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Big Shaman | SoU Doom in the Tomb Update | In-D...

  • Last updated Oct 14, 2019 (Doom in the Tomb)
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Wild

  • 13 Minions
  • 16 Spells
  • Deck Type: Ranked Deck
  • Deck Archetype: Control Shaman
  • Crafting Cost: 15820
  • Dust Needed: Loading Collection
  • Created: 6/13/2019 (Rise of the Mech)
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  • Nohva
  • Registered User
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    • 13
    • 34

  • Battle Tag:

    Nova#25328

  • Region:

    EU

  • Total Deck Rating

    37

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Introduction

My name is Azerite (it's actually Stefan), and I've played Hearthstone from the very beginning. My main focus has always been playing Control-ish decks, but never the most meta-ones, if that makes sense. For instance, I don't play Control Warrior, but love Big Warrior. Mostly, I like playing decks that have room for optimization, and are perhaps ever-evolving. I like to take a deck, dissect it, and make it better, depending on the meta I'm facing in my own rank, which is mostly rank 5 to 1. I have no interest in making Legend anymore, but will always motivate myself to making these decks better and better. Therefore, the decks I play and the guides I make for them are not your best source of scoring that Legend-rank, but wíll provide you with a fun deck that's still viable, but less present on ladder. They're not memes, by any means, but are also not meta. They're the underdogs you wish would win.

Saviors of Uldum Doom in the Tomb Update!

Saviors of Uldum has not specifically done this deck any real favors, and have pushed it further away from the meta if anything. However, play this wisely, and you can still have a winrate of around 50%, at the very least.

SoU has however given us one minion, Colossus of the Moon, that can carry games by itself. It fills up the 10-mana slot real nice, and is superior to Big Bad Archmage in almost every single way. 

With the Doom in the Tomb update however, we received some very nice tools to make the deck even better. A full list of the added cards can be found below:

+1x Emperor Thaurissan, +1x Ragnaros the Firelord

Overview

Many times before, people have tried to come up with a fun ánd viable deck for Big Shaman. As per usual, some have tried out decks with Barnes, and combinations with Ancestor's Call and minions such as Kel'Thuzad. However, in year of the Dragon, Big Shaman has received that one card that makes it semi-viable in Standard, Muckmorpher. Shaman always had ways to cheat with mana and pushing out minions for less than their cost, with cards like Far Sight and Eureka!.

Before Saviors of Uldum, and especially before the Doom in the Tomb update, this deck relied on cycling through it with Spirit of the Frog. However, since the Doom in the Tomb update allows us to play around with very strong cards that generate heaps of value or tempo, the deck's goal has changed.

Our goal is to survive until turn 5, where we would have usually found a copy of Muckmorpher. From there on out, its goal remains the same as ever: cheat out minions with disgusting discounts, and resummoning them with our spells. Colossus of the Moon will usually be the win-condition against Combo and other Control decks, while Walking Fountain and Zilliax can cripple Aggro decks very early on. I will explain the other key-card choices, and how you can use them best, below:

Card Choices

  • Mutate (Key): Incredibly strong synergy with our cards. Cheating out means at a discount, with 4/4 stats, and then mutating them into a full-blown 9-drop, is nutty.
  • Ancestral Spirit (Key): Amazing card to generate more value, and make boards sticky.
  • Far Sight (Key): Amazing card, that requires a bit of RNG. Most likely, you will high-roll, and are able to play Ysera and Big Bad Voodoo in one turn, for example.
  • Haunting Visions (Replaceable): Can be replaced, but not recommended. Very flexible card that pays itself off.
  • Lightning Storm (Key): Important removal card against all the Token decks alive and well right now.
  • Hex (Key): Much needed Control card.
  • Hagatha's Scheme (Key): One of the deck's only forms of AoE. You will almost always want this in your opening hand.
  • Muckmorpher (Key): Not even going to explain this choice.
  • Zilliax (Key): Heal, flexible, best card in Standard right now.
  • Blatant Decoy (Replaceable): Incredibly strong against N'Zoth decks, if you can time it right.
  • Emperor Thaurissan (Replaceable): Allows us to cheat even more than we already have been doing while playing this deck. Crazy value if you can make it sticky.
  • Eureka! (Key): Cheat card, and can be used with Big Bad Voodoo and Ancestral Spirit for the big-big minions.
  • Earthquake (Key); One of the game's best AoE at the moment.
  • Al'Akir the Windlord (Key): Charge and Windfury, a minion that will help with controlling the board. Can be used for burst in combination with Nightmare, for example.
  • Hagatha the Witch (Key): Not quite sure on her yet, as we don't run a lot of minions. She saved games for me, but also meant absolutely nothing in other games.
  • Ragnaros the Firelord (Replaceable): What more can we say but "By fire be purged."
  • Walking Fountain (Key): Best minion in the Rise of Shadows expansion for Shaman. Rush, Windfury, Lifesteal, often means the difference between life and death.
  • Ysera (Replaceable): Value-monster. Can combo quite nicely with her cards, but can also dilute your Eureka! possibilities. Not needed, but definitely strong.
  • Colossus of the Moon (Key): Funny thing is, almost all minions are replaceable, but I would argue that this one is NOT. Its presence alone is usually reason enough for your opponent to get really frightened. It has potential to be the win-condition against Combo and other Control decks.

You can replace any card in this deck that has been stated as replaceable, with other value-oriented cards. Decks are always built based on personal encounters on ladder. For instance, if you dabble around in between ranks 20 to 10, chances are you'll face more aggro decks than in ranks 5 to Legend. Nevertheless, adjust value and control-cards accordingly, meaning: if you face a lot of Aggro, replace a Big Bad Voodoo with another Lightning Storm. Or an Ancestral Spirit with a copy of Witch's Brew, for example.

