Antonidas Gambit

Key Cards

Win Conditions - General Game Plan

The entire idea behind this deck is to use your spell resources wisely to complete Sorcerer's Gambit as soon as possible while also keeping in mind your Grand Magus Antonidas activation, then playing Arcanist Dawngrasp to burn your opponent down with the powerful effect provided by his battlecry. Antonidas can also be a powerful finisher and/or secondary wincon if you can clear the board using Fire Sale with a Spell Damage minion or with Dawngrasp's effect. 3 Fireball to the enemy's face will more often than not close the game, or get you very close. 

Mulligan

Since you want to complete your quest as soon as possible, you'll want a healthy mix of arcane, frost and fire spells in your opening hand.

Ideally you'll want to look for:

• Arcane:

Notes: Flow provides you with a deck-wide spell discount that helps you immensely with your entire game plan, Studies can provide you with early game minions that can contest the board, and Orb gives you flexibility to get what you need/lack for the next step of the quest.

• Fire:

Notes: First Flame provides you with an early game removal tool that also creates another cheap fire spell for the second step of the quest, Ignite is just a powerful spell that can get your stacking-damage chain going, and Fire Sale is the flexible spot that can either help you survive against token/aggro decks, or serve as draw mechanic for 1 mana with the new Tradable keyword. 

• Frost:

Notes: This is the real challenge when it comes to quest completion, since current standard frost spells are not that many (we miss you Ray of Frost) or that great, we have limited options here. Flurry is cheap but conditional as it requires an enemy minion on board, the same goes for Brain Freeze -though you can target your own minions if need be-, so you either rely on discover, or Ice Barrier to complete the first step of the quest. If enemy minions are played early game, this gets much easier, but you need a bit of luck with your discover options as well. It's not impossible, but it's the biggest hurdle in the deck.

By Fire Be Purged!

Once you complete your quest and play Arcanist Dawngrasp the real fun begins. With a powerful draw engine fueled by Cram Session, Arcane Intellect and Refreshing Spring Water you can draw what remains in your deck and start burning the opponent down thanks to discounted Fireball and an ever-growing Ignite, that not only benefits from the spell damage provided by Dawngrasp's permanent effect, but also prevents fatigue in the late game. This is your goal, that inevitability provided by Ignite going face turn after turn. You also have Hot Streak available as an enabler for some degenerate turns with the mana cheating provided by Incanter's Flow and your burn-centric fire spells. 

If that fails -we have to remember cards like Oh My Yogg!, Counterspell or Shenanigans that can completely shut down your primary game plan- then we have a secondary win condition available by the hand of our beloved returning champion Grand Magus Antonidas. With smart planning and careful execution, you have 18 possible damage from hand that can go face if need be. (Antonida's Fireballs do not benefit from Dawngrasp's  effect, this has been confirmed in-game during the theory crafting streams that happened earlier this week, so keep that in mind)

Miscellaneous

• Since your only minion is Grand Magus Antonidas, Refreshing Spring Water will more often than not return your 4 mana crystals. 
• Runed Orb is your only discover card -aside from step 2 of the quest completion- so weight your options with care, always keeping in mind the resources available in your hand at the time of casting, as well as quest progress at said time. You always need to plan ahead. 
• The combination of Primordial Studies and Cram Session is one of the strongest draw-engines in the game, you can quickly cycle through most of your deck and get exactly what you need, if you are smart when it comes to their uses.
• Fire Sale is in my very humble opinion one of the best Tradable cards of the set. This can help you cycle your deck continuously to get cheaper spells of the school you need at any given time for quest completion. Always remember this!
• Fireball can do a lot of damage mid-to-late game, once the quest is complete. Try to save them for face damage, and only use them defensively if you need to clear a minion that's threatening lethal. 
• Devolving Missiles should never be used to advance the quest, unless it's your only option. Try to save them for really important minions with powerful effects you want to get rid of. It's still one of the best disrupting cards available in standard, so use them wisely. 
• Remember that First Flame can target minions only, and it creates a secondary copy of it called Second Flame that goes directly into your hand when played. This card shares the cost, the damage, and the minion-only restriction -the poor wording on this is baffling!- 
• Lastly and just for reminder-sake, Grand Magus Antonidas requires you to cast 3 fire spells in your last three turns for his activation -not 3 fire spells during the entire game, or 3 fire spells in succession-. So please keep that in mind starting turn 5 where you ideally want to start fueling his activation. 
• Flurry (Rank 1) is the weakest link in the deck and could be replaced by a second copy of Ice Barrier for more survivability if the meta is too aggressive and you need tools to stall the game a bit longer. 

I hope you enjoyed the guide, and give the deck a try once the expansion launches. Happy unity in stormwind everyone!