I chose Mage to ladder in Standard on my f2p account this month. I quickly got rank 13 playing a tempo mage deck, and then the meta set it and I got pushed back to 15-16. I've tried several things, and now holding out around rank 15 with the deck below, but I can't find a deck that can win against any of the main competitive decks with like Jade Druid, Miracle Rogue, or Dragon Priest (Drakonid Operative might as well say Battlecry: Add a Fireball or Polymorph to your hand). After spending some dust to try to build an unsuccessful Freeze Mage deck, I have basically none left.
Here is the deck that is keeping my head above level 16, mostly. It has enough early game to sometimes survive pirates. I put in Malchezaar and Medivh to try to create the value I'm otherwise missing.
1x Arcane Blast
2x Arcane Missiles
1x Babbling Book
2x Mana Wyrm
1x Arcane Explosion
1x Cult Sorcerer
2x Flame Juggler
2x Frostbolt
2x Sorcerer's Apprentice
2x Acolyte of Pain
2x Arcane Intellect
1x Flamewaker
2x Fireball
2x Polymorph
1x Azure Drake
1x Prince Malchezaar
1x Emperor Thaurissan
1x Firelands Portal (this has gotten a lot worse with MSG's lousy 5-drops)
I don't know how viable it is (since I do not like playing mage), but I could imagine that an aggro mage can bring you down in rank. Besides Ice Block and Doomsayer the deck needs only a low budget. And maybe you have these cards anyway so I thought it might be worth a shot...
Here is an example of such a deck. You start with your cheap minions and usually go face. then you cycle through your deck and burst the opponent down before he kills you. It's often a tight race, but Ice Block gives you some time. On youtube are also some videos of Trump playing the aggro mage.
I don't know how viable it is (since I do not like playing mage), but I could imagine that an aggro mage can bring you down in rank. Besides Ice Block and Doomsayer the deck needs only a low budget. And maybe you have these cards anyway so I thought it might be worth a shot...
Here is an example of such a deck. You start with your cheap minions and usually go face. then you cycle through your deck and burst the opponent down before he kills you. It's often a tight race, but Ice Block gives you some time. On youtube are also some videos of Trump playing the aggro mage.
I crafted the Ice Blocks, but I would have to craft a Doomsayer and the two Coldlight Oracles. That's 600 dust, and I only have 320 right now after crafting the Ice Blocks. I tried the Ice Blocks in a burn deck using Thaurissan and Devolved Kobold. It's okay for hovering around rank 15, but that's it. It needs Doomsayers, and it's not fun to play.
The deck I have is at least fun to play with. The plan is to play tempo in the early game, then survive to the late game with a big hand to finish with legendaries and burn spells after flamestriking. It can outburn slow decks, and it can survive and outvalue some tempo decks. I haven't seen many pirate warriors at my level in EU server, but they're not impossible to beat with this deck. I have been seeing a few more non-optimal decks at rank 15, which is good. Jade Druid, Jade Miracle Rogue, Dragon Priest, and Renolock are impossible to beat. There is small chance to beat Agro Shaman with the deck.
The biggest problem with Jade Druid is Feral Rage - I have played several games against Jade Druid where the 8 armor put them outside of lethal after I got a fast start with burn. Jade Idol, of course, is ridiculously cheap. Ragnaros is also a huge problem since I can't always have a Polymorph ready for the opponent's turn 8, when there's a 40% chance Ragnaros will be played.
Basically there are no Mage decks, budget or not, but especially not budget, that can complete in the current meta.
Well, I found a budget Mage deck that got me from Rank 16 to Rank 12 within the last three days. Not seeing as many meta decks at this rank this time of the month, and those I see are often played poorly. My deck is a variation of Sheng's Budget C'thun Mage Deck: https://manacrystals.com/deck_guides/422-sheng-s-budget-standard-c-thun-mage/
My deck below contains Twin Emperor (obtained from a pack) and a crafted Arcane Blast. I had to get rid of Arcane Missiles. I need to know where the damage is going - in other words, to kill minions I need dead, not to do needless face damage.
I lost my last two games at rank 12 after a wining streak., one to a Paladin with a full suite of crafted fat Legendaries, one to ComboRenoLock - I had a chance if I could have drawn C'thun. I Paveled a couple of games with my Babbling Book.
My best victory was against a Renolock. My Faceless Summoner had proc'ed a Shaky Zipgunner. My C'thun was at 17 and in my hand. Warlock cleared the board with Twisting nether, and Shaky Zipgunner buffed my C'thun (50% chance). Warlock tapped from 21 to 19. Boo-yah! His deck tracker showed C'thun at 17 not 19, so he figured he could tap and just Reno the following round. THAT was a mistake.
I'm often gasping for board clears, but I'm afraid of switching out a valuable minion for another Flamestrike.
After much 50%-ing, I finally hit Rank 11 today with my budget f2p C'thun Mage deck! Yes, it's the little things. I beat an agro shaman and pirate warrior to get there.
Vs. Agro Shaman I kept Water Elemental in mulligan and got my second, too. I had removal for about every OP thing that he threw out. He got frozen for one turn with Doomhammer, but that turn bought me the round I needed to win. He had to spend his Lava Burst on the second Elemental. I was in a bad position but a timely C'thun cleared his board. He got me down to 1, but it wasn't enough. Amazing.
