{{https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOxOJ1Zp9Yg}}

WORK IN PROGRESS - As of Feb 27th, a few upgrades will be made in the next week and a few changes here and there.

Introduction to Yours Truly

First off, let me say that playing Battlemage makes me feel like that kid that booted up Skyrim for the first time, picked up an Imperial Sword and selected ''Sparks'' on the spells menu. I get that feeling back every time I sit down to play with this Avatar, and ever since it came out, it became my obsession.

I got into MTG back when Brother's War was released, and started playing EDH and dipping my toes in Pauper from time to time. I've quit Magic for the many reasons everyone points out nowadays and started playing Sorcery by October,2025.

That being said, I'm doing my best to become a better competitive player and thought of coming out with this Primer to do just that. Plus, I get to help you guys out too!

I'll post some updates here whenever something changes or I come up with new ideas, explanations or even if someone points out something i didn't notice before (this happens frequently lol). Please forgive me if something isn't clear and point those out in the comments so I can fix it.

THIS IS BY NO MEANS, A META DECK. It's fun tho, lots of fun.

This primer attempt is inspired by my friends' primers, in which they did a great job at building. You can check them out below:

Archimago 🤌🍝 - Gothic Update - https://curiosa.io/decks/cmjn91zow1ye1zofnw1jhzth0 - By @gcampopz0r

Savior Steampunk Aggro 🐎🐈🐦 - https://curiosa.io/decks/cml9ursx601fb04l7dgolu81b - By @RaphaelFernandes

The Battlemage

Why him?:

Battlemage just fits my playstyle perfeclty. I think he's the best Aggro avatar out there, or at least with the most potential! I really don't care for making huge setups, waiting long for the perfect moment to do something or take the game to the 40+ minute mark. I just want to sit down and deal a lot of damage and finish the game so fast, people will think they just played cEDH and witnessed a turn 0 win (JK). Plus, since we're talking about an Avatar that is the actual star of the show, it is practically immune to Keyword effects, such as Mortal, Evil, Spirit, Undead etc...

Why (F) and (A)?

C'mon, I guess you guys already know why (F) is here...In case you don't, it's the aggressive creatures with Charge and spells that enable Battlemage to dish out some nice damage. The reason I picked (A) as the second element here is...the movement-GOD, THE MOVEMENT (A) GIVES YOU...ahem. Air is just perfect for movement and being able to assert presence on the realm anywhere, not only though Battlemage, but through your minions too. And don't get me started on [[Zap!]]. In my opinion, it just doesn't get any better than this.

What does it do?:

My Gandalf-Wannabe old boy here wants to get to your side of the realm ASAP, being the irremovable pesky 3-hitter he is at his basic level. He wants to be there hitting you and your minions on the face, with the support of his... and his equipment of course. And he'll be chasing you around the realm like you owe him a Foil [[Philosopher's Stone]] from Alpha. And, don't mind the damage taken, they're just minor flesh wounds anyway!

Strengths and Weaknesses:

This part is, I believe, to be somewhat subjective since I see a lot of diversity being present around BM from deck to deck, I'll use my deck as the baseline here:

Strengths:

Able to put A LOT of pressure at the early game
Has a ton of utility to really adapt to situations
Most of the time against another aggro deck, you have the upper hand
Foot soldiers and Skeleton Tokens are basically ''Hey, here's another card for you''
''Charge'' creatures + BMs power really gives your opponent a beating

Weaknesses:

[[Witch]] is a very bad matchup. In my headcannon, she's his ex-wife or something
WARDS (F*ck those wards man)
[[Sphere of Animosity]] just completely shuts you down
Late game happens? Well, you sure are in a pickle
Opponent heals definitely put you behind on the clock
Sites that impair or prevent movement ( [[Gnome Hollows]] , [[Perilous Bridge]] etc,)

STRATEGY:

Now we're talking, here we go:

But first, a word from our sponsor

Just kidding, this is how it goes:

What you want to do is aggressively position your sites, directing them towards the fastest way to the enemy avatar. This is the general idea, most of the time I open the game like this:

S - Your site

O - Opponent's

X - Void

X X O X X

X X O X X

X X S X X

X X S X X

This site placement is perfect for you to get in there and just wreak havoc. Opening with a [[War Horse]] , [[Wild Fanatic]] and especially if there's already an enemy minion on your opponent's second site, [[Vile Imp]], is the best play here. I would also make a case of starting with any of the rocks: The Stone or the Cores. The cores would enable [[Cerberus in Chains]] to be present really early on here, and boy is that a power play

If you look to the decklist, you'll see that I designed the deck with a (unintentional, I swear) ratio of 50/50 Minions and Artifacts (Subject to change of course). Too often I see BMs with way to many Artifacts making it WAY Voltron (which if like I said before, you get Sphere'd or controlled or they bury your artifacts, you're toast) or using way too many minions (at this point, you're better of playing other Avatars)

AGAINST AGGRO

This is the base strategy you want to chase at turn 0 and if they're aggro, cause if you ''out-aggro'' them, you'll end up killing their minions and ''forcing movement'' of the enemy avatar or at the very least making them tap for sites. IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE PLAYING AGAINST and/or after you identify what is your matchup (Are they controlling? Are they taking this to the late game?) you adjust your strategy.

