Nofin-But-Trouble Murloc Shudderwock Witchcraft
- Last updated May 23, 2018 (Spiteful Nerf)
- Edit
- |
Wild
- 21 Minions
- 8 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Murloc Shaman
- Crafting Cost: 7920
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 5/21/2018 (Witchwood)
- sigtrent
- Registered User
-
- 4
- 33
- 44
-
Battle Tag:
sigtrent#1525
-
Region:
US
-
Total Deck Rating
138
Intro
It's no meta-breaker, but it is fun, potent, and can win games. It's got both an early game rush, a mid-game push, and a late game sustain thanks to the cool synergies found among the cards. Like many of my decks, I'm always looking for a sweet spot between fun to play and competitive.
Video
The esteemed Kiwi-Bacon has graced me with a play video! And he gets two nice games out of it, one featuring the decks beat-down (much like any muloc deck can do) and the second, the decks long game control potential which is hard to imagine when you just look at the list, but really can provide near infinite value in the late game.
The game plan
Early game, advance your quest and put pressure on with Murlocs. If you can get initiative in the damage game, go for face with the murlocs and force your opponent to trade. If you are on the back foot, fight hard for board control by trading aggressively. This is especially true against paladin.
Once you are close to getting your quest done, ignore card economy and put as much pressure of whatever kind you can, either on your opponent's life total or on the board. Primafin is stage 2 and the emptier your hand by the time you play him, the better off you are. If you don't really need him, then hold him until he's the only strong play available to you.
If your game is going into the late game stage, Hagatha is your big value move. She's going to turn all those squishy little murlocs into card advantage. In a control game, you may want to play her before Primafin. In a more aggressive match, save her for a board clear or for when you start to run out of gas. Late game, you simply want to out value your opponent.
Cards of Note
Ghost Light Angler This card is a real lynchpin in the deck. You don't want to use it wastefully because it can make for huge value plays at the right time. Dropping it as a 2/2 on 2 is a desperation move. So what does it do?
A- It advances your quest, the more you echo it, the more it helps
b- It floods the board, a dangerous thing when you can suddenly add +3 force and Windfurry to all of them on the next turn.
C- With Hagggatha, it loads your hand up with spells providing pretty insane card value.
You need to try and be aware which of these are going to be most important in a given game.
Hagatha the Witch Hagatha gives this deck its potential to go for a win against a control deck or, to give you a big advantage if a game against another aggressive deck goes to attrition. It's also a way to re-set the board if you are getting behind and give you a bit of armor to heal up. It's also a good play if you don't have another play that puts pressure on your opponent. Once she is out, you never know exactly what's going to happen. some shaman spells are crap, others are fantastic.
The murloc regulars No real shocker with the array of Murlocs here. Most of them are geared towards an aggressive opening while advancing your quest. They give good value, and always represent a pretty potent threat on the board. Don't think of any of them as precious but for the Ghosts, and they are precious as an in-hand resource, once you play em, they are fodder. You don't much care if they die, there will be more.
Lightning Storm and Hex I see these as pretty essential control cards to keep a check on your opponent. Lightning Storm against agro efforts, and Hex against big minion attacks. Until Haggatha comes out, these are fairly precious resources, use them when you need to use them, not just because you can.
Primalfin Totem This card can either be a pretty lame Murloc or a strong way to advance your quest and confound your opponent. Depending on the meta, you may want to have an actual Murloc in here instead of the totem. It tends to play well with Flametongue Totem.
Spirit Echo Honestly, there are probably better cards to play. It tends to be a win-more kind of card in this deck. But I do build for fun and slapping this down on Primafin is terrifying for many opponents. It's also pretty amazing if you can get it down on one or more Ghost Light Angler The value goes for days! Sadly, it can be a dead card when you are getting your butt stomped.
Healing Rain Because I really wanted to see the late game side of this deck in action, I'm playing Healing Rain to give me time to do that against aggressive decks. It's also nice against the burn mages and combo decks. Having two can hurt your momentum in games when you don't much need to heal. I also tend to use this deck for Murloc quests, so the longer you play, the more Murlocs you get out. Anyhow, it's not essential to the deck, but I think you want at least some healing here to make it to your big plays.
Shudderwock Why the hell not? Most of the murloc battle-cries are pretty handy and are strictly beneficial for you. Of course, the main reason it is here is so you can get a second fill of murlocs by it copying the battle-cry from Megafin. Ya, its a semi-dead card otherwise, but chances are good you will get your quest done before you play Shudderwock so it works fairly well. Whether that will actually be needed in a game, that's a bit less likely. It can also give you some great results by echoing Megasour's battle cry so if you have played one or two, and have a board of Murlocs out, go for it!
BTW: Remember that Haggatha's 3 damage to board is a battlecry, so if you drop Shudderwock after her, It's going to hit your board. That isn't always a problem, but keep aware of it.
Match-Ups
I have not played enough games with it to give you a lot of detail. But here are my experiences.
