The Comprehensive TITANS Preview

 

Aqua Archivist

A 2 mana 2/2 Elemental that discounts the next Elemental you play by 2 mana. This is not limited to the turn Archivist is played, which means the discount persists until it’s cashed in. Archivist pays for itself and allows you to play a more expensive Elemental earlier than you normally should.

By all reasonable logic, cards like these always find a way into a competitive deck. There is some skepticism of an immediate impact because the Elemental tribe in Mage seems underdeveloped and incomplete, but Archivist doesn’t require a huge commitment of an Elemental package to be useful. It’s enough for Mage to play some minions of the tribe with the goal of leveraging Archivist to do one powerful thing. We think it’d be silly to give this card a tentative score, as it feels like an inevitably strong card.

Score: 3

Chill-o-Matic

A magnetic Snowchugger. Much like Noble Minibot, this is a 2-mana 2/3 magnetic mech. Buffs coming down on a 1-drop that early in the game can be quite powerful. The ability can be very irritating to weapon classes too, making your board resistant to weapon removal until Chill-o-Matic is dealt with. That could be game winning in some scenarios.

The major problem is that Mech Mage is currently a similarly mediocre deck to Mech Paladin, while it did not get a powerful upgrade to its toolkit at the level of Inventor’s Aura. It’s got its own way of mana cheating through Seafloor Gateway, but that’s nothing new.

What could be relevant and a bit funny is that a Chill-o-Matic attaching itself to a Mecha-Shark will start freezing all enemy characters damaged by its ability. We doubt that’s enough to bring back Mech Mage to the forefront of the format for the first time since Sunken City, but it’s a decent card for the deck.

Score: 2

Molten Rune

A 3-damage spell for 3 mana is not very good, even if it generates a random spell (could be from any class). Generating a random spell is hardly worth much value in the grand scheme of things. Nobody’s playing Babbling Book in a competitive deck, after all.

But forging Molten Rune makes it cast twice, meaning the damage increases to 6 in two pulses, while two random spells are generated. This makes the card better, as the overall cost of 5 mana for a doubled effect sounds more reasonable. Mage generally has strong stalling, so it can afford to forge this in the early game and get a strong nuke/removal that generates a bit of value and possibly finds spells from less accessible spell schools.

But what really sells us on the card is the fact it deals the damage in two pulses. This means that spell damage scales Molten Rune twice as hard. +2 spell damage from Aegwynn means a forged Molten Rune becomes a Pyroblast. As we’ll see later, Mage gets another legendary that could provide even more spell damage than Aegwynn and turn Molten Rune into a massive nuke.

We think Mage decks centered on burn are going to run Molten Rune. Slower decks may want it too for the generated value and the fact that it’s a playable Fire spell and offers decent removal, which could have some implications for spell school synergies.

Score: 3

Discovery of Magic

A 1-mana discover effect without a body attacked to it or any effect that impacts the board is generally quite weak. Discovery of Magic is a specialized tool for Mage to increase their spell school count, allowing it to find Shadow, Holy, Fel and Nature spells from other classes. Note that if you do want a greater chance at finding these rare spells, you’re recommended to play spells from the spell schools already easily available to Mage (Fire, Frost, Arcane) before playing Discovery of Magic.

This card is therefore slow and only useful in a very specific archetype that puts a great emphasis on maximizing its spell school count. Otherwise, you’ll not play this card, not even in a Renathal Spooky Mage running Rommath.

Score: 2

Inquisitive Creation

A 4 mana 3/4 body that deals 1 damage to all enemy minions and gets upgraded whenever you cast a spell from a unique spell school. For example, if you’ve cast two Frost spells and one Fire spell, you’ve cast two different spell schools, which means Creation deals 3 damage.

This card is quite easy to evaluate, because it’s clear it becomes crazy good even after just two upgrades. A 4 mana 3/4 that deals 3 damage only to enemy minions is one of the strongest AOE effects in the format. But this isn’t trivial to upgrade early, even in a deck that runs many spell schools, just because spending mana on spells is still something you need to do before turn 4 to get to that kind of power level.

Having said that, Inquisitive Creation is comfortably a 4 damage AOE in any Mage deck that leans even a little bit to the card. It doesn’t need a lot of support to be very powerful, so we expect it to be a staple in every defensive minded Mage deck and perhaps some of the faster ones too.

