We at HSReplay.net are honored to reveal three brand new Mage cards from the upcoming Hearthstone expansion TITANS! Thanks to Blizzard Entertainment for the opportunity.
Keep reading for an opportunity to win 1 of 4 Standard Preorder Bundles for TITANS as well!
We'll cut to the good stuff and then offer some thoughts and analysis on how these cards might be used in the upcoming meta:
As you can see, Mage is set to get very "minion type"-y with this expansion. And with historic archetypes such as Mech Mage and Cyclone Mage, these minion types feel right at home in the class. Let's see what we can speculate from what we've seen so far in the class.
Chill-o-matic
Hello, Magnetic Snowchugger. In the very original Mech Mage from Goblins vs. Gnomes, Snowchugger was a bomb of a card when found early. Mostly this was due to its ability to control the board along with the 3-cost and 4-cost curve cards to dominate the early game. (In loving memorium to Tinkertown Technician and Goblin Blastmage)
Will Chill-o-matic be able to snowball the early game as well? Without the right support on the curve, classes have far more options to deal with a 3-health minion at the start of the game. So without clear options after turn 2, it may not be able to sustain a similar play pattern.
But let's not neglect to look at the opposite flow of the game. Turn 1 for Mech-oriented decks has had a heck of an option with Click-Clocker. Imagine hitting Chill-o-matic with this buff and then magnetizing and attacking with your 4/5 Click-Clocker with Divine Shield that freezes on turn 2. That might be enough of a literal 1-2 punch to build an aggressive Mage deck all-in with Mechs or just be a duo for any aggressive deck in the class.
Aqua Archivist
If the previous card sent us back to Goblins vs. Gnomes, this one is sending us back to Rastakhan's Rumble with some serious Elemental Evocation vibes. But a 0-mana spell that puts you ahead 2 mana is leagues off from this "kind of free" 2/2. In an aggressive style deck, there could be an argument to be made that Rolling Stone and the recently revealed Flame Revenant could give you a quick start with a chain of free elementals.
But the scarier reality is that this discount is banked, not forced to be used on the same turn. That means that you could pre-load an explosive turn with a 3-mana Vexallus for some serious burn damage. We'll leave the Combo dreamers to work on what the maximum impact is there. We think they'll also be interested in this final card for the class.
Unchained Gladiator
Anything that can abuse draw should be respected. And the fact that this draws a card with no other requirement makes it a Gnomish Inventor with an upside and 2 more attack. Even playing 1 Elemental the turn before makes it Arcane Intellect with a 4/4 body for 1 more mana.
And if there is some Vexallus deck to be found, supporting this card with a bunch of small elementals shouldn't be too hard. The "digging through your deck" it provides would be well worth its inclusion. Instead of an OTK deck, you may consider building an aggressive Elemental deck that just looks to close out the remaining 8-12 Health an opponent could have with Vexallus and a couple of Arcane Bolts.
Data Incoming!
No matter what you choose to build, we'll be eager to provide the earliest look at the meta as possible when TITANS launches on August 1st! Thanks again to Blizzard for the opportunity to share these cards.
And don't miss our giveaway thanks to Blizzard of 4 Standard TITANS Preorder Bundles!
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