Maintaining Board Control With The Dalaran Mage

I talked a little bit about the Dalaran Mage in my last post about Fan of Knives. However I just wanted to go into a little more detail on how you can keep board control with this Minion. One of the major reasons I wanted to write this article, is because I RARELY see this card used in matches and I feel it is underutilized (According to Hearthpwn.com only 0.81% of all decks use this card).

What Is The Dalaran Mage card?
The Dalaran Mage costs 3 Mana to play and is a 1 Attack / 4 Health minion that gives +1 Spell Damage. Classes that focus on damage spells would benefit most from this card. These classes would mainly be the Mage, Rogue, but can definitely be viable in Druid, Warlock & Shaman decks as well.


Why Does The Dalaran Mage Survive For So Long?
Depending on the card draw and my opponent's play style I can usually keep the board clear until turns 2 or 3 using my hero power & deadly poison/backstab/shiv etc.. I then play the Dalaran Mage on either turn dependent on whether or not I have "The Coin".

At this point of the game (turns 3-4), I believe there are a couple of reasons why my Dalaran Mage is not destroyed.

#1. My opponent usually plays a 3 or 4 Mana minion without charge. If it does have charge they usually go straight for my hero (Since their strategy is to burn down my hero ASAP).

#2. Most players don't believe it is worth it to use 1 or 2 spells/ 3-4 Mana to destroy a 1 Attack minion. Since a 1 Attack minion does not really seem like much of a threat. Instead they usually decide to save these spells and play a minion of their own instead.


How I Keep Board Control
Once the Dalaran Mage is played my opponent usually then plays one minion with 3-6 Health or a few minions that have a total of 3-6 health combined. At this time all of my spells are buffed with +1 Damage, which means Fan of Knives & Blade Flurry = 2 damage to all minions, Shiv = 2 Damage and draw card, Backstab = 3 (damage for a 0 Mana cost) and Eviscerate combo is 5 damage!

Depending on the situation I sometimes even play Kobold Geomancer for an extra 1 damage for all spells. This allows me to easily wipe out any enemy minions with extreme efficiency. My opponent then has the choice of wasting cards to destroy my cheap Mage & Geomancer or to play minions that will continue to be destroyed.

Throughout turns 5-8 I attack my opponent's hero until around 15 - 18 health. Then depending on my cards/ the amount of + Spell Damage on the board I try to end the match. One example assuming just +2 Spell Damage, is wicked knife/deadly poison attack (3 damage), blade flurry (5 damage), double combo cold blood on Dalaran Mage (8 + 1 = 9 damage) and then the 2 Damage from the Kobold Geomancer. This would be a cost of only 7 Mana for 19 total damage! If it was a 9 Mana turn I also had 2 sinister strikes that would be an extra 10 damage for a total of 29 damage!!!

Now these are just a few examples to show how useful the Dalaran Mage & + Spell Damage can be. However there are endless possibilities and you have to just find what works best for you.

Please comment below if you have any questions, comments, suggestions or ideas. Thank you for reading!

Fan of Knives is Shockingly Good

I just played a few more matches against a couple of Hunters, 1 Warlock and 2 Paladins. I won the first four and lost my last one against a paladin so now I'm at Rank 13.

During these games I was able to use Fan of Knives to completely wipe the minions from my opponents' board on turns 3 & 4. My opponents were putting the pressure on with cheap (low mana cost) minions and Fan of Knives was largely the reason I won those matches.

The funny thing is that when I first started playing the Rogue class I thought this card was pretty much useless. Wow, I thought, spend 3 Mana and deal 1 damage to each enemy minion. I get to draw a card, but they still have board control on me and I deal no damage to their hero. How could Fan of Knives ever be useful in any Rogue deck?

Fan of Knives Can Be Buffed!
After learning more about the game, I realized that Fan of Knives was a spell and therefore benefited from +Spell Damage. I immediately changed my deck to add more minions with low mana costs that had +Spell Damage like the Kobold Geomancer and Dalaran Mage.

