Tempo Mage Deck List Guide – Boomsday – August 2018

Our Tempo Mage deck list guide for The Boomsday Project expansion features one of the top lists for this archetype. This Secret Tempo Mage guide includes Mulligan Strategy, Gameplay Tips, Card Substitutions, and Combos/Synergies!

Introduction to Tempo Mage

Tempo Mage is one of the old Hearthstone archetypes, which was present through the game’s history in many different forms. Funnily enough, the current version looks similar to the ones that were played back in the day, even before Blackrock Mountain. That adventure has added Flamewaker to the game, which in turn made a Tempo Mage lists based around it + a bunch of cheap spells a thing. Later, after Flamewaker has already rotated out, Blizzard has been pushing Secret synergies for the Mage, which revived it again during Year of the Mammoth. However, since most of those Secret synergies have rotated out, the Raven version of Tempo Mage is going back to its roots – aggressive deck built around lots and lots of burn cards.

Check out a Budget Version of Elemental Tempo Mage, also check out our Wild Secret Mage Deck Guide!

Update – The Boomsday Project

We’ve listed a popular version of Tempo Mage below, we’ll be updating the guide soon!

Deck List

Deck Import

Tempo Mage Mulligan Strategy & Guide

The deck’s mulligan is pretty similar in every matchup, so I’m not going to divide it into two sections like I usually do.

High Priority (Keep every time)

  • Mana Wyrm – One of the best 1-drops (if not THE best 1-drop) in the game right now, 1/3 alone is good enough against Aggro decks, and the card can really snowball out of control very quickly.
  • Fire Fly – Not as good as Mana Wyrm, obviously, but having a 1-drop is quite important anyway. The 1/2 body is good at dealing with token-heavy decks with are common in the current meta.
  • Arcanologist – Best 2-drop in this deck – 2/3 for 2 are solid stats and it fetches you a Secret on top of that.
  • Sorcerer's Apprentice – While it’s worse than Arcanologist by itself, the deck runs lots of cheap spells, which have great combo with Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Low Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

Tempo Mage Win Rates

Winrate stats are currently unavailable for this deck at the moment!

Tempo Mage Play Strategy

Vs Aggro

When it comes to the Aggro matchups, curve is most important. You really want to hard-mulligan for your 1-drops and 2-drops – the reason is that you can’t fall behind in those matchups. Tempo Mage is not a very board-based deck. Without AoE spells, it might have hard time coming back into the game after another deck, such as Odd Paladin, takes over the board.

Luckily for you, most of the aggressive decks right now are token-based – they flood the board with small, 1-2 health minions, and for that reason, cards like Arcane Missiles or Cinderstorm can actually get you lots of value. Clearing a few minions is great, especially if you’re the one with board control already.

Given that your deck is very low on minions, at one point it will be impossible to keep the board control. You will need to switch your game plan to burn damage. If you had a good start, it means that you should have dealt at least some damage already. Then, if you still have minions on the board, try to protect them with the spells. If you don’t – go face with your spells as much as possible, clear only the highest priority minions (or use cards like Missiles/Cindestorm to clear). At this point, it’s the matter of whether you can kill your opponent before he kills you – it heavily depends on how much health he has, what cards you draw etc.

With Ice Block gone, you no longer have a way to stall the game for an extra turn – remember about that. However, Primordial Glyph can still give you a way to buy an extra turn, or even clear the board. Ice Barrier might prevent lethal and buy you a turn, same goes for Frost Nova. Getting a Blizzard or Flamestrike can just clear the board and buy you even more time. Picking AoE from Glyph is usually the right choice in the fast matchups.

Vs Control

Games vs Control are very different from games against Aggro. This time around, you don’t have to worry about board control. I mean, you still kind of do in the early game – e.g. if Frostbolt on their 2-drop might protect your Mana Wyrm or Apprentice, that’s great. But the general game plan is actually quite the opposite – you want to deal as much face damage as possible with your early game minions and then finish the game with burn spells.

Mana Wyrm is, again, the best card you can have in the early game. Lots of decks might not have a way to deal with a 1 mana 3 health minion, and it can snowball out of control very quickly. If you follow it with 3 cheap spells, it’s a 1 mana 4/3 already, with a potential to grow further. If your opponent won’t find an answer, it can carry the game by itself. However, other minions are also good – especially Kirin Tor Mage, which not only has a solid body for the mana cost, but gives you a lot of tempo by playing a Secret for free. The best case scenario is going second, opening with a Mana Wyrm into Coin + Kirin Tor + Counterspell. Not only you have two strong minions on the board (on Turn 2!), but your opponent can’t remove them with spells OR proc the Counterspell with Coin.

