Hearthpwn

Hey guys,

1. History behind this deck.

Last season i was playing mostly reno mage in standard. The highest rank i reached was around 80 in legend. Week before the end of the season i decided to try playing wild and see what people play there. I took my standard reno mage and adapted it into wild adding GvG and Naxxaramas cards as well as sylvanas and second-rate bruiser. Soon i realized that Archmage, Alexstrasza and Thaurissan was a bad win condition. I added Cairne and N'zoth and did a little bit better. Later i changed this deck to current list. At the start of the season i was tryharding a lot and on 3rd day i got legend as a first person on EU, which gave me #1 spot.

 

 

2. Why this deck is strong?

This is basically standard reno mage which is already good, however it greatly benefits from wild cards such as sludge belcher, mad scientist, duplicate and healbot.

3. Why is N'zoth a better option than Medivh/Thaurissan/Antonidas

You have a lot of deathrattle cards that are already great themselves - Sylvanas, belcher, scientist, mistress of Mixtures so you don't need to put deathrattle cards just to make n'zoth good. On turn ten N'zoth can summon usually 2-3 minions and it is enough to gain control of the board.

N'zoth gives you instant power that Medivh Thaurissan and Antonidas can't provide. Also extra card from blood mage, heal from mistress of mixtures and Sludge Belcher helps against faster decks.

More card choices will be explained at the end of the guide.

4. Usage of certain cards

 

 ***deck changes**

+ deathlord - second-rate bruiser  

both of this cards are good on turn 3 but if your opponent has less than 3 minions second-rate bruiser is useless. If they do minions are propably below or at 2 health so attack diffrence doesn't matter

+ piloted shredder - ice barrier

the meta in legend is slowing down and ice barrier seems useless. Piloted shredder is a great card in general and despite not synergizing with this deck it is still worth a place

***

 

arcane blast, frostbolt, forgotten torch - deal with early agresion, you have 2 spell power sources

mistress of mixtures - good turn 1 play, on turn one play arcane blast on small time bucaneer over it

acidic swamp ooze - use it on early weapons, in control matchups save it for big weapons (gorehowl, ashbringer, Atiesh)

doomsayer - generaly good on 2 vs aggro, not the best agains control because of dirty rat and resurrect potions

bloodmage - use it to draw or save for spellpower

scientist - good turn 2 play guves you defensive secret 2/3 times

arcane intelect - simple draw, if you plan on winning in fatigue never use it

brann - turn 3 play vs aggro, save it for kazakus vs control

duplicate - land it on cheap / defensive minions vs aggro and on valueable minions vs control. If your opponent plays hex or polymorph it gets tricky. The best way to deal with it is to play minion first trade it and leave at low health, and then play duplicate so your opponent will lose value or give you 2 copies. If you happen to get duplicate from scientist versus shaman play a small minion such as swamp ooze or mistress of mixtures or bloodmage. Having 2 copies of this minions isn't optimal but certainly better then 2 frogs. Against mage go for duplicating water elemental so if he polymorphs it your n'zoth will not lose on value from using poly on sylvanas or belcher

ice block - not a turn 3 play use it when needed

manic soulcaster - If you play control matchups the priority order is n'zoth-kazakus-sylvanas-reno. N'zoth usually doesn't stick but when it does copy it. If you no longer have kazakus (dirty rat/ deathlord) use soulcaster with brann. Against fast decks play it on turn 3 if you don't have any other play. If you have an option of adding a minion to your deck and not doing it think if you would be happy of topdecking it or would you rather want to draw other card. Copying reno is great but your main goal is to survive till reno

mc tech - if use it when they have 4 minions or they will never have 4, works well in combination with blizzard

volcanic potion - good spell against shamans even better with bloodmage

fireball - kills midrange minons

piloted shredder - good to pressure not a good turn 4 play vs aggro

kazakus - detailed usage for every matchup below

polymorph - your only hard single target removal

water elemental - one of the best 4 mana minon good target for duplicate

healbot - simple heal

azure drake - good minion use it on turn 6 with arcane blast

deathlord - good minion for 3 mana stops agresion and also good in control matchups to make enemy fatigue fatser and pull battlecry minions

sludge belcher - great duplicate target, good vs aggro

blizzard - another aoe, good with other board clears

Reno jackson - try playing ice block first and then him, beware of brann with soulcaster

