Hey guys, this is my Ancestral Spirit shaman deck that got me to top 100 NA last season. I finished #71 with it, and peaked at 46.
Proof&Imgur Decklist: http://i.imgur.com/Bkv4FSZ.png

The deck will probably eventually evolve into a Reincarnation build, but right now the build is centered around strong Ancestral Spirit combos. Cards like Earth Elemental are rare these days, but is one of the key threats in this deck. The Black Knight has actually seen a pretty big decline in popularity lately, particuarly many top Druid builds lately have been dropping TBK for space for double FoN/SR. Big Game Hunter has a little wider variety of what decks it is run in, but it's still fairly scarce. All in all, the Earth Ele is more viable than its been in months.

 

Overview

Ancestral Spirit. So obviously this is the general theme of the deck and often you'll need to get good value out of this card to create a tempo play that your opponent can't effectively comeback from. There are 8 targets in the deck which you'll want to use AS on. Fire Elementals, Injured Blademasters, Earth Elementals and Cairne/Sylvanas are the prime targets. Understand that AS represents huge value (getting basically any creature for 2 mana) with the risk of it getting silenced or Hexed/Polymorphed, which 2-for-1s you. Similar to playing Earth Elementals, AS is a high risk/high reward card. However, you can minimze that risk by playing smart.

 

Baiting removal is perhaps the key to playing this deck. You need to bait out silences/Hex/Poly beforehand, or you can very easily get 2-for-1'd. For example, if you're playing a Druid, you really should never toss out an AS unless you have seen a Keeper. You can test for the silence with an Unbound or Cairne/Sylvanas. Since almost all shamans play midrange shaman, you can take advantage of your AS build by concealing the EEs and AS for as long as possible and preferring to play cards that a standard midrange shaman build would have. If you can force people to waste their silences, TBK/BGH and hard removal. Having a good knowledge of the meta and what cards are popular in different decks is very important.

 

Another super important card in this deck is Faceless Manipulator. This deck runs 2 of them. It's a win condition in itself since if you can Faceless something if you used AS on, you get a ton of value. Even dropping a Blademaster, AS, then Faceless is great. You get 2 4/3s, and 2 4/7s for 10 mana. There's also the obvious EE/Faceless turn 10 play. Don't underestimate it, think of it as dropping 2 Ironbark Protectors on 1 turn. The dream is Facelessing a Cairne, Sylvanas or EE after you AS them. This is harder to accomplish though because your Cairne, Sylvanas or EE has to survive a turn then you have to play AS and Faceless the following turn. The final synergy Faceless has is with Hex if your opponent puts out a big threat, similar to the BGH/Faceless play.

The final general tip before I get into specific cards and matchups is that you need to play this as a control deck, not midrange or beatdown. You generally win by outvaluing and eventually making a huge tempo play with AS or Faceless after baiting out removal prior. There is no burst combo with Al'Akir or Doomhammer, no Flametongue (you won't generally have initiative until the late game), and only 1 Rockbiter.

 

Individual Card Choice

Minions

Bloodmage Thalnos - Thalnos is too good in shaman not to include. Having a cheap guaranteed spell damage source is often very important since so many minions have 3 health.

Injured Blademaster - Blademaster is good to use with AS, especially in faster matchups where you're unsure you'll be able to extract a lot of value with AS. It will comeback as a 4/7, which you're only paying 2 mana for. There is also one copy of Ancestral Healing, which works exactly like a Blademaster/CoH combo with priests. It can open you to getting 2-for-1d, but it's an extremely strong play against most classes.

Unbound Elemental - There's slightly more overload in this deck than the standard midrange version because of the 2 Earth Eles. Also, it serves as a silence target and just a solid 3 drop.

Feral Spirit - Feral Spirit rounds out the trio of turn 3 plays, which is really critical for this deck. Staple shaman card.

Sen'jin Shieldmasta - This is the only 4 drop in the deck, as most Shaman decks skimp on the 4 drops because often you overload yourself on turn 3. I like Sen'jin over Argus because you're less likely to have board control with this deck, and I like it over Yeti as the taunt does come in handy since your goal is to stall into the lategame when you have the mana to make power plays with Faceless and AS. Last but not least, Sen'jin is a good check for Black Knight for your Earth Eles.

