Is mage not a good class to get into the higher rankings/brackets?

[Deleted]

In my experience it's a difficult class to climb the ladder with and hard countered by many decks that you encounter these days.

But I wonder now... is Mage not a good pick to get into the higher rankings and/or brackets?

[Solmyr13]

It's not that it's bad it's just really slow so it takes forever. Even Mech Mage games can go 9-10-11 turns while facehunter is pretty much 5-6 and if you haven't dominated it's time to give it up. I play primarily Tempo Mage and Freeze Mage and I don't touch them until at least rank 13 because of random crap. I lost to a mech shaman who had god draw yesterday; turn 2 Mechwarper + Coin Whirley and then Flametounge turn 3 and clockwerk. Just conceded on the spot.

[Twoddle]

It is good but you have to be good also. Make sure you adjust to the meta when you reach a brick wall.

[Deleted]

I agree that mages suffer from a slow build up, especially now that everyone is playing some form of rush/face deck.
Even the mech-mage decks can't keep up to those.

I feel like I'm forced to join the club of people that run face hunter, zoo lock or some paladin rush deck instead of playing a class/decks that I actually like to play.
If I don't, I can't climb the ladder right now >.>

[haxartus]

I play a tempo mage and you can beat a face hunter with a tempo mage without a problem.
I seem to have a problem with patron warriors though, they completely shut off the early game with weapons and removal and then if I don't manage to kill them by turn 8, it's over. Flamestrike doesn't help because they play the combo from an empty board with charge and I take like 20 damage before I can flamestrike the patrons. At the end I have to do like 50 damage in 8 turns to a class with an insane amount of removal while being extremely careful not to have anything on the board that can feed the patrons (less than 3 attack).

[Solmyr13]

I play a tempo mage and you can beat a face hunter with a tempo mage without a problem.
I seem to have a problem with patron warriors though, they completely shut off the early game with weapons and removal and then if I don't manage to kill them by turn 8, it's over. Flamestrike doesn't help because they play the combo from an empty board with charge and I take like 20 damage before I can flamestrike the patrons. At the end I have to do like 50 damage in 8 turns to a class with an insane amount of removal while being extremely careful not to have anything on the board that can feed the patrons (less than 3 attack).

This is the main problem honestly. Right now the biggest counter to facehunter (that isn't a SPECIFIC facehunter counter deck) is tempo mage. The issue is the other biggest deck played is Patron which crushes tempo mage. I've been leaning more and more to Freeze Mage since I can still do decently in the early game if I get ice barrier up and have at least 1 frost nova in hand.

[Mormolyce]

Tempo mage is great for ranking up at higher ranks. Stops rush hunters dead.

Patron is a hard matchup for Tempo but not unbeatable. Control warrior on the other hand... just concede.

[Solmyr13]

Tempo mage is great for ranking up at higher ranks. Stops rush hunters dead.

Patron is a hard matchup for Tempo but not unbeatable. Control warrior on the other hand... just concede.

Tempo can beat control... it's freeze mage that you just straight up concede. You're never going to win that so don't even try

[Fluorescent0]

Tempo can beat control... it's freeze mage that you just straight up concede. You're never going to win that so don't even try

Heh, you can, but you definitely need to get thaurissan, alexstraza and antonidas in your hand by turn 10 to stand a chance.

[Twoddle]

Tempo can beat control... it's freeze mage that you just straight up concede. You're never going to win that so don't even try

I hear from the experts that the Mage will win 90% of the time so not an immediate concede. I've also seen the Warrior win many times.

[Fluorescent0]

I hear from the experts that the Mage will win 90% of the time so not an immediate concede. I've also seen the Warrior win many times.

What? You do realize that it's exactly the opposite, right? Like 95%+ favored for control warrior, not freeze mage.

[Twoddle]

What? You do realize that it's exactly the opposite, right? Like 95%+ favored for control warrior, not freeze mage.

Thanks for the correction. .

[Holofernes]

i recommend a slow controlish mage, with icelblock, alex, some heal stuff and loads of removals. wins against hunters, good win % against anything else, but long games. Can often beat patron warriors (if u get the flamestrike on hand when needed, and if u manage to get iceblock up), has high % against control warrior.
Priest mu is tricky, because often you get owned with your own cards, which sucks.
Combo Druid is very hard to beat too, because ancient of lore is op carddraw.
Agrro-Zoo lock is the only mu that really hardcore sucks as control mage, handlock and demonlock are doable most of the times.

[Solmyr13]

I hear from the experts that the Mage will win 90% of the time so not an immediate concede. I've also seen the Warrior win many times.

Not sure if trolling but the majority of your damage comes from Alex and then nuking. All the control warrior has to do is armor up so when you aly him he has 30 armor lol. Literally can't touch them with my freeze mage.

[Twoddle]

Not sure if trolling but the majority of your damage comes from Alex and then nuking. All the control warrior has to do is armor up so when you aly him he has 30 armor lol. Literally can't touch them with my freeze mage.

I apparently got it the wrong way round.

[Ravex]

i recommend a slow controlish mage, with icelblock, alex, some heal stuff and loads of removals. wins against hunters, good win % against anything else, but long games. Can often beat patron warriors (if u get the flamestrike on hand when needed, and if u manage to get iceblock up), has high % against control warrior.
Priest mu is tricky, because often you get owned with your own cards, which sucks.
Combo Druid is very hard to beat too, because ancient of lore is op carddraw.
Agrro-Zoo lock is the only mu that really hardcore sucks as control mage, handlock and demonlock are doable most of the times.

No it doesn't =/

[Fluorescent0]

No it doesn't =/

Grinder mage is favored against control warrior, he's right. Maybe not incredibly high percentage, but I'd say about 65-35.

[Ravex]

Grinder mage is favored against control warrior, he's right. Maybe not incredibly high percentage, but I'd say about 65-35.

I've literally only lost to 1 grinder mage in all my playtime. I don't consider it a favorite, or meta reliable.

On that note, where are you grabbing this percentage from?

[Solmyr13]

Mage in general doesn't beat warrior unless it's a mech mage. Even Tempo struggles with it since a lot of their effects are enrage. GL against Patron when you have two flamewalkers in your hand late game and can't play them.

[Fluorescent0]

I've literally only lost to 1 grinder mage in all my playtime. I don't consider it a favorite, or meta reliable.

On that note, where are you grabbing this percentage from?

Mostly personal experience, although at least one other grinder mage player agrees. It's not that far fetched, honestly: control warrior struggles with decks that aim for extreme lategame as their hero power is effectively useless after they've used both shield slams and they don't have efficient removal for 2 mid-sized targets (which is all grinder mage needs to commit to actually win by chipping away at the warrior's health). Add to that that grinder mage can generate more cards via duplicate and they're definitely more likely to be having a minion stick in fatigue.
Control warrior simply can't win the value battle in that matchup and needs to be the aggressor, which it doesn't do very well at.