Hearthpwn

Hi my name is WhatAChamp and I'm a Shamaholic. Shaman has been my favourite class and I've played pretty much every archetype imaginable, from totem to overload, from midrange to mech aggro, from crusher to deathrattle. However, no deck has captivated me as much as OTK Shaman.

OTK Shaman has evolved slowly since its beginnings in GvG and I've played through it every step of the way. I feel like it's currently at the strongest it has ever been with the addition of a heal spell, huge aoe, and card draw in TGT. I currently play it at rank 5 with around a 50% win rate. I'm not going to claim that this deck will get you to legend like many people do but it is a blast to play and is competitive.

My biggest issues with other OTK Shaman decks is that they either dilute their decks with minions making Ancestor's Call a gamble or they're too inconsistent, requiring every key card to be in the first 15 cards of your deck.

This deck relies on stall mechanics to keep you alive until you can pull off your win condition. Let's get into the details.

 

Win Conditions

1. This deck has the standard win condition of Ancestor's Call into Malygos combined with any number of spells. Lightning Bolt, Crackle, Lava Shock and Lava Burst provide enough ammunition to burst down your opponent when buffed with spell power. Emperor Thaurissan and Far Sight reduce the cost of your spells, allowing you to easily drop 30-45 damage on your opponent.

The big issue with this win condition is that if you don't draw Malygos or Ancestor's Call you won't survive to kill your opponent. So that's why I added another condition.

2. Ancestor's Call into Mekgineer Thermaplugg combined with Elemental Destruction and/or Lightning Storm. This combo allows you to clear your opponent's board while filling yours with a huge threat and a ton of Leper Gnomes. Although this generally won't win you the game, it can give you some reprieve while softening up your opponent for death via spells. I've often gotten 6 gnomes from this combo since people rarely expect it.

3. Doomhammer: This is sort of a pseudo win condition. You can use Rockbiter Weapon to pump out some nice burst before finishing with Malygos or you can use in conjunction with pressure from Mekgineer Thermaplugg. Even without Rockbiter, it's a good tool for clearing the board or just lowering health in general.

Stall Mechanics

1. Healing: Healing Wave is a fantastic new addition to this deck. Since the deck only runs 3 minions with 6, 9 and 9 mana costs, you almost always get to heal for 14 for the cost of 3 mana. This is absolutely nuts and allows for incredible tempo swings, buying you up to another two turns often. Try to mulligan into these against any aggressive or midrange deck as it will keep you alive to use your combo.

2. Taunts: This deck only runs Feral Spirit x2 for taunts. The reason for this is that we don't want to lower our curve for Healing Wave and we also don't want to have other minions competing for Ancestor's Call. This card is great early on to combat early game drops and it's also great for protecting your face later in the game.

3. Single target removal: I won't include face-targeting spells in this category because they should very rarely be used as removal except in situations where you will die or get pressured hard if you don't use them. Our prime early removal spell is Rockbiter Weapon which saves us from early pain-in-the-ass cards like Knife Juggler, Darnassus Aspirant and Mana Wyrm. Hex is a fantastic card that needs to be used differently depending on the deck. I find myself often using it on Piloted Shredders just to deny tempo to midrange decks and keep myself in the game but it's also great against huge end-game threats.

4. AOE removal: Elemental Destruction is a solid card that can absolutely save you from some tough situations. You may want to use Lava Shock to regain your mana crystals afterward but often it can be worth skipping your next turn if you get to kill 5-6 minions. Lightning Storm is of course very useful as well and should be mulligan'd into early game. Try to keep at least one AOE spell to use in conjunction with Mekgineer Thermaplugg. Occasionally I'll let my opponent build up his board a bit just so that I can get a nice combo out. Using Hex on medium size minions can bring their health down into AOE range as well, so plan accordingly and try to avoid killing frogs until you have Thermaplugg down.

5. Mana reduction and crystal unlock: Far Sight is an amazing card to play early on. It can allow you to make good combos that wouldn't be possible otherwise. It also allows you to drop more spells with Malygos. Emperor Thaurissan does the same thing but on a larger scale. I will often keep Thaurissan in my mulligan against slow decks. Lava Shock is the one spell that occasionally should be used just to clear your overload.

6. Card draw: Although this doesn't help with stalling opponents, it speeds up your combo. Ancestor's Knowledge lets you draw through your deck much faster so its an invaluable addition. Try to couple the overload with another spell so you can clear it with Lava Shock.

  

Mulligan Guide:

Against aggro: Rockbiter Weapon, Lightning Storm, Feral Spirit, Healing Wave.

Against control: Far Sight, Hex, Ancestor's Knowledge, Emperor Thaurissan.