The Comprehensive Into The Emerald Dream Preview

 

Forbidden Shrine

Occasionally, Mage gets a circus card that casts singular random spells. It rarely works, because spending mana on an unreliable spell is not going to consistently help us gain an advantage. When “random spells” do work, it is when these spells are cheated out or heavily discounted, so that even when the random outcome ends up neutral, we do not lose much from it.

So, what if those random spells do not cost mana? The most promising idea is to play this location when we have no floating mana for the purpose of casting a 0-mana spell. Four of these spells cheat mana for free (Preparation, Horn of Winter, Innervate, Construct Pylons), while four others do not (Backstab, Gravity Lapse, Healthstone, Shadowstep). That might be good enough for a Seaside Giants deck running a Protoss package, so if this card ends up being competitive, it will be through this path. We do think that Seaside Giants are nuts whenever they work, so we are going to respect this location’s potential at enabling them.

Score: 3

Starsurge

A removal spell that scales with friendly minions dying. This is a nod to the Imbue archetype that the Mage set is promoting. Starsurge’s baseline effect is horrendous, so we need to think about when does the card’s damage become acceptable.

We think that for Starsurge to become playable without a scaling number, it needs to be able to kill every minion in the game. That means we are looking at a number that is at least 8. For Starsurge to scale to that point, we need to wait a long time, even in a Wisp Mage deck. We are not popping up a board full of Wisps by turn 5-6.

Having said that, it is less likely that we face big minions before Starsurge scales to the point it can kill them. It should be serviceable for Wisp Mage, but we do not expect it to be used in any other archetype.

Score: 2

Wisprider

This is the only Imbue card that also triggers the hero power. If we are assuming that we are fishing for early game Imbue cards in the mulligan, it is reasonable to expect us to Imbue twice before we get to play Wisprider on 5. In this case, Wisprider is a 4/4 that summons 3 Wisps and casts Arcane Missiles. That is not too bad, as it is expected that scaling cards should be weak early.

The important thing about Wisprider’s scaling is that Sing-Along Buddy doubles up the trigger from Wisprider, which makes a turn 9 Buddy/Wisprider/Hero Power a realistic finisher. If we Imbued 4 times before playing a Wisprider, this 2-card, 9 mana combo deals 20 damage. The maximum we can do with 8 Imbues is 32.

That source of inevitability can serve as a board control tool as well. We like win conditions that are versatile enough to perform different roles. Wisprider’s main weakness is that it is a bit of a dead draw in the early-to-mid game.

Score: 3

Spark of Life

A 1-mana spell that discovers a spell is not good enough in constructed play unless synergies push it over the top. The example we keep bringing up in these articles is Discovery of Magic, which was necessary for Rainbow Mage.

We do not see it here. Discovering any kind of Mage spell for 1 mana is clearly not good enough. As for the other option, what purpose does Mage want a Druid spell for? It has no incentive to play cards from other classes.

We do not think there is any deck that values discover slop so highly that they want to play this card.

Score: 1

Divination

Drawing 3 cards for 2 mana is a strong effect. Wisps are generated en masse by Mage’s Imbue hero power, so this archetype should be swimming in Wisps. The drawback of killing a 1/1 is not a big deal. We have seen draw spells with worse drawbacks become competitive in more powerful formats than the next one is expected to be. Divination resembles ‘Eat! The! Imp!’.

The drawback only makes Divination a hard spell to cast in the early game. Spirit Gatherer does add a Wisp to our hand, making it easier for us to trigger Divination at any point in the game for 2 mana. Otherwise, it is a trivial card to activate beginning on turn 4. Realistically, we only want to cast Divination when we have exhausted our plays for the board anyway, so there is no stress playing it earlier than about turn 6.

This should be a staple in any Wisp Mage deck, but its narrow application makes it limited to that archetype alone.

Score: 3

Merry Moonkin

A source of armor gain in Wisp Mage, which theoretically opens the possibility of the deck taking on a defensive approach. However, Moonkin is slow to scale its armor alongside our Imbue cards. 4 Imbues and Moonkin only gains 5 armor with a hero power. That is not impressive considering Mage has access to Sleet Skater, which looks like a superior card in all aspects.

The one upside Moonkin does have is good stats and a persistent effect, which can gain armor across multiple turns. Moonkin becomes more irritating to deal with as the game goes late, when it can reliably gain 7 armor and threatens another 7 the next turn. This takes a very long time to happen though.

May only see play in Wisp Mage if the archetype takes a very defensive direction but does not have a place if we are trying to play faster. Sleet Skater is just better.