Sylvanas windrunner - great duplicate target vs control play it to challange minions that your opponent already played

firelands portal - simple removal + summon

flamestrike - your best board clear

N'zoth - keep tracking of what deathrattle minions died vs aggro play it on 10 to make sure you never lose the board for the entire game. Versus control play it when your opponent has some minions so that his big board clear kills his minions too

5. Matchups

*Some decks might not appeare here since i haven't played against them
*I don't know the exact win rates but this deck works well versus all of decks below

This deck as almost every control deck has diffrent win conditions. In every matchup you keep diffrent cards, and most importantlly for this deck you take specific Kazakus potions

1 Aggro Shaman

100% keeps - Reno, Kazakus, mad scientist, volcanic potion, frostbolt, arcane blast, doomsayer, deathlord

other

If you have arcane blast keep blood mage

If you have early game keep ooze

Goals for this matchup

-try to keep one spell to deal with flame tongue totem

-using doomslayer early is good as long as your opponent can't deal with it using flametongue

-90% of the time get 1 mana spell from kazakus. If your opponent has no board and 4 mana next turn freeze is good. Deal 3 damage is great no matter of current board state. Deal 2 damage to all is good, it might be the best one depending on situation blood mage makes it a lot better, cause of feral spirits. Health buff is weak. Resurrect and 2/2 demon is usually average, adding demon to your hand is irrelevant. Armor and card draw is good but early on prioritizing board is more important

-If you have no turn 5 play take 5 mana pot

-If it is past turn 8 take 5 mana pot

2. Pirate Warrior

similar matchup to aggro shaman

100% keeps - Reno, Kazakus, mad scientist, volcanic potion, frostbolt, arcane blast, doomsayer, ooze, deathlord 

other

If you have arcane blast keep blood mage

Goals for this matchup

-if your opponent has small-time buccaneer and a weapon ooze is a good play

-try to kill all pirates by turn 3 if you are afraid of bloodsail cultist

-use doomslayer on turn two

-if you are on coin, your opponent played something play doomslayer if you have follow up

-taunts are very efective, only thing that can go through them is mortal strike

3 Reno Warlock

Explanation: There are 2 ways to lose this matchup: early pressure from thilight drake and mountain giant or JARAXXUS.

100% keeps - Kazakus, water elemental, mad scientist, polymorth, deathlord

keep one minion to pressure him on turn 2-3 when he is tapping. Don't play 2 minions in case of hellfire/demonwrath

use duplicate on water elemental/belcher/sylvanas if possible

don't play kazakus alone unless you are forced to.

The best usage of kazakus is brann-kazakus-manic soulcaster, but using it with just brann or soulcaster isn't bad.

Don't hesitate on drawing cards he will fatigue before you.

Deal with big boards using blizzard into flamestrike/other aoe

Save blood mage for spell power unless you are desperate of drawing cards.

Almost always take 10 mana potions

-polymorth all is especially good if he plays n'zoth (if he plays shredder or cairne he does)

-dealing 6 to all takes care of every minion including jaraxxuxs' hero power

-resurrect is the best if you want to pressure

-drawing cards and adding demons to your hand isn't the best

-freeze is usually bad

-armor depends on situation

-8/8 demon is good if your opponent already used siphon soul/blastcrystal potion

- +health is good if you took resurrect or you have a board that is unlikely to be cleared

- dealing 8 damage is good if you want to kill jaraxus or a big minion otherwise it is bad

How to deal with jaraxxus

- don't let him play it, pressure with minions

- try saving burn

- if he has coin or an emporor discount be even more aggresive

How to N'zoth?

