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Hearthstone |OT9| Our raid wiped in Icecrown Citadel

Hybris

Member
Is anyone a rank 5 or higher secret mage player? Could you please glance at these three games and tell me if I misplayed something badly? I played them all in a row.

https://hsreplay.net/replay/adHEKeFdoHbxxTEJtCFzeJ
https://hsreplay.net/replay/y76UsggM3zJUVxD7ssQKR4
https://hsreplay.net/replay/x8PgehG77DdUdiAeDh2gBe


I'm using the standard deck and it's supposed to be top tier, so I'm disappointed I'm not getting easy wins with it. :( I'm using this guide for deck contents and mulligans: https://disguisedtoast.com/meta_decks/78-secrets-mage

Maybe it's just bad luck, and yet this sort of thing seems to happen consistently.

I am noticing a common problem across all 3 games. You are playing way too passively. Secret mage is a curve aggro deck. You cannot afford to hero power as much as you are currently. Here's some examples:

First game:
You commit to a line where you spend 4 mana and a 1 mana minion to kill a 1 drop. It's also a line that gets completely blown out by any buffs, which are extremely likely against a murloc paladin. Turn 2 should have been glyph, turn 3 kirin tor mage + potion of poly. You likely still lose to rallying blade but with a good pull from glyph that may not be the case.

Second game:
Coin glyph doesnt seem like the best move to me. Coin arcanologist seems much stronger. If he has the buffer. you can ping it next turn, if he doesn't you are in a massive lead. After this you are too far behind on board to do anything, and since your glyph pull was useless you just lost the game.

Third game:
Turn 3 off curve frost bolt instead of playing the kirin tor mage. The frostbolt did pretty much nothing, whereas the mage can potentially go face next turn if you ping frostbolt trade the 1/1 on turn 4. 2nd glyph you should take pyro there. You aren't playing a control deck and you have a poly in hand already, need damage to close out the game. Also on that turn, you hold back minions in hand, you should just play both of those on the board.

So overall, play on curve. Play more aggressively. Don't hold back minions like medivh's vallet and kirin tor mage just because you cannot take advantage of the battlecry and you have no other plays. Know what the role of your deck is in each matchup (in most cases, you will be the aggressor with this deck). The decklist seems sub optimal as well. Double firelands is too good not to run two of them. Also double lackey seems excessive, but that's a bit more hotly debated. Try out some of the lists on viscious syndicate, they are a bit more current in the meta.
 
Made this murloc paladin concede on turn 4.

Turn 1, tidecaller, I coin out Jade Claws.

Turn 2, tidehunter, I swing and trade, then play Fire Fly.

Turn 3, warleader, I play flametongue and the fire elemental.
 
yeah in my experience recently 2 drops really aren't that great anymore since they're usually answered easily. i got 8 or 9 wins friday with a draft that had a single 2 drop in it. my high wins usually have a lot of 3 and 4 drops though
 
After a week and a half of struggling on the ladder I just went undefeated from rank 9 to rank 5 with Pirate Warrior, beating out a Taunt Warrior twice in a row for my final matches. The penultimate win only came because he pushed me to 12 health and I had double Mortal Strikes in my hand for lethal. Felt like a scumbag and tried to friend him to say GGs and that he'll get to 5, but he wouldn't accept my request. :(
 

Blizzard

Banned
So overall, play on curve. Play more aggressively. Don't hold back minions like medivh's vallet and kirin tor mage just because you cannot take advantage of the battlecry and you have no other plays. Know what the role of your deck is in each matchup (in most cases, you will be the aggressor with this deck). The decklist seems sub optimal as well. Double firelands is too good not to run two of them. Also double lackey seems excessive, but that's a bit more hotly debated. Try out some of the lists on viscious syndicate, they are a bit more current in the meta.
Thanks, I really appreciate it. I seem to typically die before I can do much with firelands but I could add a second one. I'll look at VS to see if they have a better decklist.

In general, almost every deck I face at rank 10 is a wide-board minion spam deck, and this list has no AOE unless you discover or generate it. I'm wondering if I should actually add one or two AOE spells.


yeah in my experience recently 2 drops really aren't that great anymore since they're usually answered easily. i got 8 or 9 wins friday with a draft that had a single 2 drop in it. my high wins usually have a lot of 3 and 4 drops though
It'd be a strange thing if the new expansion had a card designed around having no 2-drops. :O

After a week and a half of struggling on the ladder I just went undefeated from rank 9 to rank 5 with Pirate Warrior, beating out a Taunt Warrior twice in a row for my final matches. The penultimate win only came because he pushed me to 12 health and I had double Mortal Strikes in my hand for lethal. Felt like a scumbag and tried to friend him to say GGs and that he'll get to 5, but he wouldn't accept my request. :(
What list did you use?
 
Thanks, I really appreciate it. I seem to typically die before I can do much with firelands but I could add a second one. I'll look at VS to see if they have a better decklist.

