Minion Elemental Mage

Notes

This is an experimental deck. Although, from my experience, elemental mage lacks a few tools to make it really powerful, this deck seeks to fill in the blanks and provide enough time for the dream of a minion based mage deck to come true.

Win Condition 

The deck’s main win condition is to stall out till late game and start flooding the board with healthy but effective minions. Cards like Steam Surger and Bonfire Elemental are examples of healthy minions with a lot of value, given that you’ve played an elemental last turn. A board of healthy minion, coupled with a Frost Lich Jaina , is usually just way too much for even the strongest of control decks. And the ability to refill the board after it is wiped and never really running out of resources provides a lot of survivability and relentless pressure late-game. 

Card choices, explainations and substitutes 

Saronite Chain Gang, Stonehill Defender, Tar Creeper and Tol’vir Stoneshaper

These are all good taunts to stall out the game and protect other minions. Stonehill defender also synergises with Leyline Manipulator . Tar creeper and Tol’vir Stoneshaper are both cards that can stop an early game aggro plan in its tracks. However, do take note that only Tar Creeper is considered an elemental, and therefore be careful when playing the other minions, in case you can’t activate another powerful elemental reliant battlecry next turn.

Archmage Arugal and Book of specters

This is your primary refill combo, though honestly you’ll rarely need it much with this deck. With cards like Stonehill Defender, Servant of Kalimos, Fire Fly and Steamsurger, the deck has plenty of cycle and will hardly require a full 6 card refill. Most of the time, you’ll be combo-ing Archmage Arugal with Bonfire Elemental  for a 2 card draw, and using Book of spectres by itself. Watch your hand size though, as a lot of your minions cost at least 5 mana, not to mention cycle. You might find yourself only able to play 2 cards out of a full hand , and then finding out that those two cards also cycle and you’ll be milling next turn. Another note is that Archmage Arugal synergises very well with Leyline Manipulator .

Frostlich Jaina

I don’t think I need to explain this. Just…so good

Baron Geddon 

A good board clear against aggro decks, which are your main problems. It also provides a nice, big chunk of healing if coupled with Jaina. All you need to do is survive with your taunts and drop this to hopefully clear the board. Make sure that you only use it when you are behind on board though, because you are a minion based deck. You don’t wanna go around killing your win condition now do you?

Leyline Manipulator

You might have noticed a common trend already. I consider Leyline manipulator to be a core card in this deck. There was a game where I had a board full of minions. Little did my opponent know that after he killed them, I would be ready with two Leylines, another 0 mana discounted Leyline into a 0 mana Frozen watcher. This doesn’t happen often, but even as little as a discounted taunt and elemental, to a free Flame Geyser or two, coupled with a healthy 4/5 body is plenty of value. Leyline is what makes your late game board floods so potent. 1 mana 5/5s, anybody? Cards that synergise with Leyline Manipulator: Fire Fly, Archmage Arugal, Pyros, Stonehill Defender, Steam Surger, and Servant of Kalimos

Substitutions 

Since this is still an experimental deck, there are many cards that might fit in the deck and have better results against certain opponents 

Mind Control Tech – Good if you’re facing many board flood aggro decks like Paladin

Cauldron Elemental – A strong burst finisher for late-game. It’s not included here because it’s just a little slow and hard to set up, but if you’re facing many slow/fatigue decks, this is a good addition

Fungalmancer  – A good substitute for Cobalt Scalebane if you find yourself able to stick two of more minions on board consistently. Beware that without a good board to buff, it is basically a useless 5 mana 2/2. It does however provide a good chunk of extra burst and survivability to your on board minions.

Fire Plume Phoenix – A considerable substitute for Water Elemental if you find yourself needing a bit more tempo. Note that the body is pretty weak though.

Other card substitutions: Volatile Elemental, Glacial Shard, Ozruk, Thunder Lizard, Igneous Elemental, Shimmering Tempest

General Strategy

While the deck has many possible ways to be played in different situations, here is a general guide to how you should play vs aggro and control  (from my experience)

Vs Aggro

Aggro is your main weakness here. Mulligan for taunts, cheap minions and Baron Geddon. If you’re facing a lot of Paladins, you might want to consider adding in an Arcane Explosion, Blizzard or Flamestrike. Other than that, play defensively with taunts, water elementals when you can and maybe a flame geyser or two. Pray that you’ll draw into your Baron geddon to clear board and, if you’ve survived this far, you should be good to start slowly flooding the board with healthier minions behind a few taunts, and use Frostlich Jaina to heal up.

Vs Control

If you’re facing a standard control deck, it’s usually in your favour. Mulligan for a good curve and use the early to mid game to start applying pressure. Be careful not to commit too many resources into a possible board clear. And refill when you’re out with Book of specters. Try to save your Leyline Manipulators to discount as many cards as possible, and basically get ready to flood board, reload and repeat late game. Frostlich Jaina also plays an important role in ensuring maximum pressure and board refill with healthy Water Elementals. Make sure that you don’t take too long to finish though, as you don’t usually have as strong a finisher as these control decks, and rely on exhausting their removal and applying a lot of minion pressure and killing them right before their win condition ie. Mind blast combo or Dragoncaller Alanna. Against OTK decks, you should have an easier time establishing board presence. However, now you’re on the clock to kill them before their OTK combo is ready, so don’t slack off, and play around removal.

Conclusion 

Like I said, this is still an experimental deck, so some substitutions might still need to be made to fit the meta or make it more effective in general. But I hope that this was a useful start!