Yogg-Saron continues to demand to be taken seriously, this time in a deck that makes plenty of sense: Tempo Mage! The deck has been gaining in popularity, and with the recent success Hotform has had with it, we might start seeing it more frequently on the ladder. Thanks to Hotform for allowing us to re-host his guide, be sure to check him out on Twitch!
Salutations! I am Hotform, I was the second place finisher at the Hearthstone World Championship last year. I am here today to present my #1 Legend Yogg Tempo Mage Guide.
Sections
I: Introduction To The Deck – II: General Advice – III: Mulligans – IV: Matchup Tips – V: Card Discussion
I: Introduction
This is a Mage deck which focuses on using damage spells and spellpower creatures to control the early board and work towards a kill.
Strengths
The deck has a lot of damage. The deck has plenty of creatures which have spell synergy.
The deck has enough damage spells to deal with your opponents creatures consistently, while at the same time generating a card or board advantage.
Good Matchups: Shaman, Hunter, Rogue, Warlock, Druid
Weaknesses
This deck struggles against control decks which use a lot of removal and healing tools.
The creatures in this deck tend to be small in size, spells are used in place of creatures to trade. This means that opponents with a lot of removal tools can leave us with an empty board.
Bad Matchups: Control Warrior, Control Paladin, Control Priest, Reno Jackson
II: General Advice
Random Damage
This deck is a Random Damage based deck. In using this deck you will often find yourself with a gamble on killing the opponents creatures. When these situations occur where you need to gamble on Random Damage there are a few conditions I like to think about before I choose:
Chance of Success: What’s the chance you actually get what you want?
Risk vs Reward: Was the good outcome substantially better or mildly better than the bad outcome?
What position are you in?: Are you winning or losing the match? If you are behind, gambling becomes a better option even when the odds are unfavorable.
Yogg Saron
I will talk more about this card in the card discussion near the end. The basics of it is, you use this card to accomplish what nothing else could… some of the time it works. In general it will be a good card to play, is it good enough to recover from the position you felt comfortable playing Yogg in? That will not be as often; but this is a card which is an important function to get the winrate you need.
Top Decks
This is a deck which boasts a lot of card draw and a lot of direct damage. Taking risks on being able to close out a game by dealing damage before you have the kill in your hand gives you wins that you could not otherwise achieve.
An example of this is playing a Fireball on Turn 6 so that you can draw either Fireball or Arcane Intellect into Fireball to get lethal damage.
Making sense of when it is worthwhile to commit to killing your opponent is a game by game decision based on your odds to win.
III: Matchup Mulligans
There are three types of cards for mulligans. Cards we keep, Cards we don’t keep, and :
Conditional Cards (CC): Cards that we keep if we have other good mulligan cards, or specific synergy in our hand already.
Recommended Mulligans:
- Druid: Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cult Sorcerer, Frostbolt, Acolyte of Pain, Arcane Blast (CC), Mirror Image (CC)
- Hunter: Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cult Sorcerer, Frostbolt, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles, Flamewaker (CC), Mirror Images (CC), Forgotten Torch (CC)
- Mage: Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cult Sorcerer, Frostbolt, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles (CC), Acolyte of Pain (CC)
- Paladin: Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cult Sorcerer, Acolyte of Pain, Frostbolt (CC), Flamewaker (CC), Mirror Image (CC)
- Priest: Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cult Sorcerer, Frostbolt, Forgotten Torch, Arcane Blast (CC), Acolyte of Pain (CC)
- Rogue: Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cult Sorcerer, Acolyte of Pain, Water Elemental, Mirror Images, Forgotten Torch (CC), Azure Drake (CC), Arcane Blast (CC)
- Shaman: Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cult Sorcerer, Frostbolt, Arcane Blast, Forgotten Torch (CC), Acolyte of Pain (CC), Mirror Images (CC)
- Warlock: Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cult Sorcerer, Frostbolt, Arcane Blast, Arcane Missiles (CC), Flamewaker (CC), Acolyte of Pain (CC), Mirror Images (CC), Forgotten Torch (CC)
- Warrior: Mana Wyrm, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Cult Sorcerer, Mirror Images, Acolyte of Pain, Water Elemental, Azure Drake (CC), Frostbolt (CC), Arcane Intellect (CC)
IV: Match Strategies
Druid
Get an early board and remove the Druid’s creatures with spells, pressuring Face with your creatures.
Clearing the Druid’s creatures each turn is a priority.
Hunter
Keep spells, every Hunter plays creatures. Use your spells to kill the Hunter’s early minions and find a tempo advantage on the board.
With a couple of creatures down go face and win with burn. Hunters don’t heal themselves.
Mage
Lots of Subtle differences makeup this match. Card draw mechanics are important and complex in timing, pay attention to your options and what you can draw.
Our version of Mage is offensive in comparison to most.
We want to force the other Mage to be defensive early by having a quick pace and using our spell synergy creatures to setup maximum burn damage.
