Welcome back, gentle readers, to this installment of Reckless Writings. With Block season almost upon us, I figured I'd take a break from my usual Core-centric ramblings and share with you an adaptation of a proven archetype. The recent European Continental Championship reminded me that the Mage class is still very much a thing as evidenced by Guillame Wafo-Tapa's successful run to the Top 16 sporting Lady Sira'kess. I figured that by starting with a relatively proven control deck and going from there that I'd not go too far wrong. I'll let you be the judge of that, however.

So, Mage. It's remained a solid class in Aftermath Block Limited thanks to an abundance of inexpensive, common removal in [Flame Lance] and [Glacial Tomb], and it also sports some really solid Empower allies in each faction. It also sports some robust card draw in [Bottled Knowledge], as well as [Boundless Magic] for some serious digging potential. We even have an interrupt in [Overload], which is inexpensive enough to allow you to still play a threat to the board in the mid-game and also disrupt your opponent's plan. Broadening these categories of removal and card draw to Aftermath Block Constructed, we can add [Ice Lance], [Whiteout], and [Mana Agate] to the mix. That's discounting the obvious powerhouses of [Shroud of the Archmage] and [Ice Barrier], both of which are incredibly strong rares to build around. No bones about it, there are a lot of great ability reasons to be in Mage right now.

However, Mage in this block has two large, glaring weaknesses: no ability or equipment disruption outside of [Miniature Voodoo Mask], and no really effective ways to deal with Untargetable allies short of playing its own allies. In a format where the gold standard for allies involves a 5/3 for 4 that you can't [Flame Lance] with a free 4/5 behind him that you can't [Glacial Tomb] or a 4/6 for 5 that gets you for 8 each turn, you have to have a game plan for getting those allies out of play with a minimum of damage. Hiding behind [Ice Barrier] won't work thanks to Edwin's thugs, and unless you're willing to play with two resources ready the entire game to [Overload] one of these problem children, you're going to have to deal with them, and in tempo. [Whiteout] isn't so much a solution as it costs six, and [Wildfire] and [Frost Nova] do too little damage. What's a Mage to do?

I hit upon the answer to the first by turning to our friends in the Monster faction, [Harpy Matriarch] and [Gilblin Plunderer]. They're a great value in a format where reliable ability and equipment destruction are very hard to come by, provided you can set up the Empower trigger appropriately. Sporting a Monster hero makes that a breeze, of course, so that's one big worry off of my mind. The other is somewhat tied to being a Monster hero insofar as your deck will have a reasonable amount of Monster allies, what with your deck building restrictions and all. I mean, we'd all love to have eight [Edwin VanCleef] in our decks, but that'd be massive cheating, not to mention prohibitively expensive! So what else cares about having Monster allies in play? Why, [Monstrous Frostbolt Volley], of course!

Now, before you go off and think me absolutely crazy, hear me out. There is still a ton of value to be extracted from the now well-trodden combo of [Gilblin Deathscrounger] and [Monstrous Frostbolt Volley], and Mage needs the big board wipes now more than ever with so many untargetables running around. Deathscrounger, being a persistent threat that relies upon having other monsters in your graveyard, also softens the blow from giving up Horde and Alliance allies in your deck, and you'll definitely be playing a good number of Monsters thanks to the Empower effects you want to take advantage of. You'll also get added mileage from [Bottled Knowledge], being able to toss a Deathscrounger in the graveyard to effectively draw three cards for three resources, which is an untold bargain in this format. And any time you get to chuck 4 damage across your opponent's board out of nowhere, you'll laugh like a maniac.

The next leap of logic is a bit further afield, so I hope you've got your Jump to Conclusions mat handy. We're in Monster Mage for quality Empower effects, good card draw, and the potential to use an inexpensive board wipe with a large and hard to remove ally in [Gilblin Deathscrounger]. There are just two more observations that I want to make before presenting you with a list that represents my vision made manifest. The first is that with Boomer out of the format, Elusive allies with 1 health are suddenly a lot more exciting to play when they can't get immediately answered for value or completely obviated before even entering play. The second is that all of the allies we've discussed thus far for this deck are of the frost damage type, and a reasonable amount of the abilities are from the Frost school. Hrm…

Frost damage types…

Elusive is good…

Board wipes are good…

[Ahune the Frost Lord]. Yes.

