Hearthpwn

Hello everyone I'm bruisertheo, a casual-ish f2p-ish player reaching legend every month with unusual/heavily modified decks. I wanted to share with you this shaman deck, imho fun and reasonably fast to learn and play with, with a good wr against the most played decks on ladder right now.

Proof:

The general idea of the deck is to use shaman’s best and unique removal and buffing tools (the Evolve package,  Murmuring Elemental + battlecries, Hex and Devolve) to create powerful swing turns and hard-to-deal-with boards whilst avoiding reactive cards that look good on paper but are terrible tempo-wise (like Healing Rain, Volcano, Crushing Hand, Doomsayer)

Thanks to Murmuring Elemental, Grumble, Worldshaker, and Zola the Gorgon the deck can bounce and duplicate strong battlecry minions, thus generating new threats without relying on card draw too heavily.

Note that these activator cards interact very well also amongst themselves; for example, targeting a Murmuring Elemental with Zola to stock on 2 copies of it for later use, or dropping a tempo Grumble, Worldshaker and targeting him with Zola getting an extra Grumble and, should they survive, 1 mana Grumbles and Zolas for infinite possibilities :D

GAME PLAN and WIN CONDITIONs

Against control decks/combo decks:

Hex or devolve their big threats and try to keep a board up at all times (nothing too fancy, a couple totems and a single dude from Saronite Chain Gang are enough to become a considerable threat when you drop your Thrall, Deathseer, Fungalmancer orBloodlust on them). Once you get a hold of a Coldlight Oracle + any other duplicator/bouncer (Murmuring Elemental, Grumble, Worldshaker, Zola the Gorgon) you can mill their deck down and stock on resources, making your opponents have to decide between developing their strategy, clearing your board and/or dumping their hands, forcing sloppy answer turns that can give you the win with either a board that sticks or committing 100% on milling them.

Against aggro decks:

Aggro decks are generally tougher to deal with, especially if they go wide a lot and fast (read: Dudadin) or start very explosively (read: Mana Wyrm, coin, second Mana Wyrm). Fortunately, the deck contains 2-drops designed to contain multiple small threats and being proactive at the same time. Primalfin Totem must be dealt with and often forces coin + weapon or absorbs precious burn damage.Jade Claws both give you a jade dude and allow you to immediately clear those nasty Sorcerer’s Apprentices  and Knife Jugglers. If you expect 1/3 drops keep your Devolve and Maelstrom Portal handy to secure a clear with a combination of the two or just one + attack in. Again, the key is to always keep developing board, even through apparently awkward plays like Murmuring Elemental + Doppelgangster with no evolve in hand. If they fail to clear your board and commit to face, chances are you will melt their face waaaaay faster.

 Kalimos, Primal Lord is the Mr. Wolf of the deck. He comes late, assesses the situation and does his thing ;)

REPLACEMENTS

Maelstrom Portal is a fantastic aoe that provides tempo gain, especially when combined with Wrath of Air Totem and Devolve. If you don’t own the Karazhan adventure you could try and play 2x Fire Fly or 2x Bloodsail Corsair + Patches (-1 Unstable Evolution) instead. Both solutions provide decent tempo and help in keeping your opponent’s aggressive board in check, and are still useful if drawn mid-late game.

Zola the Gorgon is a super-flexible, neutral legendary that I consider a safe craft. You can try and replace it with a strong, synergic battlecry minion like Tinkmaster Overspark, Mind Control Tech, Rattling Rascal or Dragonslayer.

Kalimos, Primal Lord is a great finisher/lifesaver/board clearer, a swiss army knife in a card. If you don’t own it you could try a second Fungalmancer or a Bonemare since they both have an immediate battlecry effect on board. Ysera, The Lich King, Al’Akir and all cards that can be easily stolen and generate value for your opponent are terrible replacements that I would avoid.

The same goes for Grumble, Worldshaker. If you have neither but can craft one I would go for Grumble 100%.

Eater of Secrets is a tech card. You could cut it, but I guarantee you that you would queue into mages constantly as soon as you remove it from the deck.  

Everything else in the deck is hard to replace without it becoming another deck entirely.

WHY NO…?

Aya Blackpaw and more jade stuff? Going full jade is not a great idea since shaman is no druid and has no cards to easily survive the early game. Going full jade requires more removals and makes for a completely different deck.

Servant of Kalimos, Stonehill Defender, Rummaging Kobold? Aggro decks would mow you down while you try to get useful stuff from these.

Thing from Below,Corridor Creeper? The discount is hard to get with this deck, and they have 0 bounce/battlecry value.

MULLIGAN GUIDE

Always keep Jade Claws, Maelstrom Portal, Primalfin Totem and Devolve. Against warlocks, priests and hunters always keep Hex, even without coin. Against mages and hunters also mulligan for Eater of Secrets. Keep the Doppelgangster + Evolve combo if you have coin and don’t expect scary early threats.  Jade lightning and Saronite Chain Gang are also very good with coin and should generally be kept since they help a lot in dealing with huge minions (Mountain Giant) or medium-sized, annoying minions (Dirty Rat, Kirin Tor Mage, Drakonid Operative, Doomguard). Against warlocks I would also keep Coldlight Oracle to mill a couple cards early, you can always bounce and copy the second one. Murmuring Elemental has no real good use in the early turns but can be situationally good depending on your hand.

The general rule for the mulligan is that the first few turns should be focused on containing your opponents’ aggression/combos and getting a few small minions to stick.

 COMMON MATCHUPS

Big Priest

Good matchup. You can ruin his resurrect poll with hex/devolve and it’s an easy deck to mill. Avoid huge boards of small minions which are weak to Psychic Scream.

Control Warlock

Good matchup. Save Hex/devolve for the Voidlord and focus on milling them with the oracles.

Tempo Mage/ Control Mage/ Freeze Mage

Good matchup. There are no huge spells to counter and most minions create a copy of themselves. so they are not that weak to explosive runes. You can mill Freeze and Control mages easily enough and lock them out of their win condition.

Cubelock

Decent matchup. The trick here is to use hex/devolve wisely, since there are usually 5 big threats (not counting cube duplicates) that need being taken care of. Good thing is, they usually run 1 or no twisting nether, so a good evolve turn is hard for them to counter.

Dude Paladin / Murloc Paladin

Decent matchup. Jade Claws, Primalfin Totem and Devolve win you this matchup, so mulligan for them aggressively. If you manage to keep the board in the first few turns it will be hard for them to push through and you will probably get the win.

Shaman Mirror

Decent matchup. Whoever gets the better start and/or hits the doppelgangster + evolve combo first usually wins.

Kingsbane Rogue

Terrible matchup. It has a better mill engine, heals up, vanishes board. The best possible scenario is to go with a wide board and hit a good bloodlust turn.

Dragon Priest / Combo Dragon Priest

Terrible matchup. Arguably the strongest deck on ladder right now. Ditto. It has overstatted minions, excellent aoe, steals your stuff. Play your odds, possibly tech in dragonslayer .

Jade Druid

Terrible matchup. It has all the answers to a large board and trying to mill him does him a favor.

 5 likes: general deck guide

 10 likes: possible replacements / excluded cards

20 likes: mulligan guide

40 likes: matchups guide

cheerio!