Paladin
Early game Paladins are beaten by Random Damage mechanics like Flamewaker and Arcane Missiles.
Late game Paladins are a challenging fight with their healing. Work with the board to maintain small advantages and get card value.
Priest
Early pressure is key. Priests are not as adapt at healing themselves as Warriors or Paladins. The early pressure on the Priest’s face makes their turns harder later.
Yogg clears the board and the Priest can run out of cards.
Rogue
Rogues have no way to heal themselves. Getting some initial creatures can create pressure but if the Rogue removes our board we can slow the game down. Deal with the Rogue’s creatures until we can amass a good burn setup.
Shaman
Similar to a Hunter matchup, every Shaman plays creatures. We want to kill the Shaman’s initial three creatures while developing our own board.
We use our spell synergy mechanics especially with Arcane Blast, Frostbolt, and Forgotton Torch to deal with the Shaman’s plays.
After getting a few creatures go face and burn. Shamans don’t heal themselves.
Warlock
Zoo Warlock is the most popular by far, getting one creature on the board early beyond the Warlock’s reach and then maintaining this small advantage will win the match.
Warlocks get very low health on their own, keep an eye out for face damage opportunities to steal a victory.
Keep card draw moving at three or more cards in your hand.
Warrior
Midrange and Aggro Warriors are strictly board control and playing out your creatures quickly while removing theirs. The lack of brawl from these decks mean that a flood of smaller minions can create a quick victory for a Mage.
Control Warrior is what I consider the worst matchup. Card draw is important to keep around. Try to setup a very quick board or a maximum spell damage board.
When you have two or three spell synergy creatures on the board start going face with spells. Look to maximize your damage regardless of the Warriors health. A Mage can get through 40 Health in two turns, the armor is not impossible.
V: Card Discussion
Arcane Blast: This is a card that gains you a mana advantage (Tempo). Combined with spellpower this card does the most efficient damage per mana. Keep it around often, it is a prime tool.
Arcane Missiles: The evil version of Arcane Blast. It’s worse most of the time but it can hit multiple things making it invaluable in certain situations. It also goes face for the same damage as Frostbolt. Love it or hate it, random damage is efficient damage at only one mana for three damage.
Mirror Image: Not useful all the time but a very important tool in match-ups against weapons. A good filler spell and trick up a Mage’s sleeve that has synergy with the Mage mechanics. This is a Tempo mechanic; putting down 4 hp for 1 mana, and it almost always absorbs more than 4 damage.
Mana Wyrm: Best one drop around.
Frostbolt: Three damage for two mana, awesome. Freeze is a bonus and very helpful.
Bloodmage Thalnos: With so many spells and card draw mechanics, it is only natural to take the combination of the two. Often good to use as a development on the board like any other two drop.
Cult Sorcerer: 3/2 for two mana is ideal for Mage, damage is the most important factor on creatures for us so that we can trade up. Spell power and a 3/2 is a great creature.
Sorcerer's Apprentice: Makes every single spell more efficient. 3/2 is a great creature, if you have both a Cult Sorcerer and a Sorcerer's Apprentice then you should normally play the Sorcerer's Apprentice first unless you have combinations in hand. The mana advantage is a profit you don’t always need, spell power on the other hand you will always want to make use of.
Arcane Intellect: We have low mana cards, so we need to draw a lot of them.
Forgotten Torch: More damage, fills in well to give us a big damage boost across our deck. This spell is part of the reason we run so much card draw.
Acolyte of Pain: More card draw. Synergy with the Mage hero power. Develops the board while being resistant to clears. Consider this the best thing to play directly on turn 3.
Flamewaker: This creature is fine in the early game, it has 2/4 stats which is very competitive for a 3 mana creature. But this creature is best played turn 5-10 when multiple spells can be played at once. It is in a lot of ways like +2 spell power. Consider that the damage that “misses” does go somewhere, and with all our burn damage, you always want to play this creature with as many spells as possible.
Fireball: Four mana six damage, awesome. With +1 spell power and a hero power it kills 8/8 creatures so we never have to trade. With so much damage in the deck look for opportunities to use this on the board; killing a three mana creature is not a bad choice.
Water Elemental: Highest HP creature in the Mage deck. The freeze is amazing and the stats on the creature are phenomenal. You could play additional four mana creatures, but I would never take away Water Elemental.
Azure Drake: Spellpower synergy and card draw. What makes this creature so much better than other five drops is it’s ability to give us a spell combo turn on turns 6 and 7.
Yogg-Saron, Hope's End: This creature is the all in one late game package… at a price. You will find when playing a spell deck like this that you will be in situations where no single card could save you from defeat, except for our Lord and Saviour Yogg-Saron.
The more spells you have cast the better, every spell counts.
The ideal situation to play this, is when your opponent has creatures on the board and you do not.
This card is pretty crazy, you’ll have to try it out to get a good feel for it. But suffice to say you do not play this all the time, use it when it will help you out.