The general rule when it comes to play Secrets is that your opponent is on Coin, you prefer to play the Explosive Runes – he will check for Counterspell with the Coin most of the time anyway. Counterspell is better when your opponent starts with no Coin (or has used it already) and you have a solid board, preferably right before a board clear. Let’s say that you face Cube Warlock and you’re going into his Turn 4. He has no Coin. It’s a perfect time to set up a Counterspell, since he will now no longer be able to Hellfire the board away.

Unlike versus Aggro, when you play against a slower deck, Arcane Missiles and Cinderstorm aren’t used for the board control – they are very efficient burn cards when played on the empty board. Arcane Missiles deals 3 damage for 1 mana, while Cinderstorm deals 5 for 3. They get even better if you have either Mana Wyrm or Sorcerer’s Apprentice on the board. Because you want to use them as burn, ideally you want to play them before other burn cards – later in the game your opponent might have a board and they might not even hit him.

MVP of the slower matchups is definitely Aluneth. Thanks to this card, instead of drawing 1 per turn, you draw 4 per turn, meaning that you will never really run out of cards. After you use Aluneth, you no longer have to be efficient. Hero Power? What is that? You play as many cards as you can as quickly as you can. Try to not burn any cards, but don’t worry if you do – burning one or two is pretty common when you draw so many. After Aluneth, try to close out the game as quickly as possible – use your extra resources to burn your opponent. Remember that you have limited time – not only your opponent is most likely building a board of his own already (and you have no Ice Block to stall for an extra turn), but you will get to fatigue really quickly. Even if you play Aluneth on Turn 6, very early into the game, it will take only about 5 turns to hit fatigue, so you don’t have much time.

Pyroblast is used as a finisher – if you get to Turn 10, 10 damage will often be enough to kill your opponent. It’s not an optimal card, but it’s useful in slow matchups just because so much burn you previously had has rotated out (Medivh's ValetFirelands Portal).

Tempo Mage Card Substitutions

For the most part, Tempo Mage is a rather inexpensive deck. The deck still works quite well when played on the budget, but there are some cards that you might not have.

  • Bloodmage Thalnos – At this point most of the players have this card already (since it’s one of the Classic staples), but it’s not necessary in this list. It adds some extra burn damage and cycle, but for the most part, you can replace it with just about anything.
  • Aluneth – I’d say that this is one of the most important cards in this deck. Without it, you will lose lots and lots of matches, especially slower ones. You run out of cards very quickly, and you will often end up a turn or two short of killing your opponent. Aluneth gives you that extra steam you need to finish the game.
  • Primordial Glyph – Pretty good, flexible spell. It can give you whatever you need in the given situation – e.g. board clear vs Aggro or more burn vs Control. Still, not necessary for the deck to function.
  • Pyroblast – Good finisher in slow matchups, but pretty bad against Aggro anyway – not necessary.

And here are the cards you can replace them with:

  • Vex Crow – I’m still not sure about this card – it’s hard to say whether the Vex Crow version of the deck is better or worse. But it’s still a viable substitute OR you can just run it in your deck instead of a Lifedrinker. When playing Vex Crow, however, you probably want to add some more cheap spells to the deck.
  • 2nd Fire Fly – It will be helpful against Aggro decks, a higher chance to get 1-drop means a lower chance to fall behind in the early game.
  • Black Cat – Yes, in this deck, without the Odd synergy. It’s not optimal, but it gives you Spell Damage + it’s a 3-drop, and this deck suffers from the lack of 3-drops. Playing a Secret (without Kirin Tor) or Arcane Intellect is often a very weak Turn 3 play, and this way you could at least put a minion on the board.
  • Mirror ImageBreath of Sindragosa – Solid cheap spells, can be used to protect your early minions, especially Mana Wyrm. If you run the Vex Crow build, those can also be combo’d with it to get random 2 mana minions.
  • Arcane Explosion – Mostly a tech card vs Paladins. It’s not a great card, but if you face a board full of 1/1’s, you’re going to be glad that you have it. The downside is that it’s a bad card vs slower decks.

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

297 Comments

Discuss This Deck
  1. Mr Rekt
    August 22, 2017 at 4:17 am

    Anything to replace Burgly Bully?

  2. EPOCH
    August 22, 2017 at 2:33 am

    Sick deck! Strong early game. And doesn’t care about taunts. Can rip the face with magic.
    As new cards can suggest The Lich King because of impact.

  3. qbico
    August 10, 2017 at 12:45 pm

    Why you add Frozen Throne to the tittle if there is not frozen throne cards in?

    • Evident
      August 10, 2017 at 12:49 pm

      I discussed the Frozen Throne potential card in the “update” section.

  4. FrozenHearthstone
    August 6, 2017 at 3:13 pm

    Spellbender is a really good tech choice to counter all those paladins on ladder.

  5. Darkseid
    July 19, 2017 at 10:58 am

    I honestly think this deck is best with double arcane giants.

