Secret Mage: Super-Fun and Cheap Hearthstone Deck

There is only one week before the confirmed release of the Goblins vs Gnomes expansion on December 8th! In the meantime, while you are saving up all your gold and dust, I have a sweet constucted list that I have been playing on the ladder recently and having an absolute blast with. And best of all, as long as you have completed Naxxramas, it only includes two easily replacable legendary cards and four rares.

It is something I haven't seen others playing on the ladder at all and besides being fun, it is also pretty good and brings a little bit of the randomness we're expecting once the expansion hits. As the name of the deck says, it is a mage deck that revolves around secrets. Here's the list:

Why should Hunter secrets have all the fun?

The idea is to gain tempo or tempo and card advantage by playing Mad Scientist or Kirin Tor Mage early. Playing as a mage, you get the most value out of your Scientists because the secrets are all three mana cards, compared to hunter's two and paladin's one. Since we are running three different secrets, our opponents will be on the back foot and not necessarily be able to play around all the possibilities.

Mad Scientist is the backbone of this deck. When a Scientist dies, you get to draw a free card and then get three free mana and then get to play it immediately. All for the low cost of two mana! That's bordering on absurd and doesn't even count the 2/2 you also had for a time.

Kirin Tor Mage isn't quite as broken, but it is still a free Black Lotus (or 1.5 Innervates) when you play it and a secret on the same turn. All while getting an on-curve 4/3 for 3!

Really!

One typical opening sequence I've had on the draw:

* turn 1 - Mana Wyrm
* turn 2 - Coin + Kirin Tor Mage + Secret. Attack with 3/3 Wyrm. End turn 2 with a 4/3, a 3/3, and Mirror Entity up.

I generally mulligan secrets away unless I have Kirin Tor Mage ready to deploy on turn two. Since we only run six secrets, Mad Scientist could potentially lose value if we no longer have any to fetch from our deck when he dies. Remember, he won't go get a duplicate (small d) secret to one you already have up and he also won't give you any benefit if the only eligible secret left is already in your hand.

Duplicate (big D) has been very strong in this deck. The trick is the timing of when to play it. The best minion to get extras of is Sludge Belcher. I don't think that is a shock to anyone. Water Elemental is another great choice, although since this deck runs 14 spells, I have grown some large Mana Wyrms from time to time. Help anyone who kills Sylvanas on an empty board into a Duplicate, thinking it is a safe time. Watch out against Shaman and Mage players. If you telegraph the Duplicate, they might just give you two Frogs or Sheep, which is not what we want.

Sorcerer's Apprentice is the two drop I am least likey to play early. It can enable some big turns later, saving 2-3 mana the turn you play her in the right circumstance. Both Apprentice and Loot Hoarder are in the deck mostly for curve considerations.

Flamestrike may be a surprise inclusion for some of you. I think most mage decks on the ladder have cut this, which only increases its power for me. Literally no one expects this (outside of Arena) and it can generate insane value.

If you don't have The Black Knight or Sylvanas Windrunner, don't despair. They aren't essential to this build. I'd add in another Polymorph to take care of the large taunt minions and a bigger-stat threat like Chillwind Yeti or Sunwalker.

Of course there were some other cards to try that just missed the cut for me. Secretkeeper and Ethereal Arcanist were too cute and not powerful enough even though they fit the theme. Loatheb could go in just about every deck but doesn't fit in our plan. As for secrets themselves, Ice Block is excellent in a Freeze Mage-style deck where you just need one extra turn to Pyroblast your opponent to death, but this is not that. Spellbender is close to making the cut. Your opponent will never see it coming, but usually it is just equivalent to or worse than Counterspell.

Against Hunter's Mark, Arcane Shot, Blessing of Wisdom, Blessing of Might, Blessing of Kings, Holy Smite, Divine Spirit, Inner Fire, Backstab, Cold Blood, Sap, Earth Shock, Rockbiter Weapon, Hex, Reincarnate, Ancestral Spirit, Soulfire, and Mortal Coil, Spellbender is better than Counterspell. But versus Swipe, Explosive Shot, Cone of Cold, Hammer of Wrath, Holy Wrath, Power Word: Shield, Shadow Madness, Holy Fire, Betrayal, Shiv, Siphon Soul, and Slam it is worse. I think on balance, the second group is more heavily played and there is more downside than there is upside to the first group. That being said, having one in the mix adds to the fun of watching your opponent try to play around your secret correctly. I imagine most figure it's an Ice Block and are really shocked when their spell gets bent.

Give this deck a shot; I guarantee you'll have fun and you should do a fair bit of winning at the same time. And once GvG hits next week, I'll be back with some brand new Arena runs to get you up to speed on all the wackiness of the new cards.

How to Win Cheaply at Hearthstone: Undertaker Zoolock

How to win cheaply on the Hearthstone ladder: play Warlock Zoo (Zoolock).

This list is a fantastic tempo deck that comes out to a roaring start, replenishes its hand by drawing and usually playing two cards a turn in the midgame, and ending things before the Villain can get stabilized. And best of all, it costs very little dust, with one legendary card and only five rares.

In August, I played a bit more constructed Hearthstone and got up to Level 8 by the end of the month. I won quite a bit in the final week but never got to a point where I was plateauing, which leads me to believe there was still more room to advance if I just kept grinding ladder matches.

