Hello!

My in game name is Neeson#11120, I've been playing mage ever since I started back in Old Gods. I've made the mistake of playing casual for a year, but I finally hit the sweet 500 wins with mage on ladder. I'm in a few wild discords so you may see me type some 195 IQ remark or just complaining about how I got owned by a high roll deck. After all, this deck is no where near a competitive deck and is targeted towards people who enjoy long games/control style play. This deck loses the majority of games to aggro decks like odd paladin, so as of now, I would not recommend crafting this deck until the meta settles into a more control environment. I will be explaining every card in my deck and what it's purpose is as well as possible replacements.

I've hit legend Proof

More Proof

CARDS

Arcanologist: I decided to run three secrets which makes arcanologist and mad scientist very appealing. With three hp, it's very good against aggro and thins out your deck. Also can help draw counterspell/potion of polymorph against big priest which can be huge. A turn 3 polymorph on there Archmage Vargoth is devastating. 

Mad Scientist: Like arcanologist, I decided to run mad scientist as well because of his amazing synergy with our deck. Paying two mana for a 2/2 that also casts a three cost secret from your deck is fantastic.

Unstable Portal: A lot of people sleep on this card with good reason, RNG. This game is a diceroll so lets spicen things up, and boy this card does not disappoint. I've gotten plenty of game winning portals. Obviously not every time you're gonna get the nuts, but most likely a playable minion. More or less you're paying two mana for a random 1-3 cost minion on turn 2, with potential of getting some crazy legendary cards. Ex1, Ex2, Ex3.

Primordial Glyph: One of my favorite mage spells, this can provide early to mid boardclears like a five mana Flamestrike or a four mana Meteor. Against odd paladins, you could find spells like Shooting Star or Cinderstorm. Let's not forget about a potential Polymorph against those big priest matchups. Most of the matchups, if you had a mad scientist, or arcanologist, I would play them first rather than glyph. Having the body is more important and usually you won't play any spells from glyph on turn two.

Dirty Rat: Game winner against any OTK/combo decks like Exodia Mage, or Mechathun lock. Even against aggro can be good on curve, he'll either be a free star or be disenchanted out of anger :)

Conjurer's Calling: One heck of a mage spell. This can synergize with a bunch of cards in our deck, but mostly I like to pair it up withSylvanas Windrunner. Two six drops, and steal a minion from your opponent is absolutely PogChamp against other control decks, and of course big priest. In our deck we also run Jepetto Joybuzz which can pull some big minions and turn them into one cost which sets up for a crazy turn 9 if we don't have jaina yet. Some games I've even played Kalecgos into calling. This card is very flexible, and can pretty much be played onto any minion for a decent board. Can also have crazy results with Unstable Portal.

Counterspell: The meta I've seen lately has been mostly aggro making counterspell bad especially if your opponent has the coin. I like counterspell because it disrupts big priest by a turn, or if you're lucky enough a resurrect/Shadow Essence. Also can help prevent Everyfin is Awesome from triggering against murloc shaman which is nice.

Ice Block: This can tilt so many aggro players to oblivion. If you're getting pummeled by aggro decks, so many things can happen that could potentially set for a comeback like a top deck Reno Jackson or Jepetto Joybuzz into Reno Jackson. The game ain't over until your hero blows up into pieces :)

Potion of Polymorph: Card is mainly a big priest tech, can be played on turn 3 with help of Arcanologist and Mad Scientist to deal with vargoth or even in the late game against Obsidian Statue. Against other combo decks, you could hold this card and disrupt them hard. 

Messenger Raven: This card in my opinion should be in every reno mage list. So many crazy minions can be found like Twilight Flamecaller against odd paladin. Animated Armor on four is also pretty neat. Getting Kalecgos in a control matchup is also pretty nuts; however, you can find Kazakus which is absolutely nuts if you get him. Having a second potion can be game winning, whether it's a board clear or a mass polymorph. There are a bunch of mage minions that are absolutely amazing which could help you win the game. Inkmaster Solia we don't run her because I run Kalecgos and I think he's a tad better. Though getting her from raven can be crazy with cards in our deck like Meteor or a kazakus potion!

