High ranked spell mage discussion

Multiplayer Discussion
1

If you think ladder spell mage is a terrible archtype deck please move on. No offense but that means you think you know what you are doing but you dont. Im not trying offend anybody im just stating a fact. No minion mage is actually very strong in the right hands. ( just like cyclone mage was )

With that being said I am currently diamond 2 and bounce to 1 and 3.

I have been expirmenting with adding quest to the deck with some good results. I am wondering if anybody has a refined deck list at Diamond 1 or higher with no minion and quest card.

Please any commits, experience, or tests involving adding quest to spell mage. Please share.

2

Being strong doesnā€™t necessarily mean the deck is good or fun.
Many players dislike a deck that makes most of your decisions for you and is dependent on luck or the lack of it for wins/losses.
That viewpoint is just as admissible as your love of the deck.
I have never played spell mage and have no intention of it.
I am glad you like the deck, but telling other players that they are wrong based on your enjoyment of it is not debate. Itā€™s pushing your opinion as the only viable one.

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3

Okay.

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4

Adding the quest is a terrible idea most of the meta is aggro and you need that starting slot to be removal ,the quest just takes up a slot and will lower your win rate .
And the deck can be ā€œvery strongā€ like you said but you can also get many low rolls thats why your rank is going up and down all the time.
You are at the mercy off RNG sure you can win 10 games in a row but get ready to losse just has much if luck doesnt favor you.

3 Likes
5

I just donā€™t think apexis blast and font of power are worth the trouble of building only with spells.

You can get better results if you actually put minions in your deck and the only real downside is not using the buildaround cards that arenā€™t that great.

Itā€™s like what happened with spell Hunter during KaC but a little less obvious. Your deck not gonna stop to be an spell magein the sense that it gonna still have mostly the same game plan.

You could play cards like:
Gadgetzan auctioneer, cloud Prince and many other really powerful minions that sinergize well with the deck.

Maybe in the future builds with spells only get better.

3 Likes
6

no minion mage is a fun deck, it can perform well because mage spells are strong but iā€™ll consider laddering with highlander mage since is more reliable

anyway, with all hunters, DHs and rogues, mage is in a thoughspot, and no, the quest is actually a bad idea, as exposed by some before

1 Like
7

Thank you for all your feedback. Im staying open to the idea just because of how satisfying the quest cards feel. I just cant shake the feeling there is something we are missing to make the quest very good.

8

Iā€™ve found more success with the quest than with Reno, granted, I am running a lot more secrets to get as much value out of any secret pulling spells and get enough tempo agains the faster decks.

9

Not hating, just pointing out some obvious jealousies i mean realistic comparisons. This is the powergap going on in Wild, someone could do the same for Uther and Garrosh as well, as to why we canā€™t play the long game.

Hope this sorta shines a light on the powergap.

  1. Evocation (1). Rex hasā€¦Zuljin? Stampede? Slam? Umm, Rex having Evo as-is, would only affect minion-trades and the-board, as opposed to your opponent face, which on turn 10+, face is the place if it isnā€™t aoe. Zuljin is basically an Evo but only what youve played all match (so like your burn being Call and Slam, taunt stoppable mostly, burn is way less, and such). Stampede would be like horribly u/p in comparison, no need to go into that obviously.

  2. Font of Power (1). Rex hasā€¦Hunterā€™s Pack? Eww! Get a minion to minion-secret most the time, a very-slow best probably, and a low-damage weapon.

  3. Learn Youtube, i mean Draconic (1). Rex hasā€¦Clear the Way, or Reinforcements, Unseal the Vault. ā€œUse spells (mage) vs play several-rush, or lose tempo on your HP, or play a games-worth of minions to get a minion-living-dependent rewardā€¦ā€.

  4. Magic Trick (1). Rex hasā€¦ā€œ9 livesā€. Discover something very-strong for free, vs discover something not-for-free, but get a free deathrattle tigger, if conditions are met like drawing that deathrattle, having it successfully die, and still being alive to play this without the match being over. Costs 2 more mana, to boot. This is what im talking about w the ā€˜gapā€™.

