Control Mage: A new deck - Hearthstone TGT

Not Grinder Mage(which some have mistakenly titled Control Mage) or any other type of Mage you've seen. What's the difference? Grinder Mage won by throwing more minions at the opponent than they had cards to deal with. Control Mage is about having enough reactive cards in your deck that you can deal with whatever comes your way.
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0:07 vs Dragon Rogue
7:14 vs Tempo Mage
15:05 vs Totem Shaman
23:10 vs Mech Mage
TGT decks: imgur.com/a/k5iIg
/ strifecro
/ strifecro
Music at the end of the video is Legend of One - Kevin MacLeod(incompetech.com)

[@TheDuerden]

Love this deck, been playing it very successfully for the last few days, just love the variety and ability to deal with so many different situations that come up in the game. Very good build!

[@austin8313]

You're my new favorite streamer for the following reasons: you talk a lot but aren't annoying, you are really good, and the most important thing is that you use new cool decks instead of different variations of the same decks that everyone is playing.

[@mrhappy192]

Welcome to Cloud 9 Weather Forecast!

[@isthisnameavailablea]

if he has a dragon, what does that means???? ............. he has dragons. strifecro 2015 love you strifecro.

[@Patashu]

Dat Worthless Imp / Illidan Stormrage synergy O_O

[@MadnessTW]

+Patashu Best Sense Demons NA.

[@zackolot]

Worthless Imp is also strong with hobgoblin.

[@dodde216]

+damadman228 I mean 5 mana, summon three 2/1's and two 1/1's Ill take that any day.

[@ALMOOSTASHAR]

+Patashu And then the classic "A recent opponent wants to be your friend"

[@jakethewhale]

Thanks for the deck! I have been pioneering a similar build, but it was more of a grinder build. Your take on this deck is much appreciated and I will reconsider how mine can be improved

[@16snipeshot]

Now THIS is what I've been waiting for.

[@sergejgaylord]

You always show interesting decks to us which are very fun to play!

[@tropingreenhorn]

Hey StrifeCro, just wanted to say that I really enjoy your videos. Idk if you will even read this haha. I especially like to hear you talk through your reasoning on your turns and to discuss matchups. It really helps me to gain perapective on the game and improve as a strategy gamer. peace out

[@ArianaRosalia]

Actually strifeco, control mage did exist before TGT and people regularly made legend with it. And no I'm not talking about grinder mage or freeze mage. It worked well in the meta during the 2 months prior to TGT as it could beat all of the top decks going around like Patron Warrior, Control Warrior, Ebola Paladin, etc with ease. All you have here is a newer TGT version of an already successful deck type. Control Mage is what made Illuminator become a good card overnight, and now Illuminator has been seen in decks other than Control Mage. Era is one of numerous pro players that streamed himself getting legend with it in season 16 (July). Here's the typical decklist: Frostbolt x2 Duplicate x2 Frost Nova x2 Ice Block x2 Fireball x2 Polymorph x2 Flamestrike x2 Explosive Sheep x2 Mad Scientist x2 Unstable Ghoul x1 Acolyte of Pain x2 Big Game Hunter x1 Illuminator x1 Antique Healbot x1 Sludge Belcher x2 Emperor Thaurissan x1 Sylvanas Windrunner x1 Ragnaros the Firelord x1 Alexstrasza x1

[@hugoberglin4643]

Ok

[@erickpurnama]

This deck is so fun! One question though: is the Control Warrior matchup unwinnable? Feels like they have so many removals that even if you manage to kill all their threats (not an easy task to begin with, considering Flamestrike and Sheep don't kill everything in that matchup) you still won't have enough damage to kill them, even with Anton into Echo; and you'll just end up dying to fatigue. Am I approaching the matchup incorrectly? There's no OTK combo like the old double Apprentice deck, so I'm not really sure what the win condition is.

[@Br8kz]

what could you replace justicar trueheart with if you don't have him?

[@SolamenteAllan]

A wisp, trust me on this one

[@lawoftheeast]

Best Sense Demons value I've seen yet.

[@hohoboi]

nice vid! finally a real control mage! thank you for this!

[@EndTheEnding]

The last game was definitely sniping, freeze sheep to block bulcher, play around echo, concede with almost full health. Shame on you artzilol!