If you’re considering a dedicated Spell School Mage that runs a card like Discovery of Magic, Creation obviously becomes tremendously cracked. It has a ceiling of an 8-damage AOE if you’re trying hard enough. That’s probably the best spell school payoff in the set, and the most likely card to see play without dedicated support.

Score: 4

Unchained Gladiator

Another very strong Elemental. Gladiator draws one card, plus cards equal to the number of Elementals you played in the previous turn. So, if you’ve played two Elementals on turn 3, Gladiator will draw you three cards on turn 4. Considering it’s a 4 mana 4/4 body, this is nearly the equivalent of playing a Cosmic Keyboard and casting Volume Up. The main difference is that Gladiator isn’t dependent on finding Keyboard to be able to develop a board while gaining you resources. The only requirement is a reasonable package of Elementals.

Add Aqua Archivist to the equation, and Gladiator looks even better. These two cards are so good that it might be time for Synthesize to see competitive play. The card generates three cheap elemental bodies that should guarantee a strong turn 4 Gladiator. There are other elementals Mage doesn’t mind playing, such as Arcane Artificer and Prismatic Elemental. We think this tribe could be back in business. Not in a dedicated tribal deck, but a complementary package to a Mage deck.

Score: 3

Wisdom of Norgannon

An Arcane Intellect that starts at 5 mana and gets discounted for every spell school cast. This card is on a different power tier compared to Inquisitive Creation, because after casting two spell schools, Creation is one of the strongest AOE effects in the format. Wisdom becomes as good as an Arcane Intellect.

So, Wisdom of Norgannon requires much more of a deck building investment to see play, because a worse Arcane Intellect that might be discounted to 2 mana eventually is not worth running. Mage has Volume Up and Unchained Gladiator, so it’s not desperate for draw.

In a dedicated spell school deck, this spell should be good enough, since you’re likely to discount it to 0-mana at some point. It may not happen very early in the game, but it should happen early enough to matter. Outside of this archetype, no thanks.

Score: 2

Elemental Inspiration

This spell summons a 4/5 Vortex (an elemental) for every spell school you’ve cast this game. Notice that there is no guaranteed summoned minion. The count starts from zero and the number of Vortex’ equals the number of spell schools.

The bonus is that each Vortex gains a random keyword. These are one of the eight keywords that are available to the One-Amalgam Band: Divine Shield, Lifesteal, Poisonous, Reborn, Rush, Stealth, Taunt or Windfury.

As a 7-mana card, we should expect that Elemental Inspiration is built to become a game ending win condition, especially in faster matchups, where opponents are unlikely to clear a big board of these. It’s also important to note that each Vortex only has a 25% chance of gaining a ‘defensive’ keyword: rush or taunt. None of the other keywords have an immediate impact on the board. This is a stats bomb.

Therefore, we think this card is only good enough in a dedicated Spell School Mage. Three Vortex’ are just not going to cut it on turn 7. This needs to produce overwhelming pressure to force mass removal from a defensive opponent or push an aggressive opponent to the concede button. Reminds us of Grand Finale, which didn’t work out, but this is a better card. Could be the way Mage turns the corner against a lot of opponents.

Score: 2

Sif

A spell school payoff with burn implications, Sif is an underwhelming spell damage minion at her baseline, being an extremely slow 6 mana 4/6. However, she scales very quickly into a spell damage minion that could be as influential as Aegwynn. Even if we’re looking at a normal Burn Mage deck that doesn’t aggressively tap into “outsider” spell schools, Sif is very likely to have at least a +4 spell damage buff towards the late game. Another clutch discovery from Prismatic Elemental and that’s a 6-mana Malygos.

Combined with Molten Rune, and Sif becomes a serious late game nuke. A +4 spell damage Sif turns Molten Rune or an Infused Frozen Touch into a 14-damage card.

And if we’re going harder on spell schools, Sif’s ceiling is +8 spell damage, which makes Molten Rune deal 22 damage by itself. This gives Spell School Mage extremely powerful late game inevitability in the form of off-board burst, which helps in matchups where Elemental Inspiration gets answered by mass removal.

Sif is not going into every Mage deck, but if burn is your win condition or you like your spell schools, her inclusion alongside Molten Rune looks like a no brainer.