    • Skmidge
      August 1, 2017 at 5:06 am

      Hey there, been trying Arcane Giants out myself lately as well.

      I find that two Arcane Giants is one too many; a lot of times one will stick around early game for a few turns as an absolutely dead card. Its fairly strong turns 8+ as its often like 2 mana or so by then, but early game it seems as though Kabal Secret Runner simply does a better job at generating tempo. Yes, it would be dreamy to Arcane Intellect into 2 of these bad boys that cost nothing, but that doesnt happen fast enough it seems.
      (One game, however, I Primordial Glyph’d a ton of rerolls and had an Arcane Giant turn 4 which was nice, though I dont consider that to be solid data.)

      I also found that Arcane Giant works a LOT better if you center your deck to have more late game power/ sustainability. The reason for this is because you can buy extra time to discount it further while also maintaining board control. Im not done tinkering quite yet, but I’ve actually added in some Freeze Mage cards as this deck is very weak against Control/Midrange matchups when you draw poorly. Some of the changes help against Aggro as well, since sometimes you cant crank out enough tempo fast enough to keep up.

      My changes are:

      -1 Pyros: the card is fine but i simply dont have it plus i dont think value is as important in a tempo deck

      -2 Counterspell: Everyone plays around it for free when they have the coin. It also gets wrecked by things like Binding Heal, Hallucination, Upgrade, and other cheap and weak spells.

      -2 Mirror Entity: useless early game and too easy to play around late game. I can’t tell you how many Alleycats and Murloc Tidecallers I’ve spent 3 mana on. Sure, you can steal their 2 drop with Kabal Lackey, but as much as I love the card the combo simply doesnt work well enough.

      -1 Yogg: Hilariously inconsistent. I honestly can’t believe a Tier 1 deck recommends Yogg in his current state, but if it works it works I guess.

      +2 Spellbender: better version of counterspell IMO since it ruins removal/buffs just fine. The point of Counterspell is to get the opponent to waste a card/turn removing or buffing and there’s not many solid spells worth cancelling that don’t do one of those.

      +1 Ice Block: severely underrated in this deck. Proc’s Medivhs Valet beautifully and an extra turn is nice because…

      +1 Pyroblast: If you can manage to keep board control, you’re able to spend Fireball/Firelands Portal on face. I’ve won a surprising number of games around turn 10 because of this card. A lot of times, you will be tempted to spend your removal on killing minions, but an extra ten damage in hand allows you to set up 2-3 turn lethals against most matchups.

      +1 Arcane Giant. I’m still tinkering but I like it so far. One is enough I think, as there are not many other minions you can afford to cut from this deck, and removing spells actually makes this card weaker.

      All in all, it seems to me like Crystal Runner does an overall better job at being a big tempo swing than Arcane Giant, but if you can buy yourself some time with different spells than the meta calls for then we may seem some of these guys popping up in more decks.

      • FrozenHearthstone
        August 4, 2017 at 6:02 pm

        lol at that point you should just play freeze mage.

        • TheMlgHamster
          August 18, 2017 at 3:12 am

          Is Classic freeze mage still good with alex and medivh?

      • TKY
        August 30, 2017 at 2:53 pm

        I think with counterspell it’s too effective late game to not run at least two in your deck, especially if you’re controlling the board, I find there are situations where a late game spell can basically turn the game around. There’s no better feeling than stopping a Priest Mindcontrol turn 10.

        If you happen to be playing against a deck that utilizes low mana cost spells, you pretty much know from the get-go that your counterspells aren’t going to have much return throughout the game. This is a small price to pay considering how effective they are mid to late game.

        I suspect Ice Block wouldn’t be effective just based on the fact that this deck is geared towards mid game tempo. Ice Block will force a next turn, when that’s all you need to launch a pyro for the win, but then, shouldn’t you just build a Freeze Mage deck for that?

  6. H@djik
    July 18, 2017 at 6:42 pm

    3 time Yogg-Saron, Hope’s End sheep himself on the first spell…. are you sure this is an good deck lol ?

  7. WempyNext2
    July 12, 2017 at 6:22 am

    Hi!Any good replace for Pyros?

    • Brandon
      July 24, 2017 at 2:46 pm

      Instead of Pyros, I put in Hungry Crab.

  8. KingOfKings
    June 27, 2017 at 9:29 pm

    Just one man’s opinion, but I think this deck is terrible. At rank 10, I’m 1-5 with it. It just dies to any other Mage or Paladin deck.

    • Eddie
      June 29, 2017 at 7:28 am

      I’m steadily getting wrecked by face hunters around ranks 15-13 so I see where you’re coming from.

    • Govid
      July 16, 2017 at 11:19 am

      I agree it is just an ok deck but not great.

  9. michael
    June 27, 2017 at 1:49 pm

    is arcane giant good in this deck?

