Tempo Mage Deck List Guide – Boomsday – August 2018

Our Tempo Mage deck list guide for The Boomsday Project expansion features one of the top lists for this archetype. This Secret Tempo Mage guide includes Mulligan Strategy, Gameplay Tips, Card Substitutions, and Combos/Synergies!

Introduction to Tempo Mage

Tempo Mage is one of the old Hearthstone archetypes, which was present through the game’s history in many different forms. Funnily enough, the current version looks similar to the ones that were played back in the day, even before Blackrock Mountain. That adventure has added Flamewaker to the game, which in turn made a Tempo Mage lists based around it + a bunch of cheap spells a thing. Later, after Flamewaker has already rotated out, Blizzard has been pushing Secret synergies for the Mage, which revived it again during Year of the Mammoth. However, since most of those Secret synergies have rotated out, the Raven version of Tempo Mage is going back to its roots – aggressive deck built around lots and lots of burn cards.

Check out a Budget Version of Elemental Tempo Mage, also check out our Wild Secret Mage Deck Guide!

Update – The Boomsday Project

We’ve listed a popular version of Tempo Mage below, we’ll be updating the guide soon!

Deck List

Deck Import

Tempo Mage Mulligan Strategy & Guide

The deck’s mulligan is pretty similar in every matchup, so I’m not going to divide it into two sections like I usually do.

High Priority (Keep every time)

  • Mana Wyrm – One of the best 1-drops (if not THE best 1-drop) in the game right now, 1/3 alone is good enough against Aggro decks, and the card can really snowball out of control very quickly.
  • Fire Fly – Not as good as Mana Wyrm, obviously, but having a 1-drop is quite important anyway. The 1/2 body is good at dealing with token-heavy decks with are common in the current meta.
  • Arcanologist – Best 2-drop in this deck – 2/3 for 2 are solid stats and it fetches you a Secret on top of that.
  • Sorcerer's Apprentice – While it’s worse than Arcanologist by itself, the deck runs lots of cheap spells, which have great combo with Sorcerer’s Apprentice.

Low Priority (Keep only if certain conditions are met)

Tempo Mage Win Rates

Winrate stats are currently unavailable for this deck at the moment!

Tempo Mage Play Strategy

Vs Aggro

When it comes to the Aggro matchups, curve is most important. You really want to hard-mulligan for your 1-drops and 2-drops – the reason is that you can’t fall behind in those matchups. Tempo Mage is not a very board-based deck. Without AoE spells, it might have hard time coming back into the game after another deck, such as Odd Paladin, takes over the board.

Luckily for you, most of the aggressive decks right now are token-based – they flood the board with small, 1-2 health minions, and for that reason, cards like Arcane Missiles or Cinderstorm can actually get you lots of value. Clearing a few minions is great, especially if you’re the one with board control already.

Given that your deck is very low on minions, at one point it will be impossible to keep the board control. You will need to switch your game plan to burn damage. If you had a good start, it means that you should have dealt at least some damage already. Then, if you still have minions on the board, try to protect them with the spells. If you don’t – go face with your spells as much as possible, clear only the highest priority minions (or use cards like Missiles/Cindestorm to clear). At this point, it’s the matter of whether you can kill your opponent before he kills you – it heavily depends on how much health he has, what cards you draw etc.

With Ice Block gone, you no longer have a way to stall the game for an extra turn – remember about that. However, Primordial Glyph can still give you a way to buy an extra turn, or even clear the board. Ice Barrier might prevent lethal and buy you a turn, same goes for Frost Nova. Getting a Blizzard or Flamestrike can just clear the board and buy you even more time. Picking AoE from Glyph is usually the right choice in the fast matchups.

Vs Control

Games vs Control are very different from games against Aggro. This time around, you don’t have to worry about board control. I mean, you still kind of do in the early game – e.g. if Frostbolt on their 2-drop might protect your Mana Wyrm or Apprentice, that’s great. But the general game plan is actually quite the opposite – you want to deal as much face damage as possible with your early game minions and then finish the game with burn spells.

