Gathering Highlander Mage Opinions

Hi there guys. So, the meta is slowly forming and I want to gather your guys opinion on the highlander Mage deck (especially appreciate if you played it).

The question I want to know:

• Is it viable in ladder?
• Is it fun to play?
• Is it worth crafting?

Specifically this one, because the highlander mage is butt ton of dust and feels risky. Right now Mage archetypes is third winrate Mage(53.71), after Control mage(55.25) and Big spell(54.69), so my question is mainly about Reno the Relicologist and Zephrys the Great.

Do you feel this cards could carry the archetype? Do they bring unique fun experience? Maybe you got some other opinions? Would really appreciate your opinions =3

To answer your three questions in short:

-Yes

-Yes

-Unsure 

ViciousSyndicate will be releasing a meta report this thursday which should give us some more insight on what decks are good and which ones aren't.

Highlander mage should definitely be a viable ladder option though. Probably not the best, but good enough. 

Zephrys the Great is a -great- card that boosts highlander decks by a lot. If you want to play these decks, he's a must-craft.

Highlander hunter seems to be the strongest highlander deck in standard right now, though.

Fun is granted.

Effectiveness in terms of winrate is not (yet).

Do consider that Zephrys the Great CAN turn the game in your favor, but only if you find the perfect moment and context for playing him.

If you fail at that, Zephrys can solve current turn, or provide value for next one, yet without necessarily giving you a thorough advantage for the game.

So, overall i believe Highlanders deck will be around t3 in the meta reports, as soon as the meta is refined (possibly with the exception of high ranks where good players dwell), but an expert player could still be able to carry one of those decks on top ranks.

PS: one should also keep in mind that you play Highlander BECAUSE you want to use Zephrys the Great. Singleton archetype without Highlander cards bears no particular advantage or fun.

Quote From RavenSunHS

Fun is granted.

Effectiveness in terms of winrate is not (yet).

Do consider that Zephrys the Great CAN turn the game in your favor, but only if you find the perfect moment and context for playing him.

If you fail at that, Zephrys can solve current turn, or provide value for next one, yet without necessarily giving you a thorough advantage for the game.

So, overall i believe Highlanders deck will be around t3 in the meta reports, as soon as the meta is refined (possibly with the exception of high ranks where good players dwell), but an expert player could still be able to carry one of those decks on top ranks.

Exactly this!

It´s lots of fun but the winrate is not the best right now. 

And the thing about Zephrys is that you have to play him smart ! Zephrys can change a whole game if you play him at the right time. I also think that RavenSunHS is also right that a good player can also get a Highlander Deck like Highlander Mage into the top ranks. Not easy but doable.

I play a LOT of highlander quest mage, and here are my answers based on personal experience.

#1 "Is it Viable in Ladder": Yes it is, it might not be overpowered with enormous winrates or anything. It has plenty of bad/good matchups. Examples: Bad Matchup: Quest Rogue/Shaman. Good Matchup: Quest Druid

#2: Yeh. Bold Statement: I think this might be the most fun archetype to play in this expansion. Even when i lose i don't care because i had fun.

#3: Zephrys the Great is a must have for any highlander deck. It's that strong.

Reno the Relicologist is not a must have. I found that it's only strong in the situation where the opponent had 1 big minion sometimes something small. Other times multiple spells are better, and often Magic Dart Frog and Meteorologist outshine it. (From my experience) Also you can easely discover Reno from all kinds of mage cards.

Edit: Had to retype #2 and #3 because that part automaticly deleted itself after first post... weird.

Playing a lot of Highlander mage with Reno and Zephrys and absolutely love it. Stuck on rank 15 now, but I'm quite casual (3-4 games a day max) and my deck isn't great (f2p), so I'm pretty sure you should be able to go beyond that. No idea whether it's viable for top tier or anything, but I definitely consider it to be a lot of fun!

