Aggro/Tempo Mage Deck

Last updated on Jan 23, 2021 at 18:00 by Kat 13 comments

Tempo Mage decks have been developing for a long time in Hearthstone, and although they take a different form in each expansion, the overriding theme remains the same. The idea is to protect your early board and then finish off your opponent using spells.

Over the years Tempo Mage has had a range of minions that synergise with the deck, such as Sorcerer's Apprentice, Flamewaker, and Kabal Crystal Runner, that has caused the archetype to live on and evolve as cards come and go from the Standard format. More recently the deck has shifted toward more of a focus on Spell Damage with minions like Ras Frostwhisper and Imprisoned Phoenix.

Card List

Mage Cards
1 Elemental Allies DoD 2
1 Evocation AO 1
1 Lab Partner SA 2
1 Magic Trick RoS 2
1 Primordial Studies SA 2
1 Ray of Frost RoS 2
1 Violet Spellwing DoD 2
1 Wand Thief SA 2
2 Conjure Mana Biscuit MDF 2
2 Cram Session SA 2
2 Imprisoned Phoenix MDF 2
2 Mana Cyclone RoS 2
3 Chenvaala DoD 1
5 Jandice Barov SA 1
5 Ras Frostwhisper SA 1
8 Mana Giant DoD 2
Neutral Cards No neutral card

Import This Deck in Hearthstone

COPY IMPORT CODE
CODE COPIED!

Aim of Aggro/Tempo Mage Deck

The idea of this deck is to get minions onto the board early, and then protect them for long enough that they do significant damage to your opponent. After the board has been lost, you will be looking to use your burn, fuelled by card draw, to deliver lethal damage.

Aggro/Tempo Mage Deck Mulligan

This deck aims to survive until the late-game in order to powerful combos with spell-synergy minions, like Sorcerer's Apprentice, in combination with cheap spells.

  • General Mulligan (keep regardless of what your opponent is playing)Imprisoned Phoenix, Sorcerer's Apprentice, Elemental Allies, Primordial Studies.
  • Mulligan against Aggro (also keep if you think you are playing against an aggressive deck)Violet Spellwing.
  • Mulligan against Control (also keep if you think you are playing against a slow deck)Cram Session.

Aggro/Tempo Mage Deck Strategy

Tempo Mage is heavily reliant on large combo turns in order to generate huge amount of tempo and value from its minions. During the early game, your main aim is to play, draw, and generate cards to help set you up for powerful combo turns later in the game. This largely involves playing Imprisoned Phoenix onto the board, completing your Elemental Allies Quest if possible, and generating cards with Primordial Studies and Wand Thief. During this time, you should notably avoid playing copies of your Sorcerer's Apprentice, unless you have a second copy in hand, as they are essential later in the game.

Upon entering the mid game, you should look for situations to unleash a combo upon your opponent. In order to do this, you need to at least be able to play a copy of Sorcerer's Apprentice. With Sorcerer's Apprentice all of your 1-Cost spells will become free, opening up powerful synergies with some of the other minions in the deck. In particular, when played with Chenvaala early in the game you can populate your board with 5/5s early in the game. Alternatively, you may opt to use a Mana Cyclone instead to replenish your hand with spells if you are running low on cards or to help find more useful cards for a given situation. Lastly, if you have an Imprisoned Phoenix on the board, you should try to time your combos with it becoming active on the board. The extra spell power it offers allows you to chain larger combo thanks to Cram Session while also boosting the damage of cheap spells like Arcane Missiles. While the aforementioned combos are not the only options in the deck, they are the most common and you can always look for more powerful interactions and synergies between the cards in the deck.

Against Aggro, you should not focus too heavily in killing your opponent. Instead, you should look to use your Sorcerer's Apprentice and combos early to secure and clear the board in the mid game. As Aggro decks do not have good comeback mechanics, clearing the board in this way will most likely set you up to combo again on the following turn using any remaining spells.

Against Control, you should take advantage of any passivity to assemble a stronger combo. You will often have time to play 2 copies of Sorcerer's Apprentice to allow 2-Mana spells, including Evocation, to be played for free. This will significantly increase the amount of damage you can deal and will often result in being able to kill your opponent in one turn.

Aggro/Tempo Mage Deck Key Cards and Swaps

Mozaki, Master Duelist can be used in place of a Lab Partner to open up potential OTK options when combined with Sorcerer's Apprentices and cheap spells.

