So, Mage is getting some Secret support as well as Rogue.
Does a no minions Mage work? Unlike Hunter (or Druid, which seems to be getting some support for a spell Druid deck), mage only has a few random summons and Mirror Image to put on the board via spells.
Yikes that secret support (wild only problem).
The spell is weird, why would Mage wanna run no minions? Maybe useful as a RNG spell I guess.
“Has no minions”?! What the heck? That sounds like it would NOT work (unless you draw all of your minions, even then…) Unless you’re willing to play no minions mage, it’s just a 5 mana deal 5 damage.
I’ve never heard of anything, ironic as it may be. Is blizzard dipping into new territories?
Please no, I don’t want to scream while triggering 3 secrets at once. I DESPISE secrets.
I’m referring to the other spell, but yeah, secrets would have to be used to help control the board.
I suppose that if Mage gets a spell that would specifically draw minions, you could use that along with a Dune Sculptor or something like that to generate random minions to go along with your spells.
Great. Secret Mage support.
The most loved archetype receives a well-statted value card.
Yay. Blizzard knows best.
But is Wild Secret Mage going to want to play a value card like this? Apexis Smuggler seems aimed at a slower deck than the current Aluneth-fueled burn style of Secret Mage currently in Wild.
Alright, but imagine this. You’re playing your uh…let’s say Taunt Warrior. Ya drop down you’re Armagedillo and then…WHOOPS! Secret! Copied on your opponent’s board. Alright, now you try to remove it…WHOOPS! Secret! Counterspell’d. So you play your AoE spell or whatever, and then try execute it…but then, WHOOPS! Secret! Spellbender.
Edit: And then your minion is polymorphed next turn.
This minion definitely doesn’t go into Wild Secret Mage. You don’t want random value, you just want to kill your opponent on T5.
Secret Mage doesn’t need anything.
Period.
And the worst part about it all? It’s AFTER Chief Inspector rotates out.
I don’t play Standard.
Wild will burn.
And I will not let this injustice leave another scar in the history of Hearthstone.
I guess it’s possible to run no minions. Unstable Portal, Rift, Firelands Portals, Mirror Entity, Power of Creation, Speak Draconic - there’s a few ways to get minions on the board so as to eventually kill someone.
But why would you even want to? Without Apprentices, Antonidas, Doomsayers, Mana Giant and other minions, Mage feels like it would be missing too much.
So, for Mage spells that can summon bodies or add minions to your hand to make up for having no minions there are:
Will be in Standard next year:
Learn Draconic
Mirror Image
Mirror Entity
Spellbender
Power of Creation
Wild only:
Unstable Portal
Flame Geyser
Astral Rift
Frozen Clone
Unexpected Results
Firelands Portal
Frost Lich Jaina
Also possible, but highly dependent on getting minions on the board in the first place:
Duplicate
Effigy
Polymorph Boar
Splitting Image
Echo of Medivh
Molten Reflection
We’ll just have to wait until they give it more support, I guess. Right now it just looks like a hot piece of flaming garbage.
I don’t think Apexis Smuggler will be good enough.
You can’t expect to play it on 2 and live very often.
I like that you can try to get a lot of value out of it late game.
The Ancient Mysteries card makes it a lot better.
3/5 Star Power Card.
Apexis Blast looks like it’s going to be fun to play and annoying to face.
I guess the idea is you randomly generate it and when the decks are mostly empty it’s good.
4/5 Star Card.
Maybe theres a Rafaam that turns your deck into spells or some kind of Draw Minions Spell like Aegeon is saying.
Turn deck into spells? Would Rafaam really be the one to do that? I would say Blue Dragons, but since this is an Outland themed expac… What about the, weapon that Kael’Thas used? I forget what it’s called, but it’s the one that was left in Northrend, I think.
And besides, the whole League of E.V.I.L/Explorers thing seems to be over now.
Edit: It’s called Felo’melorn–the weapon.
(only talking about standard here, wild have my sympathies for more fun and interactive mage goodness)
Considering astral rift and unexpected results are rotating, this means mages in standard will have very little means to put anything on the b ard in the early turns.
That said, they will still have learn draconic, which can drop a 6/6 as early as turn 4 (turn 1 play quest, turn 2+3+4 is 9 mana, enough to finish)
Problem with learn draconic is that it’s only 2 cards out of your deck, so mage might not get it in the mulligan.
Having now this new turn 5, that also can act as removal, will increase the consistency that mages will be able to put down a minion by turn 5.
Even just having one more new card to help mages drop board, the consistency would go up even more still.
By late game they have access to power of creation or just start nuking people’s face with spells or whatever. There could be a new spell for that too.