My Mage Secret Deck

[Krazyito 521]

I made a mage secret deck for the hell of it a long time ago, but I usually only play arena, so I just used it for lulz. 

 

Lately I've been playing more constructed cause I ran out of gold for arena, and I've gotten to rank 17 with this deck alone.

 

 

What do you think?

[SparkSovereign 61]

I think your mana curve is a little whacked.  If you tell me how it goes when you lose, I can give better advice, but I'm guessing Murlocs eat you alive, and other decks grab momentum early and never lose it until it's too late?  The sheer volume of 3 and 4 cost spells gives you all kinds of neat options in that turn range, and Mages are just jam-packed with good spells there... but having the perfect response to each one of your enemy's 4 minions on the board doesn't help if you can't play enough of them.  Ice Block and Flamestrike help, but I feel like you'll just find yourself falling too far behind.

 

The thing about Mage secrets is that, with exception of Ice Barrier and Ice Block, they provide very little value if played early, but are game changers if played late.  Vaporizing a Wolfrider means you traded 3 mana for 3 mana; Vaporizing Deathwing wins the game.  This is in dramatic contrast to Hunter secrets, which are devastating if played early and fairly ineffectual if played late (my army of murlocs worries about Explosive Trap, but my Ironbark Protector doesn't).

 

Basically, if you want to watch Mage secrets wreck people, you need to play control to get to the late game, which (somewhat counter-intuitively) means you need a more efficient early game.  (If you instead want to troll people with Kirin-Tor Mage -> Ice Block, next turn Ethereal Arcanist, I suggest playing aggro instead.)  You also want to look into "momentum stoppers" like Abomination, which is a real PITA for any aggro deck (and, more importantly, clears all those little minions they'd normally throw away to expose your Secrets).  Mana Wyrm is at very least a 1/3 for 1, and great for slowing down your opponent, especially if you run a few more early spells like Arcane Missiles and Arcane Barrage.

 

The hard part, of course, isn't deciding what you want, it's deciding what to cut.

• Defender of Argus is nice in a lot of decks, but you don't have the low-cost minion support to really get work out of him.
• 2 Spellbreakers and 2 Polymorphs is probably overkill.  Given the current druid-heavy meta, I would suggest keeping the Polymorphs.  (Assuming here you don't have Tinkmaster Overspark.)
• Sen'jin Shieldmastas are awesome, but you're loaded with 4-cost cards, and they're a prime target to trade up for the aggro-wrecking Abomination.
• Arcane Intellect is nice, but you have so many 3-cost spells that it risks eternally being the 2nd best play and rotting in your hand for a long time.  Consider Loot Hoarder if you run into that problem frequently.

I hope that helps.  Let me know how it goes!

[Krazyito 521]

My biggest problem I've found with this deck is just the sheer lack of creatures.  If I don't draw into my creatures early enough, I really cant do anything but control them with spells.

 

I've had some fun with the deck and if i can last long enough (especially putting an ice block early with an Arcanist) it does well.  Usually games end with a double pyroblast and some damage.  Doesn't do well with priests and such that can heal

[SparkSovereign 61]

The thing with your mana curve is, even if you draw your minions, you can't necessarily keep any of them on the board because you're by necessity playing them one at a time until turn 8 at the earliest.  I don't think your issue is with how many minions are in the deck, I think it's with what they're costs are.

 

It might sound counter-intuitive, but the best way to get control of the board is to stop making yourself struggle for control, and make the other guy do it for you.  Don't kill his 2 drop, make him kill yours.  Making him frostbolt your guy is better than frostbolting his, and so forth.  You know all those really annoying early game creatures you pull your hair out to deal with before they make a mess of the place?  Field them.  Mana Wyrm is great, Sorceror's Apprentice causes almost every deck to derail its plan to kill her instead, etc.  Mad Bomber is a bit more active of a piece, being functionally like Arcane Missiles wrapped around a Bloodfen Raptor with the targeting turned off.  Playing that night elf archer whose name I can never remember (the 1/1 with battlecry: do 1 damage) is better than using your hero power, because now there's also a 1/1 that needs to be dealt with, or can help deal with something else.  And on, and on, and on.

 

Basically, your ticket to the end game (where you excel at, because you're a mage secrets deck) is to be as frustrating as possible in the early game.  Convincing your opponent you're the much more popular mage aggro archetype is a bonus but not strictly necessary (they may play more defensively to counter what they assume is aggro).  Your goal is to reach the midgame with a clean board and without losing too much life; from there, your minions and control abilities can shut people down and win you the game.

 

Advice vs priests: do not go for the kill unless A) they die right now, B.) you have overkill to spare, or C) you are at risk of running out of turns before they kill you.  (For example, if they are at 15 and you are at 5, throwing a Pyroblast to the face is okay, even if it's your only card, just because you might only have one turn to kill them.)  Hit them with your minions and whatnot whenever you can, but don't start throwing spells to the face until it's go-time.

Edited February 26, 2014 by SparkSovereign