Mana Wyrm is, again, the best card you can have in the early game. Lots of decks might not have a way to deal with a 1 mana 3 health minion, and it can snowball out of control very quickly. If you follow it with 3 cheap spells, it’s a 1 mana 4/3 already, with a potential to grow further. If your opponent won’t find an answer, it can carry the game by itself. However, other minions are also good – especially Kirin Tor Mage, which not only has a solid body for the mana cost, but gives you a lot of tempo by playing a Secret for free. The best case scenario is going second, opening with a Mana Wyrm into Coin + Kirin Tor + Counterspell. Not only you have two strong minions on the board (on Turn 2!), but your opponent can’t remove them with spells OR proc the Counterspell with Coin.

The general rule when it comes to play Secrets is that your opponent is on Coin, you prefer to play the Explosive Runes – he will check for Counterspell with the Coin most of the time anyway. Counterspell is better when your opponent starts with no Coin (or has used it already) and you have a solid board, preferably right before a board clear. Let’s say that you face Cube Warlock and you’re going into his Turn 4. He has no Coin. It’s a perfect time to set up a Counterspell, since he will now no longer be able to Hellfire the board away.

Unlike versus Aggro, when you play against a slower deck, Arcane Missiles and Cinderstorm aren’t used for the board control – they are very efficient burn cards when played on the empty board. Arcane Missiles deals 3 damage for 1 mana, while Cinderstorm deals 5 for 3. They get even better if you have either Mana Wyrm or Sorcerer’s Apprentice on the board. Because you want to use them as burn, ideally you want to play them before other burn cards – later in the game your opponent might have a board and they might not even hit him.

MVP of the slower matchups is definitely Aluneth. Thanks to this card, instead of drawing 1 per turn, you draw 4 per turn, meaning that you will never really run out of cards. After you use Aluneth, you no longer have to be efficient. Hero Power? What is that? You play as many cards as you can as quickly as you can. Try to not burn any cards, but don’t worry if you do – burning one or two is pretty common when you draw so many. After Aluneth, try to close out the game as quickly as possible – use your extra resources to burn your opponent. Remember that you have limited time – not only your opponent is most likely building a board of his own already (and you have no Ice Block to stall for an extra turn), but you will get to fatigue really quickly. Even if you play Aluneth on Turn 6, very early into the game, it will take only about 5 turns to hit fatigue, so you don’t have much time.

Pyroblast is used as a finisher – if you get to Turn 10, 10 damage will often be enough to kill your opponent. It’s not an optimal card, but it’s useful in slow matchups just because so much burn you previously had has rotated out (Medivh's ValetFirelands Portal).

Tempo Mage Card Substitutions

For the most part, Tempo Mage is a rather inexpensive deck. The deck still works quite well when played on the budget, but there are some cards that you might not have.

  • Bloodmage Thalnos – At this point most of the players have this card already (since it’s one of the Classic staples), but it’s not necessary in this list. It adds some extra burn damage and cycle, but for the most part, you can replace it with just about anything.
  • Aluneth – I’d say that this is one of the most important cards in this deck. Without it, you will lose lots and lots of matches, especially slower ones. You run out of cards very quickly, and you will often end up a turn or two short of killing your opponent. Aluneth gives you that extra steam you need to finish the game.
  • Primordial Glyph – Pretty good, flexible spell. It can give you whatever you need in the given situation – e.g. board clear vs Aggro or more burn vs Control. Still, not necessary for the deck to function.
  • Pyroblast – Good finisher in slow matchups, but pretty bad against Aggro anyway – not necessary.

And here are the cards you can replace them with:

  • Vex Crow – I’m still not sure about this card – it’s hard to say whether the Vex Crow version of the deck is better or worse. But it’s still a viable substitute OR you can just run it in your deck instead of a Lifedrinker. When playing Vex Crow, however, you probably want to add some more cheap spells to the deck.
  • 2nd Fire Fly – It will be helpful against Aggro decks, a higher chance to get 1-drop means a lower chance to fall behind in the early game.
  • Black Cat – Yes, in this deck, without the Odd synergy. It’s not optimal, but it gives you Spell Damage + it’s a 3-drop, and this deck suffers from the lack of 3-drops. Playing a Secret (without Kirin Tor) or Arcane Intellect is often a very weak Turn 3 play, and this way you could at least put a minion on the board.
  • Mirror ImageBreath of Sindragosa – Solid cheap spells, can be used to protect your early minions, especially Mana Wyrm. If you run the Vex Crow build, those can also be combo’d with it to get random 2 mana minions.
  • Arcane Explosion – Mostly a tech card vs Paladins. It’s not a great card, but if you face a board full of 1/1’s, you’re going to be glad that you have it. The downside is that it’s a bad card vs slower decks.

