Legend Straightforward Control Shaman
- Last updated Jan 29, 2021 (Darkmoon Races)
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Wild
- 18 Minions
- 11 Spells
- 1 Weapon
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Control Shaman
- Crafting Cost: 17600
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 1/23/2021 (Darkmoon Races)
- AIM7Sparrow
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Total Deck Rating
168
Just hit legend with this climbing from D5 and winning about 2/3 of my games. Honestly I didn't think this would be a good deck at first and didn't bother tracking it....sorry.
But yeah this deck takes it back to the basics of a straightforward control Shaman deck. No quest double battlecry Cthun or Ysharj gimmicks. Just straight value. It features Cthun but that's really not your win condition most of the time. In fact I haven't been able to even play him yet during my 20+ games and his main utility actually comes from enabling Groundskeeper and corrupting Dunk Tanks. He takes one slot in your deck but provides 4 valuable cards for that purpose.
As with all control decks your win condition is simply surviving and generating more resources than your opponent. I've outvalued and won against some pretty greedy decks with this including the new Kanrethad Ebonlocke, Vectus, and Envoy Rustwix Warlock that basically summons like 15 primes throughout the game.
There are a lot of cool things you can do with this deck and different ways to win.
Guidance is freaking awesome. Generates two spells and it itself can be pulled off Cobalt Spellkin. You are refilling your hand constantly. Overloading with it creates a 2 mana consecration with Landslide and 2 mana flamestrike if you have any spell damage on board, which you can easily have now with Imprisoned Phoenix.
Fist of Ra-Den is a very solid win condition now with the addition of Guidance. You can easily create 4 Reliquary of Souls and load your deck up with one of the best primes in the game. Or just get other free legendaries too, you really don't have to force it.
You can sometimes surprise your opponent with huge burn damage after Phoenix wakes up, especially against Warlocks who are tapping all game. I've dealt 19 damage for lethal in a single turn with Portal, Dunk Tank, and a Lightning Bolt off Spellkin after my Phoenix woke up with spell totem on board.
Silas is there to take very high value threats like Rattlegore.
Bandersmosh is just a very solid value card that usually forces your opponent to spend more cards and/or mana than you did playing it.
Fireheart is of course another mini-win condition with the incredible value she generates. Try to save her for later in the take to take full advantage of the hot streak.
Deck performs very well against a wide variety of stuff. I've beaten Weapon/Stealth Rogue, all forms of control and aggro Warlock, res Priests, aggro hunters and DH, Evolve Shaman, control Warriors, and Libram Pally.
Tickitus Warlock is probably the hardest matchup and usually depends on how many of your best cards they mill, but I've also beaten them even after losing 10 cards still so it's definitely doable. Remember Cthun is not your main win condition so don't concede if they mill some of the pieces! It's actually super funny when they start emoting like assholes thinking they have a free win now and then you kill them in fatigue anyways. Feels amazing man.
Give it a shot and let me know what you think. It really is a fun deck to pilot, especially if you like heavily thinking about how to make the best plays each turn.
Removed 2 Molten Blasts for more meta tech choices: Ooze vs. Weapon Rogues and Elysiana for Tickatus Warlocks. These two slots can be highly flexible depending on what decks you are most often encountering yourselves.
Mulligan/Mana Tricks/Plays
Always: Sludge Slurper
Vs Aggro: Landslide, Phoenix, Serpentshrine Portal. If you have Landslide, you would also want to keep Groundskeeper and/or a single copy of Hagatha's Scheme. Keep Ooze vs any weapon class of course.
Vs. Control: Keep both copies of Hagatha's scheme if you find them. Otherwise any card that generates is a good keep also. Guidance, Cobalt Spellkin, Instructor Fireheart. Just keep juicing your hand.
Vs. Warrior: Keep Silas. Stealing Rattlegore is huge.
- Coin Phoenix is almost always your best play on turn 1 vs. aggro. It will wake up on turn 3 and you can either Slurper or Guidance for overload into Landslide for a full clear. You can also play one of them on turn 2 and remain overloaded when Phoenix wakes up for the full clear.
- Phoenix turn 2 into coin Raz turn 4 is very powerful vs lots of decks.
- Slurp>Guidance or Lackey>Landslide for a 1/2/3 punch against aggro when going first is strong.
- If you want to guarantee a strong Dunk Tank, play Phoenix on turn 4 at the earliest. This let's you corrupt with 5 mana next turn, then Phoenix wakes up turn 6 for a strong clear. Roll totem if you're feeling lucky for even more deeps.
