Goblins V.S Gnomes

[uberfish]

Sneed's has been very unimpressive when played against me. Theoretically it has huge trading value but is easy to stall, silence or just ignore.

I also had trouble building priest for ladder, it feels like either you're very strong against aggro or control at the expense of the other, or mediocre against everything. Undertaker builds are also very susceptible to bad draws because priest can't afford to run 8 1-2 cost death rattles like zoo/hunter do.

[uberfish]

here's what I'm currently playing for discussion:

Mage Duplicate Control

2 - frostbolt x2, explosive sheep x2, mad scientist x2, sunfury protector x1
3 - duplicate x2, frost nova x1, ice block x1, BGH x1
4 - echo of medivh x1, polymorph x2, twilight drake x2
5 - antique healbot x2, sludge belcher x2
6 - Sylvanas
7 - flamestrike x2
8 - Ragnaros
12 - mountain giant x1
20 - molten giant x2

card choices

3x Secrets: I only want at most 1 secret that isn't duplicate here because the deck ideally wants to get Duplicate from mad scientists and spend the mid game spamming Twilight Drake or Sludge Belcher copies. the ice block could maybe even be cut, but it buys a turn to play more aggressively against Druid/Rogue/Hunter.

1x Echo: because it can be hard to safely play this card, I feel 2 is overkill.

Ragnaros: because duplicate Ragnaros usually kills opposing control decks.

No Dr Boom: It is hard leaving this card out of a control deck, but it has poor synergy with Duplicate (boom bots aren't great) and can't be Echoed on the same turn without coin.

No Alexstrasza: Using her for damage feels like overkill. Also do not want this card duplicated due to the 9 mana cost and effect being weak on the second play. I'd rather have 2 heal bots.

1x sunfury protector: probably the most debatable card atm but taunting molten giants and then echoing can lock down the game. a bit iffy against druids because they tend to still run Black Knight.

2x Polymorph over fireball: because fireball doesn't take care of deathrattle creatures or giants and the deck doesn't really need burst. enemy Sylvanas is very awkward to handle without this.

[pindicator]

I'll have to give it a try - but you forgot to include two of the cards

[uberfish]

the 2 missing cards are arcane intellect, also I switched Sylvanas out for Dr Boom because she hadn't been doing that well

[uberfish]

update

Frost Nova out, 2nd mountain giant in, since the metagame at higher ranks is shifting towards slower decks and there were a few silly games against control where I didn't draw drakes or mountain giant, resulting in not playing any threats until turn 7/8 Ragnaros. The 2nd Mountain makes things more consistent. A couple of opponents misread this as me being a Freeze mage and played their BGH out early

I think this deck is better against current meta than handlock because it has a very good Hunter matchup and can defend against combo druid a lot more easily. Double cabal/shrink control priest is a nightmare but fortunately there aren't that many of them

[uberfish]

about 60% win rate in the 5- ladder bracket this season but 0-4 against shamans so far though, I need to rethink my strategy against them

[uberfish]

More tweaking, currently looking at the following list at rank 3

2 - frostbolt x2, explosive sheep, ironbeak owl, mad scientist x2
3 - MC tech, arcane intellect x2, duplicate x2, ice block, BGH
4 - echo of medivh, polymorph, twilight drake x2
5 - antique healbot x2, sludge belcher x2
6 - sylvanas
7 - flamestrike x2, dr boom
8 - ragnaros
12 - mountain giant x2
20 - molten giant x2

the cuts:

Sunfury protector -> ironbeak owl: Avoiding The Black Knight, which lots of people are playing atm. this change didn't hurt against aggro because silencing undertaker/nerubian egg early buys just as much time. due to the large amount of death rattle minions being played, Owl being duplicated is also generally fine.

1 Sheep -> MC tech: these cards have a similar purpose vs aggro but the sheep just sit in hand against control. MC tech should help with the bad Shaman matchup and can be played as a 3/3 against control to get some board presence.

1 Polymorph -> Sylvanas: more midrange decks appeared which Sylvanas is good against. having something in the 6 slot also smooths out the mana curve for less awkward turns.