Hearthpwn

Hi I'm Mitsuhide ( https://twitter.com/ONE_Mitsuhide ) playing for Sector One ( www.sectorone.eu ). Below you can find a guide on my take on shaman. Enjoy!

WHISPERS OF THE OLD GODS: TEMPO SHAMAN - INTRODUCTION

So most of us, including myself, expect aggro shaman to become god-tier on the back of the new format and nerfs (R.I.P. Chow, Healbot, Belcher, Loatheb). After looking at the new set of cards for a while I couldn't get my eyes off of two cards in particular: Eternal Sentinel and Flamewreathed Faceless. Both of these cards are insanely strong and can provide a huge tempo swing. On top of that they have pretty sick synergy together!

Eternal Sentinel can help streamline the [sometimes awkward] shaman curve to make it less clunky and more consistent, whereas Flamewreathed Faceless (especially strong with Big Game Hunter being nerfed) can help the aggro shaman build to transition into a more midrangey tempo deck. An archetype that has proven to be very strong in the past: think of mech mage, aggro druid and the like, generally decks topping their curve with Fel Reaver. For this purpose I have decided to replace Lava Shock with Eternal Sentinel (kind of comparable to aggro druids cutting wrath for juggler). I also had to look for a replacement to our beloved Leper Gnome (will be nerfed from a 2/1 to a 1/1) and Argent Squire seemed like a decent fit together with Flametongue Totem.

People have been asking me why I don't include more aggressive cards like Worgen Infiltrator, Leeroy Jenkins, Ancestral Knowledge, Lava Shock and Argent Horserider. The answer is because this deck isn't a face deck anymore. You want to prioritize board control and tempo over everything else and for now, this set of minions and spells accomplishes that goal the best. The new cards allow you to keep control over the board for an entire game. Also, you still have enough burst damage in your deck to remove the entire 30HP of your opponent...almost twice. (2x Doomhammer 2x Rockbiter Weapon 2x Lava Burst)

WHISPERS OF THE OLD GODS: TEMPO SHAMAN - STRATEGY

For those of you who have been playing a lot of aggro shaman before, the game plan should be pretty straightforward. You start off the game with some overpowered overload cards, preferably after a turn 1 Tunnel Trogg and follow this up with a well planned-out curve with doomhammer as icing on the cake. The big difference with before is that you do not have the ability to do as much burst anymore, so you should adapt your game plan to that. The new list focuses a lot more on board, so using doomhammer to clear is often not a bad idea.

In general against decks that run a 3 damage removal on turn 2 (e.g. Wrath, Frostbolt, Fiery War Axe and Darkbomb) you want to coin Totem Golem, into 1 drop, into 3 drop as they cannot remove it.

As this is a very board reliant deck, be careful not to commit too much into an AoE board whipe like Brawl. It is fine to keep some minions in hand even if you have the mana to play them to play around board clears. (only if you pressure enough with the current board).

WHISPERS OF THE OLD GODS: TEMPO SHAMAN - MULLIGAN

This mulligan guide is to help people who are having trouble navigating the deck on ladder. For this purpose I give advice on what to mulligan against each class (as you often don't know the archetype on ladder). 

FULL MULLIGAN GUIDE HERE   --->   **http://sectorone.eu/wotog-tempo-smorc-shaman/**

So far I'm having a very good winrate with this deck in legend:

Update 1: After brainstorming with several hearthstone Pro's I have come to the conclusion that the single knowledge and lava shock probably aren't that good in this deck. The main reason knowledge was in the previous iteration was because sometimes you needed it to fish for final burst. As this deck relies less on burst and more on board and tempo I think it is has less use. To replace these two cards I have introduced one Master of Evolution (great synergy with squire/horserider after divine shield has been popped, flametongue on an empty board, spirit wolves etc.) and an extra Argent Squire.

Update 2: After testing around a bit I noticed that the new shaman minions are just too strong not to play. The new board centric version is way more consistent and overwhelming than the old builds. Master of evolution, tuskarr and thing from below have insane synergy and are among the strongest cards of this update, so I put them in to try and it worked great. (Testing level: top 500 ladder). 

Update 3: Replaced second Sentinel with second Flame Juggler - Sentinel is a bad opening hand keep and I have never had any troubles with overload. 

Update 4: Replaced Sentinel with Hex - very strong tech in this meta to deal with big taunts! 

Update 5: Adapted a bit too the meta, with a strong finisher in Bloodlust (Loyan and Xixo had great succes with midrange bloodlust shaman on ladder). Added an horserider for a solid non-overload post Flamewreather Faceless drop on turn 5. 

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Hope you liked my thoughts on this new type of shaman and good luck laddering!

Mitsu