Score: 2

Spirit Gatherer

Spirit Gatherer is a reasonable Imbue minion in terms of stats, while helping us activate Divination. A Wisp in hand makes the draw engine easier to cast. But if we want to, we can play the Wisp immediately to fight for board. A 2/1 and a 1/1 are comparable in terms of board control to the neutral 2/3 Bitterbloom Knight. A required card in the Wisp Mage archetype.

Score: 3

Stellar Balance

Another weird generation card with a Druid flavor. There is no randomness here, as we always get a Moonfire and Starfire with extra spell damage.

Generating 2 cards for 2 mana is not inherently terrible, but when one of the cards is Starfire, it is as if we have only generated one real card with Stellar Balance. Starfire is an atrocious card that has never seen competitive play in Hearthstone. It would not have seen competitive play even if it dealt that extra damage on a permanent basis.

A Moonfire that deals 2 damage is strong, but we are paying 2 mana for the privilege of generating it. We can think of it as dealing 2 damage for 2 mana. There is no Sif that makes us value a Moonfire that highly. Stellar Balance does not even deal with 3-health minions on curve, making it a poor removal option. This card will be forgotten about.

Score: 1

Q’onzu

This legendary minion has premium stats for a 3-drop on top of a unique discover effect. We can discover any spell but then choose whether to keep it in our hand or put it at the top of our opponent’s deck, making them draw it the next turn.

Both options can be viewed as a card advantage tool. Discovering a spell for ourselves obviously helps us in the resource battle, but the second option is a way to deny resources from the opponent. We are denying them the draw of a card from their deck, while potentially handing them “trash”.

We see the spells we can discover first, then choose what to do with the chosen spell, so our decision will often be determined by the choices in front of us. We may find a strong spell for ourselves or find a bad spell we do not mind throwing to our opponent.

Therefore, Q’onzu’s discover is stronger than a normal discover, while keeping strong stats for a 3-drop. This makes the legendary a potential inclusion in many different Mage decks as a generically serviceable card.

But what makes it generically serviceable also means it is not an important card for any strategy. Hearthstone is often about synergy. Q’onzu does not further a specific game plan of a deck. If the format’s power is low and there are not a lot of cards that compete for slots in competitive decks, this legendary will be popular. However, if synergy is most important and every card needs to serve a specific role to further the game plan, then Q’onzu might be considered an unnecessary luxury card.

Score: 2

Aessina

The biggest payoff for Wisp Mage, Aessina deals 20 split damage amongst enemies when it is active, a high amount that can either obliterate an opponent’s board, or their face. In combination with Wisprider combos, the archetype possesses a lot of damage in the late game that is very difficult to outlast unless the opponent is armor stacking. We might even be able to beat Armor stacking if we run Brewmasters to bounce Aessina, though that is admittedly very optimistic and greedy.

The condition is steep. 20 friendly minions dying is not easy to accomplish for any deck. Wisp Mage can get the job done faster than anyone else thanks to its hero power. We doubt that aggressive shells will be able to utilize it well, considering how slow Aessina is to activate. We are unlikely to have 20 minions killed before the game is decided.

What is clear is that Aessina is a build-around card with game ending potential that is hard to ignore.

Score: 3

Final Thoughts

Into the Emerald Dream Set Rank: 7^th

Overall Power Ranking: 6^th

There is a lot of excitement surrounding Mage, which is mixed with some caution. After all, Mage has been a largely unpopular class through most of the last expansion. It needs a rebuild from scratch. 

The Emerald Dream Mage set does not strike us as one of the most powerful ones, but the Imbue package of the class is compelling. The Imbued hero power is versatile and interesting. It provides a way to pressure through and contest board, as well as offers significant off-board damage. Imbue Mage’s late game scaling is very promising, with real finishing potential through Wisprider and Aessina.

The package is versatile, and we envision many different approaches that can work. We can see a more aggressive direction with Raylla giving us access to Busy-bot to buff Wisps. A Skyla path gains mana acceleration and a powerful way to enable Shaladrassil. We can also opt for a slower game plan. After all, Mage’s damage potential is high, so it can turtle up and count on The Ceaseless Expanse to wipe the board and allow us to funnel hero damage. 

The issue with Mage’s Imbue package is that it needs time to scale. Opponents can develop a lot of stats in play to make our hero power less useful, which is why cheap board wipes like Corrupted Awakening from Shaladrassil or Ceaseless Expanse might become important in removing that counterplay. It could take time to refine the strategy, but we are confident that players will enjoy experimenting with the Imbue Mage archetype.

The other promising avenue is Seaside Giants. Protoss Mage might have flopped in Heroes of Starcraft, but the archetype has dodged nerfs. With Forbidden Shrine and Tide Pools, it gains access to a faster, secondary win condition that can give it breathing room to scale.

Late game lethality post-rotation is likely to go down, which is a good reason to have some faith in Mage, as it has some of the easiest to execute inevitable game plans.