Stonekeep

A Hearthstone player and writer from Poland, Stonekeep has been in a love-hate relationship with Hearthstone since Closed Beta. Over that time, he has achieved many high Legend climbs and infinite Arena runs. He's the current admin of Hearthstone Top Decks.

Check out Stonekeep on Twitter!

Leave a Reply

297 Comments

Discuss This Deck
  1. ducksgo
    February 18, 2018 at 12:38 PM

    Also this deck cuts out one Arcane Int. Which is always required for cycle. If you don’t get aluneth or cycle by turn 6 you’re dead because you have a total of 6 secret floating around in your hand and deck. This deck isn’t good at all if you think about it. Both Portal and Arcane Int is required for burst with Mana Wyrms and Removal + minion.

    I truly disagree with 6 instead of 4 secret wise. 6 is wayyyyyyyyyyy to clunky my friends.

  2. ducksgo
    February 18, 2018 at 12:30 PM

    This deck seems to have too many secrets. Keeping the 2x CS and 2x Runes seems to be the perfect fit. Glyph can always find answers as well. Having 6 secrets with no combo from Lackey to Kirin Tor really sucks. All these high mana cost 3 cost secrets sit in your hand with no combo really is crap.

    I would stick to 2x CS and 2x Runes. Find answers through glyph. Also Firelands portal is a good remover and a good minion drop on 7. The fact this deck only runs one is pretty bad.

  3. Tob
    February 17, 2018 at 4:07 AM

    Thoughts on slotting in an arcane giant or two into this deck? Been trying it out and the giants get close to 0 mana fast. But not what to remove to fit them in. Perhaps replacing the crystal runners with arcane giants?

    • ducksgo
      February 18, 2018 at 12:45 PM

      Because by the time you’re able to drop the Arcane giant? your turn is already to late. Either priest has Death by that mana turn, or Lock has Siphon by that time as well. Kabal Crystal Runner can be dropped usually around turn 4 which is really a full turn from Priest with death. Or it goes un answered and pushes 5 damage.

      Arcane Giants are wayyyy to late as this is a tempo oriented deck where your opponent should be dead around turn 6 to turn 8. If not you usually have your opponent at around 8 or 9 life where finisher is Pyro.

  4. Karate Chop
    February 16, 2018 at 11:55 AM

    Definitely going to build this deck. I’ve run into it a few times while playing my control warlock and it was hilarious to beat the opponent by fatigue because of his weapon! Don’t play your weapon late in the game! lol

    • MIrza
      February 17, 2018 at 2:07 AM

      Yup! And also if you know your opponent is playing Kingsbane Mill Rogue, do NOT play the weapon.

  5. Detalius
    February 15, 2018 at 7:03 PM

    I surely thought glacial mysteries would be here. Any reason to not run it?

    • Mirza
      February 17, 2018 at 1:58 AM

      I thought so too but I realized that even when I got it from Primordial Glyph, as 6 mana, it was too slow. Most of my Secrets had been played by then anyway.

      • ducksgo
        February 18, 2018 at 12:33 PM

        Thats why this deck isn’t that great. It only has 1 firelands portal which doesnt help past turn 7. But you have 6 secrets that you can almost never combo with because they get clunky. Stick to the 2x CS and 2x Runes package. Use Glyph for more secrets or for more burn. I always kill Warlocks with no problem by turn 7. It’s easy. I tried this deck and lose because of clunky secrets i can never combo with.

        • CriticZZZZZ
          February 25, 2018 at 9:26 PM

          oh there was only one firelands portal in the deck? I put 2 in lol made it more f2p oriented got rid of valet kuz I got no coins added some g crawlers and got rid of weapon for kabold lackey and did lots of changes to the deck like adding potion of polymorth

  6. pongo love
    February 14, 2018 at 8:19 AM

    I don’t understand the fuss about this deck. It’s… ok.

    If you don’t get the ABSOLUTE PERFECT HAND at the beginning, most deck in the meta can laugh at your face after a few turns. One turn without the exact card you would need, and you’re out.