[@Chizzoide]

I don't agree. Players learn to recognize the potential cards that the other deck could run by what you seen. i.e. if you see a lots of Healing bots, means that the win condition is somewhere else, because it doesn't stop aggro by itself. or if you see unusual card draw, like Loot hoarders and Acolytes of Pain, you should think of what combo the other guy might be looking for.

[@Chizzoide]

about the sheep play, it was very cleaver because it forced StrifeCro to spend 2 extra mana on his turn, plus saving 1 extra 3health guy

[@yoanageorgieva3068]

+郑昊旻 When you're an aggro deck playing against control and you've run out of cards, you might as well save yourself some time and concede, you're not winning.

[@aaaaaaaaaaaa808]

+郑昊旻 He might knew 'cause he might have played against Strifecro before this match, since they all on the legend rank bracket or he conceded because he was out of option and try to save some time.

[@macarongblack3694]

+郑昊旻 if i play tempo mage against control, i would concede if i run out of cards and my opponent isnt even close to dying

[@patlee4858]

"this one time in hearthstone, i made sense demon a win more condition" Illidan for MVP 2015

[@FranRojo91]

Strifcro, some doubts, why antonidas with so few and expensive spells, and why not the reduce to 1 mana cost your hero power card ( at least 1)

[@allwecanseeisaboveusnow]

StrifeCro is the Sun Tzu of Hearthstone

[@zeeiremonger9201]

hey strife i really enjoy watching your vids and it would be great if you could post more often :D

[@TheAzertjuh]

+Zach Iremonger 2 times a day is not enough?

[@user-zg3gh8xg9v]

+TheAzertjuh MOAR ! We need MOAARRR !!1!1

[@engladtur]

+Zach Iremonger wtf

[@carlosdelarosa497]

Strifecro, how did you get that column that show your used deck?

[@chasemitchell8166]

"He's a dragon deck" "well what does that mean" "he has dragons" the genius himself ladies and gentlemen

[@marcosmorales1532]

12 basics cards :3, very nice, I will create this deck

[@EpicUltraKingSmizzy]

spellslinger is so bad, every spell it gave ended up gaining you an advantage

[@Chizzoide]

it's not very exciting, supposedly works better with the wyrms and apprentices and Wakers but is so random that is not reliable enough.. spare parts are easier to control, and if u want a 3 drop I'd totally prefer Kirin Tor over Spellslinger so much tempo gain.

[@Kratatch]

+EpicUltraKingSmizzy I did the misstake to draft 2 of them in Arena. Well, that did not end very well. Gave my opponents Mark of the Wilds and Flame strikes every time i used it while i got Bladeflurry and poisions exept once when i got sense demon. That run was prob one of my worst ones.

[@Baptiste3395]

What about more dragons ? Maybe 2 azure drakes and 2 twilight guardians instead of senjin, seems more efficient to me

[@WaidoGodX]

i have almost all the cards from this deck but justicar trueheart and sylvanas. which of the two has a greater impact^^ which should i craft? also would alexratzza be an option?

[@dodde216]

+Waidowai Justicar, sylvanas is kinda falling out of favour. yes alex would be an option, but not a good one. Maybe take a blizzard :)

[@WaidoGodX]

Well right now i have 1,8k dust and could get up to 5k dust if i disancheant all the classes i dont play (got pretty alot of class legandaries for the classes that i dont play^^) currently i crafted rag, AA, dr. boom. iam still not sure what legandary would be best to craft next. iam crafting just for mage so the other classes dont matter that much (maybe warrior and priest a little bit, but i wont craft stuff for them). I love to play control and tempo so iam not sure if i should craft alex, sylv or any other legendary^^ also iam missing some good epics like BGH and Medivh Echo, the Coldarr Drake, Fireball(the big one) and a seccond ice block^^. what would u recommend to craft for me and why? keep in mind i favor control;P

[@ecormed]

StrifeCro How would you play this deck against a handlock?

[@NikozBG]

I like the deck, but I was thinking if u can remove the Mad Scientists since u want to set up for effigy manually, and the only very good secret to pull is Barrier. So u can remove 1 barrier + 2 scientist for another fallen hero + dr. boom + 1 meta tech card or probably even duplicate.

[@NikozBG]

***** Still if u run duplicate or/and another echo like the grinder mage it may be helpful. Flamecannon also can be good. My point is that 2/2 for 2 is not amazing and sometimes it can mess your effigy.

