Tommy J’s Cheap Heroic Steel Sentinel Mage

Tommy J generously allowed us to host his decks and guides using (mostly) Basic cards to take down The League of Explorers Heroic bosses. Be sure to check out his YouTube Channel.

This fight definitely has an awesome concept in my opinion – my only problem with it is that each attempt takes so damn long! It was fun trying to figure out how to get maximum value out of everything, and building a deck based around a card doing as many instances of damage as possible.

The general strategy for this deck is attempting to maintain board control as best you can by getting as much value out of your cards as possible. Once you have a Water Elemental on the board, try to keep it alive for as long as you can as it will prevent him using his weapons, which are incredibly strong as he doesn’t take the face damage that other bosses would. Make sure you don’t drop your whole hand, as he has multiple forms of removal that will kill everything (ranging from Brawl to Enter the Coliseum). Keep Enter the Coliseum in mind when you’re playing, as it is very strong board clear and can often put you well behind if you play into it.

This deck runs 2 Summoning Stone, which are amazing cards for getting great value. One thing that I did was include Flamestrike in the deck, since if you play one with a Summoning Stone down you get a 7 cost minion, most of which are very strong. If you aren’t looking for this type of synergy (or have Flamewaker), bear in mind that it does the exact same damage as an Arcane Explosion, but costs 5 more.

Mulligan

Elven Archer, Huge Toad, Jeweled Scarab and Arcane Missiles are things you want to have early. If you manage to draw a Brann Bronzebeard or Polymorph it would probably be worth holding onto one of them though.

Card Additions

The most important thing you can add to this deck is the Flamewaker. It’s honestly an amazing card and an instant include if you have it. Garrison Commander is also awesome as a Mage since it lets you use your hero power twice a turn. In addition, high health minions, no matter what their attack. This includes things like the Mogu'shan Warden or Deathlord. Control spells such as Cone of Cold or Blizzard may be a nice addition, as well as Vaporize since it still instantly kills minions despite the bosses hero power. If you have them you could even put in Goblin Blastmage with Mechs such as the Snowchugger (though I’d still recommend Flamewaker over these if you have them).

Cards to Remove

Flamestrike (since it does the same damage as Arcane Explosion – it’s only in there for Summoning Stone synergy), Oasis Snapjaw (if you have better high HP minions), Murloc Tidehunter/Jeweled Scarab (particularly for a Flamewaker/Garrison Commander).