    • Andy
      July 18, 2017 at 7:28 am

      Probably not, it will be too late in the game for arcane giants to do much.

  10. Quick Ben
    June 27, 2017 at 1:13 am

    Honestly, those guys how think this deck is shit have no idea how to play it.
    In my opinion I would put in one spellbender and one secret eater against freeze mage or paladin.

  11. uRmadDude
    June 22, 2017 at 12:21 pm

    Guys you have to add one maybe even two copys of Spellbender. This Card is too good in this Meta. I try to give you one example of every class to use it just to show you how needed it is currently. Pls just try it a few Games.

    Mage: Every tragetet Spell he uses on Minions
    Priest: Shadowwords and Buffs
    Shaman: Hex, Jade Lightning….
    Paladin(Favourite): Stegodon(Buffs,singleclear)
    Warrior: Mortal Strike(on Minions),Slam…
    Druid: Mark of the Wild, Wrath…
    Hunter: KC, that set Health on 1….
    Warloc: Much Buffs and Removals…
    Rogue: Cold Blood, much Removals

  12. Tirion-Saron
    June 17, 2017 at 7:06 pm

    I love this deck got from rank 14 to legend this season! It’s so fun to play and beats agroo plus it doesn’t cost a lot of dust to make cause I had yogg already and the rates commons and epics aren’t a lot but pyros was the only thing I needed so it didn’t take long and I think it’s a good deck for Free 2 play players even if it takes time to make it will me worth it and no I wasn’t payed by blizzard to say this but good job topdeck this was a masterpiece(One of the rare ones)!

  13. Ephemeral
    June 17, 2017 at 2:29 am

    This deck is amazing, I hit rank 2-3 easily. Only evolve shaman gives me a hard time and against Paladin its 50-50. The rest of the decks win only if i have a bad start

  14. Illuriel
    June 13, 2017 at 11:12 am

    This deck is dead, outside tournaments you loose to 3/4 of the crap aggro meta that is in effect now, the current lists need to adapt or go burn mage…

    • Bole
      June 13, 2017 at 11:45 pm

      I have no idea why this is in top decks….unless playing it as a counter to some deck/class in a tournament, for climbing the ladder its really weak…..proof is i havent played against a single one this whole season (last 2 weeks)….that probably says alot about how effective this deck really is(or i should say…ISN’T) in current meta…so it can not be a top meta deck….not even close

      im starting to suspect heartstonetopdecks.com is maybe a payed page where blizzard promotes expensive decks to make people constantly spend dust/money trying new stuff out

      • suspicious
        June 15, 2017 at 8:30 pm

        i fear this is the case too. i think hearthstonetopdecks gets paid to promote expensive decks and makes legend promises with them by blizzard for $$$

      • Mokanu
        June 26, 2017 at 4:33 am

        this deck costs 2k dust if you replace yogg and pyros. how is it expensive? the only deck cheaper than this is zoolock

        • Bole
          June 27, 2017 at 11:08 pm

          i stand corrected…i just got rank 2 for the first time with this….legend is deffinetly possible…used burn mage to 5 then changed to this exact deck…works

          mokanu: you removed/replaced the 2 most expensive cards in the deck (3200 dust together) and say its cheap….wheres the logic in that? its much shittier deck without those two

  15. LordErevous
    June 13, 2017 at 8:32 am

    I’m no a hearthstone pro but for me so far, this deck is the most efficient, funny and entertaining deck to play with.

  16. Kassbar
    June 12, 2017 at 2:28 pm

    This is useless Lol-deck,
    vs Aggro-decks its nothing.
    What U gonna do vs Live Mana ? Or 5 Murlocks ?
    LOL

    • Fuggoff
      June 13, 2017 at 6:56 am

      Counterspell Living Mana or hope to get some AoE from Glyph.

      If you’re running into a lot of Druids (and Paladins) it’s worth playing a Spellbender to steal Spikeridge Steed and Mark Y’Sarjj.

      • Provo Cato
        June 15, 2017 at 9:59 pm

        its just a weak deck thats the bottom line

  17. It's A Secret
    June 12, 2017 at 8:41 am

    Used this list last month to get from rank 3 to rank 1, hopefully with the advice of this guide I can climb a lil faster. Thanks so much to the creator of the guide for their time, it’s much appreciated ^.^

    • Kassbar
      June 12, 2017 at 2:33 pm

      Where is no AOE in this deck, what U gonna do vs Live Mana ?
      nothing !

      • Lala
        June 12, 2017 at 8:03 pm

        Dude are you dumb? We have glyph, book, Counterspell. And also FYI no deck is perfect EVER.

      • It's A Secret
        June 14, 2017 at 8:53 am

        What Lala said. Similarly, that’s what you do versus control mage. Save mirror entity for turn 8 or higher to scare them away from playing mediv or alex. This deck takes some practice but it really is not that hard to play.

