[Legend] Midrange Darwin Shaman + Evolve Stats!...
- Last updated Aug 20, 2016 (Karazhan)
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Wild
- 19 Minions
- 11 Spells
- Deck Type: Ranked Deck
- Deck Archetype: Midrange Shaman
- Crafting Cost: 4500
- Dust Needed: Loading Collection
- Created: 4/22/2016 (Explorers)
- Serology
- Registered User
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- 9
- 17
- 34
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Battle Tag:
N/A
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Region:
EU
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Total Deck Rating
2046
Guide Updated: 20/08/16
Intro
Welcome to those who are new to the Darwin Shaman deck and to those who have been following this deck since WotOG and giving constant great feedback. The deck has now been updated to include a number of new ONiK cards that are surprisingly synergistic with the evolve mechanic.
Darwin Shaman is an aggressive midrange deck built around the evolve mechanic in which two cards, Evolve and Master of Evolution, upgrade your minions (including totems) to those of a higher mana cost.
The strategy revolves around maintaining tempo and building a large board of minions and totems, using them for their initial purpose to gain maximum value out of them, before evolving them into large boards of strong minions.
One Night in Karazhan has already introduced three new cards perfectly suited to the deck: Barnes is a 4 mana 3/4 that summons a 1/1 copy of a minion from your deck, that copy retains the original mana cost of the card and so a 1/1 Fire Elemental will become a random 7 drop when evolved.Moat Lurker assassinates a target minion and response it as it's deathrattle, unless of course it is evolved into something else. Finally Maelstrom Portal combined with Wrath of Air Totem or Bloodmage Thalnos becomes a cheaper, more consistent Lightning Storm that summons a token for evolution. Whether or not Spirit Claws makes the cut next week we shall see!
Strategy
When looking at the state of Shaman in Standard with the release of WoToG your first thought should be.. Where do I make room for all these great cards? Shaman already had some of the strongest cards in the game likeHex, Earth Shock, Flametongue Totem and Al'Akir the Windlord, but it used to have holes at various mana costs along the way and ran into trouble with it's curve due to overload.
The question is then which cards make the cut. Do we go all out totems or all out evolve? The answer is we use the best of both as these cards offer such strong tempo plays. This is primarily a tempo-based midrange deck that relies on building a strong board of minions and totems before buffing them and overwhelming the opponent, so the priority must be to maintain board control in the midgame to do so.
Mulligan & Early Game
- Mulligan hard for Tunnel Trogg, Totem Golem and Flame Juggler, if you have the coin it is acceptable to keep Tuskarr Totemic, Feral Spirit and Barnes.
- Remember that Feral Spirit is not just a defensive card, it is intense early game pressure and when evolved will give you two 3 drops.
- Keep Maelstrom Portal against Zoo/Aggro
- Do not keep Thing from Below, Evolve or Master of Evolution in your starting hand
The priority in the early game is not face damage but board control. It's useful to keep your Troggs alive as long as possible but play it safe and trade them off to maintain board control if needed as losing board presence is the primary counter to this deck. If needed, use Hex aggressively to ensure you keep tempo.
Midgame
In the midgame you are looking to evolve your board of flooded minions and totems into a more substantial army capable of pushing overwhelming pressure on your opponent. Remember to trade before evolving eg. send your Totem Golems in their 2/3s before you transform them.
Evolve should be saved until you have usually 4-5 minions on the board. The possibility of Doomsayer is small but does exist so if you have many 1 drops being evolved in 2 drops, it may be advisable to have something in your hand that can deal with it before the end of your turn, for example Hex or even another Evolve.
Try to use your Evolve on a minion first before then casting Master of Evolution for the obvious extra value.
Sometimes you may have such great drops from your Tuskarr Totemics that it is better to hold off on evolving your board in order to gain maximum value from those summons.
