Arcane Bolt
This is an Arcane Shot that deals an extra point of damage at 8 mana. The Manathirst ability makes Bolt a relevant piece for late game combos with other cards that can generate more copies of it. As a standalone card, it’s nothing special, but we suspect it’s going to be quite important for a specific strategy that’s being supported in this set.
Score: 3
Arcane Wyrm
1-drops with 1/2 stats that provide additional value are generally good and have consistently found homes in constructed decks in the past. Wyrm gives you an Arcane Bolt that you can use to pick off an enemy minion in the early game or save it for a bigger turn. Should see play in ‘Arcane Mage’ and could find its way to other strategies looking for an early body.
Score: 3
Magister’s Apprentice
This card is meant to allow you to play a flurry of Arcane Bolts in one turn, as they cost no mana with an Apprentice on board. But after mulling further about the prospects of an Arcane Mage, it might not even be good enough there with Siphon Mana fulfilling a similar role while offering more flexibility, at least until it rotates in the spring. This card could be alright for a faster Mage deck looking to gain mana advantages early, but it could struggle to find another role. A bit niche.
Score: 2
Arcsplitter
Arcsplitter is slower than Wyrm, costing 3 mana on a worse body and generating Bolts on a Deathrattle rather than a Battlecry. However, Arcsplitter provides us with 2 Arcane Bolts. Generating as many Bolts as possible is a valuable trait in Arcane Mages as it is their main late game nuke, so they should happily take the slower body to further increase their late game burst potential. The Bolts can also be used to pick off minions in case you’re falling behind, so Arcsplitter shouldn’t set you back too hard.
Score: 3
Vast Wisdom
3 mana for 2 discovers passes the vanilla test for a playable constructed card. The ability could make one of those generated spells have a discount, pushing the extra cost on the other spell. This should almost always be advantageous. You can think of Vast Wisdom as 3 mana discover a spell: it costs (x) less mana. The spell you’re discounting is likely to be the first spell you get to cast in a game, and the discount could help you get ahead, putting you in a better position to play the more expensive spell later or flip it with Energy Shaper. For example, in many situations, you’d rather have a 0 mana Objection and a 3 mana Flurry in hand, than have them at their original costs. This is ultimately a worse card than Arcane Intellect unless your deck leverages generation in a unique way.
Score: 2
Arcane Defenders
This card offers a lot of stats and protection for the cost. A 5 mana 5/6 taunt that can’t be targeted is easily worth 5 mana, so being able to produce two bodies for a total 12 health in taunts at 8 mana is a nice deal. The issue is that late game cards need to be extremely good to see play, so where does this fit? Big-Spell Mage. It’s a threat we can cheat out earlier with Barbaric Sorceress or Balinda and it gets re-cast by Magister Dawngrasp and Grey Sage Parrot. Alongside Drakefire Amulet, that’s a lot of threat generation. If BSM survives the expansion, it likely plays this card.
Score: 2
Prismatic Elemental
This is a fantastic discover card that’s likely going to be played in many different Mage decks. The body is nice for a 2-drop that generates value, but what pushes the card to greatness is the fact it discovers a spell from any class on top of discounting it by 1 mana, which means Prismatic Elemental is a net 1 mana 1/3 that discovers a spell. That sounds pretty good. You can also find a spell from a different spell school that Mage doesn’t have access to (Nature, Holy, Shadow, Fel) and eventually recast it with Magister Dawngrasp. This is not as good as Nature Studies on a body, but it’s not too far from that, which makes it extremely good. Spooky Mage runs this.
Score: 4
Energy Shaper
‘Hand of Lunacy’ on a body. Deck of Lunacy became very weak once it was nerfed to 4 mana, and Energy Shaper has a worse effect though a reasonable 3/5 body. The principle is you’re trading away consistency and control in your game plan to find some cheesy blowout. Deck of Lunacy was ironically a far more consistent card. To fit Energy Shaper into a deck, you need to generate ‘fodder’ spells that you’re willing to transform in your hand. You might be better off building a deck that’s dense with minions that discover spells, as they provide bodies that can fight for the board in the early game and give you pieces you can either play or flip with Shaper. Very limited to one archetype, and most likely bad.
Score: 1
Vexallus
This is the ultimate finisher for Arcane Mage, able to double up on Arcane Bolt’s damage and provide the class with huge burst, or straight up OTK potential at the level of Phylactery Warlock. It’s important to remember that Vexallus also doubles up any spell damage bonuses we have. +2 spell damage turns every Arcane Bolt into a Pyroblast on turn 8, so Mage can have such strong inevitability that even a sturdy Blood Death Knight could struggle to survive it.
There is too much upside in such a potential package considering it is not too costly to fit into a deck. Mage can keep a strong defensive shell to surround Vexallus with and maintain the offensive firepower to win any late game matchup. Very likely that at some point, this card will become meta defining.
Score: 4
Grand Magister Rommath
Rommath is a big late game payoff card for a Mage deck that’s focused on spell generation and would likely be played in the same deck of Energy Shaper, though it’s a bit more versatile. This card does seem very expensive when you compare it to a similar card such as Tess Greymane, but Mage has the capacity to juice this up more than Rogue can realistically juice up Tess. It’s not out of the realms of possibilities that Rommath can also be a top end threat for a deck that’s not entirely focused on generation, but ‘Casino Mage’ is likely the best home for it.
Most players would immediately write this card off as a meme, and that’s probably the most sensible opinion. It might need a 1 mana discount buff. At 8 mana, it starts to get interesting, but we don’t think this is far away from being competitive. We’ve learned not to underestimate late game payoff with near-infinite scaling.
Score: 2
Final Thoughts
March of the Lich King Set Rank: 8th
Overall Power Ranking: 6th
You can’t start discussing Mage without highlighting the Arcane combo package centered on Vexallus, a legendary that could replace Mozaki in the hearts of Mage players. The damage and inevitability are there thanks to Arcane Bolts scaling insanely well with Vexallus, potentially dealing Phylactery Warlock levels of damage.
The supporting shell poses an interesting question. Initially, we looked at Bonelord Frostwhisper, the great combo enabler. But Mage lacks the ability to kill it on its terms, and many deck slots are needed for the execution package.
This made us look back to another option, and we think it could be the better fit. Can you remember which deck can generate a permanent aura of spell damage that’s not attached to minions? Ah yes, it might be time for Quest Mage’s last dance. Quest Mage with multiple strong frost spells that provide survivability in Cold Case and Solid Alibi too. Aegwynn is another good option to consider, and makes for the easiest setup, though very vulnerable to silence.
But Mage is not just about an Arcane combo. Spooky Mage’s game plan remains strong and well rounded. Prismatic Elemental could improve its versatility. It’s a card we expect to see in multiple Mage decks. Big-Spell Mage could add Arcane Defenders to its Big-Spell package and have another way to fuel its Magister Dawngrasp. A Dawngrasp that casts both Drakefire Amulet and Arcane Defenders sounds scary. Arcane Defenders could also just seal games against aggressive decks in combination with Grey Sage Parrot.
We’re not going to lie. Casino Mage looks very suspect. We’re not sure what to make of Energy Shaper, but we’re not sensing a Deck of Lunacy here. It’s possible that Rommath finds a home in another deck though, with some discover support rather than going all-in with Energy Shaper.
Mage looks exciting. It’s got an electrifying Arcane combo that could define the format if successful, and it’s got some random memes mixed in too, true to Mage’s class identity. Jaina loves opening the surprise boxes. Plus, it has its established decks to fall back to, with moderate upgrades.
