Limited Skills - Magically Delicious
By Brad Watson

Mage just crushed Block Constructed at the World Championships, and is widely acknowledged as the king of the Draft classes. Brad explains why, and when, you should try to get into Mage.

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Glenn Jones
Contributing Editor - WoW TCG and WoW Minis

Coverage Writer Extraordinaire
The War Wagon @ www.starcitywow.com
One Card at a Time @ www.wowtcg.com

Season 2 Feralas Realm Champion

I dont like Nicholas Merrick anymore to be honest. depending on what Abilities i have i would probably prefer Spellweaver Jihan nowadays.
Most of the times Nicholas' Flip just kills a 2-Drop and thats all. you can do much meaner things with the Jihan Flip :D.
I also like Zimo more than Velindra even though i think it doesnt really matter.

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Player of the Year 2009

Ze Puns....they still hurtz....!


Nicholas is something I'd still pick for the psychological factor.

Depending on how many abilities spellweaver may be good, she's more situational while merrick is an always on sweeper.  If you get lucky and get multiple heartburns/blazes going Jihan may get you more, but if you only get a few abilities stick with Merrick.

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Only two things are infinite......

2223150:

Most of the times Nicholas' Flip just kills a 2-Drop and thats all. you can do much meaner things with the Jihan Flip :D.

what you might not be factoring in is that it is ALSO stopping your opponent from even playing his 1 and 3 drops that would die to the flip, so he is just holding/rowing them, making it so you can't curve out the merrick deck at all.  It's a pretty strong flip.

I'm not sure that blue mage is the best draft class though as Watson seems to say. I prefer Horde Priest :P

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Using Jihan over Merrick makes your 25-health significantly more vulnerable, due to their renewed willingness to curve out on you. I'm not saying Jihan is wrong, but realistically the opponent will a) play around the abilities they know you have since you're using Jihan and b) start as aggressively as possible to send you backpedaling. Merrick is just better most of the time. His flip can often mimic Jihan's in combination sequences anyway.

As for Velindra vs. Zimo, I think that one depends on the deck completely, and neither is significantly better in the abstract.

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Glenn Jones
Contributing Editor - WoW TCG and WoW Minis

Coverage Writer Extraordinaire
The War Wagon @ www.starcitywow.com
One Card at a Time @ www.wowtcg.com

Season 2 Feralas Realm Champion

Merrick doesn't usually kill more than one dude because a skilled opponent would play around the flip. The fact that they have to make suboptimal plays by itself makes the flip really good.

If I know I'm going Merrick, I'd be fine underdrafting low drops because I know my opponent would never be able to curve out on me.

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My entire collection for sale.

Inspiring presence can also make the flip extra busted :(

I liked the article though!  Yay for mage.  I didn't actually draft it, sadly...

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My deckbox says "Other Matt"
Northwest WoW messageboards - Northwest WoW forums

Yes, I would certainly agree that Inspiring Presence makes Nicholas extra dangerous.  I can't really see many situations where I'd prefer Spellweaver, except something ridiculous like double Taste of Arcana.  Nicholas seems like he's almost always better, mostly for reasons mentioned above.

I do agree with SCM that Horde Priest is one of the best (and probably my favorite).  Sometimes commons like Circle of Blood will blow you out since they can make tons of little guys to block your removal (making an ally like Gladiator Skumm extra special).  I've seen both Priest and Mage in "unstoppable mode" where few other classes have really reached that point.

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I like Blue Mage but find myself preferring Horde Priest and any Pally. Also having played with and against both Valindra and Zimo, I think Zimo is horribly underplayed. That is a deceptively powerful flip.

2103204:

I like Blue Mage but find myself preferring Horde Priest and any Pally. Also having played with and against both Valindra and Zimo, I think Zimo is horribly underplayed. That is a deceptively powerful flip.

I agree! I won a draft w/ Zimo yesterday. The flip was great!

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7th after Constructed 2007 US Nationals
2nd Feralas Realm Championship 3
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1879777:

2103204:

I like Blue Mage but find myself preferring Horde Priest and any Pally. Also having played with and against both Valindra and Zimo, I think Zimo is horribly underplayed. That is a deceptively powerful flip.

I agree! I won a draft w/ Zimo yesterday. The flip was great!

At best it's Merricks flip on your opponents turn, at worst its 2 damage to an ally. I'd rather have a poly morph available any time.

1502743:

1879777:

2103204:

I like Blue Mage but find myself preferring Horde Priest and any Pally. Also having played with and against both Valindra and Zimo, I think Zimo is horribly underplayed. That is a deceptively powerful flip.

I agree! I won a draft w/ Zimo yesterday. The flip was great!

At best it's Merricks flip on your opponents turn, at worst its 2 damage to an ally. I'd rather have a poly morph available any time.

Polymorph is great but I really like having a flip that functions as removal. I played against Tim Batow in an I-Pod draft where he used Zimo to control the board early one game and to stave off an attack in another. It's something that your opponent will worry about in games 2 and 3 if you catch him with it. The more I play with the 2 the more I prefer Zimo.

fwiw, at NACC I drafted horde mage in draft 2, and so did a freind of mine.  When he showed me his deck, with Velindra Sepulchre as the hero, i said "you picked the wrong hero" and flashed him Zimo from my deck.  I didn't even think it was that close. 

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Check out my Article Series "Tools of the Trade" here at wowtcg.com!

I dunno, man. Velindra's flip is pretty dang good. They are both solid.. it's just situational. Sometimes one will be better, sometimes the other. might depend on your deck.

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