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Dalaran Heist Mage Guide

Last updated on May 28, 2019 at 09:20 by Kat 11 comments

This guide is designed to aid you in your adventures through The Dalaran Heist. It goes into great detail regarding Treasure and Bucket choices when it comes to playing the Mage Henchman, Rakanishu, to help you make optimal choices in creating a deck throughout The Dalaran Heist chapters.

Dalaran Heist Guides
1 Dalaran Heist Druid 2 Dalaran Heist Guide 3 Dalaran Heist Hunter 4 Dalaran Heist Mage 5 Dalaran Heist Paladin 6 Dalaran Heist Priest 7 Dalaran Heist Rogue 8 Dalaran Heist Shaman 9 Dalaran Heist Tavern Encounter 10 Dalaran Heist Warlock 11 Dalaran Heist Warrior
TABLE OF CONTENTS OF THIS PAGE
1.

Overview

The Mage class is represented by the Henchman Rakanishu. You will begin with the Fireblast Hero Power and a 10 card starter deck. Once you begin using the Mage class in The Dalaran Heist, you will begin unlocking new Mage Hero Powers and starter decks for you future runs.

2.

Hero Powers

Each class has 3 available Hero Powers that can be chosen at the start of a run.

Fireblast Burning wit Frostburn

The Fireblast Hero Power is the base Mage Hero Power used on your first Mage run and is a Good Hero Power choice overall.

The Burning Wit Hero Power is unlocked by summoning a total of 25 Elementals with Mage in The Dalaran Heist and is a Great Hero Power Choice.

The Frostburn Hero Power is unlocked by Freezing a total of 25 minions with Mage in The Dalaran Heist and is considred a Bad Hero Power Choice due to its situational nature.

3.

Starting Decks

After you have chosen your Hero Power, you will be able to choose from 1 of 4 10-card starting decks. Initially, you will only be able to choose from one deck, but you will unlock more in your future runs as you defeat bosses with the Mage class.

3.1.

Kindling Apprentice

Kindling Apprentice is the default Mage starting deck. It is well-rounded and a Good deck choice and consists of the following 10 cards:

Mage Cards Neutral Cards
3.2.

The Elements

The Elements is the second Mage starting deck and can be unlocked after defeating 5 bosses with the Mage class. It is a Good starting choice and consists of the following 10 cards:

Mage Cards Neutral Cards
3.3.

BURN!

BURN! is the third Mage starting deck and can be unlocked after defeating 10 bosses with the Mage class. It is an Average starting choice and consists of the following 10 cards:

Mage Cards Neutral Cards
3.4.

Random Mage Deck

The option to have a Random 10-card Mage Deck to begin with can be unlocked after defeating 15 bosses with the Mage class. The cards chosen are completely random and offer little to no synergy. The starting deck is a Bad choice and should only be chosen if you want a challenge.

4.

Treasures

After defeating the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th boss in a Dalaran Heist run, you will get to choose 1 of 3 random powerful Treasure cards that you can add to your deck. The Treasures after the 1st and 5th boss will offer passive effects and the Treasures offered after the 3rd and 7th bosses will be powerful playable cards that you can add to your deck.

The tables below contain a list of all the possible Treasures and Passive effects available and give them a general rating as to how good they are for the Mage class. The comments give further details as to how and why the Treasures are good in addition to some of the Card Buckets that they have good synergies with.

4.1.

Treasure Cards

Treasure Rating Comments
Dreamgrove Ring Excellent Dreamgrove Ring itself has quite a high variance in results. However, summoning 5 minions alone is very strong. However, there are many Legendary minions that win the game on the spot if you summon 5 copies, such as Ragnaros the Firelord, The Lich King, and Ysera.
Hyperblaster Excellent Hyperblaster provides a consistent source of removal every single turn to allow you to consistently develop your board. It is especially strong for Mage due to Mage's lack of weapons, so it can remain equipped for the entire game without fear of preventing other weapons from being played.
Super Simian Sphere Excellent Super Simian Sphere provides a consistent method of board control that, alone, can keep any normal board in check, while providing a significant amount of damage per turn against empty boards.
THE... Candles? Excellent THE... CANDLES? makes full use of the Twinspell mechanic, providing a board clear that can be played 4 times throughout the game. Its flexibility allows is to clear 2 large boards, or many small ones to allow your minions to freely pressure opponents.
Annoy-o Horn Good Annoy-o Horn provides a solid amount of value by fully populating your board with smaller minions.
Big Boomba Good Big Boomba provides an immediate board clear while immediately clearing the board the following turn. While the initial clear may be strong, the second effect can be very slow and unnecessary. The card is best used to stall the game in decks that use a large amount of high-cost cards.
Case Study Good Case Study provides immediate access to a range of Quest rewards, without needing to fulfil the Quest's requirements. While all Quest rewards are strong, some are significantly stronger for some decks than others, so the randomness of the Discover effect has a slight negative impact on the Treasure.
Elder Taggawag Good Elder Taggawag is another repeatable board clear similar to THE... Candles?. However, as the card is shuffled back into deck each time, it is not quite as flexible.
EVIL Propaganda Good EVIL Propaganda combines a board clear and populates the board at the same time, offering extreme value. The only drawback of the card is its high cost, making it not quite as useful in more aggressive decks.
Master Scheme Good Master Scheme is a well-rounded card that provides everything you could ask for in a single card. However, due to being a Scheme, the card requires many turns to power up and can be quite unimpactful if not drawn early enough.
The Box Good The Box is a good choice if there are no other good Treasures available. Its ability to change into a new Treasure each turn means that you will often be eable to get Excellent Treasures like Dreamgrove Ring or Super Simian Sphere if you hold onto it for long enough.
The Muscle Average The Muscle provides a big tempo boost by providing free cards. However, the effect can be very inconsistent due to the randomness of the cards given. The card is significantly stronger choice if you also have Battle Totem.
Untold Splendor Good Like The Box, Untold Splendor provides access to a range of different Treasures and is a good pick if there are no other good Treasures available.
Banana Split Average Banana Split is a tempo tool that can quickly expand your board. While the ability itself has a large potential, it is reliant on having a strong target to copy, which results in the card being quite situational compared to other Treasures.
Dagwik Stickytoe Average While Dagwik Stickytoe may not seem too powerful itself, it should be noted that many bosses near the end of chapters lack significant card draw. This means that removing cards from their hand is very valuable and can cause them to run out of steam very quickly.
Duplatransmogrifier Average Duplatransmogrifier is a unique effect that turns all minions in your deck into one specific minion for the remainder of your run. This can be a very double-edged effect as it will remove all of bad cards from your deck, but it can be very hard to develop a strong Mana Curve when all minions in your deck cost the same.
Fly-By Average Fly-By is a fun Treasure with a very inconsistent effect. Although the potential to do 50 damage at once to a boss may seem strong, it is very misleading. Against earlier bosses, encounters are unlikely to last long enough for the bomb to be drawn. Whereas against later bosses, their Health pool is so high that 50 damage is not very significant.
Gnomish Army Knife Average Gnomish Army Knife provides a minion with a range of powerful effects that can change the outcome of a game. However, the high cost of the card makes it heavily reliant upon having a minion in play already for that card to have a significant impact.
Golden Candle Average Golden Candle provides a huge boost in value by turning your deck into powerful Legendary minions. It has great synergies with Treasures that discount cards like Robes of Gaudiness and Scepter of Summoning. However, without these Treasures it can be very risky due to the high variance of Legendaries.
Grimmer Patron Average Grimmer Patron is a solid card that will continually give value as long as it is able to survive. However, it is a huge liability when played from behind as the card, and the first copy it summons, will be immediately removed by opponent.
Sow the Seeds Average Sow the Seeds has a significant impact on the strength of minions in your deck. However, as a 5-Mana card, the effect comes into play very slowly and additional card draw is often required to get full value from the effect.
Swampqueen's Call Average Swampqueen's Call provides the effect of The Storm Bringer for just 2 Mana. As the card is also replayable in the same turn, it is possible to play it multiple times for a consistent result. However, the card is heavily reliant on flooding the board before being used.
Continuum Collider Bad The large Health pools in later encounters make the additional turn generated by the card almost never enough to close out the game and any tempo generated can be swiftly removed by the additional turn taken by your opponent.
Elistra the Immortal Bad Decks drafted during the run often contain very minimal amount of buff cards and it is unlikely that a significant number can be used on Elistra the Immortal.
Loyal Henchman Bad Loyal Henchman's effect is far too slow and far too weak to consider drafting.
Murgatha Bad In a vacuum, Murgatha's ability may seem very strong. However, with a few extreme exceptions, Dalaran Heist decks are not able to consistently play enough cards for the Overload effect to offer enough value.
Orb of the Untold Bad Orb of the Untold functions as a relatively weak board clear. The finite damage it deals is fine against early boards, but is incapable of dealing with large boards like Big Boomba can. The additional fact it can deal direct damage may also seem good against earlier bosses, but soon becomes a liability toward the end of a run, where bosses will have huge amounts of Health.
Overpowered Bad Overpowered provides a small tempo boost by allowing a card to be played a second time. However, the card is not strong enough for a Treasure unless it speifically copies your other Treasure card.
Soulreaper's Scythe Bad Soulreaper's Scythe is a reasonable weapon that grows in strength each game it is used. However, it can be unreliable as it needs to be used against most bosses for its value to accumulate. Due to this, it is a terrible pick if chosen on the second round of active Treasure cards, after the 7th boss.
4.2.