Through experience I found that I could safely get out one or both each of these minions, especially if my opponent is going straight for direct Hero damage. I also found that most opponents don't try very hard to kill the Dalaran Mage early on. Being that it has 4 Life and only 1 Attack I believe that most don't feel it is a big threat or that it is even worth wasting minions/spells to kill.

Dealing With The Pressure of Low Cost Enemy Minions
Luckily most enemy minions that have a low mana cost and higher attack usually have only 1 or 2 health. However, by turns 2 & 3 players can have 3-4 of these minions on the board, putting extreme pressure on early in the match. For players that don't have taunt or low cost AOE (Area of Effect) spells this can be a huge headache and many times can cost them the match.

I usually wait for my opponent to play 3, sometimes even 4 low cost minions depending how much total attack the minions have (5 ATK total is usually the max I will wait for). I then play the Kobold Geomancer, Backstab any Minion over 3 health and then use Fan of Knives.

This immediately deals 2 damage to all enemy Minions and wipes the board leaving the Kobold Geomancer still intact. My Hero does end up taking some (about 3 - 6) damage, but I end up with more cards and board control out of the exchange.

When is Fan of Knives Most Useful?
I've found that this strategy works exceptionally well against Hunters and Warlocks who often try to get low cost Minions out as quickly as possible. The best situation I've been in was when I had a Kobold Geomancer already on the board and Fan of Knives, Preparation, Dalaran Mage in my hand.

The Hunter had played Timber Wolf, Dire Wolf Alpha & Ironfur Grizzly on turns 1, 2 and 3 (9 Total Attack on the board). I played the Dalaran Mage for all three of my Mana and then I was able to use Preparation to play Fan of Knives for free! I cleared all of his minions and still had my Kobold Geomancer & Dalaran Mage in play.

There are many different strategies that can be employed using Fan of Knives, and this is just an example that works for me. I find that experimenting with new deck builds and strategy is a great way to gain experience and improve your hearthstone skills.

Please comment below if you have any questions, comments, suggestions or ideas related to Fan of Knives. Thank you for reading!

Introduction & Current Rogue Experience

First Off, Why Do I Play Hearthstone?
All my life I've played video games and I've always been drawn to strategy/RPG/MMORPG games. When it comes to Blizzard I've played Starcraft 1 & 2, Diablo 2 & 3, and World of Warcraft for a couple years in college. I would spend hours (Sometimes 13 hrs a day) playing D2 and WOW grinding, questing leveling etc..

However, now that I've graduated and have a full time job I really don't have that much time to invest into becoming a top player. Yes there is always that "Pay to Win" option, that some people choose, but I am cheap. Also where is the fun in buying your way to the top?

All of the above are reasons why I decided to try Hearthstone, but here are some specific points:

- Hearthstone is free to download & play.
- It is not a huge time sink, as each match only lasts for about 10 minutes, depending on your play style.
- You can play as much as or as little as you want, and still be competitive.
- Ranking system ensures you will always have a competitive match.
- Most daily quests can be done within an hour (Usually less).
- Deck Builds/Strategy can definitely beat Pure Legendary "Pay to Win" Decks
- Arena matches even the playing field and the rewards are actually worth it.

My Rogue Stats To Date & Hope For The Future
So I've been playing Hearthstone for about 5 months now and the rogue has been my most played class by far. To put things in perspective, every other class is at around levels 6 - 11 and my Rogue is level 60 (385 Ranked Wins So Far).  The season will be over soon, but right now I'm rank 14.

Despite having no legendaries in my deck I have managed to get to at least Rank 15 in every month since I started playing in April 2014. As I gain more experience against each class, I am now more able to anticipate my opponent's next move and counter accordingly. While this is not as easy to do in Arena matches, this experience definitely pays off when it comes to ranked matches. I will be sure to go over class specific rogue strategies in future posts.

My next goals are to reach Rank 10 in a season, then Rank 5, then Legend Rank. These goals may seem impossible without adding any legendaries to my deck, but I will continue learning and tweaking my deck in order to keep winning and moving forward.

Legendaries I hope to get one day:
Edwin VanCleef
Leeroy Jenkins
Bloodmage Thalnos

Please comment below if you have any questions, comments, suggestions or ideas. Thank you for reading!