Hearthpwn

This deck is not from me. All credit goes to Oliver Barnett! Following is a C&P from his Reddit-Post:

"<Time for a lesson, young ones!>

Hello everyone!

I am Paradox_HS, and if you don't recognise me from my last post on this subreddit I made a month ago please check it out right here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/CompetitiveHS/comments/5h13q1/top_25_eu_legend_dragon_priest_guide/

As the title suggests, in this guide I will be showing you my Jade Control Shaman deck I used to hit Top 10 Legend on the EU Server for this month, as well as consistently holding Top 20 Legend with it.

As a pre-warning, I did not track my statistics with this deck as I was out for most of the month so far, so if that is a turn-off for you then you have my apologies.

Decklist: https://twitter.com/Paradox_HS/status/820705651563302912

Sections: 1) Basics 2) Mulligans 3) Matchup Advice 4) Card Choices/Reasons behind them

Basics:

As stated in the title, this deck aims to establish board control and survive throughout the entire game through cards like Elemental Destruction and Healing Wave being able to heal you and clear the board. After you have board control, you keep growing Jade Golems and your opponent will (sooner than you think) run out of ways of killing the big golems and you win.

If you are seeing a reasonably high amount of aggro decks like Pirate Warrior or Aggro Shaman, I would highly recommend queueing this deck up as it completely destroys aggression on all areas on the ladder from my experience of playing and watching other people play this deck.

Mulligans:

Just like my last guide I posted on this sub-reddit; I will list the cards for Mulligans as follows: Cards we Keep: These are cards in the matchup that you should always keep no matter what. Conditional Cards: These are cards which are kept if you have other good mulligan cards in your hand already. ( K = Keep ) ( CC = Conditional Card )

Shaman: Jade Claws (K), Healing Wave (K), Maelstrom Portal (K), Hex/Devolve (K), (I would keep one or the other, not both) Elemental Destruction (K), Jinyu Waterspeaker (CC), Jade Lightning (CC), Mana Tide Totem (CC), Lightning Storm (CC), Lava Shock (CC)

Warrior: Jade Claws (K), Healing Wave (K), Maelstrom Portal (K), Devolve (K), Elemental Destruction (K), Jinyu Waterspeaker (CC), Jade Lightning (CC), Mana Tide Totem (CC)

Warlock: Mana Tide Totem (K), Thing From Below (K), Hex (K), Devolve (CC), Jade Claws (CC), Jade Spirit (CC), Jade Lightning (CC), Lightning Storm (CC),

Priest: Mana Tide Totem (K), Devolve (K), Hex (K), Elemental Destruction (K), Thing From Below (K), Brann Bronzebeard (CC), Aya Blackpaw (CC), Jade Lightning (CC), Lightning Storm (CC)

Mage: Mana Tide Totem (K), Devolve (K), Hex (K), Thing From Below (K), Healing Wave (CC), Jade Claws (CC), Jade Spirit (CC), Jinyu Waterspeaker (CC), Elemental Destruction (CC)

Rogue: Devolve (K), Hex (K), Elemental Destruction (K), Healing Wave (K), Jade Claws (K), Mana Tide Totem (CC), Jade Lightning (CC), Maelstrom Portal (CC), Lava Shock (CC)

Druid: Hex (K), Mana Tide Totem (K), Thing From Below (K), Jade Claws (K), Jade Lightning (K), Devolve (CC), Jade Spirit (CC)

Paladin: Devolve (K), Hex (K), Mana Tide Totem (K), Jade Claws (K), Jade Spirit (K), Thing From Below (K), Jade Lightning (CC), Elemental Destruction (CC), Lightning Storm (CC)

Hunter: Hunter? No idea what class that is? Maybe Blizzard will introduce it next expansion!

Matchup Advice:

vs. Shaman: As stated in the basics of this deck, you win through outliving your opponent if they are anything but control themselves. Be sure to save your area of effect to hit 3-4 different threats every time you use one so they don't swarm you out as well as keeping out of range of burst spells when possible.

If they are control, try to save both of your hexes and devolves to deal with their high powered threats such as White Eyes or Aya Blackpaw and make sure that you give them as little room to get value from removal and board clears as possible and you should be able to grind them out fairly efficiently.

vs. Warrior: Similar to Shaman, against Pirate or Dragon Warrior your aim is to survive to the late-game and spam out Jade Golems. For pirates, be sure to click the button a lot as getting a Taunt Totem is extremely useful at blocking their weapons at getting you in the face, and against dragons make sure to keep a Hex for the Ragnaros they will try to finish you with.

