This deck is a prototype example of the sort of deck you can make with the card I created, shown below. I'm a bit disappointed that Shaman's design space and structure is sort of limited, in that their primary minion base is either minions that cost too little for their value and thus have overload, and totems. Since totems are already an integral part of Shaman decks, since many turns you'll just be tapping your hero power when there's nothing better to spend it on, I feel like there should be a bigger emphasis on the overload mechanic. And so, I designed this card.
If it doesn't make complete sense, blame the card size limitation. Here are the hero powers, so that you can better gauge what this means. Note that they are passive, making an overload-themed Shaman a considerable threat.
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For clarification, while Channeling cancels the effect of Overload for you, the Greater Channeling means that Overload does not only not effect you, but instead effects your opponent. So, if you manage to reach Greater Channeling, your Earth Elemental will Overload them by (3) their following turn. Take that, Loatheb!
I'm on the fence whether or not this card should cost 2-mana instead of 3, but given how insane it could be to reach Greater Channeling by turn three and slam down crazy Overload the following turns, it's probably fairest at 3. Let me know what you think, the Hearthstone community is a powerful hive mind of recognizing card balance.
*-Affect! I have to go back to elementary school, it seems.
P.S. I should mention, this is a hypothetical card. Currently there are probably not enough super-valuable, high-Overload cards in the game for this sort of thing to be viable. Maybe this should cost 2-mana, or perhaps there should be more ridiculous Overload cards in the game. It's not really something that can be determined with one card, but I do hope this starts a discussion on how the design of Shaman can go about in the future.
My idea of it was as a very slow, highly rewarding archetype, which wins late games through this reverse-overload mechanic and by using high-powered Overload cards to limit the opponent while running little to no real end game (except in this case I went with a N'Zoth version to show that it's something that can be done, and because [cardWhite Eyes[/card] is sweet). Look at Shadowform, often times a Shadowform player doesn't draw their second Shadowform, and if they do and manage to play it it's not like it's some crazily consistent value following, unless they can make it far into the late game, in which it still often times just loses to Control Warrior. The effect gets rid of your totems, too, making some of Shaman's current strongest cards (ie. Thing from Below and Thunderbluff Valient) essentially useless in this sort of deck. Plus there's no readily-available effect available like Mage's or Druid's or Priest's default hero powers once you play this card once, and in that case it's worse than a Shaman hero power, because at least a taunt or healing totem can screw over your opponent. That's the big drawback.
And yes, I did imagine the hypothetical situations, that's what I do with every card I make. If you manage to actually reach Greater Channeling, yes, Elemental Destruction is insane, but how many times would it actually happen and pay off? Hypothetically insane cards are balanced cards when in the majority of the time they don't achieve that crazy level of insanity. Plus, this sort of thing is incredibly easy to play around; whenever you're playing against an extremely slow, calculated deck with limited consistent answers, generally speaking you can just smorc them down, and this sort of deck especially is weak against aggressive decks when it cant draw its board clears or taunts. Plus it's not that impactful to make your opponent overload when they play everything for dirt cheap and try to kill you as soon as possible anyway.
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This deck is a prototype example of the sort of deck you can make with the card I created, shown below. I'm a bit disappointed that Shaman's design space and structure is sort of limited, in that their primary minion base is either minions that cost too little for their value and thus have overload, and totems. Since totems are already an integral part of Shaman decks, since many turns you'll just be tapping your hero power when there's nothing better to spend it on, I feel like there should be a bigger emphasis on the overload mechanic. And so, I designed this card.
If it doesn't make complete sense, blame the card size limitation. Here are the hero powers, so that you can better gauge what this means. Note that they are passive, making an overload-themed Shaman a considerable threat.
*
*
For clarification, while Channeling cancels the effect of Overload for you, the Greater Channeling means that Overload does not only not effect you, but instead effects your opponent. So, if you manage to reach Greater Channeling, your Earth Elemental will Overload them by (3) their following turn. Take that, Loatheb!
I'm on the fence whether or not this card should cost 2-mana instead of 3, but given how insane it could be to reach Greater Channeling by turn three and slam down crazy Overload the following turns, it's probably fairest at 3. Let me know what you think, the Hearthstone community is a powerful hive mind of recognizing card balance.
*-Affect! I have to go back to elementary school, it seems.
P.S. I should mention, this is a hypothetical card. Currently there are probably not enough super-valuable, high-Overload cards in the game for this sort of thing to be viable. Maybe this should cost 2-mana, or perhaps there should be more ridiculous Overload cards in the game. It's not really something that can be determined with one card, but I do hope this starts a discussion on how the design of Shaman can go about in the future.
My idea of it was as a very slow, highly rewarding archetype, which wins late games through this reverse-overload mechanic and by using high-powered Overload cards to limit the opponent while running little to no real end game (except in this case I went with a N'Zoth version to show that it's something that can be done, and because [cardWhite Eyes[/card] is sweet). Look at Shadowform, often times a Shadowform player doesn't draw their second Shadowform, and if they do and manage to play it it's not like it's some crazily consistent value following, unless they can make it far into the late game, in which it still often times just loses to Control Warrior. The effect gets rid of your totems, too, making some of Shaman's current strongest cards (ie. Thing from Below and Thunderbluff Valient) essentially useless in this sort of deck. Plus there's no readily-available effect available like Mage's or Druid's or Priest's default hero powers once you play this card once, and in that case it's worse than a Shaman hero power, because at least a taunt or healing totem can screw over your opponent. That's the big drawback.
And yes, I did imagine the hypothetical situations, that's what I do with every card I make. If you manage to actually reach Greater Channeling, yes, Elemental Destruction is insane, but how many times would it actually happen and pay off? Hypothetically insane cards are balanced cards when in the majority of the time they don't achieve that crazy level of insanity. Plus, this sort of thing is incredibly easy to play around; whenever you're playing against an extremely slow, calculated deck with limited consistent answers, generally speaking you can just smorc them down, and this sort of deck especially is weak against aggressive decks when it cant draw its board clears or taunts. Plus it's not that impactful to make your opponent overload when they play everything for dirt cheap and try to kill you as soon as possible anyway.