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Finally it's mage time after a delay of 2-3 weeks!
Quick Intro: + Show Spoiler +I'm a Master 3 / Grandmaster Arena player. Not much tcg/ccg experience since MTG Ice Age. Loving every bit of Hearthstone. This is strictly just my personal playstyle, I have no idea if it’s the best or worst way to play.
I've been putting in a lot of hours with mage post-patch as my beloved rogue had to move town. Mage feels quite comfortable shifting from rogue. Giving up additional hero power damage for free reign on where we want to place that 1 damage. Not confined by taunt, not confined by divine shield, not confined by freeze. I've heard some people complain that mage is weak because of the hero power, but I have to disagree. Mage shines because of its hero power.
Uses & flexibility of mage hero power:
- Remove divine shield - Hero power still useable if Hero is frozen - Hop over taunt to damage other minions/hero - Control damage on the board for AOE clears - Control any minion's enrage on command - 1 shot most 1-drops thus gaining a lot of early game board control
Constructed playstyle:
There's many different constructed mage playstyles. They usually fall under one of the categories below:
- Freeze heavy control/aggro - Secret heavy control/aggro - Spell damage control/aggro - General aggro
Personally I've only spent time with spell damage control/aggro as it seems to fit my playstyle best. I've played against most of the other mage styles, and have to say that they all feel viable and dangerous in their own ways. Freeze mages were quite common pre-patch, but since then I haven't run into half as much. Now at Master 3 it seems to be mostly spell damage or secret heavy mages.
Here's some footage of my mage control gameplay, my rush from zero to Master 1 when the patch first hit:
Part 1: Copper to Platinum: + Show Spoiler + Part 2: Platinum to Master: + Show Spoiler +
Arena playstyle:
With Mage arena I generally go with the usual 2/3 drop heavy with all the Mage goodie removals. With the abundance of AOE cards, drafting is a lot more comfortable for me compared to the other heroes as I'm quite reliant on AOE.
Recent arena run 1: + Show Spoiler + Recent arena run 2:+ Show Spoiler + Run 2 deck:+ Show Spoiler +
Mage cards:
- Arcane Missiles - I know a lot of pros disagree with this card, but with my spell damage decks this feels super cost efficient. The RNG is never really an issue, and the ability to take out divine sheilds & hit stealth units makes it quite powerful.
- Ice Lance - I don't think I ever used this card, and I can probably count with 1 hand how many times I've seen it cast. A very niche card which probably only has a place in constructed freeze heavy decks.
- Mirror Image - Post-patch they evolved from 0/1 to 0/2. I find any cards with 0 attack pretty useless. I'd much rather have pretty much anything else. I guess it has synergy with murloc mage decks?
- Mana Wyrm - The mana curve filler. I have at least 1 of these in my mage decks. Naturally as a mage we are spell heavy, and many of our spells are cheap. IMO this is a great card to go along with our spell board control. Letting it get out of hand could mean an early win too!
- Arcane Explosion - The bane of murloc decks. One of the many AOE mage cards. Cheap cost, decent damage, deadly with spell damage.
- Frost Nova - Not a fan, only useful with freeze decks it seems.
- Frostbolt - my new favorite mage card post-patch. So cost efficient now, and the freeze effect makes it useful from early game all the way to end game. Constructed I take 2, arena I take as many as I can get!
- Arcane Intellect - I know a lot of people disagree with this card, but I do have 2 of these in my constructed deck, and I practically have zero draw mechanic there. Won't argue that this is good, but for me personally it's better than nothing. I am considering replacing them with some engineers though.
- Fireball - Love it almost as much as Frostbolt. Good damage, average cost, deadly mid-late game. Many times a game finisher too.
- Polymorph - As some have mentioned before, a mage winning or losing a match could be down to polymorphing the correct targets.
- Water Elemental - This is one of my favorite minions all game. It's extremely cost efficient, and the freeze effect has a chance of permanently stunning heroes with weapons.