Mulligan:

General Strategy

As any Big-deck, the general strategy behind Big Shaman is to cheat. Yes, cheat. In short, we use cards like Muckmorpher and Eureka to pay less mana than the value we get from them, and to get big minions out on the board that can potentially generate a lot of value. In depth however, the deck can be quite tricky to use. Because our minion pool is relatively small, we are very reliant on draws, and the strategy behind playing a deck like this differs by our match up. You play Big Shaman versus Aggro significantly different than if you would play it against Control or Combo. Because of that, I wanted to go by each class and discuss the most prominent match ups within fighting these classes, as well as discuss the mulligan versus each class.

Versus Druid

The decks that Druid has at their disposal are most prominently Quest Druid and Malygos Quest Druid. The tricky thing is that Token Druid is also still an option, but at lower ranks. Token and Quest Druid require vastly different strategies to counter, but as with all classes, we will mulligan based on play-rate. For Druid, that's (Malygos) Quest Druid.

I'll be honest: this is a 50/50 matchup. We can highroll Mucks into Decoys, which will cripple their gameplan, no matter if they're regular Quest or Malygos Quest. The latter of these two has such few minions, chances are high you'll pull a combo-piece. Good targets for Decoy to pull are Chef Nomi, Elise the Enlightened, Flobbidinous Floop and of course Malygos. If you can manage to generate thát value off of Blatant Decoy, you're probably good.

Mulligan

Versus Hunter

Against Hunter, we're going to assume either Secret or Highlander Hunter. In both cases, this matchup is, above all else, just fun to play. The only real arch-enemy here is Freezing Trap. This can wreck us real good, but other than that, we can fullfill our gameplan, while Hunter can do his. I would argue that until turn 7, we play the Control-game, while Hunter tries to peel off as much damage as he can. From turn 8 on out, we're in the lead. We drop big threats, which Hunter has trouble with, and hope to win off of a cheeky Colussus of the Moon.

Mulligan

 

Versus Mage

A tough matchup, for sure, against Cyclone Mage. Mages love playing against slow decks, because they're slow themselves. Slow, but insanely powerful. Against us, they can, and should, easily wait with playing their Giant until they have access to Conjurer's Calling. If they play it on curve, they run the risk of having it Hex'd, but play it on turn 6 with a Conjurer's Calling, and even our Hagatha's Scheme can't save us then. In short, if they find their threats in time, we're done for. If they don't, we have a chance.

Mulligan

 

Versus Paladin

Paladin has a ton of decks to choose from, but almost all are aggro-based and as such, require the mulligan strategy from those archetypes. In the case of absolute certainty that your opponent is Holy Wrath Paladin, you can choose to keep Blatant Decoy in your mulligan. The matchup is fairly straight-forward, in the way that we need to survive until they run out of steam. In case you're playing against Murloc Paladin, it's important to have access to either Lightning Storm or Hagatha's Scheme by turn 5, when they play their disgusting Tip-The-Vomit for 2 mana. If you don't have AoE by then, you're dead. If you do, you have a very good chance of winning.

Mulligan

 

Versus Priest

Priest perhaps is the most difficult mulligan, because Anduin's decks are vastly different from each other. Combo Priest is still running rampant, while N'Zoth (Quest) Priest is also very much gaining in popularity. Both decks have two enemies however: Hex and Blatant Decoy. Hard-mulligan for atleast Hex, when facing Priest, and use it to neutralize the biggest culprits in each deck, being High Priest Amet and Convincing Infiltrator. Once the N'Zoth Priest gets to turn 10, with a decent Wall of Khartut Defenders, just concede. There's no way you'll win the match from there.

Mulligan

 

Versus Rogue

Against Thief Rogue, we stand a good chance and the matchup is fun. Against 100 N'Zoths Rogue, using the degeneracy that is Togwaggle's Scheme, we need to get lucky and get N'Zoth pulled off of Blatant Decoy. Sap is also a very real threat against our mana-cheating efforts, so always be wary of that. Against Thief Rogue, just have fun!

Mulligan

 

Versus Shaman

Murloc Shaman is our worst matchup, by far. We apparently can only win about 35% of the matches, and that is most likely due to the fact that we do not have access to a lot of AoE. Quest Shaman is doable, but it follows the same strategy as against Murloc Shaman: find your AoE. We need to control the board, and Quest Shaman can run out of steam much quicker than Murloc Shaman does, due to the absence of Underbelly Angler. For the rare Control Shamans on ladder, we need toplay smart with our Muckmorphers. You can hold off a turn to play one, and instantly attach Ancestral Spirit to it. Be wary of Hex and Earth Shock though.

Mulligan

 

 

Versus Warlock

The only common Warlock deck right now, is Zoo Warlock. Just like with any other Aggro-deck, we need our clears and then we take over the field. Other than with similar token decks, or Aggro decks, Zoolock often utilizes final big threats if their usual strategy doesn't work, like Arch-Villain Rafaam or Sea Giant. Luckily, we fare pretty well against them, with a winrate of about 60%. It's the combination AoE and late-game heals that really cripples them.

Mulligan

 

Versus Warrior

Thankfully, Control Warrior has taken a step out of the meta-game for now. As a sidenote, I have no idea why, because N'Zoth Warrior is a crazy good deck. But alas, Warriors are mostly Aggro Warrior now, which requires the same strat as with all other Aggro decks; find your AoE. Apart from their usual swarming, they can run some heavy hitters too. A case can be made to keep Hex in your mulligan, as a solid removal for an early Frothing Berserker.

Mulligan

 

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I hope you enjoyed this deck and the guide. I write bigger guides for serious people that like to test out semi-viable, and I'm looking forward to hearing some of your experiences with this particular deck, or any other Big Shaman deck.