Even Mage

Wild Hearthstone has thousands of cards, and a wide variety of possible decks. This incredible deck diversity is sometimes lost when only looking at the few decks common in the highest ranks. Wildest of Days is a series aiming to highlight a different off-meta deck each week with an in-depth guide into its strategy and gameplay. The decks are selected for having interesting synergies and using rarely seen cards. To see past decks in this series with updated cards guides, check out the Wild Deck Guide Compendium.

Even Mage used to be a relatively strong Wild deck up until Wildfire got buffed from 2 to 1 mana. For Even Mage, this was a nerf that made its hero power synergy and Coldarra Drake finisher (often using Potion of Illusion to get a 1 mana copy) a lot weaker. This is a modern take on Even Mage with a new win condition: giants! Using Echo of Medivh, Even Mage can have multiple waves of Frost Giants and Floecasters. It can combine this with Varden Dawngrasp to keep freezing the opponent's board as well as with Blademaster Okani for protection. Archmage Vargoth is used to repeat Echo of Medivh, and using it with the first one gives you another Archmage to repeat the second one as well. This win condition and all its cards are very flexible, as you can play giants early for tempo as well as get Floecasters into play as early as turn 3. Overall, this is a new take on Even Mage since the Wildfire buff which, while still using hero power synergy and the powerful Mordresh Fire Eye, now has an additional win con.

Now, let's get into a guide on playing the deck. It's going to go through major overarching strategies to keep in mind, how to mulligan, gameplay tips on key synergies, and card choices.

Deck Ratings

Strategies

Even Mage can use its hero power synergies to fight for the board early, and then win in the mid to late game with free Floecasters, Frost Giants, and Mordresh Fire Eye.

Freeze - In the early game, if you are losing on the board, you can use freeze effects from Ice Walker, Amplified Snowflurry, and Varden Dawngrasp to stall. Floecasters can then be casted for free or cheap to build up your own board.

Hero Power - You can use hero power synergies and your 1 mana hero power for board control, as well as increasing the power of Reckless Apprentice. Spirit of the Dragonhawk allows you to get more value from your hero power as well. This leads up to Mordresh Fire Eye as a powerful payoff.

Giants - Frost Giants and Floecasters can be dropped early for tempo. You can save some for Echo of Medivh, potentially with Archmage Vargoth for more, to have multiple waves of giants or floecasters. You can also use Varden Dawngrasp or Blademaster Okani during your giant turns to try and prevent your opponent from destroying them, either with their minions or spells.

This deck can freeze big threats and full boards to stall while getting Floecasters into play to get tempo. Later, Mordresh Fire Eye and waves of Frost Giants can swing the game in your favor.

Highlights

Mulligans

• Keep Book of Specters, both if you have them. If you have one, keep Archmage Arugal.

• Keep Starscryers.

• Keep a Reckless Apprentice if against a wide board aggro type deck - maybe even two.

• Keep one or two 2-cost minions, whichever you think are best for a particular matchup, and mulligan the rest to get more copies of Book of Specters.

• If you have an Ice Walker and Spirit of the Dragonhawk, you can keep them both as well as Floecasters. This can allow you to get Floecasters into play turn 3 for free if your opponent has 3 minions by then. If you think you are against a deck that doesn't play a lot of minions, don't keep these.

Gameplay

The key to playing this deck well is balancing your hand size as well as playing Freeze effects and giants at the right time.

Below are gameplay tips regarding many of the synergies in this deck and how to use them effectively.

Hero Power Synergies

Fallen Hero and Ice Walker buffs carry over to Reckless Apprentice as well.

It's important to note that Amplified Snowflurry is only for one hero power, so if you use it along with Spirit of the Dragonhawk only one minion will be frozen - the middle one. Reckless Apprentice won't freeze any minions at all - you have to use the upgraded 0 mana hero power to freeze and he apparently fires regular, non upgraded ones in this case.

Spirit of the Dragonhawk only counts as one hero power for Frost Giant. Reckless Apprentice, however, counts as multiple hero powers so you can use those to discount the giants early. That along with Garrison Commander are your main sources for early giant discounting.