SN1P-SN4P: Very interesting card like Harvest Golem but much better against aggro. Can be magnetized with Zilliax if we have low hp, or if there aren't any better plays, spamming a board of snip snaps can be decent. Not much more to say, very good minion to play even on turn three.

Tar Creeper: Anti-aggro tech, great card to play on turn three against aggro. Against control decks, I would play Messenger Raven or even SN1P-SN4P if they have nothing on the board otherwise tarcreeper can help you win the board as we go on to turn four. Solid anti-aggro tech.

Polymorph: Auto include spell, can transform a minion against big priest which causes them risk when they resurrect. Can deny large deathrattle threats like Sylvanas Windrunner or the infamous Flamewreathed Faceless as well as Frost Lich Jaina helping us to create a water elemental.

Kazakus: Very flexible card in terms of creating different potions. Against aggressive decks like odd paladin/murloc shaman/ token druid. I would go for the 1 mana potion deal 2 to all minions and gain armor or a 5 mana potion deal 4 damage to all enemy minions and gaining armor. It's usually meant for a board wipe. Against control decks like odd warrior/big priest/ jade druid, I'd go for a 10 mana potion to polymorph everything and deal 6 to all minions. It depends on what the board looks like. Another solution for big priest is if you have kazakus on curve, you could rise the 5 mana potion and choose the single polymorph route for there Shadow Essence. 

Piloted Shredder: Strong four drop minion that fights for board. If you're lucky and shredder doesn't die, you could magnetize Zilliax and gain 7 hp per swing. Two drop minions aren't bad but you want to make sure that your opponent doesn't snowball you into oblivion which shredder tries to prevent. Solid card

Loatheb: Very powerful card, can delay big priest for a turn which can be huge. Very annoying card to play against as control. Unfortunately can be dead against aggro decks like odd paladin, but I've playtested enough to say he's still worth. Can really screw up quest mage and overall a good tech card. 

Zilliax: We want to stay alive and zilliax helps us do so. Can magnetize with Piloted Shredder and SN1P-SN4P for more value, but even without magnetizing, we usually remove a minion and gain six hp. Great card overall and isn't too shabby against aggro like mech hunter or murloc shaman. Usually we can trade into minions like Murloc Warleader. Very flexible tech card.

Blizzard: Crazy against murloc shaman/odd paladin. Freezes the entire enemy board and can prevent the opponent from snowballing there board like token druid.

Meteor: Removes a large threat and its neighbors. Great removal and even better when found from rng effects like glyph or kalecgos.

Reno Jackson: Just cut this card 4Head, good to keep against aggro decks and he'll make us rich!

Skulking Geist: One way of crushing jade druid's hopes and dreams. Also good against Inner Fire dragon priest. Destroys odd warrior's removals like Shield Slam or Omega Assembly. Can disrupt quest cyclone mage by eating up Ray of Frost, Magic Trick and Ice Lance. If geist doesn't do squat, you could also Conjurer's Calling it and make two spicy six drops!

Sylvanas Windrunner: Amazing tech card against big priest/reno lock. The perfect synergy with Conjurer's Calling She can be quite dead against aggro unfortunately but stupidly nuts against control decks. Can also be reduced to 1 mana by Jepetto Joybuzz making it even better. I'll be taking that voidlord/obsidian statue thanks :)

Firelands Portal: I really like this card, deal 5 summon a 5 cost minion. We're usually casting this on large minions instead of aiming face. Removes an enemy minion and gives us a minion. I run this over Flamestrike as it's way too slow/dead most of the time, and I believe that blizzard is currently better than it.

Jepetto Joybuzz: One of the juiciest minions in our deck. 9 mana and your block just got popped? Let's find reno jackson/alexstrasza to gain our hp back. Can find very large minions in our deck so we can later use Conjurer's Calling on it creating a very large board. Thinning our deck by two cards to find Frost Lich Jaina is huge as we want to play her as fast as we can. Jepetto is the superstar of this deck as he can give you a miraculous comeback.

