Hearthpwn

Update 05/09

Since announcement of buffs to Totem Goliath i again have been playing a lot of Totem Shaman and i regret cutting Mana Tide Totem for Voracious Reader. It is not as hard to stick and copying it with Totemic Reflection wins every game. That's why Totem is back to the list again.

Devolving Missiles have been underwhelming lately. It is still a great card but many times i would prefer to have something else in my hand, that would let me snowball the board as early as possible. Also not meeting many paladins lately. I swapped it for Blazing Battlemage for now. If i find a better 1 mana replacement, i will update the list.

Update 31/08

Hey guys! I know some of you are still playing Totem Shaman despite it falling of a cliff towards the end of month. This list was made before the nerfs to counter druids by snowballing the board to the point where it is impossible to clear it with Guardian Animals and it was no longer viable in the new meta. That's why I decided to update it to version i think the best suits current meta. I am still sometimes playing it in legend with positive WR, although keep in mind shaman is very week this expansion.

Voracious Reader is back to the list as games are no longer decided by turn 5 and you can easily comeback later.

Serpentshrine Portal is out as your new finishing tool becomes Bloodlust and to help you fight for the board we are adding Beaming Sidekick and Guardian Augmerchant.

There is no more room for Surging Tempest but if you are facing less paladins feel free to add it instead of Devolving Missiles

As always hope you enjoy it and HF!

 

 

Update 14/08

I swapped the single copy of Totem Goliath for one Flametongue Totem. Totem Goliath was the most underwhelming card in this list, even worse without Bloodlust. Tested Flametongue Totem in few games and it works way better, helping you to get through big taunts or finish your opponent early. I think it's perfect now.

Try it out!

 

Hey guys!

I got legend early this season and since expansion came out I have been mainly having fun on Totem Shaman and i think i found a sweet spot. This list has 65% wr over 23 games in legend and going strong.

I tried many variants of this deck and found out that only way to win is actually turbo snowball early game. I will explain why some cards are and why some are not in this list:

Devolving Missiles - Amazing card vs paladin and druid. Also helps sometimes in other scenarios. A must include.

Storm's Wrath - Helps you snowball, fills mana curve, gets your minions out of reach of removals. I tried decks without it and they felt so much worse.

Surging Tempest - Not having a 1 drop vs aggro decks often meant defeat, and you won't have Tour Guide in your every opening hand. Also synergizes well with Storm's Wrath.

Trick Totem - Yes it lost me few games but it also solo carried me countless of games. Also having 3 hp makes a big difference. I always choose Trick Totem over EVIL Totem if i get offered both in my opening hand. It provides a lot more tempo, and tempo is the name of the game when comes to Scholomance Academy.

Voracious Reader - Maybe good card in other shaman archetypes, but it is terrible in Totem Shaman. Unless you get it in your opening hand with Lightning Bloom it ends up useless and we don't want that coz it means tempo loss for us. Drawing it midgame in current meta, most of the time does not matter - at this point we either won or lost.

Serpentshrine Portal - I did not see it working in Totem Shaman untill recently i made this deck but it turned out to be amazing. It helps you contest the board early, or finish annoying freeze mages later into the game. Also combines well with Diligent Notetaker and Lightning Bloom AND Storm's Wrath allowing you to make gigantic overload turns while creating huge tempo swings on board.

Bloodlust - I tried it and it was way too slow, if it ends up in your opening hand it is a loss. It is too situational and unreliable finisher. In this meta we have much better tools to snowball, generate value and finish oponents.

Totem Goliath and Runic Carvings - Especially Runic Carvings few times helped me close the game out when i was running low on gas. That said, I think one copy of each is perfectly enought in our rather tempo oriented deck.

So what's the game plan? Mulligan for this deck is very versatile and situational and it took me few days to learn it as I wasn't playing any Totem Shaman in Ashes of Outland. So be patient and practice! Deck is very fun and definitely worth it!

Your main goal is to have a hand which can let you snowball the board out of control of your oponent. Look for combo pieces that let you dump your hand early OR stick and copy a totem that generates value which would idealy be Trick Totem or Mana Tide Totem. Plan everything ahead and especially your overload turns to idealy overload more mana crystals than you would have available on next turn.

There is no card in the deck that would be "always a keep" in any matchup. You always want to exactly plan turns 1, 2, 3 depending on matchup and what you got offered and mulligan accordingly to what your think the game will allow you to do with current hand without floating any mana crystals. Planing everything ahead especially with Diligent Notetaker will let you maintain positive WR with this deck. You have to know if you are going for buffing/smORC plan with Storm's Wrath on 3 or if you are going for value/copy plan with Totemic Reflection on Trick Totem.

Again, only keep cards to play on turns 1-3, don't keep Devolving Missiles or Splitting Axe unless you already have cards to play on turns 1-3.

As always GL & HF!