Hearthpwn

shameless bump

would you replace lore and keeper now that theyve been nerfed?  

thanks for the reply man, I like your list and I want to explain the choices you questioned.  I used to run 2 polies but in most situations fireball does the same job more mana efficiently.  More importantly it helps burn down decks that otherwise may outlast you like priest.  I think removing one or both fireballs would make me reconsider other parts of the deck such as alexstraza as well.  I agree that nightmare is too slow in the current meta, but I think it will slow down considerably and my current list, which i got to rank 5 with this season, is not nearly so greedy.  Feel free to add me if you want to talk about choices more, i'm always looking for more input on my dragon mage.  

while i disagree with a lot of what you said, im glad to get some healthy discussion going so lets do it :P.  

overall, I want you to try and have the mentality that this deck goes for high value cards, and is meant to counter most other control decks.  my current list has extremely favorable matchups vs control warior/priest and you could go to my profile if youd like to check it out.  

cult:  he's my healbot replacement.  against zoo or something, especially with brann, he could get big heals, not to mention trading favorably with most aggro minions.  vs control matchups where im not as concerned about healing hes actually a better healbot since his statline is stronger and is less of a dead card.  I see your points, but im not willing to thin my deck more with ice barriers because those are dead draws vs control and most likely not as beneificial vs aggro because they cant trade.  

thaurison.  He might get cut, but he helps the lategame curve by discounting larger cards and allowing turn 8 ysera, or just in general making the greedy curve in this deck a little lower.  maybe he lets me play guardian and backwing curruptor on turn 7.  

deathwing dragonlord.  This is sadly where i agree with you the most.  Currently my threats in  my dragon mage (which i got to rank 5 this season) are chillmaw, rag, ysera, alex, deathwing.  Yeah its greedy but the deck is designed to beat other control decks.  Deathwing Dragon lord requires precise placement its true, but i wouldnt mindlessly drop him on curve.  More likely I would look to be playing my threats in order vs control so all he drops is lets say ysera, or chillmaw.  I plan on using him like a big boy version of piloted shredder for lategame lol.  Sadly, he lacks the ability to be an "oh shit" button like normal deathwing, and I agree his interaction is weak with battlecry minions.  To combat this I would either A- put more cards like rag or chromaggus/ hungry dragon over twilight drake, ect instead of more battlecries.  Or b- just sub back in normal deathwing.  

Twilight drake.  To "get value" from him, i'm looking for him to be 4/6 or at worst 5 or 4.  Youd be surprised how often you can get 6-7 hp on turn 4 with this deck.  Its not exactly a vomit your hand playstyle, and a strong drake is a good recovery tool for not having a good starting hand- ie not playing anything turn 1/2 or maybe even 3 if your luck is bad.  That being said, my current list runs a duplicate which this list does not because of no mad scientist.  Duplicate has strong synergy with drake and I very well could be hunting for a replacement, possibly hungry dragon.  

scaled nightmare.  Sure he's slow, but the whole deck is.  My first thought when i saw this card get announced wasnt that he would provide immediate value so much as he is an extra win condition.  What his purpose (along with ET mainly) is, is to draw out hard removal from control decks.  If he gets an execute or entomb/swd that cant be used later on my larger threats, hes done his job.  Vs aggro, im more concerned about hp than attack in terms of trading.  he will be a nightmare(no pun intended) for aggro decks to remove and could easily trade with 2-4 minions.  More than anything, if he is not adressed, you will win in 3-4 turns.  I consider that a very valuable thing.  All that being said- Im biased towards him because it is new.  after play testing I can easily see myself using crusher or even greedier options perhaps.  

Alexstraza- this is the one i disagree with most.  Most matchups the damage she provides is irrelevant.  Generally the gameplan is to run the oponent out of answers and just win with threats they cant remove.  Alex has a special place for the priest matchup in particular.  Priest plays the fatigue game very well and if i can build any sort of board going into turn 9, I can surpise him and drop his health below 10 that turn, following up with fireball/frostbolts.  This deck can deal 15 damage from hand on turn 10 if you plan ahead.   

