Hearthpwn

Hi friends!

It's part two of the Witchwood budget deck series! You can find the other decks in this series over in this youtube playlist! 

(Games start at 9:03)

Shaman doesn't have a lot of great budget options right now so this deck was a challenge, but I think we managed to find a diamond in the rough! As always, here are our criteria for the series.

Criteria:

• No set dust limit.
  We don't want to set an arbitrary number to go by, but still be conscious of how much we are spending and provide downgrade/sidegrade options when available. We also want to generally steer clear of Epics and Legendaries.
  
  
• Focus on the CORE of a deck.
  Let's define the absolute necessities of the deck. Identify what the strongest cards are and build around that.
  
  
• Have a reasonable upgrade path.
  Using budget versions of existing archetypes provides players with the ability to spend more dust to have a 'complete' deck. This way, if someone enjoys the deck or has more resources, they get more bang for their buck!
  
  
• Prioritize cards that aren't rotating.
  A new season is almost upon us and it's a smart idea to avoid crafting those year of the kraken cards. We want our dust to go long AND strong!

With that in mind, let's take a look at the core of Elemental Shaman;

The Core:

2 Fire Fly
2 Glacial Shard
2 Earthen Might
2 Tar Creeper
2 Hex
2 Servant of Kalimos
2 Fire Elemental

Luckily, some of the stronger Elementals are neutral! Check out the above video for a more in depth talk on the core cards.

Aggro-Crag:

1 Zap!
2 Argent Squire
2 Flametongue Totem

The nature of us having do adopt a more controlling archetype into a budget deck means a shift towards being aggressive and trying to maintain board presence.

Meat and Potatoes:

2 Hot Spring Guardian
2 Lightning Storm
2 Fire Plume Phoenix
2 Cobalt Scalebane

These cards are going to help us get work done, but are also the first cards I'd cut to get Blazecaller or other strong legendaries into the list.

The Flex:

1 Earth Shock
2 Stormforged Axe

If you are struggling against certain match-ups on ladder, use these slots to hedge. Alternatively, Dire Wolf Alpha can provide you with a more consistent early game!

Feedback:

Think this deck is too far out of your budget? Got some card suggestions? Had some good/ terrible luck with the list? Let me know! This project will be ongoing and I'm always looking for ways to improve.

I'm also looking for suggestions on the next deck for the series! You can hit me up here on Hearthpwn,Twitch or Twitter.