The full Forged in the Barrens set has been revealed and it's time to look at all the new cards and look at how Mage will be doing this expansion. We'll be breaking each of the Mage cards down,

Keep in mind that this is an early look at the class before we've been able to play with the new cards, so while we try to be as accurate as possible in our predictions of what is to come, no one can perfectly predict the Hearthstone meta.


Mage Deck Themes in Forged in the Barrens

Mage has a lot of support for two main deck types in this expansion - Hero Power Mage, and Freeze Mage. They also get a sprinkling of support for some existing archetypes, but not to the same extent.

Hero Power Mage was a joy to see for me, given that I predicted more support for it when we saw Coldarra Drake and Fallen Hero in the Core Set. The cards they get for it are very strong, including a powerful finisher for the deck - I'd anticipate seeing a fair amount of this archetype in the near future. Additionally, a few of the pieces are just solid cards in their own right, which might make the smaller package an inclusion in otherwise unrelated decks.

Freeze Mage also gets some solid support. It sounds strange, what with the loss of Frost Nova and Blizzard from the Core Set, but I actually think they rotated those cards in anticipation of what was coming. Whether or not that was too cautious remains to be seen, but I can't deny that having your whole board locked down for multiple turns can be a mite frustrating. While my personal pick for stand out deck of the expansion is Hero Power Mage, the tools given to Freeze Mage play well with the traditional Control decks that Mage has had since Hearthstone began - I would not be surprised if variations on a Freeze package make their way into Control Mage decks moving forward, even if the explicit Frost School synergy doesn't pan out.

Other than that, there's a bone tossed to Elemental Mage, Secret Mage, No Minion Mage and Casino Mage players in the form of a few cards of varying power level. While not themes for this set overall, a few of these decks were doing alright pre-rotation, so keep an eye on them as archetypes to watch out for.


Runed Orb

Runed Orb Card Image

Playing catch with a Mage never backfires!

This is a neat little stitching together of effects. "Deal 2 damage" isn't quite worth 1 mana, and "Discover a spell" would probably be pretty good in Mage, so together for 2 mana feels like a very fair card. It's also good to see Mage get some damage here, as they are losing Frostbolt with the Core rotation.

As an Arcane spell, there isn't really any synergy to be had at the moment - that's one thing that keeps tripping me up, I see a School and immediately assume there must be support there. Definitely something to watch out for later in the year, but more of a footnote at the moment.

Overall this is a solid early card that allows you to control the board a little while looking for something to help you out in the coming turns. It can go face, which is worth noting as I'm sure many people will be looking for ways to keep Spell Damage combos alive post-rotation. Without Sorcerer's Apprentice I don't expect much on that front, but don't let my skepticism deter you - live your meme dreams!


Oasis Ally

Oasis Ally Card Image

"Ice to meet you!"

A welcome addition to Standard Secret Mages, in my opinion. Netherwind Portal is already a good card, and being able to guarantee a good 4-drop with this Secret makes it well worth including in my book.

Crucially, it also bolsters their roster of Secrets and Secret triggers; Oasis Ally puts Mage at six Secrets post rotation, which is a good amount to ensure a reasonable amount of guesswork for your opponent. It also adds a fifth trigger condition, adding "attack a minion" to "play a minion", "attack the hero", "don't attack the hero" and "cast a spell". More variety in trigger conditions means more work for the opponent, which is good in my book.

It's also a sneaky little bit of clever design - with the Frost synergy present in some upcoming cards, having a second Frost Secret in addition to Ice Barrier means that there's still some secrecy when you play a Secret and trigger a synergy. I guess Rimetongue is as chatty as his name suggests, blurting out your Secrets like that.


Refreshing Spring Water

Refreshing Spring Water Card Image

Now with 100% less Allies!

This one is interesting to me on a design level, rather than as a card to play. It's very straightforward whether or not you include this in a deck - if you need card draw, check how many spells you're running and make a judgement call between this and Arcane Intellect.

Refreshing Mana Crystals isn't something that's done often in Hearthstone - in fact, prior to this card there have only been four collectible cards that tackle it, and a year ago there was only one. For some reason I associate the effect with Druid - perhaps because Kun the Forgotten King was the poster child for so long, or perhaps because they so often play with their mana in the first place.

