The "Shredder" Shaman Control!
- Last updated Jan 23, 2015 (GvG Launch)
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Wild
- 16 Minions
- 12 Spells
- 2 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 6340
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 12/6/2014 (GvG Prelaunch)
- xxstefanxx1
- Registered User
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- 6
- 27
- 34
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Battle Tag:
Stefan#2558
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
75
Basically trying to say: "Good luck clearing my board, bro"
Okay, so I came up with this "Sticky-minion" deck after reviewing my own Reincarnate Naxxramas deck. The concept of these Piloted minions (Piloted Shredder, Piloted Sky Golem, Sneed's Old Shredder) seemed pretty interesting to me, combined with the new Mech theme going on. So let me go over the current deck as it is, why I picked the cards etc.:
First of all, these are the bases on which the deck is built:
- Strong Deathrattles (high value)
- Mech Interaction
- Favorable Trades
- Mid-Range control
- Deathrattle Activation
Rockbiter Weapon: Still a very standard auto-pick in constructed Shaman in my opinion. Let's you cast it on your own hero, combine it with Flametongue Totem, sacrifice your totems, etc...
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Ancestral Spirit: Pretty interesting pick. Still not sure if I should use 1 or 2 of this card, because the risk of it being a dead card is pretty high, especially against aggro in the early stages of the game.
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Crackle: Beats Lava Burst in every aspect. A potential 6 damage for 2 mana is insane, even with the 1 mana overload. Even with 3 damage it is okay, as Shaman can
make very favorable trades in general
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Flametongue Totem: No description needed.
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Mechwarper: So... I thought to myself, I want a shaman deck where I for once don't hero power on turn 2. Mechwarper is a solid minion by itself, and allows your to turn 3 Piloted Shredder, or Arcane Nullifier X-21. But Also use it in the later stages of the game to call out cards like Piloted Sky Golem and Harvest Golems.
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Reincarnate: Also very much tried in Naxxramas, but it still was not very successful. I hope the new Piloted cards are strong enough to justify the use of this card.
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Feral Spirit: Also a common auto-pick in Shaman decks. Can give a huge swing in the game or give you the opportunities to execute some very interesting mechanics in this deck, without the loss of your board.
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Harvest Golem: A very strong, sticky minion. Also, a mech! Solid card overall, fitting with the gimmick of this deck. >> High value, strong deathrattle, Sticky minion, and is a mech
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Hex: As this is a very control-heavy deck, I think 1 hex will be enough. I really couldn't find an open spot for this card, so for the time being, only 1 hex.
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Lightning Storm: Very efficient removal. The only real AoE removal from Shaman, so... automatic pick, no questions asked
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Mana Tide Totem: I went from and forth whether to use Jeeves or Mana Tide Totem... Still not sure, but I think with the amount of late game, the Totem is alot more consistant than Jeeves.
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Powermace: Very interesting card. Since Naxxramas Shaman's stopped using Stormforged Axe. In my opinion, Powermace has a better Damage-Durability ratio (same as Fiery War Axe) and is a good alternative to Feral Spirit, when you for example need to clear a minion, have a mech out, or need all your mana for the next turn. Great card, great interaction with the deck.
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Arcane Nullifier X-21: I initially used Mechanical Yeti, but someone pointed out that this minion better fits the deck. I must agree that the spare parts don't have a lot of use in this deck (Enough control, no powerful battle cries, enough buffs, enough health), and this fits the "Sticky Minion" gimmick perfectly, along with easily being able to buff this card with Flametongue Totemand such.
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Piloted Shredder: First piloted card in the deck. It's still to be seen how powerful this meta is going to be, but to me this can really swing the game around as you're very favorable to make trades with this card. Also fits the deck in being sticky (summons another character) and... it's a mech!
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Sludge Belcher: Also a very sticky minion. Most of the times stopps at least 2 (big) attacks. Same as Feral Spirit, this allows you to get out your piloted minions, make trades and remove your opponents board. Basically, it stalls your opponent.
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Cairne Bloodhoof: ALSO a very annoying, sticky minion. Though very weak to silence, has a shitload of value as a card itself. A double yeti for 6 mana? Good luck removing THAT!
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Piloted Sky Golem: So here's the 2nd Piloted minion. I like to compare this card to Cairne Bloodhoof, with potential benefits. Ofcourse Cairne is alot more consistant because you know what you get, and has a bigger body, but is that a problem? To digest in to this logic, lets take a look at some powerful 4-mana minion creatures currently in the game:
- Violet Teacher
- Ancient Brewmaster
- Kor'kron Elite
- Sen'jin Shieldmasta
- Anub'ar Ambusher
- Chillwind Yeti
- Mechanical Yeti
- Baron Rivendare
- Water Elemental
There are ofcourse more 4-drops in the game, but the 6/4 body makes it much more attractive to kill as the opponent than a 4/5 cairne, which you can just leave on the board as it is.
