⚙
Learn More
Cosmetics
Related Cards
Card Pools
✕
×
PopCard Settings
Click on the buttons to change the PopCard background.
Elements settings
Click on the button to hide or unhide popcard elements.
Click on the buttons to change the PopCard background.
Click on the button to hide or unhide popcard elements.
Of course you pick golem over acolyte, golem is one of, if not *the*, best 3 drop. That's besides the point though; Artea was simply pointing out that acolyte is yet another neutral card that has significant synergy with Mage's hero power.
My 2 completed arena runs today:
Druid 6-3
Paladin 6-3
5 of those 6 losses were to mages. Of those 5 losses, I was close (and actually ahead) in just one of those games, until he was able to get a ragnaros on the board and flip board control, as well as a lucky ragnaros shot on one of my minions. I did beat a few mages in there, but the bottom line is that mages are undeniably top of the pile in arena.
Regarding my previous point, my point is that mage class cards are great, but the BEST mage class card is NOT flamestrike, it's Water Elemental, and the fact that mages can ping to exact standards makes their fireballs, frostbolts, and flamestrikes as powerful as they are.
The Freeze effects are borderline OP, I've been on both sides of the fence, where I'm sitting there and can't do jack cuz I'm frozen, or because when I'm playing mage I can live an extra turn by running my beaten up Welly into an 8/8 ironbark protector to keep my face alive for one more turn.
I'm not complaining, per se. I abuse the crap out of this. Any time mage comes up, I pick it. But at this point, even with just two 12-win arena runs under my belt, I do feel a bit dirty about it.
3-3 with rogue right now. All 3 losses to mages. One was close, the other 2 were not. Other classes I had a few games that were close but I was never in danger of losing.
Every time I watch arena streamers, it's mages that end up getting advantage on them.
I don't think it's just a matter of me being good with mage, and average or worse with other classes. Mages are better. I don't understand why people deny this. It's not just my record and experience, the numbers seem to bear it out.
Freezing is very useless in arena IMO losing cards for no reason
Momentum.
When the board is dealing large amounts of damage, delaying your opponent for 1 turn at the cost of 1 card can provide immense value.
But how often does it
I tend to agree that Frost Nova and Ice Lance are weak Arena picks. The added effect of Blizzard and Water Elemental, though, can be amazing. Not just for the effect; their other effects are what make them "worth it" (Elemental being a great minion in its own right, Blizzard for one earlier turn of AE removal).
I actually had a game recently (to be released in The Arena Junky #25) where Frost Nova was completely worthless for my opponent because he made it so obvious he was going for a freeze & flamestrike follow-up. As a result, I was able to play around it and ruin his momentum and card advantage which led to me winning.
My Youtube Channel // The Arena Junky Series
Ahrmin on Twitch
@OP Just curious. Why are you talking about RNG in RNGville being a problem? When you go into RNGville you accept your going into an RNG filled enviroment filled with RNG, and hte fact mages have better RNG in there means nothing.
Seriously though. It's arena, its the RNG of a card game inflated. If you arn't happy mages get more of an advantage there, dont play arena.
Just logged in to US while waiting for EU servers and now i'm against 8th mage in a row. What kind of madness is going on with mage hype these days ?
Normally I don't mind Mages, but I dislike facing 7 in a row (ended up going 4-3... never got to try my deck against anything other than a Mage).
My three losses can be summed up thus:
vs. 5/4, 1/1
I got hit by a Flamestrike followed by the perfect Arcane Missiles distribution to let them wipe out my board.
And the worse part is that I knew it was a weak deck vs. Mages (3 Worgen Infiltrators - trust me, aside from the 1st the other options were worse) - but I never got to try it vs anyone else.
Mages are extremely obnoxious at arena. I even got a 12-win with mage using "go for face+3 fireballs" strategy and I don't feel really good about it. Some really obnoxious persons even go as far as writing "Thank you" every time before flamestriking or when you concede.
My last 3 mage arena runs have been 12 wins. In between mages, I I've had between 3-7 wins with rogue, druid, paladin.
In my opinion anyone who denies that mages are OP in arena is simply blinding themselves from the truth.