Flamewreathed Faceless is an option choice for this deck. It may seem counter intuitive in an evolve deck however evolve really synergises with anything overstatted in health. Just like Totem Golem, your can sack these minions into other minions and when they are near death, then evolve them. You should therefore only look to evolve your Flamewreathed Facelesss after they have attacked one or two targets, as the "upgrade" will likely be a downgrade. Similarly Jewelled Scarab if you're facing a meta in which playing a 3 mana 1/1 isn't going to cause a fatal tempo loss (currently it is).
Card Choices & Key Plays
Why Tunnel Trogg? You might be thinking that Tunnel Trogg is an aggro minion but it is actually more flexible than that. 1 mana 1/3s are hard to deal with and with Shaman's overloading burn spells, including the new Stormcrack, Tunnel Trogg can allow for strong early game tempo plays. Essential in Shaman.
Can I still run Jeweled Scarab? Part of the difficulty in deciding which Shaman cards to cut from the midrange deck is that the class has strong cards versus aggro and control, but often not both. Lightning Storm and Healing Wave is often a dead draw against control but essential against aggro, and the opposite is true of Hex against control. Scarab is an essential Shaman card that let's you adapt according to the deck you're facing, and it synergises strongly withEvolve and Master of Evolution.
Why Bloodlust? Whilst it is very possible to find yourself evolving your larger minions into game ending legendaries, a more common scenario is that (when played correctly) you will often find yourself with a large board of weak/midgame minions. Remember that just 4 bloodlusted minions deal 12 damage before their own attack value is even included, this card wins about half of all games with this deck. In a clutch it can be used for value trades but this should only be done as a last ditch effort to maintain board control in the late game.
When do I Evolve/Master of Evolution? The best minions to upgrade are those with battlecries, of which Midrange Shaman typically runs many, plus the hero power totems that each will become a 2 drop. Prime targets and the average upgrade you'll obtain are listed below:
• Tuskarr Totemic: 3/2 > 3/4 (12%+ ability)
• Jewelled Scarab: 1/1 > 3/4 (12%+ ability)
• Hero Power Totem: 0/2 or 1/1 to 2/2 (15%+ ability)
• Silenced Flametongue Totem: 0/3 > 3/4 (12%+ ability)
• Twilight Hammer Elemental: 4/2 > 3/4 (12%+ ability)
Note that Spirit Wolves and Fire Elementals in particular are bad targets to evolve unless you have already attacked with them, in which case they will effectively be healed, however they are already so competitively statted for their cost that upgrade on average adds only a single stat point. One exception to this is if you are in desperate need of taunt, where evolving a 6 mana minion to a 7 mana minion has an almost 25% chance to give you a minion of comparable stats plus taunt.
Why no Eternal Sentinel and Elemental Destruction? Whilst this combination is very powerful at getting you back into the game, it more often clogs up your hand and limits your potential to gain that early board control in the first place. Given the meta this combo has been replaced with double Lightning Storm, however should the meta change or should your mileage vary it is still a viable addition for the deck.
Why Hammer of Twilight? The pros seem split on this weapon but it is about as strong a tempo and board control weapon as you can imagine and those are the two central pillars of midrange Shaman. Producing a token on death that not only trades with any weapon removal in the game but is also a target for evolution. I doubt that the 4 damage this card does will be an issue given Shamans strengths in dealing incremental damage to finish off any minions with more than 4hp.
WhY NoT OnyXIa? Blizzard's EU servers are not powerful enough to compute this level of value.
Darwin Award Winners
(The following players have achieved legend with this deck, if you have too then do let me know and I'll add you to the list)
I'm considering dropping Hallazeal. Have many people gotten actual value out of him? i.e. without his healing you would have lost a game?
I started off poor with this deck; 0-4 I think it was, but am now 10-8. I am yet to have a single game when Hallazeal did anything though. The only time he has healed me has been like a lightning bolt from 27hp to 30hp.
Running a slightly different list too:
I already posted this but saw your question about Hallazeal. 9/10 games he's a decent minion that maybe heals 5 hp. But well...