This particular list I will feature is an update to the old Zoolock deck from the spring, but with the addition of a deathrattle theme from Naxxramus. I call it Underwarlock, after Undertaker, a huge addition from the Construct Quarter of Naxx. I've added as many relevant cheap deathrattles as possible to maximize the one-drop.

List
2x Soulfire
1x Power Overwhelming
2x Abusive Sergeant
2x Leper Gnome
2x Voidwalker
2x Undertaker
2x Dire Wolf Alpha
2x Haunted Creeper
1x Ironbeak Owl
2x Knife Juggler
2x Loot Hoarder
2x Nerubian Egg
2x Harvest Golem
2x Dark Iron Dwarf
2x Defender of Argus
1x Leeroy Jenkins
1x Doomguard

Strategy
This is not an all-out "face" aggressive deck, but rather a board-control, tempo-oriented deck. Take advantageous trades when you can, trade up using temporary buffs and build a board of one- and two-drops. Play two (or more) cards most turns. Don't worry so much about card advantage as board advantage. Even if your Paladin opponent Consecrations on four mana, many of our dudes leave a minion behind when they die, and we can almost always rebuild to an impressive board just one turn later. Unless you are super low on life and in danger of dying the next turn, spam that hero power when possible. Trust me, it feels great.

Card Thoughts
Knife Juggler: Backbone of the deck. Do not play him without a plan to abuse him. Some of my favorite plans include The Coin + Juggler on turn one if I have two one-drops to follow-up or Haunted Creeper turn two then Juggler, Abusive Sergeant and attack to trade on turn three for three knife throws out of nowhere.

Undertaker: Don't let him sit as a 1/2 unless it is turn one and you have deathrattles coming on line turn two. Otherwise hold him for a devastating extra 2/3 or even 3/4 on turn three or four at the cost of only one mana. Plus, one-mana knife throws are a huge bonus.

Defender of Argus & Dire Wolf Alpha: Be mindful of your minion placement, especially when you have either of these in hand. Keep in mind they don't play particularly well together on the same turn, since they only buff adjacent minions and they plop a summoning sick new dude in between your souped-up, ready-to-fight guys. They also work quite differently, with the wolf great on a board where you will trade off a couple weaker dudes from the center of your board and then immediately cascade his bonus to the next minion in line. Generally, I'll keep my weaker minions (the 2/1s) in the center of the board. Usually the bigger guys don't get as much value from the wolf's attack boost, but they can be great targets for the Defender's taunt-granting.

Loot Hoarder: An atypical choice, but one I have been extremely satisfied with. He is another two-mana, efficient deathrattle trigger for the Undertaker, and while the card draw is less important with Warlock's Life Tap, it is still nice. The one toughness (defense?) is not as much of a liability in Zoo because we have the luxury of tempo on our side. Even if our Villain trades two mana to hero-power kill our two-mana card that replaces itself, that is a net win for us because we probably played one or two other cheap spells that turn, while they may have had trouble doing anything else.

Soulfire: Obviously excellent to finish, but don't be afraid to use it early to establish board dominance. In what the Villian thinks should be a trading situation, Soulfire will let you drop a new minion, keep the one you had, and kill theirs, all for the low, low cost of emptying your hand. Luckily, our hero power will help us recover from this pure tempo play swiftly. If you can cast a minion to leave Soulfire as your last card in hand, cast it, then draw using Life Tap, that is big game.

Singletons
Doomguard: Since we can't play a second copy of Leeroy, this does a good imitation. I never want two in my hand at once and it is not good to have Soulfire + Doomguard both with the prospect of discarding one to the other, so I stick to only one. Playing this with an otherwise empty hand feels like cheating.

Power Overwhelming: Another card-disadvantage, tempo play, again I never really want two at once. I'm not running the Void Terror combo and since I have 4x two-power buffs and 4x one-power buffs for the Nerubian Egg, I don't need to rely on this to make the 4/4 Nerubian. Sometimes this makes my Egg into a four-power attacker with divine shield, but usual I find it acts more like a third Soulfire, dealing the final four points at a cheap cost and ending the game before the drawback matters.

Ironbeak Owl: This is the last slot in the deck for me, and I am sort of interested in squeezing another Owl in somewhere. He doesn't deathrattle and he doesn't have a great body, but it seems like he always makes some positive contribution to the board state. In the best case, he silences a troublesome large taunter. Otherwise, he'll usually remove the value from an opposing Egg or Harvest Golem.

Example Board State

At Rank 9, Villain should be no slouch, but we put a hurt on him by turn 4.

The scene depicted above was not the nut opening to a match, but it is pretty close, and with a slow start, our Villain had no chance.

VT1: pass

T1: The Coin, Knife Juggler

VT2: make a 1/1 soldier

T2: Undertaker, Leper Gnome, knifing soldier and Villain (30-26)

VT3: make a 1/1 soldier

T3: Nerubian Egg, Voidwalker, knifing soldier and Villain (30-17)

VT4: Truesilver Champion, attack Voidwalker (30-18)

T4: Defender of Argus, knifing Villain (30-7)

VT5: concede

Substitutions
If you don't have Leeroy, save up some dust and make him. I'd say he should be your first legendary crafted on account of him fitting into most aggro decks and some combo ones. A second Doomguard or Arcane Golem could do in a pinch. Otherwise, this deck is one of the cheapest you will find, with just five rares and one card from the Construct quarter.

Happy hunting and learn to love card disadvantage. I have!