Hearthstone: Even Mage deck guide (Genn Greymane)
What Genn Greymane will mean for the Mage when The Witchwood arrives.
If you've not been keeping up with the latest developments for The Witchwood - Hearthstone's eighth expansion - then you might not be aware of a new Legendary card called Genn Greymane. This minion has the fascinating ability to reduce the cost of your Hero Power to one Mana for the entire match, but only if you've included not a single odd-cost card in your deck.
Along with its counterpart Baku the Mooneater, this new kind of card presents some tantalising opportunities to create wholly original decks for the game. It'll certainly offer a fun deck-building challenge, as players fight to create the most powerful version of these decks while negating the downsides as much as possible.
In an effort to get to grips with what this new card is going to mean to the Mage's upcoming meta, we've put together an overview of all the cards that you won't be able to make use of in a Genn Greymane Mage deck. This by itself should provide some fascinating insight into the kind of decks that will and won't be possible if you're to trigger that cheaper Hero Power.
Once The Witchwood expansion actually goes live, we'll start adding in deck lists to this article, so you can take all of the latest creations for a spin. In the meantime though, here's how Genn Greymane will affect the Mage's collection of cards!
Even Mage deck list
This Even Mage deck list was concocted by Thijs, and it's essentially a Spiteful Mage deck. We're not sure about the interaction between Book of Specters and Spiteful Summoner but Thijs is claiming a big winrate with the deck. Consider this one a bit experimental in the first week of the new meta:
| Mage | Neutral |
|---|---|
| 1 x Archmage Arugal | 2 x Acidic Swamp Ooze |
| 2 x Book of Specters | 1 x Doomsayer |
| 1 x Pyros | 2 x Faerie Dragon |
| 1 x Toki, Time-Tinker | 2 x Plated Beetle |
| 2 x Pyroblast | 2 x Fire Plume Phoenix |
| 2 x Scaleworm | |
| 2 x Spellbreaker | |
| 2 x Twilight Drake | |
| 1 x Genn Greymane | |
| 1 x Mossy Horror | |
| 2 x Spiteful Summoner | |
| 2 x Primordial Drake | |
| 2 x Mountain Giant |
Select and copy the long ID string below, then create a deck in Hearthstone to export this deck into your game.
Deck Import ID: AAECAf0EBooBysECy+wCz+8CzPQCzfQCDOEE8gWKB+EHjQi/CKzCAsnHAurmAtfrAs7vAonxAgA=
Genn Greymane and Mages in the Classic / Basic sets
You won't be able to make use of any of the following Mage Basic or Classic cards if you want to build an effective Genn Greymane deck for the hero. Not all of these see as much play as the others, but we mention them all as you never know what will prove commonplace in the next meta!
Classic
- Mana Wyrm (1 Mana)
- Counterspell (3 Mana)
- Ice Barrier (3 Mana)
- Ice Block (3 Mana)
- Kirin Tor Mage (3 Mana)
- Mirror Entity (3 Mana)
- Spellbender (3 Mana)
- Vaporize (3 Mana)
- Counterspell (3 Mana)
- Archmage Antonidas (7 Mana)
- Pyroblast (10 Mana)
Basic
- Arcane Missiles (1 Mana)
- Mirror Image (1 Mana)
- Arcane Intellect (3 Mana)
- Frost Nova (3 Mana)
- Flamestrike (7 Mana)
More great Mage guides:
- 1. Secret Mage - Secret Mage deck list guide (Witchwood)
- 2. Big Spell Mage - Big Spell Mage deck list guide (Witchwood)
- 3. Elemental Mage - Elemental Mage deck list guide (Witchwood)
- 4. Best Decks - The best Hearthstone decks
- 5. Tier List - Hearthstone deck tier list
Genn Greymane and Mages in the Standard format
The following cards will be locked out from Genn Greymane Mages deck when the Year of the Raven begins with the launch of The Witchwood. We're including The Witchwood Neutrals here, and will link to our general Neutral page as soon as it's available:
The Witchwood
- Black Cat (3 Mana)
- Cinderstorm (3 Mana)
- Bonfire Elemental (5 Mana)
- Curio Collector (5 Mana)
Un'Goro
- Open the Waygate (1 Mana)
- Mana Bind (3 Mana)
Frozen Throne
- Breath of Sindragosa (1 Mana)
- Coldwraith (3 Mana)
- Doomed Apprentice (3 Mana)
- Frozen Clone (3 Mana)
- Simulacrum (3 Mana)
- Frost Lich Jaina (9 Mana)
Kobolds and Catacombs
- Arcane Artificer (1 Mana)
- Explosive Runes (3 Mana)
- Deck of Wonders (5 Mana)
- Dragon's Fury (5 Mana)
- Dragoncaller Alanna (9 Mana)
Other Baku / Genn deck guides:
| Baku the Mooneater | Genn Greymane |
|---|---|
| Odd Druid | Even Druid |
| Odd Hunter | Even Hunter |
| Odd Mage | Even Mage |
| Odd Paladin | Even Paladin |
| Odd Priest | Even Priest |
| Odd Rogue | Even Rogue |
| Odd Shaman | Even Shaman |
| Odd Warlock | Even Warlock |
| Odd Warrior | Even Warrior |
Genn Greymane and Mages in the Wild format
The following decks are all seeing quite a bit of play in the current Wild format. That meta will change as well when the new expansion launches, but it's interesting to see how the most popular decks will be potentially affected by Genn Greymane in the launch window:
Secret Mage:
- Ice Lance (1 Mana)
- Kabal Lackey (1 Mana)
- Mana Wyrm (1 Mana)
- Arcane Intellect (3 Mana)
- Counterspell (3 Mana)
- Explosive Runes (3 Mana)
- Forgotten Torch (3 Mana)
- Kirin Tor Mage (3 Mana)
- Potion of Polymorph (3 Mana)
Exodia Mage:
- Arcane Artificer (1 Mana)
- Mirror Image (1 Mana)
- Acolyte of Pain (3 Mana)
- Arcane Intellect (3 Mana)
- Coldlight Oracle (3 Mana)
- Frost Nova (3 Mana)
- Ice Barrier (3 Mana)
- Ice Block (3 Mana)
- Archmage Antonidas (7 Mana)
Reno Mage:
- Arcane Artificer (1 Mana)
- Arcane Blast (1 Mana)
- Babbling Book (1 Mana)
- Acolyte of Pain (3 Mana)
- Arcane Intellect (3 Mana)
- Brann Bronzebeard (3 Mana)
- Counterspell (3 Mana)
- Ice Block (3 Mana)
- Tar Creeper (3 Mana)
- Volcanic Potion (3 Mana)
- Zola the Gorgon (3 Mana)
- Antique Healbot (5 Mana)
- Azure Drake (5 Mana)
- Sludge Belcher (5 Mana)
- Flamestrike (7 Mana)
- Frost Lich Jaina (9 Mana)
We've got a massive Witchwood guide if you're still catching up on all the latest developments. There's a new PVE adventure coming to the game next month as well, so check out our Monster Hunt guide if you want to find out what that's all about.