GUYS! Hallazeal saved me! In most matches he was alright. But last match my opponents (another shaman) board was full of pretty big minions with only one card in his hand. My turn at 1 hp with a lone spell damage totem (that he foolishly let live). Turn 10 i play Hallazeal, Elemental destruction, then eternal sentinel. I must of healed for 50 hp. Hallazeal got sacrificed, but I came back and won with Al'Akir and some evolution help. I could tell he was surprised to say the least. Survival of the fittest i suppose.
Fun deck! went 1-3 then won 6 in a row at rank 9-10. Maybe a nerubian prophet could work with master of evolution synergy, free 7 drop on turn 7 possibly? Or an extra damage spell for Hallazeal. Overall great deck; especially with evolution. That card is crazy
Great deck bro !! Here's my gameplay. =)
Don't forget to +1 the deck if you like the deck.
It will be appreciated if you would put my video in your guide. Thanks bro. =)
Just some genral comments here from testing out the deck.
1. Very little card draw: Two azure drakes are not enough. Went against different c'thun decks, most of them beat me because i had 1 card in my hand and without the combo of hall+destruction, becuase it was still in the deck. If you can somehow pull off your early game well, then you won, however if you dont get golem or master on the first hand, I lost.
2. Al'Akir is an amazing card, however he fits more in full control shamans, he is too slow for this deck, i found myself holding that rockbiter because i had no other good way of using it. Even against c'thun decks he is slow, since you have little card draw.
3. Same problem with thunder bluff, it either clogs your hand early game, or he appears when you have no board.
I replaced some cards too, since it wasnt working for me. I put another sentinel along with ancestral knowledge by taking out Al and rockbiter.
If you read this, tell me what you think, I always love good discussions about shaman.
I don't have Hammer of Twilight and i will most likely not craft it even though i havee the dust for it. I'm using doomhammer so far and its working fine you may only have 1 rockbitter but stiill the windfury 4 damage or 10 dmg if you are lucky enough to keep it is way better than Hammer of Twilight imo.
Thanks for uploading this deck, the most fun and solid deck i've found so far in standard with my collection. (I even crafted Al'Akir lol)
The first games it was hard getting wins, but after several games (lost) I adapted (add Darwin's pun here) to the deck and got really good results, with some little low profile tweaks I have high hopes about this deck. Keep Updating, you're doing a great job!
Defender of argus is a SOLID sub if you are missing any of the 2-5 mana cards just heads up - the totem synergy + evolve synergy
Been playing US, 14-10, this deck is SUPER strong! Haven't had a loss yet, really fantastic. Often win with full 30 health. Playing with 2x Lightning Storm btw as I don't currently have any Elemental Destruction, but seriously considering crafting.
this deck is very situational and doesn't work on rank mode.
Was like 2-5 with this deck to start. Not enough games played to make a fair evaluation yet.
this deck is a pure waste of dust
Nah. Even if this specific list doesn't work, Master of Evolution and Thing From Below are good crafts if you want to play Shaman in Standard.
But I might not craft all of it right off the bat. I'm not sold on Hammer of Twilight or Hallazeal yet, and I'm going to wait and see if they really play well in Midrange before crafting them.
hallazeal is fucking broken if played right, Hallazeal + Elemental Destruction = full hp , his stats are fine and sooner or later the meta will turn into a cancer aggro as always so hallazeal will be fine
Hey gang ! here is the proof of legend with this deck http://i.imgur.com/JDXpbmH.jpg?1 , i am currently rank 300 legend and ima try to push to top 100 with it :)
Did you start at level 20 or were you already legend or rank 1? O.o If you were already close it don't count!
i got to legend from rank 2 4* but without a single lost and still working well in top 500 legend, i am curentrly 16-4 with the deck so i think it count
Glad it's working for you. I didn't have much luck the few games I played. The c'thun decks pulverized me. I've been playing my Divine Painadin deck http://www.hearthpwn.com/decks/510182-divine-painadin and having a ton of fun with that with a 60% win rate. Also 75% win rate with a brann /c'thun mage deck.
x1 x1 x1 x1 , this deck looks like almost a reno deck tho, mmm, perhaps ?
This deck is brutal. Really good stuff.