Deck Guide: Big Spell Mage - The Most Popular Deck in Perils in Paradise!

Last week, on September 10th, Hearthstone fans happily welcomed 38 new cards from the new mini-set, Traveling Travel Agency (click here if you want to see all the cards!).

These new cards, obviously, improved more than a few decks. One of them is Big Spell Mage, which welcomed Portalmancer Skyla. We mentioned this deck before in our mini-set review.

Currently (September 14th), Big Spell Mage holds the title of the best deck in the game, and has a 61.83% win rate, according to HSReplay data.

Besides powerful, it is quite popular, and frequently shows up in Hearthstone's Standard queue. For these reasons, we at Cards Realm decided to write a guide on how to play with Big Spell Mage. Check it out!

This list's goal is to play as many powerful, expensive spells as you can, either after discounting them or after playing another buff.

Portalmancer Skyla, thus, fits this deck perfectly, as her effect, which swaps the costs of two spells in your hand, will make these expensive spells cheaper. Yes, you'll have to rely a bit on RNG, as you'll swap costs at random.

Furthermore, she has the keyword Rogue: Tourist, so, with her, you'll be able to use Rogue cards even though this is a mage deck.

Why Use Rogue Cards?

This list includes three Rogue cards: Metal Detector, Sea Shill, and Conniving Conman.

These three cards are all great if you want to cast expensive, powerful spells: Metal Detector gives you Coins, Sea Shill discounts the cost of your cards, and Conniving Conman literally replays the last card you've played from a non-Rogue class. You'll mostly play it after you play one of your other spells.

In this deck, whose goal is to buff your spells as much as you can, these Rogue cards definitely stand out. Even the Coins Metal Detector gives you are more important than they seem because they are great with Portalmancer Skyla. If you swap their cost with a 9 or 10 mana spell, for instance, you'll get to play those spells for free.

Now that we've shown you which Rogue cards we use in this deck and why, let's discuss our Neutral and Mage cards! As the stars of this deck are your spells, we'll start with them.

Spells

We don't play many spells, but they're all extremely relevant.

Under the Sea is the one that stands out the least, but it still draws you cards and summons a 6-cost minion right away.

Another spell that summons a minion on your board is Sunset Volley. In fact, it summons a 10-cost minion and deals 10 damage randomly split among all enemies. It is perfect to clear the enemy board or even win the game, as you'll be able to deal a lot of damage to the enemy hero after you play this card.

Finally, we have Tsunami, which summons, on your board, four 3/6 Water Elementals that Freeze. And there's more: they'll also attack one random enemy right away, so they are great to clear boards and force your opponent to answer them, since most of their board will be frozen.

Minions

On your first turn, you can play Miracle Salesman, which will give you a relatively "useless" spell that will become useful when we play Portalmancer Skyla. With this card, you might have a 1-mana Tsunami or Sunset Volley later on.

Scarab Keychain is also a great starter, as its effect will give you something to play in the next round.

There are many minions you can play on turn 2, like Gold Panner, which is a great way to get more resources, Wandmaker, which works similarly to Miracle Salesman, and Cult Neophyte, which disrupts your opponent.

There's also another card you can play on turn 2: Greedy Partner, which gives you a Coin if you have any 2-cost cards in hand.

Watercolor Artist draws you a Frost spell, which will always be Tsunami, and then discounts its cost by one. Even though it only costs 3 mana, I highly recommend you play it after turn 5, when you have a Surfalopod in play. This card will make the next spell you draw "Cast When Drawn".

Setting up this Surfalopod Watercolor Artist combo, in this exact order, will put Tsunami in play way earlier than usual.

Honestly, I believe King Tide is one of the most powerful minions in this deck. It sets the cost of all spells (both yours and the opponent's) to five until the end of the next turn.

Most lists play cheap spells that cost 2 to 4 mana, so increasing their cost by one will be very disruptive to your opponent. This effect will also let you play Tsunami or Sunset Volley on turn 5.

Your most expensive minions all cost five: Portalmancer Skyla and Surfalopod. I won't comment on them further, as we've explained what they do pretty well.

Your Big Spells are the only way to win a match, so the only question left to answer is what is the most efficient way to use them.

There are many various ways: one of them is with the Coins Greedy Partner and Metal Detector give you. In the image below, notice that they let me play Sunset Volley two rounds early.

We can get these same Coins, or the spells Miracle Salesman and Wandmaker give you and swap their cost with the cost of your Big Spells with Portalmancer Skyla.

The Surfalopod Watercolor Artist combo is also quite efficient. Check out the example below. I played my Surfalopod, and then played Watercolor Artist. I then drew Tsunami automatically, and it was played straight away, which gave me an unbeatable board. It also froze the enemy hero and cleared the way for me to attack them. All that on turn 6.

We also have Sea Shill, Conniving Conman, and King Tide.

Your win condition is quite clear. The challenge while playing this list is knowing which path you should follow in each match to get there.

This deck's mulligan is quite simple: focus on your 1-cost minions, as well as Greedy Partner and Gold Panner.

Finding Portalmancer Skyla is also quite interesting, as she is one of the main tools you'll use to cast your Big Spells.

Aggro

These are your worst matchups, as you don't have a great way to deal with numerous minions early on. Your spells may help you with that, but you'll certainly take a lot of damage until you get there.

I highly recommend you look for your Metal Detector in your mulligan. Even though it doesn't deal AoE damage, it will help you clear some enemy minions.

Other than that, stick to your main strategy.

Control

You don't have to worry about these matchups because slower decks usually threaten opponents with lots of healing and removals. As our minions were never our win conditions, their removals won't matter much.

Early heals will also not be that helpful, as we'll deal more damage after turn five or six.

If you want to see some gameplay, check out the video below! You'll be able to see, in practice, this deck's weaknesses and strengths. Obviously, we won't be able to cover all possible situations with only three matches, but I believe you'll be able to learn something from them.

I hope this article helped you understand Big Spell Mage a bit more. This list is not that simple, considering how many ways you can play it in a single match, but it will truly give you consistent results!

Did you like this list? Tell us your thoughts in our comment section below.

Thank you for reading, and see you next time!