Best Matchups: Druid, Priest, and Warrior. The endless stream of murlocs tends to overwhelm their ability to deal with them. It takes a while, but eventually, they just can't clear the board and you win. Mid game will decide it things as that is when these decks peak.
Better than expected: Warlock. Cube can still combo you pretty hard, but control warlock, despite all its removal options, can actually struggle against the endless murloc hordes. I've beat every warlock I've played so far.
Challenging: Paladin. I've won the two games I played against even paladin, but they were nail-biters, and in both cases, the paladin got greedy and went face instead of clearing my board, that resulted in a knock out blow from Megasaur. Freeze Mage is also probably pretty tough as the merlocks are very vulnerable to getting turned into elementals.
Ouch!: Spell Mage is a beating. Between the ability to just stab you in the face and the early strength on board, the two games I played I got wrecked.
Mulligans
Not my area of expertise. You want as many murlocs in your opening hand as possible, preferably cheap ones. Ideally a nice curve of 1,2,3, though you will pretty much always play your quest on turn 1. Clearly, if you have a strong notion what your opponent's strengths are, the two counter cards (lightning storm and hex) can be keepers so that you have an answer for their power plays.
Sorry, but this deck sucks balls. I played 14 games with it and lost them all - took me down to the bottom of Rank 20 - no more stars to lose! Every time I built a field of minions, the opponent either cleared them or buffed their own minions to the point I could not overcome. Couldn't ever get Megafin, never drew a Shudder or Hagatha once - they're buried too deep in the deck. Lost against mages, paladins, priests, rogues (not warriors because no one is playing warrior decks now, but I'm sure if I had encountered one I would have lost to it as well).
What pisses me off the most is that I spent 2,500 dust to craft this thing.
This deck seems fun... But 0 win in 6 games. Working on paper but he have no good matchup.. Get pwn by control, midrange and aggro.
I have a (WAYY) better win rate with my Standard Toggwaggle Druid.. or just the regular Shudderwock Shaman
Lol , focus on that then. This decks a legit rank deck I played last month to legend but juz without hagatha coz ive no dust for her 😭😭
Sorry it didn't gell for you. I find that for me, I have a play style that works for some decks, and doesn't work so well for others. And you can never totally account for a good or bad string of luck. Anyhow, thanks much for trying it out and letting me know how it went for you!
I don't have old Toggwaggle or I'd be giving that a go. Seems like a pretty fun combo to pull off and pretty consistent.
Yeah, I had pretty awefull draw on some game.. and pretty awefull play on other loll.
I'll keep the deck in my list and give a it a few try with some modification. The idea around it is fun and give a new kick to the
murlocShaman Quest. I'll lets you know here if I find some modification wich work for meI'm super please folks are having fun with it, thanks for letting me know!
I'd say you've played more games with it than I have, I'm probably closer to 15 as I tend to jump around deck to deck based on my quests. The lookouts have been on my radar. I used them in my murloc deck pre Witchwood. and I love seeing them when I drop Megafin so I think they are a good inclusion. I haven't tried Ice Fishing, but I think it's good. I'll try out your variation. :)
Flametongue was there when Odd paladin and Spiteful was everywhere. It seemed to help me respond to early boards and sometimes to punch down the Spiteful Summon with a weaker but wide board. It may no longer be as useful. I think I'd keep the 2 Megasaurs, its such a big swing, sometimes even if it only buffs one Murloc, it can make a big impact in the board state.
Thanks, much for the feedback, I'm going to try your substitutions!
Thanks for the deck mang! I've been trying to put together a Shaman deck quest to no avail, but this is good. I'm wrecking face in Casual. A little scared to bring it into Ranked, for obvious reasons LOL.
I like this deck, but only have about 3000 dust and would need the quest, Shudder, Megasaur, and Warleaders, so with this in mind; any substitution for Shudderwock? Maybe a card draw engine like Mana Tide or something?. Not looking for a climb deck I already have a couple for that, just want a fun deck,
Warleaders and Megasaur are essential for any Murloc deck. Definitely craft those. Murlocs are almost always pretty good and their synergies are fun. Unite the Murlocs is essential for this deck but a very specialized card you won't use in any other type of deck. Shudderwock is very powerful, though a bit gimmicky to be sure and not essential to this deck.
Mana Tide can work fine as card draw. Zola is very good for copying Megafin (or other minions) and one of the all-around most useful neutral legendaries for combo play.
I think i'm gonna end up crafting the cards I can and substitute some; probably gonna put in Zola instead of Shudderwock and see about interchanging Spirit Echo with something. Also wanted to ask, hows this deck fare against decks like Odd/Quest Rogue and Spell/Odd Hunter? I feel like i've been running into Odd decks very often as of late.
Cool, let me know if you end up with any insights on Zola in the deck.