Play him when - he hasn't played Kazakus / he has some board / you want to deny jaraxus(but he has at least some board) / if he played jaraxus play n'zoth immidiatelly

4 Reno Priest

100% keeps - water elemental, mad scientist, doomslayer, frostbolt

Use doomslayer early before he can use coruptor on it. If he uses shadow of pain water elemental is much better. Avoid playing minions on his 5. 

Always take 10 mana potions

-polymorth all is good if you want to recover

-dealing 6 isn't bad however in this matchup you want to pressure him

-resurrect is the best if you want to pressure

-drawing cards is never an option

-and adding demons to your is good if you have space for them (10 max)

-freeze is just bad

-armor depends on situation

-8/8 demon is great he has 2 hard removals death and entomb(usually goes on kazakus) so priest is really vulnereable to big minions

- +health is good if you took resurrect or you have a board that is unlikely to be cleared

- dealing 8 damage is bad but better then freeze or draw

they have no good aoe so with resurrect potions and n'zoth you win

5. Control Warrior

100% keeps - water elemental, mad scientist, ooze, belcher

keep ooze for gorehowl

keep deathlord and polymorph if you have both

play value game, not for tempo

draw only from azure drake

always go for brann-kazakus-manic soulcaster

-polymorth all is good if you want to recover / deal with (ysera/n'zoth)

-dealing 6 is not good

-resurrect is the best 

-drawing cards is never an option

-adding demons to your hand is good if you have space for them usually not the case

-freeze is just bad

-armor depends on situation

-8/8 demon is good if you weren't able to pick resurrect the first time

they have only 2 brawls - one goes to n'zoth so picking 2 resurrects will win you the game

6. Jade Druid

100% keeps - water elemental, mad scientist, ooze, belcher, mistress of mixtures

if you already have early game keep sylvanas

go all in saving only brann kazakus and soulcaster

n'zoth should win the game

If you are ahead and want to snowball go for 5 mana spell from kazakus that makes board and buffs it

-polymorth all is great if you are playing defensive game

-dealing 6 is good as long as it kills jade golems

-resurrect is good if you can pressure

-drawing cards is slow but can work if others are bad

-adding demons is way too slow and unreliable

-freeze is ok if you go for burn plan

-armor depends on situation but usually bad

-8/8 demon is good if he has played mulch

7. Secret paladin

*I have only played this matchup a coupple times

100% keeps - Reno, Kazakus, mad scientist, volcanic potion, frostbolt, arcane blast, doomslayer, deathlord

go for one mana spells aiming at the 2 damage to all

dont pop secrets at turn 5

empty your hand because of divine favour

keep track of his secrets

save polymorth or ooze for Tyrion

8 Token druid

In order to play this matchup correctly you need to know druid's cards. I faced two people playing this deck and played about 10 games. One of them was #2 legend and here are the most important things you need to know about this deck

- they play 0 innervates

- they use jeeves (at the end of the turn draw until you have 3 cards)

- they play a lot of sticky minions and 4 give +1/+1 to all minions

- they play 2x soul of the forest

- the only burst they can do comes from savage roar

cards to keep - doomsayer, deathlord, Mistress of mixtures, volcanic potion, mad scientist, arcane blast

tips:

the more minions you remove early the less aoe will be needed later

kill jeeves

 

6. Card choices

Second-Rate Bruiser - this is conditional card, it is good if your opponent has 3 minions, however if he does you would rather like to remove those minions. It is the first card to get replaced.

Cairne Bloodhoof - too slow card, N'zoth is good enough without it.

Deathlord - this card can certainly fit here. It is good vs control and face decks, but weak to decks in beetween. I don't want to lose game just because of it.

Dirty rat - similar to deathlord, but weaker vs aggro

dr. boom - the reason to put this card in this deck are control matchups, but even then doom bots are weak resurrect targets and make your n'zoth weaker (6+ deathrattles)

 

If you have any questions ask them in the comment section

Have fun playing this deck

Hello, mikithemage