by JR Cook - 9 years ago     show comments

Blackwing Lair is out and one of my favorite cards from the set has been released. It’s no secret that I was incredibly excited about Flamewaker and once I had it I immediately went about trying to find ways to make it work into a deck. It doesn’t fit into Mech Mage and it doesn’t really fit into Freeze Mage – although some of the spells in Freeze Mage work very well with it. Instead I think it creates a new deck on it’s own, and this one I have been playing non stop this weekend.

This deck first came to my attention from a post by Yueshen from the Competitive Hearthstone subreddit detailing the Chinese scene. The Chinese player called (life is a trip)#5671 was able to get to Legend #62 on the Chinese region with this deck.

The deck is very cheap mana cost wise and also card wise. There are no legendary cards in this deck and just 2 epic cards. It combats against Face Hunter and other aggro heavy decks very well since it uses a lot of cheap cards to help you gain board control. When it plays against other control style decks it takes on more of an aggro approach and has a ton of burst damage potential with Flamwaker and the multitude of cheap spells it has.

My absolute favorite part of this deck is the secret selection as it keeps your opponent guessing as they have no idea what secret might be up. This works great since there is only 1 of each secret so if they pop off mirror entity, since most decks go with 2, they will assume your counterpsell you have up is a mirror entity. It’s especially pleasant when a hunter tries Unleash the Hounds or a Druid attempts it’s Force of Nature combo and then just concedes when you ruin their day.

The weakness of this deck seems to come from midrange decks such as Hunter or Paladin. Decks that curve out around turn 6 and are full of beefy minions. The problem I have had against these decks is while I can remove the creatures here and there, it gets to be a point where there is too many of them and I go into top deck mode. If you get into top deck mode with this deck it’s very likely you are going to lose.

Deck List

Flamewaker Control
Class: Mage

Mage (23)

• Arcane Missiles x2
• Ice Lance x2
• Mana Wyrm x2
• Flamecannon
• Frostbolt x2
• Unstable Portal x2
• Sorcerer’s Apprentice x2
• Arcane Intellect x2
• Counterspell
• Ice Block
• Mirror Entity
• Flamewaker x2
• Fireball x2
• Pyroblast

Neutral (7)

• Loot Hoarder x2
• Mad Scientist x2
• Coldlight Oracle
• Piloted Shredder x2

Video

Mulligan and Strategy

I normally mulligan for Mad Scientist and Mana Wyrm. If I’m playing something aggro heavy (Zoolock, Face Hunter, or Mech Mage) I’ll also try to have a Frost Bolt available as well. Unstable Portal also isn’t terrible to have in your opening hand either.

You want to try and keep the cheap spells in your hand unless they become absolutely necessary to use. Flamewaker’s combo with these is really going to help you set the game later. Use Piloted Shredder, Mad Scientist, and even Sorcerer’s Apprentice as a way to get to that turn 6 or 7 Flamewaker combo if needed. Try to save Fireball for the face but don’t feel bad about using it against a minion to keep tempo if needed. Remember, if you have your opponent to around 10 life then they could very quickly face demise on turn 10 with Pyroblast.

If you want to play something different then give this deck a try. I’ve been playing it and love it. It took me from Rank 13 to Rank 8 this weekend. Give it a try and let us know what you think in the comments.