Score: 3

Norgannon

Norgannon is a unique TITAN that sees his unused abilities double in power every time he uses an ability. This makes him the scariest TITAN to leave alone, but also makes him feel “relatively” underwhelming upon entrance compared to other TITANS. As a 6 mana 3/8, he’s not easy to kill on curve.

Progenitor’s Power deals 5 damage. The damage doubles to 10 and 20 if this ability is used last. That damage goes face, so Norgannon can go boom boom quite hard. Nevertheless, this is probably going to be his most used ability as it immediately impacts the board, making the TITAN the best Fireland’s Portal ever. For 6 mana, you’re dealing 5 damage to something and summoning a very threatening minion that cannot be ignored.

Ancient Knowledge is a debuff that makes the opponent’s cards, every card, cost (1) more mana next turn. The debuff scales to 2 and then 4 if used last. This is a disruptive ability you might choose to cast if the opponent’s board is clear. By making your opponent’s cards cost more mana, it’s more difficult for them to remove Norgannon. There’s a great reward in his survival.

Unlimited Potential casts a random secret, which upgrades to 2 and 4 random secrets. This is the weakest first ability to cast, as there’s no guarantee that the secret you randomly cast is truly disruptive to the opponent’s next turn. So, this doesn’t necessarily protect Norgannon. If you do manage to cast upgraded versions of this ability, it becomes quite powerful. It’s impossible for the opponent to play around 4 random secrets optimally.

When you look at its surface, Norgannon doesn’t seem that amazing, since his first abilities aren’t that powerful, and he relies on surviving to reach his full potential more than other TITANS. However, if we simply treat Norgannon as the best Fireland’s Portal ever, this TITAN is simply going into every Mage deck. It’s a good source of damage, board control, as well as a very scary threat.

In other situations, you might trigger Ancient Knowledge and try to protect Norgannon. The card is flexible enough to always be useful. Not the flashiest, but a staple, nevertheless.

Score: 4

Final Thoughts

TITANS Set Rank: 6^th

Overall Power Ranking:  10^th

Mage’s TITANS is deceptively solid, added to a class in need of rejuvenation. Currently, Mage is suffering from both power level and visibility issues. Its popular deck is weak, while its most powerful deck doesn’t attract a large player base.

While some may question the power level of a dedicated Spell School Mage archetype, we do think this archetype has a good chance to be attractive to the player base. It doesn’t have to be the best deck. It has a playstyle that’s about building up its power over time and accomplishing small victories during the game. Inquisitive Creation, Elemental Inspiration and Sif feel like dopamine inducers.

But let’s respect the potential power level too. Elemental Inspiration could be a good enough win condition to turn the corner in faster matchups or pressure a slower opponent. It’s a stats bomb done right, carrying some variance and “surprises”. Inquisitive Creation is a power boost to any Mage deck that isn’t purely aggressive and might be the best non-TITAN Mage card. Sif offers the inevitability piece that Mage might need to win late game matchups.

Aggressive Mage archetypes are also receiving some interesting pieces. Burn Mage now has Molten Rune alongside Frozen Touch to run as primary nukes. We think it’s very possible that Sif replaces Vexallus as the late game finisher for the archetype as a result. Next to Aegwynn, it’s got the ability to turn Molten Rune into a card that’s very difficult to play around.

One awkward trait in current Burn Mage is the utilization of Volume Up alongside the Arcane Bolt package, leaving the deck with hand space issues since you want to ‘save’ your damage for Vexallus. A proactive card draw engine in Unchained Gladiator could come into the fold. Synthesize is a solid enabler for Frozen Touch too, so don’t be surprised to see Burn Mage add an elemental spin.

Can Control Spooky Mage compete in the upcoming format? Considering the likely increase in late game power and its own issues coming up against high lethality archetypes, it’s a big question mark. However, it might be able to add its own lethality package and finish games faster. We’re not too optimistic about Mech Mage. We don’t think this archetype got enough to make its mark on the format.

There’s little chance of Mage being one of the best classes in the game. We think its biggest test will be Spell School Mage’s ability to compete. If this deck ends up being viable, it will attract the player base necessary for Mage to feel present. If it’s outclassed, Mage may have to rely on Burn Mage to attract more attention with its new cards.