Are Mages the theatre kids of Hearthstone? I think they are.
Our reviews are legendary! In that tales of them are vastly exaggerated - often by the originators of the story, even - and despite being known across the land as being 100% accurate, that's probably not the case. I regret to inform you that they're probably only 98% accurate at best, because I do occasionally let a typo slip in; my most sincere apologies.
"If nothing blows up, you aren't trying hard enough." - Gnome Research Tips
Quote From ShadowsOfSense This card is a fantastic little powerhouse. As a 1-Cost source of Spell Damage, this is perfect to weave into a turn when you need that little extra boost of damage, or to slot in as part of a game-ending combo. The 1/3 body is also excellent, because it means you don't feel too bad about dropping it early and needing it to stick around for a turn - unlike something like Kobold Geomancer, a more expensive and less-likely-to-live option.
I expect this to see play in any aggressive or combo-focused Mages that pop up in Standard. I'm not too confident on its viability in Wild - its best shot is as a cheap source of Spell Damage for a combo deck, though Wild already has plenty of those running around with very refined lists.
Keeps cutting class to smoke behind the broomsheds.
Quote From Fear Gralex This guy does a pretty good Flamewalker Flamewaker impression. There are actually quite a few positives to this card over the Blackrock Mountain powerhouse, including +1 attack, 4 damage right away, and only hitting minions (which in the early turns, is definitely preferable). Of course, it's a one-time effect, but honestly, you've got a really solid statline on this minion anyway and the one-time effect is quite powerful, so I think this card might actually be better than Flamewaker!
This also has the advantage of being much less of a buildaround- your deck doesn't need to be composed of entirely cheap spells to make this worth running, so I suspect Firebrand will find its way into a much wider variety of Mage decks than Flamewaker could.
"I didn't fall asleep! I was... letting the knowledge sink in."
Quote From Noxious With Scholomance Academy bringing Spell Damage to the forefront like never before, this card feels just right as a replacement for Arcane Intellect in decks that will strive to always have some form of Spell Damage present on the board.
The condition of this card, for its effect to be on par with Arcane Intellect's, is to have at least Spell Damage +1 on the board. This shouldn't be particularly hard to achieve, especially with the new card, Lab Partner, the cheapest available Spell Damage source in the game. For this card to be worth picking over Arcane Intellect, it should be used when you have Spell Damage +2 or more, else its effect will be pretty even with Arcane Intellect, which at least guarantees 2 cards.
A little big brain time:
Analysis on Spell Damage OptionsArcane Intellect costs 3 mana and draws 2 cards.
Cram Session costs 2 mana and draws 1 card in its unaltered form.
As depicted above, without any extra Spell Damage or mana cost discount, Arcane Intellect is the clearly better card, granting 1 card per 1.5 mana, while Cram Session grants 1 card per 2 mana.
With Lab Partner, the cheapest available Spell Damage minion, Cram Session can now draw 2 cards, at the cost or 1.5 mana each - Lab Partner being added to the mana cost as a necessary price for drawing another card - becoming on par with Arcane Intellect's effect.
This is as far as Arcane Intellect can go. Further on, Cram Session can be improved by adding more Spell Damage to the board. The cheapest options, should you attempt to play them all in one turn and Cram Session to safely draw more cards, are another Lab Partner and Ethereal Augmerchant - the latter which can deal damage to Lab Partner's good health pool for a safe Spell Damage boost.
In Wild, there are a few extra decent options available, such as Spellzerker or Celestial Emissary.
With Spell Damage +2, coming from the cheapest minion options available, Cram Session will grant 3 card draws at 1.33 mana cost each.
This is the best case scenario, however, this won't naturally be the case every time Cram Session becomes available. Disregarding the most efficient way to use this card, there are several other big Spell Damage minions to make use of, with a bit of adjustment and risk.
Azerite Elemental has decent enough stats to be able to survive a turn often enough to at least be able to grant +2 Spell Damage. The more turns it lives, the more Spell Damage you gain. This is an example of a card that could have new life breathed into it with the launch of Scholomance Academy, if it will be deemed strong enough to last at least one turn until it's played.
Malygos, of course, is the king of Spell Damage. Casting Cram Session with Malygos on the board would net you a whopping 6 cards drawn. To fix the issue of the entire combo costing a total 11 mana, Incanter's Flow comes to mind. I wouldn't be surprised if those three cards, combined, could lead to some plays that come pretty close to an OTK - let's remember Malygos also has ways of being discounted.
Overall, this is a card that can either be similar in power with Arcane Intellect for most types of Mage decks, or can be used to its fullest potential by Spell Damage Mage decks to either draw a good amount (2-4) of cards early on or a crazy amount (5-6) in the late game, rivaling even the mighty Overflow and Sprint. Its power level will be directly proportional with the amount of Spell Damage in the deck and the skill of the player to determine when this card is best played, and make sure its Spell Damage minions are safe long enough to hoard enough Spell Damage and draw a whole bouquet of cards.