No, wait! Come back!

We'll want to have Monster allies in play to make sure that we can play [Monstrous Frostbolt Volley] regularly, and try as we might we probably won't have [Gilblin Deathscrounger] every time we want one. That means that [Echo of Jaina]'s being Elusive is of consequence, as she can sit in play relatively safely and serve as a target for the Volley. Coincidentally, the Echo is made cheaper by [Servant of Neptulon], an oft-undervalued card in Limited that can actually make some big waves in the right kind of deck. And look, he's a Frost ally too, as are both [Harpy Matriarch] and [Gilblin Plunderer]! [Glacial Tomb] will sit in play on an opponent's ally, and [Ice Barrier] is made to just hang out, as is [Whiteout]. It's not that we're building a deck around Ahune, but a lot of the cards you want to be playing anyway happen to be Frost, and he's a legitimate threat after he does his dirty work by coming into play. I'm not sure we'd be playing him if we weren't on the Deathscrounger/Volley plan, but given that we are, I feel that he's a solid, synergistic inclusion to the deck.

The only ally I haven't discussed yet is [Pythisss, Herald of Frost], but a quick glance at her should tell you why she made the cut in. She's a Monster ally for [Gilblin Deathscrounger] to feed off of, she draws you cards, she's a Frost ally for [Servant of Neptulon] and [Ahune the Frost Lord], and she's a Monster for [Monstrous Frostbolt Volley]. In short, she's able to interact with almost every card in your deck favorably, which makes her a really obvious addition. Note that you'll likely not want to be playing her before turn 5 without having an Echo online, but she's a great play for the endgame when you're just looking to stay ahead of your opponent on cards and protect your threats.

Hero: Lady Sira'kess

Allies: 23

3 [Ahune the Frost Lord]

4 [Gilblin Deathscrounger]

3 [Gilblin Plunderer]

3 [Harpy Matriarch]

2 [Pythisss, Herald of Frost]

4 [Echo of Jaina]

4 [Servant of Neptulon]

Abilities: 27

3 [Flame Lance]

3 [Infinite Brilliance]

3 [Frost Blast]

4 [Glacial Tomb]

4 [Ice Barrier]

4 [Monstrous Frostbolt Volley]

4 [Overload]

2 [Whiteout]

Equipment: 4

4 [Bottled Knowledge]

Locations: 3

3 [Throne of the Tides]

Quests: 3

3 [Signed in Blood]

The "obvious" exclusions are [Commander Ulthok] and [Pygmy Pyramid], so let me say a few words about them. While I'd love to have Ulthok in here, I figure that with such a wide open and untested format with best of one matches his value will be artificially lower than you'd expect. If you're playing Block in October, however, I'd consider making room for him as the format should have settled down and you'll be more aware of what your opponents are playing. [Pygmy Pyramid] is a lot harder to justify excluding given his Elusive keyword and relevant additional text, so I won't fault you for wanting to put him in there. I decided that to really try to gauge the effectiveness of Ahune and the Servant I wanted to spike the meter on Frost cards, but if they prove insufficiently compelling (or if you don't have access to Ahune) you could substitute Pyramids in. You could also bump the [Whiteout] count or add [Twilight Frost Evoker], but the latter not being a Monster is a real bummer. I also left [Shroud of the Archmage] out given that we have a hero flip that exhausts our hero, but I could be persuaded to include it given that we don't have a glut of inexpensive frost cards to play like [Glaciate] or a full four [Frost Blast]. With the eight cost reducers, however, we may be able to reliably flip in the midgame. That's certainly something to consider adjusting with testing.

That'll do it for me this week. If you're heading to Gen Con, then I strongly encourage you to take Mage for a spin in your Block testing gauntlet, and don't be surprised to see some Mages running around come State Champs. There's a lot of good stuff in there to explore, so don't be shy about just throwing it all together and seeing what sticks and what doesn't. I hope you've enjoyed this chilly blast of frost on this summer's day, and I'll see you after Gen Con!

-Jim