Barnes-Malygos Time Warp Mage

Ultimately, the goal of this deck is to use Time Warp to setup an OTK by using either Archmage Antonidas  or Malygos summoned by Barnes  to deal lots of burn damage around Turn 9 or later.

Originally I was trying some Barnes and Y'Shaarj, Rage Unbound shenanigans within the deck, but I believe Malygos and Archmage Antonidas are much stronger because of their ability to benefit from the cheap burn spells in Mage. Since they are the only 2 minions besides Barnes in the deck, you are guaranteed to get a minion which can combo with several of your cheap spells, like Arcane Missiles, Frostbolt, and cards discovered from Primordial Glyph.

The deck is played like your typical Control Mage, which means you will be using the majority of your spells to help your survival via removal and secrets. However, you’ll also need to be slightly conservative with your burn spells like Arcane Missiles, Frostbolt, and Fireball, since you’ll need them for your combo. Against Aggro, your main goal will be to stabilize against your opponent by removing their threats, setting up Ice Barrier and Ice Block, and getting marginal value with one of your big minions. You’ll want to aggressively mulligan for cheap removal and AoE against Pirate Warriors and Zoo decks. Against Midrange or Control decks, you will also be trying to remove your opponent’s threats, but you’ll have a little more time to complete your quest and set up your combo. Mulliganing for your more “greedy” value cards like Primordial Glyph, or general card draw in Arcane Intellect is key. And regardless of what deck you play against, Barnes is a must-keep.

The main problem in this deck is consistency. Since this deck isn’t running minions like Babbling Book, Shimmering Tempest, or Burgly Bully, the only way you can finish your quest is by playing spells generated from Primordial Glyph, Cabalist's Tome, Mana Bind, and Fireballs from Archmage Antonidas, which are only 6 out of the 30 cards in the deck. For that reason, I’ve put several removal spells and freeze effects in the deck, with cards like Blizzard and Volcanic Potion to help mitigate your opponent’s threats and stall time until you draw your necessary cards.

However, this also causes another inconsistency: since you have to spend time digging through your deck to find cards that finish your quest, you may also inadvertently draw your Archmage Antonidas and Malygos prematurely, making your combo much weaker. For this reason it’s pretty safe to say that this deck is much weaker than the standard Arcane Giant variant of the deck, but if you’re interested in bursting down your opponent with flashy meme cards, this deck is preferred.

Examples of how the combo could potentially work:

Barnes into Malygos with Time Warp Combos:

1. Antonidas + Frostbolt + Arcane Missiles = 2 Antonidas-made Fireballs
2. Barnes -> Malygos + Time Warp
3. Fireball (11 damage) + Fireball (11 damage) + Frostbolt (8 damage) = 30 damage

1. Barnes -> Malygos + Time Warp
2. Arcane Missiles x2 (16 random damage) + Greater Arcane Missiles (8 damage to 3 random targets each)

1. Barnes -> Malygos + Time Warp
2. Molten Reflection on Malygos + Frostbolt x2 (26 damage) + Arcane Missiles x2 (26 random damage)

Barnes into Antonidas Before Time Warping:

1. Barnes -> Antonidas + Primordial Glyph x2 -> Cheap Spell x2 + Arcane Missiles x2 + Forbidden Flame = 4-7 Fireballs
2. Time Warp + Fireball (6 damage)
3. Fireball + Fireball + Ping (13 damage)
4. Fireball + Fireball + Ping (13 damage - Total: 32 damage across 3 turns)

Barnes into Antonidas with Time Warp:

1. Barnes -> Antonidas + Time Warp = 1 Antonidas-made Fireball
2. Molten Reflection on Antonidas + Antonidas-made Fireball + Frostbolt = 9 damage and 5 Antonidas-made Fireballs total in hand

Note: The damage dealt can potentially be even higher if your minions can go face the turn after Time Warping since they lose Summoning Sickness (if your opponent doesn't have any taunts to block your attacks)

Obviously, these combos depend on what burn spells are in your hand, which legendary you highroll with Barnes, and whether you finished your quest or not. For this reason, it’s suggested that you use Barnes only when these 4 conditions are met:

1. You have cheap spells in your hand with at least some burn spells as well, and potentially Molten Reflection to get double the value of your big minion.
2. You have adequate mana to do things after playing Barnes (aka don’t play it on Turn 4).
3. Your Ice Block is up. This is important if you’re trying to do 2-3 turn lethals with Antonidas Fireballs so that your opponent cannot kill you before you burn them out. If your opponent has lots of heal or armor gain, this strategy can quickly become a losing one.
4. You finished the quest and have Time Warp in hand. 

   This is a debatable point because pulling Archmage Antonidas isn’t the end of the world without having Time Warp, as long as you have enough cheap spells to get lots of value out of it before it’s inevitably killed the next turn. Primordial Glyph is insane with Archmage Antonidas if you can discover cheap, non-situational spells that are 2 mana or less, since they will be reduced to 0 mana after being discovered. Time Warp can be used later during the game to fire off at least 3 Antonidas Fireballs one after another. However, if you pull Malygos without Time Warp, your opportunities to deal huge damage are much lower without getting that important extra turn.

If you’re looking to try a unique Time Warp OTK, this is the deck I recommend using. The glaring inconsistencies in this deck may be worse than I’m anticipating (since I’m writing this guide before Un’Goro has even come out), but in theory, the deck should be able to work a decent percent of the time. There are definitely some optimizations that can be done to make the deck more efficient, but for right now I’m satisfied with how the deck looks. Hope you learned something in this guide, and check out my other decks if you’re interested!