      • Tirion-Saron
        June 17, 2017 at 6:58 pm

        I play this deck often you don’t need AoE cause you either win or get it for book or glyph

  18. Captain Tenneal
    June 11, 2017 at 4:54 am

    What do you mean by, “You don’t keep your Secrets by themselves, they’re way too slow if you can’t play them for free”? Do you mean i’m never suppose to keep my secrets in my and and always play them? or am i only suppose to play them in combination with another card?

    • mik8s
      June 12, 2017 at 6:39 am

      It means that you don’t keep them in your opening hand if you can’t play them for free (you should mulligan them away)

      • Captain Tenneal
        July 28, 2017 at 4:08 am

        So when people are saying ‘keep’ they are only referring to your starting hand when you can trade cards in for other cards?

  19. Mario
    June 6, 2017 at 11:27 am

    Missing Pyros and Yogg. I have gone 2 and 3 today. I put in a cabalist’s tome and a kabal lackey instead. What should i put in?

    • Cruxkid
      June 13, 2017 at 1:58 am

      Old version used 2 lackeys. Deck is trash anyway

  20. wi
    June 3, 2017 at 6:41 pm

    This deck is crap. Not worth crafting.

    • lanas
      June 11, 2017 at 1:44 am

      You cant play it this deck to be honest..All these rates is not fake.Watch some streams to learn decks and not prejustice anything because you cant play it..

    • Kassbar
      June 12, 2017 at 2:34 pm

      + 100

  21. Kj22np
    June 2, 2017 at 3:17 am

    Says “UPDATE – SILENCE PRIEST IN JUNE 2017, SEASON 39” Think you mean secret mage. Great guide!

  22. KJ
    May 30, 2017 at 8:56 pm

    This is a great deck for climbing the ladder. I hit rank 4 from 12 in two days. It is a hit or miss as everyone else has said. If you get good cards to make combo and your opponent can’t solve it, it is an auto-win game. Personally, I find it hard to win against dragon priest, ~60 chance agaist agro hunter, and easy win against quest rogues. It does not take long before you realize if you would win or lose this game – really save time. On average you win more than you lose. Thank you for sharing such a great deck. Love it!

    • Kassbar
      June 12, 2017 at 2:29 pm

      Climbing a ladder ?? What kind of ladder ??
      WTF, U will loose vs every aggro-deck

  23. MasterGuren
    May 30, 2017 at 6:15 pm

    Made a Crystal Core Rogue deck give up on turn one!! Kabal Lackey + Counterspell is ridiculous

    • that never
      May 31, 2017 at 11:11 am

      rarely happens. they can just coin to break ur counter spell

    • Kassbar
      June 12, 2017 at 2:39 pm

      they always use The Coin, LOOOOL

  24. Emi
    May 29, 2017 at 3:11 am

    Zero chance vs token shaman and there are alot of them in higher rank range (1-3) like 4 out of 10. You cant beat them. Mirror is useless on 1/2. Each turn they can create 3-4 bodies without any problems. You cannot clear it because you have no removals, you cannot go face because evolve / bloodlust will destroy you befor you have lethal.

  25. help 2
    May 27, 2017 at 7:19 am

    How do you beat MURLOC Paladin with this deck? Unless I draw flamestrike from glyph, i fail to see how to win. and adding flamestrike by itself isnt enough as turn 7 is too late.

    also if you want to save ur secrets for turn 4 and turn 5 , what do you do early game ?

  26. Noob_33
    May 27, 2017 at 5:18 am

    I am a f2p can this deck work without babbling book?

    • 8BitBrain
      June 1, 2017 at 9:58 am

      Yes

    • some_guy
      June 16, 2017 at 11:11 pm

      Yes, Shimmering Tempest is an alternative but it is a LOT slower.

      The 2/1 body is nicer early game, however. I don’t have Karazhan and Shimmering Tempest has worked out okay for me. Most of the time the spell is too expensive to play early game anyway, and by the time Tempest dies I can actually afford the spell.

      Shimmering Tempest is a common, so i’d say its worth a shot for a budget player.

  27. Bueler
    May 25, 2017 at 9:37 am

    Wow, after tinkering with a few changes this deck is insane against frickin everything.

    -1 Babbling Book
    -2 Kabal Lackey
    -1 Sorcerer’s Apprentice
    -1 Mirror Entity

    +1 Ice Block
    +1 Spell Bender
    +1 Water Elemental
    +1 Medivh
    +1 Yogg

    With the above changes, I’ve gone 13-3 so far (two of the losses from control priests). No, Medivh and/or Yogg does not come into play every game, but their impact is huge when they do. Totally fun deck 🙂

  28. Triky
    May 25, 2017 at 7:37 am

    Amazing deck. I’ve been playing it and right now im 13-0 at legend. 6-0 vs pally. Took me from rank 2900 legend to 900 in less than 2 hours.

