Step right up and witness the most magical show on Azeroth! Or, if you'd prefer, we can tell you the Secrets of the future...
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When you desert the desert you become a dessert.
Quote From ShadowsOfSense If Elemental Mage has any legs to stand on, this sugary devil will be one of them. Confection Cyclone's power comes from its versatility - it can act as an additional three-count for your big Grand Finale turn, or it can simply give you a consistent supply of low-cost Elementals with which to continually activate your bonuses, similar to Fire Fly.
The fact that on top of all this utility you also just get a reasonably statted minion is frankly incredible, and a massive boost to the potential viability of any Elemental Mage. You don't even need to hold onto it for combo purposes; unlike Fire Fly, it provides two tokens, meaning you can more safely drop it without a planned synergy on the following turn, knowing that you have those waiting in the wings. Elemental Allies can be activated off only the tokens of a single Confection Cyclone, which is great.
I'm not yet totally convinced that Elemental Mage will be tearing up the ladder, but if it is, this'll be a large part of the reason why. you can't have the big finishers without the requisite supporting cast, and this minion is pulling overtime on that front.
He plays a Critical Role in keeping the Faire running.
Quote From Demonxz95 Game Master is a card that doesn't look terrible, but I don't think will work out because all of its functionality is already done better by some other cards, particularly Kirin Tor Mage. If you play this card, you could most likely just play Kirin Tor Mage instead and that will do the job better. Playing a Secret and this card on the same turn (which you most likely would do to take advantage of the effect) is simply just getting 2 less Attack than a Kirin Tor Mage for the same cost and same number of cards. The only situation where this is typically better is that you can play it on turn 2 and then uses its effect on turn 3, although you won't want to do that in most cases because you want the effect. Hypothetically, it can survive multiple turns to give you multiple discounted Secrets, but this will very rarely be better than simply just playing Kirin Tor Mage instead. Bottom line: If you want to play this, just play Kirin Tor Mage instead.
He's just bursting with excitement!
Quote From Avalon In its base form it is pretty much a Fire Elemental (1 less mana but can only target minions). However, once corrupted it becomes the Elemental twin of Omega Devastator, allowing you to kill pretty much any enemy minion for 5 mana, while developing a body and allowing potential Elemental synergy.
A very efficient Control tool that pairs up well with Blizzard, Reno the Relicologist or the new Mask of C'Thun. Elemental Mage is back, and I hope it is here to stay.
This is actually Tortollan Ring Toss - in Azerothian Ring Toss the rings are ovals instead.
Quote From ShadowsOfSense I'm gonna be honest, I took this review because it's a turtle, and I love turtles. The fact that it plays into the space of one of my favourite things in Hearthstone, Secrets, is just icing.
The base card is quite frankly not worth it, really. It's something you wouldn't mind having when you get it from a random effect, but really when building a deck you would rather just include the Secrets you want than hope to Discover one of them by chance from this.
Now, once you Corrupt it you actually have something worth considering. The real benefit to randomly generated - or Discovered - Secrets is their unpredictability. Your opponent will normally be able to fairly accurately predict what Secrets you might have chosen to run in your deck - as mentioned before, picking the best Secrets is better than Discovering random ones - but when you're choosing between three options, fairly often you'll end up with choices you'd never have considered running on their own merits. While obviously this means they're less valuable than the other Secrets, it also means the opponent won't know how to play around them best. Mind games!
I'll obviously be running this for the art alone, but I do think this is worth considering for some Mage lists. The effect may be too weak without the Corruption for the more refined lists, however - we'll have to see if a heavily Secret-focused deck makes the rounds, and then if this is even worth running in it.
"So, who're you meant to be?" // "YOUR NIGHTMARES!" // "Eh, needs more spiders. Look, I'm a Worgen!"
Quote From ShadowsOfSense A fun effect, and a cute callback to the original C'Thun and its 10-Attack requirements, but really this card kind of just sucks. I doubt this will see play beyond random generation.
The strength of cards like Arcane Missiles and Cinderstorm comes from their cheap cost relative to the amount of damage they do - 3 damage per mana, 1.66… damage per mana - and how much that increases with even a single point of Spell Damage - 4 damage per mana, 2 damage per mana. In comparison, Mask of C'Thun does a paltry ~1.4 damage per mana, increasing only to ~1.6 damage with Spell Damage.
Worse than the damage comparisons is simply how easy they are to weave into a turn. Cinderstorm and Arcane Missiles can easily be thrown out as part of larger damage output turns, especially with a Sorcerer's Apprentice or two on board. Mask of C'Thun is so clunky it may be the only spell you cast in a turn, or one of two at most. Even with all the synergies available to Mage to help this card, it just isn't worth including in your deck.
We need only look at the miserable reputation of Avenging Wrath - one less mana for 2 less damage, an admittedly worse rate than any of the other cards - to know that big damage cards with this effect just aren't good. Frankly, this might have more of a shot at being an inclusion in your main deck if it only hit minions, since you could at least more easily guarantee a board clear. We know that's fairly strong from Reno the Relicologist. The face damage does make it a cute finisher, but only as a generated card.