Changelog

  • 23 Jan. 2021: Deck has been updated for the Darkmoon Races set. Removed 1x Yogg-Saron Master of Fate, 2x Confection Cyclone, 2x Brain Freeze, 1x Astromancer Solarian for 2x Imprisoned Phoenix, 2x Conjurered Mana Biscuit, 1x Ras Frostwhisper, 1x Jandice Barov.
  • 19 Nov. 2020: Deck has been updated for the Madness at the Darkmoon Faire expansion. Removed 2x Arcane Missiles, 2x Azure Explorer, 2x Frostbolt, 1x Mozaki, Master Dueling, 2x Fireball, 2x Arcane Intellect, 1x Frost Nova for 2x Elemental Allies, 2x Confection Cyclone, 2x Mana Giant, 2x Cram Session, 2x Wand Thief, 1x Astromancer Solarian, 1x Yogg-Saron, Master of Fate.
  • 06 Aug. 2020: Deck has been updated for the Scholomance Academy Expansion. Removed 2x Starscryer, 2x Ancient Mysteries, 2x Mirror Image, 1x Arcane Breath for 2x Primordial Studies, 2x Brain Freeze, 2x Lab Partner, 1x Mozaki, Master Duelist
  • 07 Apr. 2020: Deck has been updated for the Ashes of Outland expansion. Removed 2x Elemental Evocation, 2x Shooting Star, 2x Cinderstorm, 1x Stargazer Luna for 1x Evocation, 2x Star Scryer, 1x Mirror Image, 1x Arcane Breath.
  • 10 Dec. 2019: Deck has been updated for the Descent of Dragons expansion. Removed 2x Flamewaker, 1x Mirror Image, 2x Research Project, 2x Babbling Book for 2x Violet Spellwing, 1x Chenvaala, 2x Azure Explorer, 2x Fireball
  • 09 Oct. 2019: Deck has been updated for the Doom in the Tomb patch. Removed 2x Spellzerker, 2x Cosmic Anomaly, 2x Unexpected Results, 2x Fireball, 1x Archmage Antonidas for 2x Mirror Image, 2x Babbling Book, 2x Research Project, 2x Flamewaker, 1x Frost Nova.
  • 06 Aug. 2019: Deck has been reviewed for the Saviors of Uldum expansion.
  • 01 Jul. 2019: Deck has been moved for the fun category for the July card rotation.
  • 05 Jun. 2019: Deck has been updated for the June balance patch. Removed 2x Messenger Raven for 2x Unexpected Results.
  • 01 May 2019: Deck has been updated for the May play season. Removed 2x Arcane Watcher, 1x Bloodmage Thalnos, 1x Kirin Tor Tricaster for 2x Elemental Evocation, 2x Ray of Frost.
  • 08 Apr. 2019: Deck has been updated for the Rise of Shadows expansion. Removed 2x Primordial Glyph, 2x Explosive Runes, 2x Arcanologist, 2x Kirin Tor Mage, 1x Mana Addict, 1x Counterspell, 1x Aluneth for 2x Mana Cyclone 2x Arcane Watcher, 2x Kirin Tor Tricaster, 2x Messenger Raven, 2x Magic Trick, 1x Archmage Antonidas, 1x Bloodmage Thalnos.
  • 01 Jan. 2019: Deck updated for the January play season. Removed 1x Celestial Emissary, 2x Mana Wyrm for 2x Spellzerker, 1x Mana Addict.
  • 01 Oct. 2018: Deck has been reviewed for the October play season.
  • 18 Sep. 2018: Budget version of the deck has been updated. Removed 1x Celestial Emissary, 2x Vex Crow, 1x Mirror Entity for 2x Research Project, 2x Cosmic Anomaly.
  • 01 Sep. 2018: Deck updated for the September play season. Removed 1x Pyroblast, 1x Celestial Emissary, 1x Counterspell for 2x Cosmic Anomaly, 1x Stargazer Luna.
  • 09 Aug. 2018: Guide updated for The Boomsday Project expansion, removed 2x Amani Berserker, 2x Lifedrinker for 2x Celestial Emissary, 2x Shooting Star.
  • 01 Jul. 2018: Monthly checkup. Deck is up to date.
  • 26 May 2018: Aggro Tempo Mage Guide added. A fun, and strong, deck which puts heavy pressure on the opponent from the very start.
Show more
Show less