    • Kassbar
      June 12, 2017 at 2:49 pm

      Not so good as me.
      I just got Legend from 25 rank in 1 hour playing this deck, easily.

      • Andy
        July 18, 2017 at 7:36 am

        Slight exaggeration/lie – that’s physically impossible. Assuming each game takes 5 mins (noramlly 10), you’d have had time to play 12 games. 12 wins will only get you to ~ rank 21 …

  29. HELP
    May 24, 2017 at 5:46 am

    can someone please add me on h-stone and tell me how to beat jade druid with this deck? it doesnt seem feasible

    • Matt
      May 24, 2017 at 4:40 pm

      They have next to no removal and just give you the board early. Curve out well, take the board and pressure. Don’t sell out board control for face damage too early. Expect to have to go through a little bit of armor too.

  30. Matt
    May 23, 2017 at 8:18 pm

    Why don’t you ever see hydra in this deck? It seems like a good spot for it.

  31. DanTheMan
    May 22, 2017 at 11:34 am

    I like this Deck.
    Played Mage when I started of a few months ago, and this is a nice reintroduction to this class.

    I have Medivh the Guardian in my collection and would like to include him in a deck.

    Do you guys think he would fit in to this somehow?

    Thanks in advance.
    D

    • ASDFASDF
      May 23, 2017 at 5:40 am

      No, I’m sorry but Medivh won’t work in this deck. I’ve been playing this deck for a while now and Medivh will be way to slow for this deck. It’s also a huge loss of tempo the turn you play it and this deck is based on tempo. So no, it’s not a great idea to include him in this deck.

      • DanTheMan
        May 23, 2017 at 5:03 pm

        Thanks for the Reply, I’m thinking of dusting him, since I prefer fast decks and need dust for Thalnos.
        I know he’s pretty good, and all that, but I don’t use him and the dust is missing so…

        • Choppy
          May 24, 2017 at 6:20 am

          Don’t dust him, while you don’t like him now, he has uses in mage decks and priest decks. While he’s too slow for this deck i agree, he can be and is used in some decks. I speak from experience, because i dusted Reno not knowing what was coming up in gadgetzan. Huge regret and i ended up grinding to craft him.

          • Choppy
            May 24, 2017 at 6:36 am

            P.S. i also dusted for thalnos. Very good card.

          • DanTheMan
            May 24, 2017 at 6:40 am

            Well thanks, but I guess I will learn the hard way then… Dusted Barned And Medivh, since I wanted to craft Thalnos. I don’t like saving stuff for a better day just now, I’d rather have some competitive decks that I enjoy to play today. Anyhow thats just my take on it…

            And I know it can sting.
            I already dusted Bruglar Bully and Doomsayer, not knowing what I would use them for at the time. Now there on my crafting list, but hey 800 dust, comes and goes right? 😉
            If there is One thing I do not like about HS is the low exchange rate, those two minions gave me only 200 together that is to say I lost 600 dust to ‘the man’.

            Blizzard could have given us half the dust back and everyone would be super happy and still spend loads of real money.

          • DanTheMan
            May 24, 2017 at 6:45 am

            Barnes that is… 😉 I am Enjoying Thalnos, he already won me a game today in my Miracle Rogue. 🙂
            It’s hard to see his value until u craft him.

        • Cruxkid
          June 13, 2017 at 3:44 am

          Medivh is for control. This deck is not control. Burn Mage uses Medivh to great effect as does Miracle Priest, Control Druid (not really a thing but…), etc.
          Thalnos fits into any deck that uses damage spells, even those with a lower curve, but also works in control.
          Both are great cards and I’d recommend you not dust any playable legendaries that you have or you may find yourself having to craft them again. I personally have dusted and recrafted Medivh which is a massive waste of resources but I’m glad I have him in my collection.

          • DanTheMan
            June 14, 2017 at 4:31 pm

            Thanks, Yes I hear you, but then, I mean If I want to play a deck that runs other legends than the ones I have sitting on the shelf. I find that hard to deal with.
            At the end of the day I’d rather run the decks I want to run right now, or by the time I have the dust the decks might not be there any more.

  32. lagaristis
    May 20, 2017 at 7:21 am

    it is cheap ,with a hell of a good win ratio ,broken cards,and doesnt need skill at all,even pirate warrior needs more skill than this,i hope the meta changes and nerf arcanologist.

    • Shadowfax
      May 22, 2017 at 11:15 am

      xD What a thinkfull comment.

      Yea, this deck is pretty cheap. It is still possible to make it better with a Yogg Saron and a Pyros.

      Yea, this deck is strong. Normal, no ?

      And NO, this deck isn’t no brain, I think you should try playing it for several games and realize it needs some important decisions.