Fallen hero: currently his spot is filled by explosive sheep.  He's a greedy choice but will basically always trade 1/1 with other 2 drops which is not ideal but acceptable.  later on he becomes far less of a dead draw than any other 2 drop I can think of, and is also a rare two drop that demands removal even in the late game.  If youre noticing a theme its that basically everything in the deck demands removal in one way or another.  To be fair, its not hard to imagine some other 2 drop coming out with the release that steals his spot, preferably a 2/3 with some positive effect.  

jewled scarab.  he does several things.  1-makes it easier to play on curve.  2- synergy with bran.  6 extra mana of value from a 2 drop, yes please.  most importantly, i wont know if i want a flamewaker or a second ice block or even a duplicate until the game has begun and scarab allows for flexibility, especially in a slower meta which I expect.  

slinger- not a fan of him for rng reasons but I absolutely see your point and in a tempo dragon mage (which ive played a bit of in the past) i absolutely agree with you.  For pure value and board control, her statline is just unmatched.  I know it wont exist in standard, but id like to point out that tech is a 3 drop which can trade with shredder.  

overall: thanks for your input!  as i try and figure out what to do with this deck in the first few weeks of standard i'm sure ill refer to this post.  just remember its control, not tempo, and id also be curious to see your dragon tempo list as traditional tempo mage is another one of my favorite decks.  

Really cool stuff man, i like the deathwing choice.  You should check out my standard dragon mage too.  As far as changes go for yours, what makes polymorph boar stronger than normal polymorph?  Other than that I pretty much agree with your choices.  

I could probablycut chillmaw but in my current list I dont know where else to find room.  What it struggles with anyway is secret pally and druid so flamestrike usually isnt the best there anyways.  

Dragon Mage.  my personal predator for when dragon priest and control warrior are popular ;)

Ive been waiting on this shift to what likely will be a control meta for months now.  I've gotten rank 5 as dragon mage this season and this new list will hopefully be even stronger in standard!  Let me know what you think, and please add any suggestions you think may help improve this deck.  If control warrior is a big player then this deck will be a monster.  Current list has 70% wr vs warrior.    Link also has my current dragon mage list.  

 http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/472214-standard-value-dragon-mage

http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/434702-deathwing-dragon-mage-60-w-r

I definitely see myself using this in my dragon decks, particularly dragon mage where im hurting for a good 6 drop and for mid game threats in general.  It seems like a good way to bait removal before your big guns come out and if its not dealt with then gg.  

Id say nefarian or ragnaros or chrommagus would all be really good options.  Basically youd be looking for another win condition to replace him.  You could also replace him with another 5 drop like corruptor, belcher or healbot and maybe drop emperor for another big threat.  

Hey man cool deck!  I like the idea of control mage alot and would be interested to see what you think of my dragon mage.  I went 3-3 with it at rank 3 yesterday which was cool since id only played it to rank 4 in the past.  http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/434702-deathwing-dragon-mage-60-w-r

Yeah man your list looks solid too, I like the choice of conjuror.  I dunno if I'd be willing to run two intellects over minions though, I feel like it's really important to just put something on the board turn 2 or 3 vs aggro

edit: something I think I forgot to clarify above is also that playing hard on curve in the early to mid game is very effective vs control.  If you drop a strong minion every turn starting two or three then you can really dominate the board and force bad clears and removals from there.  Its intended to be a control deck that overwhelms other control decks which is why I made choices like tech/bgh/brann in the 3 drop spot over illuminator for instance.  Illuminator is definitely good vs aggro but I never found her winning me a lot of games.  I will say that you could remove techs for illuminators but youd need to find space for a second duplicate because two secrets is pretty light to run her with.  I was aiming for more flexible cards depending on matchups.  Like how Brann has some really cool options vs control but vs aggro he's basically a second copy of healbot.  

What do you think would be good subs in your opinion? I'd be really reluctant to drop one or both drakes though because of dragon synergy if nothing else.  

Probably flamestrike is best so you still have two big clears.  Something like barron geddon or dr boom wouldnt be that bad either but flamestrike is about as good as chillmaw.  Chillmaw is just situationally better at times for synergy, to get duplicated, or to trade with a single big minion occasionally.  

I like the list man!  Ive played my own dragon mage to rank 4 a few times, and i'd appreciate hearing what you have to think about it.  http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/434702-deathwing-dragon-mage-60-w-r