Azure Drake - I run 1 copy of Azure Drake, even though it's a strong card in shaman. The deck does fine on draw without Mana Tide Totem because the curve is a little higher with the Faceless and Earth Eles. The 5 drop slot would be a little more crowded than I'd like if I had 2 Azure Drakes.

Faceless Manipulator - Faceless is a very important card in this deck. Most importantly, it's a win condition in itself since if you can Faceless something that you used AS on, you get a ton of value. Even dropping a Blademaster, AS, then Faceless is great. You get 2 4/3s, and 2 4/7s for 10 mana. There's also the obvious EE/Faceless turn 10 play. Don't underestimate it though, think of it as dropping 2 Ironbark Protectors on 1 turn. The dream is Facelessing a Cairne, Sylvanas or EE after you AS them. This is harder to accomplish though because your Cairne, Sylvanas or EE has to survive a turn then you have to play AS and Faceless the following turn. The final synergy Faceless has is with Hex if your opponent puts out a big threat, similar to the BGH/Faceless play.

Earth Elemental - EE is really the star of the deck. It really is a high risk card because hard removal and BGH/TBK are game-losing tempo swings. EE is generally better the later you can play it for a few reasons. One, you can bait out removal before hand. Two, you can combo it with Faceless on turn 10. Three, Overload is less meaningful later because you're losing less of a percentage of your overall mana. If you play it on turn 5, you overload for 50% of your mana next turn, where if you play it on turn 9, you overload for only 30% of your mana. If you are confident of no silence, EE+AS is one of the strongest combos in the deck. If you think your EE will survive the turn, you can AS+Faceless which is always game-winning.

Fire Elemental - Run in all shaman decks, Fire Ele serves not only as a great minion, but something that you want removal used on so your EE's, Sylvanas/Cairne and AS targets get more value. Fire Ele generally is the start to catching you up on board as you transition into the late game.

Sylvanas Windrunner - Sylvanas is another strong AS/Faceless target. Putting AS immediately on Sylvanas is very risky though, as silence or Poly/Hex is devastating. For Sylvanas and Cairne, I generally wait until I can attack and kill them off myself to AS, unless I'm confident there's no silence left or in a desperate situation where taking a risk is necesssary. Throwing Sylvanas out there and just having her soak up a silence though is fine, as it's better she gets silences than an Ancestral Spirit.

Cairne Bloodhoof - Very similar to Sylvanas. Big silence bait/test and an excellent Faceless target. One thing nice about Sylvanas and Cairne and Fire Ele to a lesser extent is that since they are 6 drops with no Overload, you can drop them turn 6. On turn 7 if they're still alive, you can AS and Faceless them, which is game winning. Basically anytime you can get off an AS and Faceless, you should.

Spells

Earth Shock - I skimped down to 1 copy of Earth Shock, since it's generally best against aggro and this deck does fairly well against aggro like Zoo, Mage and Hunter, unlike the midrange variant. It's been working fine, but it does make the Handlock matchup tougher.

Lightning Bolt - I kept 2 LBs in. Because of the Spell Power synergy, I value it slightly higher than Rockbiter. Solid removal.

Rockbiter Weapon - I dropped down to one Rockbiter since I don't run Al'Akir, Doomhammer or any charge creatures. Also to note this deck does not have Flametongue for similar reasons. The deck does fine with early creatures.

Ancestral Spirit - I've talked about the synergies mostly already, but just think of this card a delayed Faceless for 2 mana.

Stormforged Axe - Helps control the board and also a cheap way to buff your Unbounds. Doomhammer is too slow and this deck already has a high curve.

Hex - Standard removal. Be slightly more cautious in your use of this against control decks since you are only running 1 Earth Shock.

Lightning Storm - Necessary AoE. Often you do fall behind on board a bit before turn 5, so this is a good catchup spell.

 

Matchups and Mulligans

In this section I'm going to go over all of the common class/archetypes and how to play against them as well as the rough win % you should expect. I'm going to highlight key cards that you want and key cards you need to play around.

Druid (40% vs Midrange/Token, 35% vs Ramp)

Rogue (45% vs miracle)

 Warlock, Handlock (35%)

 Warlock, Zoo (60%)

 Freeze Mage (40%)