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"DUPLICATE": NEW MAGE SECRET CARD FROM CURSE OF NAXXRAMAS

Mages, rejoice! If you are like me who has been playing Mage more than any other class ever since, you're in luck! The new Mage card is a secret and it is called "Duplicate" which allows two copies of a minion card to be copied if that minion you control dies in the battlefield. It costs three mana and oh, what a lovely artwork it has! What do you think of the card? <source>

Duplicate Mage Hearthstone Naxxramas

34 DAMAGE BY TURN TWO? Use A Priest Deck

Lightwarden Priest OTK ComboCircle of Healing OTK Combo


OTKs are already flooding casual and ranked play thanks to Miracle Rogue and the onslaught of Leeroy Jenkins and friends. However, is it possible to win the game by turn two, without the use of Millhouse Manastorm and not winning because you're opponent was disconnected or conceded? The answer is: yes you can, but according to redditor Belduros, you have to use a priest deck.

Wild Pyromancer Priest OTK ComboHow can I deal 34 damage by turn two?

Condition: You have to be the player with the coin.

Opponent's Turn 1: Plays nothing or anything that won't kill Light Wardens, really. Better if it's a minion with two health (but no taunt)

Turn 1: Play two Light Wardens using the coin

Opponent's Turn 2: He can either play another minion with two or above health. Your Light Wardens should not get killed.

Silence Priest OTK ComboTurn 2: Here's the tricky, fun part. Play Wild Pyromancer and cast Silence on the opponent's minion, triggering Pyromancer's ability. Then, cast Circle of Healing, so that each of your Light Wardens will get at least +8 attack (since there would at least be four minions in play). That Circle of Healing will then once again trigger Pyromancer's ability, and that's when you cast another Circle of Healing, giving your Light Wardens at least +16 attack each. By then, you would have two Light Wardens with 17+ attack and a silenced minion.

That would give you with at least 34 damage to deal to your opponent.

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Warlock OTK: Unleash the Arcane Golem!

Once again, I was using my aggro mage deck. My opponent had a Zoolock deck, and I was able to clear the board with a Flamestrike. His final turn, however, proved that it was the end of my game even though I had 20 life points left. How? Well, basically, he played Arcane Golem, used two copies of Power Overwhelming on it, and attacked with its 12/10 body. Finally (and luckily) he was able to play two Soulfires for 8 damage. I say that he is lucky because he didn't randomly discard his second one. GG!

Arcane Golem OTK

Arcane Golem OTK

TOP 10 ARENA MISPLAYS

Arena Guide Hearthstone



INTRODUCTION

Redditor CrackChowder listed the top ten arena misplays. It was made by his friend, Waskir, who is at legend rank but mainly plays arena, with a win rate of about 75%. Without further ado, here is the list:

TOP 10 ARENA MISPLAYS

1. Missing Lethal
Fireball Hearthstone
This has also happened to me more than once, especially whenever I use Hunter or Mage decks. Sometimes, we do get occupied with gaining board advantage and clearing everything in our path that sometimes we miss the potential of actually doing lethal. This could either cost you the game since your opponent stayed alive longer than necessary. Apparently, this also happens to the best players, so never forget to check for a possible immediate win by directly attacking your opponent. This hits home because I have often thought about a mistake of using Frostbolt or Fireball to a minion instead of to the face.

2. Forgetting to Attack

Again, this hits home. I have often been disgruntled at the fact that, because I knew how my play is for that turn, I hastily do all the clicking. And when I hit that next turn button, I actually didn't attack with that minion. This also goes with forgetting to use your hero skill when you actually had the mana.
Gold Mind Control Tech
3. Playing For Too Much Value

According to Waskir, this is one of the most frequent mistakes done mostly by lower level arena players. An example of a bad play waiting for your opponent to overcommit to the board while you take a lot of damage. The better play is to cast Mind Control Tech on turn three, regardless of its ability being useless, just so that you don't give the opponent an easy board control. Besides, there's only a 25% that you will get the minion that you want from your opponent when you do play Mind Control Tech in the late run.

4. Getting Greedy

This means getting all of those great Legendary cards you were offered to pick. This also includes the great neutral cards such as Boulderfist Ogre. The problem with this is that you forget your mana curve and while you do have Ragnaros, Alexstrasza, and all of the giants in your deck, you will probably be dead before you have enough mana to play them.