  5. Ray of Frost (1T). Rex hasā€¦spot removal too! Hey! A similarity for once, except, Rapid Fire most likely would be the comparison. Deal 2 anywhere vs freeze something and then deal 2 if you want to that turn. Rapid fire doesnt discount a quest plural, or stall. Its justā€¦there. Synergy-lacking would be the best name i think.

  6. Ancient Mysteries (2). Are you kidding me this is gravy. Rex hasā€¦Scavengerā€™s. Draw a Beast give it +3/+3 is fantastic, however, nobody interacts with secrets, secrets have synergy in three ways while active or played. Everyone interacts with minions, and playing a Beast doesnt do anything for our other cards in hand since things like buzzard are 5 mana or require prior minions to synergize, not just playing Beasts out.

  7. Incanterā€™s Flow (2). Rex hasā€¦absolutely nothing that discounts our Beasts in deck. We have, discount a beast, randomly, in your hand (Webweaver) for 6 mana attached to an irrelevant 5/5. Lol. The mana cheat discrepancy. I mean, Masterā€™s Call would be a better comparison, cheating a lot of mana for 3, but our requirement is only playing beasts, which is worse than playing spells that affect board or face, or defense, your choice. Opponents canā€™t interact with mageā€™s spells on their turn, they can interact with our beasts on their turn, and do just that. I guess Emerald TMS and Rhok would be a fair comparison too, but they cost mana not reduce mana.

  8. AI (3). Rex hasā€¦Flare? Tracking? Buzzard? AI doesnā€™t disrupt a combo, Flare costs 1 less and draws 1 less, and really only matters vs Rogues these days. Tracking early to protect a combo is a turn-1 play that could go towards tempo to stay alive.

  9. Flame Ward (3 / 0). Rex hasā€¦in the green shorts, with a pouting look on his face, Explosive Trap! Deal 2 on any attack vs Deal 3 on minion attack (for 1 more mana). No, we canā€™t play it for free (and draw it) on the same turn, nor does Explosive synergize with anything in our deck. PC at itā€™s finest.

  10. Frost Nova (3). Rex hasā€¦gimme! Let me have this one for a fighting chance at combo. We have Unleash the Hounds? UTH + Wolf and (until recently) no targeted draw? Frost Nova trumps UTH anyday, Nova trumps Locusts. like sup devs.

  11. Ice Barrier (3). Rex hasā€¦like totally nothing of this sort. ā€œWhatā€™s a barrier?ā€ He says. Moving on.

  12. Apex Blast (5). Rex hasā€¦Flanking? To My Side!? Cobra Shot? This is a case where for 1 more mana TMS would be flat out better, outside of opponent having taunt. Flanking is minion-only, sadly, like just about everything we have, which wild grew out of last year or so. Cobra is deal 3 to face, and only 3 to a minion, lol, develop nothing. But Cobra has Zuljin syn, so, itā€™s cool.

  13. Blizzard (6). Rex hasā€¦ok yea no need. I mean Locust? Explosive Shot? More like combo stuff such as VenomLauncher or ToxicGeddon and what have you, for 2 cards, and more mana (or a mech deck build around discounting mechs to play that at 6, IF theyā€™re drawn to be discounted while you tried to fight off a board or looked at burn hitting your portrait, or your opponent drawing into their plot twist, and such).

  14. Deep Freeze (8). Rex hasā€¦nothing that freezes or stalls, or develops two things that freeze. There really is no comparison, i mean maybe Call of The Wild. Hey you get a nice 5 damage over a Freeze? Maybe Rhokā€™delar? Develop a 4/2 blade and hope to generate Freezing trap or Deadly?