I suspect Odd Rogue is difficult. You probably need to pull your Healing Spring to survive long enough to capture the board. I think Quest Rogue is a race, you need to get them in striking range before they get their quest done. I have not run into either playing this deck myself but I think that's how they would play out. For Odd Rogue, focus on stabilizing, for Quest Rogue, focus on going face.
I've lost to agro hunter because trading doesn't slow their rush much, but beaten spell hunter consistently.
Not gonna lie, Zola definitely has ups and downs. Very rarely though does she actually copy Megafin which is the big combo, but copying a Brrrloc has saved my face a couple times so she may be useful; however, I actually found Spirit Echo to be better.
Also right not I'm 2-7, but that's mostly because I was playing aggro matchups where I got outpaced. I'm messing around with the deck a little bit because the biggest issue i've run into is definitely card draw. There are so many times that I run into is early on I end up with 0-2 cards in hand and I just can't keep up.
I've also actually noticed that I might cut a good portion of murlocs in order to run a better package. 9/10 I get at least 3 from a Ghost Light Angler, along with 2 Brrlocs, 2 Tidecallers, 2 Hunters, 2 Warleaders and either 2 Seers or 2 Lookouts (for more cycle) I can EASILY complete the quest before turn 8. This deck is similar to what I ran into with Quest Hunter, is that you'd think running more merlons would be great for faster quest completion, but in actuality it just waters down the deck.
I'm going to mess around with it a bit more, but for my preliminary findings if you're interested.
- Zola is a possibility in this deck, copying a Murloc on command is pretty nice and a Megafin copy is downright disgusting; but Spirit Echo may out value it because of a larger board.
- Card draw needs to be addressed. However, I found that Mana Tides are too slow; and i'm probably going to try Acolyte's in place.
- Tidehunter's, Primalfin Totems, and maybe even Seer's seem a bit slow/weak for the deck. Probably going to sub them out for either better control cards or a small elemental package.
- I'm also going to mess around with running 1 Ghost Light Angler; but it is BY FAR the MVP of the deck. This plus Hagatha is an insta hand refill, easy quest completion; or with some experimenting, works pretty well with Thrall, Deathseer.
- On that note, i've been running Deathseer alongside Hagatha and I have to say it may work as a nice bridge card. I may end up crafting Shudderwock to put into the deck as well because it's a strong battlecry. But as far as Thrall goes, upgrading a bunch of 1/2 mana merlons that your opponent didn't clear to 3/4 mana cards is pretty strong and may help you survive that little bit longer until you can either finish your quest or get Hagatha.
- Also to all of you wondering, Bloodlust is eh in this deck. You'd think that it'd work great with the large board, but 90% of the time it's a dead card in hand.
Will update as I continue testing the deck and any substitutions I made.
-
I considered Thrall. I think that without Shudderwock, he makes a lot of sense. With Shudderwock, you can end up shutting down the battlecry chain before you get your Murlocs which is why I didn't end up including him.
Interesting on the too many murlocs thing, that does make some sense. Ideally, you want just enough to get the quest done mid game, but not so many you don't have stronger impact card plays. It is a balancing act.
For card draw, I'd recommend Cult Master. It's a little high risk, but I'm using it in a fair number of minion heavy decks at the moment and it works for me. I have it in my Shudderwock deck along with one Mana Tide. It should work in this deck, but I'm thinking two might be too much as it's pretty darn weak when it's played out on an empty board.
That's about what I was thinking with Bloodlust, it just doesn't fit in this decks curve/style. It doesn't push hard enough or make enough bodies mid game to make it work. It would work late game, but if this deck is doing its thing, you just don't need it then.
I love any deck that's trying to make Unite the Murlocs work!
Fun deck. :)) I've been having trouble drawing cards consistently, so i was wondering if Ice Fishing could replace something?
Spirit Echo and Healing Rain are the only real swing cards in the deck. I'd start with Spirit Echo, and then perhaps a Healing Rain. It could hurt your temp a little, but it will increase the reliability of completing the quest and it's never going to be a dead card like Spirit Echo or Healing Rain can be.
I think that sub can work. Elise is more reliable in the sense she's always giving you the 5/5 value as where Spirit Echo can be a dead card when you struggle to keep the board. Spirit Echo has the potential to be more powerful in that it can recycle any minion in the deck, sometimes a full board of them. (though that often means your hand fills up and you loose cards on a draw)
I have Elise along with Shudderwock in my main Shudderwock deck, and I can say it does work to good effect in a longer game. That one also has Zola and Earthshaker so I've stuffed my deck full of "packs" a time or two. Good fun that! I think it could work here.
Nice wins. I've been getting owned by mage, but doing well against the rest of the field. I think part of it is folks are not really practiced at playing against this craziness.
True that. It's a very bad matchup due to the lack of any taunts and the minions being relatively vulnerable to removal.
This deck is AWESOMEEEE
Dude this deck is awesome, when you play Shuderwock with some murlocks on the board and you had played both of your megasours, some rockpools and megafin its petty good. Even if you suffer if the opponent develops his board faster than you, its still quite good and fun ofc