- Sorcerer's Apprentice - Post-patch, I truly love her now. Playing her early opens so much access to our spells. Arcane missiles because free to cast. Frost-bolts now cost 1. Love pairing her up with Mana Wyrm in the first 2 turns of the game.
- Cone of Cold - I usually run at least 1 of these in my spell damage decks. The freeze is a big plus, as it means we could delay minions and even possibly trade them off with 2x hero powers.
- Counterspell - The bane of my existence when it comes to mirror matches, but at the end of the day I don't know if this is worth picking over the wide array of mage goodies there are.
- Ice Barrier - See a lot of these in arena vs mages. Not a big fan. Never seen it win a game, ultimately it just delays death. Not a fan.
- Ice Block - Seen this used exactly ONE time throughout all my games in Hearthstone. Same feelings with Ice Barrier, just delaying the inevitable.
- Mirror Entity - The mage coin flip. I do draft this in my arena runs sometimes but its utility isn't always favorable. I think a good general rule of them is to cast this after turn 4/5. Any earlier isn't worth losing a turn over.
- Spellbender - the spell version of "GET DOWN!". I feel it's super weak. Just. . . no.
- Vaporize - Coin flip #2. Except this coin flip has a lot more specific parameters to it to make it worth it. Usually give this a pass too.
- Kirin Tor Mage - Sometimes I draft this guy in arena because of its minion stats. 3 mana for a 4/3 is quite decent. Having a secret or not in hand is just a minor bonus.
- Ethereal Arcanist - The trump card of secret decks. I was the victim to this once, he grows uncontrollably fast if you don't get rid of him right away. Outside of secret decks, not really worth it imo.
- Blizzard - One of the many AOEs we have in our arsenal. I would argue it's one of the less cost-efficient ones, but I guess the freeze makes up for it.
- Archmage Antonidas - Get this guy going, and it's guaranteed 13 damage anywhere every turn. I love its flexibility, it's low mana cost compared to other legendary cards of equal power, it's control compared to Ragnaros. A mage control deck win condition.
- Pyroblast - Another mage win condition. IMHO any deck shouldn't run more than 2 of these though, more than 2 you simply don't have enough mana/turns to dish them all out. This card is almost like the game starts with 30hp vs 20hp.
- Flamestrike - The 7 mana that everyone looks out for. Assume that every mage has this in their hands at 7 mana. Every. Single. Mage.
Noteworthy Neutral Card Synergy:
- Gurubashi Berserker - Mage is the only hero that can be in full control of Gurubashi's growth. +3 attack EVERY poke is disgusting. Disgustingly strong.
- Mana Addict - Like the Mana Wyrm, the Addict works well with the abundance of mage spells. I still can't really decide which is better. Wyrm or Addict? What do you think?
- Azure Drake - The additional spell damage adds to pretty much all mage spells. The draw card is delicious.
- Gadgetzan Auctioneer - Abundance spells. Abundance draws.
Quick Tips:
1) Trade minons with mage hero power whenever possible. Each trade is a card advantage you gain.
2) Don't cast AOE as soon as they're available. Read the situation, lure out more minions if possible. One successful board clear could mean a instant win.
3) Bum rush with spells. Mage can put on a lot of hurt in 1 turn as there's nothing much (taunt) that can stop the damage from going through. Watch the enemy hero's life carefully, and burst out those fireball/pyroblast/frostbolt for a quick win.
4) Mage hero is a 0/30 taunt. Save your spells, use the meat shield well. Remember the difference between winning and losing is just 1-life vs 0-life. Don't be afraid to take damage. Think rogue.
Next week:
I'm thinking of going over a warlock murloc deck, or a general paladin overview for the next segment. Any votes?
I've still been steadily uploading raw hearthstone footage of my gameplay on youtube if you'd like to check out most of the things I've been talking about. You can check it out at:
http://www.youtube.com/ReereSC
Till next week~
the iron chef mana, Reere.
