Avalon's 12 Wins Questline Mage

Hearthstone Duels Choices

Hero

Hero Power

Treasure

After so many bad runs with niche archetypes I really wanted to have success with, I decided to was time to raise my self-esteem and play something that could stand a chance with the other top tier decks of the format.

After getting a rather unlucky 10-3 (first loss was in the first match against Mind Tether Priest and in the other two all my Arcane spells were at the very bottom of the deck, making my Quest completion literally impossible), I gave it another try and managed to demolish every opponent all the way to 12-0. Let's go baby!

Passive Treasures Chosen

First pool - Open the Doorways

Second pool - Khadgar's Scrying Orb

Deck Overview

Sorcerer's Gambit Quest Mage's play pattern doesn't change that much from what you have to do in Standard: complete your steps, always plan ahead and then blast your opponents with Arcanist Dawngrasp's Spell Damage bonus.

Duels is a pretty aggressive game mode, so always prioritize defending yourself over racing your opponent down: after all, the more the game takes to end, the more chances you have to win.

Ashes of Outland's Incanter's Flow isn't in the current Duels rotation pools, so you cannot include it in your starting deck (but you can always pick it in the buckets), but there are some Treasures (both Active and Passive) that can do as much or even better! Scroll down for more information.

The list you see runs as little minions as possible, in order to raise the chances of drawing the Spells you need for Sorcerer's Gambit: if you want, you can cut Wand Thief as well, but I still felt like including it; Ras Frostwhisper, on the other hand, is just too good with a +3 Spell Damage aura effect. Consider this when building your own starting deck and choosing your buckets.

Mulligan Tips

With one hand slot taken by Sorcerer's Gambit, you want to optimize your other card choices: always keep/mulligan aways cards thinking about both your Quest progression and your opponent. Keeping cards that generate other cards is often times a smart choice, since they can give you a great hand towards Arcanist Dawngrasp.

Always Keep - Brain Freeze, First Flame (insane card), Wand Thief, Runed Orb.

Possible Keeps - Primordial Studies, Cram Session (only if you already have Primordial Studies: you don't want a 2 mana draw 1) Shooting Star (based on what class you're against), Frostbolt, Ignite.

Reminder: ALWAYS plan ahead. You don't want dead turns or waste tools that will become useful in the following turns.

Playstyle Tips

Wand Thief - You know, you are not forced to play Sorcerer's Gambit on turn 1. If you have Wand Thief in your opening hand, consider playing the Quest on turn 2 just so you have something to trigger the Combo effect with.

Frost - You have very few Frost spells (just 3: Brain Freeze, Frostbolt and Frost Nova): always try to keep one in the mulligan, so that thethe first step's completion won't take long; for the same reason, keep an eye on Frost spells when you Discover.

Shooting Star - Cheap AoE spell, very effective against aggressive decks, counts towards your Quest completion and becomes a 1 mana Arcane Flamestrike after Arcanist Dawngrasp hits the board (courtesy of the last VS Meta Report).

Plan Ahead - I'll never get tired of repeating it: you don't want to lose because you incorrectly sequenced your spells.

Hero Power, Signature Treasures and Passives

Hero Power - I previously tried the Secret variant with Secret Studies, but I ended up preferring having a ping for Hero Power rather than a card draw engine (after all, Mage already has plenty of drawing tools). Ice Shards were by far better when they were 1 mana 1/1s, but my personal opinion is that a 1 mana ping is better than a 2 mana one, even if it can generate Mana Wyrms: you want to spend mana on your spells, and you don't want to lose ground to aggro decks - 2 mana for 1 damage is not optimal.

Signature Treasure - Even though it's not a Spell and can interfere with your Refreshing Spring Water, Embercaster offers you too much value to not pick it: while I usually paired it with post-Quest Ignite for surprise lethals, there were runs in which I multiplied Frostbolt (face damage + Freeze effect, which is very relevant in some matchups like Quest Warrior) and Mage Armor (insane recovery tools when you need some breathing room to seal the game).

You can consider picking Infinite Arcane if you really want to be mean against Bomb Warriors: in fact, Bombs shuffled in your deck will never be drawn, and Magnetic Mines will be hard-countered. However, this way you'll be short of resources, since you won't be able to go fill your hands with the likes of Arcane Intellect, Cram Session and Refreshing Spring Water. While I see why people could think about Infinite Arcane, I still suggest you to go for the consistency and pick Embercaster.

Passive Treasures - as obvious as it may sound, go for Passives that have synergy with Spells: both cost reduction and resource generation are fine, as long as you get them.

• You can trigger Open the Doorways pretty much every turn, given the amount of Discovery tools Mage has at disposal. Arcane Flux is another great Tier 1 Passive, while Arcanite Crystal, Rhonin's Scrying Orb and Robes of Shrinking are acceptable but not great.
• For the Tier 2 Passives, you obviously want to pick [Hearthstone Card (Ooops, all spells!) Not Found], but Khadgar's Scrying Orb is (almost) equally good! Emerald Goggles, Orb of Revelation, Robe of the Magi and Double Time are acceptable.

Hunter's Insight is so good, and allows swing turns that usually bring you to complete Sorcerer's Gambit in a single turn. An interesting fact is that this Active Treasure doesn't discount just Spells, but any card, meaning that all the 2 mana Ice Shards you've accumulated in your hand during your previous turns will become much easier to play.

Bag of Stuffing is just a nice hand filling effect, especially in combination with Hunter's Insight: not that you really need it, given the amount of card draw and card generation at your disposal, but having it doesn't hurt either.

Moreover, both Hunter's Insight and Bag of Stuffing are Arcane spells, which means they'll count towards Sorcerer's Gambit's completion!

To be honest, I've always thought this Treasure was complete crap, but Clockwork Assistant closed a couple games for me, so I have to give it some credit. Don't get me wrong, I still think there are far better Active Treasures (Looming Presence for example), but the fact that it's not a Battlecry effect means that it will keep scaling as time goes on, which is a nutty effect in certain scenarios. I picked two during my run, and this is how I humiliated an Elemental Shaman with a pretty damn good starting (Passives: All Together Now and Battle Totem if I'm not mistaken).

Final Observations

Passives - They definitely play a big role: having your entire hand and deck discounted by 1 mana isn't irrelevant.

Priest - For the sake of precision, I didn't meet a Priest in the whole run: I have to say that queueing one in the first few matches would've probably turned this run into a 12-1 or 12-2.