Hearthpwn

I enjoyed playing control shaman in the last meta but it didn't climb particularly well. With the introduction of two new cards to the control arsenal, however, the deck is reborn.

With the addition of Jinyu Waterspeaker we now have more bodies to play earlier on so the deck isn't as slow and prone to early defeat by aggro decks as before. The addition of White Eyes is also a great help as a decent body against aggro and as a trump card against control decks. 

Most control shaman decks tend to be a bit too greedy and so have a hard time against aggro, especially the new pirate warrior cancer, so I tried to compromise by forgoing some of the big guns and including a few more cards that can be played a bit earlier while not significantly limiting our threats for control match-ups.

With Jade Druid destroying control decks I wasn't initially expecting this to get very far but surprisingly its been doing pretty decently against it. You must be more aggressive and throw out the big guns as soon as possible, going face whenever the risk of a punish is relatively low; there's no such thing as overextending in the match-up. The use of Ancestral Spirit is usually key to the game. The deck also generally shuts down Pirate Warrior, provided they don't draw the nuts. The prevalent Renolock is a hard match-up, however.

I'll write a guide if there's interest.

Edits:

12/3

- 1 Sylvanas Windrunner (too slow in non-control match-ups)

+1 Feral Spirit

With the decrease of good targets with the removal of Sylvanas I'm not sure about Barnes now. I included it primarily for more bodies to play before turn 5 and for Ancestral Spirit synergy but if we're playing Barnes on curve then the 1/1 rarely survives for Ancestral Spirit to be cast on it anyways. Thinking about trying out Second-Rate Bruiser in place of Barnes as a guaranteed turn 3 play against aggro, or even turn 4 play against midrange.

 12/4

- 1 Barnes

+ 1 Second-Rate Bruiser

The Second-Rate Bruiser has proven to be more useful than Barnes. That, or my RNG just sucks.

 12/5

- 1 Maelstrom Portal (has been pretty lackluster outside of Pirate Warrior)

+ 1 Healing Wave

Really liking Second-Rate Bruiser. Considering a second copy. 

12/6 

- 1 Emperor Thaurissan (might be too slow and not that useful in control match-ups)

+ 1 Second-Rate Bruiser

12/12

- 1 Hallazeal the Ascended

+ 1 Azure Drake

Despite Hallazeal being the mascot for Control Shaman, it underperforms in this new meta. Hunters are extinct and Buffadin is a non-factor. Hallazeal + Lightning Storm/Elemental Destruction is a combo done no earlier than turn 7 or 8, which is too late to mean anything against Pirate Warrior, and does little against Reno decks. It'll come in handy occasionally against Jade Druid but I don't feel that's enough to justify its spot.

 

Match History:    25 - 21 (for my own records)

Druid:               7 - 3

    Jade:              6 - 3

    Combo:         1 - 0

Hunter:            0 - 2

    Midrange:     0 - 2

Mage:               1 - 1

   Tempo:          1 - 1

Paladin:           2 - 0

   Murloc OTK: 1 - 0

   Buffadin:       1 - 0

Priest:              3 - 3

   Control:         1 - 0

   Dragon:         1 - 2

       Reno:         1 - 1

Rogue:             4 - 3

    Jade:             3 - 3

    Miracle:        1 - 0

Shaman:         1 - 2

    Midrange:    1 - 2

Warlock:         2 - 4

    Renolock:     2 - 4

Warrior:         5 - 3

   Pirate:          5 - 3