  15. Power of Creation (8). Rex hasā€¦i mean we got Abominable Bowman? Slam maybe? Summon a beast that died this game when this thing somehow dies (or gets combo-triggered lol) while your opponent hopefully didnt play transform earlier in the match, or birds, or defeat you by this time. We have 9 lives at 3 mana to trigger and play 1 copy, of something that hopefully died this game. Then, 5 mana leftover to try and do something, like a double deathrattle tigger or so, but DRā€™s dont affect hands and decks outside of Bird, which just got nerfed.

  16. Amazing Reno (10). No comparison, Zuljin i guess? Sorta-kill off a big board? Yogg would be a better comparison, and itā€™s neutral.

Soā€¦my fingers hurt. (Like when Adam Sandlerā€™s grandma told Ben Stiller at the nursing home in Happy Gilmore). Like others have said tho, this deck seems to play out one card a turn, outside of mirrors, how much choice is going on w this deck it seems very-linear.

Anyway thereā€™s some jealousy, i mean info!

1 Like
10

The only cases in which I see the Quest as being even potentially beneficial is against Priest Rogue, possibly Warlock for those super long grind matches.

Outside of that, itā€™s not worth giving up a mulligan slot for what could be a far better card in my experience.

1 Like
11

Maybe in mage if you want to build some form of an miracle deck.
Those 2 drops really favor that style of deck.

12

Sure, but in the context of this thread being about Spell Mage in particular, I donā€™t think itā€™s an optimal inclusion at all.

13

I prefer Highlander but when I do play spell mage I donā€™t bother with quest because its not worth it in most matchups (with the current aggro meta) because they kill you by turn 6 or you win most of the time.

I put it in my deck if Iā€™m seeing a ton of rez priests or decks where I know I will get a ton of value off of the quest over time.

14

Spell Mage is fun. It can beat anything. Tons of burst if you run double fireballs and pyro.

15

I honestly donā€™t think spell mage fares any better against hunter than highlander does. If anything, Iā€™d imagine hunter has even easier time beating them down.

My experience supports this as well.

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16

Come on man donā€™t try to defend what ever rubbish blizzard designs.
Sure you can climb with beast shaman to if you focus on it but this doesnā€™t make it a good Archetype.
Similarly, you can climb with spell only mage but this doesnā€™t mean it isnā€™t rubbish.
You just play your good spells and sometimes it works out, but the reward for not running minions is just poor.

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17

It definitely needs some love, but is more workable than I had originally given it credit for. If they donā€™t go all ā€˜Paladinā€™ on Mage this year and actually support it, we may see it be a pretty decent Tier 2 deck.

If something is both fun to play and can climb, I see that as an overall net gain. If I just wanted a fast climb and didnā€™t care about the playing experience, Iā€™d just queue up DH and spam matches.

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18

Iā€™m not the kinda guy to seek a fast climb over fun either. And when I say the Archetype isnā€™t good I donā€™t mean just ā€œeasy climbā€
For example, I used to argue that cyclone mage was a very strong deck during the Shanan/hunter stone when people said mage was too weak and that Reno mage was our only (hardly) playable archetype.
But thatā€™s because the cards that defined the archetype had potential, and rewarded you for making a deck around them. Giants, conjurerā€™s, cyclone etc.
Spell mage though if it works is because mage spells do the trick. You play the right spells and it might work. Thatā€™s hardly better than making a random zoo deck and winning the games where opponents couldnā€™t follow the tempo.
Iā€™m not saying you canā€™t work with it, Iā€™m just saying itā€™s meh.

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19

Ok spell mage is fun. now that i finally hit legend as highlander i switched right away to it. itā€™s not great itā€™s simply just fine.

I hope next xpac or dungeon run they introduce a reversed book of specters (Discard any Minion drawn). sure arcane intellect is fine, but i think we need a little bit more card draw. just that small change i would believe it pushes it up 1 tier.

They gave Fungal Fortunes to the wrong class

Also i think blast wave would do wonders in this deck, vs all 2h DH minions.

But the idiot in me wants deck of wonders back to standard for more rng.

20

Mostly agree.

easy there, satan.

2 Likes