EDIT#1: Added a arena run.
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I accept every thing except Gurubashi. Generally you want to use your hero power to buff him to 5/6. It means 7 mana for 5/6 minion. I know he grows stronger with every damage but generally enemies like to destroy him whenever he buffed. He is weak to silence, generally enemies can trade 1/1 against him.
I really don't like him on mages. But i agree all other stuff.
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On October 16 2013 22:09 Aceace wrote: I accept every thing except Gurubashi. Generally you want to use your hero power to buff him to 5/6. It means 7 mana for 5/6 minion. I know he grows stronger with every damage but generally enemies like to destroy him whenever he buffed. He is weak to silence, generally enemies can trade 1/1 against him.
I really don't like him on mages. But i agree all other stuff.
I understand your view. I like to play Gurubashi as a decoy rather than a standard minion. Because of his scalability, the opponent has no choice but to deal with him. A silence/remove wasted on him rather than Archmage Antonidas or my spell power minions is very welcomed. If he's left alone, we have the potential to deal massive damage. Trade him with another 5+ drop? Worth it.
I'm saying this from a spell damage mage point of view. As a spell damage mage we don't have many minions in the deck. Gurubashi offer's flexibility. Buffing him is an option, not a necessity. Many times I play him raw (2/7) in hopes of luring out a silence/removal/AOE. Even when silenced, 2/7 on the board mid game is a decent tank. Minions can trade with him 1v1 easily when he's in the 5/6 form. Depending on the situation, often I leave him 2/7 so he can take a attack or 2.
With a spell damage mage, we're pretty much using Gurubashi's damage to chip off as much of the enemy hero as we can. With fireballs & pyroblast that can deal 24 damage in 2 turns, sometimes 1 good Gurubashi hit is all we need for the win~
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First off - since this is essentially a guide in discussion's clothing - I should say nice work, well written and so forth. A few comments from me:
- Don't take this the wrong way - and it's sort of a small point - but I don't think you need to mention your medals in the intro. In SC2, there were meaningful metrics for skill - your standing on ladders, visible winrates, national and international tournament performances and so forth.
In Hearthstone, the medals don't really mean anything, especially if you had access to the game at the reset. Like you, I got a 9-win in arena early (that's all the GM medal in arena actually means) and, like you, I rushed Master 3 while it was easy because everybody was playing with base cards post-wipe. Despite the fact I don't consider myself very good at the game, I inexplicably retain those medals because afaik it's impossible to lose them. The only currently meaningful stat in Hearthstone - if you're outside Blizzard's top 50 - is your winrate.
So rather than mention medals, you should either let the quality of your advice and writing do the talking (since I find people on TL are good judges of that) or - if you really want to communicate to people how good you are - give them a winrate. I'd rather you just splurged your thoughts into a post, though.
- I agree that Gurubashi is amazing with Mages and I've only very rarely seen him used, which has constantly surprised me. Essentially you're playing 5 mana + 2 at your leisure (think of it as a potential overload mechanic of sorts) for a 5/6 with the Gurubashi passive. If he doesn't get damaged, you play another 2 mana for an 8/5. In topdeck situations where you're floating a bunch of mana, this is an absolute dream. In non-topdeck situations, you've got plenty of cards like Polymorph that can take out high-value targets the GB might have trouble with.
- I disagree with your views on Mirror Entity and Vaporise. I don't believe they're coin-flips at all, I just think they're pretty average overall and only really good in topdeck/empty-board situations.
The important thing is when a Mage secret gets played you can check quite easily for Mirror Entity or Vaporise without triggering other secrets that do damage. There's no threat of something going wrong if you check for ME/Vap and it isn't either of them. They're both very easy to defuse, in a sense, because people won't just play on like the secret isn't there. People are smarter than that.