In general, almost every deck I face at rank 10 is a wide-board minion spam deck, and this list has no AOE unless you discover or generate it. I'm wondering if I should actually add one or two AOE spells.



It'd be a strange thing if the new expansion had a card designed around having no 2-drops. :O


What list did you use?

Just the standard list, but no Heroic Strikes and one Spellbreaker.
 
Do you mind copy/pasting it just in case I find the wrong standard list or replace the wrong cards? :p

### Pirate Warrior
# Class: Warrior
# Format: Wild
#
# 2x (1) N'Zoth's First Mate
# 1x (1) Patches the Pirate
# 1x (1) Sir Finley Mrrgglton
# 2x (1) Southsea Deckhand
# 2x (1) Upgrade!
# 2x (2) Bloodsail Raider
# 2x (2) Fiery War Axe
# 2x (2) Ship's Cannon
# 2x (3) Bloodsail Cultist
# 2x (3) Frothing Berserker
# 2x (3) Southsea Captain
# 2x (4) Dread Corsair
# 2x (4) Kor'kron Elite
# 2x (4) Mortal Strike
# 1x (4) Spellbreaker
# 2x (5) Arcanite Reaper
# 1x (5) Leeroy Jenkins
#
AAEBAQcErwTyBYQXkbwCDRywApED/wOOBagF1AWkBu4G5wf7D4KwAoiwAgA=
#
# To use this deck, copy it to your clipboard and create a new deck in Hearthstone

There isn't anything special about it, though. If you're having trouble climbing, it's probably your decisions. My biggest mistake when playing Pirate Warrior is not hitting face enough. ;-D
 

Blizzard

Banned
Oh, it's a wild deck. :p

Also I got wrecked by yet another wide minion spam paladin deck. I don't see how mage without AOE can clear or kill quickly enough with the repeatedly buffed minions.

I wonder if it's worth putting one or two crabs to deal with the constant paladins?
 

Blizzard

Banned
7/9 of my last opponents at rank 10 have been minion flood decks. If there's a way to counter that with no-AOE mage I'm not finding it. ;_;
 
636364699534875658.png
 

Pooya

Member
egg plan seems terrible. You opponent could just pop the egg then kill this, killing this isn't exactly hard or unlikely on turn 4. It doesn't seem like a combo that is worthwhile.
 

Yaboosh

Super Sleuth
egg plan seems terrible. You opponent could just pop the egg then kill this, killing this isn't exactly hard or unlikely on turn 4. It doesn't seem like a combo that is worthwhile.


You want eggs to survive as druid for the most part anyway. You have tons of ways to activate them and they are more useful for their resistance to board clears than their inevitable big minion.
 

dimb

Bjergsen is the greatest midlane in the world
the whole campaign is death based i'm sure there is synergy we haven't seen yet.
No. There is anti-synergy because if you are running deathrattles you are running N'zoth. Why is Blizzard such a joke? Just show some good/playable cards when you announce an expansion. It's not that hard.
 

Htown

STOP SHITTING ON MY MOTHER'S HEADSTONE
okay, since we're starting to do this again

the card could be bad. it could be fine. we literally do not know yet.

this happens every time a set comes out.
 
+1/+1 is simply not worth that downside. It doesn't take a genius to see that the card would need to be carried by another to ever see play in constructed, ie. generated by that 3 drop that generates a deathrattle on death. Even then, it has anti-synergy with n'zoth.
 

dimb

Bjergsen is the greatest midlane in the world
What is the point in looking at an objectively bad card and pretending it will be good? The card is bad and :zzz:. The least they could do would have been to give it taunt or something but it's just a worthless pile of stats. Unimpressive raw stats and one of the most punishing deathrattles in the game. Really hard for a card like that to even have some kind of combo because of the cost, and again, if it does not work with N'zoth it fails as a deathrattle card.
 

Fersis

It is illegal to Tag Fish in Tag Fishing Sanctuaries by law 38.36 of the GAF Wildlife Act
okay, since we're starting to do this again

the card could be bad. it could be fine. we literally do not know yet.

this happens every time a set comes out.

Every. Single. Time.

Speakin' of which, get ready for me saying something like "I DUNNO GUYS I THINK THE META WILL SLOW DOWN A BIT THIS TIME!"... =/
 

ZealousD

Makes world leading predictions like "The sun will rise tomorrow"
okay, since we're starting to do this again

the card could be bad. it could be fine. we literally do not know yet.

this happens every time a set comes out.

Speculation is fun and gives us a starting point for creating decks.
 

wiibomb

Member
we have nothing, nothing at all from the set to speculate with this, so, based on just this card alone, its trash, it's much more trash than hungry dragon, but... a looot more trash.

now, if they show some other kind of psynergy later, this might change
 

Fersis

It is illegal to Tag Fish in Tag Fishing Sanctuaries by law 38.36 of the GAF Wildlife Act
Is there gonna be a reveal stream? Or just a slow drip of cards through different websites?
 
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