Alexstrasza: I run alex as a finisher/revival. Even though I don't run cards such as Fireball, I still believe alex is a good card. Like a last resort on survival until we can play out jaina. 

Archivist Elysiana: Anti-fatigue card, obviously there are barely any decks on ladder that wants to hit fatigue. Extremely dead card against aggro especially when drawn within the first 10 turns, and this card seems like it doesn't belong. Well for the heck of it, I decided to add Hakkar, the Soulflayer, and it may seem like a 5Head play, but insta wins against mecha thun decks. Does very well against jade druid since they tend to draw a lot, and odd warrior. Archivist is a fun card when you get to play her, I play hakkar first, then depending how close I am to fatigue/if I have jaina or not, I'll archivist right after. Other than that, aggro decks will tear you a new one if you top deck her in the early turns :(

Frost Lich Jaina: Might as well be Reno Jackson v2. if you somehow survived an aggro onslaught up until turn 9, and you play her. Well congratulations you most likely won the game. Play her on curve against renolock/odd warrior/ any control deck that's not big priest, you just won the game.

Kalecgos: Been testing out this card, and can find some crazy lethals like discovering Pyroblast. An interesting case happened when I play against Exodia mage, I had Ice Block up, and created a 10 mana mass polymorph/ gain 10 armor. When the Exodia mage had his combo up and running, I played Kalecgos into the potion which won me the game. Kalecgos can find board clears like Flamestrike or Meteor. You could also decide if you want to Conjurer's Calling for two ten drops which could be worth in the late game. I'm a big fan of Kalecgos.

Hakkar, the Soulflayer: Pretty much the same description as Archivist Elysiana. If jepetto pulls hakkar, Conjurer's Calling can give you two 10 drops. It's my little flavor of reno mage as a win con. We do have Skulking Geist in our deck and it can remove the bloods from each player's decks, so play geist before playing hakkar. If hakkar's deathrattle activates before you draw geist, then it's most likely going to be a dead card since you want to elysiana.

Yogg-Saron, Hope's End: Hail marry, if you got unlucky and didn't draw reno/ your ice block has been popped. We play this guy as a last resort, we don't play that many spells in our deck; however, 4-6 is enough in my experience as yogg tends to be suicidal most of the times. Yogg has won quite a bit of games but that's just me being good at rolling dice :)

CARDS TO TEST OUT/REPLACE WITH

Explosive Sheep: we could remove SN1P-SN4P for explosive sheep to be more teched against aggro. Like Volcanic Potion good removal against murloc shaman/odd paladin. Also has synergy with Frost Lich Jaina as you can create a water elemental.

Baron Geddon: this could be a very interesting card to add in a reno mage list. Can wipe out small tokens and murlocs and gets even better with Frost Lich Jaina being active. I don't have this card, but seems very powerful to include especially if there's a bunch of aggro decks running around.

Safeguard I really enjoy this card, but unlike Rotten Applebaum and Sludge Belcher, the 6 mana felt dead most of the time even with the 10 hp. I feel like sludge or apple is better overall.

Instead of Alexstrasza, we could use either Ragnaros the Firelord or The Lich King. I'm leaning more towards ragnaros since he has synergy with Frost Lich Jaina and can heal you like Alexstrasza.

NOT WORTHY

Hex Lord Malacrass:I'm not convinced that this card is good yet. I'd rather spend 8 mana on Jepetto Joybuzz or doing some wacky synergy stuff. I don't feel like it's appropriate in this type of deck, as I'd much rather find it through Messenger Raven instead of it taking a slot.

N'Zoth, the Corruptor: The deathrattle package in reno mage isn't very good. Unlike warlock, mage doesn't have a Voidlord or crazy deathrattle activators, and I don't believe that Pyros is worthy enough to be in reno mage. 

