The Comprehensive Heroes of Starcraft Preview

Shield Battery

Shield Battery is a Mage Protoss Common Spell for 2 Mana and has text - Gain 6 Armor. Your next Protoss spell costs (2) less.

This spell pays for itself through the cost of the next Protoss spell we play. A 2 mana spell that gains 6 armor isn’t great, but a net 0 mana one is obviously very strong. Shield Battery sits somewhere in between.

We suspect that the cards in Mage’s Protoss package are very package dependent. There is very little reason to play them outside the context of each other.

Score: 2

Resonance Coil

Resonance Coil is a Mage Protoss Common Spell for 3 Mana and has text - Deal 5 damage to a minion. Get a random Protoss spell.

An underwhelming removal spell that is only going to be realistically played to enable Colossus. 5 damage to a minion is not often efficient and should overkill most early game minions you meet on turn 3. The main upside here is that it’s a nice answer to Brood Queen.

The value generated by the spell is where the synergy lies. Protoss spells are a narrow pool of 6 cards that should generally be useful in a Protoss Mage deck (Hallucination is the one low roll). Resonance Coil represents 2 Protoss spells in one card, helping us juice up our Colossus. If we’re into some deck building coping, we can copy Resonance Coil with Tidepool Pupil and scale up our Colossus even more.

Score: 2

Colossus

Colossus is a Mage Protoss Rare Mech Minion for 12 Mana with 9 Attack, 4 Health and has text - Battlecry: Deal damage to all enemies, twice. (Improved by Protoss spells you cast this game!)

Colossus is a late-game-oriented minion that requires support through both mana discounts and damage scaling. Its total damage increases by 2 through casting any Protoss spell. A couple of spells and Colossus already deals 6 damage to all enemies, as it deals 3 damage twice.

If we run all available Protoss spells, we can have 10 in the deck (Resonance Coil counts twice here, as it generates another). Add some Tidepool Pupil shenanigans and a single Colossus can theoretically kill the opponent from 30. We can also discount Colossus to the point we play both copies on the same turn with the help of Warp Gate. If given time, Colossus clearly represents a threatening, OTK-style win condition.

The obvious problem here is how slow the process might be. Spending mana on spells takes time. Discounting Colossus also takes time. It could act as a stabilizer, but its high cost and the absence of an enabler such as Construct Pylons means it is slower to come down to the board compared to Druid’s Carrier. It may not be fast enough in aggressive matchups to help the Mage survive.

Conceptually, we think Colossus will be attractive to build around. The only question is whether it will be quick enough to be impactful, rather than thrown into decks with 40% win rates.

Score: 2

Final Thoughts: Mage’s set looks fun, but the power might not be there for the current format. It’s a feast or famine set. You’ll either see all three cards, or none of them.