After prices went up last year, her business is booming!
Quote From Noxious I have truly high hopes for this card. With the frustratingly good stats of a Water Elemental and an effect that an experienced player will know must be quickly negated, Wyrm Weaver is a menace. Mage has never had so many cheap spells in arsenal at any point, both in Standard, and, of course, in Wild. Besides a decently beefy minion to deal with, the two Mana Wyrms are the true threat. Should they survive well into its owner's next turn, they can quickly grow to 3 damage each and probably more. A simple Ray of Frost is enough net a total 6 damage to these two, and a couple Magic Tricks here and there, with a sprinkle of whatever spells are Discovered through them, can truly turn the tide of battle. Without any spell discounts, the most those Wyrms can be buffed in one turn is +10 damage each, with 10 1-cost spells cast. This is probably near impossible to regularly reproduce, but just for theorycrafting's sake, that would mean two minions with 11 damage each. If the Wyrm Weaver lives as well, that's a total of 25 damage available next turn. Not too shabby, right?
Most times, the opponent will probably be able to take out at least one Mana Wyrm. The tempo generated by Wyrm Weaver, however, will still pay off even if all minions die, as they will eat removal like a cow on a fresh pasture. The situation serves well to slow the opponent down, as well as requiring some awkward maneuvering in many situations. The Mana Wyrms aren't too hard to take down, but generally a little something extra might be require to wipe the Wyrm Weaver off the board as well. Aside from being lucky enough to have the Wyrms survive one turn, I believe the Wyrm Weaver's power comes from its ability to disrupt the opponent's game just enough to slow down some of their tempo.
To counteract the Wyrms being destroyed too easily, I would suggest pairing Wyrm Weaver up with Robes of Protection. In the late game, there is more than enough mana to play both minions on the same turn, as well as cast a cheap spell to summon the Mana Wyrms.
Don't need to do any maths if you have enough Spell Damage.
Quote From FearGralex This is a really interesting take on AoE removal that I'm glad to see, and I think it might be pretty good too. This is at its best when you're targeting a 1-Health minion, because then you'll be able to deal 3 damage to each neighbor. That's already pretty good, but this card really gets nuts with Spell Damage. Just +1 Spell Damage on this now turns this into 9 total damage for 3 mana when you target something with 1 Health. The base case is already strong and it doesn't take much work to make it even better. Depending on how the meta settles I could see this being a widely-played anti-aggro card for Highlander and Control Mages (It's very good against Murloc Paladin, for example).
She keeps her banjo at the ready at all times.
Quote From Echo I am ecstatic that Mage finally got some form of effect like this. I've always been a fan of cards that trigger whenever a spell is cast and this is the first one that powers up future spells that have had a long time coming. The two main issues for me are with the numbers on the card and the support needed to power it up. A 5 mana 3/8 is a sticky minion when played as soon as possible but couple turns after that, or if the opponent has a decent-sized board, this minion dies fairly easy. Combine this with the 5 mana cost makes it rather awkward to play. Granted if it sticks it can very well become a stronger Malygos that comes out considerably faster. As for powering up the card, there are two main ways of doing it, either with Mana Cyclone or with Evocation, both have their fair share of downsides, with the Cyclone requiring even more cards to make it strong and Evocation requiring you to generate cheap spells. If a deck were to be possible that can get past those two hurdles, this card easily can become oppressive and unfun but that does not feel likely to me. As for Wild, the card feels too slow when compared to the core of Quest Mage so I don't see it becoming much of an issue and there is no reliable way of drawing it which hurts the consistency decks dedicated to it.
Dual Class Cards
Comments
Pet peeve time: if you have to use a card to draw single card it's not granting you a card, it's replacing itself. If that's attached to something else(such as Azure Drake) that's fine. A card that's ONLY doing that, you may as well just play another card, or it's giving you consistency of cards akin to playing with one fewer card in your deck. It's not bad, but it's not gaining you any extra options in your hand.
As for the situation with spell damage minions, let's say you want to play Lab Partner and Cram Session... It costs two cards to get two cards. Now in this case its much better because you're also getting that extra body and effect, but... It's also not as efficient still.
Agreed; the only advantage a card whose only effect is to draw another card is that you can avoid including less "useful" cards that could be in the way of your win condition. Instead of getting stuck with a Spider Tank you don't need or whatever, it could be beneficial to pay 2 Mana or something similar to just get to the cards you need faster. While I'm not personally a fan of this strategy, it can be effective in very specific situations.
I think we can accept that mage don't draw that well, so there are certain decks which Cram Session and Arcane Intellect can both be acceptable inclusions, so a direct comparison may not always be appropriate. I can see there being some sort of a build around with the current cyclone giants mage, where consistency is a real issue since Mountain Giants are no longer available.
2 mana draw 2 cards is really good. So I think it can see play somewhere!
This is a pretty solid write up of the Mage cards. Honestly, I don't have anything bad to say about any of these. They are all extremely awesome and think that Mage will be more of a powerhouse in the meta.