    I can barely scale til lvl 16/17

    • Dman
      February 14, 2018 at 1:59 PM

      Not sure what your talking about. I’ve been using this deck to fight warlocks, paladins and priest up to level 6 and 7. You may be missing your que to switch from board control to face. Without the know how your sunk..

      • pongo love
        February 20, 2018 at 2:55 AM

        I’ve managed to climb til lvl 10 but i am stuck there. Problem is always the same: you get THE PERFECT HAND at the beginning, you can deal with pretty much everyone (with the exception of priests who can heal 12 hp 3 or 4 times, and warlocks who can place their possessed lackey at turn 5)

        But ONE TURN without the perfect draw, and you are dead cause this deck has zero solution for comeback.

        Primordial glyph almost never gives me what i would need… at this point it can’t just be bad luck.

        • GaleWindscar
          February 20, 2018 at 8:52 PM

          idk about you man, I think it’s just that you don’t have enough experience still.
          first few weeks I had with this deck, it carried me all the way to rank 10,
          and now I just got from Rank 8 (3stars) to Rank 4 (0 stars) with only losing 2 games.

          like the person above stated, biggest factor for my climb was that I learned when to go face and board control (and I didn’t even have Aluneth)

    • ezah#21760
      February 17, 2018 at 6:31 PM

      I have atm 63% wr from 5 to 2 – everything fine for me.

  7. ItsOKWeGotThis
    February 13, 2018 at 10:32 PM

    Any thoughts on taking out Arcane Intellect for another Firelands Portal? I’ve also considered putting in another potion of polymorph, I guess that makes the deck even more vulnerable to aggro but better against cube lock. Which card would you swap out in that case?

  8. Alex
    February 11, 2018 at 4:42 PM

    I replaced firelands portal for flame strike, is it good? Because i play alot against aggro decks and it actually helped me against aggro paladin.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      February 13, 2018 at 12:39 PM

      Against Aggro, Volcanic Potion would probably be a better tech card, actually! Most of the time, you lose games against Aggro if you fall behind in the early game, Turn 7 is often too late to come back even if you AoE down the board. And that 2 damage early AoE damage can work wonders against some of the faster decks.

      And I think that you should replace Pyroblast instead of Firelands Portal while we’re at it.

  9. Vanelloppe
    February 9, 2018 at 7:25 PM

    This deck is fuckin awesome, i was before the last patch on Demo control and aggro paladin (i played both), and then the nerf came :(. Anyway Aggro paladin is still good cause new cards can deal with the ver’s nerf and noeunoeul nerf (pirate).

    Demo control is still good too cause no nerf at all.

    But definitely the secret mage is, on my opinion, the most powerful deck after the last patch.
    He counter the demo control cause you can most of time, finish the opponent with direct damage spells, the “voilord” is useless against your spells and you can cheap the “possessed lackey” with the secret “potion of polymorph”.

    Then you can deal with aggro decks, like paladin but honestly its quite hard, its not a big deal cause from the nerf, many people drop the aggro style to mage or demo control.

    To resume, go for secret mage, the most powerful deck in this meta of february, it is cehap (4500 dust more or less) and very strong, i advice follow guid before try it cause its a little bit technical deck.

    Good luck and Have fun

  10. Suede88
    February 9, 2018 at 3:22 AM

    2x apprentice out, 1x bittertide hydra, 1x portal in

  11. matenui
    February 8, 2018 at 11:01 PM

    What will be with this deck after the wild rotation?:(

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      February 8, 2018 at 11:59 PM

      It will no longer be playable in the current form. But it’s actually a third iteration of Tempo Mage (first one was pre-BRM, second one created after BRM and third one shaped out after Un’Goro), so I believe that it will eventually find its way to get back into the meta.

      The deck has a strong classic shell – cards like Mana Wyrm, Frostbolt, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Arcane Intellect, Kirin Tor Mage or Fireball will still be there. Not to mention that a lot of the good cards from 2017 are still staying (e.g. Arcanologist, Primordial Glyph, Aluneth).

      At this point, it really depends on what Blizzard decides to print for Mage in the first expansion of 2018.

  12. Mirko
    February 8, 2018 at 4:21 PM

    This Deck is awesome! Played straight from Rank 18 to 10 with 94% Winrate 16-1

    • Rodney
      February 10, 2018 at 10:08 AM

      You are lucky, I played from 18 to 15 straight win rate 62%.

