Consistent Murloc Shaman!
- Last updated Apr 11, 2015 (Blackrock Launch)
- Edit
- |
Wild
- 22 Minions
- 6 Spells
- 2 Weapons
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Unknown
- Crafting Cost: 5780
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/11/2015 (Blackrock Launch)
- ArchimedesvonNova
- Registered User
-
- 5
- 13
- 31
-
Battle Tag:
N/A
-
Region:
N/A
-
Total Deck Rating
10
Hey there! Archimedes here, legend player and long time player of hearthstone, looking to show a list I've been working on!
This is a mostly for fun deck that can win, and has a fair few pretty decent match ups. It has a bit of burst and a lot of minion damage to rely on, and is a fun deck if you like playing to the board, thinking multiple turns ahead, and frequently saying MRLRLRLLGHRL. This isn't yet a competitive deck, but I wouldn't be surprised if it could climb a fair distance. This is also a deck that complements the shaman hero power quite a bit, and Totemic Call very rarely feels awkward in this deck.
This deck is all about controlling the board and refilling it the moment it gets cleared. It's about knowing what your opponent can do with the mana they have, and picking the play that maintains the best board after their play. Dr. Boom, Neptulon, and murloc combos allow us to quickly recover from or prevent a clear, and Hex, Earth Shock, Rockbiter Weapon and Powermace help us mitigate the opponent's board quickly.
With GvG we saw the most successful tribal deck in hearthstone, the mech mage. Mech mage's flow is a lot of what this deck follows, with a lot of different upsides and downsides.
One of the things often misunderstood about murlocs is that you don't need to get full full value out of their buff cards, which makes them comparable to mech synergy cards. Even though murloc buffs are best when used in an aoe, buffing a single target with them is still excellent. Getting two health off the Coldlight Seer on a Puddlestomper or a Tidecaller can help you trade much better, and since both are murlocs, it leads to better combos later.
To compare:
Murloc Tidecaller to Cogmaster. Cogmaster can quicker get more damage, but the damage does not stick, and he is not himself a mech. Murloc Tidecaller is slower, but can grow larger, and gets the health benefits of being a murloc.
Puddlestomper to Mechwarper: Before I started experimenting with this list, I would have never dreamed to compare these two cards seriously. However, since the Puddlestomper is a significantly healthier murloc than the Murloc Tidehunter, can buff the Murloc Tidecaller and can be buffed by the Murloc Warleader and the Coldlight Seer, it's a vital card that helps put the deck together, much like Mechwarper.
Bluegill Warrior and Murloc Tidehunter to Annoy-o-Tron: both are somewhat stat inefficient minions that are either played due to their annoyance, their synergy, or to answer the board. Bluegill Warrior has the advantage of acting immediately, Murloc Tidehunter has the advantage of stacking buffs,
Where murlocs start to shine over mechs is their synergy cards. Tinkertown Technician getting +1 +1 vs Coldlight Seer giving a minion +2, and often buffing a Murloc Tidecaller. However, if there's more than one murloc, the seer begins to heavily outclass the technician, able to turn a vulnerable board into a sizable one, and punish leaving a murloc to die next turn. This means lategame plays of mass murlocs tend to create very hard to contest boards.
Murloc Warleader has a similar effect, though because of his attack buff, his influence is much more immediate. Being able to choose where to put your damage instead of having it go randomly like a certain Goblin Blastmage is a huge benefit.
Old Murk-Eye is a fairly below average card by himself, and quickly becomes massively above average with murloc based board presense, a card that doesn't really have a mech equivalent.
Before I get to why I picked shaman, I'll discuss the non murloc minions in the deck: Spider Tank, Piloted Shredder, Loatheb and Dr. Boom.
One of the reasons mech is so difficult to fight is because, despite the dependency it has on synergy cards and flimsier early minions, it has really solid midgame minions with spider tank and piloted shredder. While they're not murlocs, they're extremely good at securing a board, and they complement shaman removal incredibly nicely. They are the backbone of the deck, allowing us to set up huge plays that take the board.
Even though Coldlight Seer, Murloc Warleader, and the Siltfin Spiritwalker do a good job protecting from aoe, they don't guarantee protect us from a clear. That's where Loatheb comes in. On top of just his relentless presense, he gives us another option on turn 5, where on turn 6 we'd usually play a combo of murlocs. (Curves such as Powermace, Piloted Shredder, Loatheb, and then Murloc Tidecaller Murloc Tidehunter Colightlight Seer quickly dominate the board.)
Now, onto why shaman!
