History
This deck was based on the Blazing Battlemage deck from Beta. It's been updated to incorporate more Fire mobility in AL as well as focus on dealing damage quickly.
Philosophy
BM is obviously your main source of damage dealing along with 11 direct damage spells. Consider charge minions as more direct damage as if you'll always hit once and if they use removal, you're okay with that. If they stick around for a second swing, you're ahead! Pair this with a slew of ramping artifacts and utility relics, games go super quick with this deck (either you'll win fast or you'll lose fast).
Battlemage
Like all BM decks, BM needs to use life as a resource. There's nothing better than killing a minion and drawing that sweet extra card. If you can screaming skull or crown, you'll end up ahead very quickly. Don't be afraid to clear early minions by directly attacking them as this is essentially card advantage.
Cards
Mobility
4 key cards for movement: Blink, Grapple Shot, Blaze, and our new favorite from AL: War Horse. All these cards are self-explanatory but getting to 4 mana and traversing across the board at the same time is the goal with BM. You never need more than 5 sites and rarely a 6th (assuming you want to play two spells a turn).
Minions
As explained above, all the charge minions are used as direct damage. Rarely do you want to use them as removal (or trading with their minions). Ideally you let BM eat their minions so you can get another card and more damage in. Pressure on their life is critical. People play differently when they're at 12 versus 18.
Morgana is a new add to this deck and she's just too good not to use. Boudicca is a monster and can help you win from behind with 2 attacks. Finally, Courtesan is a easy choice as a finisher, especially if you get trapped or far away in a door/door situation.
Artifacts
Cores and Stone are good to ramp. Don't rely on them all game though. Just a Rock, Disenchants, Cave-ins are very popular right now so it's best to use the Cores to get ahead, but still get 4-5 sites down ASAP. Ring is King.... if you get Ring going with Trinkets, it's almost guaranteed victory. I've heard to hold Ring back until you start to need the life gain. Often you can bait their disenchant using a core/stone/ring... then you can drop your Skull, Crown, or Rhong, and watch them be salty.
Magic
Beyond direct damage and movement spells, removal and utility spells are far and few but still needed in the clutch. Disenchant, Disintegrate, Shatter Strike, and Poison Nova can and will be used throughout your gameplay. Warp Spasm is a new add... we'll see if it plays dividends
Sites
Standard mix of Fire/Air. You'll see that I heavily reduced air for the 2025 build due to double air being very tough at times. Mirage is amazing with Fields if you need to bounce. Save Funeral Pyres for Archimago decks to get rid of their fuel. Forge has been a good add to allow for the first strike and saving health on BM. Finally, Poisoned Well almost always get 2 damage and boy does that free dmg add up. Ensure you position your River of Flame not in the middle column so you have options to finish with line of sight.
Beware
Bad Matchups
Aggro can be hard. You'll need to stomach through their onslaught, but I think this deck will consistently beat Fury Road now
Control is easy. You do too much damage too quickly and opponents will be sad. New players will think BM is the most imba Avatar if they play a medium/slow deck
Mirror is 55/45 in our favor. This BM has more utility than the normal build. I'm confident it beats the mirror
Cards that BLOW us out
Gnome Hollows is bane of our existence. We can play around it though!! Focus on getting other site damage and finish with Bolt or Bolts. Save Smokestacks if you think you'll be against GH.
Valor is something you need to learn to play around. If I'm on opposing avatar square and they're playing earth and have another minion... the right play is to directly attack the minion. Valor can only defend the site or another ally. So they'll have to use their avatar and thus take the damage anyways.
-3 Gyre Hippogryff, +1 Morgana la Fey, +2 Saracen Raiders
-1 Arc Lightning, +1 Warp Spasm
-1 Highland Princess, +1 Rhongomyniad
-1 Lone, -1 Dark, -1 Gothic, +2 Funeral Pyre, +1 Poisoned Well
There were times that double air cards were in my hand all game and trying to draw through your atlas for that second air was hard. There were also times where I wanted to stop at 4 sites, but I only had double red so I couldn't cast Boudicca. So with the inclusion of Morgana, dropping all double air cards seemed to be the best choice. Saracen Raiders are arguably better than Hippos and while Princess was great for grabbing Ring, she's not worth that threshold. Morgana more than makes up for 1 less creature.
Other considerations... I did like Arc Lightning as a finisher because it's not random and it can also take down a Vamps, but with inclusion of Shatter Strike, I think we'll be good. In fact, I might go 2 Shatter Strike if Warp Spasm doesn't work out. I'm mostly trying to use Rhong for the first strike and throw it for a finisher or to get on DD... but I don't have many reps with it yet so we'll see how it goes. It's expensive so it might prove to be too slow.
Thanks for reading and contact me on Discord (Phobeef) if you have any questions!