The difference between how Druid and Mage seem to be handling the effect seems obvious, however; Kun, Forest Warden Omu and the uncollectible Warden's Insight all refresh fully, while Conjure Mana Biscuit and Refreshing Spring Water - delightfully lengthy names, by the way - are both more limited in their capacity. I think this is an interesting direction to take Mage and seems like a natural extension or twisting of their capacity for mana reduction on spells.


Flurry (Rank 1)

Flurry (Rank 1) Card Image Flurry (Rank 2) Card Image Flurry (Rank 3) Card Image

If you're in a hurry, just put everyone else in a flurry!

A perfect little Control tool here, adapting to your needs as the game progresses. Crucially, it employs the most fun and controllable kind of random in its effect - by setting up the board state perfectly, you can completely remove any randomness from the card at all. If your opponent overwhelms you, however, then it isn't a Get Out of Jail Free card like Frost Nova was - you're still going to be taking some damage, though you could get lucky and stop the worst of it.

Look at me, talking about 'fun and controllable' kinds of random like I amn't the world's biggest Casino Mage (with extra Yogg-Saron!) fan. I do recognize that that isn't to everyone's taste, however, and I honestly think this card won't frustrate people as much as cards like Frost Nova or Blizzard did.

It's a good card, and you'll definitely see it in Control lists, but I also think it's a very fair card.


Rimetongue

Rimetongue Card Image

He wrote the joke for Flurry (Rank 1).

I honestly think I'll always look at a 3 mana 3/4 and think Spider Tank. Rarely without upside nowadays, especially when talking about Class cards.

Rimetongue is the only card dedicated to a specific Spell School in Mage's set this time around. I was a little surprised by this at first, but looking at the bigger picture it makes sense to only add in a few bits of synergy. You don't want to railroad people into specific strategies too much, and you also don't want to blow a whole bunch of synergy in one go only to then have to reign it back in for future expansions, lest you end up with too many decks that allow for little variation in what cards they can run.

This card seems like a solid inclusion to any deck that's running a decent number of Frost spells. You'll never be building specifically around this card, but any Control Mage deck feels like it'll definitely be leaning into the Frost and Freeze space for the foreseeable future. Having two Secrets that can trigger him certainly helps. Solid body, solid effect - I expect to see a decent amount of this guy in the future.


Reckless Apprentice

Reckless Apprentice Card Image

If you're not sure who to aim at, just hit everything!

I love this card. It's amazing. Twilight Flamecaller except it gets way better stats, the ability to hit face and you can increase the damage it does? This is like the ultimate anti-aggro card.

It's this card specifically that makes me think Hero Power Mage will be a real deck. Not only does it allow you to control the board in the early game to get to your big finish, but it actively accelerates you towards being able to use that big finish. This single card could let you deal enough damage to meet Mordresh's threshold with only one Wildfire or Fallen Hero upgrade (and a big enough enemy board).

I can't overstate how strong this card is. Is it powerful enough to get nerfed? Well... probably not. It's really strong, don't get me wrong, but against a board that goes tall instead of wide, you're gonna need to come up with a different plan of attack. It'll definitely keep some of the aggressive board spam and token decks in check though.


Wildfire

Wildfire Card Image

You're the only one who makes me burn; every time we cast!

While obviously intended to be included in a dedicated Hero Power Mage deck, this kind of permanent increase in power shouldn't be overlooked as the simple but potentially powerful card that it is. Using it just once provides the same upgrade that Baku the Mooneater did for far less of a restriction, though admittedly is more like Justicar Trueheart in that you need to play the card first to reap the rewards.

In fact, Shadowform is perhaps the closest comparison, providing the exact same effect for Priest as Wildfire does for Mage. This might seem like a point against it - after all, Shadowform has hardly been an all-star card - but Mage is equipped to make use of the effect far more naturally than Priest is. Fallen Hero, a card returning in the Core Set, was very useful during its time in Standard, and sacrificing the body for a permanent effect doesn't necessarily seem like a bad trade.

Of course, in the end, the synergies provided by the other Hero Power cards seem too good to pass up. If you're running Wildfire, I don't see why you wouldn't want to also be running the amazing board clear of Reckless Apprentice or the fantastic finisher in Mordresh Fire Eye. I think Wildfire is good on its own... but why not be better together?


Arcane Luminary

Arcane Luminary Card Image

Finders, keepers, mana cheaters!

This is a fun addition to decks that like to generate spells. I guess it also works on other card types too, but let's be real - Mage decks generally prefer to be generating spells over minions. A nice bonus if you happen to be running other random effects, though.