Shaman is the only class with two class cards that complement this strategy very nicely. The first is the Siltfin Spiritwalker. Many people predicted this card would be inadequate, and I'd be inclined to agree, but in a murloc deck, he serves as the fifth and sixth aoe buff. You can use him to activate immediately with Bluegill Warrior and Old-Murk Eye, and you make him a psuedo taunt in front of all the other murlocs in the event that you can't trade immediately. Your opponent can't do anything your board if they don't deal with him first, and at 5 health, that's hard to do.
Neptulon is the other great complement for this deck. The problem most shaman decks have with Neptulon is, while good, what he gives are often less than cards. With our deck, however, he'll almost always give us 4 genuine cards, making Neptulon usually a 5-for-1. Since we're playing the game out slower than a mech mage, and since Neptulon doesn't require spare parts to activate, he is wondrous in this deck.
The other compliments shaman gives is its removal, and it's hero power which is almost at its most useful with this deck. While we want to rely on our minions more than our spells, the spells in this deck help heavily compliment our minions. Earth Shock allows for easy trades and clearing of anything annoying. Rockbiter Weapon helps knock out big things, or deal with faster minions. Powermace lets us keep up with board presense, and is a great complement to the four (five if you count Boom Bots) mechs that we use to keep our midgame stable. It's also worth playing and using if you can't get the +2 +2 buff off, as a 3 mana fiery war axe is just fine as it is for this deck. Hex gets rid of anything in your way, and Lightning Storm is a way to effectively either return the game or close it out, and one copy feels like the sweet spot.
Totemic Call, shaman's hero power, with Searing Totem that helps trade, Stoneclaw Totem that can often let us be very greedy with our plays, Wrath of Air Totem that lets earth shock and lightning storm trade fantastically, and its Healing Totem which can often bring back up a weakened board, all help this deck tremendously, and is yet another reason I picked Shaman.
A note on Flametongue Totem and Fire Elemental: Both are cards I tried to fit into the deck but just couldn't find the space for. Fire Elemental is expensive, and is usually played on a big murloc combo turn, while Flametongue Totem is reliant on our board state, and this deck doesn't as consistently maintain presence as regular shamans with Haunted Creepers and the like.
For mulligan you're usually looking for Murloc Tidecaller, Rockbiter Weapon, Earth Shock, Puddlestomper, Spider Tank, Piloted Shredder, and Powermace. You're looking to draw into murloc combos in the midgame, and secure the game from there. If you're against a class that lacks ways to ping off for one, Murloc Tidehunter can be a real pain really quick, and even playing it on turn 2 and losing just one murloc is fine if you can buff the other the turn after. Keep Hex against druid, and you're good to go!
Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoyed this guide! I'll be looking to update it and will be reading the comments as I develop this deck further.
I presume you'll be remaking this deck with the content of the new adventure? (Everyfin is Awesome could be fun...)
Thank you so much for making this deck, i'm having a blast with it, currently 7/2 in casual. Altought I took out Dr Balanced and a spider tank to replace them with bloodlust, so far it has given me just the fitting boosts to finish the game before the opponent realize he just got rekt by murlocs since so many early clears can't deal with 3-4 hp murlocs. :)
:D Happy to hear! Removing just one spider tank is probably the way to go if you're gonna remove the mech backbone for more burst, and boom is definitely the less relevant finisher. I like it!
I streak with it hard whenever I just need to relax in casual, glad you're enjoying it too. Have you tried one flametongue totem and one bloodlust? I've been considering trying to fit in that totem, but double lust is definitely doable with this style of deck.
Pretty sure a flametongue could be good in some situation, it's yet another body for bloodlust, but my tought is it will probably get killed every single time you put it on the board as there is no taunt and playing it early means we don't get to play those sweet murlocs ^^. Still can be a variant with hero power if you don't want to play your murlocs on an aggressive board and want for a mighty combo.
I'm incredibly surprised you aren't using Grimscale Oracle. I'd also like to hear how well you've done with the deck (with proof, etc).
I tried to steer clear of too many comboish cards. Most of the cards in the deck are fairly easy to play by themselves with the exception of coldlight seer. I tested murloc raider for some time and found it didn't complement the list as well. I could try the oracle!
I've mostly just practiced against meta decks with it. Does well against warriors, and druids, fifty fifty against mages and hunters, and has a fairly poor match up against paladin. I've yet to get the numbers to back that up, but I might if I think this deck is worth looking further into. It's match ups are very similar to a regular midrange shaman, honestly.
I'll upvote anything that has Murlocs in it and isn't totally stupid.
However, you didn't give any evidence this is actually viable. What rank does this deck get to?
I haven't tested it in ranked, I've mostly just tested it against meta decks and seen what happens. It holds its own, and has a high winrate against control warrior, druid, and is about 50-50 against mage and hunter.
Viable might not be the right word. Consistent, perhaps?