Roffle’s #2 Legend Wild Secret Mage

Introduction

Secret Mage has been an archetype that’s been on the fringe of the meta for some time. In the past, it was seen as a gimmicky deck that was strictly worse than the Flamewaker Tempo builds.

With Flamewaker rotating of out of Standard and Journey to Un’goro bringing Arcanologist, however, many players began revisiting Secret Mage and found that several of the tools introduced in One Night in Karazhan and Mean Streets of Gadgetzan performed better than expected. Playtesting in Standard had carryover into Wild where the deck becomes even stronger, just on the border of Tier 1, thanks to the availability of cards like Mad Scientist and Duplicate.

In general, the deck relies on pushing the tempo by developing early minion pressure, accelerating secrets into play with Mad Scientist and Kirin Tor Mage, capitalizing on secret synergies, and closing the game with burn spells.

Key Cards

• Mana Wyrm: The best 1-drop available to Mage and a card that can get out of hand very quickly making it crucial for getting ahead early in the game. Cheating secrets into play with Kirin Tor Mage offer an opportunity to further ramp the Wrym.

• Arcanologist: This card replaces itself with a secret, thins your decks improving future draw, and ensures a secret can be in play on turn 3 all on a well-statted body. Arcanologist should always be played on Turn 2 play when Kirin Tor Mage is in hand.

• Mad Scientist: Provides a similar effect to Arcanologist but puts the secret into play instead of replacing itself. On paper, this makes it a strictly but it does have some drawbacks, including the understatted body. Usually a better Turn 2 play than Arcanologist when Medivh’s Valet and Kirin Tor Mage is not.

• Medivh's Valet: With a secret in play, this card provides a massive tempo swing or the last few points of burn needed to find the kill.

• Counterspell: Whereas most other cards generate tempo directly, Counterspell does so indirectly by negating as much as an entire turn for your opponent. Timing is crucial with Counterspell, so consider what high value spells your opponent’s deck has and when they will be play.

• Duplicate: A critical hand refill mechanic, Duplicate has very few bad targets in the deck. While Duplicating a 0 cost Kabal Crystal Runner is great, the real purpose of Duplicate is to recover from a board clear, which the deck is susceptible to in the early game.

• Ice Block: Ice Block provides very little in terms of tempo generation but is the one secret that can be counted on the stay up throughout the game, ensuring value from Medivh’s Valet and Ethereal Arcanist. The extra turn is occasionally relevant, offering the option to set up a two turn lethal.

• Kirin Tor Mage: An aggressively statted minion that provides one of the methods of cheating secrets into play to ramp Mana Wrym or reduce the cost of Kabal Crytal runner. Kirin Tor Mage is the deck’s best Turn 3 play and a great Duplicate target with additional secrets in hand.

• Ethereal Arcanist: With no secret in play, this card is terrible. The upside, however, against slower decks makes it worth the inclusion. Protect this minion with a secret in play for a few turns and win the game.

• Kabal Crystal Runner: A card that benefits greatly from all of the secret acceleration. At worst, it’s usually a 5/5 body on Turn 4. At best, you get a handful of 0-cost 5/5’s.

Notable Exclusions

• Kabal Lackey: While Lackey does cheat secrets into play like Kirin Tor Mage, it does so a little too early to get good value and on a body that you hate to Duplicate. Finds a spot in some Standard lists, but does performs poorly in Wild.

• Arcane Intellect: Typically, tempo oriented mage decks such as this need the extra card draw from Arcane Intellect. Here, however, Duplicate and Arcanologist provide more controlled hand refill and the secret tutoring thin the deck and improve top decks in the late game.

• Effigy: A card that performed surprisingly well in play testing and can be rotated in depending on matchups. As mentioned, the deck suffers against board clearing and Effigy can protect against that.

• Piloted Shredder: Piloted Shredder is a card that barely missed the cut and does well in many situations, but not quite as well as Ethereal Arcanists. Should be played in place of Arcanists, however, in lists that are not running Ice Block.

• Firelands Portal: Like Medivh’s Valet, Portal provides a good tempo swing, but does so a little too late in the game. By turn seven, you really want to be finding ways to close the game rather than fighting for the board.

   

General Playstyle

Played optimally, Secret Mage has three distinct phases: Early Board Pressure, Secret Synergies, and Closing Burn.

Early Board Pressure (Turns 1-3)

In the beginning of the game, you want to snowball the board into early chip damage to your opponent. A 1-2-3 curve of Mana Wrym, Arcanologist, Kirin Tor Mage is usually hard to beat if uninterrupted. With a secret already in hand, Frostbolting a minion to protect Mana Wyrm is usually a better play than Arcanologist.

Secret Synergies (Turns 4-6)

With the board secured, you can begin taking advantage of the numerous secret synergies in the deck. With a secret in play, Ethereal Arcanist on turn 4 creates a remove or lose scenario in most cases. If Duplicate is up, paying 4 mana for Kabal Crystal Runner on turn 4 is good, otherwise it may be better to wait until turn 5 if you can pair it with another secret from hand. Medivh’s Valet does a lot of work in these turns, often helping lock in your control of the board.

Closing Burn (Turns 7-8)

Burn isn’t always essential to winning games, but against slower decks you may need to concede the board in order to set up burn to close out the game. Knowing how much damage you have available from hand and where to direct that damage is critical to piloting the deck successfully.

Thanks for reading! Win rates and statistics for the deck can be found on my personal site.