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Mulligans
General Mulligans
The primary aim when selecting initial cards is to have a hand ready to start boosting your Hero Power from turn two onward until you can start playing heavier minions like Coldarra or Kodorider, and to efficiently take down low-cost enemy minions on the meanwhile. If your are going second (draw four cards) and have a relatively good hand, you can keep cards like Barnes or Blizzard. Depending on the opponent´s Hero (if it is from a class that runs few cheap spell shots), Archmage Arugal may be played right away, otherwise keep for a later combo with Book of Specters.
The deck is built around the Mage’s Hero power, which costs 1 thanks to Genn Greymane. The deck features three principal components:
Hero Power
Hero power’s damage is improved via Fallen Hero (+1 damage), Spirit of the Dragonhawk (target adjacent minions) and Ice Walker (freeze target), which are cheap cards that will surprise your opponent during the early game and help you clear the board in a mana efficient way. Hero power is refreshed multiple times in a turn by Garrison Commander (early game) and Coldarra Drake (mid/late game). Minions with Inspire ability Tournament Medic (restore +2 Health) and Kodorider (summon a 3/5) synergize well with the refreshed Hero power. Frost Giant sees its cost reduced each time the Hero power is used, and can usually be played on turn +5 at very low mana cost.
CLONING CARDS
The second pillar of this deck are the cloning cards Archmage Arugal and Chromaggus which create copies of the cards drawn from your deck. They can be combined for a great effect with Book of Specters which results in a potential 6 card combo draw. Echo of Medivh makes copies of your friendly minions and ensures that enough of each type will survive to boost your Hero power during the late game. It also combines well with Frost Giant, which usually results in an additional 0-cost 8/8.
SPELLS
Standard crowd control spells Frostbolt, Polymorph and Blizzard are included in order to stall the opponent while improving the Hero power with new minions. They can also be used for efficient board removal once the Hero power has reduced the Health of the opposing minions.
CARD ALTERNATIVES
The only non-core minions that can be swapped for alternative ones (in case you want a budget deck) are, from more important to less: The Lich King , Emperor Thaurissan, Tournament Medic. A cheap substitute that fits well into this deck is Boneguard Lieutenant, which you can use to substitute the legendary cards or Tournament Medic for a more aggro deck. You may also consider Taunt minions like Saronite Chain Gang. Given the amount of low cost minions on this deck, you could try playing Aluneth instead of Emperor Thaurissan.
Chromaggus is not strictly necessary to run a cloning combo (you still have Archmage Arugal + Book of Specters, but the power of the deck decreases significantly. Same goes for Barnes and Echo of Medivh.
A variation of this deck built around spell damage cards can be found at:
[WILD] EVEN INSPIRE MAGE — SPELLS
Decks created by the community around the same concept are:
