Secret and Deathrattle Combo Mage (Kel'Thuzad, ...
- Last updated Aug 31, 2014 (Naxx Launch)
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Wild
- 20 Minions
- 10 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 3880
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 8/22/2014 (Naxx Launch)
- user-4677017
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Total Deck Rating
17
After I got Kel'Thuzad, I wanted to create a deck where he would come to good use, and this was the result.
The deck has two main goals: Clear the enemy board by making beneficial trades and get card advantage. It uses lots of secrets and beneficial deathrattles. In the early game, focus on buffing up an Undertaker with Leper Gnomes, Loot Hoarders or Unstable Ghouls. Since I put two of each in the deck, chances are you'll have a few in your starting hand, and when your opponent plays some minions, you can put down Baron Rivendare, clear his board, and you'll do at least 4 damage per Leper Gnome and draw 2 cards per Loot Hoarder. The trade is beneficial to you because your minions are most valuable when they die (thus also justifying the damage Unstable Ghouls do to your own minions). Alternatively, you could summon a Cult Master and draw even more cards.
The reason I use quite a few secrets is because I most of the time can play them for free. The Mad Scientists (which by the way can buff your Undertaker too) will pick a random Secret from your deck and put it on the board. Combo this with Baron Rivendare and you get two Secrets for free. This is not only effective because you save some mana/time but also because it thins out your deck, increasing the probability that you will draw the cards you need. Likewise, Kirin Tor Mage lets you cast a Secret from your hand without paying its cost. As if that wasn't good enough, Ethereal Arcanist becomes a major threat to your opponent when you have Secrets out. At worst, it's a 5/5. If it survives one round, it's a 7/7 (possibly damaged, of course).
Later in the game, see if you can combo Baron Rivendare with a Sludge Belcher or two. When Sludge Belcher dies, it will summon two 1/2 Slimes with Taunt. The combo is really strong, since you essentially get 5 Attack and 9 Health out of one card that costs 5 mana. Great, right? Now try comboing this... with Kel'Thuzad.
I know, I know, it sounds unlikely, but it has actually happened to me more often than one would think. I have watched my enemies killing my Sludge Belcher, letting it summon 2 taunting Slimes in the process, only to see it respawn when the turn ended. I was litterally lol'ing. Also, keep in mind that when Kel'Thuzad reanimates your minions with Deathrattle, Undertakers will get another buff!
The problem with combo decks is, that if your opponent removes your minions from the board too early, you'll never get to utilize their full potential. That's why I put Counterspell in the deck, and while it's a great Secret, my favorite has to be Duplicate (thanks a lot, Naxx!). I would love to be able to put another Ethereal Arcanist in, but I don't know what I should take out, and Duplicate solves the problem. If you can time it correctly, your opponent will remove a threat from your board, and BOOM! You've got two more coming.
Ususally you'll force your opponent into spending too many resources on removing threats on your board. Counterspell protects your minions, and Duplicate, well, duplicates them when they do die, thus giving you the card advantage for the late game, when your opponent only has one or two cards in their hand. That's when you summon Kel'Thuzad or Ragnaros the Firelord and go for the kill.
Almost any deck needs removal, so I put two Fireballs, two Polymorphs, a Flamestrike, and Ragnaros the Firelord in there too.
I did not really expect much from the deck to begin with. Back then, I had Stalagg and Feugen in it too, but I found them too inconsistent. It was too big of a risk to include them, though a Stalagg-Feugen-Baron Rivendare-Kel'Thuzad-combo sounds... completely f*cking OP.
It turns out, though, that the deck worked much smoother, than I had expected. But there may still be a few tweaks to make.
Let me hear what you think. Try it out, give it 5-10 games, and leave a comment with suggestions. That'd be great, thanks!
- Lauge99
Changelog:
I crafted Cairne Bloodhoof and replaced Spellbreaker with him.
Very solid Mage deck, works great in Ranked mode! Very enjoyable and a winnable deck!
That's funny, I recently got Baron Rivendare and designed something like this myself. I still lack a lot of the cards needed, though. Have you tried Spell Bender in place of Mirror Entity? I have Mirror Entity and, from my use of it, as well as playing against it, it's fairly easy to play around so that it just copies something useless that's not even worth 3 mana, especially against Hunter and Zoo. Seems to me SpellBender would work better because it protects your combo pieces, which should provide more consistency. I guess the risk is that you Duplicate the token minion rather than what you want.
Since we had a reset on rank ladder, I decided to give this deck 10 shots in ranked games. I'll let you know how well it does. (rank 17 atm)
By the way I swapped Acolyte of Pain with an Arcane Intellect cuz usually I draw only a single card with him.
Ok I've played 10 ranked games. Here is the report;
This deck is destroying druids, 3-0 W-L
Hunters are little bit tricky 2-1 W-L
I would say zoo is pretty tough match-up, but not impossible. Lost by few points twice. 0-2 W-L
The rest were a mid-range rogue and a freeze mage. No problem. 2-0 W-L
So %70 win rating is quite good and opponents were not noobs because ranks have been reset. Eventually I got up to 15 from 17. Thanks for this useful deck my friend. Good job.
I've been running a similar deck (more of the Mana Wyrm + Death Rattle variation) for the last couple of days and found that Mirror Entity is very detrimental in this Hunter heavy Meta. In fact my win-rate against hunter is abysmal (20% maybe). You end up feeding their Unleash combo. I would recommend Vaporize, Ice Barrier, or Ice Block as a substitute.
Very fun Mage deck, had a Warrior quit half way, he didn't like the combinations and Baron Rivendare, this deck may be good for Ranked, maybe reaching Legend, just my guess, I'll leave that for the experts to decide and discuss! Thanks for sharing!
I never found a good mage deck, this is my favorite thus far!
This deck is bad against Priests, had trouble against 1 Warlock, bad starting cards, anyway, in my opinion, any suggestions?
Very nice and fun deck. Thanks a lot man