The Ashes of Outland expansion is rapidly approaching, bringing new archtypes to life, along with all the other major changes. One of the new archtypes, that we also saw during the last reveal stream, is Spell (only) decks. During the reveal stream, we saw a Mage deck of that archtype, but there’s also a Druid one being supported, although that one is not too strict about including only spells. Due to the nature of spells, they will be mostly slow, control decks, with Druid focusing on summoning tokens (with cards like Glowfly Swarm) and Mage on tempo (with Incanter's Flow.
This will be the second time that a spell-only deck makes an appearance in the meta, after Spell Hunter some time ago. That deck was a tempo deck with big, swingy turns. These two lists are keeping things in a similar vein, but the deck’s will probably be more reactive than that. But enough with the past, let’s take a closer look at how those two lists could look like, starting with Mage:
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This is a list built around using the Mage Quest, Raid the Sky Temple, in order to take full advantage of the “restriction”, requiring that the deck contain only spells. Casting 10 spells should be relatively easy with this list, that focuses on a mix of cheap, efficient spells, some good secrets and big AoE or single-target removals. If the meta is too slow, or is dominated by big, deathrattle minions, you could substitute Raid the Sky Temple for The Amazing Reno, as a Hail Mary board clear with a similar Hero Power. Other than that, the list contains the package of Incanter's Flow, Font of Power and Apexis Blast that makes the arcehtype possible, along with possibly the best Mage card ever printed in Evocation. The goal of the deck will be to simply outvalue your opponent through constant removals, along with card generation and minion summoning through spells, like Learn Draconic.
Now let’s take a look at a possible Spell Druid list:
Although the core of the deck is not new (Token Druid), this approach focuses solely on summoning tokens through spells, in order to take advantage of Crystalsong Portal, Glowfly Swarm and the efficient card draw of Fungal Fortunes. The main goal of the deck remains the same; get on the board and keep summoning tokens, eventually overwhelming your opponent when he runs out of AoE. Savage Roar can help you close out a game with a relatively small presence on the board, while Soul of the Forest can make your minions stick to the board, resisting a board clear. The deck does not lack in card draw/generation, using Fungal Fortunes (and occasionally Wrath) for card draw and Crystalsong Portal for card generation. This spell-heavy approach to the archtype helps Glowfly Swarm take full advantage of its effect, which will usually summon a board of 5-7 2/2s.
These are, in short, the two new spell-heavy decks that will probably make an appearance in next expansion’s meta. Time will tell if they will be viable options for climbing the new ladder, but one thing’s for sure; they will be lots of fun to play with!
I really like the druid list. I remember a similar build was really strong in early uldum. I wonder though since no card really punishes you for having a few minions, wouldn’t it be worthy to include vargoth? It has insane synergy with almost every card and if it sticks at any point it’s a game over. Also it curves nicely into force of nature or glowfly swarm. The only real downside is that it may be hit by fungal fortune but that doesn’t seem really likely…
Why no Shaman?
So many “if you cast a spell last turn” cards, i’m curious on your take on it 🙂
Or rather only 1 for spell-only, but anyway i’m curious!
Druid list seems more consistent than Mage’s. It would be interesting to try it out.
Sorry but these will not work, the mage one was already tried on twitch and wins only on amazing rng.
The druid one is just bad, you dont have resilience like old token druid… if your oppo focus on killing your 2/2 you are as good as dead as you cant generate and soul the forest on the same turn, only with glowfly, wich is the only card that can give you any win ocasionally
To be honest, 90% of theorycrafts you see online won’t work. But that’s the beauty of it – you simply don’t know what will or won’t work.
But I wouldn’t judge the meta by what you’ve seen on the early access. We’ve been getting those every expansion and they have never correctly predicted the meta. There’s just not enough time and resources to play all the decks, all the matchups, optimize the decks etc. It takes at least a week or two with thousands of pro players to figure stuff out.
I will definitely try out both Spell Druid and Spell Mage, because I’m always a fan of “unorthodox” ways to build and play your decks. I don’t think that they will be amazing, but many decks have surprised me over the years 🙂
I can’t see how nourish fits in this deck. Aeroponics (or whatever that 5 mana spell is called) is better draw. Overgrowth is better ramp. Sure, you have flexibility. But you’d probably use it most times for the same choice, depending on the meta and overall deck dynamic. Assuming this deck works. I like it though. Thanks for the post.
Yeah, I think that I would have went with Overgrowth. The deck has A LOT of value generation (Crystalsong Portal, Fungal Fortunes) and it might be better to get to high mana quickly to
If Nourish was still at 5 mana, I would easily go for it, but at 6 the added flexibility might not be enough.
We’ll see, I still do think that it’s an interesting concept and I can’t wait to test it!
Surprisingly cheap
gloop?
Sorry, wrong list 🙂 Fixed it already!
🙂