- ALWAYS save Silas for Rattlegore vs. Warrior. Find a way to clear everything else, even if it means spending multiple resources. Warrior has almost no way to answer their own stolen Rattlegore. On that note, always be mindful of how you play your minions and summon totems in the correct order. Silas will NOT rotate dormant minions, so your sleepy Phoenix is safe.
- Vs. Warlock, Silas against Rustwix is your best move if they allow it. Most Warlock players will Sacrificial Pact or Plague of Flames same turn though to guarantee they get him in their revive pool and dodge the Devolving Missiles.
- Unless it impacts your next turn, you will almost always want to take the extra spell and overload with Guidance. You'd be surprised at how often even the "horrible" spells like Ancestral Healing can make a difference.
- Don't be afraid to just play an empty Groundskeeper vs. control to free up your hand. If anything you force them to spend resources.
- Sometimes it's better to end the Fireheart Hot Streak early if you find a great spell that you don't need to spend. Earthquake and Hagatha's Scheme vs. control are good examples.
- When you go into fatigue vs. Warlock, you have to minimize their removal value. Play only one body at a time. More often than not they will be left with a hand of Cascading Disasters, Nether, etc. Make sure you have saved one big Hagatha's Scheme for their Ysharj, Tick, Strongman flood.
Awesome build. I’ve got up to diamond 5 with a control shaman build. I found dragon breath x2 to be crazy good against aggro (even though I only have 4 dragons).
I had squallhunter to replace Phoenix because I’m greedy and it works better with landslide (6 mana AOE, which can clear the Murloc prime for paly, and also the treant respawn deathrattle for druid)
Now making comparisons to see how I can better my build with yours. Really helpful, thank you
Don't sleep on this thing. I climbed back up to #150 legend after tanking my rating messing around with Tick Lock. Between the Archivist and the C'thun, you can outlast the normal Tickatus builds which can only take ten cards off your deck, especially if you're disciplined enough to deliberately put as many 1-cost spells into Ra'den as possible (each one guaranteeing a new card in deck).
Also, I'm considering putting in Galakrond, Kronx, and Corrupted Elementalist. I realize without having the quest, it's not a particularly exciting battlecry for the Gally play, but the transformed hero power wins more control matchups than you might imagine. I don't know, I'm not having a huge issue with the rare priest matchup, so that may be overkill.
EDIT: If you happen to find yourself in the position where you're playing against Lock and you have all 4 elements of C'thun either already played or in hand, hold them until you're absolutely sure the Lock can't mill anymore. After the Y'shaarj, if you have a Scheme or something held back to wipe the board, the C'thun should win the game shortly thereafter
Damn legend 150? Can you train me on how to play my own deck? I can't break 7k lmao
I was already at like #500 from other decks, so I only had to climb 350 or so, but you have to understand, that high up the ladder, there are little micro-metas everywhere. I may be seeing totally different stuff from you.
In general though, the thing I'm most concerned about when playing this deck is trying to remember exactly what are my opponent's danger cards and what I MUST save to deal with them. The most obvious example is Rattlegore. If you draw a Hex, it's all well and good to have Silas in your deck, but if Rattlegore stays on the board for one turn, you auto lose when he makes 3 of them. So, if you have Hex but not Silas, you just CAN"T play hex on anything else. No matter what.
Ramp Paladin is the other one where you have to keep in mind your targets. Colossus of the moon and the Murloc flood are two things that you must have answers for immediately. I haven't found a way to get an Earth Shock into the deck, but if I happen to get one from Wandmaker or Cobalt, I'd only consider using it on Colossus or Murgle unless I'm completely up against it and have to use it on the other colossus (7/7 deathrattle guy).
Final tip: If you play Priest (1 in 100 games or so nowadays), figure out if it's rez priest or Gally priest. Gally Priest will probably have an Illucia. If you think opponent has Illucia, do NOT hold any of the C'thun components. Play them regardless of the quality of targets. You wouldn't want to lose C'thun to Illucia, particularly when you will need every threat you can muster to outlast priest.
For frame of reference, my current list is as follows:
1 and 2 mana: Devolve Missiles, Custodian, Notetaker, Rune Dagger, Witch's Brew, Zephrys
3 mana: Far Sight, Fireheart, Vashj, L. Storm, Marshspawn, Serpent Portal, Gidra
4 mana: Dunk Tank, Groundskeeper, Hex, Ra-den
5 mana: Bandersmosh, Cobalt Spellkin, H's Scheme, Kobold Stickyfingers
6 mana: Lurker Below
7 mana: Earthquake, Silas, Hagatha
8+ mana: Tidal Wave, Walking Fountain, Elysiana, DQ Alex, C'thun
Bandersmosh is right on the edge of getting cut. More often than not, it SEEMS to be doing well, but there are some serious heavy-hitting cards I want to work into the deck and Bander and Vashj are the two first cuts . . . I think. I'm looking at the possibility of Yogg-Saron, Siamat, and the Galakrond Package (Gally, Kronx, Elementalist . . . possibly maniac and shield)
Also, I have an internal struggle over Marshspawn vs. Wandmaker. So far, the 3/4 body is winning out for tempo, but 3 is a glut in the mana curve, so that in and of itself may get me to go Wand instead. Also, shaman has the second best 1-cost spells after Demon Hunter.