  13. MH
    February 8, 2018 at 7:25 AM

    Wow, this deck is superb, and great fun to play with and against. Lots of interaction, and awesome curve. Plus, there are no neutral cards, giving the deck extra flavor and making it feel 100% mage fireworks.

    • Stonekeep - Site Admin
      February 8, 2018 at 11:54 PM

      It’s probably irrelevant to most, but I actually love the decks that are fully made with class cards. It makes them feel like they truly belong to that class. Decks that are running half of the neutral cards are definitely losing a lot in terms of identity.

  14. MrLastGladiator
    February 7, 2018 at 6:05 AM

    What about Thanlos and faceless summoner after the nerf of the corridor creeper?

    • Mirza
      February 17, 2018 at 2:03 AM

      No, no, Faceless is probably too slow in this deck. Thalnos could make sense but then again, it’s too slow as well. This deck doesn’t want to draw a 2-mana 1/1 in the early game.

  15. MilesTegF
    February 6, 2018 at 11:30 AM

    Now that the creeper is geting nerfed (5/5 to 2/5) what card do you think is a good replacement for it? Or are you planning on still using it.

    Thx

    • Laguna
      February 6, 2018 at 2:01 PM

      I have the exact same question, as for the Karazhans cards, they are valid until April right?

      • MilesTegF
        February 6, 2018 at 5:05 PM

        I replaced one with a Spell Breaker and the other with a tuskarr Fisherman.. Not sure about that last one tho.. The kharazhan card are good until the next expansion drops and the year of the Mammoth

    • BGLG
      February 6, 2018 at 7:56 PM

      Pyroblast and a second arcane intellect are good replacements, the pyro blast can make you draw the weapon more consistently, and pyro blast is good for quite a bit of burn damage

    • Emile
      February 6, 2018 at 9:28 PM

      Spellbreaker might be a very good solution since you have a lot of chance to play against control decks like Cube Warlock in the future.

  16. dandoodle
    February 1, 2018 at 7:06 AM

    Got to Rank 8 this month using only this deck (swapped 1 firelands portal for ice block). Almost got to rank 7.

    But man is this deck rough against murloc/aggro paladin. Either than that, pretty managable.

  17. plyzd
    January 30, 2018 at 2:34 AM

    It will be interesting how this deck will change in the coming weeks. The creeper will be nerfed to death in february and Medivh’s Valet, Kabal Crystal Runner & Firelands Portal will rotate out in april.

  18. Asian Gogo
    January 29, 2018 at 9:28 PM

    Why are the Ice Blocks Eliminated from the deck? I replaced one fireland with Pyroblast as it is worth it.

  19. MilesTegF
    January 24, 2018 at 11:56 AM

    This deck is great from 20 until rank 10-9, i got about an 80% win rate in those levels.
    After that point, i would say that drops to around 20-30% win rate..

    Very fun to play tho.

  20. Darthbrosius
    January 11, 2018 at 12:02 PM

    -1 Arcane Intellect (we all tested them and we now all agree that there’s no room/time for drawing in this deck)
    +1 Ice Block
    -2 Firelands Portal
    +1 Bittertide Hydra
    +1 Pyroblast

    Always consider Prymordial Glyph as a big spell for mulligans.

    • Darthbrosius
      January 11, 2018 at 12:05 PM

      You can also go with straight 2x Hydra. They are really strong in this deck, but you need Pyro to win almost always against Nzoth Lock.

      • Darthbrosius
        January 11, 2018 at 12:07 PM

        Drawings except Aluneth of course.

      • Mirza
        February 17, 2018 at 2:05 AM

        Yup, I agree. Bittertide Hydra is really strong against Warlock. The only problem is that it sucks against Paladin, so tech your deck accordingly.

  21. George
    January 9, 2018 at 2:49 PM

    This deck is Garbage when it comes to climbing Ranked games.

    I played it.
    I made friends who are Ranked Legened above 300.
    I made people i have friends on Heartstone play it.

    They all tell me this is for simple normal games only.
    Even in Normal you see how weak it is.

    I made some fixes to it but it still struggles.