Passive Treasures

Treasure Rating Comments
Emerald Goggles Excellent Emerald Goggles is a huge tempo-boosting Treasure that is stronger than it initially looks. The Treasure will continually discount the left-most card in your hand after each card you play, allowing you to potentially discount your entire your hand if you play your cards from left to right, resulting in many fast victories.
Robes of Gaudiness Excellent Robes of Gaudiness is an excellent tempo tool, and perhaps the strongest Treasure to date in any single-player content. It should be noted that for odd-Cost cards, the Mana Cost rounds down, allowing 3 drops to be played on turn 1, 5-drops on turn 2 and so on. To ensure you get the maximum value out of this Treasure, you should prioritise card buckets with the highest-cost minions after you pick it.
Captured Flag Good Captured Flag is a well-rounded Treasure that gives a flat boost to your minions throughout the game. It is particularly strong in Token decks where the Treasure can buff additional minions that are summoned.
Cloak of Invisibility Good Cloak of Invisibility allows a great deal of flexibility for your minions, allowing you to dictate all trades that are made and extract additional value from heavily-injured minions.
Potion of Vitality Good Potion of Vitality is a deceptively strong Treasure most of the time. Although it offers no real tempo or value in itself, the additional Health it provides gives you more time to use your cards efficiently to outvalue bosses. Picking up 2 copies of the Treasure will also result in you having more than double the Health of the final bosses you face.
Resourcefulness Good While the value of the Treasure can vary a lot, any early-game weapon serves as an excellent tool for controlling the board to dictate the pace of the game. The high base Health of your Hero against the later bosses gives you a lot of breathing room to trade with your weapon.
Rocket Backpacks Good Much like Cloak of Invisibility, Rocket Backpacks gives you the initiative when trading with your minions and allows you to extract significantly more value from your cards as a result.
Scepter of Summoning Good Scepter of Summoning is a good Treasure that can function similarly to Robes of Gaudiness. It allows big minions to be played cheaply, but offers no benefit for smaller minions, making it essential to pick up as many card buckets containing big minions once you have picked it up.
Wondrous Wisdomball Good Wondrous Wisdomball is a fun Treasure that just so happens to be extremely powerful. It will randomly trigger various powerful effects that are almost all positive, such as clearing the board, duplicating spells, drawing additional cards, and turning the minions you play into random Legendaries.
Battle Totem Average Battle Totem is generally a strong Treasure. However, the Mage class lacks strong Battlecry effects, making the Treasure very dependent on drafting Elementals from the Elements bucket to have a good amount of Battlecry effects.
Book of Wonders Average On average Book of Wonders is a fairly strong Treasure. It will often play spells that summon you minions in the early game, or randomly clear your opponent's board. However, the small risk of random spells clearing your board with spells like Cataclysm prevent this Treasure from being a good choice.
Crystal Gem Average Crystal Gem provides a boost in tempo by ramping up your Mana Crystals. However, it pales in comparison to some of the more impactful Treasures.
Dr. Boom's Remote Average Dr Boom's Remote creates a small amount of early-game tempo that allows you to comfortably secure control of the board going into the mid game.
Elixir of Vim Average Elixir of Vim provides a constant supply of resources to allow you to continually pressure opponents. However, unless you are also able to draft Elixir of Vigor, a very low-curve deck is required to get full use of the Treasure.
Expedite Average Expedite provides a small tempo boost compared to Robes of Gaudiness, but is still a well-rounded choice that will prevent you from being overwhelmed from bosses later in your run.
First Aid Kit Average First Aid Kid provides a consistent supply of healing for your minions, greatly increasing the benefit of value trading. However, most encounters will be too fast for the Treasure to offer significant value.
Mysterious Tome Average Mysterious Tome provides a small early-game tempo boost, similar to Dr. Boom's Remote that will allow you to safely reach the mid game.
Robe of the Magi Average Robe of the Magi adds a huge boost in value to spells. It is especially useful in the Mage class due to the large number of AoE spells that can greatly benefit from the Spell Damage.
Small Backpacks Average Small Backpacks provides you with a boost in card advantage from the beginning of the game. The additional cards can help you play any deck more effectively due to the additional options available.
Stargazing Average Stargazing provides a consistent supply of value by allowing you to use your Hero Power twice per turn for a reduced Cost. This Treasure is significantly strong if you have the Burning Wit Hero Power, as it will allow you to use your Hero Power twice per turn, for free.
A Prince's Ring Bad A Prince's Ring may look good on the surface, but is significantly weaker than the Death knights it mimics. Without Battlecries and powerful passive effects like Frost Lich Jaina, Death knight Hero Powers are often only marginally better than other starting Hero Powers available.
Elixir of Vigor Bad Elixir of Vigor is a deceptive Treasure that appears strong at first. However, the uncontrollable effect will punish you for playing early-game minions, populating your deck with poor draws. The Treasure is only ever worth considering if you already have Elixir of Vim.
Elixir of Vile Bad Elixir of Vile offers a short-term tempo advantage by allowing you to play spells with Health. However, encounters will go much longer against late bosses and the cumulative cost of spells will often result in a critical loss of Health.
Glyph of Warding Bad Glyph of Warding is unimpactful compared to most Treasures and will often just be a minor inconvenience for most bosses.
Hagatha's Embrace Bad Hagatha's Embrace performs a random hand buff to one of your minions at the end of each turn. While it offers consistent value, the effect is very weak relative to other Treasures, especially compared to similar effects like Captured Flag.
Recycling Bad Most Mage decks will never play enough minions for Recycling to have a significant impact in a game. Even in decks build around the Treasure, it is still unlikely to provide as much healing as First Aid Kit or Potion of Vitality.
The Hand of Rafaam Bad The Hand of Rafaam is a Treasure that will make quick work of early bosses with low Health pools. However, against later bosses the 4 damage per turn is insignificant and the additional Mana Crystals the final 2 bosses start with allows them to comfortably play their Curse of Rafaams
Togwaggle's Dice Bad Togwaggle's Dice is a very unpredictable card. For it to offer significant value, a very high-Cost deck is required and even then, Treasures like Scepter of Summoning and Robes of Gaudiness are much better choices for that situation.
Totem of the Dead Bad While Totem of the Dead is not a bad Treasure in itself, Mage does not commonly use Deathrattle minions that would give the Treasure any value.
5.

