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I am really frustrated about the Mage archetype that uses immunity to stay at 1 health for many many turns until it can play timewarp and antonidas and wreck you with spells.

Please recommend good strategies against it. The only ones that I can realise so far are:

1) running eater of secrets, which has not proved useful against any other opponent.

2) playing "An Eye for an Eye" just before she intends damaging you, when she does not have a secret active. This requires an almost preternatural reading of her actions.

I am interested in all classes, but especially Paladin and warlock

Edit:

It seems that secret hunters appeared in greater numbers following the release of Frozen, so Eater of Secrets may now be viable.

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    In short: Push aggressively for board control, but don't overextend into board clears. Take efficient trades, but use every opportunity to get face damage in. You have to pressure the mage in the early and mid game. Make sure to pop the iceblock when he is at 1hp. Will write a more detailed answer later when I have time and it's still needed.
    – Denker
    Aug 9, 2017 at 15:38
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    You should be able to use eye for an eye as long as they don't have counterspell. I don't think you can trigger ice block on your own turn.
    – JMac
    Aug 9, 2017 at 15:56
  • @JMac this would be outmostly important! Can anyone check with a friend? We don't have Antonidas...
    – Ludi
    Aug 9, 2017 at 15:59
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    @Ludi, Secret's do not active on your own turn. Eye for an eye would work whether ice block is up or not if she's low enough.
    – kicken
    Aug 9, 2017 at 16:06
  • A smart mage will ping your face if you have a secret up, so Eye for an Eye will likely do only one damage. It's a really awful secret because it doesn't impact the board state, so make sure not to run it in your deck; instead just pick it from Hydrologist if you know you're up against freeze/timewarp mage
    – Chase Sandmann
    Aug 9, 2017 at 19:58

3 Answers 3

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Warlock you just lose. The class is in a bad spot right now. The only thing you can really do as a Warlock right now is play a super aggro version of the deck and force the Mage to use their removal on your minions before they can reach the cards they need for their finishing combo. Handlock loses almost all the time and discard Warlock is utterly useless against quest mage.

Paladin has a couple of options. Sure, eye for an eye is useful, but only if you time it correctly and the mage has 6 or less health. You can play eye for an eye and the mage WILL kill themselves. Make sure you also have more than 6 health because the game will end in a tie. More often than not, a paladin class will be able to boost their minions attack to overpower the removal effects of the Mage class. Just make sure you watch out for turn 3 and turn 7 board clears with cards such as Flamestrike and you should be okay.

To your other point about Eater of secrets, it's useful in a couple of match ups. Paladin uses redemption still in the current meta sometimes, mage it's super powerful and hunters always run at least a couple. It's stats are not great, but against other classes you can run it out for tempo.

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A good aggressive Paladin deck like Murlocs should be able to crack the Ice Blocks before the Mage can get the full combo assembled. Playing a Stampeding Kodo can help against Doomsayer and is good against many decks. You can also discover Eye for an Eye off that one secret-discoverer for some insurance. Just make sure they're at exactly 1 before you play it, or else they can just hero power your face.

Alternatively, a control deck that runs Dirty Rats can handle Exodia Mage very easily. Even pulling a Sorceror's Apprentice often kills the deck, and pulling Antonidas of course is game over. Quest Warrior is the most viable deck that runs these, but there are control builds of Warlock and Priest that can as well.

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  • +1 for dirty rats, can be dangerous, (not against mage though, typically) but sometimes gets me a win when opponent rage quits due to their win condition being broken.
    – Tim
    Aug 11, 2017 at 15:38
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The best way to beat those type of mage decks is to simply play an aggressive deck. Warlock doesn't have many great options for that right now, but an aggressive Murloc/Divine Shield Paladin deck will certainly do the trick. Hunter also does well against mage, because the hero power can pop their Ice Blocks multiple turns in a row. Aggro Druid is another cheap easy option, although keep in mind that an expansion just launched yesterday so decks are sure to change around quite a bit! I often find that the best way to learn how to beat these decks is to play one yourself! Play some version of control Ice Block mage (there's about a million types of decks like this that you can find online), and keep a list of what decks you lose to. I think you'll find that while Eater of Secrets and Eye for an Eye will lose you some games, you will usually lose because the other deck killed you before you had a chance to do anything.

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