Hearthpwn

Well here is my first attempt at an even Shaman. The objective of this deck is to leverage the 1 mana totems early into the game in order to quickly snowball the board. Hagatha the Witch and The Lich King are also included as late game alternate win conditions, just in case you begin to run out of steam in match-ups that will involve a lot of trading, such as against a dude paladin.

The first combo that I’ll highlight is the one that inspired this deck, turn 1 hero power into turn 2 Cryostasis. This will ideally give you a 3/5 Healing Totem on turn 2, but even in the worst case you get a 4/4 Searing Totem, which is by no means a bad play.  You also have multiple ways to activate your totems, including Dire Wolf Alpha and Flametongue Totem, which both allow your totems to attack on turn 2 in order to potentially trade into your opponents early minions.

I have also included Totem Cruncher, which does have some anti-synergy with a buffed up Cryostasis totem, however that will likely be near death on turn 4, meaning you can hopefully crunch 2 totems (your turn 1 and turn 3 totems) in order to get a 6/7 taunt on turn four.  Another Totem Cruncher combo is to play him turn 5 with a hero power to act as a 1 mana +2/+2 buff.

A few of the more obvious inclusions in the deck are Murkspark Eel and Hex, the former being a flat out powerhouse of a card on turn 2 and the latter possibly being the best card against the Voidlords that will likely rule the Witchwood meta.

This deck also sports a small elemental package, partly because I want to try out the new buff card, Earthen Might, but also because in a worst case scenario you can use Earthen Might to create a 2/4 or 3/3 totem that can likely attack the turn you buff it. Grumble, Worldshaker has some synergy with Hagatha the Witch allowing even more spells to be generated, especially if you bounce a couple of Ghost Light Anglers or a couple totems prior to destroying them with Hagatha the Witch’s battlecry. 

The last few cards are just powerful/ reinforce the wide board state playstyle shaman is known for. Kalimos, Primal Lord is extremely flexible and hopefully has enough support with the other 5 elementals to be ready when he is needed.  Primalfin Totem can be a great turn 2 play to set up a big swing turn with Flametongue Totem or Dire Wolf Alpha. Primalfin Totem also allows for more crunchables with Totem Cruncher, especially since its value can start to fall off in the midgame. Zap! is included as a very strong early tempo card, as killing an enemy Knife Juggler for 0 mana feels great. It can also help save tempo on some of this deck’s weaker turns such as turn 4 Fire Plume Phoenix or on a Cult Master reload turn.

All in all the deck appears to be pretty solid to me, although it will certainly struggle if it falls behind early, since this deck lacks strong comeback mechanisms prior to Hagatha the Witch. I may also try a version of this deck that includes the freeze shaman package for the memes, but this list will be what I am going with on day one. Thank you to anyone who took the time to read through my thought process, I would love any constructive criticism on the deck, and will hopefully be updating the list after I try it out on launch day.

TL;DR This deck has some solid counterplay to both warlock and dude paladin, the two big winners coming out of the standard rotation. However, if this deck falls behind early, there is little hope as your only board clears are both 8 mana.