    • iDoomer
      January 10, 2018 at 12:23 PM

      Why? A lot of legend players play this deck and it seems ok (maybe not astonishingly good, but ok) for them

    • octamm
      January 14, 2018 at 4:33 PM

      I agree, on how the meta is right now with warlock, paladin, druids, building big minions it has no way to clear the table and how to compete against big weapons.

  22. Ice Block
    January 6, 2018 at 12:18 AM

    This list needs at list 1 Ice Block in the current meta. Not only does it give you a trigger for medivh’s valet but there is so much damage and tempo in this deck already that you can easily afford it. Especially with Aluneth in the later turns where you would have previously been floundering. And the old “you can find it with “Primordial Glyph” rarely rings true and means you are missing out on a 2 cost fireball.

    • Cerpss
      January 9, 2018 at 10:54 AM

      What are you taking out for ice block? Currently I am running one less firelands portal

  23. HiImGosu
    January 5, 2018 at 5:52 AM

    I’m new to the game and I don’t have Medivh’s Valet yet, any replacements ?

  24. MrMeme
    December 27, 2017 at 4:35 PM

    Why Ice Block? It’s an aggro deck u dont need ice block

    • December 28, 2017 at 8:46 AM

      Because you have activated Medivh’s Valet till the late game.

      • MrMeme
        December 30, 2017 at 3:22 PM

        Ok

        • Orion
          January 2, 2018 at 12:28 PM

          And ice block provides you at least one more turn, that will be enough to win because of burst damage by spells.

  25. Alexander Harvey
    December 26, 2017 at 6:25 PM

    Secrets mage has always been my favorite deck since I started playing Hearthstone a couple years ago. It felt like I knew something no one else did using that deck. Even though the highest rank I’ve ever made with it is 12. I can’t lie I’m a little jealous now that I’m running up against all these other Secrets decks now. But it’s cool I usually wipe the floor with them because unlike most of you carbon copy let me see what works for everybody else and use that deck players. Secrets Mage is my deck, and I have a few curve balls in my version of it that most players are not ready for using the standard version that is so popular now.

  26. Herowar
    December 17, 2017 at 2:50 AM

    I like the older version of the deck better, tho 🙂

    It used to be Tier 1 as well 😀 I’m currently Rank 10 and keep getting win streaks.

    If you play your secrets properly, it is a win most of the time. I really hope I would be able to get to Legend this Season for the first time ever 🙂

  27. Ergil
    December 14, 2017 at 3:12 AM

    2 Firelands portals make this deck even funnier. Hlps a lot in the end phase just to finish off the opponent if you run out of fireballs (often happens with me).

  28. Herowar
    December 12, 2017 at 8:33 AM

    Super fun deck and Aluneth makes it crazy powerful! Just won 4 games in a row vs. Midrange Hunter, Pirate Warrior, Quest Mage and Elemental Mage 🙂

    I think it is interesting to see a deck that uses class cards only and be that fun and powerful 🙂

  29. andrew
    December 12, 2017 at 5:18 AM

    is mirror entity really that bad?
    if it really is, what should i go for?

  30. Andro
    December 11, 2017 at 6:31 AM

    I need to craft aluneth or i can replace it with some card of the old secret mage?

    • Dwarf
      December 11, 2017 at 12:18 PM

      Firelands Portal should work, though nothing can directly replace Aluneth.

  31. Robert
    December 11, 2017 at 2:56 AM

    Mirror entity is really bad . Opponents always play around it .
    Firelands is just better .
    Also I use one pyro . It wan me quite a few games so far .

    • Bcfrederick39
      January 2, 2018 at 1:38 PM

      What did you replace for the Pyro? I’ve always been a huge fan of having the pyro in my secret mage deck, but not sure what to remove from this list.

  32. Sektorad
    December 8, 2017 at 3:29 PM

    Replace Mirror Entity with 2 Explosive Runes and 1 babbling book with an Aluneth for effectiveness in new meta

    • Beans
      December 9, 2017 at 5:09 PM

      I agree 100%, no need for mirror now adays

  33. boi
    December 4, 2017 at 3:36 AM

    what can I switch the portal for?

