A Worthy Opponent: The Shaded Mage DECK

Xander Hayes in A Worthy Opponent 0 comments 17 JUN 2014

On Turn 29 of A Worthy Opponent, we interviewed Belshnickle, the first runner up in our Spring Tournament.  During that episode, Belshnickle spoke very highly of Shaded’s Mage Deck.  Shaded was kind enough to send us his deck, and we now give you the portion of his email dealing with that deck:

I thought I’d share my tournament deck with you, after the complimentary review it got from Belshnickle. I picked it over a few of my more common mainstays because I’d been toying with it in the days leading up to the tournament and it was proving both successful and a whole lot of fun to play. It requires a more unusual playstyle than what you might find in a lot of other mage decks, being more akin to a Miracle Rogue deck that relies on freezes rather than removal. The basic goal is to draw out as much of your deck as possible while building up mana for your winning combo. You do this by tactically using your Freezes and Doomsayers to stymie your opponents aggression, alongside the free extra turn given to you by Iceblock. There are a few early game minions like the Leper Gnome and Manawyrms, which serve the purpose of knocking out early minions, absorbing a bit of damage for you, and putting a bit of damage on them to make the combo come out early, but you don’t win with the minions here. You do not, under all but the most dire of circumstances, want to use your Fireballs and Frostbolts as removal, no matter how strange it feels! Once you’ve cycled through your deck enough, you should hopefully have most, if not all, of the big finish crazy combo Belshnickle mentioned:

It’s a ten mana, nine card spell combo that deals 32 damage, ignoring taunts and everything.
It goes like this.

Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2 mana), Sorcerer’s Apprentice (2 mana), Kobold Geomancer (2 mana), Fireball (2 mana, 7 damage), Fireball (2 mana, 7 damage), Frostbolt (0 mana, 4 damage), Frostbolt (0 mana, 4 damage), Ice Lance (0 mana, 5 damage), Ice Lance (0 mana, 5 damage).

Playing with this deck is a real blast once you get the hang of it. Every game can come right down to the wire, and just when your opponent thinks they’ve got you you can send a whole lot of pain right into their face. Additionally, it can be tough to counterplay, when your opponent can never guess just how close they are to getting blown away, and you can always do the combo early without a few of the pieces if your opponent is already hurting from something else.

-Shaded

Xander Hayes
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