Hearthpwn

I'm sitting at Rank 7 right now with a similar style of deck. I'm fairly certain I even played against this deck at Rank 12. A decent player could pretty easily get to rank 10 or so with this. An "ok" deck should get you to Rank 15 pretty easily. 

A good Rogue player should be able to get to Rank 5 or even to Legend since it's just a minion-based variation on Tempo Rogue.

Against Ramp Druid you have easy answers for all of their minions except Ancient of War. Eviscerate and Bomb Lobber are both good answers. You can simply sap the Ancient of War and push face. The hard matchups would be Hunter and Mech Mage. 

Quote from nazhuret »

I just played 6 games in a row (16-13) and faced essentially this deck all 6 times. I am playing my own variation on a mech mage but won every game with almost no resistance. It is an interesting deck and it is nice to see Rogue back in the ladder but you can play around rogue's deficiencies pretty easily (which is kinda sad to see). I have seen a few variations with one running the cog hammer/blade and one running a azure drakes/bloodmage to get big blade fury and also big backstabs/eviscerates. They are interesting but just too slow and incomplete against anything that puts out enough bodies. I also see more Prep/Sprint and honestly think it is a dumb combo for a rogue with very little payoff for the cards.

They were probably playing it wrong. I'm sitting at Rank 8 with a single loss against Mech Mage due to a bad draw.

Edit: I play a  variant on the Bloodmage/Flurry variation, but the point of the deck isn't to win with Flurry. 

Quote from fleshmanz »

Sorry but you're lying about the win rate against druids just played 10 and only won against one, everyone is running the aggressively high taunt Druid, it's fucking ridiculous.

Calling someone a liar because you can't play the deck/got bad luck is fairly idiotic. 

Would Harvest Golem be a better choice than Spider Tank? To try and get more consistent value with Tinkertown and Iron Sensei?

Rag is going to get BGH'd as it is the only target for BGH in the deck. I think Antonidas is less circumstantial and just as strong, if a little slower at times. 

The issue here is, you are playing a Burn deck without a consistent way to dictate the pace of the game from the beginning. You only have 4 2-drops, and of them, one is simply a stall method. Deathlord is similar in that he is a stall piece, but I think we could assert board control better with another Spider Tank or even Unstable Portal.

Portal is almost always good though. If you get a <3 cost minion, you can drop it, and if you get a >5 cost minion, you pretty much win. This deck isn't hyper-aggro, not really. It plays that way to make your opponent waste removal and then drops late game threats to mop up the game. It's a pretty strong Midrange mech deck.

Mana Wurm is okay in this deck as a 1/3 because it will trade against other aggro decks and live. Plus, it has synergy with the spare parts you get and it doesn't get killed by hero power or heal your opponent.

I think the key is to play a more Control like variant than to try and get early giants. 

Molten Giant triggering Duplicate results in too many threats for decks to deal with effectively.

Slow games though. Very long, slow games.

Been thinking of removing Sylvanus, but this meta is so damn sticky that she is the best removal for a ton of things. :l

You're welcome! It's always a pleasure to help out a fellow Mage user when all the Meta seems set against us. :P

I don't really like the Sunfury Protector and Defender of Argus in this deck. I feel like an extra Ice Block would be more useful.

Messing around with the deck, I found I had more luck with

-2 Sunfury
-1 Defender of Argus
-1 Sunwalker
+1 Ice Block
+1 Blizzard
+1 Sludge Belcher+1 Harrison Jones

Harrison Jones is fantastic in the current Meta. Eaglehorn Bow, Doomhammer, Death's Bite are all strong cards in the meta.
I think Sludge Belcher/Ice Block are better choices than Sunfury. The Belcher gets ridiculous value with Duplicate, and the having two Ice Blocks adds a strong element of surprise. Most players won't expect a second Ice Block. Alternatively, another Counterspell would also be good in order to stop Flare more consistently.
Finally, I just like Blizzard more than Sunwalker. Just my preference. I'd prefer to leave myself open to burst and hope my Ice Block will save me than let the opponent pile up on the board.

Hate bears is an archetype in Magic where you run all cards that are only meant as meta tech. Ideally, you would have a counter for every type of deck to maintain tempo.

In Magic, those would be Thalia, Spirit of the Labyrinth, Leonin Arbiter, Aven Mindcensor etc.

In Hearthstone, those are Acidic Ooze, Blood Knight, the Black Knight, BGH, Senjn, etc.

The issue is that too many decks use Leeroy. Shockadin, Miracle Rouge, Face Hunter, Windfury.dec, Zoo. I've even ran into Handlocks running Leeroy (note that this is the exception to the rule for Handlock, I believe). It's not that he's riduculously strong (which he kinda is, 6 damage is a fifth of your life total. For 4 mana.), it's that he discourages adversity.

Another issue with Leeroy is that there are no indicators to when he is going to be played. Since he is so low cost, you could Black Knight, Leeroy, Shadowstep-win all in a turn. Or Lightning Storm, Leeroy, Windfury, Rockbiter. Or Shadowbolt, Leeroy, double Power Overwhelming. Makes the OTK hard to play around.

Would it be worth it to add in? You're playing a lot of totems anyways, and Turn 2 Knife Juggler into T3 Feral Spirit seems pretty decent to me. Gives a little extra reach against decks and potentially kills minions in Zoo and Palading. Ideas?

I hate when people relieve themselves on me, so I guess I can see his point when you say it that way.

So my internet shut down mid-game, and I knew I had lethal next turn barring some ridiculous play that boggles the mind, and I only get my router rebooted as the timer starts counting down. I immediately play my Bloodlust, kill him, and go about my day with a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile, my opponent apparently was not sighing. I get a friend request two seconds after the game.

I get called out for being bad mannered. Try to apologize to the guy, but he's so salty that I guess he took my apology as being sarcastic or something. I really wish I had just replied with, "Get rekt, scrub." or something. xD

Best Legendary replacement for Al'Akir? I have enough dust to make a Legend, but if there is a comparable neutral, I'd like that more. xD