5. Playing Like In Constructed Decks

Apparently, there are a lot of plays which are only good in constructed play and do not necessarily apply well in arena mode. An example is that while you do get to draw a card if you use the 1 damage option of Wrath to kill a minion instead of simply using Druid's hero skill, you're also losing a card that can kill a minion with three health. You have no idea what you are up against, so it's actually better to use that Wrath's 3 damage ability.

6. Drafting for Constructed Decks
Shadowstep Hearthstone
If you're playing in arena, you should expect to not get all the cards you want. Sometimes, it will work for you to pick cards as though you're in casual or ranked play. However, most of the time, the Shadowstep you picked won't actually have a Leeroy Jenkins or an Argent Commander. Most of the time, your arena deck will look unfinished with cads that lack their combo pieces.

7. Bad Mulligan

You have to be familiar with your mana curve in arena. Yes, having three four-drops in your opening hand might be bad, but it's probably better keeping one of them if your deck is mostly composed of heavy hitters and expensive spells.

8. Having Inflated Expectations of Your Arena Deck

Never be downtrodden when you've made a decent arena deck and suddenly lose twice in a row. Rest for a while if you need, but don't lose your patience or else it can ruin your third game. Keep your head up and understand that RNG in Hearthstone plays a huge role. So what if you had bad draws and your opponent had good ones? Don't blame yourself for that and keep calm.

9. Killing Yourself

Always keep an eye out on your remaining life total. Hitting 15 below is bad when you're up against a Mage who's probably holding down a Fireball or two along with some Frostbolts. Additionally, while it feels good to kill minions with weapons, don't forget that you also receive damage just like a defending minion would. Sometimes, you just have to settle for less efficient trades.

Gold Timber Wolf in Hearthstone
10. Drafting Too Many Situational Cards

If you're playing Hunter class in arena, you probably want to keep that Timber Wolf. However, that's a situation-specific combo card which might prove to be useless when you don't get Starving Buzzard or Unleash the Hounds or just a lot of great beasts. Even if their potential value is enormous, you should keep them to a minimum to lessen the risks. This is why Chillwind Yeti and Boulderfist are good picks because they are good on their own.

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MODERN TEMPO ROGUE: Legend Rank Gosucup #7 Winner Shows His New Version of the Deck

Valeera Rogue Hearthstone


INTRODUCTION

Redditor modernleper_hs commented on a post about Tempo Rogue decks, providing an update of how his Tempo Rogue deck has been modified to adapt to the meta game. He was previously using Cairne Bloodhoof and two copies of Defias Ringleader, but the onslaught of Miracle Rogue has been too much to include Cairne, simply because the opponent can Sap it back to your hand.

CHANGES

Playing Argent Commander allows you to immediately deal four damage, and an opponent using Sap on it back would only allow it to attack once again for four. Additionally, having a single Shadowstep is a great way to finish off the game, either with Leeroy Jenkins or Argent Commander, aside from allowing you to dig for certain cards such as Big Game Hunter, The Black Knight, and buffing your minions with Defender of Argus.

Legend Tempo Rogue Deck


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LEGEND Rank Aggro Mage: The New Age

Jaina Proudmoore Mage Banner

INTRODUCTION

JadeSC from LiquidHearth recently hit Legend rank on the EU server with his aggro Mage deck that was surprisingly doing well in such a diverse meta game. He started playing it at Rank 5 and had 119 games before reaching the prized Legend rank. This is actually very short compared to the average number of games you need to play if your deck's win rate is at a mere 50% (you'd have to play 500-700 games on average, according to this.)

STATS

Here, JadeSC provided some statistics on how the aggro mage fared against some of the classes and staple decks:

Aggro Warrior 1-0
Gold Archmage Antonidas HearthstoneControl Warrior 0-8
KolentoLock 1-3
Handlock 6-2
Hunter 3-5
Mage 7-2
Miracle Rogue 9-6
Murloc Warlock 1-0
Paladin 9-0
Priest 1-1
Ramp Druid 4-1
Shaman 6-8
Token Druid 4-5
T. Rogue 1-1
Watcher Druid 3-3
Zoo 12-6

Jade SC Legend Aggro Mage Deck
Wins: 68 | Losses: 51

By the looks of it, it unexpectedly suffers greatly against Control Warrior, mostly because of all the accumulated armor and hard-to-kill minions of that deck. Additionally, it didn't perform that well against Token Druid and Watcher Druid, perhaps because that class also specializes in having great defense, great minions, and a bit of armor. A good news is that it handles well against the infamous Miracle Rogue.