Gluttonous Ooze: I've removed this card from my list as kingsbane rogue got butchered pretty hard. There are less decks that run weapons so I felt ooze was not up to date. 

Brann Bronzebeard: As much as the value that he can generate like two kazakus potions, I feel as if he's too slow. Obviously I have a bunch of large cost minions; however, I don't run too many crazy battlecries which is why I ditched Brann.

Coldlight Oracle: Our current list is heavy with high cost minions, so let's take things as slow as possible. Most of the time, you won't have the need to draw as your hand is usually packed. 

Unseen Saboteur: I've played this card instead of geist for a while, but felt like it was useless. The dream of hitting Myra's Unstable Element has kinda died down with the recent rogue nerfs of Preparation and Raiding Party. It's a fun card to play against friends, especially in a reno mirror where you could hit your opponents kazakus potion!

GENERAL MULLIGAN

We want to find our lowest cost cards like Mad Scientist or Arcanologist. Keep both in starting hand. Always discard the highest cards like Archivist Elysiana or Hakkar, the Soulflayer. Especially if we're fighting aggressive decks, we want to find our cheap minions, and of course Reno Jackson. This version of reno mage is leaning more towards control style so it's not the best against aggro decks. I'll do my best to explain every matchup I've encountered at rank 5 to legend.

Warrior

Pirate Warrior- Follow our general mulligan since it's an aggressive deck, we want to find our two drops/ and of course reno. Try to get a 5 cost kazakus potion and wipe the board. Going face is pointless, we need to grind this pirate warrior until he runs out of steam.

Odd Warrior- We are very favored in this matchup, we have the cards to out grind our opponent. Try to find Skulking Geist and Frost Lich Jaina. If our opponent has boom on curve, that's annoying but even with that, our combo of Archivist Elysiana + Hakkar, the Soulflayer will slowly tear this warrior to pieces. There Deathlord are not that scary, we have a lot of big boys in our decks. Remember to position your minions wisely since we have no way of dealing with Supercollider.

Shaman

Murloc Shaman- Ugh, another hyper-aggro deck. We need our two drops/ Tar Creeper, and a nice Kazakus AOE potion. If we can survive until they run out of cards in there hand, we usually can win. Counterspell: helps against Everyfin is Awesome. If they run the quest, then we're doomed unless they can get some awful murlocs. Especially with the new murloc, Underbelly Angler, pray that we can Primordial Glyph on two into Frostbolt. If we can't deal with angler, then it's the beginning of the end.

Even Shaman- This deck is definitely tough to beat. Mulligan for Polymorph and Kazakus, shoot for a 5 cost potion and get AOE as well as deal 5 damage. They have a lot of big threats, sometimes we can exhaust the shaman with a lucky yogg; however, this is an unfavored matchup for us.

Shudder Shaman- We are favored since we have Dirty Rat and Potion of Polymorph. Usually we can apply enough pressure before they throw down there shudderwock.

Rogue

Kingsbane Rogue- For whatever reason you still find kingsbane rogue on ladder, the matchup against them has increased in our favor. Mulligan for our cheap stuff and play for board. We have the tools/time to beat them as they can't Preparation + Raiding Party on turn anymore. If you have Reno Jackson, you just win.

Mill Rogue- We need Dirty Rat to pull out there Coldlight Oracle, play it smart and find a good time to rat. Usually play rat when you can kill whatever you pull out so they won't Shadowstep. Also Archivist Elysiana is key. Even though this might seem slow, if you can get the Hakkar, the Soulflayer combo set up, then we usually win. 

Odd Rogue- Mulligan for our cheap dudes, continue to fight for board, Kazakus is key once again. Go for AOE potion, and stall. It's not as hyper smorc as murloc shaman, so it's a reasonable matchup. 

