Spell Damage Mage: What does it need?

Multiplayer Discussion
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I was discussing this deck on an unrelated topic and decided to make
a post to ask,
What does Spell Damage mage need to make it more competitive?
I love the idea of the deck but it doesn’t work very well at all in the
meta we have.
Since I am not a great deck builder I thought I would ask you guys.
What would it take to make Spell damage mage say, tier 2?

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a reliable way to find aegwynn, as her deathrattle kinda carries most of the archetype i feel. other than that more cheap spells to go face to have a concrete wincondition or more sturdy minions that grow with spelldmg like ras to have a wincondition via boardcontrol.

Edit: also probably just another good carddraw apart from cram session, right now i feel the best wincondition for spelldmg mage is early phoenix into draw a lot of cards, other than that you mostly run out of steam way to early. and nerfed spring water/ai are just not great.

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I kinda wish it had better draw outside of Cram Session. Cram is NUTS with sufficient support, but if you don’t draw it it’s easy to get beat down early on. Elemental Allies is sorely missed.

Beyond that, I don’t really think it’s missing a whole lot. Mage has a wide variety of tools at their disposal like Shooting Star and Devo Missiles that can help slow down an opponent’s early game, Ras is often a sick mid-game board clear, and Phoenix-boosted Fireballs can make a mean finisher.

I think with a bit better draw and/or more support for the Hero Power toolkit (which I believe goes quite well with Spell Dmg) I think it could definitely be a Tier 2 deck.

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a tutor card for spell damage minions

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dunno about the hero power, i feel that has more synergy with a more control style/frost archetype that can really milk the value? right now i feel like the only reason to put it in there is to have mordresh as a finisher, but i would heavily prefer just getting pyroblast back for that.

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Idk, guys. Whatever it is that this deck needs, I hope that it gets it soon.
I just went 0/5 with a spell damage deck. It seems like you have to draw Aegwynn immediately or you just lose. Even Aegwynn might not help if the opponent is fast, like hunter.
Why is every single mage deck so dependent on one card?
Paladin can draw absolute junk and still win.

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the problem is paladin will very consistently just draw.
half his deck is carddraw that also is board-development while mage has 2 cards that are conditional and don´t do anything but draw.

if you look at the meta the decks that are currently on top just have a lot of good to goodish draw, which just makes them more consistent on average. Also the main reason spellmage had been a good deck before they hit the main draw-engine (and also the main reason shaman is dead currently).

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What would definitely help would be more ways to pre-Summon Spell Damage minions or something like that, like how you can pre-Summon that Dormant Phoenix 2 turns sooner and have it hit the field with 100% of your mana left.

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What exactly do you want a spell damage deck to be though?

If you want that deck to actually use spell damage to enhance your burst spells and destroy your opponent with this, then you have Mozaki Mage for this.

But if you want the whole spell damage bucket, with all the spell damage synergie cards like Arcane Watcher (the one version i play with my Shaman), then we need better early game. Because this deck is a weird midrange-burst that comes online way too slow. I already gave a proper explanation how it fells to play this deck in the thread that claims Imprisoned Phoenix might be overpowered.

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I personally think the deck has 3 main flaws:

  • It needs better 2 drops. The drops It has right now are individually good, but they are far too easy to remove. Phoenix has no board presence for 2 turns, Starscrier is basically aana tax to draw you a card, but Far too easy to remove, and most of the time Just dropping Solarian on 2 gets him killed and you may not find another minion in time for Cram School. Ironically, the 2-drop i feel better playing is Wand Seller, because i guarantee a Firebrand turn on 4. Actually, Scratch that: the deck needs better synergies overall. Most of the time, It feels like the deck has a few realy sinergies but the rest of the cards are Just a “the best of what we have” that does not really goes with the theme of the deck. I think there needs to be more ways to use spell Power in the deck.

  • It needs more “passive” draw (meaning you don’t pay directly for It). I frequently find myself simply not having Cram School on hand, and having to play Minions to fight for the board. Even with Starscrier on decks this happens, and it’s always a slow, dragged out loss. If you don’t keep reloading, your cards simply aren’t good enough by themselves.

  • A targeted damage spell outside the 4 mana slot. Kazakus is a big help in pushing board presence in the midgame, but i dearly miss fireball.

TL:DR - Better cards overall, more draw and another cheap burn spell.

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There are only so many face damage spells, there is only so much draw, and the spell damage minions suck, which means it’s more of a combo deck

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Yeah I’ve seen this myself. Without the minions then the deck simply doesn’t have firepower to win. So I agree, although I would never have thought of your view that better two drops are sorely needed.
Passive draw as well is something I had not considered, and I think if the deck had that, then I agree that it could be much better:)

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I play aegwyn army modified to use mordresh and alexstraza, so far i have great success with that deck