Renomage before the exhaustion. The key in this matchup is exhaustion. You'll mulligan for some draw in earlygame as Arcane Intellect or Azure Drake. Then, you'll try to get as much value as possible from your cards until the exhaustion. The Brann Bronzebeard + Kazakus + Manic Soulcaster is one of the best way to win this matchup. The Dirty Rat too (by rekting the ennemy combo, or even Reno Jackson).

Never get greedy in order to pop the opponent's Ice Block as fast as possible, this is a dead card in this matchup anyway (exhaustion isn't taking care of it).

There is tons of things to say about this matchup, but I'll avoid to make it longer so a few random last tips :
They put Doomsayer - You answer Dirty Rat
Never play Acidic Swamp Ooze unless your sure the opponent isn't playing a Medivh Renomage version.
Take care of never overdrawing, don't get surprised by your big hands !
They put Reno Jackson - You answer Alexstrasza
Don't be worried about not hard removing Brann Bronzebeard if there is no more battlecry in the opponents deck.

Priest is a little bit unfavored surviving matchup. Dragon Priest is able to put a very big board pressure with some high value minions and a perfect curve. The problem is that Renomage isn't able to follow with minions on the board, and isn't able to hard remove a board (Twisting Nether for exemple...). So yes a 5/9 body is a big problem for us, and the best way to avoid that is to keep early removals in hand, in order to remove everithing very fast. Of course keep Kazakus for a T10 polymorph or AOE which can save the game very hard ! Reno Jackson is also a must keep, you'll be sometimes taking a lot of pressure and being able to recover to full life on turn 6 is sometimes needed.

The Doomsayer on turn 2 is very good, even if he get removed by a Shadow Word : Pain, the card is still worth it. If not, it allows you to slow the board pressure of the priest, and to remove those turn 1 minions.

The Sylvanas Windrunner is a key card in this matchup, being able to put a good body, and swap the pressure of one of his minion is incredible. Mind Control Tech is also able to be the MVP, don't throw him without getting the battlecry value. A 3/3 body won't save the game. A steal can save the game.

Finally don't worry about the burst, Dragon Priest isn't playing any burst expect Holy Nova and Blackwing Corruptor. That's a fact, you can take you time with your HP without being worried too much.

Druid is a very hard matchup for the Renomage. Jade or Combo druid, that doesn't really matter, your win options are the same : you'll need to be fast and furious (kappa). 

If you take your time, and you keep answering as you usually do, you'll get outvalued or one bursted. You need to get the advantage by playing around the biggest weakness of the druid : the lack of removals. How to do it properly ? 

Firstly, by curving a good mulligan, without any spells or answers, you need some big bodies on the board, and you need them to go hit that fuckin druid face fast. A minion heavy starting hand is needed in order to do so.
Then the furious part is coming in the place : Kazakus the bullshit master. A good potion that flood the board = instant win (8/8 + 3 minions rez, or even an AOE + 8/8...). 

So you get it, Kazakus is the best card to mulligan for in this matchup. If you still can't get him down, Alexstrasza and Archmage Antonidas are also able to be the furious factors you need to win the match !

One last thing : against a Jade Druid, never trade the board for his board. As much damages you put in the face, as close from the win you are, and this will force him to do by himself the trades. The only minions you need to clear as fast as possible are Fandral Staghelm and Gadgetzan Auctioneer. You can forget the rest and SMORC as you use to do with your Pirate Warrior !