Paladin

Odd Paladin- Nothing too much we can do here, the button is op and when they throw down Quartermaster we go cry in a corner. It's too much for this greedy deck to handle, so we lose most of the time. Pepehands

Murloc Paladin- If they have the nuts with High Priest Thekal + Molten Giant hope for a Polymorph. If you can't answer the giant, then it's time to take a break from hearthstone because we got outskilled, and our opponent was the better player. Depending on the board of when you play Kazakus, sometimes could be good for a 10 mana potion, 6 damage AOE, and resurrect 3 minions. We need frost lich jaina to help us guarantee victory.

Hunter

Mech Hunter- Another hyper smorc deck that could draw the nuts, we need all the healing we can get as well as our two drops to stabilize board. Clear every mech in fear of it getting magnetized or buffed by Metaltooth Leaper. Unfortunately, it's too much of an aggro deck for our deck to handle, so we lose most of the time.

Deathrattle Hunter/Control- I have zero experience facing control/deathrattle hunter as reno mage. Though our gameplay is the same, go for our early minions, and find as many transform effects as possible. I would say be greedy and go for a 10 mana mass poly if possible/AOE. We could get swarmed by Deathstalker Rexxar and be weary for Nine Lives + Sylvanas Windrunner!

Druid

Aggro/Token Druid- If we can find a good 5 mana AOE potion from kazakus, we pretty much win the game. The hard part is staying alive for the first 5 turns, Tar Creeper and SN1P-SN4P are really good keepers for a starting hand against them.

Jade druid- mulligan for Skulking Geist, keep any two cost cards to help with the early game. If worse comes to worse and we can't find it, we have Hakkar, the Soulflayer. I'd go for a 10 mana mass poly kazakus potion depending on board just in case they get some large jades.

Combo Druid- We have Dirty Rat and Potion of Polymorph. Try to find rat if you know it's some kind of combo like togwaggle. Only rat when you can answer what you pull. Never a good idea to rat on turn two.

Warlock

Darkest Hour Lock- If they have the combo by turn 6 we lose, stupid highroll deck. Loatheb helps a lot, a kazakus for 5 mana polymorph isn't a bad idea since it can hit a Voidcaller. If they highroll we lose, if they don't, we should do just fine and out grind them.

Renolock- We are favored, keep Polymorph against cards like Rin, the First Disciple or Voidlord. Go for a 10 mana mass poly. Just play passive, don't over commit since they have good board clears unlike us ex: Lord Godfrey

Cubelock- We have no weapon removal for [Hearthstone Card (Skull of Man'ari) Not Found] and if they have it on curve, we die and cry. Polymorph the Doomguard. Place your Potion of Polymorph with care so that it lands on a Carnivorous Cube. Try to stall until you can play Jaina.

Evenlock- We need as many polymorphs as we can get, but a giant on turn 3 could be the death of us. Mulligan for all the transform effects and pray they don't have a giant on turn 3.

Mage

Exodia Mage- Mulligan for dirty rat and your two drops. Ice Block will be key if we miss the rat. If worse comes to worse and that happens, go for a 10 mana mass poly/gain armor potion and find Kalecgos. We are favored though since we have plenty of disruption. 

Quest cyclone mage- Diceroll on crack, who know's what secret they get, where the random pyroblast comes from. It's a tough deck to beat, try to get mass polymorph from your kazakus potion to clear the Arcane Giants. Flamewaker is the death of us since it can do a bazillion damage. Geist can wipe out a good portion of their deck and Loatheb can stall out for a turn.

Tempo- We need to mulligan for our early game minions, hopefully we can get coin to bait a counter spell. Other than that, we need to find reno asap as well as jaina to close the game. Almost impossible to win if they have Aluneth on curve.

Priest

Big priest- Mulligan for all your transform effects, Kazakus, and Loatheb. Let's smorc this guy to oblivion and polymorph his big mean troops. If they got Barnes we cry and concede and quit the hearthstone app as our emotional spirit fades away.

Special Thanks

I want to give a shoutout to Magikman for inspiring me to post a guide, and to all the reno mage players out there on ladder. This was my first guide ever, and I'll try to update it as time goes on. Thank you for reading.