[@moneymusicvideogames]

Why Sen'jin over water elemental?Is it just for effigy or do you think the taunt is better than the freeze currently?

[@kianhowtan2429]

+Lord KingPuba He mentions people ignores creature trading if they suspect its effigy, with taunt they are forced to attack it unless silence, hex etc

[@zacharyadler4071]

It is just for effigy. If he didnt run the taunt, he mentions he would run refreshment vendor

[@Chizzoide]

Today in arena I was thinking that "hey, Mage has the best sinergy with sheep it should be abused on ladder" Here it is, great deck :3 you died to the weapon so maybe adding an ooze somewhere? or Harrison instead of Justicar since that guy it's pretty slow

[@Chizzoide]

and Harri should be good in the meta vs paladins warriors hunters and that shamy.

[@BK-ku1zt]

+Agustin Rizzo the meta now is no more weapon focused than it was before TGT. I have no idea if your trolling about replacing justicar as a good part of the deck synergises well with her (fallen hero, coldarra drake and effigy in a sense as there are a lot of better 6 drops you can get from her dying). though there is more control warrior now that's sort of balanced out by the lack of aggro hunters - midrange and L&L are more popular right now and those don't run glaivezooka + play eaglehorn bow to kill things rather than tempo or hitting you in the face.

[@Chizzoide]

Idk if you are trolling about Justicar dying easy is a good thing

[@Sdicdcsxz]

Great deck!

[@nicholasbarnes753]

Yay thanks strifecro you the god

[@jackson6355]

I switched a sheildmasta for nexus champion and the synergy with hero power works great I need justices bad tho

[@LouisHaarp]

+StrifeCro why not Polymorph instead of fireball at 5:30?

[@Lemmy_Kilturtle]

+Luis Souza Because Malygos :)

[@creatinovic]

what about new archetypes like spelldmg-mage, pure shadow-priest or nerubian-rogue?

[@sleepywoodelf]

+Violinschluessel Kripp did nerubian rogue, if you haven't seen it. He said it's fun but really sucks.

[@rodrigogarmendiagalleguill6745]

which is the better deck to rank right now?

[@seangough5228]

Who is DotobestDoto? These are the questions that keep me away from legend rank.

[@nicholasbarnes753]

I just noticed that he didn't draw Justicar Trueheart at all this video lol

[@stevenronnie713]

Hello, anybody have a decklist on this rogue dragon please? The deck of "Nakkna" player, the first match of this video. Thanks :)

[@Ajihn]

Has any one else realized that core hound with effigy is amazing? If core hound dies you get a 9 mana minion if you don't kill it then it's 9 damage every turn

[@dg19de]

+Andrew Varghese core hound is seven mana

[@pudding9004]

You get a 7

[@dodde216]

she thinks effigy goes off attack, which it doesn't that's probably why she said that ^^

[@Ajihn]

+Neil Farwoods no I thought core hound costed 9 mana. Oops

[@marcoguidi1625]

Please make a good new grinder mage, the last one before the expansion was awesome :)

[@jacohorn5912]

Awesome videos! keep it up

[@MrZocker95]

wouldn't be Dr. Boom better then Archmage Antonidas?

[@Nillerus]

DRAW. It's pronounced draw, dammit. There's no goddamn "L" in there. Shit drives me crazy.

[@dodde216]

+Nils Ververs Lübke Where do you hear an L lol..

[@BigBrothersEnd]

+Nils Ververs Lübke I think that it's an unconscious mispronunciation, nothing to be angry about.

[@dodde216]

Lol indeed. "Drawl"

[@Maren617]

He means "card drawal", not "drawl". English is not my native language, but drawal is a word and I think it may be correct to use it here.

[@dodde216]

Cascade617 I'm talking about pronounciation not spelling.

[@MachinegunnerMugZ]

Demon Mage NEW META PogChamp

[@Tommy9102-q5n]

This deck play on the rank is ok???

[@jofac22]

Do you think grinder Mage will ever come back? :'(

[@AstridCeleste96]

+jofac22 I like to think Effigy, Double Dup, Ice Barrier with 1 copy of Kirin Tor could be viable. Maybe even Double Effigy/Barrier and/or 2 Kirin Tor.