Control Warrior is a fairly easy blowout matchup, just make sure to not overextend into their brawls and then go crazy once they are forced to use both of them. This is a matchup I have never once lost and I would take a control warrior any day of the week.

vs. Warlock: RenoLock is played similarly to Control Warrior with the difference that you have to apply pressure a lot more rapidly as most Reno lists are switching back to Jaraxxus right now which is a really big problem for this deck. If the RenoLock misses out on Jaraxxus or you are able to get Twisting Nether to perform limited value then you can definitely win this one.

vs. Priest: Against Dragon Priest you can play the matchup fairly passively until the middle stages of the game. Optimally you want to grind them out of the game using Elemental Destruction and Devolve to either scale down or completely clear the board and then immediately follow up with a fairly strong board of your own. Otherwise be aware of Drakonid Operative being able to take your Hexes from you and try to bait them out when possible.

Against Reno the strategy is fairly similar but you have to be aware of the Kazakus Potion value that they can do against you. Try to keep hold of either Elemental Destruction or Devolve for if they have a potion that summons 3 of their minions that died previously as that can sometimes be overwhelming to handle otherwise.

vs. Mage: Against Reno Mage, it's all about managing the board and health totals to make sure you don't get completely blown out by either their burn spells or a clear like Flamestrike. If possible keep hold of a single copy of Healing Wave and Hex for when they try to use Alexstraza to put you to 15 health. Most of the time you will win the joust once turn 9 comes, so being able to heal for 14 is very important. Otherwise similarly to against Reno Priest, you want to make sure the board isn't too vulnerable to clears and keep a Devolve ready for if they decide to use a big Kazakus Potion to revive 3 minions.

vs. Rogue: Rogue is one of the absolute easiest matchups for this deck if the Rogue player doesn't know what variant you are early on as you play Devolve which utterly ruins their Edwin van Cleef or Questing Adventurer turns if they try to go for it, which can lead to some pretty funny free wins. Otherwise; make sure to find/keep Healing Wave to avoid being bursted down by Leeroy Jenkins and an Elemental Destruction/Lightning Storm to clear a Gadgetzan Auctioneer with stealth in the event that you can't just Devolve and they shouldn't be able to do too much against you.

vs. Paladin: vs. Anyfin the story is extremely similar to the Rogue matchup since you can use Devolve after they play Anyfin and they get no giant 7 murloc board on the second Anyfin which is absolutely crippling for them. (Ignoring of course the possibility of being able to Devolve their Warleaders beforehand which is advised) On top of which you also have the double Hex to deal with Tirion and Ragnaros, Lightlord. This should be a very easy matchup to win as long as you don't bottom-deck your Devolves.

Card Choices:

Devolve: As previously stated in a few of the matchups, Devolve is extremely useful for being able to deal with specific minions that either have Deathrattles, combo potential (such as Anyfin) or minions that are extremely high stats for their mana cost. (Such as Edwin van Cleef, Questing Adventurer, Twilight Drake or Flamewreathed Faceless) As well as several smaller things like removing taunts to give you lethal in certain situations. All around a very powerful card and one of the most underrated cards from Mean Streets of Gadgetzan.

Jade Claws: As i'm sure we are all aware from seeing this card in Aggro Shaman, it's role is fairly similar in this deck; acting as a board control device that also increases your Jade Golem count for the bigger cards later in the curve such as Aya Blackpaw or Jade Chieftain.

Lava Shock: Lava Shock acts as a way of removing the massive Overload downside from Elemental Destruction and other board clears that you have to play throughout the game, while also acting as a board control device, especially if you roll the Wrath of Air Totem.

Maelstrom Portal: Maelstrom Portal has some varied uses in this deck as a board clear, either with the aforementioned totem or with Devolve; as if you Devolve 1 mana minions they turn into Wisps which Maelstrom can immediately remove from the board, as well as turning 2 mana minions into 1 drops that often only have 1 health as well, making it a more effective clear even without cards like Bloodmage Thalnos in the deck.