      As the autor said, this deck is about creating maximum value every turn. So each turn you have several options, and your goal is to chose the one that gives you the more value. It isn’t so easy.

  33. bleach
    May 20, 2017 at 5:15 am

    deck is trash lol terrible draws and any competent deck can over come it ez

    • angrychicken
      August 17, 2017 at 11:14 am

      did you play more than 3 games till you came to that conclusion?

  34. asd
    May 19, 2017 at 7:13 pm

    got rekt by fkin jade druids 3 times in a row. no idea if im doing something wrong or if its the fkin bad draw i had. also never played vs a secret mage ever. so how does this deck take the top 2nd place?

  35. ASDFASDF
    May 19, 2017 at 5:35 pm

    I was stuck at rank 12 for the longest time, then I made this deck and easily moved to rank ten with only a couple losses.

  36. Skidz
    May 16, 2017 at 7:59 pm

    I really enjoy this deck and I’ve been using another deck of yours – Burn Mage.
    After having something like 6 or 7 loss streak, I’ve managed to build this secret mage and went from rank 15 to 10 only losing 1 single game to a Shaman.
    I am 17-1 now, lol.

  37. Jman121
    May 16, 2017 at 9:43 am

    I’ve felt that sometimes I run out of steam too fast with this deck, what do you think I should change for +1 ice block +2 ethereal arcanist? BTW this list is great I’m just not very lucky with draws.

    • MisterEpic
      May 16, 2017 at 6:18 pm

      Yea I feel the same way. Sometimes my hold hand is gone by turn 5 and im reliant on topdecks.

      • Matt
        May 21, 2017 at 11:47 pm

        Top decking for the fate of the game is kind of a big part of playing agro at times.

    • Tgreen
      May 21, 2017 at 4:28 pm

      Get rid of a babbling book for an acolyte of pain, it’s what I did and I’m having much more success with the deck.

  38. MisterEpic
    May 15, 2017 at 6:21 pm

    I feel like the deck needs 1 or 2 more secrets when im playing it? Are there any other good secrets I can add?

    • Cheezits
      May 16, 2017 at 11:14 am

      Hey! I just got legend with this and I felt the same way. I took out one babbling book and added a spell bender. Great against druid and paladin, and stays on board for a while to trigger Medhiv’s Valet’s battlecry.

      • MisterEpic
        May 16, 2017 at 6:22 pm

        What do you think about adding 1 iceblock or vaporise. I know that if your at a stage where your opponent pops your iceblock you have already probably lost but I have found that my mage mirror matches often come down to one player One Turn Kill bursting the opponent and ice block would be great to prevent this. I also found that my secrets normally dont stay on the board for more than a turn so Medivhs Valet is not really working as well and if I have iceblock its probably going to be there for a while.

        • nonameftw19
          May 18, 2017 at 6:29 am

          I feel the same way too

      • HELP
        May 24, 2017 at 5:47 am

        how do you beat jade druid? i cant get past rank 10. this deck seem so weak in comparison to jade druid

  39. Nicensteiner
    May 14, 2017 at 4:37 am

    This deck is awesome! I’ve played 5 games on ladder and had a 100% winrate. Absolutely love the feeling to counter a rogue’s quest 🙂

  40. Burgertash
    May 14, 2017 at 3:31 am

    I’ve been playing this deck for quite a bit now. I did run Ethereal Arcanist in place of Sorcerer’s Apprentice, they seem a bit slow though and you need a ‘sticky’ spell like Ice Block to get the value.

    I’m currently running the deck above but with -1 Babbling Book and +1 Spellbender. I feel like five secrets is the ‘sweet spot’ and Spellbender comes in really handy against Paladins and Druids which are everywhere in my meta.

    • Cheezits
      May 16, 2017 at 11:17 am

      I agree! I just got legend with -1 Babbling Book and +1 Spellbender

  41. BoganSmash
    May 14, 2017 at 2:40 am

    I just ran this deck to rank 1 from rank 5 with 70% winrate. It feels absolutely great. It’s also nice to utterly destroy quest rogues for a change. Not sure why you would not believe in this deck.

    Sure there were games I ran out of steam. There were also games where I luck boxed a pyroblast from glyph to barely finish them.

    If you play this well it’s beautiful. The best feeling in the world is to counterspell equality+pyro combination

    • Julliowi
      May 15, 2017 at 4:52 pm

      Mine is to counterspell Q rogue n he didnt even concede n keep spam that stupid 1 mana minion n face.
      Lol

  42. Govid
    May 13, 2017 at 3:26 pm

    Which Tier is consider to be this deck? And how good is to climb in the ladder?

    • Matt
      May 13, 2017 at 9:32 pm

      This and token druid are tied for the best agro deck. I like agro for climbing because of the shorter game time.

    • BoganSmash
      May 14, 2017 at 2:45 am

      Tier 1. Games are fast so it’s great to climb the ladder.

