All the new Mage cards for Voyage to the Sunken City have been revealed and in this article we're going to discuss how they will impact Wild in general and any specific decks they can fit into.
Here is how the cards will be rated:
- 5 stars means a card that can see a lot of play in meta defining and powerful decks
- 4 stars means a card that can see some play in the best decks and a lot of play in slightly less competitive meta decks
- 3 stars means a card that can see some play in less optimal meta decks or is good for some off meta decks
- 2 stars means a card that can see play in any deck, even if it's a very niche or weak archetype
- 1 star means a card that won't see any play at all
Gaia, the Techtonic
Our Wild Rating
Gaia, the Techtonic is very powerful but the cost means it is most likely meta dependent as to whether it makes the cut in Mech Mage. It will be good in slower metas but too slow in faster ones.
Commander Sivara
Our Wild Rating
Commander Sivara is incredible in Open the Waygate Quest Mage. It will be great to get copies of 3 cheap spells and complete the quest a lot faster, as the copies you get count for the quest. You can even manipulate it to get Twinspell cards, or get another copy of the Time Warp quest reward if drawn later in the game. This should provide a significant boost to the archetype.
Spitelash Siren
Our Wild Rating
There aren't enough nagas to make Spitelash Siren a viable or consistent option in Wild, it's better to play Quest Mage if you want to be able to do combos requiring over 10 mana.
Volcanomancy
Our Wild Rating
Volcanomancy can be played on a Vicious Scalehide to deal 3 damage to all minions and heal 3 for each, but Vicious Scalehide is very weak on its own so this combo is not worth putting into your decks. Volcanomancy may be an option in some Reno Control Mages which lack good removal. Other than that though, it's too weak and situational for Wild.
Seafloor Gateway
Our Wild Rating
Seafloor Gateway is a great card for Mech Mage, a handwide discount will let you play your minions faster as well as do powerful combos with Mecha-Shark.
Gifts of Azshara
Our Wild Rating
There are not enough good nagas for Mage to play Gifts of Azshara.
Trench Surveyor
Our Wild Rating
Amazing card for Mech Mage, with the Battlecry letting you discover a card from your deck, having good stats, and as a bonus being able to get the Sunken Sweeper from Azsharan Sweeper.
Mecha-Shark
Our Wild Rating
Mecha-Shark is the card that, if Mech Mage becomes a thing, it is the key card that boosts its power enough to let it become meta. After discounts from Mechwarper, Galvanizer, and Seafloor Gateway, it will be easy to play this for cheap and combo a lot of mechs with it. This can secure board control as well as deal a lot of face damage to finish off games. This card will create the key swings that win you otherwise lost games, and is an immensely powerful enabler of the Mech Mage archetype.
Azsharan Sweeper
Our Wild Rating
Azsharan Sweeper is good with Trench Surveyor getting the Sunken Sweeper for refill, but it's meta dependent because it's a bit slow to get value from - you have to play 2 3/4 minions to get the value of 3 random mechs to your hand.
Spellcoiler
Our Wild Rating
First of all, Wild's pool of spells is very large so Spellcoiler will be inconsistent at getting anything specific. Secondly, if you want some specific spell, just put it into your deck - this will get too many spells that don't synergize with your deck. The naga tribe doesn't matter for Wild Mages right now.
Overall Set Score
Sunken City Wild Mage
Huge impact on Mage, with Mech Mage looking to become a meta deck after being uncompetitive in Wild for years, even if not at the level of the top 5 decks. In addition, Commander Sivara giving Quest Mage a huge boost makes another major impact. Mages should be able to do better in Wild this expansion than before.
What do you think about the new Mage cards and how they'll do in the Wild format? Let us know in the comments below!
More Wild Reviews for Voyage to the Sunken City
We've been hard at work preparing additional insights into the new Voyage to the Sunken City cards with a Wild spin. Check out all the classes released so far down below.
More From Year of the Hydra
Blizzard has plenty of new information to share about Year of the Hydra including the remaining cards for Voyage to the Sunken City.
- All 46 New Voyage to the Sunken City Card Reveals
- All Card Flavor Text for the Voyage to the Sunken City Hearthstone Expansion
- Everything You Need to Know About Hearthstone's Year of the Hydra & Core Set
- Future of Hearthstone Battlegrounds in 2022 - Seasons, E-Sports, New Keywords, Progression System and More
- Hearthstone Mercenaries Receives Big Updates in Patch 23.0 - Task System Rework, Balance Updates, & More!
- All Hearthstone Duels Updates for Patch 23.0 - The League of Explorers, Hero Selection Expands, Retired Heroic Runs, Treasures, & More
- Drek’Thar and Loatheb Are the Latest Cards To Join Hearthstone’s Diamond Club
- Our Wild Thoughts on the 24 Reverted Card Nerfs in Hearthstone's Year of the Hydra
- Open a Voyage to the Sunken City Pack in our Pack Opener
Comments
This is all dependent on whether Mech Mage becomes viable in wild, and if it is, it will get nerfed. The cycle of a Mage player.
Giving mech mage cards 5 stars was very bold, but I doubt it will turn out to be a meta defining deck.
Also, spellcoiler deserves more than 1 star, it seems like a decent inclusion in quest mage.
Quest Mage has better options, I really doubt it would see play there.
I was originally going to give Mech Mage 4 stars but I think being bold with this prediction is more fun + promotes more discussion.
Even if it’s not tier 1 but tier 2 I’d call it a 5 star card given how rarely mage gets new archetypes in Wild over the years.
For volcanomancy, the wording seems to indicate that the spell would deal the damage, not the minion (“deal 3 damage” and not “it deals 3 damage”). So combos with lifesteal and poisonous should not work.
Of course, it’s Blizzard, so I could easily be wrong.
You may be right, in that case it’s even worse but Reno Control Mages may still play it depending on the meta (still 2 stars because that’s a very niche deck).
First of all many thanks for the wild reviews! As a wild player I really appreciate it!
Two points that come to my mind:
All in all things don't look like too good for Mage. Right now it is the worst class in wild and I doubt this will change much (apart from the much loved Open the Waygate which might become playable again)
Another great article! One thing I'd like to point out is the Volcanomancy + Venomous Scorpid combo. Scorpid is already decent on its own in slower decks, but 5 Mana for a full board clear more often than not, plus Discover a spell (in Mage!) plus a must-clear body?! This combo alone makes Volcanomancy a 4 star card in my books.
Wait a moment, I'm stupid. The scorpid has to die before the AOE goes off, which makes it way worse. I imagined it to happen like Flurgl/Toxfin. Meh.
Looks like the big question is if Mech Mage can kill before turn 6 then. Tough, but manageable I think. Maybe the solution is to get in a little burn as well, like Fireball or Ignite.