Conclusion
This concludes my Yogg Tempo Mage writeup. To me this deck is successful but also math intensive. It requires a good understanding of probability and fractions to use correctly. It is also a deck that involves gambling. A safe playing individual may not enjoy this style of deck; but the victories are there for those who do, because Hearthstone rewards risks.
You can find me at:
Cheers,
Dylan Mullins “Hotform”
Really bad deck wich 80% aggro match up
Yogg is my Bae!!
Any way to fit Antonidas into this deck for more tempo/finisher?
i think this list is not the updated one anymore
I dont have arcane blast. Any cards to replace those?
I don’t think it’s replaceable unfortunately.
And why not Cabalistic tome ?
I’m having an issue trying to kill Midrange Hunters with this deck. It seems to me that when it gets down to around turn 8 I’m out of spells and they just play Call of the Wild and finish me off. Am I just playing poorly? Can anyone give me some insight into this matchup?
ya it seems strange that hunter is a favorable match up. I have over a fifty percent win rate with this deck but only a 30% win rate against hunters.
No its not you, Call of the Wild is just OP
What do you think about flamestrike?
Most of the time, Yogg clears the opponent’s board and act as the board clear
from rank 15 – 9 without any lose xD nice. i will try hard to get legendary.
Thx Hotfrom, its a amazing deck if u know how to play it
Lg
Shaderik
I dislike this deck. Played it all day. There are much better builds out there.
How do you feel about Ethereal Conjurer or Faceless Summoner over the Water Elementals? Every time I have a Water Elly in my hand it just doesn’t feel right… idk…
Maybe I should just ask how or when to use the Water Ellys?
Elementals are amazing. I’ve traded -1 mirror image -1 acolite of pain for +2 faceless summoner, though. really worked out well for me
i don’t have blood mage or flamewaker (going to craft yogg) so what should i use
You could maybe get away without Bloodmage, but no Flamewaker is probably too difficult.
Blood age for Antonidas if you have it? Lots of one cost spells to get more fireballs! 🙂 I’ll need Thalnos anyway for the Rogue deck I’m making but just thought to ask. Thanks!
I don’t have bloodmage either so I’m using loot hoarder in that spot
There is no replacement for flamewaker.For bloodmage good replacement is just violet teacher.
Hi just a by passer here I’m not using this deck just reviewing it for a friend, the flamewaker is a hard replacement as they create alot of good board but can be switched with things like a spell slinger perhaps and a twilight flamecaller. The bloodmage can be replaced with a loot hoarder.
Hey guys. I have a question concerning this deck. Not how to play it, but rather how to beat it. I’ve been seeing this deck on the ladder and it beats me every time, no matter what class I play. I was using the new Miracle Rogue and Mid-Range Shamans, but I even get beat when I use Control Warrior, which is supposedly the counter to this. Even when I star winning, a quick Yogg turns everything back around. Any advice?
Keep playing mid-range shaman and miracle rogue, you are unlucky as i can see..
other way you should win. in case of control warrior you must counter their early game minions.
and take priority of flame walkers. destroy them as soon as possible my any cost.
if you still are having problems try tempo warrior or dragon based version of CW.
Also mid-range hunter, devine shield aggro stile paladin and reno lock can beat tempo mage..
P.S.
1.kill flame walkers
2.kill taurissan
3.kill antonidas
Yogg can do no shit 😉 good luck!
Thanks for the tips, man!
Hi Evident, how can i replace Arcane Blast? i don’t have even one copy of it..
Is it essential in this deck???
thanks a lot
I don’t think it’s replaceable, it’s super important for tempo and works with multiple cards in the deck.
there is no late game . For e.g no Cabalist tome/ethereal Conjurer/faceless summoner but still amazing how it got to TOP legend 😀
Replacement for Bloodmage?
You can add any of those three cards you mentioned for Bloodmage.
Better add violet teacher it’s good replacement to have another strong 4 drop.
I have post a beter and fast deck list its agro mage meta killer, a real good deck last season i chame for the 7time legend at ranking 326 in europe and i go true 15 rank.
Just be wary of C’Thun because without Polymorph if he lands you might be in trouble.
I like my deck I have made, except I do not have flamewalker in my hand. I have replaced the two Flamewalkers with a Deathwing, dragonlord and a Anomalus
I hope this is a troll
Is there a replacement for Bloodmage I don’t have one 🙁
A Ragnaros would be pretty good in this deck, you could also try Spellslinger.
Nice deck.I always liked to play Tempo Mage with a lot of draw even more with Yogg in it to maximize the effect but…… I feel like Acolyte is extremely slow and a pretty weak topdeck with an empty hand/losing board. It might work well for Hotform and some people and it’s fine. I’ve been using Gnomish Inventor and it’s working for me if anyone has the same problem with Acolyte.
No AOE? How does this work vs Aggro?
Missiles & flamewaker are plenty of aoe
Makes sense. Thanks for the input.
Mage AOE kinda late for Aggro anyways, right?