- Mana Wyrm is okay, but as an early play it straight up dies to a coin 3/2 unless you've got a Frostbolt (or get super lucky with Arcane Missiles). If you have neither of those cards, you either hero power + trade the Wyrm (thereby using up 2 mana and ceding tempo) or you play a 2-drop, the Wyrm dies and you have to hero power the next turn anyway to avoid your 2-drop dying. I feel it's a very specific play early-game. Good in situations where you have a Frostbolt in your starting hand.
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Do NOT cover Warlock Murloc decks. Holy hell, they're so faceroll and ridic right now.
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Don't take this the wrong way - and it's sort of a small point - but I don't think you need to mention your medals in the intro. In SC2, there were meaningful metrics for skill - your standing on ladders, visible winrates, national and international tournament performances and so forth.
In Hearthstone, the medals don't really mean anything, especially if you had access to the game at the reset. Like you, I got a 9-win in arena early (that's all the GM medal in arena actually means) and, like you, I rushed Master 3 while it was easy because everybody was playing with base cards post-wipe. Despite the fact I don't consider myself very good at the game, I inexplicably retain those medals because afaik it's impossible to lose them. The only currently meaningful stat in Hearthstone - if you're outside Blizzard's top 50 - is your winrate.
So rather than mention medals, you should either let the quality of your advice and writing do the talking (since I find people on TL are good judges of that) or - if you really want to communicate to people how good you are - give them a winrate. I'd rather you just splurged your thoughts into a post, though. Thank you for the advice, and I do agree to a certain degree. Hearthstone medals as an indicator is probably as wide as Diamond SC2 Blizzard ladder to MLG Champion. Though a very rough indicator, I feel that laying some kind of foundation is better than none at all. I will definitely take your advice into consideration for future pieces though!
I disagree with your views on Mirror Entity and Vaporize. I don't believe they're coin-flips at all, I just think they're pretty average overall and only really good in topdeck/empty-board situations. By coin-flip I mean these cards to have effects ranging from being completely useless, to a clutch win. IMHO there are a couple of specific scenarios that they can be useful in. They can be used to prevent minions from being played, or prevent heroes from getting attacked. Being able to control those two scenarios could be devastating on a case by case basis. There comes a certain time in the game where it doesn't really matter if the opponent knows what secret is played, defusing it is the true issue. I believe these 2 secrets are strongest mid-late game.
Mana Wyrm is okay, but as an early play it straight up dies to a coin 3/2 unless you've got a Frostbolt (or get super lucky with Arcane Missiles). If you have neither of those cards, you either hero power + trade the Wyrm (thereby using up 2 mana and ceding tempo) or you play a 2-drop, the Wyrm dies and you have to hero power the next turn anyway to avoid your 2-drop dying. I feel it's a very specific play early-game. Good in situations where you have a Frostbolt in your starting hand. Agree. Weighing its pros & cons I favor the Mana Wyrm slightly over Mana Addict because: 1) It's a 1 drop, if you have coin it's a free buff. 2) The synergy with early cards such as arcane missiles, arcane blast, frost bolt 80% clears most 2/3-drop from opponent. 3) The possible tempo advantage of playing Wyrm, + another minion if opponent doesn't have 2 drop.
Do NOT cover Warlock Murloc decks. Holy hell, they're so faceroll and ridic right now. Haha roger that good sir~
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this is good stuff indeed. As a newbie there is plenty of usefull information in here. I still feel lost in the game so i hope i can catch something on the youtube runs.
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Lovely written!, the high level of guides/advices one can start finding here is going over9000+.
I play Agro Mage (at M3), so many choices of minions can differ but I have to agree on the fact that Gurubashi Berserker is not a good card for (any) mage deck (my non expert in any way opinion). For 5 mana you can find better options for a minion. And I use 2 Armani Berserkers and 2 Worgen in my deck, so I do like to have enrage creatures going around.
