Hearthpwn

Greetings friends. This is my Shaman control deck. There are many like it, but this one is mine. At the time of making this, I am currently 11 wins and 6 losses (69% win rate) @ rank 10 but addmittedly made some early mistakes since I haven't played Shaman since hitting rank 3 with it right before the naxx hunter explosion. I have had a bad taste in my mouth ever since and have been waiting to get back to Shaman and finish the job. This is my first guide so forgive me if I miss anything. Also this deck is based on other control decks so credit goes to whoever originally build those decks!

Conception: Obviously I started with the essential Shaman cards then added what I consider to be the best cards for the current meta as well as value for mana cost. 

Some card explanations:

Haunted Creeper No brainer. 3 minions for 2 mana and best synergy with Flametongue Totem for early removal and board presence. 

Harvest Golem There seems to be an endless debate between this and Unbound Elemental. However after about 20 games with the unbound I found that it just doesn't stick as good as Harvest Golem and acts more like an early taunt since most are quick to remove it. 

Defender of Argus and Gnomish Inventor If you have read any shaman guide in the last 6 months then you will know that the Gnomish Inventor gives good board presence at 2/4 and much needed card draw. As for the defender, you should generally have at least something to buff since you are playing heavy totems. However, if you are finding it difficult to place Argus or no problem with card draw, these could be swapped out for each other. 

Loatheb Also a must in Shaman decks right now. 5/5 @ 5 mana but more importantly saves your board from total clears at critical moments. 

Sylvanas Windrunner At the very worst, Sylvanis forces your opponent to do their card removal for you and / or make bad plays or spend precious removal. At the very best you get a good card in return. Plus, she is so hot right now!

Sludge Belcher Sticky icky icky. Life saver against aggro decks or draws precious removal cards from control decks. Great value for 5 mana.

Kel'Thuzad I have always been skeptical about this card and have left it out of my decks up until recently. However since adding this card I have yet to lose a game in which I played KT. I know it has been accused of being a win bigger only card but it has sealed the deal for me in close games as well. I even find myself hoping for the turn 8 KT, turn 9 Al'Akir the Windlord because it is gg rage quit by your opponent. 

Mulligans and short match up descriptions:

Like any other control shaman deck, you spend early game playing totems and clearing the board making way for your late game heavy hitters.

You Always want to mulligan for early removal cards like Earth Shock and Lightning Bolt as well as Flametongue Totem and Haunted Creeper.

Zoo and Hunter decks you want to also keep Lightning Storm and Feral Spirit. However, be careful using them too early since the 2 overload can be damning and has a chance to lose the game for you. Never face against these opponent until establishing and maintaining total board control until you are in fatal range or somehow build heavy taunt presence. These match ups are 50/50

Control Warrior and Ramp Druid: Removal, removal and removal. Two earth shocks and two hex to start with sounds good to me. Just keep playing totems early game and hopefully they have spent all their removal before you have at end game. Against warrior do not over play your hand and end up with low card count and empty board after Brawl. It is perfectly fine to play around brawl because he is the only deck that actually plays slower than you do. Druid is probably your most favourable match up. Try to save your removal for late game and trade against the first Druid of the Claw.  Match up: Favorable

Priest:  Lightning Bolt to deal with the Cleric. Lets be honest, this is a bad match up and will take great draw on your part and bad draw on his part to win. If you are seeing a lot of Priest it would be best to shelf this deck until it dies down. Match up: Poor

Handlock: Earth Shock is a must here for the early drakes. Try to clear anything he plays and let him do all the dmg to himself. Lately I have been seeing a lot of double Hellfire and double Shadowflame so you might as well use your board to clear his. You only want to start hitting face when you have lethal. Last thing you need is 3 9/9 Giants on the board because you took him down below 10 and didn't have lethal. Matchup: Favorable

Pro Tip:

Earth Shock is a superstar and you should hard mulligan for it against nearly every match up. Shocking an early Undertaker or Mad Scientist is usually the difference between a win and a loss. Only exception is control Priest, for which you want Lightning Bolt to deal with the Cleric. I honestly try to keep both incase it is a death priest. 

Play your totems early and often. You do this for a few reasons. 1st reason is the synergy with Flametongue Totem for removal (remember the only goal of early game with this deck is removal, board control and survival. You should only be hitting face if the board is clear or you have good taunt in front that you are confident won't be removed). 2nd reason is card management. You only have 3 total card draws in this deck, last thing you want is to be top decking against a control warrior that just hit you for 15 with Alexstrasza. 

You have no turn 1 on the play and only removal on the draw. If you end up with low mana cards in your hand, feel free to coin into haunted creeper turn 1 if you do not need to shock an undertaker or light up a cleric. Be careful however you do not give a priest fuel to feed a cleric with this way. In which case be sure you have a flametongue totem to take it out with. Do not panic if you are taking heavy dmg early against aggro decks. If you can make it to 5 mana with 1/2 life and decent cards, you are winning. 

When you get to turn 5 hopefully you have some choices in your hand depending on the situation. 

Endgame is of course KT and Al. You want to try to bait what ever removal they have before playing KT whenever possible. If you can get KT behind a belcher on turn 8 and then hit them with Al on turn 9 it is gg. Like I said previously. I have yet to lose after dropping KT.

Feedback is welcome since as I said I am only less than 20 games in with this deck. Thanks!

For Doomhammer!

 16/10 Edit: -1 Feral Spirit +1 The Black Knight

25/10 Edit: I shelved this deck shortly after posting it when I faced 7 priest out of 10 matches including 5 straight and didn't bother updating it. Since then the deck continued to gain popularity so I wanted to at least update the cards to my current list to keep people from playing an outdated deck. The good news is it does perform better. The bad news is it is pretty much back to the cookie cutter Shaman deck and not very original. So all credit goes to anyone who posted similar decks before me.

Changes: The eggs help you squeeze out a rare win against priest. Better than autoloss... barely.

The burst from Doomhammer also helps finish priest and every other class.

I switched back to Unbound Elemental because its potential upside when unchecked has outweighed harvest golem lately.

Final note: Sludge Belchers are op and fit into any deck but if you want to add TBK and / or a 2nd Haunted Creeper, This is where you make the change.