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Mulligans
General Mulligans
Generally I'll look for these 4 cards in my opening hand. Mana Wyrm is always a strong turn one, and with Scarab and Spellslinger, you won't run out of cards too quickly anyhow.
Aggro Mulligans
Against aggro, I want a quick start. Something to keep the little guys off the field while I build up my own board. If you can make it to a Blizzard, you're generally just going to win against aggro anyhow. Flamewaker is just nuts against most face decks.
Midrange Mulligans
Against Midrange, I like to have a sheep available. When they start hitting things like Dr. Boom or Savannah Highmanes, or anything in that area really, it's nice to turn it into a non-issue. I also like the early Mana Wyrm here for their early turns as well as the Flamewaker to sneak in damage.
Combo Mulligans
Sometimes it's hard to notice when you're playing against combo. Often times I don't realize it until I'm either dead, or I've somehow disrupted the combo on accident. Jeweled Scarab has been a star player against combo. Things like Ice Block and Vaporize off this little guy have saved me quite a few times now.
Spellslinger against Warlock combo decks has actually burned some of their combo pieces. If you can catch your opponent sitting on 9 cards and throw down a Spellslinger, you'll have a small chance of burning off something they needed to make their deck click.
As always, I do like the Mana Wyrm opener. He's almost always something people don't want to ignore, and for that reason, some people will move mountains just to kill him.
Control Mulligans
Against Control I still like the early start with Mana Wyrm. If I can catch them in a bad mulligan with him, he'll pave the way for the rest of the deck to come back and take control of the game. Aside from that, we're looking for ways to not run out of cards. Luckily most of the deck either gives you more cards, or lets you discover them while putting a small threat out.
Here’s a Standard Mage list before the next expansion hits. The deck is kind of an all around Hybrid. At times your openers will be very Tempo-y and you will blow out your opponent before they can react. Other times the deck will act very Mid-Range or Controllish. Playing the deck is very intuitive, especially with all of your discover cards and the Spellslingers.
I switched to this deck from Freeze Mage at about Rank 14 after I started dropping a few stars. I think right now this deck is catching people off guard. They aren’t sure how to react, and the RNG makes it a bit more fun, so I’ve managed to climb a few ranks with the deck, on top of having some insanely hilarious RNG plays.
The best part about the deck is that none of it will rotate when Standard hits, and it can be tweaked with newer cards from the next expansion!