If all you want is a "taunt" (I drop this card hoping for him to nuke him or sacrifice X card) for 5 mana we can find much better (Venture Co. Mercenary, for example). The only question here, for this card, would be: Do I want to have a GB so a priest will SW Pain it? and so I have 1 less worry for my little minions or not?. Also, be afraid of <current meta> and Priests (natural counter) because they can play around this creature in so many levels in not even funny.
Noteworthy Neutral Card Synergy: I personaly have 2 Knife_Juggler that love to combo with mirror img. Then again I play an Agro deck with a nice bunch of minions.
I personally never liked the TRAP synergies decks... they are all pretty easy to counter. The most annoying one would have to be Counterspell, usually you have a lot of good spells in construced so wasting anyone for "block" is still painfull.
While Vaporaze can be countered with a trash minion or a damaged one, if you don't have one at the moment you camp the board a little more, not a real problem. The mage will end sheeping the creature you are protecting and tapping it for 6 mana or FB. ecc the point is mage will have to WASTE something else to kill your key creature and not the trap.
As for Mirror entity, you camp with your creature on the hand until a trash one can be summoned or you know you are able to kill the mirroed creature right after the trap activates.
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On October 16 2013 23:58 Reere wrote:Show nested quote + Don't take this the wrong way - and it's sort of a small point - but I don't think you need to mention your medals in the intro. In SC2, there were meaningful metrics for skill - your standing on ladders, visible winrates, national and international tournament performances and so forth.
In Hearthstone, the medals don't really mean anything, especially if you had access to the game at the reset. Like you, I got a 9-win in arena early (that's all the GM medal in arena actually means) and, like you, I rushed Master 3 while it was easy because everybody was playing with base cards post-wipe. Despite the fact I don't consider myself very good at the game, I inexplicably retain those medals because afaik it's impossible to lose them. The only currently meaningful stat in Hearthstone - if you're outside Blizzard's top 50 - is your winrate.
So rather than mention medals, you should either let the quality of your advice and writing do the talking (since I find people on TL are good judges of that) or - if you really want to communicate to people how good you are - give them a winrate. I'd rather you just splurged your thoughts into a post, though. Thank you for the advice, and I do agree to a certain degree. Hearthstone medals as an indicator is probably as wide as Diamond SC2 Blizzard ladder to MLG Champion. Though a very rough indicator, I feel that laying some kind of foundation is better than none at all. I will definitely take your advice into consideration for future pieces though! Show nested quote +I disagree with your views on Mirror Entity and Vaporize. I don't believe they're coin-flips at all, I just think they're pretty average overall and only really good in topdeck/empty-board situations. By coin-flip I mean these cards to have effects ranging from being completely useless, to a clutch win. IMHO there are a couple of specific scenarios that they can be useful in. They can be used to prevent minions from being played, or prevent heroes from getting attacked. Being able to control those two scenarios could be devastating on a case by case basis. There comes a certain time in the game where it doesn't really matter if the opponent knows what secret is played, defusing it is the true issue. I believe these 2 secrets are strongest mid-late game. Show nested quote +Mana Wyrm is okay, but as an early play it straight up dies to a coin 3/2 unless you've got a Frostbolt (or get super lucky with Arcane Missiles). If you have neither of those cards, you either hero power + trade the Wyrm (thereby using up 2 mana and ceding tempo) or you play a 2-drop, the Wyrm dies and you have to hero power the next turn anyway to avoid your 2-drop dying. I feel it's a very specific play early-game. Good in situations where you have a Frostbolt in your starting hand. Agree. Weighing its pros & cons I favor the Mana Wyrm slightly over Mana Addict because: 1) It's a 1 drop, if you have coin it's a free buff. 2) The synergy with early cards such as arcane missiles, arcane blast, frost bolt 80% clears most 2/3-drop from opponent. 3) The possible tempo advantage of playing Wyrm, + another minion if opponent doesn't have 2 drop. Show nested quote +Do NOT cover Warlock Murloc decks. Holy hell, they're so faceroll and ridic right now. Haha roger that good sir~
Actually I changed my mind since I'm building one now after losing to them too many times in a row. Let's discuss the build, but ensure it stays super secret. Either PM me or keep it Liquid only :D
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Wow didn't expect the positive feedback. Thank you guys <3 warms me heart ~
I play Agro Mage (at M3), so many choices of minions can differ but I have to agree on the fact that Gurubashi Berserker is not a good card for (any) mage deck (my non expert in any way opinion). For 5 mana you can find better options for a minion. And I use 2 Armani Berserkers and 2 Worgen in my deck, so I do like to have enrage creatures going around. I agree that Gurubashi isn't good for aggro decks, and isn't good as a pre-6th turn card. IMHO Gurubashi shines in late game, around after the 7th turn where we can mold him to whatever we need at that time. Considering Gurubashi as a late game minion, 5 mana is very cheap. A spell heavy mage has to pick their limited minions very carefully, and I feel Gurubashi is efficient because it can fit 2 segments (mid/late) of the match.