  34. Linus Adamson
    November 21, 2017 at 1:56 PM

    Only dumb People run mirrors entity. dead card thats easy to play around only works vs retards and it is usless if enemy play battlecry minions sure sometimes it maybe does something Good but risk is that opponent plays a 1 cost minion and whoop you just wasted 2 mana. id rather change those for a counter spell and a spellbender those cards have more worth than what they cost and defends what you already have on the board very good. Ultimate infestation, swipe, cold blood, the stegodon paladin buff, kill commands are just examples of game turning spells that get countered by these 2 secret while a mirrors entity can get you 1 nice little alley cat jeez People cant think for themselves anymore

    • Linus Adamson
      November 21, 2017 at 2:01 PM

      Ice block* to my surprise this noob deck actually had 2 counter spells

    • Algorithm
      November 23, 2017 at 6:40 AM

      Counterspell are fantastic vs druid and priest and the whole idea behind the deck is to force your opponent to make suboptimal plays while playing around secrets. The pilot of the deck has to be able to recognize weather to hold counterspell or mirror (or spellbender in my case) untill a key turn. I hit legend with 70% winrate from rank 5 with a variation of this deck including meteor, hydra, and spellbender. Its pretty solide! As for the ice block, this is a tempo deck and so ice block doesnt do anything for you on tempo nor does it disrupt opponents plays so its not worth it

  35. Ddinos661
    November 17, 2017 at 6:28 AM

    Could you for medivh or the Lich king into this deck?

    • Ddinos661
      November 17, 2017 at 6:29 AM

      Fit*

    • Frogbane
      November 25, 2017 at 12:31 PM

      It is possible. You could add in Frost Lich Jaina to this deck.

    • 8BitBrain
      November 26, 2017 at 11:39 AM

      Not much need for them since it doesn’t add burn or early game pressure. This list is pretty much only changed with some spell benders, hydras, cobalt scalebanes, or removal under 7ish mana

  36. Fistouille
    November 9, 2017 at 3:56 AM

    – 2 babbling book + 2 Bittertide Hydra

    • Nick
      November 9, 2017 at 3:54 PM

      I’ve tried replacing Babbling Book with quite a few cards (I hate the RNG-ness of the spell it gives), but run into issues with all of them.

      Bittertide Hydra – seems to have real problems towards the end of the game whenever a few small enemy minions hit him over and over to drop my Hero’s health quickly. This deck has zero AE board clear to deal with those small minions.

      Ethereal Aracanist – Gaining +2/+2 at the end of each turn when controlling a secret seemed like a winner, but in reality Counter Spell and Mirror Entity get popped so quickly he this minion rarely gets much boost.

      Arcane Giant – This deck casts a ton of spells, but the cost of this minion rarely seems to get low enough quickly enough to be effective. It ends up playing too slow most of the time.

      Red Mana Wyrm – Another card I figured would synergize well with all the spells, but again, too slow.

      The biggest issue this deck seems to have for me is card draw towards the late game. Countless times I have ran out of steam around turn 8+ and have to resort to playing whatever I can top deck each turn.

      I figure a minion with card draw might fit nicely. I went with Polluted Hoarder over Gnomish Inventor because he still offers some punch.

      What about Acolyte of Pain? I like the idea of being able to summon Acoylte and Bonemare together on turn 10+, as well as all the other tricks that AoP allows Mages to pull off.

      • CD001
        November 15, 2017 at 5:48 AM

        Faceless Summoner isn’t a bad call – you get 2 minions out of it so the odds are one of them will survive to curve into Bonemare next turn.

        I use 1x Mirror Entity and 1x Potion of Polymorph rather than 2 Entities – it’s less obvious and they can be played together… just be careful of the order in which you play them, you want Mirror Entity to trigger *before* Potion of Polymorph otherwise you get a Sheep.

        … but I’m not sure I’d trust me, I’m not running any Sorcerer’s Apprentices:

        -1 Babbling Book
        -2 Sorcerer’s Apprentice
        -1 Mirror Entity

        +2 Faceless Summoner
        +1 Spellbreaker
        +1 Potion of Polymorph

      • 8BitBrain
        November 26, 2017 at 11:40 AM

        cobalt scalebane is pretty nice as a filler card

  37. Weke
    November 5, 2017 at 11:52 PM

    -2 babbling book +2 golakka crawler

  38. Pablo
    October 30, 2017 at 1:29 PM

    I really like this deck. I’m a one trick pony of this deck but aggro decks (hunter, shaman) are literally too fast and I don’t have enough removal or my removal is unsufficient to kill big creatures.