Brann Bronzebard: Acts as a secondary battlecry trigger for your Jade effects (Besides Jade Lightning) which increases the consistency of your deck. It also has minor use against aggro with the Jinyu Waterspeaker being able to heal for 12 if you play Brann beforehand. Brann can also be very useful at absorbing removal spells from your opponent which would otherwise hit Jade Golems. Overall a very strong legendary and will be sorely missed once the rotation hits.

Elemental Destruction: Your main and biggest board clear in this deck. Being able to hit for 4/5 on everything for 3 mana is absurdly strong especially with Lava Shock as previously mentioned. When combo'd out with something like a Thing From Below on the same turn it can be extremely crippling for an opponent who has to then struggle to get back onto the board. Being able to kill stealthed Gadgetzan 100% of the time is also a very nice bonus.

Healing Wave: Your main source of healing in this deck, and the reason why you see no minions that cost less than 3 mana. Against a lot of aggro and sometimes control decks, being able to heal for 14 health for 3 mana is extremely powerful when you're trying to stabilise after using a clear like Elemental Destruction or Lightning Storm.

Hex: The best removal spell in all of HearthStone. Can remove a minion of any size and make it a non-issue. Not much else is needed to say about this extremely powerful tool in Shaman's massive arsenal.

Lightning Storm: Acts as a secondary form of board clearing when you don't want your board to die or just not have Elemental Destruction in hand to use. Once again not too much to say as this has been a staple in mid-range shaman decks for a long time now and for very good reason.

Mana Tide Totem: Acts as your main form of cycle while also counting as a totem to reduce the cost of Thing From Below. If Mana Tide sticks for even 2 turns, it's already as good as Ancestral Knowledge but doesn't overload you and has 3 health on the board. Oftentimes like Brann, Mana Tide will receive a ton of excess removal on it which works to our advantage most of the time.

Jade Lightning: Like Jade Claws this card serves a similar role in this deck to Aggro Shaman; acting as a removal piece that can very rarely be used to create burst finishes on opponents who don't expect it which can happen more often than you think. Wrath of Air Totem making this hit for 5 is also a very nice bonus considering the numerous 5 health threats in our meta right now.

Jade Spirit: Fairly simple card as it just acts as another way of summoning Jade Golems onto the board and can contest early aggression or push for pressure against control early depending on the situation.

Jinyu Waterspeaker: Another one of my personal favourite new cards from Mean Streets. Being able to play a Water Elemental in stats that heals you in the face or a damaged minion for 6 health is extremely powerful. I expect to see this card see a lot more play in Shaman once the rotation comes in March but for the time being he is still extremely powerful in a list that's based around surviving like this one is.

Aya Blackpaw: Like Jade Spirit, another fairly simple tool for all the Jade Golem decks and without Aya, i'm not sure these Jade focused strategies would work at all. Summoning a Jade Golem when Aya dies is also a very powerful benefit as it allows your board to be more resilient to mass-clears such as Shadowflame and Twisting Nether.

Thing From Below: 0 mana 5/5 with taunt? Sounds good to me. This guy costing 6 base mana as well is extremely powerful as it dramatically increases your chances of winning Jousts with Healing Wave which is extremely important against aggro. Not much to say here either, he's been in Shaman decks since his release and the big guy won't be going anywhere until he rotates out in a year.

Jade Chieftain: The top end for this deck's curve. Being able to summon Jade Golems with Taunt is extremely useful at fending aggro decks off at the end of the game while also being good against control for summoning 2 (likely) massive bodies onto the board at the same time. If possible this is the Jade card you want to combo with Brann the most as protecting Brann with 2 taunts makes it far more likely Brann can get a second proc off which would be extremely high value.

Conclusion:

Thank you for reading this write-up on Control Shaman all the way to the end, I have really enjoyed my time on the ladder playing this deck and would recommend it to anyone who wants a different take on Shaman if they get bored of being a SMOrc.

Once again if you have any questions do not hesitate to ask me in the comments below. Otherwise you can find me at the following places:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/paradox_hs twitch.tv: www.twitch.tv/paradoxhs001 (Which I should hopefully be starting to get a schedule and stream started for soon) Personal Email: oliver.barnett2@gmail.com

Have a wonderful day everyone. May the odds be forever in your favour.

• Oliver Barnett (Paradox_HS)"