Basically the title. The legendary requires 20 wisps to die when it really should just be deal 20 damage with the imbued hero power, the armor gain from the 4 drop is way too low considering if you want to gain 6 armor a turn it means you can’t play any other minions aside from itself and then the hero power which is only happening late game and is terrible, the deck itself doesn’t have the stats to compete with basically anything else I’ve played, and the RNG element to the hero power has lost me a ton of games where missing pings multiple times over the course of several turns means I can’t properly clear things with just the hero power, which doesn’t seem like it should be a hard thing to do considering how many resources you have to dedicate to imbuing your hero power.
The hero power itself is strong with a clear board state but the deck doesn’t contest the board very well so the dream of Sing-Along Buddy + imbue hero power 6+ isn’t easily achieved. Some other strengths the deck has is that it can draw a lot of cards and Spirit Gatherer IS pushed because it can either be used as an aggro tool or set up for a Divination cast. The midgame is also fairly secure because you can do things like Bloodmage Thalnos + Seabreeze Chalice for efficient board clears.
Basically, the deck is able to play in the early and midgame pretty well but falls of extremely hard in the late game where the deck doesn’t have adequate finishers primarily because (1) Aessina cares about Wisps dying instead of dealing damage with hero power, (2) 20 damage is not enough when other classes are establishing boards with in excess of 20 health, (3) there is a lack of OTK potential outside of Protoss which is two big packages in the same deck and not possible unless you want to give up any utility in the rest of your deck building.
Basically, imbue mage needs some buffs. It needs more damage, Aessina needs to count damage done and not Wisps dying, it needs better stats since Merry Moonkin dies to pretty much everything and doesn’t generate enough armor. The deck also is at odds with itself since filling your board with Wisps in the late game limits the number of minions you can play and if you play minions first and then hero power, you then limit the number of Wisps summoned. You also are incentivized to play Moonkin and Sing-Along on separate turns because it limits the number of Wisps you control.
Some people here claim that it is the strongest of the imbue decks. I just dont see it. Maybe thats because I am spamming armor dh all day and their pings are pointless against a 200 armor guy.
it’s pretty good in wild with reckless apprentice or at least it beat my crummy bbu death knight deck (it’s dumb it’s highlander and doesn’t use leeches)
I dont know, I lost only 2 out of 27 games, just checked. I felt that I was cheating. In these 2 one was a mirror and on the other one both arkonites were hiding in the bottom 7 cards.
There were games that I was just stalling till I get them. There are no decks that can run you down fast enough.
I dont know if you base your experience in tavern brawl or not, but the addition of cubicles and zilliax is huge.
Imbue mage is far from being as bad as you describe bro. You are probably just playing a bad version of it, or you’re not playing the deck correctly. For me it looks like one of the top 3 best decks up until now.
I’m doing just fine with Imbue Protoss Mage. There’s actually an interaction i am not sure is intended but works.
If you imbue to say 4 and then play Artanis to get the new Protoss HP. The next imbue you play reverts the HP back to the Imbue HP but it remembers the count you originally had so it ticked up to 5 and was refreshed to use again. The fact that it remembers the Imbued HP when it was changed is powerful.
I was quite happy with mine. I killed a leech DK who ended up at above 60 health. The Colossus is a spike of damage but it isn’t the sole wincon it was last patch. The upgraded hero power is a guaranteed longterm wincon, so using Colossus and Aessina for tempo is decent.
I actually really like the Protoss package as a control tool rather than going headlong into “use all the wisp cards.” I only have the Imbue cards, none of the other wisp payoff cards.
I had forgotten the dev comment about hero cards and imbue count, so I just dropped Artanis. I honestly don’t think he’s required, even just the photon cannons are plenty. I do have a single Warpgate, but I might drop that too. I also don’t have Void Rays.
The good news is that this formulation is much more resistant to Dirty Rat. All the imbue minions are easy fodder.
I was thinking about cutting Artanis after I played it not thinking about how i had just replaced the imbue HP. I then played a new Imbue card and figured it would be okay to start again but when it remembered i was sold on keeping Artanis in deck.
I dropped Warpgate for Tide pool which usually got me something useful with the pool trimmed ATM. I was never upset with my choices.
I’ve only got about 20 games with it but i am going to say this card is crazy good for 2.
Hitting the threshold for Aessina was fairly easy i thought.
I have two tidepools, which were leftovers from my previous Protoss deck.
I just don’t see the point of Artanis when my only Protoss minions are the two Colossus. Do you keep Void Rays?
I did go up against someone with Ysera, and found myself enjoying the extra mana crystals. Thoughts on including it on purpose? Feels like it might be too clunky.
Yeah i still have the voids in deck for the early removal. I was going to cut them but there’s so many early minions being played ATM that i would rather use them to try and get two trades and leave cannons for better targets. I can’t really think of anything better as minions go that would be better suited for the deck.
I also thought of Ysera but i agree it’s not something i want in my hand early and it doesn’t progress the Imbue or Colossus.
Artanis i kept for the 6 burst damage and the ability to shield against other decks if needed.
I’ve played my version and then I played Kibler’s version which was almost card for card the same. Idk what you’ve been playing against or in what rank but I dropped from diamond 1 down to diamond 4 using both versions.
Imbue Mage=baby Zerg DK hero power imo. Sure, looks good on paper, but it’s not likely going to do much against decks that poop minions like imbue paladin or that can gain gobs of armor/health like leech dk and starship dh. My early take is that, as usual, the imbue mechanic is not well-balanced. Par for the course for Blizzard. That Paladin legendary that takes the highest cost spell in their hand and converts it into a 3 turn aura seems rather gross. Constant healing/board clearing potential on top of all the portals summoning minions keeps the pressure one. Starship DH is very much at the mercy of its draw. If you don’t get your arkanites early you’re dead in the water.
P.S. You can add Shattershard turrets as many do already, but I find them unnecessary and they seem an overkill in the long run. Crystal Welders provide a cheap extra onion layer in the beginning.
It’s often better (even though you also compare apples with oranges(but let’s assume you’re not)), because it also spams the board with minions that did not exist anywhere in your hand or deck. It can wreck a suc dk because its minions first hit the 1/1s and only get 1 hp.
The mage appears to shine only if it goes late game because with no cards at all or deck: it can spam a lot of damage every turn, hence its specialty appears to be to control aggro decks (because I doubt slow decks with defense will care).
i just lost to one in Wild lol I pulled his aessina with viper had him down to like 9 but he played Mordresh One Eye or Fire Eye or whatever he’s called which I hadn’t even thought about for imbue mage… that’s scary. Then he potion of illusioned it and did it again and I was dead.
