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!