This is one of those cards that there isn't really much to say about, honestly. The effect is very good, but I don't think Mage has the tools in Standard to try some sort of spell spam deck where you generate a bunch of spells and then throw them all out in one turn by reducing their cost. I think you'd prefer to use cards that work better on their own over this guy for the most part.

There's definitely potential down the line, especially if they focus on some Elemental synergies at some point in the year. As it stands though, I don't think we'll be seeing much of it this expansion.


Varden Dawngrasp

Varden Dawngrasp Card Image

They just want everyone to chill out - forever.

Remember when I was talking about losing poor old Frost Nova? Oops.

Of course, Varden Dawngrasp isn't exactly a Frost Nova replacement. For one thing, they're a Legendary, so you only get to run one of them. They're also probably more useful as a combo piece, taking out minions you've already Frozen with Flurry (Rank 1) or similar.

Varden is definitely a Control tool, and I expect to see them a fair bit as people try out the dedicated Frost and Freeze deck. I like that the new Secret, Oasis Ally, sneakily works with them thanks to Water Elemental being able to Freeze minions. You probably don't use them as a replacement Frost Nova though; if you're not dedicated to Freezing things, I don't think they make the cut.


Mordresh Fire Eye

Mordresh Fire Eye Card Image

Critics are calling his show a 10/10/10 experience.

I must admit, Mordresh Fire Eye has me all excited. I'm a sucker for seeing the same number a bunch of times on a card - can I admit to being a secret Ultimate Infestation fan now, or is it still too soon? - and the fact that we've got five 10s on a single card just tickles me.

The best part is that I think this is a legitimately good card, too. The effect he grants you for meeting his condition is really strong, and thanks to Reckless Apprentice (which I gushed over earlier) I don't anticipate people having any trouble getting there. Not only does he have the potential to close out the game by simply doming the opponent, but he also clears the way to swing in next turn if your opponent can't deal with him.

This is almost certainly my first craft of the expansion if I don't open him from any packs. Even if he's not the powerhouse I anticipate, I can't see a world where this isn't at least playable.


Theorycrafting Hero Power Mage in Forged in the Barrens

I want to start off by saying that this is the version of the deck that's been tweaked to please me the most, rather than to play most optimally. I'll give some suggestions for cards to remove to streamline the deck better, but I have a compulsive C'Thun Mage problem that probably isn't going away until it rotates out of Standard.

This is a Hero Power deck, so naturally, we've included all the cards that make your Hero Power better. Fallen Hero and Wildfire for increased damage; Reckless Apprentice for the board clear; Tour Guide and Coldarra Drake for added utility; and Mordresh Fire Eye to finish things off. It might turn out that not all of these pieces are necessary - I'm definitely eyeing those Drakes as potential replaceables - but I think it's good to start out with everything and prune the least useful parts away.

You might notice that there's a lot of spell generation - that's because when I started making this deck, I was initially looking at Starscryer to reliably pull Wildfire for us, and so all our other spells would need to come from other sources. Eventually though, my Casino and C'Thun tendencies got the better of me, and that fell to the wayside. If you're looking to streamline the deck, cutting C'Thun, the Shattered, Runed Orb and Flamestrike will bring that combo back online; Manafeeder Panthara seems like a good card to swap in, along with more Control tools like Varden Dawngrasp.

Another 'just for me' inclusion is the new Kazakus, Golem Shaper. I want to be clear that you should never cut the Apprentices to guarantee this effect, they are by far the better card in this deck.

My final note is that as I was scouring the neutrals, I came across Taelan Fordring and fell in love with him. In this deck you're guaranteed to pull Mordresh with him which is ideal, as that's your main finisher. If you've drawn Mordresh already, getting the Prime from Astromancer Solarian or a Coldarra Drake isn't a bad back-up. For those of you mad enough to keep the C'Thun like me, you might even get to draw it with him!


Closing Thoughts on Mage in Forged in the Barrens

Overall, I'm really looking forward to what Mage has to offer this expansion. The Hero Power deck is one of the most fun concepts for a deck they've ever done in my opinion, and I'm excited to try it in both Standard and Wild, where more synergy does exist (some of which I'm lamenting not making the cut for the Core Set).

The Freeze deck, while not to my personal taste, does seem like it has a strong foundation to play with - the lack of a finisher makes me hesitant, especially with the reduced capacity for combo in their Core Set, but it'll be interesting to see what others who understand the playstyle better do with it.

What do you think about Mage in Forged in the Barrens? Let us know in the comments below!


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