Freeze Synergy

You have 3 main sources of Freeze: Ice Walker, Amplified Snowflurry, and Varden Dawngrasp. Ice Walker's effect is triggered by Reckless Apprentice, while Amplified Snowflurry's is not. 

In addition to being generally useful to stall against big minions, these Freeze effects have synergy with Floecasters which you can get down to 2 or 0 mana quite easily.

Also, remember that you can use Varden Dawngrasp to deal 4 damage to frozen enemy minions.

Archmage Arugal and Archmage Vargoth Synergies

The two archmages are here to give you sweet, sweet value.

Archmage Arugal can combo with Book of Specters to add 3 more minions to your hand, and with Manafeeder Panthara for one. 

You can use Archmage Arugal and Book of Specters after playing Lorekeeper Polkelt to guarantee that you copy Mordresh Fire Eye and Frost Giants - this can be very powerful. In general, don't always play Book of Specters as soon as you can if you have Lorekeeper Polkelt in hand, as if you use it after Polkelt you can usually guarantee that you will draw 3 minions and no spells. 

If you're doing the Archmage Arugal after Polkelt interaction, but have a Manafeeder Panthara instead of Book of Specters, you should wait to draw both giants to guarantee that you copy Mordresh Fire Eye when you draw the next card (it's your only 8 drop and guaranteed to be next).

Archmage Vargoth can recast Book of Specters for 3 more draws. He can also recast Echo of Medivh for more value - this adds another Archmage Vargoth to your hand which you can then use with the second Echo. You should play him after casting Echo of Medivh so you don't get 2 Archmage Vargoths to hand.

Echo of Medivh Turns

The main use of Echo of Medivh is to get more copies of 0 cost giants - either Frost Giants or Floecasters (Floecasters aren't technically giants but function in a similar way in this deck).

When doing the giant copying, you often want to copy something like Varden Dawngrasp along with them so you can keep doing the one sided Freeze. You can also copy something like Ice Walker and Reckless Apprentice instead.

Copying Blademaster Okani can be good to protect your giant waves.

During your giant turns, don't always dump as many giants as you can - you can space out your threats to have more waves, but it's good to have enough on the board to threaten lethal.

You can play 2 giants, copy 2 with Echo of Medivh, then play those 2 and play the other Echo to get 4 to hand, meaning you can fill the entire board with giants. Against Aggro with low clears, this can be game winning.

If you're against a slow control deck, it's better to avoid using Book of Specters too early to avoid burning your Echo of Medivhs. Try to wait until you use Lorekeeper Polkelt or draw them - Starscryers can make this faster. 

If you're against Aggro, or in general if you see a good opportunity, don't be afraid to use Echo of Medivh on only minions other than Floecasters or Frost Giants - using them to repeat Reckless Apprentices and Varden Dawngrasp can be game winning. Sometimes you can even get more copies of Mordresh Fire Eye.

Card Choices

This section is going to go through the main packages of cards in the deck. Each package has cards that help the deck with a specific goal. When playing the deck, it's useful to know what purposes each card serves and what other cards in the deck have synergy with it or help achieve the same purpose. This section might also be useful if you're interested in the reasoning for why each card was included in the deck.

Hero Power Synergy

These cards have synergy with your cheap 1 mana hero power from being an even deck with Genn Greymane. They also synergize with each other including making Spirit of the Dragonhawk and Reckless Apprentice better. Mordresh Fire Eye and Frost Giant are activated, and made cheaper, by use of your hero power.

Freeze Synergy

These cards let you Freeze minions, and make Floecaster cost 0.

Value

These cards let you get more value.

Disruption

Blademaster Okani can disrupt both spells and minions, especially useful during your giant turns.

Card Draw

Card draw is great to getting to cards from your other packages. Having so few spells means Book of Specters is more effective, and Starscryer is more consistent. Lorekeeper Polkelt makes the quality of your future cards drawn better more predictable, making it faster to get to giants and Mordresh Fire Eye.

Even Mage is a deck using hero power synergies, Freeze effects, and multiple waves of giants to win. If you have a question or comment, or are wondering about a card substitution, post below.

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Looking for more decks? Look no further than the Wild Deck Guide Compendium to see more decks and guides.