    I come from mtg and I really miss something like Swords to Plowshares/ Path to Exile or a card that destroys a creature regardless of its life. It’s a bit frustrating.

    • escobar
      November 1, 2017 at 2:56 PM

      You should look into tempo rogue, vilespine slayer is a ridiculous tempo card…. I would play that deck myself but crafting 3-5 legendaries is a tad tough :^) (patches, prince 2,van cleef, shaku, leeroy)

  39. Walala
    October 28, 2017 at 1:39 PM

    Great deck reach 5 this season

  40. Telim Tor
    October 28, 2017 at 12:53 PM

    I reach legend for my first time a few days ago, with this list, more meta focused:

    http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/956869-legend-58-wr-162-116-secret-mage

    • Algorithm
      November 23, 2017 at 6:45 AM

      I used the exact same list all the way to legend as well this season!

  41. asdf
    October 19, 2017 at 3:16 AM

    from what i can tell the meta version runs bitter hide hydras in place of spell books and one spellbender over one mirror entity

    • asdf
      October 19, 2017 at 12:38 PM

      I was using the original deck to get to rank 10 for some time now but I couldn’t get any further. I tried to push with my old freeze/burn/medivth/quest decks without any success. Today I finally bought those damn bittertide hydras and got to rank 5 for the first time!
      At first I blazed through every game till I got stuck at rank 6 and bounced back and forth for like 4 hours… In the end I got there with 61% winrate and 49 games played. A lot depends on decent early game draws esp vs warlock zoo and tempo rogue. Hydras are amazing at pressuring enemies who usually use a lot of resources to fight them off or die if they can’t respond.
      I guess reaching legend would take way too much time if it’s even possible with this deck and without winning sprees…

    • Ivan Vargas
      October 19, 2017 at 4:11 PM

      I use this deck exactly like you said. I am having a really good winrate so far. Rank 7

  42. Ivan
    October 17, 2017 at 3:00 PM

    Babbling book sucks, too rng. I use Hydras instead. They turn the deck more aggro and efficient. I am having a really good winrate so far at rank 8.

  43. Ève
    October 12, 2017 at 4:45 AM

    Does someone know an alternative for Medivhs valet because i don’t wanna buy the adventure 😀

    • Joe
      October 18, 2017 at 9:00 AM

      Don’t buy it then. I went through the adventure using gold to pay for each part

  44. Discover your mother
    October 10, 2017 at 1:11 AM

    Hi, counter spell replacement with one spell bender isn’t better atm? Or with mirror, coz every player check before they go the big one

  45. Krysis
    October 9, 2017 at 8:25 AM

    Where would Sindragosa go in this deck? Anything to replace glyph, or is it a necessity?

    • Discover your mother
      October 10, 2017 at 1:13 AM

      Glyph is your only way to clean the board

  46. Handclap
    September 27, 2017 at 10:35 AM

    Can i put 1x Meteor in there instead of 1x Firelands portal?

    • HypnoJew
      September 30, 2017 at 5:16 AM

      No, you can’t. Your soul would be sold to devil And you children would be burning in eternal agony od you would relace firelands portal with meteor

    • HeatShock
      October 9, 2017 at 1:39 PM

      I would keep the firelands portal, but you could try taking out a babbling book for the meteor if you want to run it. Firebat found success recently with the card in his secret mage, so it may not be a bad choice.

  47. Mrnoob
    September 16, 2017 at 7:16 AM

    Can i put yogg to replace 1 bone mare

    • dom
      September 27, 2017 at 9:04 AM

      Yes
      Sometimes Yogg or a Pyroblast is better in this spot, when you face taunts or have no minions on board.

  48. detecM
    September 9, 2017 at 2:58 AM

    I have no decent deck before and I am new to this game. Thank to you I am able to enjoy game with a low cost deck

  49. sleek
    September 3, 2017 at 4:52 PM

    -1 book +1 pyros
    -1 bonemare +1 faceless summoner

    • Nick
      September 23, 2017 at 1:47 PM

      WHY WOULD YOU REMOVE BONEMARE?! O:

  50. Vorpal
    September 1, 2017 at 8:00 AM

    No place for antonidas anymore? I really wannt play with that card.