Eye of the Storm didn't make the cut, but it is probably the most-selected spell from SQ Hagatha's battlecry.
Thank you very much for the explanations, yours and in the original deck explanation. I've been playing for years now and never been legend, but got to Diamond 5-3 several times recently, so I appreciate all your thoughts about the tactical thinking, because that's quite difficult to learn.
One thing to be mindful of for people planning to make this HL, you can load your deck with duplicate primes through Fist of Raden. 4 Reliquary of Souls is great, as long as you've already played Zeph and DQA...
Yes. Also if you Silas away a Warlock's Rustwix you can get a duplicate Vashj Prime. I almost blundered away my Zeph before realizing he didn't have the yellow glow and figuring out why later.
I got rid of Bandersmosh a while back because I never really found a use for it. What would you recommend in its place?
Swampqueen Hagatha seems like a good sub.
Woke up to a lot of comments on this deck - glad people are enjoying it.
There have been great points made about converting this into a Highlander version since it's already so close to being there. I think that's a pretty good idea and I'm actually going to give it a shot as well. If anyone is interested here is my first pass at the conversion:
-1 Guidance | +1 Cagematch Custodian
-1 Sludge | +1 Zephyros
-1 Phoenix | +1 Runic Dagger
-1 Landslide | +1 Lightning Storm
-1 Portal | +1 Torrent
-1 Dunk | +1 Swampqueen Hagatha
-1 Groundskeeper | +1 Alex
-1 Hagatha's Scheme | +1 Earthquake
-1 Cobalt Spellkin | +1 Wandmaker
ah, torrent is a good call.
Still think you'll be ok getting away with Marshspawn, but wandmaker works fine too.
The great thing about these kinds of control decks is that there is a lot of flexibility for different card choices.
One final thought, whether you do the Highlander version or the current version, this deck has plenty of spells with the spellkin, the C'thun, etc. to warrant including a Yogg.
The highlander deck will want to invest in things like Marshspawn, Witch's Brew (counts up to 5 spells towards Yogg), and Diligent Notetaker if you go that route, but I think Yogg will have a decent rate of activation by the time you want him.
Yogg is also an interesting idea. I'm personally quite jaded to him since I've gotten horrendously unlucky outcomes several times, but I could definitely see him being a valid inclusion.
If anything it's certainly fun to spin the wheel lol.
another p2w deck, yay
Also, I understood what you said about consistency, but I can't help but notice how well certain other cards fill in as doubles and allow for Highlander options. For example:
-1 Guidance/Slurper = +1 Zephrys, DQ Alex
-1 Phoenix = +1 Bloodmage Thalnos
-1 Landslide/Portal/Tank/Scheme = +1 Earthquake, Sandstorm Elemental, Lightning Storm, Hex
-1 Groundskeeper/Cobalt Spellkin = +1 Witch's Brew, Swampqueen Hagatha OR Walking Fountain (whatever the 4/8 lifesteal windfury guy is)
Just saying, it transforms into Highlander more seemlessly than might seem at first. I tried to group things by lifegain, removal, and spell damage to illustrate the point.
EDIT: Also, I see a few substitutions that work for legendaries people might not have. For example, if you happened to have Headmaster Kel'thuzad, that would slide in as an option for Frostwhisper. Walking Fountain is very good in general for some late game recovery. Someone mentioned Custodian to tutor for Fist of Ra'den, in which case you might consider Runic Dagger as a secondary weapon just to make sure there's something to tutor for.
Even an Eye of the Storm has to be seriously considered as extra staying power against priest/warlock/warrior and their removal.
Well, these are good points.
It's worth trying both variants - at this point it's hard to tell how the meta is going to stabilise.
Right now, Paladin is supposedly getting the best win rates. Between the Librams and the large creatures of Ramp Paladin, seems like a Plague of Murlocs or a couple Hexes might go a long way.
Nice deck! You have so many 1 of's already...what's the case against playing highlander?
I guess it's about the consistency of the deck. I think this version with 2x AOE's + 2x Groundskeeper gives more consistency, especially against aggro decks. The highlander version is not that great in this aspect and offers basically no upside apart from Zephrys and Dragonqueen, which is nice, but I doubt it is enough in this fast meta.