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Timothy Rivera

The last time a new set (Crown of the Heavens) came out, the first deck I scrambled to make was a Mage deck. Why you ask? Because Mages have cool abilities. Okay, all the classes have cool abilities, but with Mages I seem to never know what to expect.

Well, that last statement is not exactly true. If you have been paying attention to the cycles in the other sets, you knew that Mage was due for its Eternal ability. I had daydreamed a couple times about what this card would be. At first I dreamed about an ability that would deal damage equal to the number of resources to my opponent's hero. Honestly, who doesn't want to become a big fireball-flinging machine? More thoughts came rushing to my mind. What if the Eternal ability would draw cards equal to your resources? No way, that would be too powerful! More and more potential card ideas came to me, but all my ideas seemed off. Well, like I said earlier, you just never know what to expect from Mage abilities.

Mage was once the king of card draw, but today's preview will make Mage the king of card quality. Card quality has already been proven powerful. Seeds of Their Demise has become a tournament staple. Cards that let you sift through your deck and find the those important cards are always strong.

Filtering through your deck is fun and all, but Boundless Magic does much more that that. I am going to let you in on a secret: Boundless Magic allows you to build your deck differently. My all-time favorite deck was the Warrior Death Wish deck. The Death Wish deck could answer allies easily, had answers to all troublesome equipment and ongoing abilities with Vindicator's Brand, and sometimes you just killed your opponent on turn 4.

The one card that I thought made the deck truly hum was Keys to the Armory. Keys to the Armory was another card that allowed you to build your deck differently too. When I played the deck, I was always able to play a couple “silver bullets” for different matchups. These silver bullets allow you to have a singleton copy of one card in your deck that can beat your opponent's deck all on their own.

While Boundless Magic is not quite Keys to the Armory, its effect on deck-building is similar. For example, say I build a Mage deck that wants to go very late in the game and wants to win with some big ten cost card like Ysera the Dreamer. Drawing your second or third copy of Ysera the Dreamer can be deadly to you when you need an answer to the threats on board. What if you could get away with just playing one copy? Building your deck with four copies of Boundless Magic will give you the feeling of having more copies of other cards in your deck.

Early in the game you can play Boundless Magic to find that cheap ally removal (like Glacial Tomb, Flame Lance). If the game goes according to your plan, there should be some turning point in the game where your Mage deck takes control. With the coast clear, Boundless Magic can start digging for your win condition instead of those cheap ally removal abilities.

One last thing to consider is the interaction with Eternal and the ability on the card. We have already talked about how Boundless Magic lets you dig through your deck at a rapid pace, but what happens if you do not get the card you are looking for on the first shot? There is a chance that you will get another copy of Boundless Magic. You will then have a dilemma on your hand. You could choose to use the Eternal power and and shuffle back those cards you just looked at into your deck, but if you are looking for something, you could also choose not to use the Eternal power. This would leave the cards you just looked at on the bottom of your deck, allowing you to see a brand new set of cards on the second copy of Boundless Magic. This neat interaction, plus the way Boundless Magic can affect the way you build your deck, make me really excited about this card.

So excited that I want to build a deck now!

The first step is choosing a hero. This choice was made easy for me. Once you see my second preview card, you will see why.

Well look at what we have here! Hopefully by now you have seen Mistress Nesala, which was spoiled by Drew Walker. Mages already had 25 health, so there is no downside there. Thinking about it, the only downside is we lose a few Talent cards, but we trade them for a second class! Having so many options, you can go many different directions with the decks.

The first deck I had to build was based off my true love of playing a “Solo” deck.

Deck #1 - Turtle Up

Hero: Augh

Master Hero: 1
1 Ysera the Dreamer

Allies: 10
4 Bronze Warden
3 Obsidian Drudge
2 Obsidian Drakonid
1 Sinestra

Abilities: 5
4 Boundless Magic
1 Augment Steel

Equipment: 40
4 Gravitational Pull
4 Miniature Voodoo Mask
4 Tattered Dreadmist Mask
4 Etched Dragonbone Girdle
1 Robe of Waking Nightmare
1 Strings of Beaded Bubbles
1 Polished Helm of Valor
1 Wildlife Defender
1 Triton Legplates
4 Venerable Mass of McGowan
1 Perdition's Blade
1 Reclaimed Ashkandi
1 Smite's Reaver
4 Rock Furrow Boots
1 Polished Spaulders of Valor
1 Floating Web
2 Bottled Knowledge
4 Bottled Spite

Locations: 4
4 Twilight Citadel

I love being a turtle! I have always found pleasure sitting behind a big protective shell. Once behind my barrier of defense, I like to pick away at opposing threats until I feel safe enough to stick my neck out and go for my opponent's throat.

