Hearthpwn

Love the deck...tons of fun and I think Malkorok and Varian fit very well. The matchup that's I am struggling unbelievably hard against is rogue (mostly miracle). I find it hard to develop a board against them while clearing their minions as well.

What do you think about a Brann Bronzebeard package in the deck? I ran Reno Mage to legend last season (JustSaiyan's list), which runs Jeweled Scarab, Azure Drake, Mind Control Tech, Antique Healbot, and Ethereal Conjurer as the main synergies with Brann. Thoughts?

Silverback Patriarch and War Golem.

No I doubt they'll let you in.

Nice, I'm at #150 Legend NA with an almost identical build. I just have 1 Haunted Creeper for Mana Tide Totem

Loot Hoarder for Bloodmage. EVC you can go with an extra 3 drop (run 2 Farseers or even sneak in a Coldlight Oracle). My brother got to top 100 with Sen'jin for Vancleef.

I got legendary #71 NA this season with this deck. It has some differences from Crusher's shaman, but the main theme of Ancestral Spirit and Earth Eles are the same. I choose to go the direction though of having stronger Ancestral Spirit targets in Cairne and Sylvanas, while he invests a bit more into Ancestral Healing (he runs 2, I run 1) with The Black Knight synergy and Ragnaros.

Ask if you have any questions.

I think both Yeti and Teachers have their merits. I reached top 50 this season using 2xTeachers, no Bloodlust. Here are my thoughts and my decklist.

http://imgur.com/wo7GI7u

I have since made the following changes because I'm seeing a lot of aggro decks with the new season: -1 Mana Tide, +1 Argent Squire, -1 Sen'jin, +1 Defender of Argus

You always feel better dropping Yetis on turn 4, and as you said it naturally counters the most common neutral minion in the game, Azure Drake. You make a good point in that Shamans have plenty of ways to deal 3 damage, but 4 is pretty awkward. For this reason and the prevalence of Azure Drake, I run 2 Argent Commanders as they're the best answer to Azure Drake in the game.

As good as Yeti is stat-wise, Violet Teacher gives more pure stats if you use one spell with it. You can argue that a 3/5 and 1/1 isn't necessarily better than a 4/5, but I think it is because it's more difficult to remove. The only thing that takes out a 3/5 and 1/1 out that's mana efficient is a Swipe. A Swipe + Hero Power is 6 mana and takes out a 3/5 + 1/1. A Swipe + Hero Power also takes out a Yeti. For every other class, it's definitely more difficult to complete remove a 3/5 and a 1/1 as efficiently as you can take a 4/5. Now, that's IF you get a token out with the Violet Teacher, but it's not like a vanilla 3/5 (with essentially taunt) is THAT much worse than a 4/5.

The thing is, the 1/1 can be extremely useful, even if you're not playing Bloodlust. Against games where your opponent is keeping up with the board, Flametongue and Argus can sometimes be difficult to get value from. Sometimes even clearing a Hex frog can be annoying if you want to clear the way for an Argent Commander.

Why no Leeroy?

Hi Rabidwhale. I've been playing an Ancestral Spirit build this season as well. I have some critiques. Please let me know your thoughts.

Things that don't make sense to me:
1) Weapons overload. Don't see the need for Double Stormforged and Doomhammer. Is it to push face damage so you can Leeroy combo?

2) No card draw. This is probably the biggest one. Against any control matchup that can remove your threats (really it's just Cairne, EE, and the Fire Eles), you're going to fall behind on cards. Also, since it seems like you really want to get your Windfury/Rockbiter combos out, it'll be more inconsistent than you like because you don't have any card draw.

3) Possibility for too many dead cards in your hand. You have a ton of situational cards. 2xWindfury, Leeroy (since you only really want to combo him), 2x Ancestral Healing, 2xAncestral Spirit. Even the Argus' and Flametongues can get stuck since you don't have Squires or any 4/5 drops that give you board presence.

4) No Lightning Storm. As I mentioned earlier, outside of the Unbounds and Feral Spirits, you have no minions before 6 mana. That's going to allow your opponent to develop his board and you'll be too far behind once you reach 6 mana. Also, if you are going to keep the board clear without Lightning Storms, this implies you'll be using your Lightning Bolts and Rockbiters, the latter which you ideally would save for your combos. I see you have 2 Stormforged Axe.

5) Not enough Ancestral Spirit targets to justify running 2. Ancestral Spirit on a Cairne is super risky against any deck that plays a silence or Hex/Poly.

6) Earth Elemental is fine, but in a deck like this, you're actually better off running 2 than none. It is the only BGH/TBK target in your deck and what you're doing is making their situational card have the most impact it can because it is hitting the only viable target. There's a reason why Ramp Druid runs a ton of taunts. It's weak to TBK but at least you'll have other taunts to follow and you can bait TBK out with a cheaper taunt. Same idea with Warrior/Handlock weak to BGH.

Here's a similar deck I've been playing this season. I'm rank 2 at the moment. I do have a deck description included as well.

Quote from Rathik »

Quote from Simplexity »

You would think, but honestly it's fine because the curve is fairly high (factor all the overload into the curve as well). In my normal midrange version, I don't run Mana Tide, but just Thalnos/2xAzure Drakes. From some of the streamers that I've watched (Kolento, Strifecro, ThatsAdmirable), they also have lately skipped out on Mana Tide. I don't even feel like I could adequately protect the Tide anyway in this deck, where in midrange at least I have more board presence to protect it.

But you only have 1 azure drake...

Yeah, I meant in my standard midrange the only draw I have is Thalnos and 2 Azure Drakes. Sorry, worded it poorly.

I cut 1 Azure in this deck because the curve is higher and I also have 2 Faceless and 2 Earth Eles, although normally those aren't turn 5 plays anyway.

You would think, but honestly it's fine because the curve is fairly high (factor all the overload into the curve as well). In my normal midrange version, I don't run Mana Tide, but just Thalnos/2xAzure Drakes. From some of the streamers that I've watched (Kolento, Strifecro, ThatsAdmirable), they also have lately skipped out on Mana Tide. I don't even feel like I could adequately protect the Tide anyway in this deck, where in midrange at least I have more board presence to protect it.

The double Faceless is fantastic and never a dead card. Think about it this way, say absolute worst case scenario you toss AS on a Feral Spirit or Unbound Elemental. You can then Faceless it for 5 mana and it's like getting 2 creatures for 1, even if they are 2/4s. Obviously those aren't ideal targets to Faceless, but you get the idea.

I took out the burst cards because realistically I'm not going to be putting enough pressure to put them into burst range until I can get off my AS and Faceless combos anyway, and from that I can just win with standard value and tempo, no need for burst. That my methodology for no Flametongues, Windfury, charge minions, Al'Akir, Doomhammer, dropping 1 Rockbiter.

I'm actually playing Ancestral Spirit shaman this season. I'm at Rank 3 with the following deck.

This deck will probably eventually evolve into a Reincarnation deck when Naxx hits, but the AS works fairly well, although it flips some matchups that normal midrange shaman excels in and does well in matchups where shaman normally is unfavored.

Ancestral Spirit synergy. There are 6 targets for Ancestral Spirit, up to 8 if you include the Faceless. Earth Elementals, Cairne/Sylvanas and Injured Blademasters (come back as 4/7s) are the ideal targets. Fire Elementals also work. 

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.

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.

The final general tip before I get into 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).