Cyclone Mage (Ashes of Outland)

I have called this a “fun combo-deck”. But it’s a little more than that. 

We all miss Elemental Evocation, but it turns out that  Mana Cyclone can thrive without it. Allow me to convince you! This deck can throw a curveball at almost anyone, because your plays are completely unpredictable. You will generate tons of random and discovered spells, and usually you’ll find something to answer your opponent’s plays, or bring them to their knees. If your spells don’t finish the job, a free Mana Giant followed by Conjurer's Calling will usually do the trick. If you are in a tight spot, Solarian Prime could save the day, or maybe a random Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron. And if everything fails, you can always place your faith in The Amazing Reno. This deck requires a lot of you in the pilot seat. You need to evaluate what kind of answers you are looking for, you need to time your swing turns, and you need to count, counting is key! With all this, you are in for a lot of fun! Cause that’s what this deck is all about: Fun fun fun! Sure, we’re playing tier 3/4, but if you aren’t in a rush to high ranks, why not have some fun with a deck that almost none are playing?

I will now go through all the cards in the deck, as well as cards I have not included and explain why. Certain cards are not required and could be replaced. Maybe you’ll do something differently?

Arcane Missiles: Solid support spell, that can help with early aggressive boards.

Evocation: Very important spell to reduce Mana Giant and work towards quest completion. Very fun to pair with Sorcerer's Apprentice. Remember to be careful about playing alongside Mana Cyclone, as you may end up loosing all the value due to handspace. 

Magic Trick: Best support card of this deck. Perfect match with everything you want to do.

Mirror Image: Okayish support card. Not the best, but better than the alternatives. If you want to be more aggressive, you could go for Arcane Breath, but since there are no dragons here, you won’t really benefit from it. Elemental Allies could also work, but usually ends up doing nothing. It’s not that many elementals in this deck. Learn Draconic is also an option, that actually looks better than the other 1-mana spells. But you will stall the game alot, and it may take some time before you see the value of this card. Two small taunts may be better to slow down your opponent in a pinch, than some value later, that you will generate a lot of anyway.

Raid the Sky Temple: Fun fun fun!!! May complete a free Mana Giant if you have not generated enough already. This one can however be replaced. If you don’t have it, I would try out some games before crafting. Since this almost always is played on turn one outside of swing turns, you can replace it with almost anything.

Ray of Frost: Very nice spell! Excellent against aggro, or as a small removal, and the twinspell didn’t start in your deck

Tome of Intellect: Only one copy of this, because it can generate something too expensive and useless. However it’s a good fit for the deck.

Astromancer Solarian: Easy replaceable card. However, this card is very fun and satisfying to play, and you can’t go wrong with it. 

Frostbolt: Can’t go wrong with frostbolts right? Removal or burn.

Mana Cyclone: The reason we play this deck. You want to play alongside Sorcerer's Apprentice and a lot of “free” spells to max out the value. However, it’s solid to play without aswell, sometimes a single spell from this badass whilrwind can save a game for you. The challenge is as always, not to be too greedy.

Sorcerer's Apprentice: A central piece of the deck! These days, we see alot of minionless mage, and therefore Incanter's Flow. That card however doesn’t fit in this deck, since are main objective is to generate spells in out hand, and therefore won’t get as much value from it.

Arcane Intellect: Always keep in the mulligan. The faster you can draw some comboes the better it is.

Chenvaala: DO NOT CRAFT! Even in this deck she has rare instances of brilliance. Usually she generates one or two tokens, and not necessarily in one turn. The only reason I include her is because I have her. She is a bit difficult to play, if you want more than one token. Best tip on Chenvaala is, don’t be greedy! Another tip: Play her on curve. Your opponent will have spend resources to remove her, or probably face a token on the next turn. 

Flame Ward and Ice Barrier: I have only included two secrets, and there are two reasons for this. To counter aggro, and to make a randomly generated Ancient Mysteries somewhat useful.

Conjurer's Calling and Mana Giant : Mana giant will be cheap or free to play, so you can create quite a scary board of 8-drops. It may also turn the game in you favor with minions like Walking Fountain, Batterhead, Enhanced Dreadlord, Hulking Overfiend, Tirion Fordring or Coilfang Warlord. However, there is one problem, that you just have to deal with if it happens. That problem is called Octosari. That stupid octopus has cost me the game several times. It is fun though, the perfect moment for a facepalm.

Remember that Conjurer's Calling also is fine to play on tokens from Chenvaala or the dragon from Learn Draconic aswell. It’s not uncommon to discover the sidequests.

Fireball: Same thing as Frostbolt, you just cannot go wrong with it. 

The Amazing Reno: The ultimate “oh crap”-button. He will destroy your quest hero power, and may even loose you the game. But he does shine from time to time, and does save your life alongside getting rich. If you don’t have it, you could try a Puzzle Box of Yogg-Saron and hope for something similar. 

Other cards to ponder: 

Violet Spellwing: This one is interesting. Instead of running Arcane Missiles, you could play these on curve, and get your missiles as cards that didn’t start in your deck instead. However, that requires them to die, and they don’t have rush, so it could take a turn, or more if you play against priest. You could also run this alongside Elemental Allies for some synergy there. 

Arcane Explosion: Very good card in this deck, but falls a little short since it does cost 2 mana. Shooting Star would have been much better, but that is sadly in wild format.  

Khadgar: If you want to be a little more greedy with Mana Giant and Conjurer's Calling, this powerful dude could be pretty cool. However since this deck doesn’t run Power of Creation, it is a little narrow in this deck, and could end up a looong time in the hand. 

Mana Wyrm: If we could only un-nerf it… 

Frost Nova and Blizzard : Could certainly work in this deck and buy you some turns.  Can you replace something else for these, go ahead, maybe it’s the bomb? I have not tried it to be honest.