The bottom line is mages just can't have a bad draft. Their class cards are too good, and the hero power is more synergistic with every friendly minion and enemy minion in terms of exacting value from your damage, than any other hero power out there.
of course they can have a bad draft, its just less likely to happen. i had one getting for rares choices between arcanist, corsair and lightwarden 3 times out of 4, didnt get a single spell or water ele and was forced to pick mostly average minions like kobold, razorfen, booty bay taunt, tauren warrior, patriarch etc, just because i was offered wisp like 6 times and footman and the 1/1 murlock like 4 times.
Yes, mages are definitely above average arena pick overall, but that doesnt mean their draft is automatically 5+ wins, esppecially if you meet some of the lucky drafts that even get their right cards and demolish you in 5 or 6 turns no matter how good quality of your cards is. Just in a last week, I played against two priests with t2 mukla and one with t1 millhouse, shaman with 3 unbounds at turn 4 and hand full of overload cards or druid that on t3 went questing coin 2x innerv into 1/1 + storm knight to clear my 3/2, questing was 7/7... combos like these piss me off alot more than mage having three flamestrikes or 4 fireballs...
Mages are one of my lower performing arena classes. I've never gotten past win #5 when using a Mage.
This could be an RNG issue, or it could be my playstyle doesn't mesh well with their mechanics - but they are not auto-wins.
I think Mages are the strongest class in Arena, but at least they are pretty weak in Constructed. My solution has always been to play Mage in Arena. If I can't beat 'em, I join 'em.
I've had 3 in a row on this run. Beat them all, though (natch).
Was randomly watching Trump's stream the other day and he pointed out Shaman's a pretty good counter for Mage (Mage hero power not value vs. most totems). So maybe it's worth some 'Arena meta play' (like that's a thing) and choosing Shaman over Mage now for that reason!? I guess that's one reason I've had luck with Shaman drafts - once you get up to the good and/or lucky players you are actually more able to win?
Wow he took three Arcane Intellects? +1 card for 3 mana... Not sure I'd take 3 (unless other choices bad etc. etc.).
Sour aboot 3 taunts in a row, though, Hatin' that!
All I see our mages and it just gets boring. I have pretty good win rate against them but there are times where they snowball beyond compare. Of all the changes, I wish they could not ping their own creatures with the hero power. Just changing that alone would make them feel a lot more balanced and not give any kind of enrage deck an instant win.
I love random empty statements like these. It adds nothing to the original argument and helps nobody.
I believe most of you have been missing the point. I argument is not that Mages have stronger cards than other classes, but rather that the good cards are much more likely to be drafted due to the fact that they are basic. And that fact alone completely changes the way you should approach an arena match unlike against any other class. It just gives them too many likely weapons for you to try to circumvent. You just can't. Granted this can happen with any class, it's just not that likely.
Of course you are gonna run into bad Mage decks. Of course you are gonna play against bad players. Of course you are gonna win matches against Mages. That's the nature of the game. The argument is that the multitude of weapons the Mage usually has to work with outlasts the other classes in a straight up match. Simply because they are basic cards. How many times has it happened to you that you get a combination of Fireballs, Frostbolt, Flamestrike and Polymorph on consecutive turns? Add to that the hero skill (which I'm not advocating it's overpowered, it's just the way it is) and arguably the best 4 drop in the game in Water Elemental, and you have yourself an uphill battle without a single expert card.
Blizzard claims that Hearthstone should be about solving a puzzle every single turn you are called in to play. That's been their argument to support pretty much all of the balance changes that have taken place. How fair is it that when you're facing a Mage you have to account for the fact that he most likely has a solution for your next play every single turn at the game?
The solution is plain and simply make said cards not basic. We could argue all day as to which ones, but that's easily the solution. Not rebalance the cards, just change the rarity. I realize that would require the developers to revisit the entire tutorial, which I understand it's something they don't want to have to deal with. But I'm afraid that's the only solution to what I consider to be the major problem in Hearthstone at the moment, at least in terms of Arena. That is, until the first expansion comes out and the new cards/mechanics contribute in someway to rebalance this issue.
It was a direct response to