8 mana? I can get you a finale in half that time.
Quote From Avalon Elemental Mage's win condition. If you manage to summon a single 8/8 you're pretty much playing vanilla, which is not bad but not great either. However, if you are able to play at least two Elemental on turn 7 (maybe in combination with Confection Cyclone's Sugar Elementals), then you're more than breaking even.
With the proper setup, Grand Finale can be that big of a threat for your opponent that can close the game in your favor with ease. Sure, you can argue that Exploding Sparklers are just slow 8/8, but imagine combining them with Animated Broomstick. I predict the same combo will be able to let Animated Avalanche finally see some play. In the end, I'm quite thrilled about the state of Elemental Mage: I don't think it will become the most broken deck out there (I believe the top dogs are more "unfair"), but it should be satisfying to play nonetheless.
If we tell you it's rigged then it's just part of the rules!
Quote From Avalon Another way to see this card is reading it as a Sidequest, just like Sanctuary. However, Rigged Faire Game can also count on Secret synergies, which are abundant in both Mage and Darkmoon Faire: Ancient Mysteries, Arcane Flakmage, Inconspicuous Rider, Kirin Tor Mage, Occult Conjurer, Cloud Prince and Sayge, Seer of Darkmoon make quite the strong package (in Wild too), and now we're even getting some hand refill in order to find some missing synergies or that Fireball to close the game. Super strong card, even in non Secret-heavy lists: I can easily see it played in Highlander Mage. Card is good.
The Secret to her act? Nobody knows, and her twin sister isn't telling anyone either.
Quote From Avalon Nutty card. If you manage to make a Secret stick on turn 3, you're guaranteed to recover the previous tempo loss. The ideal curve would be Kirin Tor Mage into secret into either proc (and therefore value) or Conjurer (and therefore board control). This minion also has very remarkable synergy with Ancient Mysteries, which is played even in non heavy-Secret lists and will surely make the cut in the upcoming attempt at Standard Secret Mage: if you manage to hit Mysteries on curve, you don't even need a set up, since you can play both the 0-mana Secret and Conjurer right away on turn 4. Very strong play in the 4-mana slot, which is typically a problem for Mage, given that the only alternatives are Fireball (damage is good, but there's no tempo gain, which is a problem) and the very forgettable Ethereal Arcanist.
This isn't madness - we've never gotten the same results twice!
Quote From ShadowsOfSense Disclaimer: You probably don't run this card if you're building a competitive deck. The variance in cards you can get is far too high - it's not just Mage spells, it's every class - and even when you look at the narrowest Standard pool (9 mana, what your Blizzards would turn into) the three cards - Libram of Hope, Mass Resurrection and Plague of Death - aren't exactly the sort of things you'd dump your carefully planned deck into the fires of chaos for.
Having said that, oh my Yogg I think I'm in love. This is exactly the sort of silly insanity that makes Mage my favourite class. I know that a lot of people hate the random generation, and I know that it can be frustrating to lose to a completely unpredictable card, and I know that seeing your entire board disappear only to have the opponent's magically fill up from one 10-mana card is infuriating… but it's just so much fun when you're the one doing it?
Those moments you hate are so infrequent, interspersed between the polar opposite devastating losses from terrible Puzzleboxes and the many middling, mediocre, 'oh I guess that did some good things and some bad things' ones that I don't think this card, which cranks some other elements of randomness up to 11, can ever actually be a good card. But like Explore Un'Goro and Renounce Darkness before it, I'll absolutely be playing this card in my minionless Mages, just to see what crazy moments I can make happen.
I see gold in my future... oh, you wanted your future? That costs extra.
Quote From Avalon Oh boy, this is going to be Aluneth for Standard. The fact that you don't draw card based on the Secret in play but on how many you've played in the game until that point makes Sayge a great refill option for a Secret Mage, an aggressive archetype that usually loses the game when it finishes the gas.
Combined with Rigged Faire Game, the upcoming Standard Secret Mage will surely have a lot of cycle: I am quite optimistic that we'll see the archetype around even after the first weeks of Darkmoon Faire.
Comments
I quite enjoy secret mage every once in awhile. It's good to see it supported again in standard.
I really want an old school style of ctrl mage to be viable (think 2x flamestrike deck) some tools here might be helpful for that.
I honestly though Game Master would be well hated by the community for its powerlevel. Yes, its basically another Kirin Tor Mage, but is that really something to complain about when both will only generally be useful in an aggro secret build? Had it not been for Rigged Faire Game I would've shared Demonxz95's opinion, but the card draw potential of mage is just too staggering to ignore.
Also, that card can come out on 2, which wouldn't really be all that bad if you already have kirin tor mage in your hand. It also has that unique property of having a target on its head, being close to impossible to ignore on board, something which kirin tor mage never have or will have.
The only problem I have with that card is that Inconspicuous Rider is also equally powerful if not more so, and I think even I will sweat a little to include all three forms of kirin tor mages in one deck.
I'm very worried for the impact this will have on wild. Secret mage over there REALLY doesn't need a buff.
Elemental Mage looks very fun. :)
Not Secrets :(