MATCH UPS

According to JadeSC, he didn't have Archmage Antonidas at first, so he used Ragnaros, the Firelord. However, even if it allowed him to get to rank 1, he explained that the Archmage is a better play overall as Antonidas generally becomes the finisher against close match ups such as Druid and Shaman which for JadeSC "holds much more value" than a Ragnaros that is pretty much useless when you're agtainst Shaman or Token Druid. The few advantages of using Rag is that it can hold up against Miracle Rogue and Handlock, and will let you have a better chance of winning against Control Warrior (ideally).

When using this aggro mage deck, battling against any Warlock or Paladin deck would put the odds in your favour, especially with the latter. Additionally, you can deal with Miracle Rogue and if you do get to battle Control Warrior, you're betting off conceding as soon as possible. Finally, battling Shaman decks are one of the most intriguing because the match up is apparently pretty bad despite JadeSC getting an appropriate number of wins. He noted that Shamans have the right tools to take care of your early gameplay and are hard to counter once they have control of the board. Winning against it depends on a strong early play from you and a lack of answers from the Shaman, an example of which is using Mirror Image to deal with Rockbiter Weapon.

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Aggro Paladin VS Aggro Mage: Thanks For the Chicken

Aggro Paladin Aggro Mage

Both Mage and Paladin have recently gained popularity because of their aggro variants. This is a game wherein I used aggro mage and my opponent, with all of his Blessing of Mights, Leeroy Jenkins, and Leper Gnomes, battled it out. Eventually, he brought me down to three points, but because he was always attacking me directly, he ignored my side of the board. It's not good when you ignore two Mana Wyrms. Looking at the image, I cast Flame Strike to clear the board. And from that, I cast Fireball to deal seven damage, making my wyrms 5/2 and 5/1, respectively. Overall, it was capable of dealing 26 damage.

Aggro Mage VS Aggro Mage: The Exciting Mirror Match

I just finished playing a game of Hearthstone. It was a mirror match between two aggro mage users. He had Violet Teacher, which I did not have because I'm that unlucky when it comes to opening packs. Additionally, it was a clear New Age Mage deck list that was used by my opponent, as it also had Bloodmage Thalnos and Acolyte of Pain. My deck varied a bit from his because I included a couple of Wolf Riders and one Blizzard to accompany my two Flamestrikes.

Aggro Mage Hearthstone

I was down to 5, and my opponent had three times my remaining life points. I wiped his board with Flamestrike so all he had now was a Mana Wyrm, but I was fearing that my own side of the board would be wiped eventaully. And that he did with his own Flamestrike, making it his Mana Wyrm a 2/3. Luckily, I had an Acolyte of Pain which I can ping with my hero skill to draw some cards, along with Azure Drake. Before he ended his turn, I was at 4 because of his hero skill.

Aggro Mage Hearthstone

On my turn before this, I played my second Azure Drake and Sorcerer's Apprentice, allowing me to cast Arcane Missiles which, through the help of Mage's hero skill, helped bring down the Mana Wyrm. On his final turn, as you can see at the left side, he cast a a Bloodmage Thalnos and pinged it with his own hero skill to draw a card. And that card was a Frostbolt to my face, bringing me down to one point.

Next, my final turn. I attacked with the drake and the apprentice, bringing him down to 6, which was more than enough for my seven-damage Fireball. It was really exciting, and I think my opponent felt that victory was almost his. I really felt lucky to have lived.

RANKED PLAY: How Many Games Before You Reach Legend?


If you've ever reached Rank 5, you know that it's gonna be a long road towards getting legend rank. You are seriously close to your goal, but so are thousands of players, all vying to get onto the big leagues. It's normal to get a 50% win rate from Rank 5 to 1 since the game has gone more diverse than ever, from Miracle Rogue to Aggro Paladin and Aggro Mage returning to the fray. So, statistically, just how many games would it take you before you reach legend? Well, redditor TantrumRight provided a graph that provides the average number of wins you need, depending on your win rate. So, if I do get at Rank 5 this season (which is a bit impossible at the moment), I would probably have to play about 500 to 700 games. Ah, my life.



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