If you're hit with sites that deny your movement, you need to use [[Teleport]] , [[Blink]] or pincer your opponent with your sites, like so:

X X O X S

X O O O S

X X S S S

X X S X X

OR

S O O X X

S O O X X

S S S X X

X X S X X

[[Grapple Shot]] is awesome for dealing with these things, especially because of the ''may strike''. This means you can use your own minions to traverse the realm and not actually strike them. Perfect for dealing with [[Root Spider]]s

AGAINST CONTROL

When playing against Control decks, you KNOW they're gonna want to keep you at bay and take your minions out. In this case, the best thing to do is to be patient, lay your sites on your back row and let the enemy come to you.

X X O X X

X X O X X

X X O X X

S S S S S

''But Lentilha, what if by turn 3 the dude just casts some huge creature or something'' - Well, this decklist was tailored to my LGS meta, so if you find yourself somewhere with a lot of big creatures on tables, I'd recommend putting in some [[Disintegrate]]s, [[Poisonous Dagger]]s and [[Gift of the Serpent]].

Remember: You've got to beat them on the clock. You are gonna get hit, it's just a matter of who hits the most

MANA BASE:

If you pay close attention to the deck list, you can see that it doesn't go over (5) mana, with the exception of [[Poison Nova]] and the [[Daperyll Vampire]]s. That's because in most games, and mostly when you control them, I find that (4) mana is enough for the Battlemage to have a safe reserve to cast 95% of the deck. Mind you that a simple [[Critical Strike]] or a hit to a site + a [[Grapple Shot]] or [[Firebolts]] / [[Magic Missiles]] to the enemy avatar will deal 6 damage at the very least. So imagine what a BM could do if he has his equipment and minions on the board.

SUSTAIN:

(Little disclaimer: A friend of mine told me I need to reconsider this part right here and just change it for more damage output. I still want to try the healing here just in case things go south midgame, but I'll test a version without the sustain and will update the decklist accordingly)

On the first drafts of the deck I admit, I had a hard time dealing with damage taken, you can't have the cake and still eat it, so I brought in these:

[[Goswhit Helmet]]
[[Angel's Egg]]
[[Daperyll Vampire]]

Goswhit is just a no-brainer here. You hit and don't get hit back? Count me in.

Angel's Egg was a substitute for the Devil's one, hell there was a time in which I ran one of each flavor of balls! But I reached the conclusion that having this pesky thing in your backrow giving you +1 health each turn end is just...chef's kiss. A better case could be made if it was cast underground. (I just couldn't find a spot for anything with borrowing, so I encourage you to)

Daperlly Vamp ladies that hurt the enemy AND HEALS YOU? FUCK YEAH I'M IN

MOVEMENT:

This is important! Presta atenção!!! (Go Brazil🇧🇷)

[[Seven-League Boots]] - I can walk anywhere
[[War Horse]] - I wield swords, magic and have a stallion? Yeah I do
[[Blink]] - WHOOPS I'm gone and I get a card
[[Teleport]] - Now you see me, now you get get wrecked (Great way to finish the game if you don't get any toolbox to access the [[Zap]] which we'll talk later)
[[Grapple Shot]] - Like Scorpion but in reverse, ''I'LL GET OVER THERE'' + free hit, which is nice

Got to mention [[Flame of the First Ones]] here which when paired with a Grapple and Boots...well, let's just say the enemy will have a bad time

COLLECTION:

This is an interesting part of the thing, and I consider changing stuff all the time, so I guess you can say this is still a W.I.P but here's how I'm running it a this time. I'm only running [[Toolbox]] here because I never got hold of any [[Silver Bullet]]s...Singles here are somewhat scarce, so bear with me:

[[Pit Vipers]] - There has to be a way to deal with underground units, mainly [[Root Spider]]s
[[Sandstorm]] - Maybe this will give you an extra turn on the clock or save at death's door for that ''Dude i'd would have had you next turn''
[[Zap!]] - WHAT. IS. THIS. CARD. BRO??? like, this is the most efficient and disrespectful way to end the game
[[Critical Strike]] - Remember what I told you about 6 damage? Yeah, bet you never thought of casting 2x of these for 12 DAMAGE. Not saying you have to, but if you want to, it's nice to have 3+ chances to do that
[[Disenchant]] - The only ring allowed is the where my wife's name is carved into, so unless your opponent also has a significant pair, no [[Ring of Morrigan]] here. Plus other pesky artifacts
[[Heat Ray]] - Sometimes you wish you had something to do when you find the perfect lineup...like a grenade on CS...well here it is.
[[Minor Explosion]] - Sometimes your enemy will put multiple units on the same square to protect his avatar, and then you just hit them with one of these
[[Murder of Crows]] - Fuck Wards and Tokens
[[Raise Militia]] - The idea here is extra blockers, or extra minions for your enemy do deal with, sometime you just need a target for yout Grapple shot, or maybe a chump block for projectiles...anyway, very versatile
[[Spin Attack]] - Basically, A emergency [[Flaming Sword]] on a budget

Conclusion and last notes

If you read this primer all the way down here, you have my most sincere thanks!

I'm not the best player out there, I'd say I'm still learning how to play Sorcery properly and playing the deck, even if its my main. And maybe this deck requires it being THE only deck you play to really get the nuances of it.

I'll do my best to play more often so I can bring you guys more ''tips and tricks'' and please let me know in the comments your opinions and your own tips and tricks, so this nice fella over here can just 🤯 over something lol

IF you guys want to, be sure to check out my channel, LentilhaTCG, where i'll be posting some gameplay, deck techs and that kind of stuff!

THANK YOU!!!

Steam Battlemage 🗡️🤚🔥

@Lentilha