  43. Skyskrapr
    May 13, 2017 at 11:19 am

    Any way you can add arcanist?

  44. Metamagus
    May 13, 2017 at 9:28 am

    Wanna try a blend but part of it requires ice block (atleast 1), what card should I sub for it?

  45. Bole
    May 13, 2017 at 5:56 am

    how did this end up in tier 1 decks? seems its the kind of a hit or miss deck that folds if everything doesnt go its way….very easy to run out of tempo or cards

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 13, 2017 at 7:01 am

      Yes, the deck is very hit or miss. But it doesn’t mean that it’s a bad deck, because when it hits it’s almost a guaranteed win. When judging a deck, you can’t look at the individual games, you have to look at the average. And on average, it wins more than it loses, that’s for sure.

      The fact that deck is inconsistent might make it harder to score win streakers, but it doesn’t really matter that much, after first day of playing it I had 18-7 stats. And while the games I lost felt really bad, as in “I really couldn’t do anything here with those bad draws”, I had even more games that were auto-wins.

  46. Denni
    May 13, 2017 at 3:16 am

    Why no Iceblock?

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 13, 2017 at 6:57 am

      Basically, Ice Block is a terrible Secret unless you plan to die. If you won’t ever get “killed” (which Block prevents obviously), it’s a card wasted on what could be something else that could actually help you.

      It’s not a Freeze Mage or Burn Mage, where Ice Block is a huge help, because you’re playing a defensive deck that’s meant to stall the game. This is an aggressive Tempo deck. Like, a more extreme example, but would you put Ice Block in Pirate Warrior deck? Of course not, because that’s not your game plan. Even if you do put it and it prevents lethal, this deck has little to no comeback options. Your only hope is to get one more draw for potential lethal if you’re really close, but that’s a rare scenario.

      There is another version of Secret Mage with Ice Block and Ethereal Arcanist, but that’s mostly because of that combo. Ice Block isn’t likely to get procced in the early/mid game, so you constantly have a Secret up for the Arcanists to grow. Block is also okay-ish if you face a heavy Aggro meta and actually that one turn delay might matter. But if you face mostly slow, Control decks, then your main goal is to put pressure on them. If you’re in a situation where they took over the board control and killed you, then you’re not coming back into the game anyway.

  47. MrMeme
    May 13, 2017 at 1:33 am

    Why only 4 secrets?

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 13, 2017 at 6:52 am

      Because you actually don’t need more to pull off around 2-3 Secrets per game consistently. Remember that you have 2x Arcanologist, for which you’re heavily mulliganing, and it fetches you a Secret. Then you also have Primordial Glyph which can give you a Secret from outside of your deck.

      But if you feel that it’s not enough, you can add more. I’ve seen lists running 5 or 6 for more consistency.

      • DanTheMan
        May 22, 2017 at 4:39 pm

        What could you replace to put, lets say 2 more secrets?
        Also do you think I could use Medivh The Guardian in this Deck, and would the Deck Loose something/benefit anything from it? If he’s usefull where should I put him?
        (I have him on the shelf, and don’t know if I should keep him or dust him for Thalnos.)
        Thank You

  48. Joseph
    May 12, 2017 at 7:08 pm

    i was wondering why i started seeing secret mages all over ladder starting today. checked this site and boom, a new deck under tier 1.

  49. C0l0rs
    May 12, 2017 at 2:39 pm

    I’ve tested alittle around and changed some cards. To find out one thing worked out great for me and is never mentioned in these secret-mage-guides. What about arcane giants? Yes, i know they re not that good vs aggressive decks, but they re HUUUGE against ctrl. it worked way better than the crystal runenrs for me, as you re “only” running 4 secrets which basically made it more reliant for me to have decent discount on arcane giants.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      May 13, 2017 at 6:50 am

      In my opinion, Arcane Giants are a big “nope” in this deck. You don’t run enough cheap spells to justify them. You plan to end most of the games around turn 7-8, because you’re playing a heavy tempo deck. And by that time you rarely have played enough spells to make your Giants cheap enough.

      Crystal Runner is good even after just a single Secret was played. 4 mana 5/5 is actually good. And if you play 2 Secrets, which is really common in this deck, it’s a 2 mana 5/5.

      In order to play a “cheap” Arcane Giant, let’s even say 5 mana, you need to play 7 spells. The only way to drop such Arcane Giant on curve or generally before the game is getting close to finish are the Primordial Glyph chains. Which are very rare.

      Sure, Giants are good against Control. But majority of the ladder is not Control. it would probably be safe to say that maybe 20-25% of the ladder is actually Control and the rest is Aggro and Midrange.

  50. Robert
    May 12, 2017 at 1:26 pm

    I do not believe in this deck .
    Every time I played against it it felt very easy to play around the secrets and run them out of steam .