by JR Cook - 10 years ago     show comments

Every Friday a legendary member from team DKMR breaks down Don’t Kick My Robot’s “Deck of the Week” . These decks are seeing a lot of play either in constructed ladder or tournaments. Team DKMR explains the deck lists and how to play them. Make sure you check out Don’t Kick My Robot if you want to become a better player or check out their premium services if you would like them to do a 1 on 1 coaching session with you to help you better your game. View past Deck Lists of the Week.

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[DKMR]Powder here, bringing you the Deck of the Week. This week we will take a look at the class that many people have stopped playing, Mage. This deck is a heavy aggro deck that TheFishou used in the European Qualifiers for Blizzcon with great success. With many early threats and great burst this deck seems to be one of the strongest Aggro decks at the moment.

The Deck:

Ice Lance: Ice Lance is a very deceptive card as it is an insane burst card but it has to be comboed with a freeze. Doing 4 damage for 1 mana is pretty insane but there are just not that many cards to combo it with, but when you find that Frostbolt the damage is insane!

Mirror Image: Mirror Image is in many ways a “stall” card, meaning that because it gives you two taunts it prevents the opponent to do damage to your hero, however in this deck it has a quite different purpose. In this deck it is there for two reasons, 1. To combo with both Mana Wyrm and Knife Juggler and 2. Because you have so many small minions it prevents the opponent to easily clear these minions and allows you to do even more damage.

Leper Gnome: This is arguably the most aggressive card in the game, if the goal of the deck is to rush your opponent down fast this is one of the staple cards that you need and that is the only purpose of this Aggro Mage. Another great thing is that it combos with Undertaker.

Mana Wyrm: Gaining one attack for every spell that is played is pretty insane and it does not hurt that it is a 1-3 minion for one mana. Some of the combinations you can do with Mana Wyrm and the coin can win you games on turn 1 if your opponent can’t deal with it.

Undertaker: After Naxxramas Undertaker has been another staple card in any Aggro deck and this is no exception. With the amount of deathrattle minions Undertaker is a great addition to this deck and it is for sure one of the strongest turn one minions to play.
Frostbolt: There is not much to say about this card, it is a staple card in any mage deck simply because a three damage spell that also freezes is great. It is also a must have when you run Ice Lance because it is a great combination.

Bloodmage Thalnos: Being a legendary card but with only 1-1 stats there has to be several perks to make it a good card and with Bloodmage this is definitely the case. Having both a card draw and spell power is helps this deck with both draw and being able to do that extra damage in some situations with Frostbolt and Ice Lance.

Knife Juggler: Maybe one of the more RNG based cards in Hearthstone but it is for sure a fun card to play. Since this deck focuses on aggro Knife Juggler has a field day with all the small minions and it is also a great combination with Mirror Image as it gives you two free juggles.

Loot Hoarder: Loot Hoarder is a great aggressive card that allows you to keep drawing through your deck and find more small minions to play. In combination with Undertaker, Loot Hoarder is one of the strongest turn two plays as it allows you to cycle through your deck as well as putting a small threat on the board.

Mad Scientist: Mad Scientist is very similar to Loot Hoarder in many ways, it puts a small threat on the board as well as lets you cycle through your deck. The only difference between the two is that Mad Scientist plays the card for you where Loot Hoarder gives you the next card in your deck.

Sorcerer’s Apprentice: This little gnome makes the Mage deck way more efficient than it normally is, making Mirror Images and Ice Lances castable for free. There are a lot of combos you can pull off with the Apprentice, be it together with the Knife Juggler + Mirror Images or together with the Mana Wyrm and cheaper spells. It also poses a reasonable threat to the opponents life total since it is a 3/2 for 2 mana.

Arcane Intellect: Next to Loot Hoarder it is the only way for the Mage to sustain their onslaught on their opponents life total. 3 Mana for 2 cards is actually not that great but the potential of combo-ing it with Mana Wyrm and Sorcerer’s Apprentice make the Arcane Intellect Mages prime source of card draw.

Counterspell: Similar to Arcane Intellect, this card isn’t great for its cost of 3 mana. So it relies on the Deathrattle of Mad Scientist to come into play. Counterspell can swing a game when it blocks an AoE spell of your opponent and help you to snowball your board lead. Sometimes it is really hard to play around if you don’t have 2 low cost spells. Its archenemy is The Coin.

Fireball: The quintessential card in the Mage deck. It is the main finisher of the deck and the best card to get if you want to push through a giant taunt. If you draw them early though, it often sits in your hand for a while without doing much. Feel free to use it as a tempo card to swing the board in your favor and buff your Mana Wyrms.

Water Elemental: This card is just a better Chillwind Yeti. Although it doesnt have the 4 Attack Power, it comes with more durability and a passive that is just mindblowing. It disables minions for at least 1 Turn and can permanently freeze an enemy champion if it stays on the board. That can really be a problem for classes that rely on weapons such as Paladin and Warrior.

The Mulligan

Because you have so many one mana creatures this is what you are looking for when you are mulliganing, and even more Undertaker and Mana Wyrm. These two cards are what makes this deck snowball and they are the two most important cards to look for.

The Coin

The coin is always great to have when you are playing this deck simply because you have so many small minions and the coin allows you to play maybe one more one mana minion or simply coin out a two mana minion turn one. You can also combo the coin with Mana Wyrm making it even better.

The Gameplan

With this deck you have one goal and one goal only to rush your opponent down as fast as possible. You do this by gaining board control early with your low mana threats and then basically dealing as much damage as you can with your minions so that you can then finished them off with your burn spells.

Final Thoughts

We hope that this deck can gain you some ranks as well as be one of your staple tournament decks in the future.

[DKMR]Powder streams weekdays http://www.twitch.tv/PowderHS. You can find all of DKMR’s streamers on their website with the days that they stream!

Written by [DKMR]Powder

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