Card Buckets

After you defeat each boss, you will be offered a choice of 3 different card buckets that you can add to your deck. Each bucket contains 3 cards that fit a certain theme and will help shape your deck in different ways.

The table below contains a list of all the possible Mage card buckets and gives a general rating as to how good each card bucket is on average. The comments section contains further details of each bucket and when to choose them.

Bucket Rating Comments
BURN! Excellent BURN! contains a range of fire-themed Mage cards. As nearly all fire cards, such as Firelands Portal, Fireball, and Flamestrike, are extremely strong, this bucket is an excellent choice for all decks.
Summoning Excellent Summoning contains a range of summoning-based Mage cards, such as Firelands Portal, Power of Creation, and Astromancer. It is the best source of mininions for your deck and an excellent choice for all types of Mage decks.
Go Big Good Go Big is a bucket themed around high-cost spells and contains synergies like Dragoncaller Alanna, Spiteful Summoner, and Dragon's Fury. Most importantly, it contains all high-cost Mage spells, making it a good utility bucket for any deck.
Legends Good Legends contains an assortment of Legendary minions. The value of the bucket can vary, but it has a alot of great choices like Ragnaros the Firelord. The Lich King, and Sylvanas Windrunner. This should be your default bucket of choice if you have huge Mana reductions from Treasures like Robes of Gaudiness.
Multicast Good Multicast contains a range of spells that can be cast multiple times, such as Ray of Frost, Magic Trick, and Primordial Glyph. The bucket also contains Archmage Antonidas, which is the primary reason to pick it up.
Technology Good Technology contains all Mechs available to Mage. The value of the bucket can vary a lot, but prioritise it for strong choices like Sneed's Old Shredder and Piloted Shredder.
Elements Average Elements contains all Elemental minions available for Mage. While there can be some strong choices, the bucket must be picked frequently for consistent tribal synergies. This bucket should be a high priority if you have Battle Totem.
Fate's Hand Average Fate's Hand contains Mage cards themed around random card generation. The bucket can offer cards with standalone value like Archmage Antonidas and Cabalist's Tome. However, you should avoid committing too much to the bucket, especially avoiding the Open the Waygate Quest.
Powered Up Average Powered up contains a range of Spell Damage minions to buff your spells. The bucket should only be considered if you have picked up a significant amount of spells from the Multicast, BURN!, and Cold Snap buckets.
Trade Secrets Average Trade Secrets contains all Mage Secrets available. You should avoid heavily committing to the bucket as Secret decks are weak overall, but you can look for strong standalone choices like Duplicate, Mirror Entity, and Explosive Runes.
Cold Snap Bad Cold Snap is a bucket themed around Mage Freeze effects. Outside of a few select cards, like Blizzard, the bucket is very weak and should only be considered if you have chosen the Frostburn Hero Power.
Inspired Bad Inspired is a bucket themed around Hero Power usage. The Dalaran Heist does not have strong support for Hero Power usage in general and this bucket should only be considred if you have picked up the Frostburn Hero Power or you have the Stargazing Treasure.
6.

Changelog

  • 27 May 2019: Adjusted rating for Wonderous Wisdomball and Soulreaper's Scythe
  • 17 May 2019: Guide added.
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