When I built this deck, I knew I wanted to take advantage of the Heirloom Stash cards. Tattered Dreadmist Mask is a card that I have always wanted to put in my decks, but never felt that there was enough stash cards to take advantage of it. With the ability to play more Heirloom cards, I felt that this would be the perfect opportunity for it to shine.

The other route I went with the deck was to take advantage of Boundless Magic. There are a lot of one-ofs in this list, but with Boundless Magic, this will give you more options every time you play it. The additional bonus of an amor deck is that the games go longer than typical matches, making Boundless Magic and its dig effect more powerful.

The one-of that I put in the deck which I felt needed an explanation was String of Beaded Bubbles. This is a card I would have played in my Keys to the Armory Warrior decks because it answers a lot of problems easily. Have you even been playing a solo deck and had a Rogue play Sap on you? String of Beaded Bubbles would have gotten you out of that pickle. Its main purpose is to deal damage without attacking, which is not something a solo deck can usually do well. String of Beaded Bubbles also adds a neat effect to the deck, allowing you to shoot yourself to pump up your weapons with Rock Furrow Boots.

The next deck is a more typical approach to control Mage deck.

Deck #2 - Ice Box

Hero: Augh

Master Hero: 1
1 Neptulon

Allies: 16
4 Harpy Matriarch
4 Pygmy Pyramid
3 Commander Ulthok
2 Gnash
2 Neptulon the Tidehunter
1 Ozumat

Abilities: 28
4 Flame Lance
4 Glacial Tomb
4 Frostfire Bolt
4 Frost Blast
3 Monstrous Frostbolt Volley
4 Mana Agate
3 Boundless Magic
2 Onslaught

Equipment: 7
4 Miniature Voodoo Mask
2 The Horseman's Horrific Helm
1 Scimitar of the Sirocco

Locations: 4
4 Abyssal Maw

Quests: 4
4 Seeds of Their Demise

Mage's number one weakness over the years have been equipment based strategies. One of Warrior's strengths is being able to destroy equipment at ease. Combining the two into one deck gives you the answers you have always needed.

With this build I wanted to try out Pygmy Pyramid. Its seems insanely powerful for a four cost ally. Harpy Matriarch, Commander Ulthok, and Gnash are all in there to answer cards seen in the current metagame. I decided to add a couple more finishers to this version. Neptulon the Tidehunter works too well with Abyssal Maw to not include. Ozumat is a constant threat plus works well with your Boundless Magic since you can you can dig for it again if it dies. In this version I decided to add a Neptulon. With so many frost cards in the deck, he seems like the natural Master Hero to look for.

To answer equipment based decks, I have added two cards. Onslaught will devastate them, making equipment-loving opponents start from the ground up. The Horseman's Horrific Helm is the other card I decided to add. The Horseman's Horrific Helm stops solo decks cold, requiring them to be able to attack twice if they ever want to get through your wall of scary laughs.

The last deck takes advantage of being able to use multiple Dragonkin armor.

Deck #3 - Where My Dragons At?

Hero: Augh

Allies: 28
4 Bronze Drake
4 Bronze Warden
4 Emerald Soldier
4 Bronze Guardian
3 Obsidian Drudge
3 Obsidian Drakonid
2 Obsidian Enforcer
2 Soridormi
2 Violet Proto-Drake

Abilities: 8
4 Flame Lance
4 Draconic Flames

Equipment: 12
2 Wildlife Defender
4 Robe of Waking Nightmare
4 Etched Dragonbone Girdle
2 Fire-Etched Dagger

Locations: 4
4 Twlight Citadel

Quests: 8
4 Challenge of The Black Flight
4 Seeds of their Demise

Augh has transformed into the king of dragons with this build. When Worldbreaker was released, the Dragonkin armors were always looked at because they all have very powerful effects. This build capitalizes on the opportunity to play multiple Dragonkin equipment from Mage and Warrior. It also takes advantage of Draconic Flames to hopefully mow down all opposing allies while hitting their hero.

All of these decks have one thing in common. You'll notice that once you get double the card pool, you open up so many card combinations that have never been available before. These new dual class heroes are amazing to say the least. I wish I could know what other combinations were are going to see. It also makes me wonder...are you as excited as I am for Tomb of the Forgotten?

-Tim Rivera

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