[@kianhowtan2429]

+Therrion ` thats more tempo based then grinder though dont you think? the idea of grinder was copying the same good minion and replaying them such that your opponent run out of steam. With effigy the control of what you are getting back is way reliant on RNG. still, could be worth trying out. my tgt grinder is a freeze mage hybrid with 1 chow, 2 doomsayers and 2 frost novas.

[@TrollAxeThrower]

22:15 so many sheep and explosives on a board.

[@ДмитрийСергеевич-т6з]

what name of this deck tracker?

[@wtfronsson]

Mom stop vacuum BabyRage

[@dustinbreakey4707]

sick intro

[@jonathanquezada2620]

please play shaman not necessarily token shaman can be something new?

[@diokosa7001]

I think you should have added duplicate and death lords to this list if you wanna make a control Mage deck maybe Elise or Millhouse mana storm kappa

[@cthulhu000]

22:13 BEHOLD THE MIGHTY DR SHEEP

[@henryt9731]

REALLY? HD800 FOR GAMING? SERIOUSLY?????

[@Snowtenks]

15:14 to skip the kripp

[@AlexTTzer0]

I dont think u can handle rush-decks with this deck...

[@hugoberglin4643]

You have frostbolts, mad scientist, fallen hero and explosive sheep as early game and then belcher, ice barrier, healbot, and flamestrike so you can stabilize

[@havocgr1976]

Seriously that mage never heard of concede? ;p

[@pkiskool]

deck is way too heavy... if you get dealt with cards like justicar, emperor, and cordara, you just take beating even before you get to flamestrike at 7...

[@JordorConor]

I thought you played control mage, but you ended up playing demonlock xD

[@lovroxyz3119]

anybody tested what hapens if u play justicar truehart 2ce in a game?

[@eliasbraun461]

The 2nd time nothing changes

[@lovroxyz3119]

well that sucks

[@lovroxyz3119]

i kinda wanted to make mage deck echo/justicard edc for eaven more dmg on fireball :D

[@TrollAxeThrower]

+lovro krsul A. it's "Fireblast". B. that would be OP. C. the card specifically says that it replaces the basic hero power.

[@lovroxyz3119]

Troll Axe Thrower a: its called ping for actual name i dont give a fuck b: nah it wouldnt be that op c:all i know is it buffs ur hero power

[@vaguira2]

Rhonin?

[@PoisonousCurry]

thought you had golden mage?

[@strifecro]

+PoisonousCurry Sometimes play on Europe and sometimes NA. That stuff doesn't carry over from server to server.

[@alfrederdogan5532]

+StrifeCro Hey! What deck/decks do u recommend climbing with? I got a handlock deck but I don't wanna play with it all day... I'd be glad if u respond since u are my favourite hs player, keep it up!💪😀

[@okeisgoe2]

+Alfred Häglund I'm not Strifecro, sorry for that but from my experience the best budget laddering decks are zoo, face hunter, midrange hunter and ramp druid, although ramp druid is not really budget. Since TGT I also think Totem Shaman is worth looking at (2 legendaries, no epics and a few rare).

[@alfrederdogan5532]

+okeisgoe2 Ya thanks man, I still appreciate support, well I won't cancer ladder with face hunter but well zoo is something.

[@okeisgoe2]

+Alfred Häglund best laddering and budget decks are cancer, such a shame.

[@korvokorvo]

28:00 best 1 drop to get? LOL

[@Delemaroth]

Dr. Baaaaalance

[@SkyZo222]

Control... in this meta... lol this deck gets so rekt by anything

[@Hellsfœx]

7 huntards doesn't like use brain

[@TheAlphaLucifer]

Rogues are damn annoying, they have like 1 mana left and still they use 10+ cards. People grow old before Rogue is done with its stupid turn.

[@DerNesor]

worthless imps ... I had no idea :D

[@Dbenji29]

Wtf was that rogue. Looks extremely inconsistent.

[@minecraftwithferal]

Wow I'm early :D

[@Arpification]

FIRST?!?!?!

[@Diolusion]

I hate how similar strifecrow and mascaan look, i fucking hate mascaan! and for some reason when i see strifecrow, i want to punch him, but then i realise its just a sex panda...

[@SNGT91]

sad to see people are still playing shit like mech mage.. so boring