The pirate warrior was playing a non-optimized deck with Naga Corsair and Wolfrider, although he did have Patches. Thank goodness for the end of the month. Luckily he also had bad draws like Bloodsail Cultist with no weapon. I won the damage race.
Water Elementals are very powerful in this meta since they shut down Shaman and Warrior so hard. I've switched out one Faceless Summoner for a Cone of Cold to help deal with agro. The nice thing is that budget Mages do have some answers for the current agro decks. Of course you have to draw them...
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I chose Mage to ladder in Standard on my f2p account this month. I quickly got rank 13 playing a tempo mage deck, and then the meta set it and I got pushed back to 15-16. I've tried several things, and now holding out around rank 15 with the deck below, but I can't find a deck that can win against any of the main competitive decks with like Jade Druid, Miracle Rogue, or Dragon Priest (Drakonid Operative might as well say Battlecry: Add a Fireball or Polymorph to your hand). After spending some dust to try to build an unsuccessful Freeze Mage deck, I have basically none left.
Here is the deck that is keeping my head above level 16, mostly. It has enough early game to sometimes survive pirates. I put in Malchezaar and Medivh to try to create the value I'm otherwise missing.
1x Arcane Blast
2x Arcane Missiles
1x Babbling Book
2x Mana Wyrm
1x Arcane Explosion
1x Cult Sorcerer
2x Flame Juggler
2x Frostbolt
2x Sorcerer's Apprentice
2x Acolyte of Pain
2x Arcane Intellect
1x Flamewaker
2x Fireball
2x Polymorph
1x Azure Drake
1x Prince Malchezaar
1x Emperor Thaurissan
1x Firelands Portal (this has gotten a lot worse with MSG's lousy 5-drops)
2x Flamestrike
1x Medivh, the Guardian
RenoMage is probably the most competitive Mage decks at the moment....
I can't afford Ragnaros or cabalist tome...
I don't know how viable it is (since I do not like playing mage), but I could imagine that an aggro mage can bring you down in rank. Besides Ice Block and Doomsayer the deck needs only a low budget. And maybe you have these cards anyway so I thought it might be worth a shot...
Here is an example of such a deck. You start with your cheap minions and usually go face. then you cycle through your deck and burst the opponent down before he kills you. It's often a tight race, but Ice Block gives you some time. On youtube are also some videos of Trump playing the aggro mage.
Well, I found a budget Mage deck that got me from Rank 16 to Rank 12 within the last three days. Not seeing as many meta decks at this rank this time of the month, and those I see are often played poorly. My deck is a variation of Sheng's Budget C'thun Mage Deck: https://manacrystals.com/deck_guides/422-sheng-s-budget-standard-c-thun-mage/
My deck below contains Twin Emperor (obtained from a pack) and a crafted Arcane Blast. I had to get rid of Arcane Missiles. I need to know where the damage is going - in other words, to kill minions I need dead, not to do needless face damage.
I lost my last two games at rank 12 after a wining streak., one to a Paladin with a full suite of crafted fat Legendaries, one to ComboRenoLock - I had a chance if I could have drawn C'thun. I Paveled a couple of games with my Babbling Book.
My best victory was against a Renolock. My Faceless Summoner had proc'ed a Shaky Zipgunner. My C'thun was at 17 and in my hand. Warlock cleared the board with Twisting nether, and Shaky Zipgunner buffed my C'thun (50% chance). Warlock tapped from 21 to 19. Boo-yah! His deck tracker showed C'thun at 17 not 19, so he figured he could tap and just Reno the following round. THAT was a mistake.
I'm often gasping for board clears, but I'm afraid of switching out a valuable minion for another Flamestrike.
1x Arcane Blast
1x Babbling Book
2x Mana Wyrm
2x Beckoner of Evil
2x Frostbolt
2x Sorcerer's Apprentice
2x Arcane Intellect
2x Disciple of C'thun
2x Twilight Elder
1x C'thun's Chosen
2x Fireball
2x Polymorph
2x Water Elemental
2x Azure Drake
2x Faceless Summoner
1x Flamestrike
1x Twin Emperor Vek'lor
1x C'thun
After much 50%-ing, I finally hit Rank 11 today with my budget f2p C'thun Mage deck! Yes, it's the little things. I beat an agro shaman and pirate warrior to get there.
Vs. Agro Shaman I kept Water Elemental in mulligan and got my second, too. I had removal for about every OP thing that he threw out. He got frozen for one turn with Doomhammer, but that turn bought me the round I needed to win. He had to spend his Lava Burst on the second Elemental. I was in a bad position but a timely C'thun cleared his board. He got me down to 1, but it wasn't enough. Amazing.
The pirate warrior was playing a non-optimized deck with Naga Corsair and Wolfrider, although he did have Patches. Thank goodness for the end of the month. Luckily he also had bad draws like Bloodsail Cultist with no weapon. I won the damage race.
Water Elementals are very powerful in this meta since they shut down Shaman and Warrior so hard. I've switched out one Faceless Summoner for a Cone of Cold to help deal with agro. The nice thing is that budget Mages do have some answers for the current agro decks. Of course you have to draw them...