I love this deck. It's just worth every point of dust that i spent. So i can recommend it to you. But you should decide what version you will play. I'm playing non big spells version and it's playable

Quote From Greysil

Specifically this one, because the highlander mage is butt ton of dust and feels risky. Right now Mage archetypes is third winrate Mage(53.71), after Control mage(55.25) and Big spell(54.69), so my question is mainly about Reno the Relicologist and Zephrys the Great.

Do you feel this cards could carry the archetype? Do they bring unique fun experience? Maybe you got some other opinions? Would really appreciate your opinions =3

If your collection is only missing Reno and Zephrys for reno mage, you can just play regular giants freeze mage with tortollans thrown in.  I was farming Reno mages with it all the way to legend.  I felt super favored in the "mirror" because I run more board freezes, have two of conjurer's/giants for more consistent openings and have more draw

IMO, freeze is easily the best build of giants mage if you only care about winrate.  You play Reno or sandwitch mage only if you want to meme around with the new cards.  That's not to say they're not good; they can hold their own with a decent winrate in the current meta but as strictly worse versions of the trihard build, there's no reason to play them short of personal preference (and there's nothing wrong with that, if that's your thing!)

That said, Zephrys is a great card and probably worth crafting.  He's currently found in the tier 1 decks highlander hunter and murloc paladin, which isn't a highlander deck but draws fast enough for Zephrys to be good.  IMO, playing Zephrys is the most fun thing about Reno mage by far but this is something you can enjoy in other decks too

Edit: As of now, it looks like Reno mage is the 4th best mage deck behind dragon mage on HSReplay.  As you might remember, dragon mage is in fact the unrefined prototype of what later became cyclone and freeze mages in the late RoS meta.  So ... yeah, don't craft this unless you're okay with spending dust on memes

Well I am currently lacking a lot, not only Reno and Zeprys, but also Siamat and stuff. So despite your overall praise of Zeprys I would try to save dust for him till the next expansion it seems. I could afford Freeze/Control/Big Spell mage though, so it is pretty okay for now I guess. 

I managed to try out Highlander in the Whizbang recipe once, so my overall impression is split,  I am personally not much impressed. Its like if I had at least some details for Highlander deck I would go for it, but right now it does not seem much worth it. Still could build some fun decks with resource I have =3

I was intrigued to scroll through HS Replay and to find that the archetype currently running in Tier 2 as “Big Spell Mage” is 99% made up of Highlander decks, where the “bigness” is simply the payoff for the slow burn of the deck.

I’m currently flirting with a derivative of this archetype, below, that incorporates Raid the Sky Temple, which I’m calling Skylander (eh, get it?!). Despite how down everyone is on Quest Mage, no Highlander deck that I’ve seen has a Turn 1 play, and you drop enough random spells along the way to complete the quest at some point.

The trick simply is to not rush to complete the quest, and to just play as normal. Even if you only get one or two uses out of the hero power, it’s more use than you’ll get out of a Turn 8+ ping. And although it might seem counter-synergistic with King Phaoris, you can always drop Naga Sea Witch to round the lower mana cost spells back up to 5 for beefier bodies on the next turn. Seems like this would be the thread to solicit feedback if anyone has thoughts :)

Answers to opening post:

• Is it viable in ladder?
  • Right now I would say yes. I'm climbing consistently with highlander mage, but I'm not sure it will be viable in the long run.
• Is it fun to play?
  • Yes
• Is it worth crafting?
  • It depends on your card collection. This deck a 15k+ dust deck, so it all depends on how many good cards you are missing

As most others have already commented. Zephrys the Great is a must in any highlander deck, so without that card you should not really play highlander decks in standard right now. I would also add that Vulpera Scoundrel, Tortollan Pilgrim, Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron and [Hearthstone Card (Luna’s Pocket Galaxy) Not Found] are key cards for this deck. Both for the fun part, but they are also key in turning around games that you feel you are loosing. You mention that you are missing Siamat, but that is not a key card at all. I would also say the same about Reno the Relicologist.