LEGEND Rank Aggro Mage: The New Age

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
Control 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


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.

<source>

Read More

Watcher Mage VS Aggro Mage in Hearthstone

Before discussing about the last game I had, I just want to say thanks to this Shaman user for giving me a "free" star. I'm not sure if you had connection problems or simply didn't want to battle against a mage, but thanks anyway.

An Unexpected Victory

After reading a couple of Nat Geo articles, I went online to have a go at Ranked Mode. I picked my Watcher Mage (which replaced Trump's Budget Mage). I am already content at Rank 18 anyway, since I do not have the time or the financial (dust) resources to make a great deck that can easily handle the environment in the higher ranks (an abundance of Hunters and Zoolocks, perhaps). Anyway, my last opponent also used Jaina, and I groaned a bit, thinking that this is going to be a long mirror match of mages trying to control the board. The surprising bit, however, immediately came with a first turn Leper Gnome play by my opponent. It was followed by a second turn Loot Hoarder. The third turn also dropped a Hoarder into the board. The fourth turn, however, provided another surprise in the form of an Arcane Golem. Yes, indeed, this is the first time I've faced a mage that used an Arcane Golem.

Aggro Mage Using An Arcane Golem

At this point, I was thinking to myself whether I was battling with someone who was experimenting with his familiar "Face Hunter" cards and putting them in other classes. My opponent even had a Knife Juggler which I Frostbolted' immediately into oblivion before it was able to perhaps destroy my Mana Wyrm and Harvest Golem.

Surprise! Knife Juggler!

By this time, I really imagined my opponent as another Face Hunter. I was expecting a Starving Buzzard + UTH + Timber Wolf combo of some sort (note: this is a joke). All the while, I was completely amused with this kind of Mage deck by the reason that this is my first time to battle one. It seemed that early offense and card advantage were the objectives of this aggro mage, especially with my opponent playing a Coldlight Oracle. Immediately, the aggressive style was reinforced by the arrival of two Abusive Sergeants that powered a second Arcane Golem. Hello, eight damage to my face. I was now assuming that he had Fireballs and Frostbolts to end the game immediately after all the assaults.

Surprise again! 8/2 Arcane Golem for you!

I Frostbolt'ed his second Golem, and cleared his side of the board through my Harvest Golem token and a couple of one-damage pings. In the end, I was already at ten mana crystals thanks to his Arcane Golems. The mana acceleration helped me unleash my own offensives strikes in the form of Mana Wyrm, Water Elemental, and ultimately Argent Commander. He dropped a couple of Sorcerer's Apprentices and Mana Wyrms along with Kobold Geomancer, but without a Flamestrike, I had the advantage. Good game against an unusual deck!

For those wondering, here are the cards my opponent used during our game:





1 Ice Lance (to my face, after a Frostbolt)
1 Kobold Geomancer
2 Mana Wyrm
2 Sorcerer's Apprentice
2 Abusive Sergeant
2 Loot Hoarder
1 Leper Gnome
2 Arcane Golem
1 Knife Juggler
1 Coldlight Oracle

Read More