If all you want is a "taunt" (I drop this card hoping for him to nuke him or sacrifice X card) for 5 mana we can find much better (Venture Co. Mercenary, for example). The only question here, for this card, would be: Do I want to have a GB so a priest will SW Pain it? and so I have 1 less worry for my little minions or not?. Also, be afraid of <current meta> and Priests (natural counter) because they can play around this creature in so many levels in not even funny. I also agree here, but as I mentioned in the previous paragraph Gurubashi fits 2 segments of the match and doesn't limit our current tempo in anyway compared to Venture Co. I also like Venture Co., but not too fond of having to 'build around him'. He's more of a arena card for me. The way I play Gurubashi is almost sacrificial. I'm just throwing him out for a reaction, so that's one less thing to hit my +spell damage guys. Every turn that Gurubashi lives is a bonus for me.
Actually I changed my mind since I'm building one now after losing to them too many times in a row. Let's discuss the build, but ensure it stays super secret. Either PM me or keep it Liquid only :D haha I don't mind either. Which build are we discussing about? Warlock Murloc?~
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On October 17 2013 03:13 Reere wrote:Wow didn't expect the positive feedback. Thank you guys <3 warms me heart ~ Show nested quote +I play Agro Mage (at M3), so many choices of minions can differ but I have to agree on the fact that Gurubashi Berserker is not a good card for (any) mage deck (my non expert in any way opinion). For 5 mana you can find better options for a minion. And I use 2 Armani Berserkers and 2 Worgen in my deck, so I do like to have enrage creatures going around. I agree that Gurubashi isn't good for aggro decks, and isn't good as a pre-6th turn card. IMHO Gurubashi shines in late game, around after the 7th turn where we can mold him to whatever we need at that time. Considering Gurubashi as a late game minion, 5 mana is very cheap. A spell heavy mage has to pick their limited minions very carefully, and I feel Gurubashi is efficient because it can fit 2 segments (mid/late) of the match. Show nested quote + If all you want is a "taunt" (I drop this card hoping for him to nuke him or sacrifice X card) for 5 mana we can find much better (Venture Co. Mercenary, for example). The only question here, for this card, would be: Do I want to have a GB so a priest will SW Pain it? and so I have 1 less worry for my little minions or not?. Also, be afraid of <current meta> and Priests (natural counter) because they can play around this creature in so many levels in not even funny. I also agree here, but as I mentioned in the previous paragraph Gurubashi fits 2 segments of the match and doesn't limit our current tempo in anyway compared to Venture Co. I also like Venture Co., but not too fond of having to 'build around him'. He's more of a arena card for me. The way I play Gurubashi is almost sacrificial. I'm just throwing him out for a reaction, so that's one less thing to hit my +spell damage guys. Every turn that Gurubashi lives is a bonus for me. Show nested quote +Actually I changed my mind since I'm building one now after losing to them too many times in a row. Let's discuss the build, but ensure it stays super secret. Either PM me or keep it Liquid only :D haha I don't mind either. Which build are we discussing about? Warlock Murloc?~
Haha yeah, I call it MurLock. Here's one from the other thread:
2 Mortal Coil 2 Blood Imp 2 Flame Imp 2 Grimscale Oracle 1 Hungry Crab 2 Murloc Raider 2 Murloc Tidehunter 2 Voidwalker 2 Demonfire 2 Bluegill Warrior 2 Knife Juggler 2 Murloc Tidehunter 2 Shadow Bolt 2 Coldlight Seer 2 Murloc Warleader 1 Old Murk-Eye
Which is similar to the one I'm building. I'm just short on dust for the Warleaders (400 each, yikes).
