Cheap Mage Standard

[Damien 1,514]

This thread is for comments about our Cheap Mage Standard deck.

[positiv2 952]

It's nice to have an non-aggro cheap mage. That thing got some serious haters. I got 100% winrate (partially because I only played 2 games with it :D ) and the deck is simply great. especially given that it's a budget deck. 

[Damien 1,514]

At what rank? :p That too counts. I don't think it's going to help me climb the ladder from rank 6 :P

[Domochevsky 0]

I play this deck in rank 12 now. I like it because this deck is balanced. In my rank i have no problem with any classes but vs zoo lock I actually have winrate close to 15-20%. Warlock can trade his minions very cheap with Sergeant or Dire wolf etc,  also he have very much cheap minions so he will dominate a desk anyway. In the end there is only one way i didnt try vs zoo lock it's going to face. But i think its suicide strategy because firstly he will easy trade my minions and totally control a desk in the end and secondly he also can stop any agression by defender of argus.

I think zoo lock's deck is realy stronger than cheap c'thun mage but how do u play vs them?

[Kokuendan 10]

Haven't checked yet but since the "Old Gods" promotion has ended C'thun shouldn't be free anymore so doesn't that make the deck cost more than 1000 dust?

[positiv2 952]

19 minutes ago, Kokuendan said:

Haven't checked yet but since the "Old Gods" promotion has ended C'thun shouldn't be free anymore so doesn't that make the deck cost more than 1000 dust?

AFAIK the promotion contained only the quests. C'Thun and Beckoner of Evil should still be obtained when you open your first WotoG pack.

[Kokuendan 10]

Just now, positiv2 said:

AFAIK the promotion contained only the quests. C'Thun and Beckoner of Evil should still be obtained when you open your first WotoG pack.

Good to know, seems I misunderstood the promotion, that's better for new players.

[Guest OstrichCorpse]

Didn't have second cult sorcerer, replaced it with Brann Bronzebeard - works like a charm. It  synergizes with almost every other minion in deck (yeah, I have Ethereal Conjurers instead of azure drakes)

[Guest Keizoku]

A couple of suggestion for possible "cheap" improvements/card swaps (cheap in the sense those are easily obtainable adventure cards.)

1) Brann Bronzebeard.

With the amount of battlecry minions in the deck, especially if you use the Ethereal Conjurers instead of the Drakes, it is quite easy to get value of an extra battlecry or two. Beckoners and Chosen drawn too late to be played on curve might only merely buff C'Thun further but with C'Thun being your deck's planned finisher, the bigger the better. Brann'ed Disciples will deal 4 damage, which will allow them to take out/set a bigger threat up for a favourable trade and allowing you to conserve your remaining Spells ammunition. A Conjurer will grant you two spells to play with, and the Summoner will give you another extra (by that point often very welcome) minion. The ultimate would be to play C'Thun while Brann is out for ultimate devastation. Do realize that's more of a wishful thinking than a reliable strategy since it'll require Brann to stick to the board... and your opponent will do everything he can to prevent that, so don't count on it.

I personally swapped Brann for the Acidic Swamp Ooze I too often ended up playing just as an extra body. 

 

2) Emperor Thaurissan

If you include Brann as I suggest above, you might want to also include Thaurissan. You will be trying to keep a couple of cards back to play along with Brann in the mid-/late game for the extra mojo. Thaurissan will discount said combo pieces and let you go for your opponent's throat faster/harder. The ideal situation would be playing Thaurissan on curve, him sticking to the board one turn and discounting both Brann and C'Thun to resp 1 and 8 mana for maximum overkill on turn nine; but don't count on it. Thaurissan, just like Brann, is a remove-on-sight target. Also, even if you do not include Brann, there's still fun to be had with a huge discounted Cult Sorcerer(s) + Fireball(s)/Frostbost(s)/Arcane Missiles/... turn to sucker punch your opponent into submission, especially if you got more fuel from Conjurers.

I personally swapped Thaurissan for a Water Elemental.

[Guest OstrichCorpse]

Is there a point mixing Antonidas in here, or is he too expensive for this deck? 

[CodeRazor 47]

11 hours ago, Guest OstrichCorpse said:

Is there a point mixing Antonidas in here, or is he too expensive for this deck? 

Tony is a win condition on his own. He is not in the deck, cause this deck refers to new players.

I don't know if he will work in this kind of deck and in this meta, cause some players consider him to be too slow for the aggro decks in ladder.

You could definitely try him out, but in my opinion you should only do so if you also have Emperor Thaurissan. Tony requires a lot of cheap spells to be effective, so discounting the ones you already have in the deck can help you get as much value as possible from playing him.

Concluding, if i were you i would try to cut a Faceless Summoner for Antonidas and a Beckoner of Evil for Emperor Thaurissan.

Try it out and infrom us about your results!

PS : I rarely play mage, so someone else's recommendations might be better :D

[Sottle 221]

Nah, Antonidas doesn't really fit in this deck, you want to be playing a lot more of the 1 Mana Spells to really make Tony work.

[themuffinboyy 2]

I really like the idea behind this deck, even though I'm not really on a budget... I have access to most cards. If I wanted to play a archetype like this what replacements would be recommended?

[Paracel 165]

More clarified and/or move towards the "tiered" Tempo Mage decks.

[positiv2 952]

4 hours ago, themuffinboyy said:

I really like the idea behind this deck, even though I'm not really on a budget... I have access to most cards. If I wanted to play a archetype like this what replacements would be recommended?

