Highlander Mage Theorycraft Deck List – Saviors of Uldum – August 2019

Equipped with his magical machine wand, Reno will not be as impactful than his first iteration Reno Jackson; however, dealing 10 damage to all minions in any situation and leaving behind a body worth 10 stats may be the strongest and most flexible board clear that Mage has to offer.

The second Highlander card is Zephrys the Great; this minion already knows what card you will need even before you know it, and it offers a decent 3/2 body on top. Even played on curve it will most likely offer you Arcane Intellect, a card draw opportunity that not a single Mage in history would ever say no to.

The requirement to not play any duplicate cards makes building Highlander decks a very special experience. Especially Mage has numerous interesting ways to approach it, and this theorycraft uses a more greedy list.

First off, the basics: The Doomsayer/Frost Nova combo as well as Polymorph, Blast Wave, Blizzard and Flamestrike offer more than enough moral support for Reno the Relicologist in terms of board control capabilities, one of Highlander Mage’s strongest suit.

As already said, Zephrys the Great offers great early game defense, and together with Sorcerer's Apprentice as well as the new gnome on the block Dune Sculptor we should be able to contest threats on turn 1 to 3 with ease with the option of insane value return.

SN1P-SN4P and Zilliax are eager to hold the line during the mid game, looking for 2 for 1 trades and some much needed healing in the process. 

Card generation has always been a weak point of Highlander Mage. Some iterations of this archetypes may be able to run Stargazer Luna, but we have a soft spot for new cards: Vulpera Scoundrel doesn’t generate the perfect card just like our favorite djinni, but we can certainly rely on decent value and situational solutions in the long run. Together with the other random card generators and Arcane Intellect, too few cards should never be a problem with this archetype.

Even more so, Highlander Mage relies on a big hand: Both Astromancer and Mountain Giant have seen regular play in Cyclone Mage as well as Control Mage lists. They won’t have as much of an impact as they did in these archetypes, because we only run one copy of each, but we will draw into them eventually, making them prime targets for another very well known card in the current meta: Conjurer's Calling.

But what is our win condition? We try to rely on basic Mage values and play a classic duo for that: Archmage Antonidas and Alexstrasza! Together with random card generators we should get enough Fireball fuel, and Luna's Pocket Galaxy enables insane combos in much earlier turns on average. Needless to say, this recently buffed spell is one of the top priority cards to play on curve.

Several tech inclusion round out the versatile Highlander Mage archetype. Minions like Acidic Swamp Ooze, Voodoo Doll and Mind Control Tech always proved to be worth it, and we can afford to run them as well! Don’t forget Barista Lynchen, who turns out to be the jackie-of-all-trades in terms of card generation, tech card and simple mid game stats on the board.

As already said, this archetype can be played in a lot of different ways. This control version, however, has historic parts that proved to do insanely well in several chaotic metas, and combined with new high-value inclusions, Highlander Mage will be a top contender to reach the top of the upcoming tier lists!