How does everyone else build their dust? Just D/E packs you buy?
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Adding my Mage arena run last night shortly after I started this thread. Lucky 9-2. IMO a good overview on how I run my mages in arena.
Deck: + Show Spoiler + Mage run: + Show Spoiler +http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fL6VbGrJOA
Will update OP as well~
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Haha yeah, I call it MurLock. Here's one from the other thread:
2 Mortal Coil 2 Blood Imp 2 Flame Imp 2 Grimscale Oracle 1 Hungry Crab 2 Murloc Raider 2 Murloc Tidehunter 2 Voidwalker 2 Demonfire 2 Bluegill Warrior 2 Knife Juggler 2 Murloc Tidehunter 2 Shadow Bolt 2 Coldlight Seer 2 Murloc Warleader 1 Old Murk-Eye
Which is similar to the one I'm building. I'm just short on dust for the Warleaders (400 each, yikes).
How does everyone else build their dust? Just D/E packs you buy?
I'll touch on this briefly, as don't want to derail too far from mage. I'll have another full article in the 2 weeks on Warlock Murloc.
There are many different styles to the deck. Personally I like to take a heavy all-in approach, which is pretty much all hero damage or die trying. The deck you've posted looks solid, my only gripe is the Hungry Crab. I had Hungry Crab in my deck before, and it just seemed counter productive that he takes away from any murloc that could benefit the group buffs. A buffed Hungry Crab isn't that fantastic either.
Here's my current Warlock Murloc deck which what I could scrape together after wipe. Missing a few pieces, and a few experimental pieces, but generally works well~
Warlock Murloc Deck: + Show Spoiler +
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Brazil74 Posts
I value spellbender more since it can intercept a blessing of kings for example, or a mark of the wild. It is luck based but having a 5/7 spellbreaker its awesome.
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On October 20 2013 00:39 Tileks wrote: I value spellbender more since it can intercept a blessing of kings for example, or a mark of the wild. It is luck based but having a 5/7 spellbreaker its awesome.
Came in to write this and to say that you can pull off some really dirty spellbender and/or counterspell plays the turn before dropping your legendary (ysera, rag, antonidas etc..) to protect them from spell removal. Of course this is more viable in a secret deck.
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Spellbender at the very least acts as Counterspell 3-4, which is probably needed to get some consistency (as in, protect big guys and/or buff Ethereal Arcanist).
As a side note... Mirror Image is very annoying along with Cult Master.
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My argument with Spellbender would be that there are so many other cards I would rather have in place of it. I do agree there are neat tricks and uses for it as you guys mentioned, but fitting it into a 30 card deck where each card needs to pull in as much weight as possible, this one gets a pass from me~
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Am I reading this right? Mana Wyrm is an absolutely insane card. It is powerful to the extreme. Basically you can win some games by turn 4 specifically because of this extremely powerful card. It has incredibly synergy with certain cards like Mirror Image and Sorcerer's Apprentice and the Mana Wyrm can spiral out of control if you do not kill it immediately even if you have an absolutely amazing hand.
It is basically an oh shit oh shit oh shit card for the enemy. I guess it can mostly only get that broken in constructed though. If you have 2 in your opening hand you will probably win the game.
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