Why can't I hold all these spells 2 (Wild)
- Last updated May 18, 2017 (Un'Goro Launch)
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Wild
- 15 Minions
- 15 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Reno Mage
- Crafting Cost: 13540
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 5/18/2017 (Un'Goro Launch)
- user-22322105
- Registered User
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- 1
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- 19
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
62
Hi, my name's Ezekiel, and I've been a big fan of hardcore control decks for as long as I've actually owned the cards to make them.
I had a lot of success with the previous version of this deck, which can be found here: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/693865-why-cant-i-hold-all-these-spells-wild-grinder-mage.
This is kind of an update to it, but I felt the decklist was different enough, and the meta was different enough, to warrant a new write up.
So here's my newest version of full on grinder fatigue mage, where the point is to deal with literally every card in their deck, put a few more cards into yours, and win in fatigue (although Elise Starseeker, and Elise the Trailblazer also give alternative end game win conditions of having more threats than they can deal with.
Mulligans:
In general, mulligan for: Babbling Book, Doomsayer, Frostbolt, Pyros, Mad Scientist, Primordial Glyph Medivh's Valet, Forgotten Torch, Kabal Courier, Kazakus.
Against Secret Paladin, you can also keep Polymorph, Volcanic Potion, Polymorph and Reno Jackson.
Against all aggressive decks you should also keep Reno Jackson, and you can keep Manic Soulcaster just as an on curve play.
Against Priest you can also keep Duplicate, Polymorph and Arcane Intellect.
Gameplan:
Play out your discover minions and spells and remove their minions where possible in the early turns. If there isn't that much damage coming in you can afford to be greedy, but against more aggressive decks it's important to keep dealing with stuff. If you need to, playing Manic Soulcaster on turn 3 for no battlecry value is absolutely fine.
In the mid-game, if you've got some space, play out the beefier discovers, or try to set up a duplicate on one, or try to double up on a discover or two with Brann Bronzebeard. Basically just try to gather spells and answers in your hand for use in later turns. If the opponent really isn't applying any pressure you may be able to play Cabalist's Tome on curve.
For Kazakus, the 5 mana spell is usually the best, but against any N'Zoth, the Corruptor deck the 10 mana spell is obviously better for the chance to get the board polymorph. Against other heavy control decks the 10 mana spell is again often the best, and getting 2 or more of those spells with Brann Bronzebeard or Duplicate is game-winning. If you have some other board clears (such as a 5 mana Kazakus potion, and a volcanic potion) and you are very behind on board and life total, the 1 mana potion may be the correct choice simply to give a bit more clearing potential.
It's worth noting also that Kazakus has synergy with Pyros, as an early 5 mana resurrect potion can let you get back an additional Pyros for future value.
Possible Card Substitutions:
Many of you won't have access to all of the cards in the deck. Some of them are integral, others can be replaced. I will only talk about the epics and legendaries in my list here.
Doomsayer: The card is very powerful. If you don't have it though, I would suggest an Acidic Swamp Ooze
Pyros: The card is good in the deck but not essential. I would suggest swapping out for an anti-aggro card, rather than another value card, as the deck is already quite greedy. Dirty Rat, Acidic Swamp Ooze, Twilight Flamecaller, or even Golakka Crawler are all reasonable substitutions.
Brann Bronzebeard: Brann is integral to the deck. He cannot be substituted.
Ice Block: Ice block is certainly very good in the deck, but if you don't own it, then either put in a Potion of Polymorph, or replace it with a heal card, like a Refreshment Vendor. If you do swap it for something that isn't a secret, make sure to also remove Medivh's Valet from the deck, as it will be too inconsistent then.
Manic Soulcaster: Honestly this card is completely expendable. You can swap it with just about any decent value card you like. I would recommend going for something reasonably low cost though.
Elise Starseeker: This card is very good in control match-ups but not essential. It can be substituted with Water Elemental.
Elise the Trailblazer: This card is extremely good in the deck, as it puts you further away from fatigue, and has ridiculous value if you can play more than one of her in a game. If you don't own her, replace with another high value card. Medivh, the Guardian, Ragnaros the Firelord, Archmage Antonidas and Nefarian are all reasonable options.
Kazakus: This is probably the most powerful card in the deck. It's really important. If you want to play a grinder deck and do not own this card, I would suggest going for one that isn't a Reno deck.
Cabalist's Tome: Just another high value card. There's nothing else that can do what it does though, so if you don't have it I would just go for another value card like Azure Drake or Grand Crusader
Reno Jackson: ... Yeah he's pretty important. If you don't have him I would look elsewhere for a deck.
Firelands Portal: Good value, but not essential. Add a Fireball, or if you have one, a Meteor.
Winrate:
The deck has had a win rate of around 85% from rank 20 to rank 10 in wild this season. I shall try to gather more specific win-loss ratios against each class, and shall update this guide accordingly.
So that's the deck
If anyone's got any questions, just leave a comment below and I'll answer them for you. Likewise if anyone thinks they can improve the deck, just leave a comment.
Also if anyone wants me to record some gameplay of the deck and explain it a bit, I suppose I can do that.
I hope you enjoy playing the deck!