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Sylvanas Windrunner: Falls into the gimmick of strong deathrattles, especially because we can activate the deathrattle when we want with reincarnate, or revive her with ancestral spirit. Generally known a very strong pick in constructed:
EDIT: I replaced this card in the spot of a Piloted Sky golem.
Troggzor the Earthinator [Burly Rockjaw Trogg]: A very interesting card, especially in this deck. The amount of sticky minions make is so that you (almost) always have a presence on the board. This means that that the opponent is more likely to use spells, except trading in with minions (because they have none!). So... as Troggzor is already a 6/6 body for 7 mana, it's already a pretty beasty card, worth about 5,5 mana. That means that you over-pay 7 - 5,5 = 1,5 mana.
So even if a mage removes this minion with a Fireball/Polymorph, you still get a 3/5 Burly Rockjaw Trogg for effectively 1,5 mana. In theory, this should be a great addition to the deck, especially when you got some beefy taunts out.
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Sneed's Old Shredder: Okay, so this is the replacement for Al'Akir the Windlord and maybe Ragnaros the Firelord, mostly on the basis of this deck gimmick. This is also the 3rd and last Piloted minion in the deck, plus it being a mech.
So... how good is this minion? It's a 5/7 body for 8 mana, which is roughly worth about 5,5 mana. This is a VERY good attack/health amount, as it removes all those annoying 5-health minions currently in the game. The thing that alot of people overlook in this card, is that it can summon Legendary minions that do not belong to your deck, for example you can summon Tyrion Fordring after your Sneed's Old Shredder dies as a Shaman. But how good is the deathrattle? As I said, you pay about 2,5 mana too much for the body itself, compared to Cairne Bloodhoof, where you over-pay 2 mana. Ofcourse you can get a very bad legendary (or a low mana cost one), but being able to get a potential Ragnaros e.g. for effectively 2,5 mana, after your opponent spends a card or trades a minion into it, this minion is on the long run very strong.
Long story short: It's a mech, powerful deathrattle, high value, strong body
No problem! Hope you have fun ;)
So after some testing, I did some tweaking to the deck... I'm currently rank 12 and climbing. The changes I made are some personnal preferences, not sure it's for everyone but I'll share it for science !
Removed:
- 1 x Crackle : While it's a REALLY nice card it also have a big downside when RNG is bad, can cost you a game.
- 1 xAncestral Spirit : Too slow to combo correctly, removed to add anotherReincarnate.
- 2 x Powermace : What ? Removing the only weapon in the deck + synergy with the mechs ? After some testing I decided to remove for 2 reasons. Shaman still suffer from the lack of healing even with Vitality Totem so face damage is often dangerous. Also, I found myself stuck with weapon because no mech on the board or in the hand, resulting in a wasted card slot.
- 1x Baron Rivendare : Once again too slow to combo and too much of a '' tech '' card, not worth a slot.
- 1x [card]Troggzor the Earthinator[/card] : Simply because I don't have the card yet.
Added:
1 x Reincarnate : Taking Ancestral Spirit spot, fits extremely well in this deck. 2 isn't too much because you can use it on almost any of your deathrattles minions. I often dropped a Sylvanas Windrunner on turn 10 followed by 2x Reincarnate. Enjoy the show ! Same thing with [card]Sneed's Old Shredder[/card] !
1 x Nerubian Egg : Early game pressure and AoE soft counter, also synergize with Reincarnate, Flametongue Totem, Rockbiter Weapon.
1 x Vitality Totem : Healing, board presence + '' peusdo '' 0/3 taunt.
1 x Deathlord: Good to slow zoo, hunters and any kind of rush without the overload drawback of Feral Spirit. You have enough CC to deal with the summoned token but if you're in a bad position you can silence him with Earth Shock.
1 x Al'Akir the Windlord: Made it's way back in my shaman decks becauseThe Black Knight is less common since GvG. Nice finisher, remover, taunt body, etc...
1 x Bomb Lobber: REALLY NICE control-tempo card, sometimes game breaking.
Feel free to comment and thanks to the original deck owner for the really nice idea ! :)
Btw my changes didn't chance the mana curve too much, still really tempo-like.
Interesting. Thanks for the feedback and the attention ;)
Hello !
What's the best replacement for [card]Troggzor the Earthinator[/card]until I craft it ? For now I'm using Ragnaros and so far he was doing GREAT. Do you think he could find a permanent place in the deck ?
Thank you.
You could indeed use a replacement such as Ragnaros, but as the current meta stands, you could also use a more anti-aggro card a second Feral Spirits. Ragnaros is a fine replacement, tho.