If you like C'Thun mage, then sure, you can try a more expensive versions of it. Minions and spells you can include are Brann Bronzebeard, Archmage Antonidas, Twin Emperor Vek'lor, Sylvanas Windrunner, Ragnaros the Firelord, Firelands Portal, Harrison Jones in place of Acidic Swamp Ooze, and possibly Ice Block (currently testing one copy). I run a single copy of Cabalist's Tome, though it is not working out very well so far. You can include these cards in place of Mana Wyrm, Arcane Missiles, Acidic Swamp Ooze (if you don't face a lot of weapon classes), or Faceless Summoner.

If you want to play tempo mage, you can try our yogg tempo mage.

If you want to play a hybrid, I recommend you not to. Hybrid decks of distant archetypes don't work really well.

[themuffinboyy 2]

23 minutes ago, positiv2 said:

If you like C'Thun mage, then sure, you can try a more expensive versions of it. Minions and spells you can include are Brann Bronzebeard, Archmage Antonidas, Twin Emperor Vek'lor, Sylvanas Windrunner, Ragnaros the Firelord, Firelands Portal, Harrison Jones in place of Acidic Swamp Ooze, and possibly Ice Block (currently testing one copy). I run a single copy of Cabalist's Tome, though it is not working out very well so far. You can include these cards in place of Mana Wyrm, Arcane Missiles, Acidic Swamp Ooze (if you don't face a lot of weapon classes), or Faceless Summoner.

If you want to play tempo mage, you can try our yogg tempo mage.

If you want to play a hybrid, I recommend you not to. Hybrid decks of distant archetypes don't work really well.

Thanks a lot for the suggestions!

[MCFC 0]

I really like this deck and was wondering if a Doomcaller could be worked into it? If so what would you omit?

TYIA.

[CodeRazor 47]

30 minutes ago, MCFC said:

I really like this deck and was wondering if a Doomcaller could be worked into it? If so what would you omit?

TYIA.

Doomcaller is too heavy for this deck and most of the times you want to combo him with Brann Bronzebeard to win in fatigue. This combo requires Emperor Thaurissan as well, so it really far away from a cheap list. For an updated version of this deck, you can check out Hotform's C'thun mage

Edited November 6, 2016 by CodeRazor

[Valks 2,375]

On 11/6/2016 at 2:16 PM, MCFC said:

I really like this deck and was wondering if a Doomcaller could be worked into it? If so what would you omit?

TYIA.

As said above, to make it work, you then start moving away from being a "cheap" deck. If you desperately want to fit it in, you can make changes depending on what you're facing. Vs. control, replace Flamestrike. Vs. Aggro, I wouldn't fit him in anyway.

[theline93x2 2]

So this was my first deck after all the basic ones and has been my best friend and go-to deck. I've recently been trying out new decks with new heroes and thought, I should see about updating this deck because I never had. I didn't have any of the adventures yet either when I first built this deck. So I just put together the Hotform's C'thun Deck.  I will let you know how it goes.   I was surprised to see Azure Drake instead of Ethereal Conjurer,  I'm guessing this is due to the card draw along with the spell damage making it more valuable to this deck.  I was also surprised to see no additional legendaries like Brann or anything like that talked about above, 3ven though this was not labeled as any sort of budget deck. Is this because everything just runs smoother together like this and additional expensive cards become unnecessary?  Let me know what you guys think and if anyone has tried this other deck as an improvement to this one.     

[peekaboo 10]

I'm going to try this deck .. Don't have disciple so going to try 1 Brann / 1 Doomcaller or 2 Babbling instead .. 

It looks like a nice deck for the new meta when Flamewaker goes bye bye .. Appreciate the hard-work .. 

 

Results (I used 2 sorcerers apprentice instead of Disciple), used C'Thun just once. All played at rank 15.

paladin - win
tempo cabalist mage - win
hallazeal shaman with n'zoth (he healed himself for a total of 60 during the game and I still won)
cancer shaman - loss
aggro hunter - loss
cancer shaman - loss
aggro warrior - loss
c'thun druid - win
tempo mage - loss
Freeze mage - win
fatigue warrior - win

I like this deck way better than tempo mage with Flamewakers, good curve most of time

Edited November 18, 2016 by peekaboo

[positiv2 952]

14 hours ago, theline93x2 said:

 I was also surprised to see no additional legendaries like Brann or anything like that talked about above, 3ven though this was not labeled as any sort of budget deck.

This deck is actually marked as a cheap deck, which means that the cost cannot go over 1k dust and no adventure cards may be present. 

12 hours ago, peekaboo said:

I'm going to try this deck .. Don't have disciple so going to try 1 Brann / 1 Doomcaller or 2 Babbling instead ..

I would recommend using Brann Bronzebeard. The second option is quite flexible, but I do not recommend Doomcaller as it is too slow in current meta. Additionally, it does not work after Hex. You could try Firelands Portal or the aforementioned Babbling Book. Of course, as soon as you get one copy of Disciple of C'Thun, use it and keep Brann Bronzebeard as it is an MVP and should be included. The reason it is not is simply because decks marked as "Cheap" may not include any adventure cards.

[peekaboo 10]

Luckily 3 of the games Faceless summoned Brann Bronzebeard .. I was thinking of dropping the Ooze cause I only really used it one time .. 

Gonna do some more tinkering tomorrow .. 

[positiv2 952]

57 minutes ago, peekaboo said:

Luckily 3 of the games Faceless summoned Brann Bronzebeard .. I was thinking of dropping the Ooze cause I only really used it one time .. 

Gonna do some more tinkering tomorrow .. 

Acidic Swamp Ooze is the next card to drop for the second Disciple of C'Thun.

[peekaboo 10]

So played this deck for a good 4-5hrs .. It has a good match-up versus most classes except cancer shaman, zoo and dragon priests .. Reached rank 9 so far. It's awesome not having to wait for FW for that tempo turn.

@positiv2

I decided to keep the ooze (so satisfying vs Gorehowl)