I lost 5 straight games at 19 to 20, just couldn't seem to pull a win to against aggro, and just barely losing to control too
Made these subs and it has worked a lot smoother for me, N'zoth being a pretty sweet win condition if pyros has already been played:
-Effigy
-Elise Starseeker
-Elise the Trailblazer
-Kabal Courier
+Doomsayer
+Piloted Shredder
+Sylvanas Windrunner
+N'Zoth, the Corruptor
Thanks for the deck idea though!
You could put N'Zoth in it and a few more deathrattles, like Sneed's Old Shredder and Sylvanas. This deck is by no means perfect IMO
I dont get how this deck got on the front page. it so bad. impossible to win any game with this!
I'm sorry that it hasn't been working for you, it's been performing really well for me. It is a bit of a difficult deck to play, so is it possible that you'd do better if you had more practice with it? Certainly when I started out playing full on grinder mage I struggled with the style of play.
What rank are you playing it at and what sort of decks have you been facing?
If you play on EU I could also add you as a friend and watch a game or two to give you some advice, if you wanted that and felt that it would be useful.
Best of luck!
Effigy did feel a tad underwhelming in this deck, i tried swapping it for some early game defensive minions like Dirty Rat or Tar Creeper which worked for me. if the meta gets faster in higher ranks, i'll swap Manic Soulcaster for something more defensive (like Stonehill Defender) aswell. against contol decks replacing Effigy with Potion of Polymorph might save you some games
Those are very good points, although I have actually tried potion of polymorph instead of effigy and found that it was less successful - I was generally hitting something small and unimportant. Tar creeper and dirty rat both seem like very good options though, I'll try swapping mine around for them as well :). Stonehill Defenders is an interesting addition, because of course with Brann and duplicate procs against aggro you can have a string of taunts. I definitely have to experiment with it. Thanks!
after a few games i realised, that i never needed Elise Starseeker to win, so i swapped her for Emperor Thaurissan. i'm very happy with this change. it improves our matchup against midrange and i haven't lost a control matchup yet - not even against a super lategame reno quest priest with both elises. Emperor proofed to be not only a very fun card (it did give me insane value in some games via Duplicate or other copy effects i got from Cabalist's Tome, sometimes reducing the cost of cards like reno or Firelands Portal to almost zero) but also worked as a midgame tempo inducer and a board threat that forces opponents to react to it.
other changes i tried are Dr. Boom instead of Antique Healbot and Deathlord instead of Medivh's Valet. but i feel like these are just a matter of taste and not necessarily big improvements to the deck. i just like playing them more than the other two and so far it worked for me.
i'm currently 16-2 with my (still adapting) slight variation of your deck, ranking from 22 to 13. thank you so much for posting your list because it was my incentive to play reno mage again for the first time since the wild rotation and so far i'm having a great time playing and tweaking the decklist!
I really like swapping Elise Starseeker for Emperor Thaurissan, it's been working really well for me as well. Thanks for the suggestion!
The other adjustment I've made that's been working well is swapping Effigy for Doomsayer, for the obvious synergy with the freeze effects, and as a good anti aggro card for turn 2 or 3.
i still really like Medivh's Valet in the deck, but I definitely agree it's a matter of taste. I'll definitely have to try out Dr. Boom instead of Antique Healbot though, sounds interesting.
And no problem! Glad you're enjoying the deck, and thanks for the help adjusting the decklist, you've suggested stuff I wouldn't have thought of.
I would like to contribute with the variant i'm trying to:
MAGE CARDS (19)
Babbling Book
Arcanologist
Frostbolt
Medivh's Valet
Primordial Glyph
Pyros
Arcane Intellect
Forgotten Torch
Frost Nova
Ice Barrier
Ice Block
Manic Soulcaster
Volcanic Potion
Polymorph
Cabalist's Tome
Ethereal Conjurer
Blizzard
Firelands Portal
Flamestrike
NEUTRAL CARDS (11)
Bloodmage Thalnos
Doomsayer
Brann Bronzebeard
Kabal Courier
Elise Starseeker
Kazakus
Elise the Trailblazer
Sludge Belcher
Emperor Thaurissan
Reno Jackson
Dr. Boom
Doomsayer & Frost Nova, i can not play.
Arcanologist for Mad Scientist i like have a istant secret for saving the game or trigger the Medivh's Valet.
Dr. Boom for Antique Healbot, why not?
I would also like to try Stonehill Defender to exploit Brann Bronzebeard, but i do not know what to remove, Kabal Courier or Elise Starseeker, maybe?
No yoggsauron? Imagine what an Astral Communion could do at the right time :)
Haha, I've tried him in the deck before and had some fun with him. Personally I didn't like him in the deck because I didn't like a long fatigue turn kind of turning into a coin toss on whether yogg is good or not, but he can be a lot of fun just as a Hail Mary play.
I had a game where Yogg dealt 20 damage to my opponent and gave me lethal, and then in the next game he drew me 13 cards and then astral communion was the penultimate spell he cast. Maybe I didn't pray to Yogg enough :P
This deck looks like a lot of fun!
Glad you like it, I've been having a blast playing it. I just really enjoy working out which answers to create and how to ration out the different answers o deal with their entire deck.