I like the deck, but it feels a bit slow in the start against aggro. I'm thinking about adding another Feral Spirit.
Just my opinion here, I know how much people PRAISE Feral Spirit but I honestly think 1x is enough.
Here's why. Initially it was a very good card in the early seasons to counter any kind of early game rush. Either zoo, hunters, tempo rogue, vanilla mages, etc... 2 x 2/3 was amazing. However the game changed, new cards were added, powerful minions, more CC. It is now very easy to buff any 1-2-3 mana minions and get rid of the wolves. I agree the meta is very fast, you want to prevent face damage and 2x taunt seems ideal but as I said, the card is not THAT good anymore. Often the (2) overload will REALLY mess your curve and fuck you up for the next turn. You really don't want to waste a turn 3 or turn 4 because you didn't draw any cards to cover your wolves overload. You now have to rely on something else.
For control decks, in my opinion, the new meta favors a really smooth curve that will allow you to build combos and synergize your cards to gain board control. The wolves won't give you that. I still think it's a good value card when played correctly and deserve 1x spot in the deck.
With Earth Shock,Crackle,Rockbiter Weapon,Lightning Storm,Powermace,Harvest Golem,Flametongue Totem and even [card]Arcane Nullifier X-21[/card] you should be able to gain board control or at least get yourself into a nice position to reach mid-late game ! :)
Edit: I'm currently testing Al'Akir as replacement for Troggzor, might be a great finisher and/or removal paired with Rockbiter Weapon. If he survives after you removed 2x minions he's still a 3/x taunt body...
Hey I made this shaman deck and would love some feedback. Feel free to ignore me if I bother you. The deck: http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/139522-my-midrange-shaman-thoughts
So you've probably noticed that I've made some pretty radical changes to the deck. In the very beginning of GvG this deck did very well, with not a lot of tempo decks. But now there's a lot of hunters and Hand-locks, so I switched some cards to fit in 2 Earth Shocks and a second Hex. This change changed my win rate against these these decks by a pretty radical amount, especially hand-locks.
I like the idea but it's a bit expensive !
I know what your mean, but there are alot of substitutions you can make. You can switch out cairne for a Piloted Sky Golem, Troggzor with fire elemental and sylvanas with fire elemental. Should still work pretty well. (However I suggest getting Sylvanas asap, I won alot of game just by reincarnating/ancestral spiriting on Sylvanas)
If you have any good legendaries, you can switch out Sneed's Old Shredder for Ragnaros, Al'akir etc... but also leaving him out for an extra hex is pretty good for removal
Like the concept, tho i would switch out Cairne for another piloted...
I've considered all of those options actually ;)
So... 2x Ancestral Spirit is just too slow for the current meta. It just sits in your hand in the early game and you just get stampeded by hunters and mech decks. The same counts for Kel'Thuzad. I consider this as a "Win More" card. I could try this, but Troggzor counters rush deck way too good. So the problem is that you're probably never going to get to play Kel'Thuzad with a direct effect.
Flametongue I can't remove. It just works too good with totems, Feral spirits, deathrattle minions from the pilote minions, etc...
Hex, I've been working on to find a spot for a second one, but the extra (control) edge wasn't really necessary in most games, except for maybe Hand-locks. Still looking into this ;)
Lightning bolt was in the first edition of the deck, but Rockbiter Weapon finds better targets in this deck, for example trading in your pilotes for the deathrattle, etcetera. I think crackle is a nice substitution for lightning bolt.
I hope I answered your questions ;)
I was already on debate whether to swap it in for Cairne or use them both. I swapped them out now, should be updated. Thanks for the comment
Well you could still make room for Cairne by getting rid of a Piloted Sky Golem.
I was really screwed over by the Sky Golem giving me an unbuffed Twilight Drake during an Arena run, which taught me why I preferred Cairne in the first place.
You can consistently count on Cairne giving you a Yeti once it dies, but these "random-drop-Deathrattle" Mechs (Piloted Shredder, Piloted Sky Golem, and Sneed's Old Shredder) aren't exactly reliable.
Sure, there are absolute dream drops to be expected from the deaths of these Mechs, like Millhouse Manastorm, Pit Lord, and Ragnaros, but the bad outcomes cannot simply be ignored. (e.g. Doomsayer popping out of Piloted Shredder when you're ahead on board control, my earlier unbuffed Twilight Drake example, and Nozdormu from Old Shredder when you were about to pull off a slow, but detailed combo of spells and minion trades)
Any objections?
I took your advice, I swapped it out. The hustle was just it being a mech
I took your advice, I hope it looks a bit better now! Also going to give a more clear description of the deck, seems to be decently popular
I have thought about all these card choices, but there's just not enough room in the deck :D
30 cards is not enough when 120 cards are released haha